Roll #13

Roll #13. This roll of film has turned out to be a disaster. I have finished the roll and not written up a single day! Now I’m struggling to remember some of the photos I took. One good thing about this project is that it forms a record of something that happened every day of the year. I just have to remember what it recorded.

Day 244. “Entertainment Centre Sign”. This day we walked past the old Entertainment Centre, which has been standing vacant for several years now. I took a photo of the old advertising sign, now cracked and faded.

Day 245. “Janet’s necklace – post comedy club night”. We went to the Comedy Club at the Charles Hotel because we thought my new friend, Brent was doing a gig there. Turns out he wasn’t. But there were a few good acts. Afterwards, as Janet and I sat finishing our glasses of wine, we were mistaken for “swingers” by some guy who called himself “Xavier”. A bit awkward, but funny afterwards, I guess. I had planned to take a photo of Brent, but as he was a no show, I took a photo of Janet’s necklace instead.

Day 246. Friday, April 1st. “Dean and Darryl after the York Ride”. I was invited to participate in a corporate bike ride from Perth to York. 136km in a group of 24 riders. How hard can that be? In a strong easterly wind on an unusually hot day, pretty hard, it turns out. I got cramp early and kept getting dropped by the lead group of cyclists, so ended up riding solo for long periods. Anyway we all made it to York in the end and celebrated with a dinner afterwards. Janet and various other cyclists partners drove up for the evening and we stayed in York overnight. I took a photo of Dean and Darryl, two of the cyclists I know, late in the evening.

Day 247. “petrol station in York”. We drove back to Perth on the Saturday after breakfast. I had briefly thought about riding back, but my legs disagreed. I photographed a vintage petrol sign in York before we left for Perth.
Day 248. “Melissa, Robert and Bill @ home”. Our good friend, Robert, was in town for a few days on business and we invited him around for dinner on the Sunday. We also invited Bill and Melissa who have traveled with us to Europe at various times and all know each other. As per usual, Janet cooked a delicious meal of peppers, pizza and Anna Gare tarts. All vegetarian as Mel doesn’t eat meat.

Day 249. “kettle at home”. Monday photos always seem boring and down after the weekend. I took this photo of our kettle, in the hope that the blinged up would be reflected in the frame. It wasn’t.

Day 250. “Old Sea Cannon – Geraldton Airport”. Day trip to Geraldton, which always presents a photographic challenge. Up early, drive to the airport, fly to Geraldton, go to processing plant. Work. Drive to airport and fly home in the evening. Not much scope for interesting photos. Ended up snapping the old cannon from a shipwreck, which is now displayed at Geraldton airport.

Day 251. “Grosvenor Hotel Sign”. Full day at work. I had to pick up a hire car in the evening and took this photo of the Grosvenor Hotel Gates, which is opposite the hire car depot.

Day 252. “Basket of Brushes @ home”. Down to Capel and back in a day. A full day, it turned out. Drove past the dead trees along the highway between Perth and Pinjarra and remembered that one day I will stop to photograph them. But today I only took my photo when I got home – a jar full of brushes in our house.

Day 253. “Sarah @ Kitsch”. Friday after a long, busy week. Where else to go but Kitsch for a quick meal and some good wine? It’s getting popular and busy – to the point where reservations are recommended. But Sarah always manages to find us a table. And Anita always cooks us great meals. I took this photo of Sarah after dessert.

Day 254. “Grant and Zoe @ dinner”. We caught up with the now famous M&M and their clan for dinner on Saturday night. Mark took us to his “club”. Grant and Zoe were fooling around after dinner when I took this photo.

Day 255. “Indian Goddess in Garage”. I am planning to buy a new car and so I need to tidy up our garage/shed to clear enough space to park the car there. A the moment the garage/shed is serving as a storage space for the doors and floor boards for our MR house. It’s very cluttered and I struggle to even park my bicycles in the shed. So I spend the day tidying up and moving things around to create enough parking space. At the end of the day I photographed the Indian Goddess sculptures adorning a “gateway’ we bought for the MR House.

Day 256. “Lemons in a bowl”. Must be Monday. I took this photo a painting Janet recently bought. Art imitating art?

Day 257. “MCG from Hotel Room”. I flew to Melbourne today for a couple of business meetings. Got in late and then got stuck in traffic into the city. Then I drove to one of the suburbs to pick a bike I had bought on e-bay. By the time I checked into my hotel in was past 9 pm. My hotel was opposite the MCG and I could see the stadium from my room. It was all lit up and so I took this photo. I wrote the following while I was in Melbourne.

