Favourite Photos - Erskineville/Sydney June 2004 - Trees and Shadow

Trees and Shadow - Erskineville - Wed 16 Jun 2004 (picasa)
Just a very simple photo I like. Pass here each work day as I walk up Swanston Street to Erskineville Railway Station. In winter, when the trees lose their leaves, they project interesting shadows onto the wall of this Terrace House. The trees are now much bigger and the shadows produced are not quite the same. Have taken many shots of this wall over the years, but I have not been able to get a better shot than this first photo.

Have seen many interesting photos that play with shadows. A tribute article (9 Niv 2002) by Robert McFarlane for the late Ingeborg Tyssen helped me to start looking out for shadows. A quote from the article I liked was:

'Whenever possible I carry a loaded camera ... I react without too much thought. Rarely do I wait for a situation to resolve itself. Nor do I direct or provoke people. The important aspects are composition, texture and light.'

A nice way to look a photography and when I look at my own photographic evolution, I guess I have unknowingly tried to look for at least the same three points - 'composition, texture and light'.

Shortly after Ingeborg Tyssen death in 2002, the Art Gallery of NSW arranged a Memorial Exhibition of some her work. I was really impressed by the simplicity and effectiveness of many of her photos. Indeed, for the most part, it was about 'composition, texture and light'. I also have a copy of her book - Ingeborg Tyssen: Sydney photographs.

The following was one photo, I really enjoyed and was a great 'play' on the use of a shadow ..

Tree#55 (1983) from Tree Series (Ingeborg Tyssen)
Another photo reveals the framing trick employed ..

Tuscon/Arizona - 1982 - see here (Ingeborg Tyssen)
I can't really remember, but I expect these simple shadow photos, helped me to see many shadow photos that I have taken over the years. One humble attempt in 2007 follows:

Tree Shadow - Wilson Street/Newtown - Jul 2007(picasa)
Liked the positioning of the shadow of the tree trunk across the path segment - beautifully aligned for a random photo. Also the top of a real tree apparently growing out of a shadow and the position of the air vent. Nothing great, but I was happy and entered it in the 2007 Sydney Life photo competiion which closed a few days later (of course to no avail :-).

A few more random shadow related photos that I could easily find just now, follow:

Pyrmont Bridge - Darling Harbour/Sydney - Thu 31 Jul 2003 (picasa)

Tree Shadow - Perisher Valley - Tue 6 Jan 2004 (picasa)

Pole Shadows - Wellington/NZ - Tue 5 Nov 2002 (picasa)

Shadow (and Silohuette?) - Circular Quay/Sydney - 8 Dec 2002 (picasa)
I think one thing that has helped me think more about shadows in photography, is the strong Australian sunlight. I have found when travelling in the UK and Europe, the sun does not seem to shine as much and when it does it is not particularly strong, and the shadows don't seem to be as prevelant. In Australia, shadows are hard to avoid, so you need to work with the stronger Australian light or you just avoid taking photos at these times.

In writing this, I have just thought of photos that employ the use of the Silohuette. Will write something about this at a later stage as I have also employed the use of silohuette's in many of my photos over the years and is another aspect of photography I enjoy.

Lastly, a little Shadow Excercise I read about recently (in Paulo Coelho's 'The Pilmgrimage'). Often it is fun when walking around to look at a shadows and try and work out what it is that created the shadow. Most of the time it is reasonably obvious (as in these photos), but sometimes it can be difficult to work it out. Have fun ..

Photos: Sydney Life 2010 (24 Sep 2010)

It's that time of the year where the northern walkway of Sydney's Hyde Park becomes an outdoor gallery for 22 large scale 3x2m canvas printed photographs. The exhibition is now called Sydney Life and is part of the month long Art and About Festival. The exhibition has been held annually since at least 2002 (that is my first recollection at least). Unfortunately, the web site for each years exhibition is overwritten by the coming years exhibition. Would be nice if there was a permanent archive, though I do have the programmes for each years selection.

