Photo Challenge 7 – Technicolor

Yeah yeah, I used the American spelling. Less characters to type, and technicolour just looks weird.

Tech⋅ni⋅col⋅or

/ˈtɛknɪˌkʌlər/ [tek-ni-kuhl-er]
1. Trademark. a brand name for a system of making color motion pictures by means of superimposing the three primary colors to produce a final colored print.
–adjective
2. (often lowercase) flamboyant or lurid, as in color, meaning, or detail.

Steve’s submission

My thoughts:

This is representative of my typical way of thinking about things – left of centre, although I’m sure Mat would have thought of this too.  This is a collage of “technical colour” things around my house.  I don’t have much else to offer about this image today so I’ll leave it to others for a change.  And thanks to Joepi for her help on how to use Photoshop to create a montage/collage or whatever it’s called.

Joepi’s submission

Joepi says:

Sinulog is a festival held in Cebu every year on the 3rd weekend of January. It is the Philippines’ version of Mardi Gras (sans the nudity as this is a religious festival).
The colors you see being displayed for you in the Grand Parade are just plain fabulous and earns the “WOW Philippines” tourism tagline. Among the hundreds of photos I took that day for the uber-technicolor event, I chose this particular photo obviously for the many colors in the photo but also because of the challenge I had in trying to bring out the colors despite a gray sky which dampened the color in a lot of my photos. If anyone has more tips on how to bring out sunny colors on a dreary day, please speak up!
Taken with my Canon 450 D Portrait lens.

My thoughts: An extremely bright image which I think fits the criteria of our theme perfectly.  Excellent choice of crop, too. I like the tightly cropped portraits. I’ve seen the entire set of Joepi’s Sinulog photos and I have to say that the colours are just great the way they’re presented. In my view the overcast day actually helped them to stand out. Personally I dislike shooting in bright sun as it tends to wash out colours for me. Ken is the light expert, someone might want to wake him up out of hibernation and get his opinion.

Katy’s submission

Katy says:

This shot was taken in a park nearby ages ago. I tried to play with the color blend a bit by rummaging up on PS – channel mixer basically and monochromatic noise set to 15 to make it look old. However, I’m not convinced whether I got the idea right.

My thoughts: This is actually quite similar to how I imagined technicolor movies might look (I don’t watch anything that isn’t in full colour, with lots of explosions and CGI).  In my view it also has an old Kodak (or was it Agfa) slide look about it. Hmmm, wonder if that’s why Katy used a slide in the image – to make that connection…

Ken’s Submission

Ken says:

This is a photo i took some time ago of Victor Pender, a local Melbourne musician.  I really like the shot as it very much represented his personal style. I like that it has a kind of retro/disco/techno feel.

Victor was sitting on my dining table with black muslin draped behind him. I used a pair of Bowens monolights, one high above to create the butterfly lighting and the other behind to give the green backlight. The spot in the corner and lens flare was applied in Photoshop.  I knew as soon as I fired the first shot of this sequence that it would be the best shot of the night.The sharp shadows are created using a small reflector on the light source and keeping the light close to the subject to minimise the light depth of field.

This was shot with Nikon’s 28-70mm at f8.0 ISO 100.  I tend to always stick to the middle aperature on the Nikon lenses when in studio as they prove to be sharpest and  have no distortion.  I control the exposure with the lights power adjustments.

My thoughts: I always remember a couple of things that Ken has taught me, and one is the use of F8 on my studio lenses to get the sharpest images.  I also marvel at how he thinks through the lighting to create the end result. Years of experimentation and practice, I suppose. This is a superb portrait of Victor with a lovely touch of dreaminess to take it into the realms of rock. The colours of the lens flare are very cool, and I like the slightly muted, rusty tones.

Mat’s Submission

Mat says:

I was considering heading into the Melbourne CBD to shoot some of the fantastic graffiti art that decorates the city, but with the high temperatures we’ve been having lately I was worried that my camera might melt, or I may spontaneously combust, so instead I decided to shoot a portion of my unfeasibly large collection of t-shirts.
I took a few shots at different exposures and played around with the HDR Merge function in Paintshop Pro to come up with something nice and bright but also a little unnatural. And yes, I do wear these t-shirts on a regular basis!

