A huge week after a huge month of participatiing.

In the end I came second but in all the hugeness I neglected to share the final photos – so, here they are ….

March 29th : Sunrise – 12 points (Total: 516)

From the backyard of The house of Bach this morning. We don’t get much of a sunrise and without clouds it’s not much to look at. This was taken about 7am. Official Sunrise at Toongabbie was 7:06am and I have a photo for that time too but this looked the best.

March 30th : Sky diving – 30 points (Total:546)

w00t!! Absolutely amazing. Igor was my sky diver and he even had a crazy slavic accent. Who’s in for next time?

I was surprised at how much I enjoy the jump – I am very keen to go again. Their wash’t time to get worried in the door way (where I was thinking I would most freak out) and once out the plane that is it. The free fall was about one minute long and felt like a roller coaster until you hit terminal velocity and then it was just looking around and enjoying the 220kph wind roaring. Once the shute went off then it was just having fun doing the turns and loving the view.

DO IT!

March 31st : With a Fancy Car 13 Points (Total: 559)

It was always going to my final image but it also worked out to be a nice easy photos to get on what turned out to be the day of most sermon work. It took 45 days for the part to come to the smash repairer and during that time I had a hire car – a Ford XR6 – and it was not a pleasant experience. It is so good to have the WRX back – it really is a fancy car.

And that’s it – the photo scavenger hunt is over and it was a tops month but I am glad it is over and done with until next year – next year I will be participating only and managing the stress of the competitive side of me. Thanks heaps to Tom for setting it all up. A great adventure.

Today I just needed something easy to get. I knew there was  museum in Fairfield and it was not far out of my way as I headed home from work. It was just beginning to rain as I arrived and so I didn’t stay long but it’s a tops place to go. There are recreations and relocations of actual buildings from various areas and eras of Fairfield’s Development. Lots of cool things to look at and stories to read. And the outside under the trees is a little haven in the middle of the noisy busy industrial / shopping centre precinct at Horsley Drive and Cumberland Highway – an OASIS of history.

Having, yet again,  been denied a photo op at Maccas, there being no religious leaders at the buddhist temple, and not bringing a change of cloths so not willing to gate crash the Hindu evening worship as I drove by after soccer training, it was a quick trip down Memory Lane (Beresford Road) Greystanes to visit by old primary school.

It 30 years ago I was in Year 6. Gosh!

Meet Goldie the Gold Fish. Actually, I have no idea what the Gold fish is called or even if it is a Gold Fish. It’s a very fat fish, that I do know.

The photo top left is from the outside – the other 3 were taken inside the tank and, hence, the camera phone was underwater. In a ziplock bag but none the less underwater.

I used QuadCamera to get this photo.

The WIld Mouse Luna Park.

Grabbed this on the way to watch Sydney FC squeak into the final series.

COMEONSYDNEY!

Meet Mark B – he drives coal trains. He also plays cricket with friends of mine and thanks to stevetheplumber making a phone call I scored myself 30 points.

It’s so interesting how many people will say yes and help out in what is truly the most of frivolous of pursuits.

For instance, yesterday I called a few Government Departments – DFAT, AG, and a statutory body called The National Capital Authority – I was requesting some information and the person I called tried a person walking past their desk, the boss of that person, the boss of that person and finally I was given an email address to try and then, 20 minutes later, called me back with the answer I needed – they had spoken to the CEO of NatCap to find out the answer. Sadly the answer was no, but I am being blown away at how willing people are to help me have fun and adventures.

About 9pm tonight I set off for Homebush to collect a 13 point photo – as I drove I thought I should at least detour via the recording studio that I had found in Wetherilll Park – just in case someone was there. I got there about 9:30pm and the place was busy – of course! The best Rock happens late at night

I wandered in and said I wanted to take a photo of a studio – they laughed and said “um” “sure” and let me.