Collage - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010
On the afternoon of the second day of the exhibition (Fri 24 Sep 2010) I took a wander along the walkway to see what had been selected for this years exhibition. It was not a surprise to see Tamara Dean and Dean Sewell featuring again with another couple of stunning photos.

I always photograph all the photos in position in the Park, and this year I used my iPhone and sent the photos to a folder in my picasa account.

I often think some photos have been selected because they fit so well into the location and the framing each position along the walkway provides. In the morning the photos along the eastern walkway are backlit and in the afternoon the west side photos are backlit.

Lynn Smith's photo of an abandoned Industrial Warehouse seems to be beautifully framed by the branches of the trees in the backgound. They interact with the rafters on the warehouse's roof.

The Judges choice for this year exhibition was Nick May's black and white photo of a Bondi beach scene. They said:

"It was a difficult choice for the judges with many fine photographs to choose from but we were drawn to Nicholas May's timeless and unforgettable image showing Sydney as an almost mythic place of relaxation on Australia Day. It's a sculptural, deeply unsentimental observation of Australians at play and the cultural ambiguities found on Sydney's most famous beach."

Apart from Lynn Smith's photo, I also enjoy James Hill's elevated view of the Five Ways in Paddington using a large format camera. There is a lot going on in the photo and I will go back to look at it in more detail.

Finally, I think Tamara Dean's photo, The Pack, from her Series This Too Shall Pass is a beautifully delicate photo, which is a signature element in many of her photos. Must admit I don't really understand it, but it is beautiful to look at in the afternoon before the sun disappears early behind the city sky line. It really did stand out.

Will take a walk to see what the light does to the photos in the morning.

[Post note: A great article on last year's Sydney Life - Sydney Life, 1 October 2009 - not obvious which photographer it was who put this together. Would like to see the documentary. ]

Proof Sheet - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Nick May - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Geoff Harvey - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

James Hill - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Lynn Smith (flickr) - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Paris Spellson - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Tamara Dean (more) - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Gregory McBean - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Tom Williams - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Steve Christo - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Favourite Photos: Wilson Street Newtown 2003 - Milk Crate Swingers

Wilson Street Swingers (Cropped) - Wilson Street/Newtown - Sat 01 Feb 2003 (picasa)
I had noticed this piece of graffiti for a while and quite liked it - always amazed how a few brushes and rolls of paint can be produce something so evocative (am I allowed to us this word for graffiti). Had my camera one Saturday morning (was well before my paddling days) and took a few photos of this wall and the surrounding area.

A few months later the wall was painted clean and I was reminded of the photo I had taken there. Prompted me to take another look at the photo (titled it 'Gone') which I straightened a little and cropped (see below - I felt the crop removed the distraction of the Garbage Bins, though when I look at it now I think I prefer the raw uncropped version - this often happens with photos with time) and put it up on my fledgling photo.net portfolio here.

Occasionally, I would receive a comment on my uploaded photos and it would take a few months to receive a comment for this particular photo. I was pleased to receive the following comment from Jonathan Walker:

'Oh, I do like this, largely because of the addition of the milk crates, which provide a quirky splash of colour and sense of depth to what would otherwise be a straight record shot. And in Newtown too (home of the quirky)!' jonathan w., December 08, 2003; 02:49 A.M.

Wilson Street Swingers (Full Image) - Wilson Street/Newtown - Sat 01 Feb 2003 (picasa)
The best thing about the Internet is that it connects you with people with similar interests (photography in this case) and you have the opportunity to learn new things very quickly. When I noticed Jonathan (he was a recently arrived English Academic working at the Uni of Sydney), I signed up so that I could see when he made contributions to photo.net. He had some great photos of Venice (not your usual ones, but they definitely appealed to my own way of seeing things) and other places. Most have now been deleted along with the great discussions they generated. I learnt much from his photos and words. There are some fragements of his writings remaining at photo.net.

