Roll #9

Day 159. “India Goddess”. New Film (#9) and a working flash, but not before I reloaded the film in the camera and only then remembered that I needed to replace the batteries. Which meant I had to take the film out again and reload. Curses! To celebrate the functional flash, I took a photo of the Indian carving in our bedroom. I use her for a hat stand – hence the strange attire on her head.

Day 160. 7^th January 2011. “Birthday Girl”. Janet’s birthday today. We caught up for lunch at the Greenhouse, with her friend Liz and Liz’s mom, Janice. I had to go back to work, while the girl’s pressed, but not before I took this picture of the three of them. We had Lisa (our good friend from up the road) and Melissa (from Fremantle Election fame) for dinner.

Day 161. “Birthday Girl #2”. We had the Gilmour/Davies Clan (Of Pink Zulu, Bali Wedding and numerous other activities fame!) over for another celebratory dinner for Janet tonight. They bought lots of beautiful presents for Janet, which she opened after dinner. So I took a second photo of her in two days (I am sure that’s within the rules of Project 365) before she opened a present from Michele (introduction no longer needed).

Day 162. “Minis in the Morning”. We went for a long walk along Cottlesloe Beach this morning. There was a long line of Minis all parked together. Must have been some Mini Club outing. Anyway, I thought it would make a good photo.

Day 163. “Old Red Car and the Ghost in the Machine”. Progressing the car theme, I decided to photograph the old red Citreon 2CV which is often parked on Anzac Street. I rode past after work and there it was, so I took this photo. But there was a Ghost in the Machine, because somehow my fixie was included between the shot of the minis and the Citreon. I think I must have press the shutter as I was getting my Holga out of my backpack. Shades of Te Papa all over again.

Day 164. “Hot Tom (well at least half of him)”. One of Janet’s work associates, Tom, owns an old Holden (details of which I don’t know). He was coming around to our house to collect some forms and I had hoped to get a photo of his car to continue my emerging car theme. But he didn’t bring the car, so I photographed Tom instead!

Day 165. “Oxford Street Tyres”. More of Why and less of What! The emphasis is all wrong. I need to challenge myself more. Stop filling in frames and work on the creativity. I mean, why on earth am I photographing tyre shops? Enough of this “sex between the sheets stuff”, I need passion. I need to push myself out of my comfort zone and photograph more people.

Day 166. Originally entitled “Rabbit in the Park” but now called “Whiteout – that will teach you to wimp out on more creative stuff”. There is a giant rabbit head in Kings Park that must be a stage prop for a children’s play. I took this photo after my morning circuits through Kings Park. But it is totally over-exposed. Perhaps I am being punished by the Danny Darko Rabbit for reneging on my creativity pledge from yesterday. Perhaps I just had the shutter setting on bulb.

Day 167. “High Priestess”. Not much opportunity for creativity today, despite going out for an early dinner at the Greenhouse. So I took a photo of our painting “The High Priestess”. I have photographed this before as part of the project, but it didn’t come out so well (or not at all). So I thought I would try again. Creativity plummeting, despite my outburst from few days ago.

Day 168. “Luna Bar”. We went to see “Black Swan” at the Luna tonight. Afterwards I took this photo of the Luna Bar using a long exposure. Better marks for creativity, but I think I was too far away from the people at the bar and the shot may have become lost between the adjacent photos.

Day 169. “Rescue Boat @ Cottlesloe”. We have started walking along Cottlesloe Beach on a Sunday Morning and afterwards we go for a swim. At this time of the day there are all sorts of lifesaving training going on. I took this photo of a lifesaving boat parked up on the beach. Hopefully I captured some of the activity going on in the background.

Day 170. “Distracted Window reprise, reprise (featuring my bike)”. Photographic creativity waning. Doubt about why I am doing this is growing. Work demanding. Days full of real life stuff. But this morning as I rode to work my spirits were lifted and I jotted the following down when I got there.