My thoughts: Yes. Mat does wear these t-shirts. I regularly go home with a headache after he insists on accompanying the orange one, which delights in shouting boorishly at anyone who will listen.  Another excellently thought out and composed photo.

Next Challenge

It’s Ken’s turn this time with his suggestion of “Texture“.   For your enticement I have a very intriguing and possibly difficult theme coming up after that, suggested by Katy.

Looking forward to all images being submitted by close of the clock on Sunday 15th February.

Photo Books

Once upon a time there was only one way to enjoy looking at photographs – by printing them out. Of course things have changed and now it’s far less common to print your photos as it is to keep them digitally.

Personally I don’t print my photos other than to enlarge them for wall hanging. I find photo albums to be time consuming and messy to make, and I rarely look at them again. Most photos are printed from print kiosks that output less than satisfactory prints, and the prints themselves usually stay in their folders and get thrown into a drawer.

As much as I love presenting my images online – after all, how can you find a bigger audience for your photos than on the internet, accessible by the majority of the modern world – there is still no replacement for a printed image. Photographs beautifully printed and presented impact you in a way that no digital image currently can. So the best way to present large numbers of images, particularly from an important event is to print them in a Photo Book.

One of my favourite products so far is my “Images of Asia” travel calendar for 2009.

There are any number of online Photo Book services out there, but only two I recommend and use. A basic service for simple products such as travel books is Albumprinter. For premium results I am a big wrap for Momento. I have a Pro account at Momento, allowing me access to rates and products not available to the general public, and I use this service to create amazing wedding albums, family portrait books and calendars. These books can live on a coffee table or pride of place on display in a family room. People will enjoy picking your book up and exploring your photos, rather than them never seeing the light of day in shoeboxes.

If you’d like a timeless and beautiful memory of any event I have or will be photographing for you, consider adding a Momento product to your shopping list.

Check out some examples of some of my Momento Photo Books.

Photo Challenge 6 – Temptation

My journalist friend, Veena, gave us a tough theme this time.  Almost everybody rose to the challenge.  Almost.
I don’t think I put enough effort into mine,  so don’t be afraid to get stuck in to me for that.  And I haven’t heard from Ken so we’ll run with four images this time.

Temptation means one thing to most people, and many things to the rest.  To creative people like us (cough) I think it can mean thousands of things, and I’m glad of that because I didn’t want to be posting five images of young hunks and spunks at the beach or the like.  So, do we keep it simple and present a direct connection with the theme?  Or do we go for something far more subtle, that might be a little left of centre and promote discussion?

Let’s see what we’ve done.

Steve’s submission

I struggled for two weeks to come up with something, and failed miserably. In the end I decided to portray one of my cats – Mushroom, trying so hard to resist his natural urge to explore whatever is on the other side of his fence.  Watching him in live action portrays “temptation” far better than my still image ends up doing, as he prowls, stares, moans, whines and murmurs, begins to wiggle his tail in readiness to jump before turning around to pace the fence once more.

My thoughts:

The thoughts running around my head at the last moment, as I was getting some selection input from Joepi (i.e. cheating) on my final two-image shortlist follow:

I like the aesthetics of the first (the image above), but perhaps the link to the theme is too subtle and requires some creative thought.  I like that he is staring directly through the gap.  But if you weren’t told the theme first you could think it was simply curiosity.

The second (cat is in initial stages of a leap) is more obvious, but it could still be interpreted as something else – like escape or opportunity.  He does actually jump on this attempt, so even though he is only poised at the photographic moment, it would take some prompting from me to have the viewer imagine him as being tempted, and not already have made his decision.

I don’t think temptation should be directly associated with action. As a state of mind, I think it is definitely more closely related to curiosity, so that’s the image I chose.

Katy’s submission

Katy says:

As soon as I laid my eyes on this month’s challenge, I thought of an apple – the shape the word ‘temptation’ has taken along the years, at least for me. But then I gave the theme more careful thought and came up with something a bit more original than simply placing an apple against a plain background and shooting it macro. Anyway, next thing I did was to get my spice-things-up dice out of the drawer and roll them to see what my luck was.

So get tempted…

P.S. : The word displayed on the first die is the Portuguese for ‘kiss’. 