When we decided that we would visit Venice for 4 days in September 2009 after our Prague Campaign, I decided to track down Jonathan, since he was a Historian with a great knowledge of Venice. Was pleased to find that he had his own blog - jonathanwalkersblog.com. and had republished many of his photos [I am a Pilgrim (more here), Venice, Let Us Burn The Gondalas - this work definitely helped me form my own photographic vision when in Venice in Sep 2009 - see here and here ] and thoughts on photography there. As well he had published a book - Pistols! Treason! Murder! - and is now just about to publish his first novel - Five Wounds.

In part, the purpose of this post and my photo above is to introduce Jonathan. I hope to write a little more about him, particularly when his first Novel Five Wounds is published in May 2010.

Glen Coe, Jenny, Joanne and Dr Horton

After the 2005 World Dragon Boat Championships in Berlin, we travelled around Europe. We each picked a place we would like to go to then we worked out a travel plan to connect the locations in an ordered and logical way. Jenny picked the Cinque Terre, Joanne picked Chamonix, Mum picked Paris, I picked London (always will) and David picked Geneva and Scotland.

So off to Scotland we set - we caught the Train (on the route of the The Flying Scotsman) to Edinburgh from London and then hired a car which we used to travel a little wider a feild. David being a member of the Campbell Clan, was keen to get to the Campbell's ancestral home near Inveraray. On the way we stopped at Fort William which took us through Glen Coe, a place where the local pub has a sign saying "Dogs and Campbell's not Welcome". Glen Coe is the place where the Campbell's befriended the Macdonald's and then after a few weeks, were ordered to massacre the Macdonald's while they slept.

The photos below tell a story. The first one is one of my favourite photos of Jenny and Joanne. The bridge in the background takes you to Glen Coe a little further to the south and east. We had spent the night in Fort William and were up early to head to Inveraray. We stopped here to take some photos. It was low-tide and there was lots to look at along the exposed shoreline. Joanne is pointing out something to Jenny.

Five years later, I am struck by the similarity of the composition between the photo and the cover of Paulo Coelho's book, the "Manual of the Warrior of Light".

Dr Horton was the surgeon who performed Jenny's pleurodesis - a procedure to "glue" the lung to the cavity that holds the lung. This procedure would and did stop the fuild build up in the Pleural cavity. Jenny would spend about a week in hospital to recover and as always we put photos up in her room. One of the photos was the Glen Coe photo with Jenny and Joanne, below. We were stunned when Dr Horton came in and told us that he recognised the location and told us Glen Coe. We were impressed by this, and everything he did for Jenny.

Jenny and Joanne - Glen Coe / Scotland - Sep 2005 (picasa)

Cover of "The Manual of the Warrior of Light"

Jenny, Dr Horton and Joanne - 15 Feb 2007 (picasa)

Jenny - St George Hospital - 'We always made sure there was plenty of photos around - you can see the Glen Coe photo next to the Macau Dragon - Dr Horton easily identified the Glen Coe location.' - Mon 05 Feb 2007 (picasa)

Jenny and Geoff - 'We always made sure there was plenty of photos around' - St George Hospital - Mon 05 Feb 2007 (picasa)

On Going Back - The Passage of Time - Joel Meyerowitz (Sun 09 Aug 2015)

200 Year Timeline (photo.net) - Circular Quay / Sydney (Wed 16 Jul 2003) Sunset in the Sails - Circular Quay / Sydney (Sun 09 Aug 2015)

Joel Meyerowitz on Photography:

it's the going back that counts.

via Ordinary Places by Joel Meyerowitz.

I would have to say Circular Quay is not an ordinary place, based on the throng of tourists and locals down at the Quay yesterday.

It was a magnificent sun soaked winters day afternoon, with thousands of people enjoying the light, space and atmosphere of the nautical gateway to the City, at the footsteps of the Sydney Opera House.

We were in town for a Birthday Lunch for Janice who we lost in April . The lunch at Customs House was spectacular, not only for the view and food, but the company of Janice's immediate family. Janice would have loved it. And that we were all there together, remembering her.

Afterwards, we strolled around the Quay, through The Rocks, under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and back. As we strolled past the Bounty, I was reminded of my 2003 photo above (along with my photo.net post made back then) and made a similar photo as the sunset.

