the end of everything (here at least)

This blog was fun, it did ok, and really doesnt deserve its fate, but the day has come.  This is my last post here.  But never fear (assuming you care).  I actually plan on writing more, more words, more topics, more ideas, more crazy, just - well - more.

Im combining worlds and crowds and crossing the streams and mixing the colours etc and bringing everything to one blog.  So if you are interested, if you want, you can see more of my ramblings over at "goin' down swingin"

Its been awhile

To quote the band Staind:

"Its been awhile
since I could
hold my head up high,

Ands its been awhile
since I first saw you."

So whats happened?  Why the long absence?

Well while bits of this year have been fantastic, other bits have not quite panned out as planned.  Broadly, I was thinking that 2012 would have been an excellent opportunity to get a range of bits of my life sorted, the reality has been different.

I was expecting to get fitter, leaner, stronger and demonstrate this by completing one 70.3 triathlon and competing (a very different thing) in another 70.3.  This has been amazingly successful.  I was also planning to be a much more disciplined in my blogging and photography – in short I planned to do more of both – in this I have been stunningly unsuccessful.

In short I completely underestimated the impact on my life of adopting a triathlon based lifecycle.  In short there have been three problems.  The first is bleedingly obvious, simply fitting in 15+ hours of training a week does not leave a lot of time for other activities   Overlay personal circumstances that require a lot of travel and the time pressures become even more acute.  Still physical, but a little less obvious, is the fatigue the training leaves me with little energy to devote to other activities even when I do have the time.  Quite often I will be finished my long ride or run by mid morning on Saturday or Sunday but I’m simply to tired to do anything in the afternoon other than collapse on the couch or just potter around the house or apartment.

Honestly I did foresee these problems and was ready for them, what blindsided me (to the extent I wasn’t even aware it was happening until quite recently) is the emotional myopia that becoming a ‘triathlete’ gave me.  Frankly I stopped really caring about much that wasn’t directly related to training or racing.  Its one thing to really want to go out and take photos but not have the time or energy, its quite another to simply not be that interested anymore.  The first case you notice and are motivated to fix, the second you don’t even realize is happening so do nothing to address.

Well I have noticed this now, mainly because no matter how interesting triathlon is, even it cant sustain 100% of my brain 100% of the time.  I’ve now noticed that other parts of my life have been neglected and more than that, I missing those parts of my life.

So here I am, back to blog, shouting into the vacuum, whether its gets heard or not doesn’t really matter.  And in particular I'm getting back into photography.  Now, I'm doing that by combining the old and the new, my interest in photography and my life as a triathlete.  So get ready for more but as a teaser, here's a couple of recent shots of the pro's from the recent Melbourne Ironman triathlon.

Clayton Fettell - giving it some

Jordan Rapp - The Whippett

my blogging life

Putting aside the strictly personnel there are three 'public' areas of my life. These are:

1. My new found interest in triathlon.

2 Photography.

3. Philosophy, politics and general spouting of opinions.

What do I mean by public? I suppose I mean I write about them and post my ideas, theories and opinions on the net for all to see. Recently, Ive been thinking that my internet life has been very poorly thought out and in consistent.

So right, that's the first thing. Why do I care if my net presence is a mess. After all it's just a hobby isn't it? Well yes, but then again I do make (a little) money from photography and I'd like to boost this a little so a clean up (and more disciplined posting routine ) would be good there. Also, I'm sure my triathlon readers couldn't care less about the other parts of my life that get a run in my 'mindshaft gap' blog so separating those would be good.

So, with that in mind I've decided to do a few things. The first is I'm starting a new blog, goin down swingin.

So that will be three blogs.

PmacImagery. This deals with primarily stills photography and related topics. What related topics I hear you ask. Well this goes in two directions from the photography jumping off point. On one hand, coming from the camera end, I'll be looking at general technology issues, you know, computers, software audio visual kit, that sort of thing. Going in the other direction from photography I'll be discussing ideas around art and the creative side of my existence.

