International Womens Day - MCC exhibition

March 6, 2021

The Melbourne Camera Club International Women’s Day Exhibition is on. It's near the South Melbourne market so if you're in that area, check it out. Entry is free and visitors are welcome.

The MCC have emailed me for a few years now and asked if I wanted to add a couple of my images to their IWD display (I've been involved in judging their monthly comps a couple of times). Up until this year, I have always declined. But after the year that Covid caused and RMIT closed down short courses rendering me under-employed, I was at a bit of a loose end and when the email came through I thought, stuff it, I need some motivation to do something. And so I selected, printed and delivered a couple of images. I also coerced my daughter Rebekah to do the same.

If you get the chance to exhibit or enter any of your images into anything, I recommend you do. It's a great learning process on many levels. Try it and you'll see what I mean. Let me know if you do and I'll try and get along and have a look if I can.

If your photography has stalled and you don't know what to do, check out a Camera Club near you. They can keep you motivated and challenged.

The MCC Exhibition will be open to the public on the following dates during March:

Saturday 6 March: 10am-4pm

Sunday 7 March: 10am-4pm

Monday 8 March (Labour Day): 10am-4pm

Thursday 11 March: 2pm-6pm

Thursday 18 March: 2pm-6pm

Thursday 25 March: 2pm-6pm

Location: Melbourne Camera Club Gallery

254-256 Ferrars St / corner Ferrars and Dorcas Streets, South Melbourne

Family Portraits. How do you choose a Portrait Photographer?

November 2, 2020

How long has it been since you had family portraits taken? Too long? Everyone says they want to get it done, but it’s hard to pin down a date and do it. Don’t put it off for another year. Book in now and get it done. You’ll be glad you did.

How do you choose a Portrait Photographer? Good question.

Here’s what I would do.

Decide what style of photo you’d like: Formal/posed or relaxed and natural. Documentary or lifestyle. (What does that even mean? Have a look around and find a few examples of what you think would work for your family. Make sure the photographer you choose has similar work in their folio)
Decide where you would like the photos taken: In a studio. At home. At the beach or a park.
Ask your friends (or facebook) for personal recommendations.
Google who is in your area. Make sure their style matches what you like. Give them a call and have a chat to make sure you’re comfortable with them.
Ask about pricing, what you get, how it works etc. There are lots of different ways so it’s best to get as much info as possible so you don’t end up in an unsatisfactory situation (eg. a super cheap sitting fee and then a la carte prices that aren’t in your budget.

If you’ve had family portraits done recently I’d love to hear about your experience. How did you choose your photographer. Were you happy? Did you get what you wanted? Are you glad you did it? (You can leave a comment without signing in. Just do it as ‘anonymous’ ). I’d love to hear from you.

I mostly teach photography now, but I do still love capturing memories for families. With Melbourne being shut down due to Covid - 19, I’m not teaching photography, so I have a few limited times available on the Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba in November 2020. Click HERE for more info

We work together to capture the personality of your family. Here’s a few of my favourites from a windy afternoon at Alexandra Headlands on the Sunshine Coast. We did a pretty good job of hiding the broken foot in a plaster cast on one of the boys.

Double click an image to make it larger and you can then scroll through the gallery.

Family Portrait, 1st Birthday, Cake Smash

October 30, 2020

I had fun capturing these great memories from Jason’s 1st birthday. He was a bit unsure what all the fuss was about for a while and I think Mum & Dad had the most fun with the Cake Smash. Jason was happier eating the car keys rather than the cake!

Gardens And Their People - A veritable, verdant veggie garden and its crusty old gardener.

October 10, 2020

My brother Stew is a mad keen veggie gardener. He even has his own Youtube channel all about growing veggies. You can check it out here. Stew’s garden draws you along paths and through gates and up little side paths to discover a delightful, rambling, eclectic yard full of surprises.

I made a comment to Stew that “For a Veggie Gardener you have a lot of beautiful flowers”. He said, “Yeah, well, it’s more like a cottage Potager/ish Garden, which is a bit like a flower garden with veggies in it, rather than a traditional veggie patch”.

Apart from a wild and wonderful garden, Stew has a pretty interesting story. Read on to find out a bit more about him and his gardening history.