The photo is of one of the Rehearsal Studios at:

L.A. STUDIOS. Rehearsal & Recording Studio. Unit 6, 442-446 Victoria St. Wetherill Park
they are open all time of the day and night 7 Days.
Phone: (02) 9756 4953
eMail: manager@lastudios.com.au
website: www.lastudios.com.au
facebook:www.facebook.com/lastudiosaustralia

They were busy but Stuart was pretty cool and let me get a couple of photos. The recording studio had just been locked up and I appeared randomly out of the dark night. So even getting this photo was most generous. If you need recording or rehearsal space give them a call. Say that guy on the scavenger hunt sent you and Stuart might just feel it was worth it

I just spent some time rearranging the rest of the photos I plan to take – things are looking good – I won’t be able to win but I should have a good chance at pulling off second – I want to do most of these final ones cos they represent personal challenges to me. As I have said I am participating, and looking at what remains it is going to be a huge week of participating in a bunch of stuff out of my comfort zone.

The experiences I am going to go through will make it one of the funnest most challenging weeks I have had for a long time. It’s going to be great!

Meet Mario Anthony, he is my Dentist. Naturally I had to wait before I got to get in and see him and he was very pleased that we were taking photos of famous people,dentists and politicians.

Nave279 is the vocalist and star of The Arranged Marriage song : www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iri3lM8fQaQ : 193,029 views as of 20/3/2012 Thanks Nave279!

His name is Daniel and he is mates with DavidC from Bible Study – last night I was talking about The Hunt and David brought up the video and said he knew the guy who was in it. This afternoon I got confirmation from Scavenger Master Tom that >190,000 views on YouTube was reckoned to be famous enough!

I messaged Dave, tense cos I had failed again to get the Maccas shot – damm OH&S – and hoping that I could put off the Cross Dressing for another night. As I took some photos of my WRX as a Plan C, if needed, the message came through – 7.25p at the old church!

I met a few other people before Daniel turned up – all he knew was that one of DavidC’s wanted a friend with him – he laughed when I told him way and asked a few times – so there is no prize – nope, just the pride.

Make sure you watch the view it’s funny! I especially liked the ending.

I support SydneyFC – at first it was a way of connecting with the blokes at Tooney and reconnection upon my return from bollege. It was a sport I was always interesting in and I thought I get ‘get in from the ground floor’ – somehow, without even realising it I suddenly became a fan. Away trips to Melb (many), Gold Coast, New Zealand have all followed – I am Sydney ‘Til I Die!

I did’t want the face to be quite so … menacing … but the face paint didn’t help – as the paint set it is designed to form a plasticy mask which is supposed to make it easy to remove – it also meant that it tightened onto my face and felt that if I smiled or moved too much would split and tear and just look dodgy.

Hence the look.

I was right to be concerned, as soon as I had decided I had enough photos to pick the right one I smiled and flexed my face the paint tore and hung down off my face. Made it easy to get off – and it was water soluble anyway so it’s all come off and out of my shirt and beanie without any problems.

The adventure continues – last weekend I forgot to get to Future Music in Sydney and instead got caught up in the Arthur Stace recreation. So last Sunday I spent some time being disappointed as I used Google to find Music Festivals in Sydney in March or even NSW. Thankfully Katoomba turned up with a Music festival this weekend.

Saturday was my original day but football decided that they needed to be played and so it got moved to Sunday and then the lighting came on Saturday morning. I had no choice though as I had to get this photo this weekend otherwise I had no other options – and to ensure my participation could also see me finish Top 5 then I have to get as many of the 15 points and above photos as possible – I call it Partipating to Win!

I had an afternoon of Church Music Prep ahead of me so I knew I had to get up early and head straight up the mountains and grab the photo and come straight back.

And so I did.

As I left home I went back for my hoodie – it felt weird cos it wasn’t really cold enough to bother – but you never know an since my Summer Road Trip through the centre I am not the cold loving Eskimo B I once was. Glad I did – it was so very very cold up there – cloudy, wind blowing, ears are hurting cold.

It’s been a good weekend – Friday was Goulburn then fun Friday night with Roberto and Bailey, Music with Bailey on Saturday was an unexpected and delightful pleasure caused by the cancellation of all sport due to the lightning producing downpour of the night before, Sydney FC managed to keep their finals hopes alive and then music tonight was a busy hard working session but it all paid off and I was very pleased with the final result. A few things didn’t quite come off how I had planned but only in a lesson learnt way, nothing more.

