ANZAC Day 2008

It's been a while, I guess I've been a little slack...

I've been working through the intricacies of my new job, interviewing for new staff to fill the roster, working out why I have access to some things and not others on the network, dealing with issues as they come up and working out where I am in the building. That is all starting to work itself out and I've been paid my very first ever monthly salary... Woo Hoo!

Oh!!! You really do mean that I need to make that last for at least a month?

I also sold some stuff and for a very brief time I was flush with cash (my pay and the payment for the same came through at almost the same time)... I mentioned in my blog about the Xaphoon and how I had lots of respect for reed instrument players... I am now the proud owner of an Alto Saxophone (photos soon!)...

There have been some challenges with my photography course and I really do have concerns as to whether I have wasted a lot of money. I'm hoping to catch up with the marketing and management people to air my concerns this week sometime... Ouch!!!

Anyway, those are my excuses for being slack with my blogging...

Last Friday was ANZAC Day, a remembrance day for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps that fought at Gallipoli in WW1. This was one of the defining events that forged a national identity for Australia, and built the legend of the ANZAC's.

"Celebrated" is the wrong word but every year we remember the soldiers who fought and died in the first world war and all of the old soldiers, sailors, airmen and their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren dust off their old uniforms and medals and march to the war memorial.

Another of the legendary events from the First World War for Australia was the "Charge of the Light Brigade". A battle that occured at Beersheba on the northern edge of the Sinai desert. Light horse infantry charged an entrenched Turkish position across nearly 2000 yards of relatively open plains and managed to overrun and take the position against sustained machinegun fire. There is a belief that the Turkish gunners had their machine gun sights set for long range and once the "Light Horse" was inside this range the Turks were shooting over the heads of the Australians and New Zealanders. Luck must certainly have played a very large part in this and the charge has gone down in history. The photos are of people in authentic period uniform who participated in the ANZAC Day march.

A trip to the botanic gardens...

I went looking for flowers and was met with a vast array of greenery. The thunderstorm last night washed off the dust and made everything a little brighter...

These images were all taken at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens.

The image of the boy was fun, he had run a little further away than he should have and his mother was calling with increasing frustration. The boy was calling back, "you must come to fern garden!" As I walked past him he was talking to himself, "you must come to the fern garden for it is my favourite!" I kid you not! :)

Bella...

I recently attended a photoshoot with one of the RedBubble groups that I signed up for. I shot most of the images on film but I also took my digital camera and here is just one of the images. This young lady is very beautiful and will do well in the future I'm sure. It's taken me some time to work on this image because I forgot that I had taken digital images on the day...

One of the (shock horror) issues that I have at present is that I have a few too many choices when it comes to cameras and formats. So when I go out to take photos it's a dilemma as to which camera(s) to take. Hmmm, if only all of my issues were this pressing! :)

I'm off to the botanic gardens this afternoon to see what I can come up with - digital day today...

Has anyone else noticed that sometimes you can change fonts, sometimes you can adjust format, sometimes you can get spaces between paragraphs, sentences and thoughts and sometimes you just can't on blogger? Is it just me?

Colour or Monochrome...? That is the question...

My last assignment at photography school was the first of the truly "creative thinking processes" assignments. Up until now we were being taught everything we need to know about how cameras and lenses work, the more technical side of photography.

We had a lecture about composition and why we seem to like one image over another, the assignment was to bring in 8 images that we liked and to state briefly why we liked them. The second part of the assignment is that later in the year we have to try and duplicate 2 of those images...


6 of my 8 images were black and white... I started to see that the images that I liked the most were about contrast, light, shadow and texture, all of which don't necessarily require colour. The header image on this blog was taken in colour and, to me, looks so much better in black and white that I can't even find the colour version anymore (I'm sure I still have it, somewhere).

I used to go with Dad when he was doing the photofinish images for horse racing (I still have quite a few of his old negatives boxed up in storage) around home when I was a lot younger, the smell of the darkroom chemicals reminds me so very strongly of that, it is amazing.

One of my regrets today is that I never took the time to really learn how to do it myself. Partly because Dad was "at work" and had time restraints but I could have if I had wanted to at the time. I could fill a book with "if only's"!

I managed a promotion today so maybe, just maybe, I can work towards some darkroom stuff?

It's here... It came with a title!

My Xaphoon turned up! Yay, ready to start playing beautiful music!

Well, it's a little harder than that!

The closest I have ever come to playing a reed instrument is when I've blown one of those party noisemakers. This is a sound I have been able to make with the Xaphoon along with various squeeks, squarks and varying pitched, ear splitting notes. I have managed to hit the correct notes a few times and even play parts of scales but then something just changes and it's back to squeeks and squarks. The video makes it look so easy!!!?