My thoughts: This is why I love having photographers from distant lands involved in this. We are treated to broad interpretations along with somewhat alien concepts and experiences.  And I get to learn a new Portuguese word!  The out of focus question mark on the second die is brilliant, and I love the red rich sensuality of the scene.  This image  makes me try harder to be more creative next time.

Mat’s submission

Mat says:

This is my good friend Max (from top Aussie rock band Asleep In The Park) posing in front of a Melbourne shoe shop. I experimented with a few different shutter speed settings to show other people as a blur while Max held perfectly still. This one at 0.6 seconds and f/22 turned out the best. I adjusted the levels and curves in Paintshop Pro and cropped to highlight the Soul Sale sign – after all, true temptation always costs us our soul!

My thoughts: Mat’s on a roll. This is a wonderful image that could well be used commercially. The blurred passers-by are exactly as they should have been treated.   The composition, particularly with “Soul Sale” adding to the number of ways we can interpret this, appeals to me. The shoes and boots are well arranged, creating a space in front of Max who is playing the role of the “will I or won’t I” shopper to perfection.  The entire image may seem a little claustrophobic at first – there’s a lot going on in a small space – but I kind of like that.

Joepi’s submission

Joepi says:

Temptation by my own thought is the act of wanting what is Naught.
Not yours to keep, Not yours to feel. Not yours to see and what’s Not meant to be…
Temptation by my own thought is not following what is taught.
It’s not yours yet you touch. Don’t touch yet you reach.
Close your eyes…Yet you peek.

 

So here’s the thought behind the image: Fishnet stockings have always been a symbol of sensuality. They have a “come hither” quality about them that is absolutely irresistible and yet their naughty taboo reputation also keeps a number of folks away (some even with raised eyebrows ;-D) This pose of seated, raised and closed yet slightly spread legs also screams “come hither.” But the notion is being waived off as the legs are closed with hands to cover and the instructions to not peek should be enough to deter you from coming closer… right.
f5.6 47mm focal length 1600ISO 1/20sec

My thoughts: I think Joepi’s image is a poster ad waiting to happen. Just have to figure out what is being sold – perhaps a new perfume called “Temptation”?  Hard for me to fault this shot. Great lines and exceptional imagery.  I hope it tempts you readers to weigh in with your thoughts…

Next Challenge

Hmmm, let me dig into my old calico bag of themes and see what I can drag out…
And the winner is… Sydney!  No no no, wrong announcement thanks Juan Antonio!  Try again.
Ok, the winner is Joepi so our next theme will be her suggestion – “Technicolor“.
Please have your photo to me by Sunday February 1st.

This should be fun, and you gotta be in it to win it.

PS – I was thinking that if this challenge  thing continues to hum along nicely, I might have to introduce some incentives for you readers to submit the most thoughtful, incisive or enjoyable comments. I’ve a heap of crap in my back rooms that I could give away – books, CDs, stuffed toys, old sporting trophies etc.  You know, stuff people really want.  Let me know what you think…

Jason & Misa’s wedding

Jason is a very tall, talented musician with a real enthusiasm for life.  And he doesn’t drink! What’s that all about? Never mind, he’s still an awesome guy.

Misa is a sweet and beautiful, outgoing Sushi Chef from Osaka, Japan, with part Korean lineage.

While Jason was spending an extended period of time in Japan in 2002 he met Misa on a train near Osaka.  Six years later they married at Queens Park in Moonee Ponds.

The weather was perfect, after nearly a week of sporadic rain and overcast days.  Misa looked absolutely stunning, and was a joy to photograph throughout the day.  With the combination of water, greenery and a very attractive guest list, particularly Misa’s family and friends who travelled from Japan for the occasion, it was difficult not to take wonderful photos.

There was a real musical bent to the day, beginning with the cello and two opera singers in the park, and ending with a rock show at the reception, performed by Jason and his large collection of musician friends.

I’m not a huge fan of photographing weddings for a number of reasons.  To begin with, I photograph in more of a documentary style, so I prefer very laid-back, relaxed weddings.  Secondly, I’m not really a fan of the institution itself, so if I accept a wedding job it is usually because I relate very well to the couple getting married.  This job was easy as I really enjoyed everyone’s company, and had a great day myself.  The third reason is due to the pressure of getting wedding photos right.  You only have one chance, and if you screw it up you can potentially ruin the happy day for the couple.  I can’t imagine what it must feel like to get home after shooting a very expensive, formal church wedding only to find your storage cards fail to be read, or have been lost or stolen.  I think I’d move to another country if that happened to me!