1. How long have you had this garden?

“It started when my now 27 year old daughter was 6 months old.”

2. How/When did your interest in veggie growing start?

It was childhood labour for a long time with my Dad and I’m surprised it didn’t put me off for life. But when I moved into this garden I started to put a few seedlings in every now and then. Then, when I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, I thought I could eat myself better so I stepped up my veggie growing. Sadly it didn’t work. Then about two years ago I decided I wanted to up my YouTube game so now, with a reputation to maintain, I’ve ramped up the veggie garden to the next level.

3. Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

Yes and yes. I completed a certificate in Horticulture waaaay back in 1990 at the GCIT. There I learnt just enough to get me into trouble and not quite enough to get me out of trouble. So I’ve had to teach my self a lot along the way. Especially as I was learning at the time when chemical use for the control of insects, disease and fertilising was still popular and organic gardening was in its infancy, popularity wise.

The old glider swing boasts a magnificent orchid.

4. Tell me about your association with the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers

Well, I just love it. And a huge influence on me becoming interested in gardening and growing plants. Having little spare time and money I couldn’t have my own ‘Carnival Garden’ but then one day one of my Garden maintenance customers was saying how he’d always wanted to enter the carnival garden comp so I said if he wanted to I’d be happy to help and guide him through it. Very pleased to say we won the Grand Champion garden on several occasions along with a host of other categories as well. After a while we went our own seperate ways and it would be another decade before I had another opportunity to enter into the carnival garden competition again. This time at my current place of employment, Glenvale Villas. Here we’ve enjoyed being awarded one First Place and Four second places.

5. I know you’ve had some health issues. How did/does that impact on your gardening?

Ulcerative Colitis, you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy. In the early stages it wasn’t much of an issue and I did give the veggie garden a big push in the hope I could eat myself healthy. But as time progressed my UC became worse and with increased side effects from medication along with some severe lethargy the garden went by the wayside. The only cure for me was an operation to remove my colon which reluctantly I agreed to have (would much rather have had the miracle cure I was waiting for). Anyway, it worked and after some tweaking and finding out what was working and what was not I’m now fairly healthy apart from some fatigue now and then and it’s full steam ahead.

The engine room in the afternoon light. They look frightfully like a bunch of daleks coming towards you.

6. Tell me about your compost bin system.

I don’t remember now how or why I fell in love with the Gedye bin compost system but I did. I’d tried several other ways of composting and none of them were satisfactory to me. I’d had my eye on the Gedye bins for a while and went and bought one which was ok but I thought two would be better which was ok but then I thought four would be better( are you sensing a pattern here?). Well I have eight now but think I could use one or two more yet. They make the best black gold (compost) ever. I just need to keep working and turning to get the system to make compost fast enough for the amount of compost I need for the veggie garden. And I use a lot of compost hence the amount of bins I have.

7. What are your favourite things to grow

Everything. But the veggies that taste the best grown by your own hand in your own backyard are the ones I like best. I’ll give you a top five.

5. Beans
4. Carrots
3. Tomatoes
2. Onions.
1. Corn .

With corn it’s best to have your water already on the boil (with a teaspoon of salt, if you like) before you go and pick your corn. Then as you are walking back to the kitchen you can clean the cob and then all you need to do is drop it into the boiling water. Just long enough to get some heat into the cob so you can melt a dollop of butter over it. Add a sprinkle of salt and that’s as close to nirvana as you’ll ever get.

8. What’s the hardest thing to grow

Zucchini. And it’s not all that hard to grow but I just can’t get the bloody things to fruit. While everyone else is banging on about the summer ‘zucchini glut’ and how they are going to use them all I’m standing there looking at my zucchini going, ‘zucchini glut? What bloody zucchini glut?’ Anyhow, I’ll persevere and maybe, one day, I’ll get to experience my own zucchini glut.

9. What’s your best gardening tip?

I haven’t got one.

I’ve got two.

1. You need blind faith and persistence.

2. Feed the soil not the plant. If you’ve got good soil you’ll get a good plant. If you’ve got a good plant you’ll get a good crop and then you’ll have good nutritious food to eat.

