Diligence

I have not been very diligent with my posts of late so now in 2015 I'm going to try and bring myself into the 21st-century with my blogging and actually get around to vlogging or video blogging. 

I've been exceptionally busy over the last few weeks, actually make that months as I try to create a means of generating an income for myself while still taking care of my Bonnie Ronnie. I came up with this idea to make a timelapse or rather a video incorporating timelapse of the Morton Bay Rail link project. I'm going to combine photography with video and timelapse on this project, at present it is just a case of gathering data.

The biggest challenge of course is finding the time to record a video and photographs. While I do have time on my hands it does mean that I have to leave my Bonnie Ronnie on her own for hours at a time and I'm not comfortable with this while she's not well. In the beginning she would come with me and would enjoy contributing to the project or she would simply take photographs of the local flora and fauna which she loves. I look forward to and love the editing at home and of course I am a lot more comfortable knowing that I can keep my eye on my Bonnie Ronnie.

On the subject of editing, this is a massive learning curve as it doesn't take long to lose touch with modern technology. I am fortunate enough to have the Adobe Creative Suite version 6 so I have the tools but learning each of the modules, photoshop, audition, prelude, media encoder, premiere pro, after effects and encore along with lightroom is challenging to say the least. In order to give myself a little practice I decided to complete a home movie project and have taken all of my old standard 8  and super 8 film, converted to digital and included it with video footage shot by my son and daughter when they were children along with my video footage to create a Blu-ray disk for each of them (My children).

The next task is to put together a promo package, sort of like a trailer of the end product to demonstrate our ability. My Bonnie Ronnie and I have created a new entity called P V Media Productions which we are currently in the process of promoting via social network, web-page, print and signage. It is our hope to have this promo package complete by the end of February.

I'm keen to test the quality of clips that I include in these posts so I shall add a very short MR (Moreton Bay Rail Link) clip of some night work, without sound.

Youth, Bath Salts & Terrorism

I watched a documentary on designer drugs using the name or term 'Bath Salts' and at first I was a little concerned that people were swallowing, smoking, snorting or injecting actual 'Bath Salts' and to be frank I'm still not sure but I had a look in Wikipedia for a little more information.

Now there are a ton of designer drugs, none of which are good I might add and there is ample evidence of this readily available to anyone who cares to check before consuming these party drugs but this documentary was focused on the families of 'Bath Salts' addicts.

What struck me was the anger by the families of these drug addicts directed at authorities. The anger was focused on two key points;

1. Authorities have been far too slow to act in banning 'Bath Salts' causing the acquisition of these drugs to be far too easy. (The primary issue that authorities have is defining the drug. No sooner is the pharmacology (chemical makeup) identified and listed and the pharmacology is altered by some enterprising low life chemist.)
2. Authorities are too tough on soft drugs. The thinking here is that if soft drugs were readily available there would be no market for the harder drugs. (This is as delusional as a drug abuser believing that they are in control of their addiction. This says "Let us make it easier for more youth to become drug addicts" and is plain stupid.)

At no point during the documentary did anyone take responsibility for the situation that they found their family in, nor did they lay any portion of blame on the addicted drug user. One father actively supported his daughter by driving her to drug buys because he believed that he could control her and minimise the addiction. The mother on the other hand preferred the tough love approach and would pay for rehabilitation through an approved centre. This divide had of course caused the family to break up with the mother retaining custody of the younger children.

At the same time we have a number of youth, not just here in Australia but worldwide who are off for a little adventure and are making their way to the Middle East to join ISIL. Listening to the multitude of talk shows with their interviewing of experts on this type of youthful behaviour. The number of excuses, primarily directed at low socio-economic members of society are quite astounding. 

There is no excuse (in my opinion) for anyone to get into a situation where they are taking these drugs. There is a plethora of information available through existing educational systems, the internet, social (and in fact all) media to warn of the risks involved. The bulk of responsibility lies squarely with the drug abuser!

As for any 17 year old with the romantic idea of heading off to join a group of desert dwellers and become a leader and martyr of world liberation. This is not a game, a fantasy or a dime store novel. This is life and death, there is no glory in war and certainly not in terrorism. One thing is certain and a fundamental lesson - it matters not the age of the finger on the trigger. Or the age of the hand holding the bomb, grenade or whatever. The devastation delivered by a younger hand will not be less catostrophic, nor will it be easier to bear.

People make their choices and must accept the consequences of those choices, the drug abuser is responsible for their addiction and the impact of this on their family as is the terrorist. If they are old enough to make the choice, they are old enough to accept responsibility for the consequence of that choice. No excuses!!

 

Self

I awoke this morning thinking about my circumstances, feeling a little sorry for myself. I have a touch of flu and nothing is going my way, blah! blah! blah! Oh poor little old ME! ME! ME! Oh man I wanted to have a mega pity party and invite the world - Wow seriously! I didn't even notice that the beast was gathering momentum,,, at first. It starts with an unhealthy inward look, unhealthy because one is not looking for positives but rather the negatives and so begins the journey to deep depression - for me anyway.

Self pity gradually becomes self doubt and moves steadily toward self loathing but the common denominator is always, self! self! self! Sometimes this journey can take days and at other times it can take only minutes but one thing is certain, if I don't grab those reigns and pull this beast in quick smart it could be a long hard journey back, assuming that I can gain control of the beast in the first place. If the beast is not gathered it will take me to it's lair and that is where hope is devoured and once this happens, I know that there is no way back. The light at the end of the tunnel is 'hope' and once extinguished there is no escaping the dark.

Even writing about this is putting a lot of focus on self and this is always a dangerous move. Yes you may question my sanity, why not? I do! We often joke about the voices in our head's but this is not too far from the truth as we do justify ourselves which requires reasoning and what is reasoning if not opposites to a notion or 'an argument', often referred to as the 'voice of reason'. How do we get into this predicament in the first place? I can only speak for myself and I know that for me it begins with desire - "I want" and here too is positive and negative desire. Examples would be. 1) Positive; love, good relationships, happiness. 2) Negative; covet (why use many words when one will do) 'lifestyle'.