Looking at the scene yesterday and the photos now, what surprised me was that after 12 years, how similar the two scenes were. At the macro level, the Bounty and the Opera House, appear identical, but I am sure when I look closely, there will be micro changes representing maintenance and technological progress that 12 years brings.

With these two photos, also comes the change in my "vision", my cameras (Canon IXUS S100 then and Canon S120 now, and a few in between) and words. As they say, "same same, but different". The difference probably being my experience in photography and life. In many ways, the camara is now an extension of my hand, I know what it sees and it knows what I feel through the resulting photos it exposes and brings to my life and this world. I am constantly and pleasantly surprised by the power of photography and what it reveals to me.

The two photos represent a passage of time in themselves and my implied meaning assigned to the Jul 2003 photo, along with my words at photo.net back then. Together now, the two photos above, represent the passage of 12 years of time in my own life where everything has changed so much.

So pleased we went back and I now have these photos and memories. Without the photos, the motivation to make them and assigning some connection to them, these memories and thoughts would most likley be lost.

As always, thanks Joel Meyerowitz. I never know where a thought and a few well chosen words will take me.

Jo, Patricia, Fabian, David, Pam, Gavin and Geoff - Customs House Forecourt / Circular Quay (Sun 09 Aug 2015)

Smile #5 - Circle Line Ferry / Hudson River / New York (Sat 13 Aug 2011)

Smile #5 - Circle Line Ferry / Hudson River / New York (Sat 13 Aug 2011)


Details #1, #2 (Hands) & #3 - Circle Line Ferry / Hudson River / New York (Sat 13 Aug 2011)
I can clearly remember this day and standing at the front of the Ferry as we travelled south along the Hudson River back towards where we had started our journey almost three hours earlier.

A beautiful summers day, in an amazing City - we had travelled from all parts of the planet to share this experience. Three hours together and then we would part, never to meet again. But I have a feeling the photos we have, unite us all and our feelings and emotions of a shared experience.

I remember these moments so clearly, though I had not really looked closely at these photos (*) since I have been back.

This one is my favourite and it has a lot going on (*), as the tiny details above show. It seems to be have a tenderness and a sense of awe about it - strengthened if looked at as a series of photos (*) which bonds everyone together. I would dearly love to give prints to the people in the photos (I was able to do this once in Shanghai, a story for another day).

I am now reminded of this post (*) and it is in moments like this that I am glad to have had this blog to scratch out my thoughts in words (even if they don't really make too much sense at times) and mostly now through my photos (maybe I am just happy, like the Girl above, just hoping for someone to look at my photos - even if it is just me).

It also makes me realise how lucky I have been to be able to do the things I have done.

Favourite Photos - Newtown 2007 - King Street - 'Communication'

Communication - King Street, Newtown, Sydney - Wed 14 Mar 2007 (picasa)
Second photo from a collection of favourite photos.

I had been to the Dendy Cinema to see a movie a few days earlier and was struck by the light and this scene when I left around 6pm. The late afternoon light in Sydney is beautiful this time of the year - interestingly enough it is almost 3 years ago to the day this photo was taken. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me at this time, so I made a mental note to come back at some stage in the near future - which would turn out to be just a few days later.

On the day this photo was captured, I had taken a half day off work, in the afternoon, so that I could attend one of Jenny's medical appointments at St George Hospital. I was in my car on the way to meet Jenny and Joanne for the appointment when Jenny called to say that the appointment had been cancelled due to unforseen circumstances and that we should meet at Dragon Boat training that night back in the City.

I had a few hours to spare, so I thought I would go back to Newtown and have a coffee at Urban Bites (a favourite haunt for me, but the opposite end of King Street to the Dendy) for a coffee. When I was there I remembered the photo I wanted to take and I realised I had my camera. Decided to take the 10 min walk back to the Dendy to take this photo which had similar lighting to what I had seen a few days earlier.

I guess what I like about this particular photo is the composition. I only took a couple of photos and really did not look at it closely until I downloaded it to my computer. There I could see all the detail - things I really had not noticed when I took it.

