64/100 strangers. Not quite enough!!!

My 100 stranger project has slowed.  Almost stalled.  The first 50 were a breeze time wise.  Then I got a bit sick so there was a break.  I've finished another 14 since since then and I am happy with them all.  For the next 36 I want a little more diversity in my imagery. I want to use some simple lighting techniques and venture out of my comfort zone, both photographically and geographically. I really need to apply myself to finding and photographing those remaining 36 strangers.

My first Stranger was probably the hardest.    Taking that first step, approaching that first stranger.  After the post 50 break I found it hard to start up again, hard to walk up to a complete stranger, introduce yourself and then ask them if you can take your portrait!   That is, of course part of the whole process.  Finding the subject, finding the right light and then taking a complimentary shot all in user a few minutes!

Of course the desire to finish the series is compounded by my desire to have the series exhibited.  I am working on a proposal to exhibit at a local gallery and am amazed at how much I need to do and, strangely, how little it will cost to do.   I already have the 100 frames necessary to show the work, printing costs will be manageable and there might even be a sponsor for that.  Catalogues, advertising and running expenses have been considered and the costings pull up quite reasonably.   With any luck I MIGHT be able to convince another sponsor to come on board.   If you want to get involved let me know.   In the meantime here are some of my favourites of the first 64...

It's beginning to look a lot like ......

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......  well actually it isn't!  That's actually a big fat lie!!

It is hot and the days are long. I'm on leave. Pressies bought, wrapped and under a tree, my first ever pink frangipani has flowered, but it still doesn't look or feel like Christmas at all.

I have about 10 days off work and, as per usual, about 20 days worth of work to fit into it! I started off on saturday by turning over one of the veggie beds. Had just about finished when I was bitten by those nasty flies that are the bane of my life!  I'll allergic to them and even though I immediately washed both bites and hit the drug cabinet they blew up all sore and itchy and lumpy.  Jeeze I just can't seem to win!!!  Still I did get the bed ready for some planting and I could have avoid the bites by using the bug spray.  Too late now for those recriminations!!!  Three days later there is still lumps and the itchiness continues.  The drugs really don't do much!    I've done all the grocery shopping and even bought every item on my "bits and pieces" list.  All the wrapping is done and the pressies are all under the tree at mums.  I couldn't be bother putting one up here.  I have 3 in the office, surely that is enough!   As the afternoons cool I hope to get some more mowing done.  I'd much rather be sitting in the big chair with my nose stuck in a book. An icy cold glass of water by my side.

I have a few books set aside to read over this break.  Mundles' "Cook", Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton and for something novel, a novel!  I don't usually read fiction, but I am testing the waters with William McInnes.  I don't really have much else planned.  I won't stray far from home.  I hope to take a few photos along the way.  There should be some time for Gallery visits, maybe some fishing and sitting by the lake.  Maybe even a trip to the beach!  For christmas I need to make some rocky road, some fudge and maybe a flour less chocolate cake.  Otherwise Christmas is all organised.  Menus planned, ingredients either growing or purchased. Nothing left to get.

What to do on New Years Eve is another concern.   Last year I went to town and watched the fireworks.  Then I taxied a whole heap of "P" platers home. They can't drive together in one car until they get a black licence.  That's on option for this year too they will all still be on their "P's".  Sadly Newcastle has canned the midnight fireworks this year.  An economy drive I suspect.  The 9.30pm ones are always better. Normally longer, more bangy and flashy than the midnight ones.  I guess town might be desolate after 10pm!!!

As for the rest of my time off.  Rest is an option.  As is cleaning, gardening and taking a few photos.  Here's one I made earlier!

Happy Birthday you Silly Yak!

I got something totally amazing for my birthday.   You'll never guess what, so I'll just blurt it out and tell you.  I got coeliac disease!  Woot Woo!!!

Well it wasn't really for my birthday. Like as in it wasn't wrapped up or anything.   Maybe I should explain.... Since my return to work in mid April after Radioactive Ablation in February 2013 I have never felt well.  Never felt right. Never felt like I did before the whole cancer thing.  I was not just feeling physically unwell, but I had a poor work attitude and my moods were less than pleasant.   I had no energy and so in mid september I began seeing a psychologist and my GP on a very regular basis to try and work out what the heck was going on.  Well it has taken some months, untold blood tests, examinations and poking and prodding and chatting to finally get a preliminary finding that I am a coeliac.  Gluten intolerant. An auto immune disease where the villi in my intestine have decided they no longer wish to absorb any iron or vitamin B12 I ingest.  They have shut up shop and will not be nice to me until I cease consuming the bits they don't like.

Now this is a preliminary diagnosis only.  I have been referred to a gastroenterologist who will do a small intestine biopsy to confirm what the Doctor has surmised. Even though I am not fussed on yet another procedure, I do want confirmation one way or the other. So its back to hospital in February.