I rode along Kings Park Drive

The morning sun lighting up the trees

And a woman drove past

In an old white MG - the top down

The flash of a blue scarf around her head

Fluttering in the wind

And There was Beauty!

On the way home, I see that Distracted has finally put up a new display in their window after their Christmas holidays. I take a photo of two subjects at once – the display window and my fixie bike. Note to self: I need to think of something to contribute to the Distracted Display when I am next in the shop.

Day 171. “Gum Tree @ Home”. Janet and I have started doing some exercises and stretches in our back garden on some evenings. We have a large, beautiful gum tree in our garden and I find it very soothing to gaze up at the gently swaying branches in the late evening light. I just hope that a branch doesn’t fall onto me while I am lying there.

Day 172. “Wooden Horse @ Home”. What did I say the other day about creativity and enthusiasm? I’m struggling at the moment. It’s like before the mid-point of a race, just before you turn for home. The legs feel at their heaviest and the doubt weighs on your mind. I feel that I could have done more with the photos from New Zealand. The photos are starting to look routine and I am already thinking of my next project. Some I come home and photograph one of our wooden horse sculpture and sulk.

Day 173. “Geraldton Airport”. In Geraldton today for work. Lots to photograph here – not! Unless you are into high vis clothing, which I am not. I settle on an aeroplane wing thingy outside the airport terminal. I also had a vicious headache so I was feeling very sorry for myself. And my trip to Geraldton meant that I missed the opening of the 60 Minute Snapshot Exhibition (see Day 119). Unhappy Holga-er.

Day 174. “Funky Bunches”. I photographed the wall at Funky Bunches to at least add some colour to the roll.

Day 175. “Chez, Ellen and Amalia”. Feeling for more positive about my project today. Janet and I went to see the 60 Minute Snapshot Exhibition and one of the winning exhibits did almost exactly what I am doing with Project 360 – continuous photos overlapping each other. And a couple of my photos sold at the exhibit. I feel like I can do this. And I am determined to hold my own exhibition when I finish. Our friend, Chez from Adelaide, has come over with her children for Amalia’s birthday party (see tomorrow). I photographed her, her daughter Ellen and Amalia when we caught up with them in the evening.

Day 176. “Lisa and Amalia – The Birthday Girl”. End of Roll #9. I was asked by Lisa (from up the road fame) to take some photos at Amalia’s birthday party. I took this photo of Lisa and Amalia when I got there and then did my continuous photo trick with my other Holga. Also took lots of shots with the Nikon. The girls were making fairy crowns using sparkly plastic beads. As a result my Holga got “blinged” as well. I will have to work out how to photograph my glittering “new” camera.

Roll #8

Day 144. Dec 22^nd. “Mosaic Garden – Lake Taupo”. We went for a walk to the scenic Huka Falls downstream from Lake Taupo. It’s about a 3km walk along the Waikato River. It rained intermittently – usually every time I took my rain jacket off. In the end I kept it on and just sweltered in the humid morning air. The water on the Waikato River is unbelievably clear at this point and the walk was incredibly beautiful so I didn’t mind the weather much. We took the advice of our Lonely Planet Guide and went to the L’Arte Café for lunch. Its about a 10 minute drive outside of the town. Only we found that the café was closed until after Christmas! But the surrounding gardens were full of interesting sculptures and mosaics. So I took a photo of Janet sitting on a great big mosaic sofa. In the afternoon I went bungy jumping much to Janet’s horror.

Day 145. “Muddy Waters Café and Car”. We left Taupo in the morning and drove through the Tongariro National Park to Wellington. We planned to have lunch in Wanganui. The Muddy Waters Café looked interesting, so we stopped there, only to find it was closed. New Zealand was beginning to feel like Italy. But I took this photo anyway, mainly because of the old car parked outside.