I saw all the signs - things telling us what to do (the "No Stopping" and "No Entry" signs [1], "One Way" and parking signs), and the signs that identify things. For instance the Map of Africa and all the countries identified, the graffiti tag and the nice frame around the Map, the number plates that identify the motor bikes and scooters, etc.

A couple of other things I liked were the:

1. Pole Poster where you see the word "Pixels" - the smallest element of each digital photo - you can see it between the "No Entry" Sign and the white pillar (might have to look at the large version to notice).
   
   
2. Person in the centre of the photo - particularly his position and the shadow area of the background he fills as well his position between the foreground shadows. I also love the tattoos on his arms and legs, and the fact that he is communicating with someone using his Mobile Phone. His T-Shirt and bag have some text and logos on them. Also like how the shadow of the Bike Rack just catches his foot - I did get lucky [2] in many ways, as there is no way I could have planned all of this.
   

As you can see, many things can found in a simple photo that is captured in a fraction of a section. It is also interesting how circumstances sometime conspire to allow a photo to be taken.

I entered this photo in the 2007 Sydney Life Competition (unfortunately can't find an archive of the official page though I found a media release here). I always try each year to make an entry to the competition as it is open to all photographers, though it is virtually impossible for non-established photographers to make the final 22-26 images. Will keep trying though :-)

There is another story about this location which will come in another favourite photo at a later date.

[1] I would always say to Jenny a good photo always has a little bit of red in it and this is a theme you will see in many of my photos.

[2] Also would often tell Jenny, there was a lot of luck in taking photos (though like all things involving luck, you often make you own luck) and that if you take enough photos you are bound to end up with a few your like (i.e. keepers).

A Story About a Camera - 2015 Inspire Award Reflections (Fri 27 Aug 2015)

Memories of Jenny - The Time of Your Life (youtube)

This is my 2000th post here at eljeiffel.

I always try to write something for the Annual Presentation of the Inspire Award. Most times it is just for me, but sometimes I share it with a few people. So here it is, unedited from the time it was written on the evening of Fri 27 Aug 2015. I think it is a pretty good way to mark the milestone.

As many will know, I have another obsession in my life - Photography.

I started out buying a small digital camera for our Dec 2000 trip to the Cook Islands to visit Jenny and Jo's Meditation teacher, Barbara, who had moved there to help setup a refuge for women . We didn’t know a thing about paddling back then.

I had bought the camera hoping I would be able to capture our memories. It was a tiny digital camera by today’s standards, 1 Mega Pixel and it cost $1600 duty free and a 64 MB compact flash memory cost more than $300.

I did not flinch and I thought it was all worth it, as my credit card was swiped at Ted’s Camera Store the day before we flew out. 15 years later I can tell you here that it was one of the best things I ever did.

My motivation for the camera came from that fact that Jenny had 11 tumours in her lungs and I did not really know how long we would have together. In the end we had just over 9 years of married life. Given Jenny’s condition, a miracle really ..

We were married on 30th April of that Sydney Olympic year and we honeymooned on Lord Howe Island for 10 glorious days in May 2000. Jenny had a film camera and she took many photos.

On our return flight to Sydney, I remember a conversation we had at the Departure Terminal with an older couple from Whyalla who congratulated us on our marriage. We had briefly met them at dinner at one of the small restaurants on the Island.

They told us they had been married for many years and the trip to Lord Howe Island was a way of creating another experience in life and expanding their memories. Better than [running a busy business or] sitting at home and watching the Telly, they said.

This conversation and piece of simple worldly wisdom has stuck with me and I remind myself of it constantly. It was my main motivation to buy that small expensive digital camera for our December 2000 trip to the Cook Islands.

I took many photos that trip to Cook Islands, even of the Outrigger Canoes in the lagoon at Aitutaka, we had no idea what they were – who would guess our future.

Shortly after our return, Jenny and Jo found Dragon Boating. And over the ensuing years many experiences and memories were created, dutifully captured by our cameras.

I documented the many dragon boat campaigns here and abroad, and ensuing holidays that followed each event.

