brown family tradition

scrabble in front of the fire in the evening. my mum, sister anna and i doing battle on the old school board. anna and i play against one another online all the time now. it's the evening before my sister's wedding so i let her beat me ;)

tasmanian tiger sighting (32)

evidence of the proliferation of tasmanian ex-pats in the nation's capital. urban art project on city walk, civic. part of canberra's current community art & theatre project 'you are here'.

light camera action (31)

funky lighting at cube nightclub. this photo was taken exceptionally late into a long evening. well early in the morning in fact as i sat on a couch with my friend whelano for a bit of good old-fashioned & beer-fuelled ranting. yes yes yes i know i have been completely remiss with my photo a day commitment. i have no excuses, the reason is work has been completely mad and has sucked my will to live ... and take photos. i promise to try harder. i'm not sure i will be able to 'catch up' - is it cheating to post two a day to do so? probably. luckily i'm more than happy to live by my own rules :)

the dying days of summer (30)

is that brown appearing on the tips of the lush summer leaves already? signalling the end to a topsy-turvy (hot/cold, sunny/rainy) season? say it ain't so!! i do love autumn though. more moderate in temperature (and i do prefer cooler weather to be perfectly honest) and the most stunning colours here in canberra where there are a lot of desiduous trees and plants.

ooo summer rain (29)

i have had belinda carlisle's 'summer rain' in my head for weeks now, thanks mainly to the lead-up to and then post-concert last weekend, but also because it has rained so much here in canberra over the past few months. it has been a wet steamy spring and summer. it has rained so much that all the dams are overflowing. for the first time since i moved here over a decade ago, the dams are full and there are no water restrictions. the greenery throughout the city is something new and wonderful to behold, not to mention the amazing growth spurts observed in our plants in our courtyards. there are mostly camellias which were here when we bought the place. now i know they're hardy plants but between the ongoing drought and the fact that both mands and i are rubbish when it comes to gardening, they've been lucky to survive - in fact only one out of about ten has died. however the difference in them now is amazing! i would say that they have grown as much over the last 6 months as they did in the entire 5 years preceding that. that's how much rain we've had. mands doesn't like the camellias (not sure why) but i have a soft spot for them. my sisters and i used to use their leaves for 'money' when we played shops on our bmxes in the driveway when we were growing up. they're a sentimental plant for me, not to mention i admire their resilience.

pet sematary (28)

i actually did re-watch the film titled the very same just the other day. it was as good as i remembered, not a stellar production but definitely one of the better stephen king book-to-screen translations. the movies are never as good as the original novel. anyway i digress. this photo is of our memorial to jack, mands' and my first cat, in our front courtyard. he died not long after we moved house, he literally just dropped dead one morning, not long after we'd had him along to the vet for an ordinary check-up and he was diagnosed with a heart murmur. the vet said he'd be fine without medication for it until he was a lot older. guess she was wrong. he was only 3 :(

she's a speed racer (27)

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

web of religion (26)

i'm back at the same turner orthodox church trying to take a photo of the lovely eastern europe rooftop. but none of the angles are working out because the trees are in the wrong places and the fence stops me from getting closer, and it's then i notice the spider in the web in the fence showing the church in the background, and it's so symbolical of how people get caught up in the beliefs framework that religious institutions offer them, something they are attracted to or fly into unknowingly and don't realise the trap until it's too late....

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.

nothing like a torrential downpour (24)

the weather when i got home was hardly conducive to photography, let's not forget there was a waterfall in the kitchen just a few days ago. and here i was thinking the most extreme and sudden magnitude of rain i've experienced so far has been in the wet seasons of tropics like featured in this file shot of cambodia (on the south coast just out of sihanoukville) but the weather this summer in canberra has been mad. sunny and fine when i ride into work in the morning, and thundering and pelting down like nothing else in the afternoon when it's time to go home. so much for living in a rain shadow!

purity of mosaics (23)

continuing the religion theme, this is one of the pretty mosaics in the outside wall of the ukraine orthodox centre in canberra. i'm not sure who this dude is. some fundamentalist bible warrior no doubt. i have seen the top of the rooftop of this church from the bikepath many times. today i did a detour through turner to see it up close. it is actually very pretty - stark white walls, with colourful mosaics inset, and a distinctly eastern european bulbous rooftop. i did take a photo of the rooftop with a massive cross in the foreground and while i like the photo composition, on reflection i decided it's a bit too churchy for me to bring myself to make it a daily photo. today anyway :)

what does it all mean? (22)

some interesting street art at lyneham shops. ned kelly as jesus on a cross. does the artist think ned kelly was the son of god with some moral lessons to impart to us? or that jesus was actually a common criminal who was asking for it and who has been culturally elevated to god-like status posthumous? what do you think? i think you can probably guess my own personal thoughts about it (if you know me).