Misa’s Dad is an amazing man – humble, incredibly polite, and absolutely single-minded on ensuing his daughters are happy.  He seemed to be very proud, but did not betray too much emotion.  I only wish I could have spoken with him during the day.  I’m limited to about ten Japanese words and phrases, and there’s only so many ways one can string them together into meaningful conversation.

The best part of a wedding should be the reception. And this was one of the best.  With the band rocking out on hair metal hits of the 80s, the crowd was very quickly on their feet dancing.  And as you can tell from their smiles, everyone was having a great time.

After such an enjoyable wedding shoot as this one, who knows, I might just do some more!

A family portrait in Werribee South

An Australian family portraiture session should, in my opinion, be fun, relaxed, casual and outdoors.  I can’t think of anything worse to be hanging up on the family loungeroom wall than a stilted, studio shot of Mum, Dad and the kids in their Sunday best, with a nondescript backdrop.  I’m thinking in particular about my own, taken when I was about 10 or 12, which still makes me cringe when I see it.

Remember when you’re choosing family, wedding or other photos of the people close to you to display prominently in your house, that you’ll see these photos every day.  I believe you would be happiest with photos taken in a location that makes you feel happy when you see it again and again.  The photo should bring back a memory of joy, associated with either the time or the place. 

A photograph that is being hung for viewing needs personality and character, rather than looking like a traditional posed image with painted on smiles.  It’s a little like music.  The Top 40 is full of tracks that really have no depth, and therefore no longevity, but you are immediately attracted to them.  Over time you’ll get bored with them.   A timeless track is often the one that grows on you, rather than immediately catching your eye.  So, listen to your photographer when he/she advises you on which photos are best to display.  They may not be the ones you initially think.

Thanks to Damon Howes and his family for this session on a brisk, but very sunny late afternoon at Werribee South Beach. I hope they’re enjoying their new collection of family portraits.

Photo Challenge 5 – Christmas

Sorry for the delay in this one, folks. Xmas tends to throw things into disarray.

I was just about to press “Publish” after writing that we’re “Ken-less” again this challenge. He’s stuck somewhere in the Canadian boonies with sporadic Internet access (and probably no electricity, telephone, food or water and fending off grizzly bears).  However just as I hovered over the button I received Ken’s submission.   We also have Katy from Brazil submitting her first photo, so I have five images to share with you this time.

First, some housekeeping – Katy has given me a little bio to publish.

“First of, I have to confess that photography has taken over my life. I’ve always loved taking pictures. Passion that flourished when I was a little girl with a Zenit 12XP.

So now let’s talk about my work. I take self-portraits mostly – as you might have noticed on Flickr – because I get complete satisfaction being able to express myself thru art along with the fact that I am the only model I have. Shooting myself allows me to have full control and I also have a lot of fun doing it. It is, beyond doubt,  a challenge I enjoy taking on for two main reasons: it allows me to grow as an artist and as a person myself – I used to hate having my picture taken because I don’t really think I’m very photogenic. 

Photography to me is a package. There is so much to it from setting up the shot to taking the image, and the processing – I tend to use editing software on most of my photos, though I try not to overuse it, unless I’m doing more illustrative work, which I love.

Please feel free to criticise, praise, or comment on any of my pics either here or on Flickr. 

Thanks for your time and, of course, for taking me aboard.”

Thank you Katy – now, on to our photos.

Steve’s submission

My thoughts: Xmas in Australia is represented by warm weather, blue and cloudy skies, simple cold meat or roast feasts, christmas pudding, quaffable Australian beer and the cricket on the telly. Here’s the chimney Santa tried to slip down this year in a typical suburban Melbourne dwelling. As long as he doesn’t break the aerial on the way down he’s always welcome.  Just wish he’d take some of the children back with him to work as elves through the year.

Shot on my Panasonic FZ18 with some Photoshop curves and mask magic applied to bring the chimney back out of the shadows. 

