Days of Being LJ

okay, so I completely lied when I said I was going to retrospectively blog about the Australian Open, I’ve just managed to go through ALL 5205 photos I took and turned them into jpegs. I still am planning on listening to the podcasts, however only when I don’t get sick at the sound of my own voice…ahem

So why haven’t I been blogging? Well, there’s nothing really to blog about really, Twitter is taking care of all my tennis needs, work has been brilliant thus far, and I haven’t really had anything to really bitch about.

Of course I say that and by tomorrow something will have gone catastrophically wrong which will make me eat my words.

Life is currently devoid of any long term goals, short term goals are to get fitter, lose some weight so I can lose the joint issues and improve at tennis.

All in all I’m quite content, not resoundingly happy but very comfortable. Currently I’m in my TV rotation, working on a little video game show which is somewhat satiating my creativity and thus I haven’t found the necessary angst to go out and seek some masochistic activity (i.e updating this blog). I adore the people I work with and most of the work I do but knowing that my rotation ends in about 3 weeks will probably kill all this latent joy and send me screaming back to this blog.

But before then, I think I may enjoy what little solace I have left, grab some more sleep and you may not hear from me till mid-year

depending on how my next rotation goes I guess.

Leave you guys with a photo from the Aussie Open:

Practise before 4th Rd AO2010

The crowd at any Federer practise is amazing, amassed 5-7 deep alongside the entire court, with spectators also peering from the top of the stands of nearby courts.  People forget about personal space, courtesy or shame just for a glimpse of a living legend. I’ve been at the back of the throng, I’ve also been lucky to be at the front, leaning into the fence, close enough to lean in and almost feel the whoosh of the racquet.

This shot was taken during a warmup hit before his 4th round encounter with Lleyton Hewitt.  I was sandwiched within the throng, finding a precarious balance behind a young boy who was too short to see anything and in between two tall guys. Because Federer was practising on the other side of the court he usually was on, photos had to be carefully taken between a smattering of head, hair, shoulders and armpits all smushed up against the fence in front. But even under the fading afternoon light, framed by the seething mass of humanity, Roger Federer seemed to look into the soul of my camera, almost as if to ask;

“I mean really? Do you think you have a big enough lens? Yeesh, can you leave me alone to practise?”

LJK life blogging, life, musings, photography, roger federer, sport, tennis, work

So yes I have been neglecting this blog, so often is happens when I’ve got nothing on in my life, or I’ve got too much on in my life. Thankfully this time it’s the latter.

I’ve come back from 2 weeks at the Australian Open 2010, experiencing many firsts in the process, first time in Melbourne, first time watching live tennis and of course first time watching the GOAT in action.

Just a little over a year ago, I was drowning my sorrows in ethanol as Federer lost another final to Nadal. Little did I believe I would be at a Grand Slam final a year later, watching him actually win it.

I’ll be retrospectively blogging for the next few weeks or so, all my experiences at AO2010. Lam and I podcasted most days so I may actually remember stuff. I’m hoping to also put snippets of the podcasts up (well the non-defamatory parts anyway).  It’s the first time I’ve podcasted and I think it beats writing a diary on my laptop, takes less time and less energy and I can multitask during it. So look for more podcasts in the future i guess.

So the major planned goals accomplished this trip were:

• watch Roger Federer dance across a tennis court
• watch RF practise
• obtain RF’s autograph
• watch a Grand Slam Final
• Watch RF WIN a Grand Slam Final (On my birthday to boot)
• Watch heaps of other awesome players playing the glorious sport of tennis LIVE

Of course there were a few unexpected events which also made the 2 weeks unforgettable:

• Hit For Haiti Charity Event
• Justine Henin’s run to the final
• Prince William’s mid-match visit
• Gasquet vs Youzhny 5 setter
• Feliciano Lopez’s rear end

I will also cover the impact of having the iphone whilst travelling as well as professing my undying love for my Canon 40D + 70-200mm f4/L Combo.

LJK Australian Open 2010, sport Australian Open 2010, canon, photography, roger federer, sport, tennis, travel

Last week on went on a glorious road trip with my favourite allies and I think I’m finally coming down with the physical results of drinking, talking, eating too much, and sleeping little.

It didn’t also help that this week has been fairly tough at work with a few deadlines, meetings and various issues. Yesterday I got up at the crack of dawn to attend the opening of a new concept store in Bondi Junction. It was fun but it didn’t do much for my plans of avoiding sickness these few weeks.

Every day my urge to travel and go frolicking in awesome places of the world continues. I hope to embark on a longer snow trip this year and work on my abysmal snowboarding skills but I can’t help but feel envious every time I’m bombarded with pictures of far off picturesque locations such as Chile on facebook.

