Pixar Exhibit – Mike

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

I had an amazing omelet Omelette (thanks Kes) for breakfast this morning before heading into Melbourne for the Pixar Exhibition at Federation Square.

The exhibition was filled with amazing concept artwork and demonstrations and was well worth the visit.

Had lunch at Nandos and hung around Melbourne for a while before heading into St. Kilda for a meal at the Blue Corn Mexican restaurant. If you like Mexican this is a great place to eat. They serve real tacos (the type you would not even remotely consider picking up to eat as the contents would gush everywhere) and the desert was too good not to be causing damage.

Back home and straight into bed.

Welcome to a new week.

Albert

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

I’m catching up slowly on my activities…

Saturday saw me venturing somewhat hesitantly to the Malloy residence for their annual Grand Final BBQ. I have been in contact with Tony and Rae via blog comments and Flickr for many years but had never actually met them.

So Saturday was the day. I went in to the house and was immediately greeted warmly as if a family member or an old friend. The advantage of participating in the 365days self portrait project is that they had a fairly good idea what I looked like.

What a great bunch of people I met on that day. I came across a person whose blog I have been following for at least the last five years and whom I purchase a “Gollum” statue from off eBay to complete my Lord of The Rings set. It was great to finally catch up with him after years of occasional emails.

Of course I had my camera with me and put it to good use (with full permission from Tony and Rae) and the featured photo is but one of the shots I managed to capture of little Bert and others.

As said before I had a great time and hope it isn’t a year before I catch up with Tony, Rae, Daniel, Marita (spelling) et al.

Thanks for the invite Tony!

To sum it up … 7 out of 10. Some of the audio quality was lacking with some microphones cutting out here and there. But they did gain points in having a few members of the original recording band rocking the stage especially one Mr Herbie Flowers on bass.

What did impress me was the hologram of Richard Burton floating to the side of the stage when ever he was doing the voice over. That was cool.

A good show … I expected a little more for the ticket price but as I got it as a birthday present … can’t really complain.

Mmmm … pie

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

The title isn’t a typo … it was intentional. One of you will recognisie it.

Yesterday after returning Matthew in to the safe hands of his mother I ventured back to Glen Waverley and twiddled my thumbs before going for a walk to the local lake with the camera. I realised as I was flat on my stomach trying to get the angle right on a dandelion macro that I must be a little serious about this whole photography thing as I was generally ignoring the muttered comments made by passers by.

Upon return to the house, in a round about way, I was invited to dinner at Timbo and Selena’s. Not one to normally pass up a free feed, I grabbed the necessities for dinner at someones house (only one camera and my MacBook) and drove Baronia.

It had been a disgusting amount of time since Timbo and I last hung out. So it was great to catch up. Selena was her normal radiant self and it was fantastic discussing life with her again.

The dinner was superb (as you can very well see) and was followed by strawberry pancakes. Little do they know but I’ll be launching myself on their doorstep again shortly!

A funny thing from the night was realising that not only did they know a friend of mine (hi Fiona!) but I had sat next to her at Tim and Sel’s wedding! This was before I met her this year. The wedding photos proved the seating layout. Funny.

After taking Timbo through my digital work flow at his request, I packed up and headed home.

Great catching up with you again guys and Timbo, I’ll see you on the 23rd for the night shoot. Hamish, I know you read this blog. You are coming too.

Off to Healesville Sanctuary today so Chris can give his new lens a thrashing.

Sunset takes flight

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

After six hours of shooting we returned to Dromana pier to catch the sunset. We positioned ourselves along various parts of the pier and beach and waited for the show.

When the sun started doing its dive we all started shooting. Having not really sat and watched many sunsets in my life I was amazed at how quickly the sun does actually move. I was taking a steady stream of photographs (surprise surprise) and by spinning the job wheel on the back of the camera I could actually watch the sun go down.

Several people stopped and asked how we were doing and if we were getting any good shots. As soon as you took your eye of the view finder your find that yes, you have been staring into the sun for the last ten minutes and no, you can not focus properly on the nice people speaking to you.

After the sun went down we piled into the car and when to La Porcetta’s (spelling) for dinner which was a great end to a fantastic day.

I’m glad I have finished this round up as I have been on two Flickr walks since and have more photographs to highlight.

Thanks for coming along.

“Have you seen the light?”

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

We drove through Sorrento down to Portsea, and hoofed it down to the beach to see the “London Bridge”. I had never heard of this rocky structure but was glad to have gone.

We spent a good hour taking photos of the rocks, beach, wedding party, splashes and as you can see here “God Rays”.

This was taken with my older camera and I think it came out quite well.

Our next port of call was back to Sorrento for ice creams, coke and the occasional photo before heading back to Dromana for the sunset.

Sam I am

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

Things are getting a little disjointed here on the blog with so much going on. But I want to finish off the Mornington Flickr walk with (David and Chris) entires before I go into the other two walks I have done since.

To recap, we had finished our Subway lunch and then all piled into the car to head south(ish).

Our next stop was at Dromana Pier. We spent a good deal of time photographing piers, birds (both the winged and non-winged variety and didn’t I get a grilling about that?!) and other sea-related activities.

It’s amazing how many shots you can take of a bird before realising that you don’t actually like birds. David, who does have a thing for birds, told us the names of all of the local wildlife and Chris and I continued to refer to them as “birds”.

We probably filled an hour at the pier before heading back to the car and continuing on. The next stop according to David was the London Bridge. This had me a little concerned as I had left my passport at home.

Mornington Daisy

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

Photograph available at RXAphotography.com.

This is going to be a multiple part post as I highlight a photo from each of the different areas we visited.

Yesterday David and I went down to Chris’s house in the morning camera bags at the ready. We all then drove down to Mornington and started what was to be six hours of shooting.

Within minutes of alighting from the car and getting my camera ready I was on the ground (see last post for photos) getting this photo. This was taken at the park at the end of the main road.

I noticed that we didn’t get many rude comments from passes by as groups of photographers normally do. A lot of people stopped and asked if we were getting any good shots. Most just smiled and walked on.

More to follow!

Click here for the photos (click on the first image, then you can use the arrow keys to move between the photos).

Too bloody tired to even look at them, let alone write about it. I’ll let you know about the great day I had, tomorrow.

Have to get my self portrait up, but then … I’m off to bed.