Fortunately as I sat at my computer catching up on social media almost every story I looked at not only handed me the reigns, but lent strength to pull the beast up short.  The first, a 10 year old girl with her little brother, hungry and scavenging for food scraps in the dirt of a worn torn country wishing blessings of gratitude to those who 'have'... like me! Reality check - it's not all about ME! for a start and secondly I should be grateful for the many blessings I do have. Time to give thanks for all the positives and there are an abundance of these, blatantly obvious when reality is actually 'In focus'.

There were many other examples today but the second story which captured my attention was that of a beautiful young lady who was robbed of her tablet by a couple of criminals, what made this story special was that the young lady felt sorry for the criminals whom she had forgiven and said had "bigger problems than me" - the problem she was referring to was the fact that she is wheelchair bound by Cerebral Palsy. Her primary concern is for the rest of us because they (the criminals) may target us.

I thank my friends and family on social media who have taken an interest in these stories because it is they who have empowered me through their empathy. The beast is well and truly under control, back in it's cage where it belongs.

Till next time - take care and stay safe!

Friendship

I awoke this morning with this topic in the forefront of my mind and I feel compelled to put my thoughts to paper (e-paper in this case). 

Friendships - we all form them, some good, long term bonds as strong if not stronger than family bonds between brothers and sisters or even child and parent. Some are short, fleeting but life changing in a positive way while others are negative, draining and can leave one feeling robbed, exhausted, as though the life has been sucked from one's marrow.

My youngest brother once said to me of his friend "Dave" (whom I never met). "Dave was a better father to me than my own father!" Dave was an older man, but I couldn't help wondering if my brother was a better son to Dave than he was to our father? He also said, "I don't know you, you were always in the army - then you left for Australia when I was 18!" This is true and whilst I "know" him being 8 years his senior, he would have very little memory of me as our development was almost a decade apart. So yes he had a much stronger relationship with his friend than with me.

The best friends and strongest friendships are those that just bring people together without any expectation, in my opinion. True friends don't need to be in each others space all the time but can communicate without words, some may even intuitively know the other person's needs. Above all the strongest friendships are those that feel super comfortable, a bit like a well used favourite coat on a cold and windy day - one really appreciates the warmth, smell and comfort offered.

So what has brought this compelling need to write about this? Well... friendships are not only about comfort, laughter and good times, especially where those friendships have spanned decades. These friendships will involve not only the person whom the bond has been formed with but also other members of the friends family. In many cases this may include multiple spouses, children, grand children and even great grand children. Such is the case with my Bonnie Ronnie's closest Australian friend "Lynn" of almost 30 years and whilst this friendship has had it's tumultuous moments it has had tremendous laughter and good times. However, sadly Ronnie's friend has that terrible insidious disease 'Cancer' and her time in this life draws to a close.

My Bonnie Ronnie is no stranger to tragedy. There is no tragedy greater than the loss of a child and there is no greater feeling of impotence and grief than watching your own child carry the small white casket of their child, your grandchild, from the chapel. 

This now is a different kind of tragedy, this is not sudden or distant but immediate, excruciatingly painful and slow. Ronnie and I have been helping the family for quite a number of months with hospital/doctor/treatment trips and the like. Ronnie has spent many hours at her friends bedside nursing her and attending to her personal needs as she loses weight, strength and control. The family are struggling, they have jobs, homes, family, children and grandchildren. This has been compounded by Lynn's compassion as she brought a stranger (who has this insidious disease and is in the same condition) home with her from hospital, when it was determined that nothing further could be done for either of them, other than to make them as comfortable as possible.

Ronnie too needed a break and we were preparing for our weekly shopping yesterday when we received a call saying that the doctor didn't think Lynn would last the night. This saw Ronnie back at her friends side immediately. A family who themselves are ill as a result of the stress no doubt, welcome the help, love and support that Ronnie offers and all of them are very grateful.

I've watched my Bonnie Ronnie of late as she quietly goes through many of the old photographs from the good times and there were many. Occasionally Ronnie would bring a photo to me and relate a story of some mischief that the two of them had experienced. One evening recently I heard a song playing repeatedly and on investigation found that Ronnie was listening to her friend Lynn singing whilst accompanied by a piano. The recording was on an old 4 track tape that had seen better days and some parts were rather badly distorted. Ronnie said how she wished she could copy it to a CD for Lynn to listen to. I thought that this was a lovely idea and offered to see if I could do something with it.

I am no audio engineer but I have the software and so it's just a case of learning to use it quickly. A couple of years ago I found a bunch of Super 8, Standard 8 and old Video cassettes of home movies that I had saved and decided to have them converted to digital and placed on DVD in open source format (in case I wanted to use bits). Amongst the resulting clips was one of Lynn's 50th birthday party which we had taken 20 years ago so I though it might be nice to see if I could put Lynn's singing onto this clip as background music. Well there was a lot more audio than movie so I though I had better get a little creative. I added a number of beautiful sunset's and sunrises with a little animation and some nice soft transitions. I was able to clean up and repair the audio to a degree (not a professional job by any stretch of the imagination) once I had figured out how to digitise it.

We presented the completed DVD with menu's titles, photo's and audio clips to Lynn and the spark in her eye causing Ronnie to beam like a Cheshire cat made the two week project well worthwhile.

Back to the present. Ronnie called a few minutes ago and it has been a really, really bad night with Lynn's pain rating a constant 10. However the call was to inform me that Ronnie had forgotten her charger so her phone battery is flat, no I'm not required (I'm on call) yet, but I should call Lynn's mobile if I should need to speak to her. I've decided that I'll go up there if nothing is heard by 12:00 because Ronnie needs to get some rest too.

