On Our Own with Scallop Pies

I'm sure the three people that read this blog are a little weary of hearing me gush about Eleanor. How fortunate then that this post is about our trip to Tasmania, sans progeny courtesy of two very generous and loving grandparents. We have just spent a whole week away from our daughter and have had a great time exploring the southern region of the apple isle, sampling pretty much every gastronomic delight we came across.

We found a lovely self contained apartment on airbnb which just a walk away from Salamanca and Battery Point. The place was newly renovated, comfortably furnished and boasted a spectacular view of the water and their garden. Our hosts were great and helpfully pointed us in the direction of nearby spots of interest, particularly those of the culinary kind.

On our first day out with the car (which I thankfully didn't crash this trip) we drove down to Bruny Island to embark on a boat cruise south to see the magnificent rock formations and local wild life. Some of the sea caves that we saw on the tour were amazing though I think the trademark moment that the guides prepare for is a "thread the needle" manoeuvre between Monument Rock and the cliff side. Kinda impressive what you can do with four jet motors on a small boat.

Aside from interesting geology we were also treated to a close up view of a seal colony. The stench downwind was eye watering though we were told to consider ourselves fortunate that we weren't facing a group during mating season. Apparently that bouquet can be smelled for miles and miles, which is apparently also an attraction for sharks.

The other highlight of the tour was when the guides dropped a submarine mounted camera into the water to show us some of the fish under the boat. It was one of the calmest days of the year so the water was pristine and clear. We were expecting Tasmania to be fairly cold but the day we were on Bruny was actually the hottest of our stay at 30 degrees, so I think more than a few people were tempted to dive in and swim in the sea. 

Our second day of driving had us heading north towards the little town of Ross, which is just south of Launceston. It was a great road to drive on with large dry plains on either side, which was quite different landscape to what we saw on Bruny Island the previous day. On the way we stopped in at Oatlands and checked out the Callington Mill, which if I remember the brochure correctly is one of the oldest working stone mills in the southern hemisphere. Not being a baker myself I can't speak for the flour that is produced but the sourdough loaf we bought from the bakery next to it was certainly yummy.

I must confess that our drive up to Ross wasn't entirely for the scenery. I can't quite remember where I heard about it initially, but I've been fascinated by the Tasmanian scallop pie for many years. Assuming that my love for baked crust and mollusks would be an easy and delicious match, I was quite insistent that we find a specimen of this seafood pastry during our holiday. Ross just happened to be the home of the Tasmanian Scallop Pie Company, so we thought it would be a fairly safe place to find a decent representation of the dish.

In fact, through the course of one week I ended up eating no less than five scallop pies from various bakeries and restaurants. This included both curried as well as creamy varieties and while I enjoyed all of them, there was only one venue where I had to go back for seconds. Let's just say that the drive to Ross was worth it.

Which is great news, because ironically it's now that I'm back in Brisbane doing research for this blog post that I've discovered that the Tasmanian Scallop Pie Company has retail outlets across the country. In fact the city with the most retail outlets is... Brisbane. Go figure.

The other exciting discovery we made was buying two wheels from the Bruny Island Cheese Company. We ended up eating them both for dinner at the apartment one night, along with Tasmanian smoked salmon, salami, apples from a farm that we passed and that sourdough we bought at the bakery in Oatland. Both cheeses were fantastic washed rinds and I thought they were quite different from what we usually pick up at cheeseries. The vine leaf wrapped Oen on the right is quite popular and had a lot of flavour, while the smaller wheel on the left was a sheep and cow milk blend that had a slightly more subtle body to it. Absolutely delicious and horrendously smelly.

Third day on the road was a long and windy drive through the Huon valley, south west of Hobart. Didn't see as many interesting stops to eat at early in the morning but that was alright as we were rushing to get to the Tahune air walk. It would have been hard to come back from Tasmania without at least doing one hike through the wonderful nature trails on offer. This wasn't exactly a rugged trek by any means but we did have fun walking below and above the giant trees in the forest.

The drive and trek didn't actually take as long as we thought it would so we ended up exploring a little more of the Huon area by heading south to the charming town of Cygnet. Lots of art galleries but we were most impressed by the Red Velvet Lounge where we stopped for lunch. By far the best food we had seen that day and very friendly waiters.

After stuffing ourselves silly on the hand cut fries and ox tongue sandwiches we drove along the coast to Peppermint Bay, stopping to pick some wild blackberries from the side of the road. Seems like we came to Tasmania at the wrong season for fruit picking and all of the cherry farms were closed so it was nice to have a chance to experience a little foraging.