In the process of this documenting I came to realise the power of photography, not only its visual power, but its ability to record our experiences and remind us of things we have done and who we were. We were doing selfies before the term was even invented. We called them “Holdouts” and I think this might be the main cause of Jo’s shoulder injury.

In those last few weeks at St George Hospital in Jun 2009, I captured the last moments of our lives together. They are the best I ever made.

After Jenny’s passing, It took me a while to pick up a camera again. I had lost my purpose and will. I was hurting and numb all at once but paddled through for a year or two – it helped a lot to be busy and in the company of friends. New experiences were created and I even smiled [for] a little [while].

Lost in the enormity of what had happened so quickly, though it was not a surprise, I found my first moments of comfort and hope, when I decided to start looking at some of the photos from our lives together. It made me cry, but it also made me smile. I was so happy that I had this archive of bits and bytes to remind me of Jenny, Joanne, myself and who we were.

It was only after Jo told me to organise my photos and my Mum said I should start making photos again, that I started to move forward. I was completely broken but I took up their advice and kept myself busy again, organising and photographing again. I am still broken but I live with it better now, it is part of me and who I will always be, but I am happy, optimistic, naïve and creating more experiences.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that we have to go out there and make our memories through the experiences we create for ourselves. And this is what I love about PD’s, we are always out there doing something. This time last year we were in Bologna on our way to Ravena, this year we are heading to Hawaii in the next week and month, next year Adelaide and who knows where after that.

Finally, in our lives we have loss, grief and bereavement. It is a part of living. You make a choice when it knocks on your door. And we have chosen to live in the Afterglow of our loss of Jenny – to remember and honour and be guided and inspired. Accept it and live with it and make the most of it, even let it inspire and motivate you. And that is what Jo and I have done, I would like to think.

“Believe in Hope” as the graffiti’ed wall in Cleveland Street said for a few weeks in July 2015.

Believe in Hope - Cleveland Street / Chippendale (Wed 29 Jul 2015)

With this post it is time to let go of a lot things, including the photos of another time and life. I have shed my life here (and Facebook more recently) like a snake sheds it skin and there is nothing left but to start over again. Time to move on, but it is hard to let go .. but I will.

Trying to make a new start here (arotlt.com) with photos from this point onwards. There will be the occasional post at eljeiffel to mark the odd moment in our lives that are relevant, but for now thanks for coming along for the ride these last, almost, 7 years.

symbolically the black rose suggests death, or the completion of a long journey (Trent Parke’s moving Black Rose photo exhibition at Art Gallery of SA ) - Black Rose / Fitzroy Street / Newtown (Sun 29 Nov 2015)

The Time of Your Life ..

Memories of Jenny - The Time of Your Life (youtube)

As many of you will know, I have another obsession in my life beyond paddling - Photography.

I started out buying a small digital camera for our Dec 2000 trip to the Cook Islands to visit Jenny and Jo's Meditation teacher, Barbara, who had moved there to help setup a refuge for women . We didn’t know a thing about paddling back then.

I had bought the camera hoping I would be able to capture our memories. It was a tiny digital camera by today’s standards, 1 Mega Pixel and it cost $1600 duty free and a 64 MB compact flash memory cost more than $300.

I did not flinch and I thought it was all worth it, as my credit card was swiped at Ted’s Pitt Street Camera Store the day before we flew out. 15 years later I can tell you here that it was one of the best things I ever did.

My motivation for the camera came from that fact that Jenny had 11 tumours in her lungs and I did not really know how long we would have together. In the end we had just over 9 years of married life. Given Jenny’s condition, a miracle really ..

We were married on 30th April of that Sydney Olympic year and we honeymooned on Lord Howe Island for 10 glorious days in May 2000. Jenny had a film camera and she took many photos.

On our return flight to Sydney, I remember a conversation we had at the Departure Terminal with an older couple from Whyalla who congratulated us on our marriage. We had briefly met them at dinner at one of the small restaurants on the Island.

They told us they had been married for many years and the trip to Lord Howe Island was a way of creating another experience in life and expanding their memories. Better than [running a busy business or] sitting at home and watching the Telly, they said.

