"I had white bread once, got stuck to the roof of my mouth, terrible stuff" Adrian, 10 years old.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Surrounded by 9 juice bottles with garden hoses attached.

This tree was ring barked. I presume the leaves that fell each autumn upset the occupants of the house since it fell on their precious carport.

What I do not understand is this constant worry about carbon and carbon trading which is meant to reduce carbon pollution (what a load of rubbish) and then the constant destruction of trees because they drop leaves onto carports, driveways and into backyard pools. I'm not saying these people give a care either way but does anyone?
I've always liked trees, I feel most myself when I am outside walking or doing things amongst them. I don't feel that many people feel the same.

From here to here to here.

This is the same trolley as seen here. 10 meters in 10 days.

I'm not taking pictures of twigs, rocks, leaves, water, trees or whatever else you see here.

When the items in front of me look right together, when they meet the edge of the viewfinder and look like they are meant to be there, the shutter goes click.

I beg to differ, plenty to see here.

You may of noticed I enjoy going for walks. There are a few resons for that and I will list the ones I can think of here but they are in no means in any order of importance.

My children, under the direction of my son, are planning on creating another Bionicle movie. I will post last years effort here soon.

Working late has done strange things to me, hopefully I will get more time to get back into my photography (not that I don't always have a camera with me) so that I am all limbered up and ready to go sofobomo 09.

"are you taking pictures for the council?"

"they need to clean this up"

"the bush is nice but it is such a mess, someone needs to clean it up" - passerby

"Did you find a lizard?"

"have you seen the wildlife photos at the museum?"
"you'd love them, they are amazing." - passerby

I had a pack of 10 polaroids, got them cheap, thought I'd shoot them off over the weekend. Can't find the 10th shot!

It has been a while since sofobomo and I have not shot anything worthwhile since then, a huge crash off the back of a fantastic wave.
Shortly I will be starting a new project, quite small but hopefully it will fire up my creative juices once again. The equipment has been chosen and is pictured below, one lens on one camera. The method of displaying the work is set, a clear view of the total project has emerged over several nights of planning and I'm happy with how I think it will all turn out.
As the project progresses I will post pictures here.

While this does not fit pictorially into the Shopping project I like it enough to show it here and it was found while at the shops.

No real food to be found here.

This print has won Highly Commended at the Muswellbrook Photographic Awards 2007, commended in August 2008 Digital Photography + Design and a merit during a photo competition judged by David Oliver.

For the month of August I have 20 copies at $20. The print is on A4 Museo Silver Rag using K3 pigment inks. Larger sizes are also available, just enquire and I will be happy to assist.

Prints available here.

While this picture does look quite leafy the tree cutting sounds around here just keep on going. The trees you see are on the council strip which are not allowed to be touched, trees on people properties just keep on going.
I still think that humans have to knock everything down that is bigger than them unless they themselves built it.
Toyota Tree day, join in.

As Kjell wrote why not enjoy both colour and B&W.

Kjell and I swapped prints 2 weeks ago and I received his print last week. It is a tranquil scene of ice, water and tree, it is a picture I wish I had taken.

The setting sun as seen coming through a window onto a curtain.

Recently it has been brought to my attention that my pictures have a certain feel to them, they are of fleeting enigmatic moments, closeup views of things that are usually not seen as pictorial.
Have I stumbled/dicovered my niche or am I now stuck in a rut?
Is it because my stage in life has me concentrating on the smaller details, head down, limited financial future, is the bigger picture not as attractive as I would like it to be?
Or is it that these smaller pieces will come together to create the bigger picture, the single all embracing picture is no longer attractive to me and I must create projects and portfolios for me to satisfy my visual curiosity. I'd like to think that I have moved up a stage as Andy Ilachinski (http://tao-of-digital-photography.blogspot.com) puts it in his post here (http://tao-of-digital-photography.blogspot.com/2008/06/8-fold-way-of-self-discovery-through.html).
Questionable, it is probably just another experiment in a way of seeing things, more Siskand like.

To those waiting for their books of Balcombe Heights I ask you to please bare with me, my printer is not enjoying this paper.

Printing the SoFoBoMo book has been an interesting learning curve. My thought was that double sided paper would be a problem in regards to orientation and also having facing pages correctly numbers may be troublesome. Seems these were the easy hurdles to get over.
There is more time spent in feeding a printer which does not like to pick new sheets correctly than in shooting the project, editing, laying out a sequence and writing text.
No wonder so many other people have gone down the path of POD (Publish On Demand).

The paper chosen for printing is Ilford Gallerie Smooth Heavyweight Matte Paper, quite a mouth full. At 200gsm it is also quite heavy for bookpaper and has been a challenge to fold and trim with the guillotine. The guillotine is rated for 25 sheets of 80gsm which is equivalent to 10 sheets of 200gsm but I still feel it will not live long at this load.

The last few days of putting this sofobomo book together has been hectic but it is nice to have completed the project within the 31 days.

Click on this link Balcombe Heights to download the pdf version. You can also see the gallery of pictures without the small amount of text here.

