Happy 13th Anniversary

Tim, Jo, Geoff, Jenny, Jenny, David - Cronulla Uniting Church (Sun 30 Apr 2000)

Five One Hundredths of a Second - 500m Premier Opens Final - AusDBF Nats / Penrith (Fri 19 Apr 2013)

Five One Hundredths of a Second - 500m Premier Opens Final - AusDBF Nats / Penrith (Fri 19 Apr 2013)
Once, twice or, maybe three times (if you are fortunate enough and willing to take the risks) in a paddling career you do something unbelievable. Something you just can’ t explain, though sometimes it worth giving it a try. Here goes ..

You are happy you have made the major final. You know you are up against strong teams. The favourite, the team directly on your left, you have not beaten in three years. In fact you have not been within a boat length, over 500m, for the last two years. Against the odds, and your failing self-confidence, you still somehow believe that we can still get across the line first. To be part of of something great. There is always hope at the start. It is a chance to create who you want to be. You don't get your hopes up too high, as you have been disappointed in the past. You don't think about all of this too much at this point. The focus is putting your best race on the water and seeing how it compares to the others when you have all crossed the line. You are not overly nervous, but you are excited and proud to be there. A supportive and encouraging tap on the knee for those around you. Remember it is a 30 stroke start. Just focus on the first 3 strokes and take it one by one from there. Clean water. Hand out of the water. Blade buried. Make sure you feel and stay connected with the water with every stroke. The starter aligns us and we ready. "Paddlers, are you ready, attention please" .... the gun does not fire for some reason. This has happened a few time before over the years. Keep your focus, no distractions. We will be away soon. Refocus, lets do it again - 30 Start, first 3, deep and clean - feel the water. "Paddlers, are you ready, attention please" ... "GO". You Go on the "G". 1-2-3, up, up, .. 10, up, up, .. 20, up, up, ..7,..30, reach, reach, hinge, hinge. The boat is up and running and there is something there. We are hingeing and driving through the stroke. The boat is more than running, it is been driven through the stroke like it has felt in training over last few weeks, except this time it is race intensity, not level 4, Remember this Geoff, Remember this moment. We are there next to them, where usually they pull away here, but we talked about staying connected. Give it everything to the 250m and refocus. Somehow, we are sttil there at the 250m. Refocus and reinvent yourself, I think. Drive, Drive is the call, We are still there, connected. You have a 6th sense (and good hearing) and you know without looking that our drummers are side by side. Passing the 200m start hut and the little red lane marker buoy. There is something uplifting in our Sweep's voice - "you are doing it". The lane buoys turn to red - we are 100m out. We have done everything our training has given our bodies - it's amazing to find that something extra that the sport scientists say should not be there. Mentally, prepare for the lift home. This is the most crucial part of the race - they are probably a nose ahead. We are going to have to do something amazing - something the other teams have pulled on us often over the years. "do it for the gold (or was it girls?)" is the call. We lift. We lift. The rate comes up a touch and the boat becomes light as we surge forward with every stroke - narrowing the margin. It is all clear as day, those last few strokes. You give it everything you've got when there is nothing to give. You cross the line, you hear the finish horn blast away in succussion. You look across and you know you have done it. The look in your competitors faces tell you that they know you have also done it and you take a few quiet moments to take it all in, while some of the others around you show their elation more jubilantly. Gasping for air, you touch the same knees as you did before the start. This time the "ritual" tap is to acknowledge your team mates efforts and the fact that you have done something that does not happen that often in a paddling career. "Three cheers for the other crews" is the call from our Drummer - three "hip hip". and a breathless "hooray". We bring the boats in and we all get off. Back slaps and hugs all around. Not even a second thought who won that one as you make your way through the other 180 or so paddlers you have just competed against. You smile and for some reason laugh. This kind of win does not happen that often - "take it in", "take it in" you say to yourself. You see many familiar faces as you walk through the line. They are happy for you. Many you have experienced some amazing experiences around the world in Australian Campaigns past and you hope that the journey with them will continue. Somewhere along the way you hear that we did it by five one hundredths of a second. You know the course well and you smile that you can pick such a small amount of time moments after crossing the line. What a race. You think to yourself, "it's not that we won it, it is how we won it" – it's just not what was expected by many (including yourself) and that is the beauty of dragon boat racing - the randomness and uncertainty to some extent. The boat has never felt like that out of the start and into the transition. You think to yourself, you have never paddled like that before. You feel fortunate that you took the risk to be there, you did the training, the testing, you've put yourself on the line time and time again. You have been crushed by the ramifications of defeat and oddly enough, those one or two other once in a life time victories . At the end of the day you know that it is worth the sacrifices you make to do what you have done, do and hope to do. Maybe this is not the end, but a new beginning ..

I will leave this unedited. It’s just a stream of thought that came out of my subconscious in the last 20 mins. Hope it makes sense and it will be fun to read, many year’s into the future.

Five One Hundredths of a Second - 500m Premier Opens Final - AusDBF Nats / Penrith (Fri 19 Apr 2013)

On Photography - Rebecca Norris Webb and Alex Webb (Tue 16 Apr 2013)

Untitled - George Street / Sydney (Apr 2013)
Rebecca Norris Webb advises:

Learn to listen to your photographs. They are often wiser than you are.