This conversation and piece of simple worldly wisdom has stuck with me and I remind myself of it constantly. It was my main motivation to buy that small expensive digital camera for our December 2000 trip to the Cook Islands.

I took many photos that trip to Cook Islands, even of the Outrigger Canoes on the shore of Muri Lagoon - we had no idea what they were – who would guess our future.

Shortly after our return, Jenny and Jo found Dragon Boating. And over the ensuing years many experiences and memories were created, dutifully captured by our cameras.

I documented the many dragon boat campaigns here and abroad, and ensuing holidays that followed each event.

In the process of this documenting I came to realise the power of photography, not only its visual power, but its ability to record our experiences and remind us of things we have done and who we were. We were doing selfies before the term was even invented. We called them “Holdouts” and I think this might be the main cause of Jo’s shoulder injury.

In those last few weeks at St George Hospital in Jun 2009, I captured the last moments of our lives together. They are the best I ever made.

After Jenny’s passing, It took me a while to pick up a camera again. I had lost my purpose and will. I was hurting and numb all at once but paddled through for a year or two – it helped a lot to be busy and in the company of friends. New experiences were created and I even smiled [for] a little [while].

Lost in the enormity of what had happened so quickly, though it was not a surprise, I found my first moments of comfort and hope, when I decided to start looking at some of the photos from our lives together. It made me cry, but it also made me smile. I was so happy that I had this archive of bits and bytes to remind me of Jenny, Joanne, myself and who we were.

It was only after Jo told me to organise my photos and my Mum said I should start making photos again, that I started to move forward. I was completely broken but I took up their advice and kept myself busy again, organising and photographing again. I am still broken but I live with it better now, it is part of me and who I will always be, but I am happy, optimistic, naïve and creating more experiences.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that we have to go out there and make our memories through the experiences we create for ourselves.

In our lives we have loss, grief and bereavement. It is a part of living. You make a choice when it knocks on your door. And we have chosen to live in the Afterglow of our loss of Jenny – to remember and honour and be guided and inspired. Accept it and live with it and make the most of it, even let it inspire and motivate you. And that is what Jo and I have done, I would like to think.

“Believe in Hope” as the graffiti’ed wall in Cleveland Street said for a few weeks in July 2015.

Believe in Hope - Cleveland Street / Chippendale (Wed 29 Jul 2015)

Seven year ago today.

We remember Jenny. She (as they all do) lives on through our memories.

Contact Sheets (picasa) - New York City - Lower East (Wed 17 Aug 2011)

Picasa Contact Sheets (1 of 6) - East Village / Brooklyn (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
Picasa Contact Sheets (2 of 6) - East Village / Brooklyn (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
Picasa Contact Sheets (3 of 5) - East Village / Brooklyn (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
Picasa Contact Sheets (4 of 6) - East Village / Brooklyn (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
Picasa Contact Sheets (5 of 6) - East Village / Brooklyn (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
Picasa Contact Sheets (6 of 6) - East Village / Brooklyn (Wed 17 Aug 2011)

187 Photos - all in an afternoons wanderings.

Contact Sheets of the photos I took on the afternoon of Wed 17 Aug 2011.

Later that evening after walking across the Brooklyn Bridge (*) for the second time, I remember sitting on a train on the subway on my way from the Bridge to 80th Street on the west side of Central Park. I just sat quietly on my seat and decided to review my photos on the back of the camera in slideshow mode. I was tired from a long day wandering around and I went into a daze and a kind of trance as the subway stations passed by and the photos scrolled by on the rear screen on the back of my little Canon S95.

At one of the subway stops well up the line, the young lady sitting next to me, as she got up to exit the train, touched me on the forearm and said they are really nice photos. I was touched (*) by the compliment and said thanks. Such a small gesture from a stranger so far away from home - put a smile on my face and inflated my confidence (*). Probably one of the nicest moments on the whole trip.