Friendship - where would we be without it?

Till next time, take care and stay safe.

Motorcycle Gangs

Of late there has been much hullabaloo over new laws that the State of Queensland here in Australia are trying to introduce to curb the criminal activity of "Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs".

There is a huge amount of speculation over the introduction of laws that will give Police the power to stop and question groups of riders where there are three or more in the group and this seems to be the main cause for a call to all motorcyclists to rally against the introduction of these new law's. The argument that is being used is that politicians and Police intend to harass and victimise anyone who rides a motorcycle.

I've no intention of listing and or debating any of these new laws here but rather to declare my astonishment at the lack of intelligence and common sense displayed by the general public and particularly the motorcycling enthusiasts sector. I really find it hard to believe that this sector is as ignorant as it professes.

Lets put things in perspective first, the new law's are being introduced with a specific purpose, target and objective;

PURPOSE: 

Reduce blatant criminal activity by organised crime and take back control of the community.

TARGET: 

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs who are taking their feuding over criminal territorial rights into the public with zero regard for 'collateral damage' as a result of drive by shootings and the like. Not to mention their normal criminal activity.

OBJECTIVE:

Provide a safer community for all.

I can't put it any simpler than this and if people can't see the need to achieve the objective by the means being introduced then something is seriously wrong with our society. Yes there may be some inconvenience to the motorcycling public but I don't see this as any more inconvenient than our RBT's and I can assure you that every moron who believes that it is their right to drink and drive would love to have those law's revoked.

If we the public got behind our politicians and Police offering our support with as much enthusiasm as we give unwittingly or otherwise to the "Criminal Motorcycle Gangs" there would be a lot less crime and our communities would be significantly safer.

You want to stir up the public, hold a rally etc. by all means and you will have my 100% support as long as it is for the right reasons - to provide a safer community for my children and grandchildren.  How about a rally to support the Police in their push to stamp out organised crime...... no takers?

Till next time - God Bless.

PS. I am an avid Motorcyclist!!

Homophobia

I can't help but draw parallels between the "Marriage Equality" push and the Hans Christian Andersen's story The Emperor's New Clothes. 

Not sure what I'm getting at? Well lets just look at the terminology that is used today and start with the word "Gay". When I was a child this meant jolly, happy, joyful etc. and had nothing at all to do with homosexuality. Now initially the term "Gay" was used by homosexuals to avoid the use of the word's homosexual and lesbian ("Lesbian" - another term for homosexual but gender specific to females). One can't help but wonder at the discrimination of the genders and the use of these labels.

Now I understand that homosexuals don't wish to be discriminated against and it is my view that their sexual preferences are a matter for themselves just as mine are for myself but by expressing this view I will be labelled "Homophobic". I have no problem with this as it is simply a label applied like any other label (The thought process is sort of - not sure which box it belongs in but it differs from me so I'll put it in the "Homophobic" box and colour it red or black - why "red" or "black" more labels but these are colours associated with anger, meanness, evil, unpleasant etc.)

Now the Pollies are looking for votes and neither the Labor nor Liberal parties are in favour of homosexuals marrying for no other reason than they want to please the majority of voters. A recent reported statistic that quotes the majority of constituents are in favour of "Same sex marriage" has Labor promising to introduce a bill in parliament within days of being elected.

This then is where the 'Marriage Equality Group' are my parallel to the fable;

Time passed merrily in the large town which was his capital; strangers arrived every day at the court. One day, two rogues, calling themselves weavers, made their appearance. They gave out that they knew how to weave stuffs of the most beautiful colours and elaborate patterns, the clothes manufactured from which should have the wonderful property of remaining invisible to everyone who was unfit for the office he held, or who was extraordinarily simple in character.

    "These must, indeed, be splendid clothes!" thought the Emperor. "Had I such a suit, I might at once find out what men in my realms are unfit for their office, and also be able to distinguish the wise from the foolish! This stuff must be woven for me immediately." And he caused large sums of money to be given to both the weavers in order that they might begin their work directly.

I realise that this view will upset the weavers but lets face it, what is "Marriage" and it's purpose?

Isn't it interesting that regardless of the culture, religion or geographic location that the institution of "Marriage" has always been to cleave two opposites to be become one with the purpose of propagating the species. Now I know that propagation is possible without the formality of Marriage be it "Holy" or otherwise but there is still the requirement for opposites to cleave and become one - this therefore is the natural order.

Now my view is in my opinion, completely unbiased for the simple fact that I will support "Same sex marriage" when the participants can cleave to become one and propagate our species thereby fulfilling the actual purpose. 

I guess that all I expect as a "Homophobic" is the same tolerance as that of a "Gay". As for the Emperor, I wish him well with his new clothing and hope he doesn't catch a chill.

Till next time, God Bless.

Blog/Web Pages Update

I am in the process of updating a number of our web pages once again. Having a little fun as I learn and try a few new things.

All of our photography and other artistic interests will now be blogged on Art Journal only. Today I posted a little blog about my own post processing technique for obtaining Clarity in a picture if you are interested.

We will continue to post almost all of our work in a web friendly format on our FB page.

Our Lombard Design web page is going to take a back seat for a while as we continue to have a little fun with our photography in between my study.

The web page that I'm going to play with the most is my own.

I'm a little behind on posting work which is for sale so I'll probably bring this up to speed tomorrow - car is in for repair so I may as well get caught up on some tasks.

Till next time - God Bless.

Social Media Scams and Hacks

We see a lot of warnings on social media about scam's, hacking and identity theft and whilst a lot of the messages although well intentioned actually started as merely mischievous scaremongering, don't become complacent. It's the old tale of the boy who cried wolf. A lot of us have no idea how to protect ourselves in this digital age, who is for real and who is the con or perhaps more aptly 'clone'.