It was good, very good

An uncertain week of photo taking lies ahead – a few irons are still in the fire warming to be ready to strike. So I have a plan but the plan may get changed – I still have some back up options for when the plans fail but I am hoping to have the final week mapped out by the middle of this week, and somewhere amongst the Photo taking and planning I have to write a sermon for April 1st. Hmmm.

You can just see the forks of lighting.

Last night Bailey and Roberto and I went to the Tooney pub for dinner and then headed up to Max Brenner to grab some dessert. As we were talking, Bailey, worried about the weather stopping cricket, announced it was forecast to storm, looking at the Radar he thought 2am was likely. I wondered if I could get a lightning photo.

We then went home and played some MW3. Good fun.

The boys left and something distracted me for a while on TV and when I finally headed to bed I noted the time was about 1:30am and thought I’d check the Radar. There was a solid mass of rain filling the left hand side of the 64k Radar image and it was due to hit us in about 20 minutes.

I jumped in the car and sussed out a place I thought might give views back to the mountains and the approaching storm. Not so. Then I headed to Eastern Creek and just stopped on the road pointing in the general direction and hoping.

The lightning began – but how was I catch it? I used Slow Shutter Cam and with some experimentation finally worked out that Capture Mode: Light Trail, Shutter Speed: B* (stays open until I stop it) Sensitivity: 1/4 was the best combo to get what I wanted and I used the Freeze:off photo as that showed the moment of lightning the best. Basically it combines all the images taken into the one image. Normally that would give the blurred effect you are after with a slow shutter but with the lightning on a very dark patch of road it yields the elusive flash.

I didn’t like the location I was in at first and and the storm moved so I switched locations and collected the photo above – as well as a few others – The photo is location tagged so you can see where I took it.. It looked good and I thought I had it but I waited around for some more and then tried another location. It was only when I got home that I realised that the photo that I thought was my best, was my best, in fact it had forks in it! Excellent!

I also posted some of my other attempts including the motion blur from the car and then a truck that went by. (full set)

As I sat in the dark I gave thanks for Tom and his photo scavenger hunt. I have always thought about taking some photos of lightning but never bothered trying. This hunt continues to give motivation to try new things.

This is just the first half of March – even more adventurous adventures are yet to come…

* lol how appropriate – it actually stands for Bulb – though I don’t know why.

Went to Goulburn to visit the Lovely Luppo and her munchkin. 25 points and a tops couple of hours eating and catching up.

Meet a bus driver – she was the prettiest bus driver of the afternoon but even that wasn’t enough to get her name. She was in a bit of a hurry too and was worried I was going to try and make money out of it. I reassured it was not the case and she let me get my 15 points. Hail to the Bus Driver!

Taken at the Blacktown Bus Terminal underneath Westpoint.

This is Lesley my Landlord, well Landlady, but I guess since an ANZ branch counts surely she does. She was faintly amused by my photo scavenging. And a very good sport about it too.

While I researching for the Famous Photo in the same Location shot I realised that I was getting the number of someone I don’t know and that was worth 17 points. I wasn’t so sure about using the concept and didn’t want to take away from the final story so left it. After last nights late night trip to the Macquarie Uni underground station I woke feeing very tired and decided that I needed a photo that could be done at work and quickly.

So I took a name of someone famous – Jackson and went for a random letter – H came to mind – considered to myself did I know any H Jacksons – went no and hit FIND. White Pages delivered a name in Tasmania and a quick snap and multiple social network postings later I was 17 points richer and could focus on surviving my day.

I didn’t feel like it was exactly the spirit of the category and I appreciate the literalness rule under which I submitted it. I needed a break though – not even half way and already I am feeling the pressure. But breaks like today and having a bit more a plan mapped out to get the rest of the photos is helping me keep the fun level up to where it should be.

I have other out of comfort zone categories to come and I am looking forward to tackling them in the weeks ahead.