Joepi’s submission

Joepi says:

There are several things that can depict a Filipino Christmas. There’s the Belen which is a diorama of the Nativity scene; the Simbang Gabi (Night Mass) which is a 4am mass several days before Christmas; vendors selling Puto Bumbong and Bibingka - made with rice sugar and coconut sold after the mass; and lastly my favorite: Christmas Lanterns or the Parol which depict the star that shone the way to Bethlehem. Parols are made from whatever material you can find at home as long as in the end it forms a star! Of course, if you’re lazy and have had your share of Parol making as a kid (like I did with my dad!), you can actually go out and buy yourself one. This photo is one of the first corners in Manila that sold the more extravagant lanterns. It was always a sign that Christmas is in Manila (which typically starts in September) when these stalls are put up and the nights are lit with blinking stars.

This photo was taken on the 23rd of December – Christmas is already in full swing in Manila, but this hopeful is still waiting to sell more of his merchandise. Now I know I need more help in the whole shooting at night department, so I apologize ahead of time for the noise. This was shot at a very high ISO 1600 at f1.8. Somebody tell me how to get better photos of alternately blinking lights at night without using flash! It was drizzling too, so I was in quite a rush!

Oh and Merry Christmas to you Steve, Mat, Ken and Katy! Cheers!

My thoughts: Xmas in the Philippines sounds like madness. Just like every other aspect of it.  Good madness, mind you.  Love to have experienced it.  Re shooting this better than you already did – ask Ken.  I think you did fine.  A little fill flash, if you can work out how to do it on that cam, might have helped.  And cropping more tightly would stop me from straining my eyes to see the detail. 

Ken’s submission

Ken says:

Technically this shot is all wrong. I had no flash and only the Christmas lights to illuminate Cameron. I also had to push the ISO all the wait up to H1 (1600 i think). 50 mm lens at f1.4.  This is straight out of the camera as I have no editing tools in Canada. Actually, I have no decent pc even to open the files. Thankfully I found an late night Walmart to buy a USB cable.

This is Cameron’s first Christmas and I loved spending every minute with him.  He didn’t cry when sitting on Santa’s lap and enjoyed the tearing of Christmas wrapping paper to discover his  new toys

My thoughts:  Should have bought a Canon, Ken  But seriously, not-so-little-anymore Cameron in his Santa suit looks very cute and very warm in what must be a chilling Canadian winter.  This photo looks like it could have been taken in any Australian home on Xmas morning, and I doubt there are too many differences between us other than the weather.

Katy’s submission

Katy says:

Thinking of my concept for Christmas wasn’t a struggle at all.  First, I really love the whole Christmassy atmosphere all around the globe. Second, Santa has always been my favourite Xmas character of all – as for many others.

Cheer up, y’all! We, the Santa Katies, have something for you. All you have to do is drop us a line or give us a call, and “we’ll bring your shopping to you”!

Well, it may sound a bit harsh, but that’s exactly the idea of what Xmas has become to me. Nobody, broadly speaking, can be bothered getting off their seats and actually getting outside to buy something meaningful – as Christmas itself should be- to the ones they love.

That was my very brief description. Hope you work out the rest.

This picture was taken with my Sony DSC-W55. Yeah, still haven’t purchased a decent camera! I did some kind of Photoshoppery to that image: Multiplicity or Clone Shot, which most of you have heard about. It is a simple process of taking two or three images of oneself in different areas of the same frame (ideally mount your camera on a tripod) and layering each figure into one frame on PS using the pen tool and moving layers into the master composite.

My thoughts: Katy, this is an absolutely perfect start to your contribution to our little club.  Having also seen some of your other shots, I like the way you think your ideas through to every little detail of the composition – possibly something the rest of us don’t do quite to this extent. The shadow on the wall & the props really add story elements, and of course the stockings are a real attention grabber as well as a talking point.  This is an image full of conversation starters, and I think your style will add yet another level of balance to our group. I’ll chat to you offline about cloning/multiplicity, as I don’t know how to use PS to that extent yet, and am interested.  I was thinking of creating a collage but didn’t know how to use PS to make a professional one, so had to choose one image.  You might be able to help me skill up in that area.  Once again, welcome.  I just hope the boys in our club are going to be able to objectively critique your images.

Mat’s submission

Mat says:

Christmas often seems to be about family and food. As my family are
all on the other side of the planet, here’s the food that I enjoyed on
this Christmas Day.