Goin Down Swingin. This is my new blog dedicated to my interest in triathlon. I love watching the DVDs of ironman triathlons, especially Kona, but I'll admit I'm not really interested in the elites. Rather it's the age groupers that reel me in. Even more specifically it's the old blokes in their 60s to 80s that slug it out with nature out there on the iron man course that inspire me. They know that in the end nature will win, that one day the body won't make it, but they are determined to go out fighting all the way. The are going to go down swinging at an opponent that can't be beaten but must be fought. I intend to follow that example, hence the title of the blog.

Mind Shaft Gap. The concluding scenes of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, Dr Strangelove, are a crazy mix of mindless optimism, unending paranoia, good people trying in vain to save the world and the routine being the greatest source of evil. To me this sums up so so much I see both I in myself and the world At large. Thus I've named my general blog where I consider the biggest and littlest topics of the day after perhaps the most insane concept in an insane situation. If you need more on the exact meaning of the 'mine shaft gap' Google it.

But I'm not done there. There is more. In addition to starting a third blog, I'm changing that colour scheme of the blogs, unifying them and creating a single look for my 'brand' .

So what's the colour scheme? Well basically it's three(ish) colours:

Black (or dark grey)
Blue
White (or silver)

Why those colours? Well No great story really, first I find them aesthetically pleasing (a fancy way of saying they look cool). Secondly they work well as a web format. Thirdly, I can easily get gear (that I would wear) in these colours.

So that's it, a new blog, some more careful distinctions in how and where I write and a new colour scheme. This isn't the end of the development but hopefully it's a solid beginning.

My Photo Catagories

I remember reading a blog post once about the way we photographers collect, collate and display our photos.  The point was that we tend to be pretty boring, catagorising our shots by time, or place or camera or gig.  All useful, all really sensible, all really, really boring.

Now that does make sense for working pros that need to find their images quickly and easily.  For pros that have clients to service etc. But that's not me.  I'm like Rob, the lead from the movie High Fidelity organising his private record collection.  How did he do it? Alphabetically? No.  Chronologically? No.  Then how? Autographically.

So I've come up with a set of catagories for my work.  Its not really that obscure, not that insightful, not that rigorously applied and perhaps not that effective but its mine.

So here are my catagories: (in no particular order)

time of our lives.

searching for the filthy lucre

us, people that is

all things bright and beautiful

built or made

going places

planes, trains and automobiles

ephemera

promises of happiness

harsh realities

Next post I'll start running through each of these and what they mean.

I am a cotton headed ninny muggins

Film is an unforgiving mistress.  There is so much to consider that digital doesnt require.  On top of this there is no ability to review your shots so you simply have to trust in your settings and what you know should work.  But I was ready for all of this, I was prepared.  I paid attention to my settings, to the light, I was really careful to ensure I wasnt over exposing etc etc.

What I forgot to check was that I had loaded film in the first place.  An hour of magic conditions that I'd never seen before in a place that was usually packed all to myself.  I am an idiot!

My success in not spending in 2011

At the beginning of 2011 one of my desires was to stop being so gear focussed in my photography.  I am happy to report that I suceeded, however, I cant really claim a victory of willpower over marketing. The truth is my desire for restraint was assisted.by three things:

1. Sony was really late releasing the A77 and/or the NEX7 I wanted.
2. I got really into triathlon so let all my photography slip somewhere between a little and a lot.
3. Whenthe A77 and NEX7 did finally turn up the Thailand floods made them impossible to get.

Anyway, I'll take a little help from the universe sometimes.

Nikon D4 - Really? So thats it?

So, Nikon has a new camera, the long rumoured D4.  And to be perfectly honest when comparing this to the Sony NEX7 all I can really manage to think is really? Years of work, tens of thousands of manhours of some of the best engineers time and thats all you can manage.  Man, your company is in trouble.