But here is also something I like about just using my iPhone4 and maybe an app or too.

This image was taken with Pano which normally makes horizontal panoramic photos but as you can see with a bit of trickiness can yield some vertical goodness too. I then tweaked the straightness in iPhoto for this version.

I took many other photos but I have posted a bakers dozen in flickr. Do yourself a favour and check them out.

I like the the straight lines (so many of them) and then the occasional curves to surprise and the shadows that serve as curves in their our way. Glorious.

Meet The Markhams. L to R Keryn, Teresa, Mark. And Me, The B.

They are indeed a human family with a lovely little girl who was keen to RIP MY VERY FACE OFF!! Children my friends, watch out for them, they are crazy crazy beasts. Gotta watch them all the time.

[external link to see my version or read on as it's also at the end]

But where was it taken? Back to Google and learnt there were only 4 photos of Arthur Stace writing his message. As I was searching I looked a bit harder and noticed things that were strange about this photo – what is the metal curvey thing in the foreground? why is there a door with a bit of wood across it in the back ground – the wall looks very deep. Was this taken in a door way? But that metal thing in the foreground…

I did some more Googling and found the church that Arthur Stace was a part of. The Burton Street Tabernacle. I was excited cos I thought that would be the logical place to have the photo taken – but a closer look made it clear that it was not right. The doorways were not deep enough and didn’t have glass doors and anyway that metal thing was looking a lot like a railing of some sort – but I still couldn’t work out what it meant.

Even more Googling turned a page from a regional paper in 2008 which told the story.

Having been revealed by his minister as the Mr Eternity who had written Eternity all around Sydney at least 50 times a morning for the years preceding Arthur Stace was located by the Melbourne Herald and invited in for an interview in the Farifax Building on Broadway.

Trevor Dallen was the Sydney Photographer tasked with the photo he was worried that Arthur would disappear again if they went onto the street to take the photo. To make sure this didn’t happen Trevor took Arthur into the fire escape stairwell to write his message in chalk on the floor. While  Trevor took the photo he posted the Melbourne Photographer as look out on the landing below to make sure Arthur didn’t get away.

Trevor took 3 photos in that session. (There is one other photo in existence but I didn’t need it as I had the location now).

The fire escape explained the strange metal thing. It was the railing in the centre of the stairwell. The ‘door’ behind Arthur was a window to the outside of the building. The wooden bar a safety railing. I had it! Or did I? Who owned the building now? A fire escape is not easy to get into in a building. They are, after all, usually alarmed and would I even get past the foyer?

Google revealed that the building was now Building 10 of UTS Sydney. Specifically part of it is now a Student Union function centre. This was sounding very promising. A UTS building would not be hard to get into. A student Union building would probably be easy to move around in and there would probably be part time students working in it. Sweet. But my perfectionist, serious rule abiding side kicked in. I had to know the level. I didn’t just want the same firescape in the same building I wanted the level. But it was also practical – if the building had been refitted (which it had at least once about 5 years ago) then it was possible that the stairwell was removed or at the least modified so might not be able to work it out. How would that happen….

I re-read the article and thought about contacting the paper or the Herald or…. then I realised – this local paper had printed not just the name of the photographer but where he lived – “Oyster Bay resident Trevor Dallen”. To the White Pages! And yes, there was a Dallen, with initial T and this Dallen,T lives in Oyster Bay.

I had all the bits I needed.

Saturday morning I called the number. “Trevor.” came the voice down the line – I smiled

I explained who I was and about the competition and he told me the story and gave me the key ingredient – he worked on Level 6. We talked a bit more and then his lunch was ready and he needed to go. He was very helpful and happy to share his memories. He had been in the building a few years ago but hadn’t been able to get to the stairwell cos it was behind closed and locked doors in a medical centre. He was also hoping not to get inundated by phone calls from other people – I reassured him that my photo was a purely voluntary choice and that I was sure he would not get bothered by anyone else. (YOU can help make sure that happens)

Next I needed a partner for this adventure – I had a few choices but the one who was available and interested and connected by our participation in the Hunt was Rollo.

