Photos

Today's theme is weddings. This year I took pics at 2 of my friends weddings.




Canon 400d with 50mm 1.8 lens











CS asked me to do her pre wedding shots at her place.

Canon 450d with 17-85mm 4-5.6 lens.

Nathan lent me his Sigma 30mm 1.4 for these indoor shots.

Haircut

Would you let a male work colleague cut your hair? I just did. I had a haircut the other day and he said it looked awful and wanted to fix it. So we went into the kitchen (one that no one uses very much) and he chopped it. It looks heaps better.

Great Mistakes #6

I once watched Repoman all the way through. Honestly, why would you?

Films that look great

I always forget films that I've seen which I like so I'll try and blog them.

2 films which I've seen quite recently where each shot looks great, are 'Control' - the story of the Joy Division, and 'September', an Australian film about the friendship between two 16 year old boys, one black, one white. Worth a look.

I need a new word.

I am aware of the fact that I use the word "amaizing" a little bit too often. Trying to come up with something else. Oh yeah - and the wig, well it's not a wig, its a website. www.yearbookyourself.com. Give it a try. Hours of fun for the family.

Stanley Clark

In April I went to the Stanley Clark and George duke concert at the Opera House theatre. The view was great, and the sound was OK. Stanley was a bit distorted to start with but they sorted it out.
It really blows me away seeing people who have been music legends longer than I’ve been alive. Stanley is one of them. And he’s one of the most famous bass players ever. I was so aware of my jaw hitting the floor as he played. I can’t say I’m a massive fan of his music – he does some pretty weird stuff. I really wanted to go to hear his bass playing talent. But he played stuff I enjoyed and the funk tunes were great.
It was funny to see guys in front of me who were about 50 getting so into it, clapping their hands above their heads and bopping in their seats. People absolutely loved it. George got his keytar stuck on the keyboard stand – someone had to come out and rescue him.
Then in the middle of the show, the band went off stage and Stanley played a solo acoustic bass set, and oh man, you never thought such a thing could raise the roof. He got a standing ovation in the middle of the concert after playing solo double bass!!!! His virtuosity and musicality was mind blowing.
When the band came back on after this they went into some full on funk and the drummer who was quite a young guy, had a massive solo. It went on forever and it was the fastest playing I’ve ever seen. I know that just because its fast doesn’t mean it’s good, but this was. The cross rhythms he was playing against himself were amazing. And then at the end he threw his drum sticks on the floor and jumped off his stool. It was kind of weird – you couldn’t tell if it was an act or he was angry or what. He couldn’t have been angry with himself, because he’d just played the most amazing drum solo. I found out later on from Rich who was mixing the monitors that he was actually really angry at Stanley who wasn’t being very nice to the band. Apparently he is no fun to be around at all. He’s a bit precious they’d had a run in during sound check.
I got my photo taken with Stanley after the show. He was nice to me.

Did you see the sky on Saturday evening?

In Sydney it was amazing. It had been cloudy/rainy all day, and then at about 7pm my housemate TR commented on how cool the light outside was looking. I went outside and looked up and immediately ran to get my camera. TR had clambered up onto the side fence of our yard – a 6ft high brick wall. She was saying how much better the view was from up there. TJ was there hold the stool steady, so I quickly proceeded to get up there as well. But when I was up, I freaked out. I was on my hands and knees trying to work out what to do next. All I could see was either side of me the ground was a long way down and there was no soft fall either side. TR was like “you have to look up Goldy, this is AMAZING”… but I was trapped on my hands and knees. “I can’t move, I’m going to fall.” But then I got to the palm tree next to the wall and braced myself on that. I stood up and got the photo. And it was amazing as you can see.

great mistakes #5

Have you ever done anything sooo emabarrassing that you have never told ANYONE about it? I have. And not a soul knows.
Well, I'd just like to announce to world, (not that I think anyone actually reads this blog) that this completely embarrassing great mistake is.... going to remain only something that I know about. Sorry. Can't tell you.
Of course if I had a husband I might tell him, but I'm learning not to get my hopes up. So it's my secret, forever.

Herbie Hancock

While I’m still on a high after Stevie I thought I would write about some other cool concerts I’ve seen recently before I forget the details.
Herbie Hancock played in 2007 at the state theatre in Sydney. I wish all concerts could be held there. It’s small, you get a good view and sounds good. It was the first time I’d ever been to hear a world famous jazz artist, and the first time I’d sat in a concert with my mouth open in awe for the whole show, or grinning away, just loving it. Oh except for the first 20 minutes. That was bizarre. He did this long piece of synth stuff which had no melody, no rhythm, and I was getting worried. I just wanted to hear watermelon man.
But once he got the weirdness out of his system, it was all good. He got into the Head Hunters stuff, and I’d never heard such amazing playing live before. The drummer was Vinnie C, bass player Nathan East and an African guitarist whose name I can’t think of. He did some tunes with paper stuck in the strings of his guitar playing in weird African time signatures, and I loved it. Really clever.
And Herbie did the daggy thing of playing the keytar – you know that 80s thing of wearing a keyboard round your neck like a guitar. All totally for show. And he loves choosing the cheesiest synth sounds, but you just forgive him because you love the music and his playing. How could you not be on the cloud 9 when the guy who helped write Chameleon is sitting 30m in front of you playing it himself? Yep. Good times. One of the best nights of my life. Pretty shallow I know, but meaningful life events keep eluding me so live music is as good as it gets.