We couldn't dally long however as we were in a rush to get back to Hobart and try our luck on a Friday night at Garagistes, a small and popular restaurant that doesn't take bookings. Due to us arriving minutes after the doors were opened we managed to score a table and had a fantastic meal there. We knew that the food would be special and we both noted with approval that they had a collection of Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine on their book shelf. The dishes certainly didn't disappoint.

In fact we had quite a few nice dinners out in Hobart, most of which were selected through Urbanspoon recommendations. The other standout that we would heartily recommend that people try is Ethos. Excellent food that has been sourced from local producers and cooked in a simple and honest manner. A great contrast to Garagistes with their more modernist slant.

The next day of driving involved heading east towards Port Arthur and the Tasman peninsula. On the way we dropped into Barilla Bay to get a platter of oysters. Sure do like seafood in Tasmania.

The drive down to Port Arthur was a little gloomier than the previous days on account of the rain. It was drizzling fairly heavily by the time we got to the Port Arthur entrance and it was a little later in the afternoon than we thought so we decided to forgo the convict trail for a few more stops along the coast line. Glad we did as there were some gorgeous rock formations that we could see from lookouts. This was the "Devil's Kithen", a large sea cave where the ceiling had collapsed to reveal an archway to the sea.

On our final day of driving we set out to the north west up the Derwent river to see how far we could get. Maybe it was just fatigue from driving or a lack of interesting things to see around that side but we stopped at the Salmon Ponds to have a quick look around before driving back towards the city.

We weren't sure if we would make it into MONA (the museum of old and new art) but since we didn't have much else on our itinerary for the afternoon we decided to pay the entrance fee and check it out. I wasn't sure what I'd think of the material given that some of the exhibits were quite alternative, though in the end I had a really good time. Shame that the layout of the building is deliberately disorienting which didn't sit well with Alison and the iPhone handouts they distributed didn't work half the time. I found quite a few of the collections to be very interesting if somewhat confrontational, though I must admit that the number of orifices was actually lower than what I expected.

After MONA we opted for one last driving adventure and took the rental car up to the lookout on Mount Wellington. Due to the cloud there wasn't a lot that we could see (understatement of the year) but at least we can say that we've been there.

So after all that we're back here in Brisbane again. Alison is up in Toowoomba tonight and will be bringing Eleanor home tomorrow so that I can be a Daddy again. It was nice to have a week as a couple but nothing quite beats having our little family back together.

Half a Year Later

Yes, we're those parents. Any milestone no matter how small should be celebrated, if only to provide an excuse for tea and cake in the park. No, Nelly did not partake in her half-birthday cake. We thought we'd give the poor girl a few more months (hopefully years) before subjecting her to the same high fat, high volume diet that her parents seem so fond of.

First stop in the morning was to get a quartet of icing encrusted morsels from the Cupcake Parlour. Then we drove down the road to Orleigh Park to find a lovely spot under a tree for some morning tea. Nelly was so well behaved and happily gave us lots of smiles for the camera.

As an aside, I've recently upgraded all our iOS devices to the latest version of iOS5 which, amongst many great new features, includes iCloud. Can I just say that having Photo Stream is an absolute life changer now that I don't need to synchronise four devices manually after taking few (ok, perhaps more than a few) photos. You can see my personal picks on the album here.

Eating the cupcakes fresh this time made a world of difference. These were super moist and had great flavour. I ordered the Turkish Delight along with the Marbelous (which is the one with a Guylian chocolate on the top). Alison had the Fairy Floss and Very Cherry (with the Cherry Ripe). Eleanor seemed interested in sampling the sweets but we convinced her that a bottle of milk and blended beans, carrots and sweet potato would be just as good. Kids are so gullible.

It's amazing how much she's changed over the last six months (as I said, we're those parents). Just over the last few weeks since Canberra have allowed Eleanor to improve her upper body strength when pushing herself up on her tummy. She's also interacting a lot more with us vocally, which is unbelievably rewarding. I had actually thought that she was going to be a laconic lass with very little sign of joviality, but I've been pleased to see her develop a musical laugh and happy squeal that melts my heart every time I hear it.

Happy six months Eleanor Chua. Your mummy and daddy love you very much.

