Distracted

On this day four years ago Penny and I visited the National Rhododendron gardens at Olinda in the Dandenong ranges east of Melbourne.  These two where so distracted by their devices that they failed to notice the magnificence around them

The lens

Recently I have been reading the Foundation series of books by Isaac Asimov and also watching the same story on Apple+.  Coincidentally the show on TV is only loosely based on the original story.  I have also been watching a Netflix series called "The billion dollar code".  This story is about a group of German hackers (Art+Com) that created a program called "TerraVision" in 1994.  It is essentially Google Earth but not on any computer.  The story is about how they sue Google over who invented Google Earth.  

After rereading the Foundation series, I believe that neither Art+Com or Google invented the idea of Google Earth.  It seems that in the book "Second Foundation" (on Page 32 of my digital copy) is a description of a device called "The lens".

Excerpt from Book "Second Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

The Lens was perhaps the newest feature of the interstellar cruisers of the day. Actually, it was a complicated calculating machine which could throw on a screen a reproduction of the night sky as seen from any given point of the Galaxy.

Channis adjusted the co-ordinate points and the wall lights of the pilot room were extinguished. In the dim red light at the control board of the Lens, Channis’ face glowed ruddily. Pritcher sat in the pilot seat, long legs crossed, face lost in the gloom.

Slowly, as the induction period passed, the points of light brightened on the screen. And then they were thick and bright with the generously populated star-groupings of the Galaxy’s centre.

End Excerpt

The description of the lens is almost word for word the same as how TerraVision is described in the Netflix series.  The main difference is the scope.  In the case of the "Second Foundation" the scope is an entire  Galaxy and TerraVision/Google Earth restrict themselves to the planet earth.

Either way the idea for what we now know as Google Earth can trace a genesis back to Isaac Asimov and potentially any patents may actually belong to him and his descendants?

Isaac Asimov was the person that ignited my love of hard science fiction. His books still to this day stand up to technical scrutiny.

Image #feetupfriday waiting for the show to begin :)

Tree

During lockdown here in Melbourne taking photos has been difficult. I like to get out and about and take photos in the city or the country. Most of the time I have been restricted to just a 5k radius of my home. As I couldn’t travel I found myself photographing a specific tree from the balcony here. Apparently Google Photos doesn’t provide a preview so you will need to click through to see the album of images all different days focal lengths, leaves/no leaves, landscape and closeup. Enjoy

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4p9TPLfsrwK9wSEJA

Negative space

Frankston beach on this day four years ago.  I missed this image at the time and rather like the way it came out after editing

Scam by SPAM

It seems that the old Nigerian scam is still alive and well.  It is a number of years since I received a similar message to the one pictured.  Send $135 USD plus full name, address, phone number and profession.  The scam will not end with you losing $135 USD.  You have been warned

Orange

for word of the day

The Kiss

Taken as part of the Weekly Photo Project back in February 2014.  Presented for Word of the day : Lips

Not in my name

Last year I posted under the word freedom Here is the original post. The events in the city of Melbourne over the last couple of days included men carrying "The Eureka flag". Pictured is the original hand drawn design for the Eureka flag.  The ultimate symbol of democracy here in Australia. What happened in Melbourne is not democratic.  They do not carry it in my name.

Macro

On this day last year I found a needle in a haystack while searching for the word Needle in the scavenger hunt.

Portrait

High key portrait 

Model: William Emmons (Actor)

Cut

On this day in 2017 I was involved in the movie making process

All at sea

Sailing off Mornington in high key

Dawn in the desert

Pre dawn light in the desert around 10 kilometres from Kalgoorlie.  Taken on this day in 2012.

Over the water

The view across the water from Frankston looking towards the Melbourne CBD and the Macedon ranges on the horizon.  Taken on this day in 2015.  Hopefully I will be able to take images like this in the near future :)

Wave rock

On this day in 2012 Penny and I visited Wave rock in Hyden West Australia.  It is completely made of granite and the distinctive shape is due to water erosion millions of years ago.  It is in what could be described as a barren area of Australia.