A lot of people (including me) love the fact that we can catch up with our loved ones, family and friends worldwide so easily, efficiently and affordably. Having grown up in an era that started well before the digital age I can assure you that the baby boomers certainly appreciate what social media has to offer. Just as we have secured our privacy, family and possessions throughout our 50+ years we need to take those same steps with social media.

Just as we formed and joined Neighbourhood watch, Crime Stoppers and the like to aid in the protection of our physical well being we need to know where to look for our ongoing digital well being and that's what I'm about to share with you now. I will link each of the sites (in 'CAPITALS') that I have found to be useful and suggest that you bookmark them for easy access. I would also appreciate feedback and additional links that I can share.

In order to separate the wheat from the chaff, we first need to identify which is nuisance scaremongering and which needs to be taken seriously. I have found 'SNOPES' (Scams) and 'FACEBOOK' (Common Myths about Facebook) to be great sites for quickly checking the validity of claims such as the "Cancer baby Facebook appeal" and "See who has been looking at your  timeline?"

It is also wise to stay abreast of current digital developments and sources for this information can be very varied so I would recommend Google search but use common sense when discerning which link may be appropriate and never connect to a site that displays a warning no matter what! I personally find 'TECHNEWS' to be very informative when researching all things digital.

An example of some current research that I am undertaking is regarding the claim's of "Facebook cloning" and some of the information I have uncovered makes for interesting reading but I must stress that I have not concluded this research at this time and the linked article should not be taken at face value.

There is no need for me to reinvent the wheel when advising you how to protect yourself, so I will simply say if it looks suspicious don't touch it, if it looks too good to be true, it usually isn't true so don't go there. Remember you can't win the lottery if you have not bought a ticket so please allow common sense to prevail. In the meantime here are "6 social networking steps" to help you.

"2 step verification" is on the horizon for all social media and friends, this is a very good thing so please keep the complaining about change to a minimum "Change is inevitable, resisting is like holding your breath, if you succeed - you are dead!" - Winston Churchill.

This blog is about social media and the ways to help yourself stay safe in our digital world but I'm just going to throw in a bit on Credit Cards and online shopping. Before entering your details, nay! even before shopping online, make sure that you have every bit of browsing protection available turned on and yes it will probably come with an ongoing cost as does home and contents insurance etc. get used to it or be prepared for the worst case scenario - as Aleksandr would say "Simples!"

Seriously though whilst the world is awesome, it has a very sick and dangerous side to it make no mistake. If you don't believe me, try turning off all controls on Google search and type your worst nightmare - shocked?...you should be!

Take a moment or two to review your settings on Facebook and the other social networks, protect yourself and those you love and enjoy this wonderful age of communication, my generation knows what I'm talking about because we have all lost at least one of our nearest and dearest without communicating enough and once they are gone it's simply too late. Protect this digital freedom!

Till next time - Take Care.

OFT

Well what an interesting and hectic day I've had. Long conversations with creditors, liquidators and of all people - Investigators from the Office of Fair Trade ('OFT').

Had a call this morning from good friend Paul advising that my old friend Gordon from the office of fair trade is looking for me in order to move forward with a prosecution against me. Apparently the OFT wants to issue a fine of $2,500.00 for failing to hand in a cancelled Security Firm Licence.

I contacted Gordon as requested and confirmed that Paul had been threatened with a subpoena for my details which he had withheld. As the owner of a security firm, Paul has an obligation to maintain client confidentiality so he was being placed in a difficult position unnecessarily since the OFT had my new details anyway. I have received Security Licence renewal forms and business trading name renewal forms so I was a bit perplexed and offered all my details for Gordon to put on the licensing division's records.

The Security Firm Licence was in the name of a company which ceased trading at the end of the last financial year and placed in the hands of liquidators a couple of months ago. 

A requirement under law in Australia is that any security provider earning revenue from a security service must hold a licence for that particular service (there are several categories under each of two classes) to ensure maximum revenue for the OFT and any firm paying someone to provide one or more of these licensed services must hold a security firm licence for that particular category and class also. There are of course exceptions and exemptions - all government employees. Additional requirements under legislation are that each individual licence holder have their finger prints taken and processed which they will pay for and a police background scan which they will pay for also - for each category at the time of application (they will later be reimbursed for each additional category's police check). Each individual must belong to an approved security association prior to application, membership is at the discretion of the association as are their membership fees. The same applies to the Security Firm Licence - except that the fees are much, MUCH higher - of course.

Don't you just love how the OFT gives carte blanch discretion to associations to discriminate however they choose either by criteria or fees to keep the old boy's club healthy - Don't you just wish everything was this fair and equitable. It gets better - the association have the added responsibility of policing the industry, handy if new blood were to slip past the old school tie selectors.

Now that you have a bit of a working knowledge of our ultra FAIR system (stop laughing, it's been legislated so of course its fair) back to my particular breach of the system. Apparently I had been sent a show cause notice by OFT as to why the company's Security Firm Licence should not be cancelled since I had not furnished evidence of association membership in March 2013 as requested. Since I had not received the notice which had been posted to the old company address (it's probably with the request for confirmation of association membership) The Security Firm Licence was therefore cancelled and a notice to advise of this and demand return of the licence was sent to the same old address. I failed to comply within the 14 days allowed thus leaving the company and its 'prior director' (their term) liable to prosecution.

Now the interesting part - the company's association membership expired June 30 2012, the Security Firm Licence expired in August/September 2012 while my personal security licences all expired in October 2012. My question to OFT was "How does one cancel an expired licence, held by a company no longer trading?" Even if the OFT had been generous enough to renew the licences without application and ultra high fees - do they not check their own department records to see if the old boys club might have got it wrong. 

BTW for the record - I worked in the security industry in Australia for 31 years and was never asked to produce my licence by anyone - if I had never registered, none of this would apply! Wonderful system hey. Please don't get me wrong there is some policing but only of "Crowd Controllers" at licensed premises 'Bouncers' was the term of old and some bright spark decided that they were providing security services.... 'Bouncing' has far more to do with safety and marketing (reputation of clubs) than anything else but Security it is NOT - I don't care how much it's legislated, it will never be seen as security by true security providers. 