We arrived at the building.

The next challenge was to get to Level 6. The first lift didn’t stop there. Not to be put off we got out on 7 and started looking around. We examined a lot of that building. Found ourselves a lift that went to Level 6. Found at least 3 fire escapes and spent a lot of time debating what the message on the doors indicated would happen should we open the door – would the alarm sound or would the doors unlock when an alarm sounded and so were all locked at the moment. The message seemed to suggest to me that the doors were locked – but I also did not want to set off any alarms when we hadn’t exhausted all possibilities.

We travelled back and forth and up and down and then found a fire door wedged open by some contractors. Success! And what an excellent stairwell it was – it felt right to me from the moment I stepped into it. But it didn’t look right. The rail was excellent – perfectly shaped – but the end we came in had too much space between the wall and the railing. We spent a lot of time going up and down and looking. The wall seemed to once have windows in it that had been bricked up – and there was a lip and we could see the image forming in our minds eye. We went to Level 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 up and down a few times moving in the stairwell all the while wondering when someone will close the illegally chocked open door.

In the end it was time to take a photo – we were in a stairwell in the Fairfax building on a level between 6 to 9 which had the right back, sides and railing. We had to get a photo. Foolishly we had come without Chalk! Rollo had an idea and disappeared down the stairs. When he returned he used his finger moistened with the water in a chux (I don’t know how he spotted that!) and etched eternity in the workman’s dust.

The click echoed loudly up and down the stairwell in a very satisfying way. I took one of Rollo (check it out at his blog) and he took one of me.

I wasn’t totally satisfied – I wanted to see in the other stairwells and rule them out. I just wanted to be sure. And I didn’t want anyone to be able to challenge this photo when I wasn’t sure myself. So I had to be sure.

Rollo is a very gracious man and so he came with me back to a fire escape that I thought was more likely to have the windows still in it. I was about to push the door, deciding that even if the alarm went off I had the photo and I would know. I would know. And if it was the right stairwell then I am sure we would have time to get at least one photo before people arrived to investigate.

I was looking at a floor plan on the wall, trying to decide if the risk was worth it – when a man approached us. I was ready for questions. He wanted the map on the wall. He almost walked away and then enquired as to what we were looking for. Rollo explained. The man started talking to us about the building. It’s original layout and the changes that had been made during the refurb. I asked him if he knew if the fire escape was alarmed. He said no but they were locked. I was about to push on the door and he suggested that if we really wanted to look in the stairwell then we should just ask Security.

Obvious really.

But what if they said no? I wanted to do some more exploring, hoping for another open door and to nail down the existence or otherwise of what I thought was a third possible stairwell. If we were going to security I wanted to be ready for a YES or a NO. If NO then I wanted to have tried everything we could do ourselves before were officially told not to poke around. If YES then I wanted to have two simple requests ready and have it done and dusted ASAP, hopefully a bargaining chip if security was a bit uncertain.

We visited security… the guy heard our request, half heartedly looked at the original famous photo and then without saying yes or no got on his radio and called up Dave to come inside cos he was going out for a while. Turned out we had talked to the Manager.

GOLD!!

Ash (Manager) and Adam (Sidekick) took us back to Building 10 and, with us carefully not giving too much away, took us over and into the two remaining fire escapes. Neither of which were suitable. Our original stairwell was the right one. We had our photo!

Mission Accomplished!

Today was my normal day of not working and although I was a bit sad my plans of the day fell through I was very happy to find out that Bailey was free to hangout – it turned out he was very free and so we had a bit of an adventure heading first to a Guitar store that didn’t have The Guitar. Then we headed north up the Old Pac. Along the way I got us to pull over to get a Photo for the Scavenger hunt and then it was enjoyment plus as we headed down to Brooklyn for lunch by the water. Glorious weather.

 After that it was back to Parramatta for some Cold Rock and more Guitar looking – they had The Guitar this time and I also spoke with someone about the mythical “Getting my Bass Serviced” and found out what it involves and how much it cost.

I am feeling a bit tired and can feel the sun I got in my face – what a tops day it was.