Charlie's Worldexhibitionist
Posted on November 23, 2009
I have some photos in a local photo exhibition this week – the first one I’ve ever entered – and they look pretty good.
I decided to only enter photos I’ve taken this year, even though I have some corking photos from the UK and last year in Oz too. I dunno, call me a purist, but I think you should only exhibit (if you can pick any images you like from your collection) with the latest stuff you have – keep things moving in a forwards direction and not in a John Farnham, ever on his “last tour this time, no really, it is…” kind of a way.
So I went down there at 9 this morning to set up and then at 4 for the group photo and newspapers (I know!) and, despite its modest setting (the foyer of the local shopping centre) the 100 or so photos we have there make a good collection.
Here’s a rather basic pic of my board.
exbihition
4 of the 6 are taken with the Holga – who ever said film is dead?
Looking good I’d say 🙂
party time
Posted on November 19, 2009
Its party time next weekend – as we’re old farts, we’re having a joint hen and bucks party (hucks?) with lots of friends – and its an 80’s cocktail party.
Oh yes 🙂
Get your leather ties, jackets with roll up sleeves, leg warmers and severe makeup ready, we’re side step dancing and jitterbuggin’ all night.
Costume has been annoyingly difficult to source – we didn’t have that much time to get stuff, so ordering from the UK or US or even China on ebay wasn’t possible, which is a terrible shame as there was so much good stuff to be had. So we were limited to costume shops, ebay Australia, salvos and the like. Which has, frankly, been a nightmare.
I had the best I {heart} NY t-shirt, acid wash jeans and some wicked sunnies lined up on ebay, but got outbid and ridiculous prices – arse. Costume shops are a bit of a joke for blokes dressing up to say the least – its either a naff Ghostbusters outfit
or an overly expensive Michael Jackson red PVC get up
So, I have improvised with what I could find on ebay that would ship in time. Heaven help me.
Still waiting for the 3 most important bits – they have 6 postage days to get here, I reaaaaaaally hope they arrive or I’ll be going as Tom Cruise in Risky Business.
Mind you, I’m starting to think that might have been a better choice..
impressionista
Posted on November 17, 2009
as promised, some images from last nights shoot at the beach.
motion pans, horizontal and vertical, zoom blurs and a gorgeous portrait.
trips to the beach
Posted on November 17, 2009
went down to the beach last night at sunset with the girls – the sunset looked promising (it wasn’t really that special in the end but its no biggie) and we had time before the girls needed to be in bed.
I picked up the cameras and a jumper too as it was a bit chilly in the evening air (isn’t it supposed to be summer already? I remember last year it was properly hot by now) and jumped in the car (I know, its only a 10 min walk, but we didn’t have that much time)
Was lovely down there and I took some wicked photos (for which you will have to wait as I’m in the city today and my photos are at home and I’ve not quite finished processing) – abstract and motion blur ones. Took a couple of portraits too which came out pretty well, although I wish I’d thought to being the flash gun to add a little fill light to one of the shots. Next time – I know what I want to achieve in the shot and how to get it now.
The girls went off up the beach jumping over the waves and splashing about in the twilight – they got totally soaked too – they are going to have to wear their bathers when we go again, they just can’t help themselves!
So yeah, was a nice night, relaxed, creative and fun.
Oh, and for those of you who want to know where I live – well, I’m not telling you specific details for obvious reasons, but here’s a general view of the bay from Google Maps.
The bay where I live
Nice, huh?
time out
Posted on November 15, 2009
Went down to the beach for an hour with Jay just to chill and get some fresh air.
Beautiful day, just us, the film cameras, a few dog walkers and the sound of the turquoise Indian Ocean
garden antics
Posted on November 15, 2009
You may have guessed that I rather like gardening. There’s something very satisfying in getting nature to bend to my will. I’m kidding myself, its more like nature doing what the hell it pleases and me carving a little order within it all.
We got given a load of big outdoor pots by Jay’s parents a few weeks back as they were moving to a place with much less garden. The trouble with pots here is that the summer is very dry and hot and they would need watering every day or they’d be frazzled really quickly. And ideally, this means irrigation (again).
As luck would have it, there’s a valved riser by the patio that I guess was meant for this kind of thing, so yesterday I popped off to the hardware store for piping and drip sprinklers, potting compost, plants, flowers etc to get it all hooked up and looking nice.