So what does being a coeliac mean.   Well it means that a toasted sourdough and a beer are out of the question if I want to feel good!!!   In more technical terms it means that gluten, the protein found in wheat, rye and barley is toxic to me.  At this stage I don't know a great deal more about it all, but I expect that to change soon enough! I did investigate the gluten free section of the supermarket this morning and was pretty impressed with the range of items available.  I was unimpressed that a small box of "corn flake" style breakfast cereal was nearly $7 a box!  It does explain why the British Government provide "prescriptions" for subsidised food for coeliacs.  I'm sure I'll figure out the food options though.  I can't see too many changes for my lunches and dinners, but I am a weetbix or oats girl at beakky and that will be an issue!   Oats themselves are fine, but they are usually processed in the same machinery as wheat and apparently that's a no no.

So there is a steep learning curve ahead of me, but I am hopeful that I will begin to feel back to normal soon.  It's been a long hard struggle. And at least it is not another cancer, which is what the Doc suspected from the start!

Next birthday I want something WRAPPED!!!  Thanks in advance!

UPDATE  19 February 2014 :-   The small intestine biopsy was done on 29 January and results were given today.  I am NOT a Coeliac. Nor is it another cancer, in fact they do not know what the problem is, but they are still working on it and I can't ask for more than that.   So I'm back on the sourdough and beer but along the way I learnt how hard it can be for a coeliac and how much wheat is in the everyday food we eat.  Ice cream as an example....  who would have thought ice cream and ice blocks would have wheat in it.  My hat goes off to every coeliac.  It's not an easy life.

Oh what a night in old Sydney town!

What a week it has been.  First I was going, then I wasn't going and at the last minute I was going again.  Going where?     Going to Sydney to meet a totally awesome man whose musical and film making career I have been following since 1995.

I wanted to go, but after last weekend and the garage sale sapping my limited energy reserves  I doubted I could follow it up with a long drive to Sydney and back on a school night!  I told him I'd be there, then I told him I wouldn't, but I knew this would probably be my one and only opportunity to meet him face to face.  Sure we are "facebook friends" and we have been using the chat function on there since about mid 2010, but face to face!!  How could I miss this rare opportunity?   The simple truth is he lives about 17,000kms away in cold old England and was out here on a tour promoting one of his movies and running a series of empowering workshops designed to help creatives get their ideas out of their heads and into the real world.  Hence, a trip to Sydney... for both of us!

What should have been a 1 hour 40 drive took substantially longer in the most hectic traffic I have ever seen, breakdowns on the toll roads and the eastern distributor compounded the usual end of the day rush of people just wanting to get home.   There might well be some tickets heading my way as a result.  Travelling in a Transit Lane for one, although I wasn't in there for more than about 500m.  There might be some speeding tickets too.  And although the car is registered on my etag, it wasn't in the windscreen.  Yes, I heard your giggle when I mentioned me getting a speeding ticket, but you see I wasn't in Larry Laser.  I was driving my sisters car and it is quite the mover!!!   I won't  even go into the debacle of trying to find my car in the Star City Casino carpark afterwards.  Pink C6 I remembered....  but what floor would you expect that to be on?  Well I can tell you it is parking level 3.  But it did take me some time to work that out!

It seemed Jamie was as pleased to see me as I him!  There were people everywhere, but when he approached me he was very excited that I had made it down.  There were hugs and kisses.   I had taken him a bag of jelly snakes as he likes treats!  He said they were his fave!  He had a good look at how my  my neck scar  had healed, he had seen photos of the gore after surgery.  I introduced him to my nephew Nic and they had a good old chinwag too.   Conversation flowed easily and time passed very quickly.  So with one thing left to do I got my gear ready for the Strange, NOT Stranger project photo.   Jamie had agreed to be photographed and I had the gear , albeit NOT may favourite 135 f2 lens.  I packed the 85 f1.8 cos I suspected we would be short on length.  The 85 is not my fave, but it is a good lens all the same.  So in one shot I captured him. More hugs and kisses followed and we disappearred in different directions out of the Maritime Museum where we had met.  The internet has made this world a very tiny place...and I am glad.

It is said that picture is worth a thousand words... so here is 1k of wordiness!

One more sleep!!!

I've been wanting this for 12 months and preparing for the last 2 months and I'm still not really ready for the onslaught.  The Garage Sale!

I have the majority of my "stuff"  priced.   I have my float of small change counted but I still need to check my sign, just the one,  and find me some nails and a hammer.

Tonight, with the help of a neighbour, we will empty the garage of the BIG stuff.  A couple of dining tables, a lounge, a dozen dining chairs and some chests of drawers.  And the 50 or so boxes of "smalls".  I don't think there is a single vase or plate for sale.  Platters, cheese boards, cutlery, picture frames, traymobile, rugs, water plants and camellias, books, cd's and magazine make up just a small sample of the "stuff" I need gone!  I need it gone because I can't get into the garage to get the lawnmower without tripping over "stuff".  There is too much "stuff" in my world!!!

