I can't think of a more glorious way to spend Easter Sunday than relaxing back on the lawn under beautiful blue umbrellas, drinking wine, nibbling on superb fresh produce and listening to some wonderful music at the Laura Park Estate Winery located on the Bellarine Peninsula.

Having finished a catering job on the Saturday evening (more to come on this later), we headed off first thing Sunday morning down the coast to Portarlington, and what a perfect way to start the long weekend!

I of course took my little baby along with me (my camera), as I've been starting to learn all about the capabilities of these amazing cameras, including shutter speeds, aperture etc.

I took the below photo early the following morning on my walk just as the sun was rising over Portarlington. I was practicing with my shutter speed (slow shutter speed in particular) to try and get the feeling of movement/flight. The exposure/focus, etc of the photo is all off but I really kinda liked how the bird is gliding through the air (even if it is a bit fuzzy).

Later that day we meandered our way down the coast to Point Lonsdale, and in particular, to the lighthouse.

The below two photos are of me practicing with the aperture setting (depth of field).

As you can see with the above photo, my focus was on the red sand shoes (short depth of field), blurring out the surrounding landscape (well trying to anyway).

However, with the below photo I did the opposite, trying to make the focal point the water, blurring out the closest scenery including the red sand shoes. (Baby steps).

The sun was shining and surprisingly, the water was beautiful. Shame I hadn't brought my bathers with me.

With the next two photos I again tried practicing with my shutter speed.

Using a nice slow shutter speed below to try and once again capture the feeling of movement.

And then using a nice fast shutter speed to try and capture each droplet of water.

With bellies now rumbling, we took a drive over to Queenscliffe for a bite of lunch and ended up at Gusto (previously known as Miettas many many moons ago).

Sitting back in the courtyard garden amongst the vegie patch, we munched on some pesto, tomato and mozzarella bruschetta and a Farmers Plate which included cheddar cheese, pickled onions, corned beef, crunchy bread and chutney.

It hit the spot!

For out final morning, after a last walk along the beach, we packed up the car and headed across to Ocean Grove for some brekkie at The Dunes.

The Dunes is a little cafe nestled in the dunes (of course) of the Ocean Grove beach with glorious views out to the ocean.

After filling up on a really lovely latte and some mushrooms/goats cheese on toast (delicious), it was time for this little piggy to run wee wee wee all the way home.

Shame about the traffic jam!

(view from our table at The Dunes Cafe)