Day 146. “Cuba Street Graffiti”. Our friend Bill has an uber cool apartment in Wellington on Cuba Street. He has kindly let us stay here as he is away over Christmas and New Year. The surrounding area is full of interesting shops, cafes, bars and people. There is also lots of good graffiti. I took this photo of the buildings across the way from Bill’s balcony.

Day 147. Saturday 25^th December. “DJ and Glen @ Christmas”. DJ is Janet’s hairdresser and a friend of ours from Distracted. He is staying with his partner, Glen in Wellington for a few months. They came over for Christmas brunch and stayed until about 4pm, when they had to leave to go to another dinner with other friends. The weather was perfect today.

Day 148. “Pink markers and pink plimsoles”. We caught the cable car to the top of the Botanic Gardens and then followed the pink flower markers back down to the city. It was a beautiful walk through the various gardens. Along the way I photographed Janet’s pink shoes on either side of a pink flower marker. Further down the hill we passed through an old graveyard with its crumbling gravestones. I took a few shots with my i-pod using the Hipstamatic App. Must come back to take more shots.

Day 149. “Te Papa Bugger Up”. We spent the morning in the Te Papa Museum marveling at the Marae and ocean crossing vessels. At the end I thought I would take a photograph of the Maori sculptured gates on an upstairs level, so raced back up the stairs, while Janet settled into the gift shop. But just as I got my Holga out my bag and was adjusting the settings, I accidentally pressed the shutter release. I had no idea what I had photographed, so I took a photo of the sculpture anyway, but obviously not sure how it would all come out. Afternote: it actually turned out quite well as I got a double exposure of the sculpture gates and the exposure was OK.

We saw a retrospective exhibition by Brian Brake (one of NZ’s best known photographers). Great photos, but I was disappointed to find out that one of my favourite photos of all time (of an Indian girl looking up into the rain and smiling) was a staged shot.

Day 150. “Wellington Wall” Heavy rain overnight with a northerly gale. And it kept raining for most of the morning, so we spent our time indoors. In the late afternoon the sun came out briefly so we dashed out to take some photos. I took this shot of a graffiti filled building wall because the face was reminiscent of Maori war-like tattoos.

Day 151. “Flax Cottage Bench”. We drove from Wellington to Napier today, but not before having breakfast at Lyall Beach with Janet’s friend Brad. We are staying just north of Napier along the Northern Road. Flax Cottage is perched up on small hill surrounded by vineyards and with great views across the bay to Napier. It had an interesting old bench on the veranda so I took this photo of Janet as we shared a glass of wine before dinner.

Day 152. “Napier Vintage Car”. We spent the day wandering around Napier, admiring the Art Deco architecture and browsing through the numerous interesting vintage shops. In the afternoon we took an Art Deco tour. Along the way we passed a vintage car which I thought would make a good photo. Discovered that the batteries in my Holga have run flat, so the remaining photos on this roll will all have to be daylight photos. Annoying.

Day 153. “Napier Sculpture”. We spent another day in Napier, admiring the architecture and shopping. We took a detour of the iconic sculpture of Pania on the Reef, but I was under whelmed. After lunch I took a photo of another sculpture located on the main street of a young 1920’s woman walking her dog and waving to some unseen friends. To me, it so captured the Art Deco which pervades the town.

Day 154. “Matamata Café”. Home of the world’s grumpiest barrista. We drove to Auckland today and had a picnic lunch along the way. Afterwards we stopped in Matamata for a coffee. It was memorable only for the sour disposition of the woman who served me at the only open café in the town. Perhaps she was recovering from a big New Years Eve Party.

Day 155. “Fuller’s Ferries”. We caught a ferry to Devonport this morning and walked around the quaint town. We strolled up to the top of Mount Victoria, which is really just a volcanic knoll, but it does provide excellent views of Auckland and the surrounding islands. In the tradition of “shots from my hotel room”, I took this photo of a ferry as it departed from the terminal in the late afternoon.