Anniversaries and Solids

We haven't been up to Toowoomba together in a while to see the family, so Mary and Peter's 60th wedding anniversary was a great chance to catch up with everyone. All the Snow cousins have just grown up so much since the last time we saw them at Christmas. I'm starting to develop a bit of a height complex from having to look up at all the kids, who haven't even finished growing.

I haven't used my camera to take photos of anyone aside from close ups of Eleanor for such a long time, it was refreshing to have the opportunity to take candids and group photos on the day. I love taking photos of Alison's grandparents not just because they tolerate me clicking away constantly, but also because they are really great to photograph. Mary and Peter are such beautiful people and I don't feel like I have to work especially hard to get an interesting photo out of them.

With so many other shutterbugs there it was also a great chance to get a family photo of the three of us. Uncle David was happy to oblige. Shame that Eleanor felt a little too tired to accommodate by this point.

Even though I tried to focus on the Snows on the day, I still found my view finding gravitating towards our beautiful daughter. She was looking pretty cute on the day so I just couldn't resist taking the occasional shot.

It was a really fun day for everyone. The rest of the photos in the album can be seen here.

Nelly's been busy with more than just modeling patiently for her dad. Mobility isn't quite there but she's advanced to rolling onto her back occasionally, a milestone that was very exciting for her parents.

Then there's the topic of nutrition. Books and doctors seem to differ in opinion on when parents should be introducing solid food to their babies, varying from three to six months of age for the first spoonful. Of course solid is a relative term as the consistency of the rice cereal doesn't appear to be that different from the milk that Eleanor devours daily. Common advice suggests that once your baby is old enough to have proper head control and begins to show interest in the food that you are eating then it's a good time to start them on the mushy stuff. Consistent and reliable head control has been a recent development in the last month, but I'd comfortably say that our little one has been fixated on our meals since her first few weeks in the world. Certainly one clear indication that she's my daughter.

Now that Eleanor is a little over four months old, her doctor has given us the green light to start broadening her diet. Today we successfully shoveled two meals of cereal into the little one and got most of it to stay down. The first few mouthfuls were strange but by the end of the first bowl she got the hang of things.

We'll have to see how she goes over the next few days before adding more interesting food groups to the mix, but early signs suggest that she's going to be a tolerant if messy eater. By the time she's six months we expect to have her trying everything that she'd eat as an adult (aside from honey as that apparently can cause botulism in the first year), including the usual scary items like peanuts, seafood, wheat and other potential allergy inducing food stuffs. Looking forward to adding dad's favourite sea urchin roe to her porridge.

Fingers are Fascinating

Eleanor is growing up so quickly. The pile of clothes that she can't fit into any more is getting bigger which means lots of sorting into stuff to keep for the "next one" or to pass on to other expecting parents. On the plus side, this also means that the choice of clothes available for daily wear is changing over time. We've now entered a size window with a few garments we love, including this gorgeous rainbow hoodie that was given to us by Nelly's aunty Dora. We dress her in this every chance we get.



Speaking of aunty Dora, we got some pretty exciting news this week from the family in Singapore. On Tuesday afternoon on the 19th of July 2011, we were blessed with a nephew (and Eleanor a cousin) when James and Dora welcomed Thomas Liley into the world. Mum and bub are healthy and are now home and being looked after. One set of grandparents already flew over with another pair to join them by the end of next week, but thanks to the wonders of technology we have all been enjoying photos and video calls with the new family. Young Thomas is a beautiful baby and we're sure that he and Eleanor will soon become the best of friends.

Nelly has also hit a few development milestones in the past few weeks. One of which is a growing fixation on her digits. It's become commonplace for her hands to be covered in slobber as she tries to decide if the left or right one has superior flavour. It makes her happy and it makes for some cute photos so we permit it for now.



It can however be a little annoying when you're trying to take some nicer photos of her that don't all involve shovelling fists into her face. Even when they are out of her mouth the hands aren't very far away. My other theory of this seemingly defensive posture is that she's attempting to prevent us from applying moisturiser to her face. The doctors gave us a few things to deal with her eczema so we are now following a strict regiment of QV cream through the day and judicial use of cortisone in affected areas. This was a prescription that Eleanor was less than pleased with and she reminds us of that at each opportunity. Can't argue with results however, her skin is starting to look a lot healthier.



We spent some time this afternoon going through another photo shoot, which you can check out here. Bit of an alternative chick look this time to celebrate our girl hitting 14 weeks. It's actually hard for me to believe that she'll get bigger than this. Wish we could keep her like this forever.

