My first post for 2015 – The Cancer Support Group

The last month I have been on holidays, and when I say holidays, I really mean relaxing and taking it easy.

However, as January is just about over its time to start getting on with business, but before I do, I will be attending The Cancer Support Group convoy, which will be held tomorrow. It will be a unique experience for me as I’ll be actually attending as an attendee, and not the event photographer. ha ha ha

I will be a fantastic day out riding with some old, and new mates. It is also a fantastic way for the The Cancer Support Group (http://thecancersupportgroup.org.au/) to gain some valuable funds, for what is a terrible disease that takes thousands of people every year.

I was talking to a friend the other day about this convoy, and he was trying to decide if it was worth attending. Now my words to him were.

Is it worth giving away 50$ to ride 38km with other riders…. No… It is worth giving away 50$ to help families with cancer. Hell yeah

Which kinda raises an interesting point. Not everything in life has a tangible and quantifiable value.

  • Can you put a dollar figure on the smile you see in your child’s eyes on Christmas morning?
  • What about the last moments of life!
  • As you watch your love ones slowly deteriorate as cancer ravages their body, is the medicine that brings comfort to them in their final days worth the money?
  • What about the value of memories?
  • Memories that are captured at a point in time and are there for a lifetime?

Photographs to me, are those memories. Photographs that capture the memories and document the history of life are one of the most important things as we grow old and our actual memory fades. We can, at any time, look back at these photographs. Photographs that bring out emotion, feeling, smells, tastes, while kick starting our minds back into an active state where they remember the moment when the photo was taken. We remember the things we were doing at that time, how we felt, and the people and activities that surround that moment in time.

Participating in this event tomorrow, is not about riding and hanging with my mates, it’s not about watching awesome old-fashioned Australian rock bands at the end and it’s not about getting a super cool T-shirt, Stubby Holder and a mad flag for my bike.

It’s about making a difference!

Cancer Council convoy

The Emeralds Calendar Launch

The Canberra Raiders Cheer Squad, The Emeralds, had their official calendar launch the other day and I was lucky enough to be invited along as their official event photographer and what can I say……  It was a great night…

It was full of dancing, singing, music and a whole heap of fun.  It started off with the juniors of the squad doing their thing and later moved onto the seniors with lots of fan fair and energy.

All the images can be seen and purchased at my online store – click off the menu on the left of this screen. 🙂  Note as there are minors in the images you will have to use a passcode to access the site.  There is a clue on the main page or request the passkey and I can send it to you.

 

The Emeralds 2015 cheer squad
The Emeralds 2015 cheer squad
The Emeralds 2015 cheer squad
The Emeralds 2015 cheer squad at the end of the performance
Special time, for one special gentleman
Special time, for one special gentleman
Banging out of tune
Banging out of tune
Hoochie mama
Hoochie mama
In the zone
In the zone
Hell yeah!!!!
Hell yeah!!!!
Great walls of fire!!!!
Great walls of fire!!!!
Guitar soloist
Guitar soloist
The flute specialist
The flute specialist
Another great performance
Another great performance

As the sunsets over another day we look forward to tomorrow

Days end and days begin…  what makes them different it the way we look at them…

Some days we have shit days and some days we have great days… but what makes up a good day?  or for that matter a shit day?

I look out over by backyard and see this view…  It is amazing in all aspects… but it is a view that we all see and we all see must about every day of our lives… but why is it that we do not see it?

Most of the time we walk around with our eyes shut… There is soooooo much beauty in this world that we take if for granted…  We just walk through our lives not looking around and as some would say, not smelling the roses… lol

Here are my roses. 🙂

Sunset before Christmas
Sunset before Christmas

 

Six months in the making and you will not believe for!

A bit of a different post today… One that started about 6 months ago when a new friend asked for some help in reaching her dreams to which I could not refuse…

Over the last 6 months we have spent many hours working together to reach one of her major goals, one that was going to change her life.

We worked late into the night and on many occasions into the wee hours of the morning, always with the same goal in mind. This has been constant and with many setbacks along the way.. There has been temper tantrums, screaming, crying, hugging, laughter and joy…. and that was just from me…. 🙂

All that hard work and effort has today delivered that dream… a dream that will now change her life for ever… It will fill her with confidence and has shown her that even though times can be tough and the future looks dim, it can and does change.

It takes some hard work and more importantly a plan… without a plan to reach her goals she would still be in the same position she was back in May when we started down this path.

I for one am sooo happy for her to not only see the fruits of her hard labour but to give her, her dream and a fresh start.

All I can say is well done and congratulations… It was worth every minute and the future is now, as it always has been…. In your hands.. 🙂

So Happy
So Happy

SSSSSSSSS is for Snake!!!!!

I must say I am a bit of a fan of snakes.  I like the way they look and their skins is sooo soft and smooth.  They also demand respect especially here in Australia where we have the most deadly snakes in the world.

Luckily for us this snake is not venomous all and was relatively well behaved. 🙂

I must say I really like the effects on the pupils for this shot when shooting in the dark… I makes her eyes almost look like black holes where you can get lost in.

Snake eyes
Snake eyes

Indiana Jones comes to mind when I look at this image.. Its like she has a whip in her hand and is ready to cracking it.

Whip snake
Whip snake

A nice close up shot of our snake friend… 🙂

Diamond python
Diamond python

Off setting the image to the left gives the image some extra interest.

Medusa and her snake
Medusa and her snake