Day 156. “Diamond Princess”. The hotel told us to draw our curtains as the sealiner, the “Diamond Princess” would be docking alongside our hotel in the morning. “Surely it can’t be this high”, I said, “We are on the 6^th floor”. We watched it sailing into port at first light and moor on the wharf besides our hotel. It was taller than our floor, plus a whole lot more. I took a double exposure of the logo and a life raft from our hotel room. We flew back to Perth in the afternoon.

Day 157. “Varga Girl – Oxford Street”. Back in Perth and back on the bike for the first time in about two months – riding to and from work. On the way home I snapped this shot of the logo above Varga Girl in Leederville.

Day 158. “Post Holiday Unpacking (or the photo that went missing…). I thought I had taken a photo of the unpacking chaos in our dining room, post our holiday, but either it didn’t come out at all (can’t see any traces in the Varga Girl shot) or I was hallucinating. Anyway it was supposed to be the last shot of Roll #8 as I felt that the flat batteries in my Holga were stifling my creativity, so I was going to take out the film and replace the batteries.

Roll # 7

Day 127. “ Joy and John”. Well this was the reason for coming to Bali – Joy and John’s wedding party! Beautiful bride, handsome groom, great venue and interesting wedding guests. All the right ingredients. I took lots of other photos with both my Pentax and my other Holga. Did my continuous photo trick. The photos came out really well. We partied to the very end and were the last guests to leave. A brave move, given that we had to get up early the next day to catch a flight home.

128. “Bali Dolls”. A quick photo before we left for the airport. I chose these two Balinese dolls, which resembled a bride and groom. Almost talisman for Joy and John’s marriage. I superimposed a double exposure of an Indonesian god motif over the dolls as a guardian on their marriage. Then off to the airport and home. Back to real life and all the relaxation of Bali lost in a few hours. I am dreaming of humid skies and warm surf. Of riding a scooter with abandonment along roads divided by rice paddies and temples. A place where I felt young and free.

129. “Garden Buddha”. Janet flew off to Adelaide this morning, so I am home alone for the rest of the working week. Picked up the negatives I dropped off yesterday after work. I now have a pile of negatives for scanning. In all the rush I forgot to take a photo until I got home. Thought I would stay with a Bali theme so I photographed the Buddha statue in our front garden.

130. “Me”. I realised today that it is 130 days into the project and I haven’t photographed myself. So this evening I took this shot of me against a wall of a whole lot of photos I have taken.

131. “Photo Collage”. I got all the prints back from Fitzgeralds from my 60 in 60 shots. Fifteen prints and I need to choose 10 for exhibition. I had all the photos laid out on a table so I thought this would be a good shot to compliment yesterday’s photo.

Day 132. “Rus at Tiger Tiger”. I’ve known Rus since the days he worked at Café 130 in Leederville. Now he is an actor in Melbourne, but still comes back to Perth every year to catch up with family and friends. And when he is back he helps out at Tiger Tiger. He made me coffee this morning and I took this photo of him.

133. “Sam and I”. Sam has been cutting my hair for over a year now. She is about to have a baby boy and so this is my last haircut with her for a while. So I took the Holga along and took this photo of Sam and I after she had cut my hair.

134. “Red Tree”. Hyde Park in North Perth has a number of trees who sprout red berries around this time of the year. Janet said they were flame trees and she was right (as always). I took this photo on the way home after we had lunch at Must Wine Bar and then bought a few things at Kartique. Melissa, the daughter of the owner, had found some beautiful old typesetting stamps in India and she gave me a few to try out for free

135. ”New Cabinet”. Full day at work with a Leadership Team meeting. So no opportunity to photograph anything until I got home. We had received a new, multiple draw cabinet from India. I has faded and worn blue paint and looks great against our burgundy coloured wall. It’s a temporary spot and is too wide for the wall, but it looks great there. I am not sure what we are going to hide in all the draws.

