Last Call!

We’re leaving for my birthday weekend at the crack of sparrows tomorrow, if you’re planning on joining the festivities, please let me know soon. Most people are coming up on Saturday, as I have to travel back to Sydney for a job (another photographic shoot) on Sunday morning, so I won’t be back up North till lunchtime Sunday.

I have stocked up on homemade curry, sangria and Bollywood movies.

Sweet.

Sarah’s 40th

French Maid and Flapper

Sarah, my sister in law, and mum to the adorable Alex, turned 40 a few weeks ago, and had a right proper shin dig. She asked me to take a few pics, so here they are. The theme was “F”. I went as a sub-literate Fotographer.

Darth Fader

As a photographer, I am less than thrilled with some of the image quality, but considering the lighting conditions, and that this is the first time I have ever shot fully manual with a flash, I’m rather surprised that I got as many good shots as I did.

Fourteen

Great party, lovely sister in law, and interesting photographic challenge.

Did you change your name?

When I married Mark, I decided to use his last name. Not because I was now his property, but because I was building a new phase of my life, and a name change seemed appropriate at the time. One factor that influenced my decision was that my family name (Connor), was not shared by my whole family.

My mum took my dads family name when they married, and then changed back to her own family name later on. Consequently, my attitude to “family” names was shaped by this – and my real family name should have been Connor-Young, or Young-Connor. So when this question came up, my decision was not to give up my name and take on one that belonged to somebody else, it was a choice to choose my own name, rather than having one imposed on me.

So I chose between my fathers name, and my husbands name. I could have made up something else, but this way I got to avoid a lot of paperwork. A adore my dad, and would hate for him to think that this decision was a rejection of him as it wasn’t. If I had a name that reflected my whole family, I might have made a different decision, but who knows. And this way, I get to use both names, legally, without too much hassle.

So I was interested to read this article about a recent study that examined attitudes towards women based on their choice to change their names after marriage or not.

Apparently, I am perceived as more caring, more dependent, less intelligent,more emotional, less competent, less ambitious. And less likely to get a job.

Great. At least I can still use my other name.

Welcome back, Ecto

And thank you to the adorable husbeast sys admin who has fixed my blog. After many months of not being able to use Ecto (my blog software of choice), IT’S NOW WORKING!

So now, I can post pictures effortlessly, I can even post from my iPhone, and my world is a beautiful place*.

Yay!

*Apart from all the horrible crap that is going on, of course.