10. What do you hate most or the hardest thing about veggie gardening.

Watering. It’s time I could use doing other tasks in the garden. We don’t need a lot of rain but we do need some.

11. What do you love about veggie gardening

Seeing seeds that you’ve planted and cared for when they just break the crust of your soil and emerge into the world ready to go. Never ceases to amaze me and it usually comes with a sense of relief as well.

12. Tell me about your favourite gardening tool

Japanese weeding sickle. It’s so good I made a video about it. The best weeding tool on the planet.

13. What veggies have you got growing in your garden at the moment?

Wow, that’s a big list. I’ll give you a top ten.

1. Tomatoes
2. Lettuce
3. Beans
4. Carrots
5. Onions
6. Garlic
7. Radish
8. Silverbeet.
9. Chillies
10. Beetroot

14. What are your veggie garden dreams for the future?

I’d like to get 2 to 5 acres of nice land where I can become self sufficient in fruit and veg and every Sunday toddle off to the local markets with whatever excess I have on a flash looking old truck. Something like this one. Also a similar goal is to have the same as above but have a small cafe on the land somewhere where as much as possible comes served up comes fresh from the farm.

If you got this far it would be great if you could press the little heart in the corner to give the post a ‘like’ so I know you’ve stopped by. Or you could leave a comment or ask a question. And if you want to check out Stew’s YouTube channel and subscribe, here’s the link again. Stewart Dorman. I Garden

Save paradise from becoming a parking lot (if you live in Queensland)

September 2, 2020

Save Isobel Jordan Reserve. Or, save a piece of paradise from becoming a parking lot for the Air Museum. It takes 2 minutes to lend your support to protect this little pocket of amazing habitat (Queenslanders only) down near the Caloundra Airport. Please click the link and sign the petition. It ends on the 5 Sept so hop to it. They really need your help. Here's a few flora photos I snapped yesterday morning at this little treasure trove of natural goodness. https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/petition-details?id=3374

Thomson Street Foodstore Mural

July 17, 2020

Community, connections, conversation.

Wominjeka. I stopped for a coffee at Thomson Street Foodstore while I was out walking for my daily exercise and had a chat with Simon who was adding to the Mural on the side of the building. Simon is Indigenous but his family is part of the stolen generation and he was brought up just about as white bread as I was. His has been a journey of learning about his history and making connections to culture. Mine has been a process of unlearning the racist, sexist, homophobic culture I was raised in in a Queensland country town.

Simon works at the cafe as well as being an artist involved with Cork and Chroma in Collingwood (when there’s isn’t a Pandemic mucking things up). The mural was originally inspired by Ailsa who lives close by and who is also responsible for a lot of the native gardens surrounding the cafe as well as the bushfood that grows in the courtyard (again, when there isn’t a pandemic in the way). I didn’t meet Ailsa but will keep an eye out for her on future walks.

More familiar with a canvas, this is Simon’s first in situ art work. His contribution on this day is a version of the Three Wise Monkey’s - Hear, See, Speak. We need to hear what our First Nations People have to say. We need to see them, their history, their culture. We need to talk with them, to understand. The overall message of the mural seems to tie in nicely with the recent Black Lives Matter protests. I’m sure Simon could give a more detailed explanation and if he stops by the blog he might leave some info in the comments? Or better still, if you’re in the area, stop and day g’day, he’s more than happy to have a chat and explain the many facets of the work and the symbolism . One word that stands out is VOICE and the power of art in communicating is evident in this work.

The colour palette was chosen in part to depict the many colours of skin and to not judge a person or their history, heritage or culture, based on the colour of their skin. As a white skinned indigenous person, Simon’s experience of his Aboriginality is an ongoing journey to connect to his history and culture.

The youth in the area have been invited to be part of the mural by adding their hand prints and this was an important part of building community and education.

The mural is on the corner of Thomson and William St in Northcote (it’s actually in between Fairfield and Dennis stations but technically it’s Northcote). If you’re out exercising in these Covid times, put this on your route and call in for a coffee and check out the artwork.

PS. The coffee’s good too.

(Note: If I’ve said anything inappropriate I’m happy to be corrected so I can learn and make changes. Please let me know in the comments or send me a message via the website. Thanks)