sports

Not the actual sport itself, don’t be silly – that involves exercise and in this heat, who can be bothered – no, sports photography.

I’ve been a bit excited by my latest shots and I’ve been looking into pro kite surfing photography and am kinda liking a lot of the shots I’m seeing.

I want to get closer to the action, i.e. in the water, to take advantage of wider angles and more dramatic perspectives, but that really means dragging the camera where it’s least happy – into the wet stuff.

I know its been dunked before (accidentally) and came out ok, but I don’t think I want to chance wading into waist height and shooting big curling water trails at 2cm without some protection.

So I’ll need some kind of waterproof housing.

A few minutes of searching led me to these

They’re not that costly, but are good enough to allow me to take my expensive Nikon into the dunk zone without worrying about it getting ruined.  Waterproof upto 10 meters, apparently.  Thats more than enough, I only need it to be dunk proof.

*starts saving the pennies*

blimey

Its hot today

Over 40 according to my thermometer thingy.

Not as hot as I’ve felt here, but close.  Hot enough to make the grass too warm to walk on.  Probably hot enough to fry eggs on the drive, not that I would, detesting eggs like I do.

Gonna go out to take some pics at Point Peron after dinner, hopefully get some nice low sun/dunes/plants etc shots.  We’ll see.

From yesterday..

kite surfing

a few minutes drive from where I live there’s a little shallow sheltered cove where the kitesurfers like to play.

I havent been there to take pictures for almost a year, so I figured it was about time this afternoon.  I left it until almost 6 so the light would be better and the breeze nice and strong.  When I pulled up in the car park though, I was surprised to see lots of people were packing up, but there were a good few people still out on the water.

Took almost 2o0 shots in the hour and a half I was there, which is a lot of pics for me, I’m getting a lot more economical these days.  Less is the new more.  Or something.

Anyway, I focussed on a few lads who seemed to be trying harder than the others to get huge air and faceplant themselves into the water – here’s a selection of the best shots..

Vote for me

I think the world needs a new direction, so I’m going to put myself up for the role of world leader

Its pretty simple I think – there are some basic rules I’d like to enforce but apart from that, here’s my mandate

1.  Tax – I’ll keep it as low as I possibly can.  I’ll do this by not having a vast and huge bureaucratic government – light and lean is the watchword here.  As world leader, I’ll be quite important, but I don’t need a vast palace and motorcades and shit like that – I’ll live in my own house I think – maybe the taxpayers can fund a shack on a quiet beach somewhere so I can take myself off to think about how to solve tough problems for a bit.  I’ll have a few people advising me but thats all – I trust my own opinions and don’t need other people’s agendas being passed on to you.

2.  Rules.  There are way too many rules in the world, particularly in Australia where I live (and as its nice and warm here, I’ll continue to live here when I’m world leader) Thats because there are no consequences for people’s actions.  Justice is weak, punishments poor and too many people know they can all but get away with whatever they want.  Today, we have to ban everything and restrict people’s liberties and choices because of a tiny minority that cant be trusted.   Its pretty much the same minority for everything – speeding, bad behaviour, violence, graffiti, anti social behaviour etc – so I’ll just have one over arching rule – if you do something stupid that hurts or impacts someone else in a negative way, I’m shipping you off to Siberia for life.

Frankly the world doesn’t need you and the gene pool is better off without you.   I’m not willing to make a complicated system of grades of bad behaviour, its one size fits all – its cheaper that way too which means lower taxes.  People can just learn to live with each other in a more responsible way.  If you want to drink in public – fine by me.  Thump someone cos you’re pissed – its off to the gulag for you.  If you want to drive fast, good for you.  Kill someone cos you don’t understand that driving fast in built up areas is stupid – off to the gulag.  Murder someone, same deal.  Make the consequences severe and people wont need loads of rules, they’ll just understand they have to play their part in a responsible social machine.  I’m empowering you with responsibility.

3.  Work – we all have to work hard – I think people get that already, but dole bludgers and scroungers will not be tolerated.  If you’re claiming there is no work and need state support, then we’ll give you work.  You might not like it, but nobody gets something for nothing, so its litter pick up duty, cleaning up the place, community gardening, help the needy etc.  Mandatory, no excuses.  Child care will be provided.   If we need to build something, then we’ll get the unemployed builders to help whilst they have no other work, hell, I have no problems paying people properly for jobs like that, not just unemployment benefits.  We’ll all pull together and guess what – the world will be a better place.