My thoughts: I saved the best for last.  I absolutely adore this image. I could see it up on my wall. Great presentation of simple, yet telling images. Even the mobile phone in the breakfast composition helps to tell the story.  For some strange reason I think that baked beans “meal” is being eaten off a placemat on your polished floorboards!  Well done, Mat.

Next challenge

Time to do something a little different.  Well, not really that different. I’m just going to turn over the choice of themes to you guys.  BUT – to give you all time to send me suitable themes, the next challenge has been chosen by one of our readers, Veena Rusli.  V is the Bureau Chief of Berita Harian (Wikipedia is your friend) in Sabah, Malaysia. She’s a top journo in other words. So to have her as one of my regular readers is an honour. Mind you, she seems to be more interested in words than images, but you can’t win ‘em all.

So, V has suggested “Temptation”, and I’ve gone with it because I know it will challenge some of you in a new way.  Please have your submissions in by Sunday 18th January.

Chopper and Classic Car show

Back in 2006 I travelled across the Princes Freeway to an industrial area of Hoppers Crossing, and the Bikie Gang hang-out hidden within. Not something I’d normally do but it’s the second time I’ve done such a thing in the name of rock and roll. I doubt too many bikies read my blog, but I’ll keep it nice all the same, as they can be a sensitive bunch.

My friends in the Deep Purple tribute band, Stormbringer, were engaged to perform at a Bike and Car show held by the Outlaws Gang. I went along to shoot them as well as the many hot (not in the ‘stolen’ sense I hope) vehicles on display. A windy and overcast day brought excellent photograph conditions to capture the detail and immense attention given to these bikie’s babies. After a few hours of suspicious looks from some of them, they eventually softened up and enjoyed the attention I gave them once they realised I actually appreciated their work.

Check out the full set of images at my Snapshots gallery.

Bike and Classic Car Show 2006

Rock Gods II

December 13th, 2008 – Rock Gods II, live at the Gershwin Room, Espy Hotel, St Kilda.

The lineup was enticing – tributes to AC/DC, Kiss, Def Leppard, Van Halen & Skid Row. And with a Sammy Hagar tribute joining the expected David Lee Roth show I was genuinely chomping at the bit to see what quality would be paraded on stage.

I wasn’t disappointed. This was a fantastic night of showmanship, musicianship, and outright 80′s nostalgia, and I loved it!  With only one or two small issues – Def Repplica had an off night, possibly initiated by the fact that their opening track (Let It Go – my favourite!) was marred with no guitars in the house PA – I went home with a smile and 500-odd shots.

Thanks especially to Jason for his professionalism in not only performing with Van Hagar, but also stage managing the entire night and keeping every band to a very strict schedule. I know how difficult that task is.  Kudos to Enzo and Jim for their immense workload.  Jim drummed with X-Halen and played bass with Van Hagar.  Enzo seemed to be everywhere! He played the perfect Eddie Van Halen for both VH tributes, as well as pulling off a most credible Bruce Kulick in the Kiss “all-star” tribute.  The Kiss band was lead by “Paul” from Kisstroyer (well, I’m not sure if he’s still in the band or not) who seemed to be much more comfortable off the leash and without having to think about moves, makeup and a costume that must have been the largest Paul Stanley costume ever made.

After watching Enzo most of the night, I decided he looks more like Brian May on stage. I was also amazed at how far he has come since I first saw him jamming with In-Halen years ago when I was fooling around providing keys for those guys.  The guy plays like a freak, and looks so cool whilst doing it.

Following are a few of my choice images to wet your appetite for the rest of the gallery.

Skid Row Tribute – The lead singer was a female, which was more of a curiosity than anything else. She did a great job and entertained us well, but you can’t replace Sebastian Bach.

AC/DShe – The incomparable Josie Jason, my favourite Australian rock artist, was a surprise guest vocalist, stepping in for their regular female lead for the night.  As always Josie stole the show and had the crowd combining head-banging with hysterics for the entire set.   I knew she was struggling to remember all the lyrics so made sure she could read my lips throughout all my favourites.  Josie told me the following week she actually did just that at times.

