Wide angle home

I thought it would be a good idea to have some fun with the wide angle lens before I return it to Jens - I think it's distortions are a lot of fun.

Visually bonkers

My friend Clive Kirsten I've known since I was 22, so a while now, and he lives in Hong Kong and amongst other things (he's an architect) has a canopy business. He asked me to come to an event in central last night, a corporate strategy launch party and brand-up for which he had put up a canopy, so that I could photograph it for his publicity material. As he put it he wanted photos of the people at the party interacting with the canopy. So not a picture of a marquee type structure from the outside, but rather from inside the party. As it turns out Clives canopies are very lovely, and totally flexible, designed to be put up between buildings, in tight spaces, but still covering a good area - and, and this is the interesting bit - he plans the way they are put up so that they articulate (sort of join, continue and fit with, talk a meaningful language with) - the existing structure they are next to. It was a very nice job. Very interesting visual things happening - light shows linked to big sound, good deejays, freakily dressed people, people with big hair walking on stilts - good good fun. Here are the two pics that I think I like most. I had to use a fisheye lens to get it all in, and suck in light, no flash allowed, click if you want to see them bigger. I think the first of the two below is most likely what he will want - shape and articulation is clear - corporate application clear; the stuff above is more likely to frighten conservative Hong Kong event planners off than anything else - but it is still vgroovy.

The April 08 Car Challenge

Here is the April 08 car challenge. If it's arrived in South Africa already (and I suspect it would be much happier there than here) then you'll know it immediately - otherwise you might have seen it in print or on the web. I think its beautifully styled, and from this I understand it goes rather nicely on a race track: http://youtube.com/watch?v=178tj68uFTs&feature=related


Hope you like it.

Hair cuts

Both the boys went for a haircut the week before this one. This is a big event, something that they really like - Aiden because he wants short hair like dad, Evan because he's keen to do anything, especially if Aiden is keen to do it. So off they went. Ange said she felt a bit grim watching Aidens golden locks fall to the ground (got down on her knees she tells me to collect a few - this, it turns out, is Aidens first proper haircut - one where you can really see a difference). Well he certainly looks like a little boy now, though its a while since a well meaning Chinese person has come up to us and pointed at him and said very beautiful girl. The barber chopped off more than he was licenced to do, but said that he was doing it so that Aiden's hair would start growing properly. I'm not sure whether this theory is supported by any real evidence, but it's a strongly held local belief. Evan's haircut was less dramatic - was it even cut - I'm not too sure. He's got chaotic stuff growing out of his head, so it's hard to tell. A barber's nightmare for sure.

He made up for it by lifting up his shirt to show off his tummy, something that he likes to do, and by grabbing a pencil and paper and posing in his best I'm a smart dude pose - taking notes you know - for example on the way that dad had trashed the color settings on these photos - too yellow, too red, who knows - no grey card balancing for the flashes, so all guesswork in the end. For me, I loved Aidens blonde locks and probably would have opted to keep them - like this photo taken in the morning sun just before he got the chop - but hey, it's not my head.

Final product

This is the version the conference people went for - lost the grain from the face - I thought I'd post it here rather than replacing the previous. I think I prefer the grainy one below - but the face does have great skin tone so I can see that side of it too.

Environment Conference Poster

I've just finished doing a poster - screen background actually - for our environment conference in June and thought you might like to see it. The conference is called Sustainable Schools for a Sustainable Future, and its theme is "Kick the CO2 habit". The brief was for an image that focussed on people and how it was their attitude and behaviour that mattered, not a typical pristine envoronment picture as such. The girl is Alex Mann, a friend of ours daughter who agreed to sit for a pic for the poster. In the background I've got a polarity of choices symbolising a way of living, and she is thinking about it with the planet in mind - represented by her eye being replaced with a photo of the earth from space. I really like the way the whole thing has come out, now I'm waiting for a response from the conference organiser to check that she is happy with it. Hope you like it, click it for a bigger version.

