Underwater World

I think the swimming lessons are paying off. Hayden and Lachlan having a swim today, New Year's Eve 2010. Fun.

Christmas is fun

I think Hayden is going to enjoy this time of year. Kristy took him to their Mothers' Group Christmas party last week and he got his first Christmas present.

I can't wait for Christmas Day! :)

They gave me this box with silver paper and called it a present. Sure tastes funny...


Ooooh, HAHAHHAHAHAA. The present was inside! You guys tricked me! HAHAHAHHA.

Santa is gonna have a sore head

And not just from the booze...

M8 Lagoon and M20 Trifid Nebulae

Went back to some of the images I captured at 2009 Queensland Astrofest again this weekend and re-processed this one.

A lovely pair of nebulae, but in retrospect I'm not quite happy with the way they fit in the frame. Next time I think I'll concentrate on them separately.

WEEEE!!!!

Swings! These things are hilarious! :)

NGC7635 Bubble Nebula

Since I haven't been able to get out and do any astrophotography lately, I've been going through old data and practising processing. A very generous member, Sean "Falcon-" Murphy on the Cloudy Nights forum, offered some of his raw data to use.

One of the objects he offered was the Bubble Nebula. I've been fascinated with this nebula, lovely delicate shape of a very obvious bubble (top right). It is also not visible from where I live, so will never get an opportunity to image it. He also included in the shot the open star cluster M52 (bottom left).

NGC6334 Cat's Paw Nebula

Went back through some data trying to implement some processing tricks I've picked up along the way. This is NGC6334 Cat's Paw Nebula captured at the 2009 Qld Astrofest.

NASA's big announcement

I was reading this from NASA's website:

NASA will hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 15, to discuss the Chandra X-ray Observatory's discovery of an exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood.

Couldn't help but imagine what the announcement was going to be about, and decided to take a photo of what I imagined. Hey, it was Sunday and I had nothing to do.

"A huge comet is heading to Earth. Somebody get me Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck on the phone!"

Hayden looking more like his Daddy?

Kristy reckons Hayden is looking more like me every day. I don't see it. What do you reckon?

Banner changes

Been playing around with the title/banner/header image on this site. Still not sure how I want it to look, so you may see it changing a bit over the next week or 2. If you see one you like or hate, let me know please. I need help.

Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens

Went to the Botanical Gardens just to get out of the house today. Took the opportunity to take more photos of Hayden. As if I needed an excuse...

I love my mummy


Whatchyou doin' over there?


Oh, hahahahahah!

Robin Williams

Kristy gave me a date to remember last night. Thought we were just having a quiet Friday night as usual. Got home from work and she had arranged baby-sitters and tickets to go and see Robin Williams live at Brisbane Entertainment Centre!

Support act was the Umbilical Brothers.

FYI - awesome, hilarious, witty, fast, talented, and a very, very good way to put a smile back on your face

Scorpionfly

First time I've ever seen a scorpionfly. It was very patient with me taking lots of shots. Not particularly happy with the lighting, the flash is a little harsh.

Glass Houses

Took a scenic drive along Mountain View Road, Maleny the other day. Beautiful view of the Glasshouse Mountains.

The Hayden Roll

Kristy phoned, very excited, yesterday afternoon. Hayden had just rolled over for the first time while I was at work. When I got home he did it again. This is the second time he rolled over from his back onto his front unassisted. Unfortunately we only turned the camera on after he had already thrown his leg over.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary visit

We took Hayden to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary today. First time he's seen and touched koalas, kangaroos, and other native Australian animals. Needless to say, so much to look at and touch, he loved it.

We got season tickets, valid for a year, so will definitely be going back some more. Handy because it's so close, but at the moment he's only lasting a couple of hours, so the season pass will be used a bit.

1 city, 1 Moon, 4 planets

Around 12 August there was a rare conjunction with the Moon and 4 planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn. I had checked the weather, all was supposed to be clear, planned (in my head) where I'd be shooting from here in Brisbane and the look I was after. Then reality kicked in...