Van Hagar - I was most interested in whether “Sammy” could really match the man himself. He could! From the opening electric drill of Poundcake, Enzo powered through the more polished era of VH and “Sammy” effortlessly covered the vocals.  When they finally played Dreams the crowd was in raptures, and I was truly impressed.  I’ll be seeing these guys again!
 
 
  
  

X-Halen – With Enzo still at the Eddie helm, and Jim back on drums, in strutted “Diamond Dave”.  Now that Enzo has mastered the VH chops, this was the best performance from these guys to date. It’s hard not to enjoy music this good when it’s played and performed this well.
 
 

Kiss Tribute – Enzo now shone as Bruce Kulick, and the crowd continued to grow and be satiated with many of the Kiss standards. Not a life-changing performance from these guys, but a helluva lot of fun all the same.
 
 
  

Def Repplica – The final act, and unlike their last gig which went very smoothly, this one was not so good. You win some, you lose some.
 
 

Go straight to the full Rock Gods II gallery here.

Photo Challenge 4 – Transition

I’m impressed! I honestly didn’t think the gang could keep it together for this many challenges, but to all of our credit we’re still moving forward. Not only that, but we’re expanding our numbers.  As of next challenge I am very pleased to announce a new contributor – Katiane Goes.

Katy lives in Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil.  Katy is a teacher, and a beach lover who lives 1300 km from the nearest beach.  She has an excellent photo collection on Flickr which I invite you to go check out now. Welcome aboard, Katy!

Transition can mean so many things to so many people. And therein lies the fun of asking four very different people to apply their creativity to this theme.

Steve’s submission:

My thoughts: I’m not sure I should go first this time, as I don’t think my photo is really indicative of my style, nor a particularly good shot.  However, it does show the constant cyclic transition that nature experiences. In this case an old tree comes to a possibly untimely demise at the hands of farmers, but way below the eyeline, as yet unnoticed, the tree’s offspring raises it’s youthful head ready to take up the challenge of survival.  Shot on the Canon 30D, 45mm, F22, 1/50, ISO 100. Primarily processed in Lightroom 2.1 and all the really tough stuff cleaned in Photoshop CS3.

Mat’s Submission:

My thoughts: Mat, this is a fantastic idea.  I really love what you’ve come up with.  Next step for you is to build your technical skills to allow you to present the very best version of your ideas that you can. Ken is the post-processing master, so go drop in on him unannounced, with a bottle of wine of course, and get him to give you the works. Your photos will love you for it, and the less creative of us (i.e. me) will be bowing in deference.

Mat says: I struggled to come up with an idea for this one. I had some thoughts about sunsets or nature scenes where one landscape transitioned into another one, eg grass to beach to sea, or field to freeway, or parkland to car park – but the very wet Melbourne weather this weekend made me somewhat disinclined to venture into the great outdoors.

So I ended up deciding that with every tick of the clock we are transitioning from one time into another. I used a 5 second exposure to capture 5 ticks in a fairly gloomy room, then I massaged the result with some of the filters in Lightroom and Paintshop Pro to give it a slightly more abstract and grainy feel. I wanted an old fashioned look which is offset by the word QUARTZ showing it is actually a modern clock – hence indicating a transition from the old clock-work world to our modern electronic one.

 

Ken’s Submission:

My thoughts: I think Ken might still be having trouble with my Aussie accent, because he’s given us “trainsition” instead. This image had me believing the trains were both moving, making me wonder how on earth he took the shot. I love the character and details in Ken’s images, so even when I’m through thinking about the life analogy delivered by the passing trains, I can analyse the rails and stones to see what I can find in there.

Ken says: I must say…I have struggled with this week’s theme!  I understand why Stephen chose it, but once again I did not want to entertain the obvious and therefore set out to find something left of field. 

Whilst shooting the various images to compile this particular shot, U2’s Running to Stand Still was drifting through my head. For me, this week at least, transition is a train wreck in the making… We sometimes struggle to transcend without tearing down everything and beginning again. With all our optimism we set out with the lesson previously learnt in an attempt to make the transition to a better, happier life… Our problem is that we never really apply what was learnt and fall desperately back onto the same ol’ twisted tracks. All the while it seems that everyone else is on the fast train…passing us by…getting somewhere… anywhere….or maybe we are all just running to stand still?