My respect for Saxophone, Clarinet, Oboe and all of the other woodwind players has gone up a few (more) notches.

Now my cheeks are sore, I may need to take a break and come back to it later (today)...

It didn't really come with a title but if it did I would henceforth and furthermore and somesuch like to be known as...

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: His Most Noble Lord Malcolm the Eerie of Throcking in the Hole Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Music... Trumpet versus Xaphoon!?

I've come to the conclusion that I need to find some creative outlets to try and develop my creative side.

One of my challenges is that I can be (Ok, I admit it, it's not that I can be it's that I am!) too technical/clinical/black & white and that isn't helping with my photography. I was discussing this the other day and I can see where some of that has come from.

When I was at High School I learned to play the piano, I got to grade six in both theory and practical and apparently that is a good thing... When I was 16/17 I just thought that it was a skill that I wasn't very good at. The problem, as I saw it at the time, was that it took so very long for me to learn each piece of music. None of it became intuitive, it wasn't fun it was an enjoyable chore (practice got me out of other chores!), it was a mathematical, calculated chore that I was able to do with planning and consistency but no fun and spontaneity. So I quit the piano and tried the trumpet for a few months but by then I had lost the musical desire.

So for the last few weeks I have been making enquiries about trumpets and imagine my joy on discovering that technology has made life easier!!! There is a thing called a silent mute that allows you to play a trumpet without disturbing others (much) and yet you can hear yourself in a headset... Bring it on! The costs at present are a little prohibitive (That's another of my challenges. Why buy the cheap one when you really want the good one?) and in reaserching trumpets I found what may be the ultimate, cool portable instrument, a Pocket Sax by Xaphoon.

Basically an ABS plastic or bamboo recorder (video clip) that uses a saxaphone reed rather than a whistle to produce sound. And it sounds like a cross between a saxophone and a clarinet. Sexy, cool and portable, did I mention cheap relative to a trumpet!

What I seriously dislike (hate) about people...

1. They can't walk in a straight line.
2. They walk slower than me. (Seems that there are a lot of people who have nowhere to go and all day to get there!).
3. Combine 1 and 2 and I get frustrated with people who change directions with each step.
4. They step off at the lights 45 degrees from a strait line. This has a 50/50 chance of annoying me depending on which 45 degrees they choose.
5. They talk freely during the previews at the movies, and then continue in the quiet parts...
6. They answer the phone during the movies even if it was switched to silent.
7. Having answered the phone they exit their seat, walk up the aisle and stand at the exit. All of the time chatting to the caller.
8. Having almost finished the conversation they walk back into the cinema while saying goodbye to the caller.
9. They don't get it the first time and they answer a second, and third call...
10. Don't get me started about the groups that walk 4 abreast on the path and don't make room for me to walk past. Whether I am trying to get past from behind (a little less frustrating because they may not know I'm there remebering that I walk faster than them) or (unforgivable) they see me walking towards them and still don't make room for me...

New Opportunities...

Hmmm, I have a new job!!! Orientation was to the corporate structure and where to get uniforms and lunch. Learning the layout of the complex (and the complexities of internal relations) may take quite a few months.

I was informed that the supervisor who interviewed me was no longer employed on my second day...!

One step closer to management...! ;)

Well, the supervisors job has been advertised and I have applied... So much for the quiet life!

I want the job and I know I can do it however job security may now become an issue. The last supervisor/coordinator was only there for 4 months...

I was once told of an "Old Chinese Curse" (who knows where it comes from but the Chinese get blamed for lots of things?)...

May you live in interesting times...

Blessing or curse? Who knows but I'll give it my best shot...

Ding Ding #2...

Hmmm!?!?!

Someone, supposedly a trespasser, caused the trains to stop running tonight (not sure how but I hope they are Ok?). This meant that everyone who would normally have taken a train to the east of Melbourne on the way home instead had to catch trams or buses.

So! By the time the trams reached the outskirts of the city proper they were full. Not just full but "sardines packed in" type full. If we were in Japan we would have had people with white gloves on squeezing more people in...

A young lady who found a place under my armpit, told me that she had to go to Lilydale (this normally takes about 45 minutes by train). She had only just caught the tram at 6:45pm having finished work at 5pm... I hope she made it home (it's currently 8:10pm here)...

Yet another reason to be finding my own means of transport!!! Sigh!!!!

Ding Ding...

Don't you just hate it when you are on your way somewhere and you need to change bus/tram/train and as the one you are on stops the one you need to catch leaves!!!

I am seriously considering getting a scooter for the short trips I need to do around town for a number of reasons, as well as the one above.

I can leave when I want.
I can stop where I want.
I can carry a little more "stuff".
It will cost just a fraction more than tickets.
Freeeeeedommmm!!! (memories of Mel Gibson in Braveheart)...