End of Year Photography Competition

Lucky I promised to update this thing infrequently or elase I would be in real trouble.

Anyway just a quick entry to tell you all about my success at the End of Year Photography compeition for the Aspley Camera Club. I won a trophy for "Monochrome Image of the Year". My first year in the club and I get a trophy ... Yay for me.

Hello darkness my old friend

Of course that title only works if my blog was called darkness ... which it isn't. Although it is time for a change of name (the blog, not me).

I know it's been a few months since I have posted, and many things have happened. Too many to mention but I will just say that I am in a much better place for everything that has happened.

I hope to update the blog on a (semi) regular basis again now that I am interested in writing again. Maybe something constructive will come from this.

Until next I would like to leave you with this thought ...

June photo Judging

We had the June photo judging at camera club last night. I got an honour for my Shorncliffe Dawn black and white pic. It's one of my favourites so I am glad I won something.

We did a portrait workshop on Sunday. Have never tried portraits before but thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and learned a lot. The Roma Street Parklands is a great location for partrait shoots, great light and some interesting locations.

Wellington Point

Headed out to Wellington Point early Saturday morning to get some dawn shots. No clouds in the sky but there was some great colours. I explored the area and got a few other interesting shots while I was out there. As usual I will do a bit of processing on the best photos and upload them to flickr.

Had a big weekend cleaning the yard. Got the lawn mowed and the whipper snipping done as well as doing a general tidy-up. It's looking pretty good now. Next weekend I will finish a bit of tidying and then it will be back into preparing the back deck for a new coat of paint.

Damn Dog

The dog scared the sh*t of me today.

I was working in the study and the dog was sleeping in the kitchen (so I thought). Any way I head out to the kitchen to let him outside to do his business and there is no sign of him. I had left the front door open so the cat could come in, and of course the dog saw this as an invitation to head out and explore.

Luckily he had only made it a few hundred metres up the street and was obedient enough to come when I called (I know, I was shocked too).

No harm done but it makes me think what could have happened.

May Photo Results

Well I had a great night at the Camera Club last night. I got a couple of awards - a Merit for "Grass Tree" and an Honour for "Flight of the Seagull". Both images can be found on my flickr portfolio www.flickr.com/photos/glenmichaelpepprell/

May Photo Judging

Well I am off to the Camera Club tonight where I am having a couple of photos judged in the monthly competition. Hopefully I'll win something, if not there is always next month.

Poor Puppy

Well I'm at home today looking after my dog after he had "the operation" yesterday. Poor little bugger is a bit sore and sorry today. Although he is much improved from last night.

It's going to be a couple of weeks before he can get the stitches out, and have the cone taken off his head, but hopefully he will be much happier afterward.

Giant Robots Rock!

What more can I say.



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Easter Weekend

Well the long weekend has come and mostly gone. The great chocolate holiday brought forth its usual bounty of chocolatey goodness. Looks like I'm going to have to start back on the gym so I can fit into my pants again.

Didn't really do much photography this weekend. The weather was way too overcast and raining.

I did however get to spend some time in the pouring rain this morning building a make-shift dog fence to stop the pooch from busting through the rotten palings and into the next door neighbours back yard. One can only imagine the fun and games that would have ensued should that have happened.

Didn't really do much else too exciting this weekend. Between rain showers I mowed the lawn and cleared the front garden to stop the trees from scratching the car as I drive up the drive way. Cleaned out the garage and put some shelving up to store everything in a somewhat orderly fashion. Well OK, Liza actually did the arranging and organising I just helped assemble the shelving in a "Me Tarzan, you Jane" type of arrangement.

I have just discovered the pleasures of the "Moscato" wines. Think I might go and have another.

So very tired

Well I got up at 4am to head down to Shorncliffe Pier to take some photos. Nevermind that I was also there until about 7pm on Saturday doing the same thing.

I got one or two shots that are OK. Nothing too spectacular.

I will eventually add some of these to my portfolio. Speaking of my portfolio I have added a link to the right of the page which will take you there. Feel free to visit.

Cedar Creek

Didn't get up to much this weekend.

Hiked up Cedar Creek on Sunday morning. Took the camera as usual and got a few good shots. I will do some production work on them and upload to my online portfolio at some stage.

Tim Minchin is a Princess

Well I went and saw Tim Minchin in concert last night. I had high hopes for this being an extraordinary night of mirth and merriment. However I was to be sorley disappointed.

The opening number "Prejudice" was quiet amusing and got the night off to a good start, but unfortunatley it was a slow descent into mediocrity from there, with one minor exception (I'll go into that shortly). Having seen Tim Minchin on his "So F*cking Rock" tour last year I was expecting to hear some hilarious yet socially confronting songs and a dialogue that drew no lines in the sand.

What I got however was a lot of drivel that pretty much re-hashed old ground and really added nothing new to his repertoir. Although it was witty and droll and at times did have me laughing quite ecstatically there was really not enough depth to his new material to warrant an outing to his live gig. I would have been much more satisified sitting at home watching one of his old dvd's.

There was one exception, one small glimmer of hope that this once great comedian still has an untapped reservoir of satirical potency within his somewhat unusual mind. The "9 minute beat poem" was almost enough to make me forgive him for his less than sterling performance of the night so far. This one piece showed that Tim Minchin's ability to string together a thought provoking piece of prose is still alive and well. Perhaps it was just that the subject matter was something dear to my heart (I'm not going to go into details here, if you want to hear the piece I suggest you try and find a copy), but I did find this poem to be the only real highlight of the night.

Tim Minchin has found popularity only relatively recently and has had quiet a quick ride to fame after working hard at his art for many years. Perhaps his best work is behind him and he is one of those performers that only only has a limited number of ideas and he has used all of these to reach his success. I hope this is not the case, but after watching last nights performance I fear the worst.

I am willing to accept that perhaps Tim Minchin's new material is somewhat different to his earlier work and that it no longer strikes a harmonius chord with what I think is funny. But the thing that really turned me off his performance was when near the end of the show he decided to have a hissy fit and just walk off the stage. All because his microphone was not working properly. This left the audience sitting in a stunned silence, not comprehending whathad just happened. A few minutes later Tim Minchin made a brief appearance to announce the show was over and once again walked off the stage.

Now surely I would think that a professional entertainer would tour with some form of back-up equipment, especially something as simple as a micropohone. In short I think his behaviour at the end of his performance was disrepectful and insulting to the fans who had paid good money to see his show. If there are technical difficulties that prevent the show from going on there are much better ways to let the audience know other than storming off the stage in a fit of rage.

Tim Minchin you are nothing short of a Princess.

Welcome to the HoC

Well I've done it. I've finally created a blog. After months of deliberation I have decided to take the plunge and expose myself on the interweb.

I'm not sure what direction this is going take, but you are all welcome to come on the journey with me.

So sit back, relax, grab yourself a drink and enjoy the ride.