4.  Architecture.  I want some memorable buildings. Made of stone and quality materials.  The world’s most amazing buildings are not made of steel and glass. Architects that suggest modern glass crap next to wonderful gothic masterpieces will be sent to the gulag.  End. Of.

5.  Energy.  We’re in a bit of a pickle with this – wars and fighting and invasions, peak oil, bio fuels causing starvation etc.  So, I’m going to put a stop to this.  I’m going to impose a fuel tax to fund research into inventing a new energy source that will replace oil asap.  I don’t care that the fallout to this is the balance of power is put back into the hands of the everyday man – I’m sick and tired of energy sources being used as excuses for oppression.   If at all possible, this new energy source will be cheap and abundant and available to all with no strings.  We all have the right to heat, cooling, cooking, clean water etc.

6. Pollution.  People and companies that pollute the environment will be sent to the gulag.  If we cant make something without destroying the environment and causing harm to life on the planet then we are not going to make it anymore.  Full Stop.   There’ll be a transition period where we’ll help manufacturers make the change, but after that, its clean living.  If it means we have to make some compromises in the stuff we “need” for life, then so be it.  I’m not going to be stupid and overly restrictive, I want cheap electronics, good cars, the internet and everything too, but only if we’re not shooting ourselves in the foot to get it.

Oh, and military spending will be cut right back – we’ll have a world army, navy and airforce, but once the social reforms and justice is sorted, we don’t think we’ll need it that much.  Anyone in remote parts of the world that think they can engage in illegal activity (Somalian Pirates, are you listening up here?) will be crushed swiftly and decisively.   We want everyone to live in harmony, but those preventing that and those willing to treat other people in a way that is not consistent with a single cohesive society will be held to account with no mercy.

So yeah, vote for me, man, its gonna be a blast!

hip to the beat, daddy-o

I got a new iPhone app today

I don’t normally brag or share about apps cos, well, its a bit passe, but this one is waaay cool

Hipstamatic

Its an old school camera simulator with different lens and film choices and its brilliant.

so many cool options for taking photos with the iPhone 🙂

It might have a crap camera relatively speaking, but the results are perfect for use on the web/flickr/facebook and blogs.  It could possibly manage an A4 print but to worry about quality would be missing the point.  Apple really have nailed the point of a smart phone.  It does lots of things pretty well – its no substitute for a dedicated device, or laptop or camera or games machine, but it does them all well enough for when you’re out an about for it to be a star.  My Nokia N95 was a good camera, a reasonable phone and crap at anything else.

The iPhone and its oh so clever App Store really is a work of genius.

10 things

I was kinda nominated to do this by Lauren ages ago although the full nature of the nomination shall not be mentioned as I have blokey blokeness to be maintained 😉

**hucks a haybale onto my shoulder before going off to raise a barn** (not really, I don’t think the City of Perth would be too happy with either hay bales or barns)

So here we go, 10 things about me that will surprise and amaze.

1. I love reading maps.  Any kind of map.  Google Earth is like ultimate map porn for me.
2. I broke my right wrist right across the joint when I was 24 and it didn’t heal properly. The joint grinds and crunches still.
3. I’ve just got married 🙂 You probably know this from the wedding post I just did.  Not really a surprise or an amazement.  Well, I’m still amazed she said “I will..”
4.  I once “ran away from home” when the cat died (I was about 7) by jumping out of the bedroom window and hot footing it up the road in the pouring rain.  The one thing I remember is h0w soggy my socks felt as I overlooked the need for shoes.
5.  I love photography.  Thats not really a surprise again is it?  This is turning into 10 statements of the bleedin’ obvious
6.  I picked strawberries for a whole summer when I was 16 so I could buy a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar.
7.  Despite years of practice, non-guitarists can play better than I can.  I did play in a band in my yoof though and were were quite terrible.

8.  Even though I work in IT, I have a geology background with an honours degree and masters.  I love earth science, geology, climate science (I dont believe the man made global warming hype one iota) and that kid of thing.
9.  I love cheese.  nom nom.
10.  I have cycled one of the Pyrenean mountain stages on the Tour de France on a crappy mountain bike.  This included the infamous Col du Tourmalet

What a hunk, huh? 😉

So there you go.  I can tell you’re all bowled over, astounded and truly amazed

sunsettage

Jay burned her hand picking up a pyrex dish from the oven with an oven glove that had the heat resistant properties of a wet tissue and has been stomping around with her hand packed in ice all evening.

