more play with a waterproof camera!

Water was not perfect....
there have been some storms off the coast, so it was stirred up pretty badly...

But still had some fun...

and finally.... a self portrait... the idea being I would wait until a wave nearly hit me... this was one of the better attempts.

Our Christmas Family Portrait...

Merry Christmas Everyone

more boy shots

In the vacant lot beside our place, looking out over the valley....
Must say, it is all very lovely.
You understand I mean the view... not the boys.

Wearing a bib....

Us westerners, when eating, sometimes need a little help to stay clean...

morning psych up

Some hairdressers getting ready for their psych up and dance before
starting work....

moonrise

Roof, meet Moon... Moon, say hello to Roof.





Photogeek stuff:
To shoot the moon you need to be really really zoomed in.  This is at the long end of my 200mm zoom (300 in old speak).  As well as being WAY further away than it looks, the moon is also brighter than it looks....  so where you think you are going to get the nice shot of the unlit foreground with a moon with some detail in it in the background.... well good luck with that.
So I cheated and found a building with lights on it, a long way away.... full zoom, hand held deliberately underexposed.
I really liked the yin/yang of the two circles with the line through the middle.  The seeming timelessness of the moon with the (what seems to me) very transitory nature of the buildings here.  But I am going into silly waffling territory now....

Sunrise in Beijing....

The air quality is good for something!

sometimes you just gotta....

Sometimes you just get the urge...
it has to happen now....
no time to think...
no time to get changed....
you need it now....
and it does not matter if you are in pink bunny pajamas or not....

a bit more

I think we can fit a little more in the gap right at the top......

Silk Markets

A shot of the Silk Markets from across the street....

No prices...
very few rules (apart from a claim inside the door that people should only buy authentic merchandise)...

Lots and lots of haggling....
I was not quite in a haggling mood last night so I was not at the top of my bargaining game. I walked away quite sure I had been massively ripped off rather than just mildly pickpocketted....

Singapore.....

waiting.....

in an airport lounge.....

I will be heading off to China very soon...

a very cold.. and therefore I expect very different China to what I saw last time....

Ready to go back into not being able to actually see my blog, or facebook or anything the might be a little less than ideal for the people of China to know....(I feel flattered that they see fit to block my little bloggy thing - ramblings about my moustache and how the boys have done in swimming are definitely worth firewalling!)

A gentleman nearby has been (rather too loudly) bi-linguilly speaking sweet nothings on the phone and convincing his beloved to wear less while talking to him on Skype.  I am therefore happy I have no photo to accompany this posting.

Arrogant and Presumptuous Photography Portrait.

As it turns out, I am going to be a lecturer for the 2012 Photographic Society of Queensland Conference.  Giving a talk about something that is far too complicated for me to get my head around, so I am hoping my confusion will come across as "arty"....
As part of the program (to populate the fairly sparse website above among other things), I had to submit a portrait of myself for the program. so I got the boys to help me take one this afternoon....

(There was no way in the world I was going to put a photo of me with a fuzzy lip up there!!)

I think I look a little Arrogant and Presumptuous (A&P).... but I have been (deservedly) accused of being A&P before - so it is probably fairly accurate.



Photogeek stuff:  Taken out the front of our house, into the low sun by Xander while Zak stood off to my right on a box pointing the flash down at me from just outside the frame.  A tiny bit of desaturation and vignetting in photoshop...