The Darkest Hour

Paul Kelly sang
“the darkest hour is before the dawn”
Or words to that effect

So you sit in this long darkness
And draw yourself to yourself
Hugging your legs, chin on your knees
Cloaked in the warmth of a new insight
Gently rocking alone but not lonely

And you look away from the dark past
of this seemingly endless winter
To the still opaque horizon of your future
Unafraid
Knowing that this despairing mist will rise
And the sun will warm you
And you will bathe in joy

A small bird begins its morning song
And you know



Day 258. “Sculpture @ Melbourne Airport”. Full day of meetings in Melbourne. Got stuck in traffic back to the airport and it started raining as I arrived there. I realized that I hadn’t taken a photo when I was walking to the terminal, so I photographed the sculptures of the “race goers”.

Day 259. “Graffiti in Pier Street Laneway”. Back in Perth and caught up with Janet and her colleague Dorothy after work at a bar in Pier Street. On the way, I passed a laneway which had some interesting graffiti, which I duly snapped.

Day 260. “John and Jenny @ Wineclub”. Wineclub again. I can’t believe it has come around so quickly. Our club has been going for 9 years now and tonight we tasted our 1000th wine! The tasting was held at Jenny and John’s place and we tasted a number of the “outstanding wines” from our previous nine years of tastings. The reds remained outstanding, but some of the whites were disappointing. And the Gosset Champagne was corked! The first time I have tasted a corked champers and hopefully the last time. However, all in all it was an excellent tasting and afterwards I photographed J&J in their kitchen.

Day 261. “Our New Car”. I picked up our new car today and after buzzing around Freo and Cottlesloe for a few hours with the top down, I managed to park it in our garage/shed without scratching it. I took this photo of the bonnet of the car as a memento.

Day 262. “Freo Blues and Roots Festival”. Big concert day for us! Bob Dylan was the main billing, but unfortunately he was rubbish. Michael Franti was the revelation of the day for me. I love his zest for life and the way he engaged the audience. Unfortunately I had already taken my photo of the day before he came on stage. I had photographed the crowd with Elvis Costello in the background. Actually it turns out I photographed my foot, with some people in the background.

“Day 263. “Moroccan style hot chicken salad”. Mondays continue to be bad days for photographs. I guess Mondays tend to be fill in days after busy weekends. I took this photo of a great meal Janet cooked for dinner – Moroccan style hot chicken salad with beetroot. She is planning on doing a food blog and I need to lift my game on the food photograph. Current exhibit being a case in point.

Day 264. ‘Chair with magazines in hotel”. Overnight in Bunbury. Flat out all day and then dinner with a friend and consultant that evening. Only got to my hotel room after 10pm. Too late for going out and photographing stuff in Bunbury, so I ended up photographing a chair in my room, onto which I tossed a few magazines. Desperate.

Day 265. Wednesday 20th April. End of Roll #13 and only 100 days to go after this! “Backgammon Set”. I finally got the dice I had ordered for my backgammon set. I paid 99c for the dice on e-bay and it cost me about $30 in postage to get them from Canada. Go figure. Anyway to celebrate their arrival and because I didn’t know what else to photograph, I took a snap of my backgammon set and the dice. Lame I know. Now to beat Hope at her own game.

Film #12

Day 222. “Koi and black girl with baby”. We had been invited to our friend, Darren’s house so that Janet could look at some new clothes (her winter collection). Darren has a fish pond filled with koi, which I thought would make a good photo opp. But he also had a beautiful statue, so I took a double exposure of both the koi and the statue. Unfortunately only the latter seems to have been exposed.

Day 223. “Lights in Shop Window - Capel Street, Melbourne”. Janet and I went to Melbourne for a long weekend – mainly for the Food and Wine Festival, but also to catch up with friends and enjoy Melbourne. We were staying at the Olsen Art Hotel and had dinner at Caffe e’ Cucina on Capel Street. We would be regulars at this place if we lived in Melbourne. Afterwards we strolled along Capel Street. I saw the lights in this funky shop and I took (another) double exposure with two different light settings.

Day 224. “Janet and I at the Olsen. We slept in late. Then caught the train to the city and wandered around the Art Gallery at Federation Square until it was time to go to lunch at Movida. Afterwards, I took lots of photos of the graffiti in the laneways behind Movida. When we got back to the hotel, I took a photo of Janet and I in the mirror in our room. Unfortunately it didn’t come out. Ah well.

Day 225. Saturday 12^th March (Ruth’s Birthday) “Street Sign”. First day of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. We saw Anna Gare and Nigella Lawson in the afternoon, but I didn’t get a chance to photograph either! We went to Charcoal Lane for dinner and only afterwards did I take this photo of a street sign outside the restaurant.

Day 226. “Zak Pelaccio – Fatty Crab”. The second day of the Food and Wine Festival. First up was Zak from the Fatty Crab in NYC. I thought I would get in early and photograph him after my previous day of missed opportunities. Later we saw Roy Choi and heard about his street food revolution in LA. I wish I had waited for Roy, or at least taken a double exposure of Zak and Roy.

Day 227. “Gabi, Ed and the Girls”. We caught up with our good friends, Gabi and Ed in their brand new house in Kew. They (and their daughters, plus the dog) were an obvious choice for my photo of the day.