Photos at 2 Months

Been busy working with photos over the last month. Guess it's pretty obvious that the main subject would be little Eleanor for most of these, though in truth I'm surprised and a little embarrassed that I haven't taken more photos. She's 9 weeks old today and growing up so quickly. Thankfully she's developed a routine and is starting to sleep through the night and isn't as bothered by the small things like changing clothes and diapers.

Capturing the little bub on camera was a challenge until a week ago when she started to develop something resembling posture to allow assisted posing. It's difficult to think too much about composition when you're trying to photograph a baby with the rigidity of a blob of jelly (incidentally one of her nick names).



First photo project we had to put together was for our thank you cards that we sent out. I smashed something together in iPhoto and got them printed out on card which worked out rather well. The selected photos are titled "Zsa Zsa darling", "Downward Facing Dog" and "The Fonz" in clockwise order from the left.



Another photo project that I've been working on in iPhoto for a few months now (in secret) was to put together our wedding album. Alison has been on my case for years since the wedding for not allowing the photographer to put an album together for us (as I thought I could do a better job naturally). It took a while but I got my act together and compiled what I think is a pretty nice book for us to keep and sent it off to Apple to print. Aside from the great quality of the book, it was also nice to see Alison's confusion and concern when she saw the Apple logo on the box.



The book includes photos all the way from the start of the proposal in Sydney to the end of the honeymoon. Compiling this took over three months of subterfuge and secrecy so it was nice to finally give this to Alison.



As for Nelly, we were heading out to meet some friends for lunch today and decided to dress the little one up. She looked so cute in her outfit that we just couldn't resist grabbing the camera for an impromptu photo shoot. Alison worked hard to distract the baby while I took as many shots as I could. We even tried to be creative with some props. Here's Nelly having a great time with her friends (who were very compliant I must say)



Not all the photos turned out as well as I'd hoped, sometimes because of the angles and some unflattering cradle cap that I had to crop out. Played with cropping up close with this shot and desaturated for what I think is a haunting yet surprisingly arresting effect. If I weren't so lazy I'd try and photoshop my reflection from her eyes.



My favourite photo amongst what I believed to be the keepers was this one. She didn't really smile but I love that she's staring right at the camera and looks so adorable. Daddy bias may affect my objectivity of course.



You can view the rest of the photos from the shoot on Facebook here

A Flurry of Activity

Not sure how I missed writing a post last week, but now I have a heap of banal events to regurgitate. So let's get cooking!

To kick off, a little background news. Andrew's been working on getting into fast world of boob jobs and facial reconstructions for a while now, no doubt with the intention to earn a metric f$@k load of moolah to pay for that Maserati he's been eyeing. Not that we'd expect anything less from our boy genius, but he's been offered a plastics rotation in the magical far off land of Adelaide, and while we couldn't be happier for him it does mean that our steadfast Brisbane comrades will be packing up their dog to leave us for the time being. Such bittersweetness.

Anyways, the reason for the exposition is to provide some context around our latest visit to their lovely home with camera gear in tow. I was "commissioned", if an amateur shutterbug could be bold enough to use the term, to take some snaps of their abode for the impending rental listing. All faults represented belong to the photographer rather than the subject of course.



It was a rather cloudy day so I really wish I had a proper flash gun and slaves to light the rooms and outside properly. I've always worked with natural light up till now but I'm starting to think I should be investing in gear that will allow me to control my lighting environment better. There's only so much that my meagre photoshop skills can fix in post processing after all. I found balancing exposure of the warm indoor lights with the cool light of an overcast day to be especially challenging.

As for our own house, things have progressed quite nicely in the last fortnight. In fact, as of today we are officially out of the realm of work that needs to be done by tradies (w00t no more dirty shoe prints on our floors!). The sink we've been waiting for has finally turned up so the plumber came back to finish off the downpipes, toilet and sinks. An added bonus was that he stirred up the pipes when installing the hot water regulator, which has dislodged a large collection of rust and almost doubled our water pressure. Still getting used to the idea of being able to use more than one tap at a time.



The painters also got started last week and have done a great job of matching the colours. All the joins, nail holes and splinters from the builders have been fixed so the final result looks stunning. Amazing what a fresh coat of paint does to a place.



Unfortunately we'll still have to get up on the ladder to do the touchups for the patio and car port rafters ourselves. Something that I'm saving for the Christmas break. The rest of the work is up to us anyway so roll 'em sleeves up and prepare to get dirty.