Gettin steamed up

Aiden likes controlling the taps. Evan wants to control the taps. Evan advances. Aiden's sublte way of warning him off: put your face right in front of the other person's face, let out a super high pitched and loud screech. Mmm. Not exactly reasonable.

The day after

Courtney spent the night after Aiden's party - probably his best prezzie - he loves having someone sleep in his room (Ev doesn't count for some reason) and double bonus when it's Courtney. Ev was looking bouffant - I think that's how you spell it - will have to check.

Pirate party birthday cake

Aiden had a pirate party, 16 four year olds, woooohooo; here's the cake Ange made him.

Aiden aged four

This is Aiden aged four - just after waking up, doing a tough-guy pose with his new scooter, and not taking himself so seriously.

Goodbye to the Frog

It was a wet, dark evening when the end came to the Frog. And the end comes quickly in these parts: a perfectly functional car, in need of attention, but fundamentally sound, still with a quarter tank of petrol too. They arrived in a truck, cheerful, purposeful; here's two thousand, flipped a strap around it, and then up and on. Aiden was there to wave goodbye. The man in the truck waved too, and then it was gone.

Jens' Mira Gino

When I bought my new car I took it down to my mate Jens' place and told him "check this out, it's the best car ever built". He snorted, and made various mildly dirisory comments. Then he got over that, checked it out, gave it a big think, and promptly went out and bought one to replace his Lexus. Cheeky bugger. And he admits it's putting a big smile on his face. Its a beautiful car - a lovely metallic blue. And then last night he set up a fancy flash plan and took this pic - which is a beautiful pic. They are the best cars ever built, I think. Anyone who laughs had better have some cash on hand.

The fine city of Singapore

Our trip to Singapore was fun, though low key; it's not that easy to get big adventures together with your boeties being this age - they are very explicit about their needs, without hint of patience, and in Ev's case, need to eat, sleep and take a dump in the nappy somewhat more frequently than helpful. So you shlepp around a lot of stuff, do things in controllable bursts etc. The flat that Jeff and Gill lent us was great; it had a fab pool complex, gardens and a playground.

Big lawns are rare in HK - so the snappers sped around, Ev in particular - did a couple of serious face-plants, which would have cost yards of skin back home - but here didn't matter. We got some pool kit, balls for Ev, goggles for Aiden, and some squirting devices. Other kids took over the squirters, Aiden punted the ball out, and Ev took a shine to the goggles; though he can't swim, or even put his face in the water, so he just felt cool (and wanted to wear them as much as possible. It's a nice pic - see the green eyed monster in the pool behind, waiting. Duuuh dum, duuuh dum, duuuh dum....

We went to the Singapore Zoo which has this huge reputation; I thought the Pretoria Zoo was better, though it was a good zoo. The only pic I got was at the bus-stop - had my hands full making sure Ev didn't pat a Tiger, and stopping Mainland tourists from walking up to where we were sitting and then standing directly in front of Aiden when he was trying to watch the seal show. Grrr.

At night it was pretty straight forward. Get back, shower, give the kids a dose of Sesame Street, sleep; we all slept like logs after all the charging around.

The last night we stayed in a cool hotel on Sentosa Island so that we could clean the flat and still make it to the airport. Aiden and Ev went wild, gave the bed a good jumping on as soon as we arrived. I got Ange in for a pic too. Then later, surprise surprise, it turned into a bit of combat.

The hotel beach was very cool, though manufactured, as it turns out. So the sand was coarse, and not very deep - like if you dug down to build a decent moat for the castle, you hit other sorts of soil - huh?! I've had to travel a long way from my home to really get what is so special about it. Off the "beach" there was a lot of shipping - a LOT of shipping. I like shipping, so no problem, but it kind of clashed (along with Malaysia's petrochemical industry in the background) with the paradise beach look.

Ev pretty much thinks that everything is very cool. He likes "ja" - its his big word - he's up for anything, will try anything, so here's a big holiday smile from the little dude.