So when the sunset started to look promising I suggested we go to the beach and get some air and chill for a bit.

Speaking of chill, even though it was warm out,  her hand being packed in ice kinda made her cold, so whilst I took photos, she sat shivering on the sand- LOL!

On to the pictures – one panorama and two experiments with motion..

Back in the real world

Got back to Perth on the 3rd of Jan and it was bloody hot coming out of the airport, especially as I’d been in either air conditioned comfort or the freezing UK air for 3 days.

Was nice to get back home though and one of the first things I did was to skype the kids.

Poor Henry, being small, burst into tears when I spoke to him and wanted me to cuddle him (we’d being doing lots of that and I miss it too).  They’d had the remainder of their presents and were pretty happy.

The next day, Monday 4th I had to prep for an interview (sorry if any work people read this – its true, its not that I’m really unhappy with my job or company, it just pays to explore the market every now and again – if I get the new job, I’ll be over the moon as its a good opportunity, if I don’t, its a shame but I’ll carry on and continue to focus 100% on my current job – does that cover my arse enough?) which was a pain – it was a presentation on stuff that I don’t know anything about, so I had to put in 1/2 days work to get to grips with what I had to do.

The interview the next day went well I think, although I haven’t heard yet – its always hard to gauge what an interview panel really think –  I’ll let you all know what happens as soon as I know anything.

So, we’re almost upto date – back to work this week already although very little is happening at the moment as a lot of people are still away.  I have a big project to take part in this month, although I’m not sure what my active involvement as technical architect will actually be as this is going to be a hands on exercise, I’ll find out on Monday.

Well, thats a load of text without any pretty pictures..so, to remedy that..here’s some I took the other night 🙂

Its another beautiful day today, so I may pop out to get some photos this afternoon 🙂

New Years Eve

NYE was the last day in Oz for my kids – the flight out wasn’t until 2am (yeah, I know..) so we had a full day to have fun.

We drove off to Mandurah for a walk, a play in the park, an explore and a coffee – its only a 30 min drive and its quite pretty on the board-walk.

The kids had loads of fun exploring, looking for fish in the harbour, cleaning up litter (yeah, we have a bunch of conscientious environmentalists on the books) and playing in the park. We went for a longer walk over to the marina which was nice – its looking like its going to be a much nicer version of Hillary’s Boat Harbour (which I hate with a passion) – somewhere I might actually want to hang out. Hopefully they don’t spoil it.

It was a lovely afternoon, really relaxed and a good finish for the kids.

We scooted back to Rockingham to get fish and chips and scoffed them on the foreshore and listened to the NYE entertainment starting up. After a good feed, we had a little play and then headed home to pack 😦

Here are some pics from the day 🙂

Some tearful farewells later, I drove off with Ella and Henry to get the plane back to Singapore and then onto Heathrow.  Its a shame we live so far apart as we had such a lovely time all together.   I get to see them much more often as I’ll fly back to the UK a few times a year, but we simply can’t afford the AU$10k+ it costs to get them all here to Perth or for us to go to the UK en-masse very often.  Ah well..lottery win, where are you?

The trip back was uneventful – its a bloody long way – the kids were shattered by the time we took off and were asleep for a good chunk of the trip.  They were good as gold really given how tired they were and how much they just wanted to either stay or get back depending on how they were feeling.

We picked up the hire car and drove to my mum and dad’s place on New Years Day where their mum and her parents (my ex-wife and ex-inlaws) came to collect them, saving me a 4 hour+ drive there and back.  It felt a bit odd, but we all get on ok and I like my ex-inlaws.

Was sad to see them off cos it was so lovely having Ella and Henry here for 10 days, but I know we’ll manage to do this again sooner rather than later.

After an very short sleep, I was off back to the airport and despite having to change terminals for Malaysian Airlines, I was uneventfully back off to Perth via Kuala Lumpur only 15 hours after I arrived.

Jet lag, what jet lag?

And so ended 2009 and began 2010.

family time

After the wedding, we had a chilled out day, my parents came back to our place for a few hours to see us before they flew back to the UK. We sat about, chatting, replaying wedding memories and watching the kids play. Very cool.

The next day, my mum and dad flew back to England and we went out for lunch by the beach, but the heat was really cranking, over 40C so we didnt stay at the beach for very long. The kids played on the Wii for the rest of the afternoon.

After that, we went to the park just behind the house for a few hours of play