To cover a large expanse of bare concrete in front of the deck, Alison and I ordered this rather nifty outdoor rug from America. It's made of 95% recycled plastic, presumably from soft drink bottles according to the manufacturer, and can be hosed off with gay abandon. I normally wouldn't be one to choose such a garish pattern, but Alison was rather smitten with the design so I relented. Bollywood it may be but it's still preferable to the dull harsh grey of slab. The rest of the patio will be selectively concealed by supple furniture to drape ourselves over on warm summer days.



Rusty has also become an outdoors dog, adding his charming hues to the mix. I'm not entirely convinced if that's going to be his permanent post but it'll do for now until the vegie patch comes along. It's nice to be greeted by a friendly face as you walk around the side of the house.



John and Sheena came down on the weekend for another working bee, this time with the aim to lay some pavers around the side. We ended up building a path from the back of the patio to the clothes line as I was rather keen to have a line in place to mark we will need to turf. I toyed with the idea of paving the whole area under the clothes line, but I think John and Alison's idea of using mulch will prove to be far more maintainable.

Through this whole DIY building process, I'm either going to bulk up muscles I've long since forgotten or break my back in two. Depends on my bone density and whether my suffering spinal column decides to give out first I guess. Boy were those bloody pavers heavy, and we even got the smaller ones which should have been easier to install. It looks like a small path, but we still had to lug over a tonne (that's not hyperbole by the way) of bedding sand and 44 of these 400x400 pavers around the back of the house.



Placing the pavers was slow going initially, but the time we took seemed to diminish in proportion to our increasing aptitude, or perhaps we became less stringent with each merciless wave of lethargy. By the end of it we were slamming the bastards down just to finish before it started to rain. One hopes that traffic will settle some of the more wobbly pieces at the end.

The garden has received a bit more attention from us as well, and we're proud to announce that the front yard is finally complete! Next to the carport we've planted a line of Murrayas and scattered about nine bags of heavy chip bark to tidy things and dissuade weeds from joining the party. Hopefully this will grow into a reasonable hedge in a few years.



The last small garden bed next to the path was a little tricky to plant due to the severe slope. Given that it was so close to the concrete I didn't want to put in anything with invasive roots, but it had to get enough height eventually to peek over the crest. In the end we've opted for a trio of Gardenias at the back of the bank, with a skirt of blue Agapanthus to compliment the cream flowers. It'll take a lot more water than some of the other plants but at least it's right next to the tap.



So work continues. Christmas is just around the corner and then we'll get cracking into some of the beds and jobs around the back of the house. I'm especially looking forward to putting in our line of ornamental gingers so that our patio area can get some greenery. It's been ironic that all our hard work thus far has been for the area of the house that we hardly use. Still, it's certainly nice to be able to drive in to this.



Apologies for the vertigo inducing panorama. No, we don't have a magic front gate that wraps around itself.

Cinematic Steamboat

The flu (porcine or otherwise) has been raging across Brisbane over the past few weeks. You couldn't walk down the corridor at work without passing a battery of coughs and sniffs, so I guess it was just a matter of time before I succumbed to the virus. Knocked me out for the count for four days last week which was a worry as I'd been looking forward to a steamboat lunch we'd organised for Sunday. Copious handfuls of paracetemol and multi-vitamins thankfully allowed me to recover in time for a shop, house clean and food prep before the guests arrived.

We were playing hosts to old steamboat buddies Kath and Andrew, as well as introducing Nat and Naomi to the experience so I thought I'd capture the event for posterity. It was really just an excuse to try out the video camera properly on the iPhone 3GS and I must say that I'm quite happy with the results. Cobbled this little clip together in iMovie while Alison was out at choir practice.



Had lots of fun doing it so I might try my hand at more videos in the future just to bump up that flagging YouTube account.

Edit: Grrr... seems like YouTube have a cruddy watermark on embedded movie clips which obscures the text in my video. Click here to watch the clip on the main YouTube site.

Stanthorpe and Home

Our disappointment with the drive to Scone was soon forgotten when we hit the road north to Stanthorpe. Unsightly power lines and dull town strips gave way once more to rolling plains and golden poplars swaying in the breeze, an amber hued autumn sun streaming rays through defoliaged branches. The gorgeous light and high plains we sped through brought back memories of our last drive in New Zealand, which was a treat as I found photo opportunities over every crest. The great distance that had to be covered in a day restricted shutterbug stops unfortunately, but I tried to use every rest break to take a few snaps.