This time tomorrow the tarps will come off and we will be ready for business.
A one day sale. I want it gone!

Here's what the garage looks like today....

I expect it to look vastly different in a few hours.

A studio to call home

As you have probably gathered I have a love of photography and even through the whole cancer thing I still tried to practice it as much as I could.  Sure for a while, especially when in isolation, all I could shoot was me, or flowers, it still was great to have a camera in my hands, even when it was impossible to wear one around my neck!  The desire to shoot with artificial lighting or rather with me controlling the artificial lighting has been smouldering in the background for a while.  It started with buying a hotshoe flash, then 3 more.  Then I looked at ways to trigger them to fire off camera.  I tried cables, till I got tangled up in one, then cheapy ebay triggers, till they failed more than they worked and finally I was fortunate enough to get my hands on some top of the range Pocket Wizards and then the fun really began! The failure rate dropped to next to nothing, the ease of controlling the ratios between lights became childs play and the results began to show.  So the next step on that ladder was to find a space in which to work!

I have a couple of backdrop stands. 2 metre and 3 metre in width and some fabric and paper backdrops.  All of which I can set up in the loungeroom here. I can even do a four light set up, triggered wirelessly and get an ok result..... but it is impermanent.  It's like a pop up shop.  Pops up and down in a matter of minutes, but still I want more. I want a permanent working space.

About 18 months ago a couple of us of similar mind looked at renting a space. We looked at a multitude of alternatives.  Reduced prices spaces in Newcastle,  storage spaces in Wickham,  shop spaces in Morisset and finally warehouse spaces in Westlakes.  For each alternative there was an issue.  For most it was the cost.  For some it was the location and for one it was size, or lack of it! So that idea died a sad and lonely death.  Saturday saw my renewed interest in a freestanding permanent studio space.  I attended an open day for a new studio for rent in Tuggerah and I liked what I saw!

The simple concrete warehouse had been transformed inside from grey slabs to 3 shooting areas, one with cyclorama.  There was a small, but useable, change room area and an array of chairs and props.  There was a green screen available too and some lighting gear for hire.  The prices were reasonable and the owners are catering specifically for people like me, the hobbyist that wants to control light.

Inadvertently there was a shoot going on at the time which was a great demonstration for the onlookers.  Strangely there were very few women photographers there.  There were lots of blokes and two female models.  Nice young girls who simply wanted a few good pics of themselves.  With about 20 photographers in the joint the likelihood of them getting decent shots was pretty high!

So until the lotto ball falls on me or I get my grubby little paws on my superannuation looks like I will be renting great spaces like this to get the shots I want.

I can and do still do table top stuff at home.......so here's some for you to enjoy.

What to shoot next???

It's been an unusually busy 7 days for me photographically.  First I photographed a funeral, then a wedding and last night... no, not a christening, a live concert!  Really the first time I have been this busy photographically since I got sick.   Haven't really had the energy, but the planets aligned this week!

Each photo opportunity provided its own set of challenges. Fortunately none insurmountable. And only 2 ended in sunburn!!   Light was the issue for each too.  Now that may sound  logical because no light equal no pics, but it was the direction, intensity and properties of the light that made me work harder to get the shots.  The concert was not the best lit gig I have ever experienced so I found myself shooting at 6400 iso and still waiting on bursts of light to get a well exposed shot.  Other end of the spectrum totally for the funeral and wedding.  The issue with the funeral was the long shadows on the beach, guests in shade but the ashes and rowing party in broad daylight.... and me on a lookout unable to control any of it with ancillary lighting.   The wedding was a midday show.  Hard light and hard enough to shoot, but made worse by the groom and his merry men wearing peaked caps and dark sunglasses, all day!  Flash exposure compensation became a steep learning curve at the wedding.  Never an issue with the pocket wizards and flash heads on light stands, but a whole different story for hotshoe mounted flash heads with speed straps and short board reflectors. Got a few shots that I was happy with.  The family seem happy enough with them too.

So what to shoot next?  It was to be 4 shoots in 8 days with today being the annual Scott Kelby World Wide Walk day.  I was booked in with others in Sydney, but after a few busy days and a late one last night I withdrew.  The city was buzzing with sightseers as the International Fleet Review sail past is on today too.  So a trip to Sydney was avoided.   Had the nephew Nic not been on duty on the HMAS Farncomb, the only sub in the review, I would have made the trip.... but he was on board today so I will catch up with him in a couple of weeks when they return from exercises off the coast.   Maybe some table top stuff later in the week will be the go.  Back working with the miracle that is the pocket wizard.  Soooo easy to use.  Soooo easy to control.  Love them! And a new smaller backdrop stand has arrived, so that might get its first trial run too.  But what to shoot?!?!? I'm sure something will come to me!

Anyway here is some pics of the funeral, the wedding and the concert to keep you busy.  Enjoy!