While Alex Webb (*) advises:

Follow your passion (*). You should pursue photography (*) because it is something you love - that you absolutely need to do. The rewards from photography - recognition, occasional remuneration - are so fleeting that it makes no sense to pursue photography (*) except as a labor of love.

5 frågor till: Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb (*) by fotografiska (*).

Getting Started - Rebecca Norris Webb / fotografiska (Tue 16 Apr 2013)

Untitled - George Street / Sydney (Apr 2013)
Rebecca Norris Webb (*) talks On Getting Started (*):

Maybe not knowing why is a good place to start.

via 5 frågor till: Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb (*) by fotografiska (*).

On Photography - Understanding - Alex Webb / americanphotomag.com (16 Dec 2011)

Untitled - George Street / Sydney (Apr 2013)
Alex Webb (*) talks On Photography (*):

I feel that on some level I photograph to understand (*) what it is and why it is I'm photographing. It's a process of understanding (*).

via Books of the Year: Alex Webb's "The Suffering of Light" (*) by Stan Horaczek (*).

On Dreams - Patrick McHugh (Sun 07 Apr 2013)

Untitled - George Street / Sydney (Apr 2013)
Patrick McHugh (*) talks On Dreams (*):

dreams (*) are a way to prepare you to give your maximum effort.

via Sunday Inspiration -- Roger Bannister (*) by Patrick McHugh (*).

Inspiration - Joanna McClure - A Photo Editor (Thu 04 Apr 2013)

A Little Bit of Red (*) - Erskineville (Tue 02 Apr 2013)
A Little Bit of Red (*) - Detail - Erskineville (Tue 02 Apr 2013)
Joanna McClure (*) provides some insight On Inspiration (*) in her photography (*):

I find my inspiration (*) by looking for it. Anywhere.

I read constantly and this helps me develop images in my head. I constantly look at art (I am not married only to photography). I watch almost every movie that comes out. I am always searching for something to highten my sense of what is possible.

The other way I find inspiration (*) is through my work. Work begets work-an idea may come through experimenting with something and this diverges into something totally different.

Often my work starts out as an interest in texture, or how two materials work together.

via Art Producers Speak: Joanna McClure (*) by A Photo Editor (*).

I guess what finds it way here (*) is my inspiration (*), so, thanks Joanna for being part of that (*).

Also, for me maybe it is about Colour (*) and an apparent obsession with the colour Red (*).

The small miracle of photography is .. it's never summer (Thu 04 Apr 2013)

Street Portrait (*) - George Street / Sydney (Fri 15 Mar 2013)
it's never summer (*) writes:

The small miracle (*) of photography is, in [the photographers] hands, images with very little context can generate compassion (*).

via From the jpegs online and what I had read about it, I had... (*) by it's never summer (*).

On Street Photography - I Wonder If - Larrisa Archer (Tue 02 Apr 2013)

Untitled - George Street / Sydney (Sun 31 Apr 2013)
Larrisa Archer (*) on viewing Garry Wingorand's (*) current Exhibitiion (*) writes On Street Photography (*):

I'm wondering if even street photography (*) can be trusted to tell us anything beyond what is in the photographer's own heart at the moment--

I wonder if it is in fact the most deceptive of all genres, for the very reason that it posits a certain objectivity, not rehearsed and posed but candid and full of accidents, an imprint of a reality that is out there for anyone and everyone to witness together.

I wonder if, regardless of the literal elements of the scene, the tone an image takes on and expresses is due to the photographer's own moods, his own prejudices, enthusiasms, "abortive sorrows and short-winded elations."

And then I wonder if this is in fact any less reliable than the notion that the images can say something objectively true about their over-arching subject (for instance, America) when that subject is itself so complex, many-sided, and open to a seemingly endless range of interpretations.

via 'We Have Not Loved Life': Garry Winogrand at SFMOMA (*) by Larrisa Archer (*).

On Colour Photography - William Eggleston - Eric Kim (Tue 02 Apr 2013)

Early morning light - Erskineville Road / Erskineville (*) (Tue 02 Apr 2013)
William Eggleston (*) talks about Colour (*) in his photography:

I wanted to see a lot of things in color because the world is in color. I was affected by it all the time, particularly certain times of the day when the sun made things really starkly stand out.

via 10 Lessons William Eggleston Has Taught Me About Street Photography (*) by Eric Kim (*).

We have another week of daylight saving and the sun is now rising very late. I noticed this when walking to my local coffee shop on the way to work this morning. The light was so soft and even and I guess it is like this every day, just that I am not up early enough to this golden light. I just took this photo to see how it would turn out - I like it. A few minutes later over a coffee and a muffin I read this quote in Eric's wonderful article.

I am now reminded that I have a draft post on my iPad that links to a William Eggleston YouTube video on the red ceiling room that can be seen in Eric's article. I must finish it and post It here at some stage.

On Photography - Labels and Creativity - Alex Coghe (Mon 01 Apr 2013)

Free - George Street / Sydney (Sun 31 Mar 2013)
Alex Coghe (*) writes about creativity (*):

[..] definitions and categories [are] useful for generalizations. Labelling your photography is to clip the wings of creativity (*).

via Borderline (*) by Alex Coghe (*).