We knew that travelling on ANZAC day would limit our choices for lunch as most businesses would be closed. What we weren’t prepared for was how hard it would actually be to find any sort of food. Stopping about 150K out of Stanthorpe in Glen Innes, I had my first Australian random breath test and introduced Alison to her first meal at an RSL, one of the few places in town actually open. Dining next to servicemen was a nice feeling given the significance of the day.

Reaching Stanthorpe we could immediately tell that the area showed great promise. Fruit and related produce were evidently the city’s claim to fame, though we arrived a little too late in the day to actually check out any stores that may have been trading. Keen to explore as much of the area in our short time frame, we pulled into the local information centre and picked up a map and a handful of brochures. Geography was not quite as kind as the Hunter this time and we found that many interesting spots would be too far out of our way on our return journey. There would however be a market on the next day, which could give us a taste of things to come should we decide to return in the future.

After making a quick reservation at a nearby restaurant and dumping our bags at another motor inn, seemingly devoid of green hopping creatures this time, we decided to take a walk in the park. Alsie suggested that one might be able to punt on the creek running through town, though I’d imagine the foot bridges would prove to be an obstacle to any who actually tried. Shame as the park was utterly charming, scattered with couples holding hands and laughing children braving the water to rescue a soccer ball in distress. Alison found an empty swing that begged to be put to use and happily obliged.



The cold weather put us in the mood for some hearty pasta so we were thrilled to discover an Italian restaurant that was not only open, but put on an all-you-can-eat buffet on weekends. Anna’s turned out to be just the ticket for us as we were content with quantity, even if the quality was somewhat lower than expected. There were numerous awards on display at the entrance though a more astute diner would have noticed that the accolades were at least eight years old. The food was certainly edible and a large selection of sweets, especially the cannoli, were most welcome.

Our Market in the Mountains experience the next day turned out to be a little underwhelming. Not entirely sure what we expected to find there but there just seemed to be a lack of atmosphere among the stalls. We did walk away with two pots of agapanthus for our garden and yet more cannoli from a nice lady so I suppose it wasn’t a complete waste of time. With nothing left to keep us in Stanthorpe, we continued north with a quick stop over at Sutton’s cidery to pick up a bottle of cider and some apple juice.

Before long we were back in Oxley and unpacking a car full of holiday purchases. We’d have loved to continue life on the road indefinitely but our emaciated bank accounts and expanding waist lines meant that good times would have to come to an end for now. Besides, after a week on the road covering 2864.2 kilometres and $279 at the bowser, it’s good to be home. That said, it’s a good thing that we have tomorrow off to get used to the idea of returning to work. Kudos to Alsie for planning such a wonderful holiday.

My "art" spreads to the iPhone

For a change, here's something that's not house related. I was asked a while back to contribute one of my food snaps to Schmap, an online guide that wanted something that represented Chinese New Year in Brisbane. Apparently they've just jumped on the Apple bandwagon and released a new iPhone application to view their guide online, and were kind enough to send me a link to see what it looks like.

Pretty nifty... now if only I had an iPhone to check it out for real. ;)

Brisbane Guide

Yay! I've had the good fortune of having one of my photos included in an online Brisbane guide. It's for an article on Chinese New Year and you can see it here. It's of a snapshot of Alison's red layer cake that we made for CNY this year.



Not really the best photo in my opinion but what the hey. No I won't be rolling in royalties from this sadly.

Photos... just not of the Honeymoon

Surprise surprise, the photos from the NZ trip aren't quite finished yet. I did make an effort but there are still about 200 snaps that need to be augmented before they can withstand public scrutiny. I realise it's been a gajillion years since I've posted anything of interest so here are the professional wedding photos we got from Deazeley's.



Hope you enjoyed those. NZ photos to come... promise...

Wedding Media

Stuck indoors with the cruddy weather outside so I figured I'd get moving on putting together the photos from the recent festivities. Haven't gotten around to writing captions yet but we plan to when we get a chance.

Tea Ceremony


Wedding


You can also browse the photos at a leisurely pace on our Picasa Web Album. Tea Ceremony available here and Wedding here.

Alison and I played a little photo montage after our speech at the wedding to say thank you to our beautiful parents. I've uploaded the file to youtube for a quick preview. I'd like to host the original AVI as well but Google Pages isn't being particularly cooperative at the moment.



