marc.vic.max.elliot

I was walking through the forest one day when this hideous beast appeared in front of me!  I snapped off a quick shot…..

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Well I have my trip to the US confirmed.  I leave on Saturday 3rd March and get home on Friday 14th – almost two weeks!  Oh well, I was warned that this would happen but I’m also up in Auckland for Wed and Thurs this week as well…… Does anyone have any suggestions for things to do in San Fransisco?  I have two weeks in Sunnyvale, California and it’s only about an hours drive from SF.

On a more positive note the family and I met up with a very good friend of ours, Gayle, for brunch today.  While eating I noticed a nice painting on the wall of the cafe and saw that it was for sale.  I mentioned it to Vic and she said that she had also noticed it so 10 minutes later we were the owners of an original piece of art.

size is approx 30” x 40”

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Back from three days in Melbourne with the new job.  It was hot (36C/97F) and, well, work.  Putting faces to names and sorting out some of the internal procedures was about as exciting as it got.

We had a very funny episode with Max last night though.  Usually if the boys eat all their dinner they can have a small sweet treat out of a tin that we use especially for keeping the treats in.  Max had eaten all his dinner and desert and we asked him if he wanted a treat.  At the moment he is having trouble making a number of vocal sounds – “ch” sounds likes a k as in kit, “tr” – as in train also sounds like k as in kit.  Anyway we asked him if we wanted a treat and he said “I’ll koose (choose) one from the tin” Normally we let these things slide but he was in a really good mood so I thought I’d push him a bit. “What? Koose one from the tin” I said. “no, koose!” he replied “Sorry, koose one from the treat tin?” said I.  He then looked at me with a grin on his face and said “No, I’ll pick the one I want!”

Nice to see that he can think of a different phrase that means the same thing

Hi everyone

Whilst my broadband speed leaves a lot to be desired (approx 700K down/650K up) it’s a whole load better than 56K up/down!

So what’s happened?  Well I’ve just finished my first week at my new job and so far so good.  To be honest it’s been mostly meetings and so I haven’t done a lot of “real” work but I think it will be at least a couple of months before I’m even vaguely productive as there is so much to learn….. I’ve also been told that I’m off to Melbourne for three days next week and then off to the US for two weeks early next month! Poor Vic

In photography related news the Wellington Flickr Exhibition is coming along nicely it seems.  I have had this image chosen to be exhibited and even better they are allowing us to put our prints up for sale.  The price will really only cover the costs but it would be my first sale (as long as someone likes it enough to shell out eighty bucks!)

I also had a fun night with my mate rico last week and we went into the city to do some moonlit photography.  Unfortunately the night clouded over so we just had a bit of a play around.  A bit into the night I remembered a technique called Painting with light where a dark scene is illuminated using a small light source like a mini-flashlight or flash as if it was a paintbrush to light the subject while the shutter remains open during a timed exposure.  In my case it was a 30 second exposure and the area at the front of the photo was pitch black when viewed with the naked eye.  It took four illuminations of my external flash as I walked around in front of the camera to get this shot.

You can also have fun by getting someone else to illuminate you as you walk around

I think that’s it for now – everyone here is well and the weather’s been lovely (unlike poor Gina **waves**)