a more personal thought and wish

I am finally in the situation where my work load is normalising, and I couldn't be happier. I am sitting in a penthouse apartment of my brother-in-law in Sydney and I am relaxing with an intermediate discussion after dinner.

It is wonderful to now start slowing down. I still have the pictures of three weddings to process, but I have finished the artwork for
the Brewster Brothers album and it is being printed pretty much today. The album will be released in January sometime and when it is I will have a competition on the blog and some lucky person will win an autographed copy of it. Overall the rush and pressure of the work I have been doing over the last couple of months has ceased. I have only just coped. I am amazed at how weak I have been and how missing out on my morning walks has adversely affected my health. I have missed and yearned for that morning hour of power. Now that I have come back into more predictable scheduling I am sooo looking forward to getting back to where I should be with my health. A dear friend commented to me that even a 10 year old couldn't have kept up with me.

I have been so very interested to learn more about human nature and I am becoming a strong student of behaviour and it has been interesting, some of which I will share here over the next little while. I wanted to thank so many people for sending me small notes and comments to support me and show they cared about me and I really am grateful to you all.

on a more personal note I wish to extend to everyone a very special wish for the christmas season, and extend my love and best wishes to you all.

Happy Christmas

Trying not to be too busy...

I saw this dragonfly and couldn't resist pointing my lens in it's direction. In what has been and is a super hectic schedule, I am so grateful for the simple and little things that help me remember to smell the roses and look around. I found this little momentary excursion, liberating and wonderful.

I love nature.

Lately part 4

I am so involved with a number of projects at the moment I have to ensure my feet are still on the ground. I have just finished the touches to the Christmas card by Glenn A. Baker, which I will display here after they have been sent out, I am doing another card for my family, which I will show here soon as well, and a Christmas card for the Printing company. The cards required me to photograph, design and layout the document, they are big productions...and I love it! I have started on the graphic art for a CD release due to be printed in 3 weeks, and it is a new album for the Brewster Brothers, it is very exciting. I am also covering a High School Formal, corporate Christmas parties, weddings, of which I have done 4 in the last month alone, family and child portraits, ALL BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!!! As a friend said the other day, "you have become used to burning the candle at both ends haven't you?" To which I can only agree. I am still so very passionate about what I am doing and feel myself to be closer and closer to my goals, which in itself is a major motivating influence. I think I will go back to the Zoo for some down time to just shoot the animals (photographically of course) looking VERY forward to Christmas and turning off my phones for a little while and putting the sign up...Gone Fishing! There are so many other things I wanted to display here, but owing to the fact that they are not due for release for a while, a high degree of patience is required....ho hum!

These shots below were taken at Sydney's famous Taronga Zoo with the wonderful artist Nafisa Naomi, who is in India at the moment, The man in the Blue Shirt is Dr. Stephen Van Mil who is in india with Nafisa as they create a documentary on the indian elephant. Here they were getting some inspiration for the project and sketching. The news reported here the other day that two Australians were unaccounted for in Mumbai, but it was believed they would be out of Mumbai with all of the trouble they had experienced there. I am confident they are OK. What a truly remarkable post event analysis the Mumbai tragedy has revealed. I will speak more on this at a later time.




These shots below were at a pre Jeans for Genes 2009 meeting and was an awards ceremony for the efforts of the people who helped make this annual event a substantial success. I was even honoured as well, which came as a total and wonderful surprise. Not often I am lost for words. The image was taken by Glenn A. Baker, NOT me. the action I created does that automatically. Jeans for Genes auction and charity ball should be an interesting event next year with my little contribution. I await it eagerly with breathless anticipation.






This shot below is a collage I created for a large signature print for Ganggajang, The reason I am including it here is that it appears that they will not run with this image for the signature poster after all. More is the pity, because I am very pleased with the result. The horizon, the words of their most famous song all stand out to me.


These images were taken at a photographic exhibition held at the Museum of Sydney near circular Quay. After the exhibition Nikon launched their new Creme de la creme camera the Nikon D3X. This 24 Mega Pixel, 5 frames a second at full res, increased dynamic range featured camera is a powerhouse. Stock is due to be arriving in a week they say and so who knows. BIG BUCKS is this baby. I was using the Nikon D3 and was able to get some great images I thought. After the launch I walked outside to get in my car and snapped off a few images outside the museum I am particularly proud of.












These pictures below were from a function that I covered for a major retail chain here in OZ called BIG W. This was their supplier awards night for their suppliers, and they also used the event to get the corporate suppliers to bid on auction items to raise funds for the Sydney Children's hospital, and on the night from auctions both live and silent, and also from the raffles, they made and presented a cheque to the hospital CEO for $110,000. What a great effort. They also had shannon Noll there as entertainment and he was great. I have met Shannon 3-4 times before and his performance was polished.














These shots below were for a Christmas gift for Aimee, Kirsty and Courtney's parents. It will be a surprise for their parents who wanted to book me for a photo shoot. What wonderful young ladies they are. We all had fun on this shoot and Aimee's boyfriend Reilly joined us as well.

A funny New Zealand Commercial

Hi everyone, to say I have been busy is without doubt an understatement. I am sorry for not writing soon, but there is lots more coming. Here is a clip I saw from a New Zealand hardware store featuring some of their kids talking about building a retaining wall, there is a non so slight dig at Aussies (Australians) being lazy at the end. A great little commercial.



Dan asked to have the transcript of the commercial owing to their accents, here it appears with a bit of commentary

Blue Shirt Boy (BSB): - What are you Doin this weekend?

Flannelette shirt boy (FSB):- I’m putting up a retaining wall !

BSB: Doing it yourself?

FSB: Nah, I’m going to get some bloke in! (Bloke is an idiom for man)

BSB: Oh, C’mon mate, Do it yourself!!!

FSB: She’s a pretty big job? (Expressing some doubt as to his capacity to fulfil the task.)

BSB: Aw You’ll be right! (meaning, don’t sweat it you can do it!)

FSB: You Reckon? ( meaning, you sure I can do it?)

BSB: We can knock it over in half a day (meaning its small, we can do it in half a day)

FSB: Yeah??

BSB: Get a couple of mates around! ( with many hands the work becomes light.)

Hey Jonesy!

Yellow Shirt Boy (YSB): Ha?

BSB: Give us a hand with a job Saturday?! (meaning come and help us do some work)

YSB: Mate!! You’re Dreaming! (meaning get lost, I am not going to help you)

As BSB and FSB shake their heads at each other

FSB: Aussies?!? (as though in clear acceptance of the response)

BSB: No surprises there. (meaning that aussies are lazy and unwilling to help)

What makes this a very humorous commercial is that there is a healthy love/ hate relationship between New Zealand and Australia and any opportunity to “put the boot in” or competitively gain some verbal, moral or sporting advantage over either party, is a battle well worth fighting. I was born in New Zealand and am proud of my heritage, and am also a proud certificate bearing Aussie. I think that in spite of the healthy competition and "one up man ship" that revolves constantly about the relationship, there is also a respect for things we share as well. Both countries are beautiful, in different ways I grant you, but all beautiful nonetheless.

Another commercial to highlight the feud between both nations is seen in this clip.



To further add a point of interest, here is a smart alec's view of New Zealand accents, which if said may give those of you from overseas an idea of how it sounds.