Well I've had my grumble, the ball is in the OFT court (no pun intended). I actually quite enjoyed the day :)

Till Next Time, God Bless.

Depression

For me 'Depression' is like cancer an insidious disease that must be thwarted but there are days such as this where I find it difficult to beat it down. My usual waking prayer, the beautiful sound of the local birds going about their early morning ablutions in the tree tops as I meditate on all the good in this wonderful world. Finally after 30-60 minutes of preparation I spring out of bed with a purposeful heart full of thanksgiving..... only today my spring was more of a stumble.

Thursday I had decided to increase my fitness regime since I was feeling quite normal, a lot like the old me... hmmm too much confidence is not a good thing. I went for a jog 300 metres, at an even pace followed by a double dose of my cardio vascular workout, most of you will laugh at these figures as they appear ridiculously low however 2 years ago I couldn't walk 5 metres unaided after my 15th heart attack so I was feeling especially pleased with myself.... again anything in excess is not a good thing.

Yesterday I was a little stiff, sore and sorry for myself but is was all physical whereas today I'm fighting my state of mind, emotions and the physical aches and pains. Why am I writing this down, because I often do to get it out of my system then I simply delete it and write about something positive. But today I think I'll share this. Why? I'm asking myself, ... don't know but I feel I should.

The last 7 years have been exceptionally stressful for a variety of reasons and whilst every one of them has been out of my control, the decision to fight our way back thus prolonging this agony, has been mine and mine alone. Finally I have capitulated and allowed our company and trust 'Rhodesia Holdings Pty Ltd ATF Rhodesia Holdings Trust' to be placed in liquidation and wound up. This was decided last June and we had worked to eliminate all debt especially those small businesses that could be effected by our demise to ensure that our departure would be no more than a ripple to any creditor. Immediately we made that known to our creditors every man and his dog appeared to become carrion, all looking to see what they could strip away and get away with. Leased and Chattel Mortgaged equipment was returned to the respective creditors for auction or sale and that was an eye opener when 12 month old $80K equipment was sold for $500 and I was presented with a bill for the balance. Funny how no matter how hard I looked I could never find second hand equipment for under 80% of it's RRP. For the most part I have been able to remain fairly positive by concentrating on the things in life that have real value such as family, friends and art, my main passion. What I love most about art, I don't have to be good at it to enjoy it.... I can be free. This thought usually helps lift my spirit to dizzying heights.

Each Friday for the last 3 weeks however I have received a letter from my accountant advising that solicitors appointed by the ATO to wind up the company and trust have sought a High Court continuance for another week. Liquidators were appointed 4 weeks ago so I don't understand the delay. No I don't want to follow up with anyone as this would mean I have to get into it again and if I do that I will want to fight for it again and that I know that I know I will not survive!

So today I am pretty depressed but I will continue to look at everything with gratitude for the privilege of being here. My God is an awesome God and he has a plan for me, I have no idea what it is but I do know that it is a good plan.

Now I must go and help someone, tis the only way to beat this depression down today.

Till next time, Take care and God Bless.

Soul - Self Portrait

Still playing with some of the composition techniques available in photoshop as I explore the possibilities with this application. I decided to have a play with the texture wrapped around an object technique and so after emulating a number of the exercises that various tutors have put forward I decided to step out on my own a little with this self portrait entitled; Soul

In order to convey my story which is my love of this country I attempted to show the land from within me and I used the object wrap technique (which is usually a geometric object wrapped by a texture) to capture this mood. 

I recently spent time with my daughter and son in law on a small holding just outside of a country town here in Queensland and the waterhole or rather, dam is on their property. The fence is old and rusted, it has some recent repair additions which stand out as new in contrast. With posts that have been weathered by insect, storm and cacti. To the left is a beautiful (relatively) young  gum tree which has almost completed shedding it's old bark. Laying on the ground beneath the tree is an old branch that the gum no longer has use for and so has shed it too. The sky is a little overcast with some sunlight filtering through the clouds of white with shades of grey. The clouds display evidence of moisture building, they would later become heavily pregnant, dark and ominous before giving birth to the storm. At the time of the photo, the water in the dam is still and calm making for a very tranquil setting.

I'm blessed with looks that are conducive to a grunge effect and believe that I have made good use of this strength. I took a recent self portrait in strong light, clipped the face, desaturated it, adjusted the levels to remove as much of the mid tone as I could before creating a gaussian blurred distortion map. I then wrapped my original desaturated image in the landscape using the distortion map, applied another (slight) gaussian blur to the image before placing it onto a duplicate of the original landscape. Finally I adjusted the opacity of each element to achieve the finished product.

I repeated the above process with a recent portrait of my beautiful daughter, however her appearance is definitely not conducive to any grunge effect so I thought about her childhood and recalled her love of having her face painted so with this thought I used a free Shutterstock image from EVA105 to achieve the following effect.

I believe that I have conveyed the story I see in my daughters soul and so I have not touched the (windows) eye's or lips. She is my little girl, delicate and fragile to me but she is woman to the world, strong and self assured. What you see is what you get, and for me that will always be that innocent, fragile, delicate, "Tickle me Daddy" little girl.

Till next time, take care and God Bless!

Photo Composition's

I'm now fairly comfortable with my Mac and I'm slowly but surely starting to get my head around photoshop. I'm still not too happy with my masking. Deke makes it look so easy and I must admit I tend to agree with his comment that feathering is a great technique to hide a poorly masked image, better to perfect the mask.

Now there are a lot of awesome professional photographers out there who will use Lightroom to bring out the best in their photo's as do I but they are against photoshop because it can be used to enhance the original photo to a ridiculous degree. These people are the purists among us and they do have great talent but there are a great many of us who are Artists first and Photographers second and we want to use photography and photoshop to express ourselves.