Day 228. “Horsham Murals”. Day one of my Victorian Road Trip and I am spending the night in Horsham. Last time I was in Horsham was Day 4 of my project. I wasn’t sure what I would photograph this time, but as I walked along the main street I found a few possible subjects:

• a surf shop (in the middle of country Victoria!)
• a dress shop with an old gramophone and records in the window display
• a vintage children horse ride
• the Royal Hotel
• Old post boxes (that aren’t used as post boxes anymore)

Finally I took a photo of a mural down a side alley off the main street.

Day 229. “Television in Motel Room – Balranald”. A full day of travel from Horsham to Balranald via one of our mine sites near Ouyen. I got in late and went straight to dinner with some of my team at the motel we were staying in. Only afterwards did I realize I had not taken a photo for the day. What the hell do you photograph in Balranald at 9pm at night? Come to think of it, what do you photograph in Balranald during the day? So I photographed the old TV set in my motel room. Looking at the photographs now, it didn’t come out too well.

Day 230. Thursday 17^th March – St Patrick’s Day “Mildura Signs and Shops”. Got into Mildura after the sun had gone down after a full day out in the field and driving from Balranald to Mildura. After dinner I went for a walk around down town Mildura. Didn’t take long. But it was St Paddy’s day so there were a few people out and about. I photographed an interesting looking sign and then saw a bicycle in a shop window which had been partly covered in crochet. So I took a double exposure.

Day 231. “Blind Tasting”. Another month has gone by and so its wine club night again. Our host this month, Greg, made us taste a few wines blind-folded. Best chance for a photo, I thought, so I shot Janet and our friend Stephen wearing their masks.

Day 232. “Briar and Joey”. Our friend, Joey, got married to Briar last year in the UK and until recently they had lived in Antwerp. But late last year they moved to Perth and this was the first time we had to catch up with them.

Day 233. “Verge Collection”. Its verge collection time in our neighbourhood and the junk has been steadily piling up (and disappearing). I put out a fridge, an old laundry basin, some broken kitchen appliances and a case of beer that I forgotten in my shed for over two years. All disappeared within 48 hours and well before the council folk came round. I saw an interesting looking toy discarded on a heap of old furniture near our house and took this shot. Note: I love the way Joey from the previous shot and the toy have the same goofy grin.

Day 234. “Cooking Class at Kitsch”. More cooking classes. This time at Kitsch down the road from our house. It was great because we could actually participate in the class and afterwards they cooked us a delicious meal! I photographed Annita as she prepared her coconut mussel pancakes. Yum! Unfortunately she got lost in the next photo and you can just see her hands.

Day 235. “Michael Parkes Book”. Ah, work-day doldrums. I didn’t think about taking a photo until late in the evening. In the end I photographed a picture of some artwork by Michael Parkes, an America Artist. We have one of his stone lithographs at home.

Day 237. “David Whyte Poetry Books”. I ordered some David Whyte and John O’Donogue poetry books, which arrived today. I laid them out on the kitchen bench and took this photograph. To quote David Whyte’s “The Journey”.

Sometimes everything

has to be

enscribed across

the heavens

so you can find

the one line

already written

inside you

Day 238. “Artrage – The Other Wall” Get up, cycle, go to work. Work, work, work. Cycle home. At least on the way home I passed Artrage and photographed the “other wall” covered in graffiti art. Since Melbourne, I have been looking for graffiti everywhere.

Day 239. 25^th March – i-pod2 launch in Australia. “apple shop”. The i-Pod2 was launched in Australia today and the queue went around the block by midday, with some people getting there 12 hours before the release time of 5pm. I took this photo of the Apple Shop on Hay Street about two minutes after 5pm as the press waited outside the store to interview the first purchasers.

Day 240. “Self portrait with camera t-shirt”. I bought a t-shirt with about 50 old cameras printed on the front. I took this self portrait shooting into the mirror in the hope that I would get my Holga and the t-shirt in the frame, but I got my face and the t-shirt instead. I look old and sad.

Day 241. “Jessica @ Work”. We went to Midland today to see the workshop and jewellery store of our friend Jessica Jubb. We have been meaning to get out to JJHQ since it opened last year, but, well you know how it goes. Best intentions and all…Anyway, she has the greatest workshop and store, filled with beautiful old things and her stunning jewellery. I took this photo of her next to one of her old mannequins. Only afterwards did I realize that not only is her jewellery a work of art, but her entire workshop is too

Day 242. “Graffiti Angel”. Photographed this Angel on the wall next to the skateboard park at the bottom of Oxford Street. I’m on a serious graffiti art roll now.

Day 243. “Venn Studio Window”. I rode past the new Venn Shop/Gallery/Studio/Café today. It looks really interesting. I wanted to finish my roll so that I could get it developed, so I took a photograph of the Venn display window. You can just see a red rocking horse in the photo.