she's a speed racer (27)

i love riding my bike. it's my time. it's me. the end.

cheating (25)

i didn't actually take this photo myself but i did instruct mands in a fair amount of detail (she is reluctant to take photos for me, probably understandably) how i wanted the shot framed and taken (mini tripod, timer, multi-shot) so it kind of counts? mands claims to come from a family of non-photographers, so if i don't request photos of myself then they'd never be taken, and then years from now when i'm gone what evidence would there be that i existed and did things? although to be honest i hope it'd be more than photos as evidence of that.

sunday self portrait (7)

i need to start taking photos of people and mands outright refused on the account of not having had a shower (translation: utilised the hair straightener) yet. in so far as i don't want want to leave the house that means i'm left with me as a subject, and well i look this good having just rolled out of bed ;)

jaws VI

this is the first photo featured which i didn't actually take myself or set up camera to take it, but nonetheless i want it here because it documents a significant occasion - one of me face to face with a shark! mands got me a shark dive for a birthday many years ago. indeed, for my 30th she got me a sky dive. some people think there is something concerning and insidious with this pattern of life threatening gifts but i know it's just because she knows me so well :) she also took this great photo. thanks mands! besides, grey nurse sharks are not a man-eater despite having quite a terrifying and impressive set of gnashers. it was literally awesome to be in the water (manly aquarium) with them. at one point i noticed mands (in the viewing tunnel, which runs along the bottom of the aquarium) pointing behind me, i look around and there is a shark coming right at my face. it would have actually hit me in the head if one of the supervising aquarium staff hadn't pushed up against it's stomach so it just glided over the top of my head instead. my eyes would have fallen out of my head if it hadn't been for the goggles! 

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.

trapped in a 20s timewarp

as in mands and i are both 20-something in this photo - and will be forever and ever. check those hair colours! we are not so brash now in our 'old age' :) i really like this photo, i think it's a nice one of both of us. we are on the tahune airwalk in southern tasmania - which is a walk literally up amongst the trees (and you know how i love trees!) with a series of walkways nearly 50m above the forest floor, stretching for half a kilometre. it is beautiful down (and up!) there.

cartoon browns

another modified photo, this cartoon effect was in photoshop if my memory serves me correctly. it was a nice photo i took (camera held by me with arm outstretched as you can even see in the reflection of my sunglasses!) in the first place, if i may say so myself - but i like this cartoon result as well. simplified but still honest.... with no wrinkles or blemishes to be seen. an airbrushing of sorts ;) this photo is from way back in late 2003 when we went for a daytrip out to port arthur, this moment on the cruise out to isle of the dead, where a thousand people, mostly convicts and paupers, were buried in the early to late 1800s.

there's a mouthful of wine left there

this is a bit of an abstract one which is about my personal associations with the image. it's the end of a delicious christmas day lunch with a scrunched up and admitted un-christmassy-looking napkin, the end of a good glass of wine, and the start of a good (ie tasmanian) beer. you're full and content and sharing some good times with three generations of your family. you're making memories. it's been a good day and you're happy with your lot in life. or rather, i was :) 

art, um, autumn

part of loving trees is that i really love autumn! this is an image showcasing the natural beauty of berlin - the stunning tiergarten in full autumn glory. this massive city park stretches for kilometres through the old west berlin right up to the brandenburg gate and the reichstag. mands and i were staying in a hotel near the fringe of the park so many a time we walked through it on our wanders to various sights in our week in berlin. nature is art.

jess and her dad

dad is the bigger, more unstable looking one on the left. i am the more carefully composed and sturdier one on the right. we built our traveller's cairns by the water at the bay of fires when we were there a few weekends ago. i wonder if they (we!) are still standing there. how long will we stand the test of time, nature, or more destructive-minded folk passing by?

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.

what the quack

remaining on the topic of 30ths for another day. this is a present i was gifted with for my 30th. do you ever wonder how people come to associate a gift with you? don't get me wrong i honestly love this over-sized polka dot rubber ducky (you're the one!) but how did the friends in question know this! do they think i'm funky? colourful? or maybe just a big kid at heart (not to be mistaken for being immature)? because yes - this is all true. thank you!

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 :)