Yesterday they ran the camera down the pipes and found the there were tree roots in the inspection opening which is cemented under the driveway and footpath. OK so it's council land and councils tree but we have no hope of getting them to cover the repair bill, which will be expensive. Luckily the guys with the camera were able to clear it using their water jet cutter thing (technical term that) and they also ran it back up the other way and cleared out some minor roots from the fig tree which could have become a problem in the future.
Paul installed a new upright pipe with a properly sealed lid and left it overnight to set. He was to come around tonight on his way home and fill the hole but he didn't make it so hopefully he'll be 'round tomorrow.
I grabbed some photos to document our latest property upgrade :) These were taken as the sun was setting. I'm sure Mom will be pleased to see that her favourite tree on the corner has survived the excavation :P
Alex has been his usual very active self today and his eating picked up a little which is a relief. Today he was enjoying playing with his wooden puzzle board. He is very good at getting the shapes in the correct holes but I have to play with him and clap when he does each one :) He was enjoying it so much he took to walking around carrying his puzzle. He showed off how strong he is too by picking up a whole box of nappies I'd left on a chair and carrying it to me. I was impressed!
I started getting the itch to get started on the next camera club topic today. I've been feeling cheesed off since last weeks show and wasn't in the mood to do it all again but the light in the stairwell at sunset inspired me. This is what I saw.
I'm not sure if I'm happy with it yet or if I want to try again. I liked the golden light and the patterns in the screen and the shadow but theres a shadow on the screen from the metal scrolls that actually looks like motion blur. It certainly fits the 'doors and windows' topic though. Here's another photo I thought might be good for 'doors and windows'. I took a few versions of this shot when I was out shooting with Dad, not sure yet which I prefer. Some of them are very dark and moody.
Camera club last week was not much fun. The judge was disappointing and the whole thing seemed like a waste of time. I'm not saying that because I didn't do well, because I did, I got 2 honours, 2 merits and 1 acceptance. I'm just disappointed because I put a lot of work into the set subject of 'photojournalism' and was really excited about some of the shots I got. I had to step outside my usual controlled environment for these photos and actually had to go out and catch things that were happening around me and I thought I got some clever and even humorous shots that told a story. I was looking forward to hearing a judges opinion on these, whether the judge would be able to see the story, the humour or the emotion in the photos. What we got was a judge who didn't critic all the photos like judges usually do. Most judges start by telling us a bit about themselves and their photography and judging history and talk about the set subject and what they are looking for. This judge just looked at all the photos while we waited, placed the awards, then talked about a few of them (after promting from our president). He was very hard to understand (English was not his native language) which may have been why he didn't want to critic the photos but he shouldn't take on that role if he can't do it. He judged all the photos together which meant he didn't judge the set subject photos as photojournalism so he missed the point in most of the photos. He even talked about where I should have put the lights and reflector in one of my photos! I had to put up my hand and point out it was photojournalism not a posed shot, and he just repeated himself about the reflector. Now either I've got the whole idea of photojournalism wrong or the judge did. I thought photojournalism was meant to capture an event or emotion, a moment in time and not a posed or set up shot and I thought the story shown in the photo was important. The judge definitely preferred the posed portrait photos some people had entered in B&W.
I wasn't the only one disappointed with the judging, it seems everyone who entered photojournalistic shots was. Graham entered some photos this time for the first time and was really annoyed not to get any critic on them. The judge picked up Grahams photo of the Prime Minister and didn't seem to know who he was let alone think it was a clever capture.
Anyway here's one of my photojournalism photos. This one didn't place. This was taken in the bushfire a few weeks ago. We were driving around trying to get photos of the fire and this is as far as we got. The road was closed off here and there were still small flames at the side of the road from the fire passing through. The air was so think with smoke the sun could barely get through. The judge thought this was taken at night and suggested I lighten it up and fix the colour. I did point out that it was dark because of the smoke and the colour was an effect of the sun through the smoke but he either didn't understand what I said or didn't care.
I can't share my other photos, even though I have some stronger images, because most of them were taken of strangers and I wouldn't want them to come across their photos on the net, especially if I caught them in an emotional moment.
Here's one I didn't enter but I thought it was funny. I call it 'Speed Kills'. It definitely is a hump but I don't think 25km/h would get you over it. 
Our friend Justin is back visiting from Singapore so we had dinner with him at the club before the comp. He stayed to see some of the judging but there wasn't anything to see so he didn't stick around. Was great to catch up with him though. Didn't take Alex long to relax around him :)It was Justins birthday yesterday and he mentioned organising something for his birthday but we haven't heard from him yet.
Alex is way too active to sit through a night at camera club these days. We have a committee meeting next week and will have to let everyone know that we can't be part of the committee because we just don't know if we can keep going next year with Alex running around. The alternative is the join the Hawkesbury camera club so we can leave Alex with Mom and Dad during meetings but with Graham working late most nights our chances of getting over to Richmond in time for a 7:30 meeting is slim.
Who knows what will happen next year though.
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