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.