Rushing along now trying to get my pictures together before the Friday 16th deadline for my SoFoBoMo. There have been 27 across the finish line already with some wonderful work done, the question is how many of those that signed up will post on www.sofobomo.org ?
The big question for me is will I actually finish since no layout work has been done yet. Here is a quick gallery of pictures that made my SoFoBoMo.

There is less than 2 weeks left on my SoFoBoMo project and the editing has begun. My lesson today, there have not been enough pictures shot. Over almost 3 weeks only 4 hours of shooting (on this project) and 214 pictures made of which 16 are accceptable.

So many more pictures to be taken and my next available morning is 3 days away.

Editing the pictures I have taken for my sofobomo project is going to be difficult, I'm not sure I will have a set that feel like they are cohesive.

Several of the early starters have completed their projects and they can be seen on the official www.sofobomo.org website here.

Splitting up the book into themes can make the editing more simple as a whole body of work no longer has to represent one idea but it can have several threads, like chapters I guess. Sixteen pictures of people using an area, another sixteen or so of details within the area and a few general views.

To many chapters and this idea falls apart.

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Half way in respect to time but shooting is not complete let alone editing my sofobomo project. This mornings shoot was freezing. The temperature as the sun rose was about 4C, not a wonderful time to get on a push bike to go to a photographic destination. The fingers were fine, nice and numb, it was when they thawed once back home that the pain begun.
contacts after the break...

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Seriously, they do.
My young family has lived in this neighbourhood (Baulkham Hills, Sydney) for 6 or 7 years now and I have pretty much worked from home all that time. Well, except when I travelled away from home for 2-3 days a week for several months.

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This morning it was raining, that usually does not stop me making pictures or walking about in general. The reason for not going out in the rain is beacuse my sofobomo destination is only a short bike ride away and I refuse to start the car for such a short distance, riding a bike in the wet is not much fun. Walking would have taken me to long this morning, there is work to be done, so today may just be used for editing.

Just more excuses.

So this morning was the beginning of the sofobomo for me, it feels great to have actually begun something, something you could call a project instead of my usual wandering capturing singular pictures.

On my pushbike at 7am, a late start, I headed off to Balcombe Heights knowing I was going to start with the buildings at the northern end of the area. The next 45 minutes (96 frames) was spent limbering up, trying to get a feel for what was going to work here, at this stage it looks like pipes, windows and rooftops (always had a thing for roofing).

The idea of following through someones project via contact sheets is so very interesting for me, seeing how a photographer worked and what the final edit looked like makes the journey as compelling as a short story. So the contacts for this project will be popping up here every now and again. Laugh, cry, wince along with me.

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By far one of my most requested pictures for printing is this one. The colours and composition still work for me and while they do I will continue to sell it here.

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Daylight Saving time ended last weekend for us in NSW, Australia. The half yearly ritual of changing times to be enjoyed by all.

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A very hectic week this week so I have not and will not start until some time next week. My posts here will also be a bit light on for content.

Last night in a state of exhaustion I made the decision to photograph an old Masonic school grounds. It is a short bike ride from home and a nice place to spin the wheels. The area has something like 16 old school houses and is built on a gently sloping hill.

Most of the buildings are now rented by small organisations or clubs, there is a local radio station, a pottery class, child minding, model railway club and a few others I cannot recall. The more I think about it the more I am happy with the decision to photograph this area and to be starting a project.

Gordon McGregor has created a Yahoo pipes thing so you can keep up to date with the many people writing about their own experiences, cool.

from the yet to be printed book, Toowoon Bay.

Taken during the same afternoon outing here.

Here is one I have always enjoyed looking at. Even when I took the shot I knew it was going to be set next to a picture of a fingerprint. For a while I thought I had overdone it, the idea, or I may be to close to it, remembering the cold morning the picture was taken and how that afternoon I took another of a fingerprint and then printed the two.

Sometimes the memory of how and where clouds your judgement of the result, it is hard to distance yourself from your own ego.

This still works for me almost 2 years later, but then maybe I am still clouded.

I am not sure why I keep coming back to this picture, I'll live with it for a while and figure it out, possibly not.

I did not realise I was on private property until I had left this area.

Here are a small group of sandstone textures, you couldn't really call this a project, to few pictures, not much variation and most importantly I am not exploring anything.
I really have to get my mind into a project, begin it and not procastinate, that means at some stage finish it.

A short series taken during a wedding in Toowoon Bay. These magic old cars and the light were just begging for shallow depth of field treatment.

Go here to purchase any as prints.

Antique Jogger, 2007

This is one of my favourites from 2007. Is there anyone that does not need a soundtrack to everything they do?

this is Ian, he lives across the road from me and is the kind man that let me stay in his holiday home in Toowoon Bay while I worked in that area. I found it easier to stay away from home one night a week than have to travel the 160km round trip two days in a row.
It was quite a good opportunity to walk along beaches and lakes collecting pictures, I have not done it this year but may do so again for that reason.