Sunrise over Albert park lake

This image was taken with a mobile phone on this day in 2013.  I gave it the cinematic treatment for this post

The dive

Word of the day Saltigrade.  This was taken at Frankston Pier back in January 2014.  I used it for the weekly photo project the.  The theme was action /motion

Lights camera action

Letter of the day A for Action

Plethora

For word of the day...  A plethora of vehicles.  The scene from the top floor of Melbourne's terminal 4 looking towards the long term car park.

Skateboarder

On this day in 2018 I was on the way to work.  Skateboarder on Southbank in Golden hour.  Melbourne CBD in the background.  I really love the vibrancy of this scene.

Arête

A sharp crested ridge in mountains.  This is the eastern wall of Wilpena pound lit up in the morning sun.  This was Word of the day yesterday...  Apparently I am late to the party

Frankston Pier

On this day four years ago I took this early morning view of Frankston Pier

Life in lockdown

Here I am in Melbourne where COVID case numbers are rising every day and all I can think of is here we go again.  Penny and I are quite comfortable, but after 200+ days of lockdown, it would be nice to be out the other side.  Right now there doesn't even appear to be light at the end of the tunnel.

However when I look at our neighbours in Sydney I will happily do whatever is required to get this current outbreak behind us.  If it means we maintain our daily routine of keeping busy doing not much at all then so be it.  I am glad they have closed playgrounds this week.  

Last week when I was out for exercise it was horrifying to see the sheer number of parents with kids congregating around the play equipment.  At one park I saw around 100 people having picnics, drinking, eating all without masks and not really social distancing.  You could almost believe that we didn't have a global pandemic. It was horrendous.

I am all for people having freedom to do what they want.  In this case the greater good says to stay home.  I do not want to live in a place where, neighbours, friends and family members are in a position where their health and wellbeing are compromised, simply because a small minority of selfish people think that they are more important than anyone else.

The rules we have are quite onerous but to make things really simple.  If you do not need to go out don't.  Stay home if we all do this the chances of this current lockdown ending sooner rather than later are greatly enhanced.

If you have to go out, do not go out as a household group, wear a mask and check in as appropriate.  If you aren't vaccinated, do not waste time.  Go and get vaccinated.  The chances of dying from COVID, are significantly higher than any potential for side effects from the vaccine.  I have had my first Astrazenica shot with the second booked in for next week.  I personally had no side effects. YMMV.

Never forget that COVID will kill around 1% of those that get it but the bigger problem is the long term effects on those that do not die.  Long COVID is a thing and by all reports you do not want it.

Stay safe everyone...  See you on the other side

Country Road

Today is WORLD Photography Day 2021, @heikomahr asked us to show our best photos from this year.

This is Penny's choice as favourite out of the images that I have taken this year.  It has not been posted up till today.  The scene is of a country road near Rochester in Victoria

Ink, Oil and Water

Today is WORLD Photography Day 2021, @heikomahr asked us to show our best photos from this year.

Rather than the best photo I am going with the most fun photo shoot.  As part of a scavenger hunt earlier this year, we were given the word ink.  I went with ink art.  Using ink, oil and water.  This gave me other worldly images like the one presented here.

Moon

Hand held image taken in daylight, yesterday.  It is surprisingly easy to capture lots of detail when you are not fighting with the high contrast of the moon in the night sky

#Denudation for word of the day

Spring on the front fence

On this day in 2017 this was the view on our front fence.  Spring is on the way

Jump

Taken on this day back in 2014.  This was for a self portrait challenge back on G+  The word was jump.  I used the timer on the camera to take this on my way to work.  Took around 4 goes to get exactly what I was after...

The conversation

Taken on this day in 2017.  This was on the set of the movie 'A Beautiful Request' by Alex Broun directed by Robert Chuter.  I note that it is still unreleased.  Here is a link to the movie on IMDB...  I get a 'still photography' credit :)

Pictured are Phoebe Jakober (Salome) and Guillym Davenport (William) deep in conversation on the St Kilda foreshore.  Not long after this a storm swept in across the bay and filming was shutdown for the day.

10th of August 2018

On this day in 2018, I took this shot as I left Parliament station in Melbourne.  It was part of my cinematic series.  The cinematic series was where I attempted to create an image that looked like it was a frame from a movie.  Image ratio is 1 x 2.35 with cinematic toning applied.