it is not a bird (21)

i love looking out the window at clouds on plane trips, and i tend to take too many photos of them. looking upwards at clouds isn't even nearly same, somehow they lack the third dimension which is spectacularly obvious when you are up amongst them. this plane flying over our house is, i assume, en route from sydney to melbourne. i have been on a helluva lotta plane trips in my life, fortunately flying doesn't faze me at all. i have a new plane trips coming up. my next flight is this month to melbourne for work. the trip after that is next month to brisbane for fun. then the month after that to tasmania for my niece's first birthday and my sister's wedding. and the one after that is to wing our way to berlin for some long service leave. now that is a flight to look forward to!!! a final thought in this fairly random stream of consciousness about planes.... i read a fascinating article last year about a tribe in the midde of the jungle in south america, a community completely untouched by modern civilisation. the article was accompanied by a photo taken from a plane or helicopter with the tribesmen shooting arrows up at the cameraman. can you even imagine what the tribe thought the plane and its inhabitants were? invading tribe? aliens? god? imagine not knowing about the modern world at all, not knowing about the history of the world, other cultures, science, electricity, computers, planes, trains, tv et cetera. it blows my mind. i hope that the tribe is able to continue living their lives untouched.

notching up another capital win (20)

#12 marianna tolo driving into the key and scoring another 2 in what ended up being an easy canberra capitals victory over logan (gold coast) thunder. the caps did go into halftime losing to the thunder (with, ironically, thunder outside) however, and our seats behind the board and close to the caps bench gave us a great view of the some classic carrie graf rage-fuelled coaching. i wouldn't be surprised if carrie got a bill from the AIS to repair the dents caused by her clipboard in the playing surface. another a swift verbal kick in the proverbials delivered the intended result and the caps stepped it up big time in the second half, turning the tables on logan and giving the crowd what they came for - another sneak preview of some stellar home finals action! it's a good life being a caps fan.

shortcut to the end (19)

end of the week (yay!). end of procrastination and laziness when it comes to the 365 project (definitely). end of torrential summer rain causing a waterfall through the kitchen skylight (hopefully). end of this crappy laptop (as soon as i can make a decision about the replacement). end of J (never!).
---------------------------> end of one thing = beginning of another.

history with no closure (18)

in case it isn't obvious from the photo or tags, here's my admission that i didn't take this photo today. it's a file photo from our 2009 trip to cambodia because i am too hot and tired at the end of this day for heading out and being creative. this photo is the view from a balcony of one of the buildings in S21, a high school which was converted into a horrific political prison during pol pot's regime in the late 70s and early 80s. it is just one site in the country complete with an unspeakable history of torture and executions. to this day few of the khmer rouge lead culprits have stood trial or been sentenced which has obviously left the cambodian people with a justifiable outrage and disbelief at the lack of justice. very very sad. do we ever learn?

two seasons in one photo (17)

i upped the contrast with a heavy hand to accentuate/exaggerate the colours in this shot but believe me, it was dramatic enough even in real colour. i stopped to take this photo on my ride home from work along the bike path. i love the contrast of the foreground coloured by blasting summer heat and the background with the dark cool of the approaching storm front. what a relief the weather change was!! a cool wind noticeably dropped the temperature as i finished the last leg of my bike ride home, and the pelting rain started literally as soon as i stepped in the front door at home. it's been a strange summer with a lot of summer rain. belinda carlisle will surely love it when she comes through canberra next weekend.

no fortune told in tea leaves (16)

rather i should say, reading your future into tea leaves is made somewhat impossible when you use a tea infuser spoon for your herbal green tea. although what future do i envisage regardless... getting into bed to read my library book a perfectly good family by lionel shriver (a good read ... despite a lot of somewhat discomforting and very astute family behavioural observations) to ease myself into a good night's sleep to give me the best start possible to tomorrow. sounds pretty good. let's hope it comes true. (by the way, this photo taken in 'negative' effect on macro focus using my mobile camera).

light at the end of the tunnel (15)

now.... i know it's cheating in terms of the 365 project but i am adding a second photo to today. maybe this can count as a credit on another day when i am too lazy to put one up? anyway. this is the original photo i took, sans mands, when i looked back through the rocks passageway (featured in the previous post) and saw all the cool light reflections and shadows defining the bricks and pavers, originating from the bright light at the end (start?) of the tunnel.