David Hockney (renowned english photographer) believes that chemical processing of photographs has been replaced by photoshop and I tend to agree. Digital photography is evolving very quickly, mind you so did chemical photography a hundred years ago - for it's time.  A lot of the processing has been taken up with advances in technology even back when SLR camera's started employing different modes and filters. The latest DSLR and DSLT Camera's even go so far as to offer three stop photo merging in camera and of course the filters in camera are mind blowing. There is still however the need for processing to make good photo's great, hence applications such as Lightroom and Photoshop RAW.

Personally I am enjoying the use of various filters both on camera and in photoshop. I really love the fact that one can exercise one's creative curiosity and explore different compositions of light, colour and various subject elements. Can you just imagine what Picasso, Leanardo da Vinci or Michelangelo could have done with the tools at our disposal today, the mind boggles.

I've included a few of my compositions here and you won't have to look too closely to find my mistakes. These samples are not available in high resolution unless of course someone specifically asks for them.

My first attempt, I have a few photo's of Bonnie Ronnie and I on our 1600 Kwaka Nomad (No the bike is not a Harley or a Harley look-alike since it is an Indian look-alike but shaft driven with a radiator to prevent heat seizures) 

I was getting a little more adventurous here and wanted to somehow incorporate a technique provided by Gavin Hoey, the 'Magazine Page'. I am well pleased with the magazine page look and the mistakes with my masking are not as visible due to the perspective distortion that I have used. I did however really struggle with the masking of the Motorcycle windshield.

In this photo I was able to crate a great mask of the Truck (I've posted this Truck once before in the original photo). I struggled with the Moon's mask for some reason and the more I tried to correct the problem, the worse it became. The look is not too bad in soft photo above but I was after some serious contrast and detail which I did achieve in the photo below but the masking mistakes are pretty obvious.

To get the golden effect I switched to Black and White, except the Moon, flattened the image then removed Blue from an added RGB layer and tinkered with the detail and blur to enhance the contrast whilst keeping the photo dark.

Till next time, take care.

Automotive Art

I have been wanting to try my hand at Automotive photography, mainly classic cars and motorcycles but not limited to these two forms of automation.

I'm not sure if anyone else experiences this but it seems to always be one thing or another that encroaches on my plans, almost like a conspiracy to prevent me from doing what I like. Of course this is just nonsense but the idea still plays it's games inside my head. Sound like a fruit loop now! Don't have to be crazy but it helps get the creative juices flowing... or something like that.

As I was saying I have had the desire to photograph some classic automobiles and I managed to finally get there this last week. I'll include a couple here but if you are interested in the photographs, the really good quality pictures can be found in the shop where they are for sale or the lesser quality ones are in my photo library's in my Facebook art page.

I live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, Queensland Australia where we have a saying; "Beautiful one day and perfect the next" this is usually right on the money but for every rule there are exceptions and December 2012 and January 2013 certainly saw to that. We have had a heat wave, drought, bush fires, cyclones, tornadoes and floods. In January 2011 we had a once in 100 year flood which devastated Queensland and saw 75% of the state effected and that's a heck of a lot of water considering that the state is larger than most country's. It's only been 2 years not 100, someone's math is a bit off methinks.

We are a rather resilient bunch and will bounce back to once again boast of weather that is beautiful one day and perfect the next. I mean the Great Barrier Reef just off perfect pristine beaches not to mention my little neck of the woods with the Sunshine Coast 30 minutes up the road and Gold Coast 90 min down the road, seriously what more could one want.

Now of course my technique is not everyone's cup of tea and if I was to try and please everyone I really would lose my marble's so I simply try to tell a story my way with my photographs. When I saw the green Rat Rod I thought of the Rat's of Tobruk a tough outfit of WWII so I processed the photograph with that toughness in mind but hanging onto the classic auto design and style. The lower photograph reminded me of that classic movie 'American Graffiti' and I wanted to capture a little of the sky and the colour's surrounding the subject to enhance that Rockabilly mood. 

I would greatly appreciate some comments and feedback with a few suggestions on subject matter photographic style. What would you the reader like to see me write about or share with you? Do you have a favourite photographic topic you would like me to explore? Let me know, after all life is a two way street.

Till next time, take care.

Tilt-shift Bokeh

I thought I would find out a little more about this bokeh photography, I just love the effects. I started doing a little research over Christmas and found that there photoshop actually has filters designed for this purpose. Of course the effect is a lot more than just applying a 'tilt-shift' filter and my research indicated that there are actual Tilt-Shift lenses so I went looking.

I quite like the offhanded way that digitalrev.com deliver reviews so I started there and found out a little more about the lens and I do like the way perspective can be corrected in camera. The research did however highlight a flaw or two with Sony, my preferred camera supplier. Sony are leaders in digital technology and that includes camera's however they lag behind in lens development and their customer service skills leave a lot to be desired, sadly.

Anyway this blog is not a review or a comparison but rather an expression of my interest into 'Bokeh'. I watched a number of tutorials and I have got to say that Gavin Hoey is one of the best tutors that I have come across for quick short, to the point tutorials and tips.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself playing with some of the photo's from my world trip and I have used a couple of great shots of Edinburgh, Scotland from the walls of Edinburgh Castle for this miniaturisation or model effect called 'bokeh'.

(As with all the photographs on my fan page the resolution has been reduced and a watermark added if the photograph is for sale in my page shop)

2013 Resolutions

My first blog of the year, pretty slack hey! I have just posted the following to my Sanford Blog and thought it worthy of posting here;

As usual I have made my new year resolutions for 2013. I listen to some of my friends say that they won't even attempt to set resolutions as they invariably fail. I used to be the same but I have found that there are a number of things that I can do to actually succeed in fulfilling these resolutions.

