Last weekend Melbourne played host to the Championship Trophy. The international men’s hockey tournament consisted of the world’s top six teams including Australia, Germany, & The Netherlands. To be honest I had no idea that it was even on until a friend from Adelaide rang to say he and his hockey club team mates were flying over for it and I managed to grab a ticket from them. I’m glad I went, I really miss playing and for the two days I was there I had a great time.
On the photography front I think I took nearly 200 hundred photos from the crowd, a lot of them useless but some of them pretty fun and catching a bit of action. The fruits of my labour are viewable in the slideshow below. Unfortunately taking photos like this at a sports event only makes me want to go out and buy some ridiculous zoom telephoto lens rather than using a stock standard 250mm lens that came with my DSLR.
Today I am straught with bitter-sweet emotion as today I took the final photo (seen above) in a series of personal portraits that I began snapping one year ago today. Every day for the past 365 days I’ve sat in front of my computer pulling faces, displaying props and trying to keep somewhat of a consistant white background as a part of the 365 day project on Flickr.
I can’t say that I’m overwhelmingly sad to come to the end, trying to do something different every day for a year is a challenge I’m exhausted of, but it does give you the opportunity to reflect over the past year. These photos cover my life in four different countries, through times of happiness, sorrow, excitement and boredom, hell it sounds like I’m in the middle of a wedding!
What I can confidently say is that I’m proud of myself for sticking with it and seeing it through to the end. It’s a feather in my cap and one that many of my friends who began the journey with me will be without.
To those who are thinking of enrolling in the task my best wishes go out to you but be aware of what you’re taking on because this is no easy road to walk down. Do your best and try not to let boredom get the better of you turning the daily task into a chore.
Lastly to others that have continued on beyond 365 days frankly I think you’re nuts! But I applaud you for having the strength to continue on!
In a recent poll of human beings we asked “When you think of Raj and viewing scenery what is the first thing that comes to mind?” In almost all cases the response was an overwhelming “He has about as much interest in viewing the elements of nature as I do in eating the fecal matter of giraffe.” A strange analogy to be made by just one person (you would think) yet it was recited by almost 99% of the forty three million and twenty eight people interviewed. Odd.
Anyway, I speak of Giraffe feces with good reason as I will now astonish you all by saying just how breathtakingly beautiful Vancouver is. Of course this is now almost inconceivably absurd for you to comprehend as I’ve pre-cursed the statement by highlighting my deep rooted inability to find beauty in nature. Ergo Vancouver is so amazingly astonishing that your head has just exploded to leave the stump of your spine poking out from your clothing akin to something out of the most recent Rambo film.
I’m not really sure how I’ve gone from one of the most picturesque heavenly places I’ve ever visited in the world to the blood splattering exploits of Rambo but I’m pretty impressed with myself (again).
I’d heard different things about Vancouver, some said it similar to Sydney whilst Toronto was more like Melbourne and then others had said the complete opposite. I can see where both arguments come from but the truth of it is there is nothing like it in Australia. Vancouver city is laid out in a nice logical grid format and is on a slight hill very similar to Melbourne but then cuddling the metropolis are numerous mountain ranges akin to Sydney’s Blue Ranges but in much closer proximity in that they’re viewable from almost anywhere. Apparently it rains in Vancouver a lot, another great feature of Melbourne (well in years gone by anyway), but it is also one of the warmest cities in Canada with the mercury very rarely falling below zero even throughout winter, a meteorological trait sadly not shared with Toronto.
I haven’t spent enough time in Vancouver to really tell you anything beyond the majestic beauty of the place but, as mentioned earlier, for me to be so amazed by it; well that has to count for something! Next time I’ll just have to delve a little deeper into the other aspects, get into the nitty gritty so to speak but this is Canada, it’s not like the people are going to wind up being assholes or anything! It more depends on if they let you buy alcohol after 2am (unlike Toronto)!
I’ve always been a fan of Quicktime VR (QTVR), you know those funny little images that allow you to rotate around and get a 360 degree view of wherever they were taken. There’s something about them that just fascinates me so when I bought a new Canon SLR Camera not long ago I had it in mind that I’d explore the style more and set about taking some wonderful panoramas while I’m away.
Little did I know to have the “professional” set up and tripod mounts to do it would cost a small fortune and seeing how I’d already sold one kidney to fly to PAX at the end of August it seemed like my dream was over. Fortunately for me I found this little baby called the “Panosaurus” which allowed me to have a fully functioning panoramic camera mount for under US$100.
Armed with my new SLR, the Panosaurus and a trial copy of PanoramaFactory I quickly threw together this quick QTVR of my new living room. It’s nothing special but a good trial run and a chance for me to have a play! Look out for more of these (of much more interesting topics) in time to come.