Photos from the honeymoon will probably take a lot longer to get ready. I've already taken close to 1500 snaps of which hopefully a quarter will be salvageable. Lots of photoshop work lies ahead for me. :P

Drive to the beach

Took the car and mum for another spin this weekend, this time a quick trip up to Mooloolaba to walk on the beach. Got my first opportunity to try out cruise control on the highway and I'm a convert. Now if I can just find something to work the steering wheel too. :P

I'm not one for sand and surf, especially that yucky gritty feeling you get in your toes afterwards. Playing with my camera made things a little better though. Being a sunny day with lots of water I thought this would be a perfect chance to use my new circular polariser filter.



Of course mum got her camera out to take some pictures too. Can't wait to get over to New Zealand to go snap crazy.

Goin' Wide

Wow, I just got my notification that they finally shipped my lens two days ago so I figured it'd only get to me sometime next week. Surprise surprise, lovely wrapped package waiting for me at work!



Haven't really played around with it too much yet as it's night time and there's not much to shoot right now but I've been impressed with the view angle on this baby. Just amazing how much you can fit in when at 12mm. Will hopefully have an opportunity to use it this weekend when we head up to Toowoomba.

Called the Honda dealership and the new car should be here by the 18th if all goes well. *fingers crossed*

March down, 9 to go

Yay, one more full month of happy snaps. I admit there have been more than a fair share of days where I just could not be arsed thinking of interesting compositions. Hence the sad influx of random shots.

My photo pick of the month as usual is the one that took the most effort. I've always had a fascination with water macro shots though I've always thought you needed special equipment and lighting to pull it off. Hasn't stopped me from trying in the past. My issue has always been getting a large splash with a single drop of water.

At least until I stole this little gem of an idea from Australian Photography Magazine. Why bother trying to get a decent splash from a teensy weensy water drop when you can use... a ROCK. Well a stone at least.

Of course I didn't even have a stone on hand so I settled for an almond in the pantry. I think it worked out pretty well. The great thing about this sort of photography is that you never quite know what you're going to get. It's like a little present whenever you get a nice shape. You could call it luck... I prefer to think of it as patience.

This is one of a trio that I liked the shape of. There other two can be found here and here. They've been selectively colourised and a hue applied to add a little interest.

February down, 10 to go

Phew, another month (albeit shorter than most) full of taking photos. It's interesting looking back over the past 28 days to see the days where I put some effort in and when I snapped blindly without a care. No idea what I was thinking deciding to do all this for a year, definitely running out of things in the house to take pictures of.

I did make a conscious effort to take more pictures of people this month and ended up with five in total... I guess 18% isn't all that bad. Woe to all social hermits that want to get better at taking portraits.



I had a blast clicking away at the company BBQ the other day and managed to snap this one of Dave which I'm rather happy with. Once again I forced myself to use my 50mm prime to take all the shots which meant I needed to be quite close to the action. Framing proved to be challenging due to the focal length and I ended up just keeping a subject in focus while watching the ball with my other eye. At least I got a chance to use my servo focus mode which worked a treat.

Evidently a few other people thought it was a decent capture too as it was (to my delight) my second picture to go up on the front page of Photoblog. The other one was the Green Bridge in January. Glad to know my law of averages approach is working. :)

The secret to my success

Heh, I can definitely relate to the latest strip on What the Duck.


One of my favourite quotes:

The secret to good photography is lots of bad photography

Yet another barbeque

Work can be tough sometimes. We had to drop everything to spend half the day at Colmslie Park having a BBQ to say goodbye to co-workers moving on to bigger and better things. Ah well, all in the line of duty.



I had a real good time taking pictures of the 'lads' throwing a frisbee around, at least until they lost it for good in the snake infested grass. They proceeded to kick a football around though so I could continue to practice my action photography. Probably the hardest part was keeping both eyes open just in case someone tried to be funny and belt me on the side of the head while I had my eye on the viewfinder.



Anyway, the sad bit of the gathering was that it was the last official day Matt would have working with the IT Team as a full time employee. We got him the National Geographic Photographer's Field Guide as a parting gift to fuel his new found interest in snapshoterry. I'd like to take full credit for getting him hooked on the hobby if I may.



All around a good day even if we're sorry to see him go. Thankfully we'll still see him around once a week as he'll be doing part time work for us while returning to Uni on his road to becoming a Speech Therapist. Best of luck mate.