my type of religion

it's officially called the melbourne cricket ground but in winter it is affectionately known as 'the G', and it is the mecca for the australian football fan. its current full capacity wavers around the 100,000 mark. but even if it's only half or even three quarters full, as it was on the photographed day in question (official crowd count was 73,503 mad screaming blues and tigers fans), and the crowd either witnesses the ball slotting the two biggest posts or senses an umpiring injustice - the mighty fervent roar that echoes around and around in that cauldron is both deafening and thrilling. we worship our football. especially when our side wins. carlton won on the day captured in the above image. so obviously it was a great great day :):) i barrack for carlton blues, and mands for richmond tigers. we try to make it down for one if not both the match-ups between our teams each year. otherwise we hit the ainslie footclub club here in canberra to watch and shout at games on the big screen there with friends. 

l'artiste enivré

this could be a photo capturing a triple eclipse of some sort, or a smaller planet casting a shadow over a larger red planet. or an abstract and very expensive painting in the louvre. but it isn't. it's a snap i took of the inside of a lamp when i leant back on a couch at my sister gina's 30th at soak (kaos by day, soak by night) in north hobart. i found inspiration for this arty shot in a few jagerbombs and there will be more to come in future :) this was a really fun night, with all the requisite hijinks and dramas necessary for a memorable evening with family and friends. i'm just glad i wasn't the one wearing a cushion cover as a hat!

i swam every day

i do love swimming and being in water but i so often enjoy it as i fear open water because of sharks (yes irrational i know) and am repulsed by public pools, so when mands and i stayed at a small resort in port douglas for our whatever-you-call-the-holiday-after-a-civil-partnership - i took great delight in swimming in the outdoor heated (unnecessary but lovely nonetheless!) pool at least once a day. and i didn't have to share it with anyone else at any time (well ok, mands a couple of times). it was absolute bliss to float on my back and quietly gaze at palm fronds and blue sky.

all in, all out

my mobile camera (sony ericsson cybershot 3.2MP) takes fairly decent photos, and has some funky inbuilt effects settings. one of them is solarize - which overexposes the image, causing the colours to bleed into one another - resulting in blocks of colour and blurred line definition. this image is taken on that setting from the first floor landing overlooking an infamous 'clappers' poker night. i was taking the photo after i did a spectacular fail on an 'all in' bluff with a really crap hand. this is not an unusual occurence on these evenings :)

country comfort

i grew up living pretty much in the country, and while not strictly on a farm, our house was surrounded by paddocks and animals. this photo was taken on a roadside on a drive from hobart to lake st clair. even though it was already mid-morning there was a misty fog sitting on green gently sloping pastures, with a herd of cows quietly grazing, and the weak sunlight (it was close to the shortest day of the year) was enough to illuminate the fluff (seeds) on these bullreed stalks. it was pretty and serene and reminded me of my childhood. imho this photo is worth clicking on to bring it to fullsize.

luna(tic) freaks

while not technically the best photo, as in it's a bit blurry, i love this one. just because it's funny :) it was taken at luna park in sydney, we were there for a friend's birthday.

an angel sleeping

it would probably be more accurate to say "(he is only) an angel (when) sleeping". i took this photo the day after we had a big bbq with lots of friends around so lexie was absolutely exhausted, having expended a lotta lot of energy the previous day - trying to sneak past people to get outside, sneaking up on the table to eat some food, and even snuck in a small bite for one of our friend's child :)

fig mug shot

i took this photo walking through the stunning world heritage listed daintree rainforest (135 million years old, the oldest rainforest in the world!) in far north queensland. the grouping of what looks like long vines is in fact a strangulation fig beginning to take hold on another tree. initially it takes hold in the top of the tree as an epiphyte and then sends its root system down the trunk into the ground, and it's all pretty much all over red rover for the host tree then, as the fig grows stronger, and its roots grow thicker (amazingly so), until it strangles and kills the original tree. we saw a very advanced fig where the original tree was completely gone inside the massive root system - there was simply a huge space where the original trunk used to be. aside from the story of the strangulation fig this photo invokes for me, i also really like it for the sense of lush green enclosure that a rainforest canopy creates - with the sunlight struggling to burst through at intermittant points.

merely a meerkat

with stoic and unwavering concentration, not even a smile for the camera, this meerkat performed his sentry duties from the highest point above the ground while the remainder of his group happily foraged for food in the knowledge that they would have ample warning of any impending danger. each member of the group takes a turn on lookout. the meerkat is native to the west coast of africa. this one (and his friends) was located in the open plains dubbo zoo which i visited as part of a dubbo roadtrip for a friend's 40th birthday.

gay flamingo

i set up the camera on the side of the pool on auto-timer for this happy snap so technically i did still take the photo. mands and i were in port douglas - where the rainforest meets the reef - on our 'honeymoon' after our civil partnership in august last year. we stayed for almost a week at a gay-owned and run (although open for anyone to stay there!) resort called the pink flamingo. it was fabulous! we had a villa with a private courtyard and an outdoor shower. there was also a resort cat called friday who was so cute. she'll surely be featured at some point :)