Photography course

Phew! It's 9 o'clock on a Sunday and I've already collapsed into bed!

I've spent all day at a photography course run by the Shoot Experience team and it has been exhausting work. The course runs over two Sundays with 5 trainees being taught by a professional photographer named Toby Smith.

Most of us are just taking photos for fun, but we all want to learn the secrets of our digital SLRs. Today we spent half a day on photo theory making sure we knew all the controls our cameras offered followed by a couple of hours of experimentation in a nearby church yard. The course has primarily been a refresher rather than new information for me, but it has given me some new ideas to try out and it has been great fun spending time with other camera enthusiasts. I'm really looking forward to next week where we spend most of the day outside shooting (assuming the weather is kind again!).

I really should have posted some of the photos I took today, but I'm too tired tonight, so maybe I'll get to it one night next week.

Urban Street Hunt

Last Saturday, Phil & I along with my friends Hel & Trent competed in the Urban Street Hunt photography competition. The event was part of the Festival of Architecture whose coordinators had joined with the Shoot Experience team to host a great event celebrating the architecture of the South Bank area of London.

Our team, affectionately nicknamed "Overworked, Underpaid", joined 73 other teams at the Southbank Centre in London where we were given a map, some clues and a quick briefing before being set free in south central London to take photos of the answers to the clues. We covered the Imperial War Museum (once an insane asylum), Borough Market, the old Leatherworks, Guy's Hospital and a number of other amazing sights in the area.

At the end of the day, everyone gathered back in the hall, where all the photos were projected onto a big screen whilst the winners were selected. The results were hilarious - the Shoot events reward both technically spectacular photos, as well as those that show the team was having a good time. Funniest of all is listening to people groan as they realise that the photo they thought would win the comp for them has been taken almost identically by six other teams!

We didn't win any prizes - although I think we should have won "Most Aptly Named Team" as Hel & Trent had to rush off for a couple of hours in the middle of the day to support some of their work clients. It was a great way to see some more of London though, so I'm looking forward to signing up for a future event.

Here were our entries for the day along with the clues:

A. The forty year old, spiky topped, concrete brute.


B. At one time the house of the morally insane, now the house of insane morality.


C. Around-about the centre of these two, is a site of a somewhat fitting memorial.


D. Guy’s bumpy bandage.


E. Not far from a North African street they once de-fleshed, un-haired, agitate, rolled, hung, bought and exchanged.

F. A friendly little invasion over Park Street.


G. Number


H. Monster


I. Building


I'm doing a photo course run by Shoot Experience tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have a better chance of winning next time round!

Passion, fire and magic!

As I've said often in this blog - Avenue Q is probably my favourite London musical. I saw it for the fourth time last Friday night when I organised a night out for my team at work. I love sharing something I really enjoy with my friends and seeing them enjoy it too.

Anyway, I think I may have found a musical to challenge AQ as my number one... Zorro. It tells the legend of Don Diego de la Vega (aka Zorro) who defends the Spanish Californians from injustice and cruelty. The show is full of passionate flamenco dancing, brilliant "gypsy" music, fire , swordplay and magic. It's BRILLIANT!

I went to see it on Thursday with my friend Karen. We really weren't sure what to expect - particularly since the opening of the preview shows had been delayed by two nights until Wednesday due to "the safety concerns of the crew". That just added to the excitement as you thought there might be the possibility of real bloodshed on stage!

No (unplanned) blood was spilt, but there was plenty of action, beautiful costumes, soaring music and subtle seamless magic.

So now, if you come to London make sure you have time for two shows - Avenue Q AND Zorro!

Facebook convert

Okay, time for an embarrassing admission - I've only just caught the "Facebook bug".

I know, I know - as a person who spends 40+ hours a week being a software developer I should be up on all this stuff. To be honest I was thinking that I didn't really want to be part of the Facebook trend - the people I wanted to keep up with I already did, so why bother?

Yesterday, I had a sentimental moment and wondered what my old school mates were up to. What happened to the wonderful people I worked with one summer uni vacation in Port Hedland? What about my ex-work colleagues? Or the people I used to sail with or play netball with? Where are they all now? Have they found their soulmates, married and had children, or are they living footloose and fancy free in some exotic location partying the night away?

So I ventured back into the Facebook account I set up about 6 months ago and started searching for names of people I once spent all day every day with. It's great (as you all probably know) because once you find one friend you can browse their friends to find other people you know.

I've discovered that one of my best friends from high school is living in London too. Another friend has married and popped out two children with one more on the way since I last saw her in Target in Perth. And a third has followed her schoolgirl dreams and become a vet.

So, yes - I am now a Facebook convert. I don't think I'll be an everyday Facebooker, but it's nice to know I can keep in touch with all the fabulous people that have shared my life with me. Awww... another sentimental moment - I must be getting old ;)