While the night was clear, the wind was absolutely howling. I had to weigh my tripod down to stop it all blowing over. It was freezing cold and I hadn't packed a jumper. The light pollution was worse than I anticipated. The location I had was not quite giving me the relationship between the conjunction and city that I had in my head. And at the scale of image here, not sure the actual planets are that visible



Crescent Moon with Mercury just below right, bright Venus up a little higher with Mars just above and Saturn just below.

Train rides are fun

On the way home from Hayden's first swimming lesson, we noticed the Multicultural Festival on at Roma St Parklands. We decided to go home, let him have a nap, then get the train back in for a bit of a walk around.

He absolutely loved it. The train ride. The festival. People and movement everywhere.

At the festival:

Hayden's first swimming lesson

Kristy and I took Hayden for his first swimming lesson at Spring Hill Baths on Sunday. He absolutely loved it.

It was a nice small group, and we're doing it with Andrew/Michelle/Lachlan as well, so that's awesome.

You can't teach them early enough to swim and be water-safe.

I have been Toilet

You might think this photo of a funny sign was taken somewhere overseas, but it was taken right here on the front door of a shop in Toowong (Brisbane), Australia.

"I have been Toilet for a while. Just wait a second. 1 min plz"

Must admit at first glance I thought the last bit said "I make piz". Haha.

Love the little picture. Just in case you didn't get where they were.

Do you reckon Hayden likes avocado?

Starting Hayden on solids. He's been having the rice cereal, potato, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, apple, pear, etc. No worries. One of the books we have lists popular foods, and the only one we hadn't given him was avocado. Check out this video of us trying him on that for the first time.

It is a bit hard to tell at first when he's trying new foods to tell if he likes it or doesn't. He's still getting a hang of the whole swallowing thing, and has this gag reflex if it doesn't slide down like milk. So we weren't deliberately trying to make him eat this. Not until around the 3:30 mark I realised and stopped. Still, his reactions are kinda cute. Kinda?

Sorry it's around 4mins long. Still working out how to edit videos to cut the times down.

PS - don't ask me about my hair. Was before I got a haircut and I just rolled out of bed.

Some landscapes from NZ

Been going through my photo library cleaning it out. Came across these landscapes I took on our trip to New Zealand last year and decided to reprocess them as black and white conversions. Quite happy with the way they turned out, but always learning.

Rocky Shore:

Rainy day macros

Was supposed to go to Roma St Parklands today for another meet with some local macro enthusiasts. The weather had other ideas.

Cleaning out the fridge and found some mouldy cake. Ever wondered what mould looks like at 1:1, 3:1, and 5:1 lifesize? I did.

Sounds disgusting, doesn't it. Not sure what you think, but I think it looks beautiful at this scale. Like some alien forest.

5:1 lifesize


Crop from another shot:


More after the jump...

Happy Anniversary to us II

For our anniversary I made this mosaic of all of our wedding and honeymoon photos. About 2200 photos in all. Full image is some 12,500px wide. If you squint at this image you can see the original more clearly. We plan to get this printed on a huge canvas.

Click the image above for a bigger version, or go below to see what the original image looked like and some crops showing more detail.

Happy Anniversary to us

Today marks the second Anniversary of Kristy and I getting married. I have to say, it's been the best 2 years of her life and she is very lucky to have me. Seems like just yesterday she was chasing me and asking me out. Wasn't too long a wait for her to seize the opportunity when I was drunk one night, took advantage of me, and we've been together ever since. Her dreams really have come true.

RSP macro meet

Had arranged for a bit of a local macro-enthusiasts meet at Roma Street Parklands this morning. The weather had other ideas, unfortunately. Wasn't looking good, so the others decided to stay at home. Understandable.

Me? I'm an idiot and went in there regardless. Was drizzling from around 7am to 8am, so I just wandered around looking for options if the rain did break. When it did, this shot of a hoverfly was the only one I considered worth mentioning :

My macro rig

Finally got around to taking some shots of my current gear in a couple of different configurations I've used. Thought I'd make a post about it all.

My answer to "Which macro lens?"

I come across this question a lot on the photography forums I frequent. The answer is usually the same, so I've decided to post it here to save myself a lot of redundant typing from now on. If you have anything to add, disagree with me, or have questions/answers that you don't think I've covered, please let me know so I can improve this post.

More babies in the house

Baby bugs that is.