I had to go back this morning (at 7:30am as it turned out, thanks to the fookin’ dog that started yapping and carrying on at 6:30 so I had to get up) for a couple of parts that I needed, but was back in time to have it all done and dusted before 11am.
So here, for your viewing pleasure, is some of my garden so far – there is still muuuuch work to be done though, which will keep me happy and busy throughout the summer.
This new grass may not look like much, but its growing really fast
Pipes go up the wall, along the pergola, down the upright and along the ground.
The patio is starting to look nice at last. We have a grape vine that is busy growing over the top of the patio – hopefully it’ll look all Mediterranean before too long.
the green green grass of home part 2
Posted on November 13, 2009
The grass I planted last weekend has already started to grow, Quite a lot, actually.
Its like the dirt has suddenly gone hairy.
Its awesome – even the grass seed that I tossed on the bare and thin patches of lawn has sprouted in a few places. So I’ll be mowing the bits of the old lawn that I can tomorrow and seeding the rest of it right after. Houston, we have grass.
Well, that was interesting, wasnt it?
stormy
Posted on November 12, 2009
we’ve had some really muggy days this week and last night we had the mother of all thunderstorms.
It was rumbling and grumbling away as we went to bed and then at 2am we were woken up with an almighty bang, shaking the whole house. Must have been a really close strike or sheet lightning right overhead – I’ve never heard anything quite so loud.
Dog and big un’ came in shortly afterwards, timid dog and teenage tears – we quickly whipped around the house unplugging computers and modems and stuff before waiting it out for 30 mins. A violent rain front came in, thundering off the windows and overpowering the drains in seconds and then that was it – the storm moved away and peace was restored.
We had another one this afternoon as its been 30 degrees + and muggy. I’ve been working at home and listening to massive thunder rumbles across the bay all afternoon. There are some huge thunderheads (sadly its too hazy for a good pic) to the west over the ocean right now – we’re probably in for another treat once the sun goes down.
In other news, we got our tax returns done today and all I can say is – wooooohooo!! Thanks Mr Accountant, you’re a star 🙂
sunsets
Posted on November 11, 2009
Its been quite a warm and hazy day today which usually bodes well for a corker of a sunset.
I sat on the front porch for a bit as the sun made its way down and lit up the sky
sunset palm
I popped out to get a few beers and a couple of bottles of wine just before the sun went all the way down, then headed a couple of minutes down the road to where all the big posh houses sit high on the dunes overlooking the ocean.
The sunset was lovely and mellow – there’s no wind today and it was so peaceful on the beach. A school (or is is pod?) of dolphins were swimming lazing circles in the bay and a few people were swimming in the last light. Perfect.
steps
sunset
The best thing about really still and quiet evenings is I can hear the ocean from my bed as I fall asleep.
photography club
Posted on November 11, 2009
I signed up to join the local club a few months back thinking it would be a good way to meet a few people with similar interests, maybe make a few friends etc, and by and large, I was right. The second Tuesday of every month an ever larger band of people attend Rockingham Photography Club to hear about latest camera gear, tips and tricks, techniques, look at other photographer’s work, enter competitions etc.
I’ve met some nice folk, learned a thing or two and even entered a few pics myself and done rather well so far. Last night there was a small technical issue and my batch of photos wasn’t included (along with a few others) but I didn’t really care – it was nice to see what other people had done without the pressure of my own stuff being judged. The standard of work submitted is quite good – there are some very good photographers who obviously work hard and have a good eye and then there are some others who are still learning.
Kingsley, the club founder and the guy who does the most organising and presenting was talking about backing up digital files last night and what he said made a lot of sense.
He suggested organising photos in folders by year then by month and then by date taken (I do this, just not the month, they are in the folder name of date taken) and then once that month is done, to simply back it up onto a DVD for long term archiving.
Unless you shoot more than 4.7G a month (which is possible with todays large files, however blu-ray will sort that out with 25G disks) it’s such a simple and inexpensive way to back up data in addition to the normal external hard drive method which most people do (I hope) The most it will cost you is 12 DVD’s a year plus cases and somewhere to store them.
So thanks Kingsley – a great idea – I use Time Machine, a second external drive and I shall also start doing this and keep the disks somewhere separate from the computers in case of fire or something.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, my entries for the monthly theme of “looking down” were:
Charlie's World 