Most depressing is the sudden realisation now that I will only have 4 weeks of travel time a year, 1 week in the snow and another planned for the Australian Open early next year may mean that I only have 2 weeks to frolic around overseas. That doesn’t do much for my plans of driving around Lake Garda ala James Bond, languishing amongst the olive groves of Sorrento and perhaps a side trip to Spain?

Yet I can’t help thinking all these wants and plans are just a method of compensating for my own loneliness. The more I see all my friends paired off and walking into the sunset the more I feel like the need to go out and collect new hobbies and experiences to fill that void in my own life. It’s sad but the brutal end will come as I pass out, face pressed to some cold pizza , vodka by my side and Alsatians nibbling at my toes.

Anyhoo for the positives in the future, the ABC will receive $167 million of extra funding over the next 3 years. A bulk of it will go to producing new local content (up from 20 hours to 70 hours) as well as content for its new Kid’s Channel in the pipeline. Methinks I should really start writing my opus, a dramedy based on my experiences at Uni. It’ll be totally compelling…to me and my friends that is.

But now is a good time to be creative, to start off that slam poetry, create that TV show and make money and fame off my perculiar blend of geeky ethnic youth intellectuality.

If none of that works…perhaps I’ll go become a roving travel guide.

LJK life conversation, creativity travel, drinking, friends, photography, plans, road trip, writing

So I’m at the start of another weekend and I feel so happy that I won’t have to go to work until Monday. I have no idea how I’m going to deal with the next 40 years of my life but I’m hoping that somewhere along the line I can subsist by only selling photos, poetry, advice or whatnot and languish at home with my pretend cats emulating the best of Judi Dench in Notes On a Scandal.

I had dinner tonight with Lam and his Voice Actor whom was participating in Lam’s Media Arts Project this semester. I stuck around to help a bit afterwards and since I had my trusty camera, took a few production stills. It made me realise how much I did miss the production side of things, the tangibility of the equipment, the fiddling of knobs and buttons…Problem solving on the run. I really like the awesomeness of production technology and overall I miss collaborating with different people, actors, crew etc. However I’m sure that if I was working on a freelance project, I’d be bitching about it forever so perhaps I’m just happy being miserable?

Anyhoo, because my mobile ran out of battery earlier in the day it meant I couldn’t contact anyone in the city to hang out with so I just decided to head home on a lonely Friday night, since Lam was bound to spend ages recording his script. Got to Wynyard and missed my bus by 5min, the next being another 25min wait, so I hopped on a 273 instead and decided to walk from Crows Nest back home and perhaps take some piccies along the way. Google Maps tells me that it was 3km exactly. So I legged it and tried some long exposures at the freeway overpass on Miller Street and at the Tower Bridge at Northbridge. I felt a tad of a ditz with my tripod and camera on a freeway overpass on a Friday night but I think it turned out for the best really.

Some favourites from tonight:

Torrents of Light (Freeway Overpass)

Bridge of Light

I think some of the reasons why I’ve taken up this period of photography with such aplomb are:

1. I haven’t properly photographed using an SLR since 2002.
2. Sometimes I enjoy looking at the world through a camera lens. I’ve done it consistently for the past 10 years of my life. There’s no sense in stopping now.

LJK life, photography filmmaking, judi dench, long exposure, photography

Having done heaps of cinematography related stuff over the years, I am ashamed to admit that since 35mm film died as the go to medium to capture happy snaps, I’ve been stuck with mobile phones and point & shoot cameras as the source of my photography needs. So whilst my old Canon 35 mm SLR languished in my closet for years, collecting dust, I’ve become steadily frustrated at the limits brought on by slow shutter speeds, small chip sizes and crappy lenses.

So 2 weeks ago I took the plunge and ordered a Canon 40D. Something, which I’ve realised, I should have done much sooner to save my photography skills from stagnation. The wait ended yesterday morning when I finally had a chance to pick it up.  The rest I hope is history really…the dawn of a new chapter in creativity…

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So what has happened to my old Canon? I found this ridiculous hack which turns the crappy lens it comes with into this brilliant DIY Macro lens.

So above is my old Canon 35mm film SLR and if you take the top cap off the lens, you can take macro shots like these:

Sure there’s no focus ring and you have to move within 5cm of the object, but I love nothing more than a good hack which makes use of old useless object. How absolutely brilliant.

LJK photography canon, hack, macro, photography

Yesterday my family and I dropped into Nan Tian Temple on a whim. Which provided me with a cheap excuse to test out the 40D and Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 I picked up yesterday morning. It was overcast and my brother was a very unwilling subject in front of the camera but overall I got a few very nice photos.

LJK photography black & white, family, photography, travel