Haven’t had much time to post anything up lately, but here are some pics i took travelling to and from work one day in Sydney. Taken from the car with my point and shoot camera, they aren’t that amazing but i intend to try the idea again spending more time to set up and think about the shots.

The other day i noticed that i’ve hardly ever taken photos of animals and plants etc. So last week i went for a walk and took a few shots. They’re not that brilliant, and i can already see what i need to do next time to improve them. The lens i used was my 24-105mm so couldnt zoom in that close either. Taking photos of this sort of subject matter was alot more enjoyable than i originally thought it would be, so i’m defiantely doing it again, hopefully with some better results.

Mucked around with an effect i saw on a forum. It’s meant to make things look like they’re miniature models.
Kind of fun, but i didnt really have the best photos for the effec. The first one seems to work better than the second.

Well i’ve been watching the MotoGP (and the 500cc before it) for as long as i can remember. I have memories of going to Eastern Creek and watching Doohan race, and more recently see Rossi at Phillip Island the last few years.
Phillip island was also where i saw Stoner race for the first time in the 250cc class. He has always been a fast rider, but began to be labeled as a “crasher” after dropping the bike on more than a few occasions. Michael Doohan once said “you cant turn a slow rider into a fast rider, but you can teach a crasher not to crash”, and that’s the case with the newest MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner.
Stoner has raced almost flawlessly this season on his Ducati. With 8 race wins so far, there is no doubt about his claim for the championship. Nicky Hayden won the title last year through consistent riding, and an even flow of points from each round, as opposed to a high number of race wins.
Stoner’s crowning as world champion today was a reward for a virtual lifetime of work. He has been riding motorcycles since he was in nappies, and racing competitively well before he had even finished school. His parents shipped the family overseas to live in a converted bus so Casey could race on the European circuit. The work put in by everyone has finally resulted in a World Champion amongst a field of incredibly talented riders, and the first world title for an Australian since Mick Doohan’s reign ended (prematurely) in 1998.
Congratulations to Casey Stoner and the Ducati team. I cant wait until Phillip Island in 3 weeks time!!

some more info here : http://www.crash.net/news_view~cid~6~id~154809.htm

What this “Profile” business??
Well, I’m going to start putting up various profiles of designers, artists, photographers etc that i like. Some i’ve known about for a while, and come i’ve recently come surfing the net or reading magazines when i should actually be doing my own work instead.

This profile is on Sephane Manel.
Born in France and studying at École Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques, Paris and also in Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, Stephane has developed a distinct illustration style that carries throughout all his work. In a word of clean computer vector graphics and colours, Manel’s work has a distinctly “hand drawn” feel to it, mainly because it actually is has drawn. This isn’t to say he rejects computers in his design process, they’re just not his only tool for the job.
Stephane Manel started off working as a graphic designer for the Tricatel label in France (Bertrand Burgalat) from 1999 to 2002. These days Manel is constantly traveling the world completing work for various clients ranging from shoes advertisement, to magazine covers, and even video clips.
Earlier this year Stephane Manel had his own exhibition titled “The Sound of Venus” in Paris, which was received very well by the art and design community. Recently Manel has been completing away from Europe, in particular Japan where he has an ever increasing popularity.
Anyway, enough with the talk. Make sure you visit his website at www.stephanemanel.com for many more examples of his work, including regularly updated portraits of well known people from the past and present.

Here are a few examples of his work :

I was just looking through more travel photos and found some of the more “random” ones we took.
If you’ve travelled around Asia you would of noticed quite a few examples of engrish in many places you looked. Signs displaying names such as “Golden Californian BBQ Beef Noodle House” and “Super Star Magic Paperclips and Hair Brushes” are fairly common. Below is a small selection of the randomness we saw on our trip.

Thought we could start off with some simple spelling mistakes:

“Godzira”, the smaller pinker cousin of Godzilla?

So cliché

everything was pretty normal.. until the last line..

awww.. only half?

and what the hell is this meant to be?

oh ok, it all makes sense now

this makes heaps of sense too

i want to be one of these guys when i grow up

Ever dreamt of having a camera made from GOLD? Neither..
But this thing is pretty impressive. The camera in question is a limited edition gold plated Olympus OM-2n SLR from the early 80’s.
This actually isnt the only gold plated Olympus model (or gold plated camera in general), however it is the rarest with only 20 copies ever made (as opposed to 25 of the OM-1).
The entrie camera including the flash shoe is covered in gold with crocodile skin (classy hey). A golden camera is no good without a lens, so it was supplied with the a Gold Zuiko MC Auto-Zoom f=35-70 1:36.
This edition was apparently made by Olympus Japan and given to selected employees. They rarely come up for sale, but when they do they’re quite expensive as you’d imagine. I found records of one on eBay for a starting price of $3500 US, unfortunately i dont know the final selling price.
For the time being i’ll stick to my cameras without Gold plating, however i’m in the market for a normal Olympus OM1, OM2, or OM4 as they’re fantastic cameras.

for some more pics and info on the gold om-2n visit HERE

for more info on the Olympus OM range visit HERE

Ok, here’s a few pics from the trip. I just had to pick a selection out at random basically. Theres more on my flickr page.
cheers.