Category: Photography

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Focussed, highly focussed

Photo of Trinn Suwannapha taken on the train returning to central Bangkok from Don Mueng

Just as I’ve decided to leave my detailed travel writing about Thailand until I return to Sydney, ’Pong hasn’t posted much on his website yet — preferring to shoot many, many gigabytes of imagery to edit upon his return. But having looked at some of the raw images, you’re in for a treat.

I shot the image above using my pimple-cam last week, when we caught the train back to central Bangkok after spending six hours (!) hanging about the Don Mueang district government office sorting out his voter registration for the forthcoming Thai general election. How focussed, eh?

Other notes:

  • Don’t let your identity card expire and then leave it for 5 years before trying to renew it.
  • Do the address change and the radical hairstyle change before renewing your card and asking the staff to believe you’re the same person.
  • Even though I was the only farang in the area, ’Pong’s bleached mohawk hairstyle attracted far more attention.

We’re really going to enjoy writing about our journey!

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Waiting for Kirribilli House

Photograph of Craig Gill wearing a Kevin07 t-shirt at Kirribilli House

The meme on teh intertubes this week was some wag placing a for-sale ad for Kirribilli House on a real estate website. I must admit, though, I do prefer my photo of Craig Gill in his Kevin07 t-shirt (above) at Hyacinth’s open day.

Thanks to Royaltech (and many others!) for the pointer. And in case the advert vanishes, there’s a PDF version.

I’ve already committed democracy today. Now it’s your turn. Remember, vote early and vote often.

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Weekly Poll: How disturbing is a “disturbing image”?

Ah, I love the smell of democracy in the morning! But since we’ll be overloaded with election news today, I’ll avoid politics in today’s Weekly Poll. Instead, the scalping of a cat’s tail.

The other day Artemis, one of our cats, was run over by a car. Or at least the fur on her tail was, and a 20cm section was effectively scalped, exposing the flesh beneath the skin. Yummy.

I have a photo. It’s fairly gross. A TV newsreader might preface it with “Some viewers may find this image disturbing.”

Now I have no qualms about publishing good Anglo-Saxon swear words. We can hear them any day on a bus, so I reckon being coy and writing “f*ck” and “c*nt” is stupid. I mean, we all know what these words are, so adding an asterisk doesn’t change the received meaning. But I did hesitate before posting this photo.

So, should I publish it? Go to the website to vote!

[poll id=”14″]

Last week’s results: After a year of phoney campaigning and a long, 6-week election campaign, it looks like most voters are indeed very glad today’s election day and we can all move on.

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The Stairway to Freedom!

Photo of stairs descending to the deserted platform at Gordon StationAs much as one stairway can symbolise imprisonment, another one at Gordon railway station (pictured) is a symbol of Freedom. It’s deserted, but I know there’ll soon be a late-night train taking me somewhere that dinner can be found. Huzzah!

Yes, I really was trapped alone in an office building, with deadlocking doors at the top and the bottom of the stairwell. One of the tenants is Westpac bank, so everything is solid. And I’d already phoned the client’s people but bounced to voicemail each time. I was looking forward to a long night on the stairs. Not.

And yes, I really did post to my website from The Stairway of Imprisonment.

My PowerBook has a battery. It talks Bluetooth to my Nokia N80 phone, and uses the phone’s 3G data link through Vodafone to teh Internetz. I used the N80’s camera to take the photo, and Bluetooth’d it back to the PowerBook for a quick and dirty bit of Photoshop. The photo transfer happened without disturbing the data link too! Impressed.

Luckily, while I was doing all that one of the client’s staff phoned back. I could take the call while still online, too. Hi, Loraine! She only lives 15 minutes of late-night driving from the office, so I was freed soon enough. And right now I’m on a train back to the City. Indeed, I’m posting this story precisely as I cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

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Trapped in St Ives! Eek!

Trapped!

You won’t believe this! It’s 11pm and I’m currently trapped in the front stairwell of the commercial building at 186 Mona Vale Road, St Ives. Locked in because I tried leaving by the front door, instead of the usual rear exit. Except it’s deadlocked. And now I can’t get back up the stairs either, because that door has locked too!

Oh well. At least there’s carpet on the floor and three hours of laptop battery left… [sigh] How glamorous!

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New Innovation!

Photograph of advertising sign reading: New Innovation

Spotted in Sydney the other day: an advertising poster bearing the slogan “new innovation”. As opposed to the other kind, I assume.