Roll #11

Day 201. “Plane window over Ceduna”. I took this photo out the plane window as we flew out of Ceduna o the way back to Adelaide. I think this is the third in my “out of the aeroplane window” series. Not bad considering the amount of flying I do.

Day 202. “Argon Petrol”. I dropped off my previous roll of film at Fitzgeralds and drove home. On the way there, I passed the old gas station that still has the sign “Argon Petrol” in the front. It is faded and cracked but looks great against the evening sky.

Day 203. “Bruce and Friends at Kitsch”. Capel and back in a day, but photo opportunities on the way. Fortunately our friends Bruce and Gail had invited us to Kitsch for dinner, so I photographed them after our meal. Bruce brought another South African couple – Frank and Jenny along. Frank is an ex-antique dealer and Jenny is an academic. We ended up at our house for a night cap and affogatos, so it turned into a big night out

Day 204. “Wine Dog”. A slow day after our big night out. To add pressure to my delicate constitution, we had wine tasting on this Saturday night. I managed to reduce my thumping headache to dull thudding just in time to sip a glass of sparkling wine before tucking into 13 others. The host’s sister was in town and she had a beautiful dog, which became the subject of my photo. I took a double exposure because she moved just as I took my first shot and I wasn’t sure if I got her.

Day 205. “Northbridge”. Spend most of Sunday cleaning the house and doing chores (hanging pictures). Also scanned in the photos from the previous 365 roll. In the evening we went to see the “King’s Speech” and then had dinner at Maya Masala in Northbridge. On the way home I photographed the gates in front of a nightclub.

Day 206. “ Hay Street Sculpture”. As I was waiting for Janet after work, I took this photo of a sculpture on Hay Street (opposite Central Park) and one of the girls standing behind the sculpture. “Will you take my photograph?”, asked one of the girls standing around, seeing the Holga. “I just did”, I replied. But the photo didn’t come out very well as it was underexposed.

Day 207. “Cookery Books at home”. A full day at work and then a team dinner straight afterwards. So not much opportunity for photographing anything. Got home and saw the book case containing all of Janet’s cookery books and thought that this was my be option for a photo for the day.

Day 208. “Angel Photo”. Our friend Pascal came round to visit after work. By the time he left and had done a few things around the house, it was late. I thought I would photograph a photo of the angel on our staircase, which is a photo of sculpture in Paris. Art duplicating art, duplicating art. Unfortunately again, the photo is underexposured and gets lost amongst the noise of the adjacent photos.

Day 209. “New Dyson Vacuum Cleaner”. We are getting a new cleaner tomorrow, so Janet decided that we should buy a new vacuum cleaner (not that she is the one who ever uses the vacuum). Only a Dyson would do, so that is what we got. In honour of our new Dyson, I took this photo. It looks pretty space aged anyway.

Day 210. “Easter Eggs @ Rotto”. Mark and Michele invited us to Rotto for the weekend. Their son, Grant was swimming across from Cottlesloe the following day in the Rottnest Channel Swim. We caught the ferry over in the afternoon and then spent a very relaxing evening on their boat. I took this photo almost as a reflex as we passed some Easter Eggs around dinner. It’s not even March and there are Easter Eggs around!

Day 211. “Ritual Stone @ Rotto”. Rottnest Channel Swim day. But instead of photographing the swim finish (which was chaotic and crowded), I decided to photo Michele sitting on the airhead lilo floating behind “White Mischief”. Janet and Michele had just blessed the greenstone pounamu which Janet had given to Michele as a present. Michele was wearing the pounamu for the first time and sitting, mermaid-like on the floating platform.

Unfortunately Michele’s head and the pounamu are hidden behind the easter eggs of the day before.

Day 212. “Backgammon Champ”. Hope taught me how to play backgammon while we sloshed around on “White Mischief”. I won a few games, but most of the time I let her win because she took so much pleasure in her victories (that’s my story anyway”. I photographed Hope reclining after one of her (many) victories, but like Michele, her head is hidden by the previous photo. Stupid idea of mine to overlap the shots.

Day 213. “Shells”. We got back from Rotto last night but I am missing the place already. I collected some shells (with the help of Michele) and I photographed a few in my hand in memory of a great weekend. The ground still keeps swaying. I found a tiny conical shell that was perfectly worn so that only its spine was left. How does that happen?

Day 214. “Kings Park Avenue”. I was invited to a talk about Opportunity International - a micro financing fundraising company, held in an apartment next to Kings Park. I was struck by the beautiful evening light shining on the gum trees.

Day 215. “Peter Alexander Shop Front”. The “New York” cut-out in the window display of the Peter Alexander shop on Hay Street caught my eye as I walked down the Mall. I liked the understated funkiness of the display. It also brought back memories of my many visits to New York. So this is really a nostalgic shot.

Day 216. “Morris Minor on Salisbury”. Another day trip to Capel. Tormented by the dead trees in the fields adjacent to the new freeway. They stand like skeletons in the fields. Bleached and stripped of all life, but not fallen – they remain defiant. One day I must take the time to photograph the trees properly. But not today. Today I drove past in a rush. I photographed an old morris minor which is sometimes parked on our street.

Day 217. “Artrage Wall”. I was going to meet with Yolanda at lunch time to discuss how to go about staging an exhibition of Photo 365. I thought she would make a good subject. But she had to cancel at the last minute, so I was photo-less by the time I rode home. On the way I passed Artrage and took a photo of the west facing wall.

Day 218. “Kim @ Distracted”. Went to Distracted for the first time in ages on Saturday morning. And saw Natalie for the first time in even more ages! Kim (aka Batgirl) was working as well. She has a partly shaven head with bat tattoos. I have been dying to photograph her, so this turned out to be my opportunity.

Day 219. “Flowers @ Home (again)”. We were going to go to Sculptures by the Sea but we woke up late and spent the day tidying up the house. Then I finally got round to replacing the rusting laundry basin and cabinet (only because its junk collection day soon). After THREE trips to Bunnings and much anguish, we decided to postpone the sculpture viewing to Monday (being a public holiday). So at 7pm that night I had to think of a photo. Fortunately Janet had bought a beautiful bunch of flowers the day before

Day 220. “My Fair Lady”. We went to Sculptures by the Sea this afternoon – well almost. On the way there we stopped off at Mark and Michele’s for a coffee and cake. Well we did have cakes, but it was drunk with a variety of wines, not coffee. Needless to say, we never got to Cott Beach. Hope was reading “Pygmalion” when we got there and after a brief interlude she returned to her book, but dozed off. She looked so peaceful and seeing I wasn’t going to photograph any sculptures that day, I chose her. As it turned out, the old obscured head thing happened again. Why did I decide to take overlapping photos for this project?

Day 221. “Sculptures by the Sea”. Finally we got to Sculptures by the Sea! Actually it worked out well because the previous day had apparently been very crowded at Cott. Tuesday was less busy and we got a chance to actually see the sculptures. I ran around with my Holga and the Hipstamatic and Janet was armed with the Nikon. I photographed the “Big Red Chinese Boy” as my shot of the day. As I was near the end of my film I just kept on taking photos to finish it off.