U2 – Running to Stand Still (first verse)

And so she woke up

Woke up from where she was lying still
Said I gotta do something about where we’re going
Step on a steam train
Step out of the driving rain
Maybe run from the darkness in the night

This was shot with my trusted Nikon D2X, Nikon 28-35mm f2.8 lens. (shot at f8 at about 1/300 , ISO 200) 

 

 

Joepi’s Submission:

My thoughts: I left the best for last. This is the most tangible and definable transition of all, and Joepi’s presentation of herself in this collage is a little self-deprecating, a trait Aussies love.  I’ll leave it to Joepi to explain the story behind the image.

Joepi says: I had no plans of actually sending this,but I did put the collage together for the challenge just for the giggles.

The transition from drab to fab is every girly-girl’s favorite activity. And every woman goes through these transitions at least once in their lifetime, others do it too often, others too little and most, like me, do it for fun (especially if it’s a free make over!) 

Next challenge:

The next challenge will be a little different but the theme is a tad obvious – “Christmas”.

This time I am not looking for abstract images or unusual interpretations, but rather something that represents your personal impression of or experience with this particular event.

“Christmas” should be submitted by Sunday December 28

I’d also like each of you (including Katy) to submit a theme idea, and I’ll randomly use one for each of the upcoming four challenges.

Travelling first class on an economy ticket

I met a real classy babe last night.  At first glance she seemed nothing more than gutter trash.  The signs all pointed to one thing – stay away.  Indications were that she was the sort of girl I’d only try out of morbid curiosity, or to remind myself of exactly how the other half lives.  However, it was a cold dark night, the rain was gusting up under my glasses, and what she offered was so irresistable at such a rock-bottom price that I thought I had nothing to lose.

Last night, I undressed her and sat her down next to my hot pizza.  She was flushed red with excitement at being given a chance, but I was still rather hesitant, even a little nervous.  It wasn’t until she put on her party dress and tiara that the truth was ultimately revealed.

I am, of course talking about a bottle of wine.
Now, take a very close look at the label.  Try to ignore the very distracting dress – yes I know, it’s up there with Chris Judd’s girlfriend’s 2004 Brownlow Medal dress.  Those of you possessing better than average wine knowledge will immediately consider four key pieces of information.

1. It’s an Australian wine from either the Barossa, Tasmania, or Victoria.  So, it’s very unlikely to be awful.
2. It’s a Shiraz Cabernet – the Great Australian Red.  This blend is surging locally, and as evidenced by a recent tasting I attended, with very good reason. The rich, juicy spice of shiraz tempered by a dry, refinement, teasing the delicate palates of real wine lovers.
3. It’s 2008.  This would indicate that it’s far too new to drink now.
4. It’s a cleanskin. This will tell you that it’s going to be cheap, but it could give mixed messages on quality.  Right now Australia is nearing the end of a massive wine glut, resulting in much premium wine having to be sold as cleanskins or house brands simply to retain the necessary smaller bottle runs of premium labels.  This means you are very likely to be drinking $15-$45 wine out of a $5-$10 cleanskin bottle.

The real reason I am writing a post about this wine is yet to come.  One of our bottle shop chains opened a new store about a month ago. As part of the opening specials they offered cases of this variety and a Chardonnay.  I bought a dozen of both because:

Each bottle was $2

So, what would you expect from such a new wine at such a low price?  BBQ fodder at best?  Can’t be worth cellaring because it wouldn’t age well?  Wrong on both counts.

I didn’t even bother to let this breath and took a gulp immediately my glass was ready.  And boy, was I in for a surprise! What my glass delivered was a wonderfully engineered blend of both grapes, starting with a smooth warmth on the back of my tongue that continued down the throat without burning anything along the way, and a gentle reminder at the front of my mouth that cabernet also lives here. With time that trademark plum shiraz sweetness grew until I wanted to take more into my mouth at each sip.  In no time at all the bottle was gone, and I was seriously considering opening a second even though it was after midnight and the movie had finished.

So the lesson for today is this.  If some cheap, trashy-looking girl gives you the eye whilst you’re treading the liquor store boards, don’t immediately dismiss her as somebody else’s troubles for the night.  Squint your eyes a little, try to imagine her in a party dress, and imagine the potential rewards you’ll reap if you treat her well.

I’ll be revisiting this little beauty a couple of times every year for the next five to see how she blossoms.

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