136. “Bronte Instead”. I had meant to photograph our friends Matt and Tracy when we went for a drink after work. But in all the excitement of catching up, I forgot all about taking a shot. So when I got home, I took a photo of our other cat, Bronte, instead.

Day 137. “Hope’s Birthday”. Wednesday, 15^th December. It was Hope’s birthday today. We were planning on having some people around for drinks at our house, but the week just seemed too chaotic, so we postponed the pre-Christmas drinks to some kind of post New Year celebration. As we had a free night, Michelle (of Pink Zulu et al Fame) invited us around for dinner to celebrate Hope’s birthday. I was a marvellous night. Michelle has a wonderful family and it felt special being part of a family celebration. Joy and John (of the Bali wedding fame) came along and I showed them by Bali wedding shots. Hope also showed us some of the prints from her travels. Incredible photos – she has a good eye. I took this photo of the girls sometime before dinner.

138. “Kitsch Take 2”. I caught the train home after work and then walked up Oxford Street from the station to our home. I passed Kitsch bar along the way and thought I would have another go at photographing the painting on the wall, as the previous photo had not come out at all.

139. “Joy, Hope, Love”. Friday – a major rush day as we were flying out to New Zealand in the evening and it was our office Christmas Party in the afternoon. My new glasses arrived and so I dashed out in mid morning to collect them. On the way I pasted Target and there was a window display with boxes labelled “Joy, Hope, Love”. It reminded me of Joy and Hope (of Michelle fame) and it sort of captured the Christmas spirit, so I snapped this photo.

140. “Palm Beach Chalets”. We arrived in Auckland at 5.15am. It was raining. We did all the normal airport things, collected our hire car and drove to the ferry terminal to go across to Waiheke Island. We tried to find a coffee shop, or café, or somewhere where we could get a coffee and breakfast, but there was nowhere around Half Moon Bay or Buckland Beach. So we caught an early ferry and had breakfast en route. We bummed around Waiheke Island for the rest of the morning, but the rain curtailed most island type activities. After we checked in we spent the rest of the day holed in our Chalet, watching the cricket and sleeping. The photo is of the view from our Chalet. Australia looked like they would win the 3^rd test match to level the series.

Post Note: In the previous film, I did not wind on enough for some of the photos. Looks like I went to the other extreme with these last 3 shots...I've only been doing this for 7 rolls of film. Think I would be able to get it right by now....

Day 141. “Casita Miro”. Slept in late. It was still raining. After breakfast we ventured out for a coffee (in the rain) then tried to buy some rain jackets, but appears not to be the season for rain and therefore rain jackets. We eventually bought plastic ponchos that look like garbage bags with hoods. We when to Casita Miro for lunch. They have a great building with interesting sash windows made only of glass. I think these would be great for study in Margaret River. Janet is worried they would leak. The photograph is of the main door of the restaurant (taken in the rain). Australia won the 3^rd test in quick time this morning. Still raining.

142. “Wine glass at Sandbar”. Still raining! But with some clear times in between. Slept in again and went to Mudbrick Winery for lunch. We had an excellent meal and a great bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Afterwards we went into Oneroa, the main town on the island. Still looking for rain jackets without luck. It was starting to clear so we decided to have a sundowner at one of the local bars overlooking the beach. I took this photo of my wine glass as we sat there.

143. “Park Bench and Kite @ Lake Taupo”. The weather was still iffy as we drove from Auckland to Lake Taupo. The double laned freeway soon became single laned country road as we headed south. We stopped in Cambridge for some lunch and found some rain jackets. The weather started to clear. We got to Lake Taupo in the mid afternoon, checked into the B&B where we were staying and went for a walk along the lake shore. There were a number of interestingly carved benches made from local timber along the shore. It was very windy and a number of kite surfers had started launching from a landing near our B&B. So I took a double exposure of the bench and the kite surfers.