Favourite Photos - How much beauty in decay! - Hyde Park/Sydney - Dec 2001

Leaf - How much beauty in decay! - Hyde Park/Sydney - Wed 27 Dec 2001 (picasa)
A photo I took after work during the Christmas New Year period of 2001. Fires were burning all round Sydney and the sky was covered in smoke which resulted in a strange orange colour which can be seen in this photo. At the time I was reading much about photography and various photographers. This particular photo was inspired by Eliot Porter.

Eliot Porter was a photographer I found early on in my photography journey and self-education. It was easy to appreciate his work (google). He was a pioneer of colour photography (more here) and his life work was bequested to the Amon Carter Museum in 1990 shortly before he died (NYT Orbituary).

Not sure how I found him, but his name seems to appear whenever landscape photographers start talking about Colour Landscape Photography when compared to Black and White Landscape Photography, particularly that of Ansel Adams (looking at the size of the wikipedia entries, it is easy to see who was more popular both as a photographer and selection of photographic technique).

Found some interesting information about him searching the web (google). Also, found some of his books (along with those of Australia's own Peter Dombrovskis) in the National Library of Australia and would often take a look at them in NLA's reading rooms when in Canberra. Many of his photos resonated with my own vision and definitely influenced me when taking landscape (even streetscape and travel) photos, particularly in the Snow Mountains.

At the UNSW I found the book Eliot Porter: photographs and text (a great article) by Eliot Porter. Learnt a lot from the text and photos selected for the book. The following is a quote (see my photo.net page) from the book, which helped form my photographic vision ..

"It is the beauty of nature that I try to represent by photography. What this expression means to most people, I am quite sure, is such features as flowers of spring, autumn foliage, mountain landscapes, and many other similar aspects about aesthetic qualities of which no one would care to offer contradiction. That they are beautiful is indisputable, but they are not all that is beautiful about nature; in fact they are only the obvious and superficial aspects of nature - which anyone may observe with half and eye. They are the peaks and summits of nature's greatest displays. There is no doubt about their importance; they could not be dispensed with. Underlying and supporting these brillant displays are slow, quiet processes that pass almost unnoticed from season to season, unnoticed by those that think that beauty in natures is all its gaudy displays.

Much is missed if we have eyes only for the bright colors. Nature should be viewed without distinction. All her processes and evolutions are beautiful or ugly to the unbiased and indiscriminating observer. She makes no choice herself; everything that happens has equal significance. Nothing can dispensed with. This is a common mistake that many people make; they think that half of nature can be destroyed - the uncomfortable half - while still retaining the acceptable and the pleasing side; their idea is a paradise where nature stands still. Withering flowers blooming, death follows growth, decay follows death, and life follows decay - in a wonderful, complicated, endless web the beauties of which are manifest to a point of view attached to vulgar restricting concepts of what constitutes beauty in nature. Thoreau, who observerd all aspects of nature throughout his life, repeatedly remarked on the beauty of the unaccepted. 'How much beauty in decay!' he exclaimed on examining a worm-eaten leaf. To him the sere, brown leaves of winter were as beautiful as the fresh green of spring. This was a principle that has remained important for me throughout my career."

A fairly long quote, but for me was definitely something worth remembering.

This link provides a great summary of the life and works of Eliot Porter. I like the ending quote ..

The final paragraphs on the art of photography touch on his views to color, composition and emotional content of his images:

"Sensitivity cannot be faked by trickor devise; it has no substitute, and any attempt to replace it with mechancial contrivances is certain to be apparent to the more discerning critics. Not all photographs have to be inspired to be worth making, but the best, rare photographs are the result of a a force at least very close to inspiration. Formulized work becomes impersonal, an all the individuality of authorship tends to disappear. It unquestionably has its uses, but it is not art."

The book itself echoes Porter's ability to redact nature's chaos into a single harmonious image, and is a well-deserved tribute to this pioneer of color nature photography.

The following was one of my favourite Eliot Porter photos:

Pool in a Brook, Brook Pond/New Hampshire by Eliot Porter - 04 Oct 1953 (Carter Museum)
I recently thought of Eliot Porter and the above photo, when I took the following photo during the 2010 Ord River Marathon:

Ord River Reflections - 2010 Ord River Marathon - Sun 14 Jun 2010