Need to find a balance between work and play

This last few weeks have been incredibly busy at work, I have been starting work at 5am and often not finishing before 5pm. Not that I am complaining (well I did a little bit). I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms and missing my camera, I starting carry my camera with me in hope a photo opportunity would present. I don't really like taking photos at work - it is too much like 'work'. I miss a few weeks of the 52 week challenge on Flickr because I have been so busy and it has rained a lot on my days off. The conference that has kept me busy was an International Olympiad in Informatics (or my working title The Nerd Olympics) 300 students from 80 countries, competing for gold medals in mathematics.

http://www.ioi2013.org/

Every team of 4 had a leader from UQ who carried signs with the country names on them, the placement of them outside of the exam room appealed to me enough to take this photo.

On the last day of the Examination part of the Nerd Olympics, there was an hour delay due to technical issues, the students were getting a bit stressed and the tension in the room was high, 10 minutes before the start time there was a commotion at one end of the room. An announcement was made that this animal was harmless and to leave it be. A possum had run into the exam room, the international students were thrilled (and a little worried). With a lot of help I managed to get the possum to an area it would be safe and out of the way. The Dutch camera crew managed to get a good video of it, which I up loaded to You Tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Gt0bUY2Oc

The possum came out of his hiding place at the end of the day and was escorted outside.   

One night when I got home right on dusk HWMBO was burning the hard wood he had been collecting for charcoal - he is collecting charcoal for his forge.

if made an awesome fire. I took some photos, thinking I would be able to use the flames as overlays for photoshop sometime in the future. I was so pleased with the look of this one it has become one of my favorite photos of the month.

By bringing my camera to work every day I managed to convince one of my boys to let me take his photo - he was a bit worried I was going to make him 'pose and smile for the camera'. I told him I was after a tired hard working look...No smiling. HE HE this is one sure way to get anyone to smile. His girlfriend was very pleased with the result, she says it is hard to get him to look natural.

I finally set aside some time for a sunset shoot, I went to one of my favorite spots on the Maroochy River and waited for the beautiful clouds to turn to gold. As I was taking this photo the rain snuck up on me from behind, it was a mad rush to get back to my car....luckily I got my camera on the seat before the skies opened and I got soaked. 

I was so happy to get out with my camera and get a few nice photos I didn't care.

I also found a nice patch of fungi always a treat

Books and Photography two of my favorite things

I mentioned in my last post that I got my first paying gig as a photographer, (still doing a happy dance inside). Every 2nd year UQ Alumni holds a Book Fair to raise money for scholarships and other Alumni funded events.
This is one of my favorite events I work, it is well known how I love to read. 

I was in my element, books, books and more books. I looked for photography books for me and cook books for #1 Daughter, I was successful with the cook books, not so lucky on the photography. The most current Photoshop book/magazine was for PS4 - I am currently using PS6 and have a load of video tutorials. There where some interesting books pre DSLR, I flipped and read a bit, I didn't buy them due to a lack of storage. I did buy a few novels - and by a few I mean 3 boxes. I pay it forward, when I finish a book I pass it on to a friend, who does the same.

Boxes and boxes of books ready to be unpacked

Popular and new release books - sadly these didn't sell as well as they have in previous years, I believe this is due to the Ereader/iPad

Art books, magazines and posters

Records, CDs are always popular

Panorama of the books waiting for the public to arrive - this is 3 photos stitched together - a wide angle lens is on my wish list  

The buyers

Birds eye view 

I love children reading

The English Housekeeper 1805 - this book not only provided recipe ideas, it also gave instructions on how to kill and prepare the meat.

Unfortunately there is a lot of books thrown out at the end, there is plenty of people prepared to sift through the skip for free books, I guess this is another form of recycling.

I don't often bring my camera to work - I would never get any work done.... As I walked to my car camera in hand I liked the reflections of one of the newest building on the lake. 

Preconceived Ideas

I am guilty of approaching a photo shoot with a preconceived idea, I don't mean a plan of the photos I wanted to take (I always try to have some sort of plan). I was told about a disused insane asylum that is on the grounds of UQ Ipswich, it has not been renovated in the 15 years since closing. I was very excited and set about getting permission to photograph this building. I am a UQ employee so I imagined this wouldn't be very hard.... my first mistake. 6 weeks of playing email tag with different departments I finally got the go ahead. While I was waiting for permission I saw  some photos of abandoned asylums in the US, this is where the preconception came to play, I wanted to see the operating table, old chairs and theaters.

http://www.photographyblogger.net/deinstitutionalized-pictures-of-abandoned-asylums-by-justin-earsing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+photoblggr+%28Photography+Blogger%29

It was not like that at all, the Blair Pavilion is used for storage....that was my first disappointment, the building had been cleaned a few years ago so it was not a neglected as I expected. I wanted there to be old furniture in the rooms...

As a result of my disappointment I didn't even look at my photos when I loaded them to the computer, I dumped them in a folder and never intended to go back to them....until I heard that I was very lucky to be able to take these photos, a work colleague told me that she has worked at Ipswich campus for 10 years and has never even been in the building. It is a no go zone. This prompted me to go back and look at my photos...so I could send her one or two.

They were a lot better than I originally thought, which makes me wonder should I leave my photos for a few weeks before editing? Probably not, but it would be a good idea to go back and look at my raw files after a few weeks, I might see something I had dismissed the first time.

It was a rainy day when I took these photos, I liked the clouds around the old building

The current security guard posed for a shot for me

Names of the patients are still on the doors

Scratch marks on the door from when the patients where is lock down

Long corridor

Inmate art - preserved

Adam and Eve - no separate bathrooms. No privacy 

Finally a nice weekend (I hope)

After 10 weeks of rain, it looks like it is going to be a fine weekend (touch wood), yesterday and today have been beautiful, with blue skies and fluffy white clouds....it is shame I have been working. 

It has been a very busy week and I am looking forward to the weekend, I have no plans except there will be photo taking. I have thought about getting up early for a sunrise....but these are over rated so I will make an effort for a sunset somewhere pretty.

I am a  Uni Green Officer, this is a group of UQ staff dedicated to sustainability and good environmental practices at UQ, my part in this group is small as my office is only 3 people and we are all pretty good with personal 'green habits', I would love to have a paperless office, however the antiquated systems and polices in place make it impossible. For example all contractors/workers must do an online induction, this is stored in a data base to which I cannot access so there must be a printed copy of every induction. This is 6 pages long and not relevant to my work yet still must be done.

That was not where I was heading with this post, so forgive me for waffling today, it is Friday. 

The Green Office incentive this month is to get people out of the office and enjoying walks around UQ lakes, so there is a photographic competition with a fair trade chocolate hamper for a prize. The photos must include a sustainability marker. So after work on Saturday I went for a walk with my camera, I ended up ankle deep in mud the one time I stepped of the path and wished I had taken my big lens to get a closer picture of the ducks chasing the bride.

These are the four I have entered in the competition. 

If you look at this large you will see the ducks at the brides feet, the photographer  spent ages shooing them away
I would have included them in my photo....a memory you can't stage. (The photographer also go very shitty at me for pointing may camera at the bride when I got closer....my feet were wet and dirty so I didn't pick a fight....I could have won because I was in uniform...)

I am looking forward to a weekend of sunshine, photos and wine....after the week I have had I am looking forward to a lot of wine.

I also have to redo HWMBO's website and create a Facebook page for him. He needs to move into the digital age and jump on the social network bandwagon. It is the way of the future. I will start with the Facebook page and take it from there. 

Watch this space

Have a good weekend