The first thing to remember when setting yourself up to achieve new goals is to keep them realistic. Unreal expectations are doomed to failure and you will be setting yourself up for a depressive and counter productive outcome. This will impact negatively on your self esteem and future growth.

Second is to break down the goal into smaller, more manageable portions. A set of relatively easy goals will almost guarantee success and this will lift your spirits, self esteem and grow confidence.

Thirdly, set a timetable for your primary goals by all means but more importantly set timelines for your smaller portions and stick to them. Don't be wishy washy with theses timelines like 3rd week of x month, be very specific - for example 1:30 pm June 12 is the launch date and time for my new product.... etc.

The holiday break was of course fantastic especially since my Bonnie Ronnie's Foster Sister Penelope and her daughter Desirie came out from the UK to spend time with Penelope's niece and her family. We found Penny online only a few months ago and the holiday had already been planed so it was extremely fortuitous and the timing was perfect. It turns out that Penny's niece and family are only 10 minutes from where we live. We had not seen Penny since 1979 and lost touch when she moved to South Africa. We didn't even know of the daughter Des and niece Yvonne.... small world hey!

Penny and Des spent a few days with us and we took them up to Melany and Montville just inland from the Sunshine Coast. I had been hanging out to visit these towns since the beginning of the holidays as they are well known Artist Retreats. There are a multitude of boutique shops to cater to every taste and the artwork is simply fantastic. Unfortunately most of the galleries don't allow photographs so I can't show you any of the work  but for me it is, inspiration heaven!

I've included a few snap shots of the town's and some boutique's and gallery's here.

 

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Gun Control Reform

I have very strong views in favour of gun control,  so some people have labeled me a bleeding heart liberal. Those people have not walked in my shoes but believe that they know what makes me tick so I'm here to put forward my argument and set the record straight.

Firstly my argument. A gun of any description has been designed and developed with one objective in mind, 'to kill efficiently from a distance'. It has no ulterior use... even though it may have been beautifully and lovingly crafted by a talented engineer, it's purpose is to end life, stop life, remove life, take life.... it is an instrument of death and it is the preferred tool of the killer as it lends to stealth, distance and anonymity.

Every single criminal and or killer was a law abiding citizen up to the point that they broke the law and became a criminal and very often.... nay, too often that very first crime is the taking of a life therefore the argument that every law abiding citizen has the right to own a gun and has the right to use that gun to defend his home (an inanimate object), is moot.

Secondly to set the record straight. I know the power and safety one feels with a firearm that one knows intimately enough to dissasemble, clean and reassemble blindfolded. The firearm becomes an extension of oneself. I also know how it feels to be shot, to have ones life hanging in the balance because some madman wants to do nothing but end your life so badly that his whole being is focused on doing just that. 

I also know the feeling and the consequence of being for a brief moment that madman bent on the killing of another person, the rush of adrenalin and subsidence, the hollow feeling in the pit of one's stomach when gazing upon the lifeless face of the victim after a successful kill, with hands shaking so badly that they can barely hold the cigarette so desperately needed for it's calming.

I also know what it is to console a parent when their small child's life has been ended by a bullet fired from a gun assembled by the small child's slightly older cousin. One child dead the other lost to mental health issues and two families totally torn apart fifteen lives changed irrevocably forever - It would take a very callous soul to say, 'It's not the gun or the bullet that kills but the person!'

I have worked in Security (armed forces included for over 40 years) and over the last 30 have only drawn my firearm once, when an unseen worker started a jackhammer on top of the vault in a bank whilst I was investigating an alarm activation in the bank. 

I conducted an Australia wide survey for a large international security company in 2000 to find out statistically what was the effectiveness of firearms in the security industry (there was a move to disarm security guards as part of the gun law reform) I can hear the cries now that statistics can be manipulated to say whatever one wants but really that is the cry of the less educated and ill informed. 98% of reported incidents involving firearms within the security industry were of a negative nature and detrimental to the reputation of the industry. Ranging from the killing of innocent bystanders by security officers defending cash and bullion during an armed robbery to a disgruntled security officer fatally wounding a superior. 

I owned my own security company for over 12 years and refused to allow my staff to carry firearms unless required by our insurer which meant that I provided a safe working environment and we never had a single negative incident involving a firearm. I never once took my firearm home and would not allow my children to play with toy guns because to this day I have yet to see something good come from the use of a gun.

The bottom line is; controlling access to guns will reduce the number of fatalities caused by those same guns, this is not an emotive statement but pure mathematics.

Till next time God Bless.

Blog Update's

Now that the school holidays have begun here in Australia, although I still have one assignment due for this semester, the time has come to start preparing phase two of our new direction. I've started getting into the social media quite a bit of late as I experiment with marketing avenues. Using Google Analytics and so forth to measure interest in various posts, web design etc.

I can only imagine how much this is annoying some of my friends who will see my posts pop up in multiple locations simultaneously as I test the various social media links. I must say though that I am having a ball playing with this stuff, a nice distraction to all the software study.

I have spent a few hours updating my "Blogger" page and whilst this will no doubt have a negative impact on the search engines initially it will actually be an improvement for the future. I still have to spend more time tidying up those web pages and I will do so over the next month or so.

Time to move on to the advertising phase of our new enterprise. We have decided on a name "Lombard Design" and have developed our logo, keeping both name and logo simple.

We (Bonnie Ronnie and I) have decided on a theme and visual representation for our tag line which is "Captured moments in time" depicted below.

Now we need to get ourselves into print, yellow pages online I believe will be the most cost effective start. Once we start building a client base we will have the added advantage of advertising via our work which of course will be predominantly commercial.

The other thing I have to do is get a web page for this entity up and running by the end of the first week in January. I might have to keep it simple and ditch my idea of learning Joomla and Rockettheam for that site. Just a bit too much to cram into the little grey matter left between these old ears methinks:)

Till next time - God Bless.