Grate

This image was inspired by an image found in the latest scavenger hunt, follow the link to view the image by Chris Bowman.  The theme was Kitchen Utility.  For the record I did not compete in round 32 (Penny did).

Grate art

VMRC VSphere 6.0 Scaling issue on Windows 10

I recently had to work on a VMWare guest and no matter what I did I could not get the mouse to work.  It turns out that the VMWare Remote Console is not Windows 10 scaling aware.  The fix is to set the Windows 10 scaling to 100% (The default is 125%).  Once you do this the issue completely disappears.  I guess that is what happens when you don't upgrade your infrastructure.  It works perfectly fine on ESXi 7

Vista

The city of Melbourne as seen from the top step of the Shrine of remembrance looking straight down Swanston street.  You can clearly see the face of William Barak etched in the building in the distance.

Early morning tree

A huge tree taken from my balcony this morning

Popart

Original artwork by me.  Apples and pears.  The two images were hand painted by me photographed and turned in to art.

Privacy cat

Last week Penny and I attended our first wedding post pandemic (without restrictions) and we stayed at the magnificent Chateau Yering country house hotel here in Victoria's Yarra valley.  Of course I see a major fluffy moment as soon as I walked in the room. Sitting on the bed was this...  They call them privacy cats.  If you want to be left alone you simply place the cat at your door.  I think this was Decastella, named after the room.

Hunt 31 - Theme: Self Portrait

To me this was the easy one.  I was going for a better head shot for use at work. I really like the light and dark. My right side is always the darkest :)

Hunt 31 - Theme: Fluffy

I blame Penny for this one :)

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-31/round-31-reveals-fluffy/

Entrance / Exit

 Flinders Street Melbourne near Russell street. The forum theatre lit up in the late afternoon sun.

Seekers

Back in 2013 Penny and I went to watch the Seekers for their 50th anniversary concert.  This was the concert that Judith Durham had a medical incident after it finished.  It looked like it may have been their last concert at the time.  As you can see from this image we were second row in the middle.

Hunt 31 - Theme: Teal

While I was playing with ink I stumbled on this image that fitted the brief for Teal. Ink, Oil, Water and bubbles generated by a lens dust blower

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-31/round-31-reveals-teal/

Silhouette

Barbed wire fence at sunrise. Somewhere near Beechworth

Hunt 31 - Theme: Tiny Creatures

Little creatures are tiny too

Hunt 31 - Theme: Window

This is the waterwall at the National Gallery of Victoria. It is a favourite haunt for local photographers here in Melbourne. When it was opened in the early 70's the glass used was the longest continuous piece of glass anywhere. The blur is from the flow of water over the glass

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-31/round-31-reveals-window/

Hunt 31 - Theme: Tea

This was an accidental image.  I was just getting the morning victuals and I had tea on my mind as I was getting one for Penny and I saw this nice clean look in our new kitchen and said...  "That'll do!'  For the record I drink coffee mostly from a French press.  Black no milk or sugar

Hunt 31 - Theme: Sparkle

Simple and effective. 

Hunt 31 - Theme: Float

Day three and the word is float.  This is a Galileo thermometer. It is not his invention but was named in his honour. The bubbles indicate the temperature.

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-31/round-31-reveals-float

Hunt 31 - Theme: Fairytale

The idea for this image came from Penny.  This is the breadcrumb trail through the forest from Hansel and Gretel.  The ant in the left hand corner was a happy accident and actually fits another theme still to be revealed.  Image was taken early one morning at sunrise in the Dandenong ranges national park. All other entries can be found here https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-31/round31-reveals/round-31-reveals-fairytale

Hunt 31 - Theme: Ink

It is again time for reveals in the latest scavenger hunt.  The word for today is 'ink'.  Here is my interpretation of the word.  this image was created using oil, water and coloured inks.  Lighting was from beneath the image using a Lume cube and a diffuser.  Other images can be found here https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-31/round-31-reveals-ink/

Waiting

Shooting a hospital waiting room scene back in 2017.