I noticed some kind of true bug, pretty sure it was a seed bug, on the wall near our laundry. Kept an eye on it and sure enough it layed some eggs on the door frame. Been watching them hoping they'd hatch, and they must have done so some time in the last few hours before I took these shots. Grabbed a few of the little cuties near where they hatched then moved them, very delicately, outside onto some plants. Made sure I took the opportunity to get some shots on the nicer green background.

Think this is my pick of the litter.


Just to give you an idea of how small they are, this is them next to my pinky finger.

Macro-photography quick tips

Just thought I'd share some of the things I've learned about macro photography (especially insects) with dSLR cameras since taking it up in November 2007. This post will just be some quick tips and common settings and techniques I use. I intend to do some more in-depth and specialised posts later and will link them from here.

If you have anything to add, disagree with me, or have questions/answers that you don't think I've covered, please let me know so I can improve this post.

ET impersonation

You can't see me.

Bad habits

Couch potato at 4 months.
Honestly, I don't know where he gets this from. Must be his mum. :)

Interesting morning...

Just got back from the police station...

This morning I got a phone call from my bank. My Visa card was over limit. That's not right. I haven't made any huge purchases recently. Check the account online and there's 3 purchases made at Apple Online Sydney totally $4,500 a couple of days ago! That most certainly wasn't me!

Phoned by bank to raise a dispute. They're investigating. Really good actually. They refunded the money pending the outcome of the dispute.

Phoned Apple Online. It appears someone has opened an account with them using my name, my Visa card no, a fake email address but using my domain name (piggo.com). They'd ordered an iPod Nano and 2 MacBook Pros before the limit was exceeded. The orders were on the way to these frauds/thieves! They gave an address! In Queensland! I asked for the address, but they wouldn't give it to me :( I had a little delivery of my own to make. Sporting goods - a swinging baseball bat. >:(

Went to the police, made a report. Told them if they go to the address and need backup, call me. :D

Update: Since posting this I've heard from several acquaintences that have had exactly the same thing happen to them over the last couple of weeks. All had odd credit card transactions for items from Apple Online Sydney. It appears that either Apple or some other websites I've read reckon iTunes has been hacked and credit card details stolen.

Going bush

We decided to go for a bit of a bushwalk with Hayden. I never realised there was some bushwalks around Mt Coot-Tha. All these years I've lived here, and I've only really gone to the top where the main lookout and Summit restaurant etc is.

Hayden absolutely loved it. Constantly looking around. So much to see, and he particularly liked the bounces as we walked down steps.

Nursery Rhyme Violence

Imagine sitting down to read a nursery rhyme to your baby to help him sleep, not really knowing the words to even the common rhymes, and reading half way through one about beating dogs, biting pigs, killing oxes, hanging butchers and so on. I've quoted below the nursery rhyme. It's called "The Old Woman and her Pig", and it's from the very innocent-looking "Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes" book containing all the classics. I've quoted the whole thing after the jump.

Don't get me wrong. I'm no prude, and I know for the little ones it's probably more about the sound of my voice rather than the content. He doesn't understand what's actually being said. I know that.

Still, makes you wonder. People criticise today's video games, movies etc. Yet generation after generation has been reciting these words to their newborns for centuries. Political correctness? Meh.

Blog relocated

I've relocated my blog to Google's http://blogspot.com. Just finding I have less and less time to hand-code my own website, so am taking the easy way out in the interests of writing/posting more and coding less.

I started copying over articles from the previous one, but decided it's probably not necessary anyway. I'll copy some of the more important ones I guess, when I get the time.

Let me know if you have any comments or feedback on the layout and content.

Hayden playing

Just made a bit of a Youtube video of Hayden. He's started deliberately playing with toys this last week. Not bad for 11.5 weeks old? Bit wobbly with the motor skills, but we're proud :)

His reaction to our cheers after a big spin at around 48secs into the video cracks me up.

Published!

Got my first astro-image published! Woohoo! First 2 pages of this PDF are B&W scan from Aug/Sep Australian Sky and Telescope magazine, last page is a nicer colour version of my image.

catchup with friends

Finally caught up with Anthea and Dan after too many years, with Neil and Jodie. Great lunch down at Portside. Don't ask why, but I felt like some B&W shots instead of colour.