Suicide

Yes the heading of this blog is a bit full on but I think it needs to be since the media is a little too full on with the word 'prank'. One can't help but notice that there is a lot of anger and animosity directed at the two radio announcers, who in their attempt at a little frivolity may have unwittingly played a part in events which led to a UK health worker taking her own life.

I've heard a number of people including some close friends suggest that these two radio announcers have blood on their hands, I would say what nonsense ....but rather I will say think for a moment, if this is true then we would all have blood on our hands wouldn't we? Society laugh at pranks and jokes and if ever you have laughed at one, does this not mean that you too have blood on your hands? What has happened is tragic but was brought about by a mental health issue.

A lot of people suffer mental health issues (suicidal tendencies and self harm fall under this category, neatly pigeon holed for society) and are able to keep those closest to them in the dark so to speak. This one event, the "Royal Prank" is hardly likely to be the only event in the life of this troubled health worker and is certainly not the cause of this tragedy. No doubt a cumulation of events over a period of time have played a significant part and this 'Royal Prank' may have been one of those events.

I believe that these two radio announcers are victims in this tragedy, not to the same extent as the family of the health worker but these events will now play a part in their mental health. What a vicious circle!

We speak out against bullying at school because of the negative impact on mental health and subsequent suicide rate but is this not bullying in the adult world and will it not also contribute to mental issues which may result in further suicides?

Think about it!

Till next time - God Bless.

Motivation

I'm not sure why I've even opened this blog page as I have no idea what I'm going to write about but thought I should write something.

I think that I just need a bit of a break from these courses - I've completed ten short certified courses with Lynda.com, am currently on my ninth assignment with Grenadi, second with Treehouse and have watched a number of photography tutorials (and practiced most) over the last three months but have not touched my Murdoch course as I await a reply to my deferral request. In the meantime I'm becoming quite comfortable with the Mac and switching between it and Windows 7 on my laptop.

On the negative side I have fallen off my training schedule and regime again. For some reason I just can't seem to get myself into a proper schedule and routine. I feel so disorganised and disjointed perhaps I need a bit of military dicipline to get myself back on track and this feeling is that much stronger at the moment because of some inspiration from a clip I watched this morning.  Whilst catching up with my friends and family on Facebook today I came across this clip and almost flicked by but I didn't and you have to see this - Words cannot express how amazing this video is. For anyone doubti - amazing is an understatement.

I've just watched it again while testing the link I added and am still in awe. I am now motivated to set myself a new goal and I am going to make sure that it is at least a worthy goal. I think that my motivation issue is because I have achieved the original goals that I set myself, I can walk all day even with a pack on the back (providing I rest frequently) and I can jog a hundred metres although my right leg certainly gives me curry. So starting today I'll develop a strict training regime for my legs, while I can't unblock the main arteries, I can certainly force more blood flow through the smaller veins and capillaries increasing their capacity.

Oh yeah - pumped now! 

Till next time God Bless.

Awakening

I was thinking about the huge changes that have taken place in my life over the last couple of years when I came upon the following post on Facebook by Alan Garrity, which describes to a tee the transformation that has taken place in my life. As Alan says, "I hope it helps someone through their bad times."

There comes a time in your life when you finally get it... when in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out "ENOUGH!
Enough of the wishing, fighting and crying, or, the struggling just to hold on.
This is your awakening.

You realize that it is time to stop hoping and waiting for something or someone to change, or for happiness safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon. You come to terms with the fact that there aren't always fairytale endings (or beginnings for that matter) or any guarantees of "happily ever after.”

So you begin making your way through the "reality of today" rather than holding out for the "promise of tomorrow."

You accept the fact that you are not perfect, and that not everyone will love appreciate or approve of who or what you are ... and that's OK ... they are entitled to their own views and opinions.

You stop trying to compete with the image inside your head or agonizing over how you compare. And, you take a long look at yourself in the mirror and you make a promise to give yourself the same unconditional love and support you give so freely to others. Then a sense of confidence is born of self-approval.

And, you stop maneuvering through life merely as a "consumer” hungry for your next fix, or looks of approval and admiration from family, friends or even strangers who pass by.
And you begin to love and to care for yourself. You stop engaging in self-destructive behaviors, including participating in dysfunctional relationships.
You begin eating a balanced diet, drinking more water and exercising. And because you've learned that fatigue drains the spirit and creates doubt and fear, you give yourself permission to rest.

Then you learn about love and relationships - how to love, how much to give in love, when to stop giving, and when to walk away.
You learn that people don't always say what they mean, or mean what they say, intentionally or unintentionally, and that not everyone will always come through...
You learn how to say "I was wrong" and to forgive people for their own human frailties. You learn to build bridges instead of walls and about the healing power of love as it is expressed through a kind word, a warm smile or a friendly gesture.
And, at the same time, you eliminate any relationships that are hurtful or fail to uplift and edify you. You stop working so hard at smoothing things over and setting your own needs aside. You learn that feelings of entitlement are perfectly OK and that it is your right to want or expect certain things.
You learn that you don't know all the answers, and it's not your job to save
the world, and that sometimes you just need to.... Let Go.

Moreover, you learn to look at people as they really are and not as you would want them to be, and you are careful not to project your neediness or insecurities onto a relationship.
You learn that just as people grow and change, so it is with love and relationships, and that that not everyone can always love the way you would want them to. So you stop appraising your worth by the measure of love you are given.
You stop trying to control people, situations and outcomes. You learn that "alone" does not mean "lonely" and you begin to discover the joy of spending
time "with yourself" and "on yourself."

You learn that life isn't always fair and you don't always get what you think you deserve, and you stop personalizing every loss or disappointment.

And you stop looking for guarantees, because you've learned that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected... and that whatever happens, you'll learn to deal with it...
Most of all… Be kind and gentle to yourself.

Till next time, God Bless!