shady characters in dark passageways (14)

it might be modern times but there's silhuoetted terror still awaiting in the old dark passageways between and behind old terraced buildings in the old sydneytown area called the rocks.... in the form of a cantankerous amanda brown who doesn't find wandering through endless market stalls as fascinating as i do.... that is until she found the liquorice stall ;)

i said, say cheese! (13)

this isn't actually lexie launching into attack - for once - but a harmless lazy yawn while lying in the afternoon sun.

say cheese (12)

have you ever seen such giant whiskers?!

i think i'm ready for my closeup (11)

mands understands she is going to have to get used to being my main photography model over the next couple of months. she might not like it but i did manage to capture a genuine laugh. in the end. on this occasion. let's hope she is generous and patient. otherwise i'll be coming for you....

lime & corona reunion (10)

lime, i told you last week you would look better in a beer. and i do believe this proves i'm right. this is the refreshing view down the neck of a corona bottle. we spent today enjoying good company and some deliciously cold beer on a very hot australia day in the nation's capital.

tootsies (9)

i love the black and pink pads on lexie's feet!

the toilet and the tower (8)

this is a sight common to me in my bicycle commute to work. while it's ordinary as it comes, and it is probably a really boring photo for others, there's something i really like about it. well i like the view itself, which is what i've tried to capture. the juxaposition of a toilet block with the black mountain tower. to be honest i probably like the look of the toilet block more, oddly enough. at least it's been gentrified to a degree with some interesting and colourful graffiti, whereas the tower is still a plain grey concrete 1970s spaceship-like object propped atop a hill called a mountain. canberrans like naming big hills mountains. which is quite endearing in a parochial way. this photo also shows something else i love about canberra - the abundance of green in the form of nature reserves. this location is a mere 5km maximum from the city centre. lots of green makes for serene living.

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 ;)

twenty-six degrees (6)

not entirely accurate, it's actually a couple of degrees hotter than that. but when it comes to the galileo thermometer, we value historical style over technological substance.

i'm sure it represents something incredibly deep (5)

this art installation that is. but i didn't bother to read the sign that explained what it all meant, i just thought it looked pretty. i saw it on my way to the library. my second visit to a library in about 15 years, the first being earlier this week to get a membership card. there are some books there i want to read that i can't get on my kindle and i am loathe to purchase any more books as i don't have the space. oh for one of those houses with super high ceiling where the walls are shelves and shelves waiting to be filled with books. anyway i took this photo with my mobile phone so i might go back with the DSLR to take a better one. by the way, the building in the background is the ACT parliament building. yes, very underwhelming isn't it!

you would look better in a beer (4)

grow, little lime, grow big and juicy!! hopefully you will be big enough next week to pluck and slice then i'll pop you in an icy cold corona to celebrate the end of my traditional january detox. i hope you don't mind ending life in such a manner. as a reward for such a worthy sacrifice in seasoning my drink, you are surely destined for greatness in the next life. maybe you'll come back as ... what? any kind suggestions from blog readers?

advice: don't buy plants when hungry (3)

or you may end up buying a choc-mint cordyline like i did. in case you were wondering - yes it was actually labelled that, yes that was actually why i bought it, and no it doesn't actually match the royal blue pot it was destined for. blue and green should never be seen, and it's true in this case. however it does grow healthily with zero care, which is the numero uno rule of survival for plants at our house.

i probably should have fed him first (2)

perhaps then - but on the other hand probably not - he would have posed more nicely. talk about an uncooperative subject. my eyes hurt from looking through the viewfinder for so long to get a half decent shot!! it's not just about good equipment but using it properly of course, so i imagine it will help a great deal to read the instructions that came with the camera too :) tomorrow i am going venture out of the house to take the next shot otherwise it's going to get boring in terms of subject matter very quickly. having said that you can expect more of the little b in future. and i will feed him first next time.

acquiring a new focus (1)

i've always been serious about trying to take the best photos i could. now i finally have the equipment to take me much further on that journey, a canon 550d dslr twin lens kit. i've been meaning to buy a really good camera for years but kept on putting it off, until my sister asked me to take her wedding photos this year. so now i have four months to make sure i'm the best i can be, otherwise... well i don't like to think. unrelated to the recent upgrade prompt but upon hearing about my impending purchase, my friend siobhan challenged (or invited might be a nicer term) me to join her in the 365 project, which is about uploading a photo of choice every day. anyway this shot is #1. this challenge should help get me prepped for the april nuptials shoot, not to mention such an objective should (i hope!) help this blog to become what it was supposed to be from the start. wish me luck!

i would love a house with high ceilings

just for the opportunity to install some amazing lighting. like this installation - taken from directly beneath it in a bar in dickson. fancy.