Archive for February, 2007
Ergopod 500
Elizabeth February 14th, 2007
I present the Ergopod 500, with a subtle reminder that my birthday is approaching!
I wonder if I count as a “special needs” computer user? Internet addiction counts, right?
Calling all South-East Queenslanders
Elizabeth February 9th, 2007
I’ve decided on a plan of action to build up my photography portfolio, with a view to promoting myself as an event/portrait photographer – and I need your help!
Upon my return to Brisbane I will be offering portrait sessions free of charge. I need to gather a variety of faces to put together a diverse portfolio, and am interested in photographing as many of your friends, family and pets as you can gather. Be photographed alone, with your partner or best friend, have a family portrait with your siblings and parents, or let me capture your band / netball team / book club / trivia team in action.
You will receive a high resolution selection of the best photos on CD, and I can arrange commercial grade prints at a very cheap, profit-free rate. You are also welcome to use the images on your personal/team/band’s website, in exchange for a small link to my online portfolio.
In return, you would sign a release that grants me permission to use the images for promotion (and publication, but this is negotiable).
How it would work
- I am available to take your photograph from mid-March.
- Most evening portrait sessions would take place at my house, 7 mins from the CBD.
- Outdoor sessions (particularly great for kids and relaxed family portraits) are available on weekends at the location of your choice, or let me suggest some great spots! I am available to travel to the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Darling Downs for a small fuel contribution (or beyond, for the cost of airfare and accommodation!).
- You will be provided with a CD of images shortly after our session, from which to select your prints. I have negotiated a dirt cheap rate with a local commercial printer, and as I will not profit from the sale of prints you are under no obligation to purchase prints at all.
How you can help!
- Book a session for yourself and/or your partner, friends and family.
- Think of the various social, sporting and hobby groups you are connected to, either first or second hand. If any of these groups needs updated photos for their website, or would simply benefit from a short photo session for team-building purposes, please pass on their details so that I can approach them personally.
- Children are constantly changing, so think of the children in your social circle and let their parents know about my services.
- Grant me an all-access photographer’s pass to your next event.
- Spread the word!
Stuck for ideas?Formal photographs aren’t everybody’s cup of tea. Read the list below for some inspiration for your unique, artistic portrait.
Children & Families
- Children are best photographed in their natural environment. Coordinate our session with a family trip to the beach, park or zoo, or have me crash their birthday party!
- Seek permission from your child’s school or kindergarten for photographs to be taken in the classroom after hours. Blackboards, desks, colourful posters and toys all make wonderful props and backdrops, and so does outdoor play equipment.
- Consider a themed portrait, based on their hobbies or special skills. Have your child photographed with their musical instrument, basketball, or in their team uniform on the court. Is your three-year-old running you off your feet? Let’s photograph them on a professional track! Learning to read? It’s never too early for Mark Twain and a pair of glasses.
- Have your little ballerina photographed in her dance studio, or on a big empty stage.
- Children and their pets will always bring out the best in each other in a photograph.
- If grandparents aren’t local, arrange a short photo session when they visit.
Friends
- Have a relaxed portrait taken of yourself with your best friends at New Farm Park, the Powerhouse, stadium seating or a carpark.
- Get the boys together for a game of social footy, and have a mud-covered “team” photo.
- Simulate some classic photo booth shots.
- Get into costume and recreate your favourite album cover.
Sporting/Social groups
- Have your team or club photographed in uniform, on the court/stands, or in the coffee shop where you meet.
- Break all the rules by having your group photographed completely out of their natural environment. Dress your book club in footy shorts!
Feel free to email this around to anybody who might be interested. I will only be working for free for as long as it takes me to start up a portrait portfolio, so please be in touch as soon as possible.
Email elizabeth@scarletarts.com for further information.
“Australia” up for sale
Elizabeth February 9th, 2007
A Kuwaiti firm has said it was negotiating with regional and international investors to sell all or part of the “Australia” segment it had purchased in Dubai’s The World property project.
Investment Dar, a publicly-quoted company on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, two years ago bought the Australian continent on The World, some 300 islands shaped like a world map off Dubai’s coast.
The company said in a statement posted on the KSE website that its subsidiary, Oqyana Real Estate, which is managing the project is “holding talks to sell all or significant parts of Australian continent.”
If the negotiations were successful, the company expects to make profits of about 1.5 billion dollars or more “based on available information,” the statement said Sunday.
The company had been planning a 3.5-billion-dollar real estate and tourism development project on its part of The World islands.
The project would comprise more than 1,500 apartments with panoramic views, 90 water homes, 170 canal homes and more than 150 exclusive beachfront mansions, housing in all up to 15,000 people, as well as top class hotels and retail facilities.
The World is up the coast from three artificial islands being built in the shape of palm trees, one of which is already completed.
It is located four kilometres (2.5 miles) off Dubai’s shores halfway between the landmark Burj Al-Arab hotel and Port Rashid.
via SMH
New security measures in Queensland
Elizabeth February 8th, 2007
Queenslanders have been forced to step up personal security after a recent bout of thefts in the state.
Prehistoric lovers found locked in eternal embrace
Elizabeth February 8th, 2007
ROME, Italy (AP) — It could be humanity’s oldest story of doomed love.
Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of “Romeo and Juliet.”
Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig.
“As far as we know, it’s unique,” Menotti told The Associated Press by telephone from Milan. “Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging.”
The burial site was located Monday during construction work for a factory building in the outskirts of Mantua. Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, Menotti said.
Experts will now study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site’s age and how old the two were when they died, she said.
Although the Mantua pair strike a rare and touching pose, archaeologists have found prehistoric burials in which the dead hold hands or have other contact, said Luca Bondioli, an anthropologist at Rome’s National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum.
The find has “more of an emotional than a scientific value.” But it does highlight how the relationship people have with each other and with death has not changed much from the period in which humanity first settled in villages, learning to farm the land and tame animals, he said.
“The Neolithic is a very formative period for our society,” he said. “It was when the roots of our religious sentiment were formed.”
The two bodies, which cuddle closely while facing each other on their sides, were probably buried at the same time, an indication of a possible sudden and tragic death, Bondioli said.
“It’s rare for two young people to die at the same time, and that makes us want to know why and who they were, but it will be very difficult to find out.”
He said DNA testing could determine whether the two were related, “but that still leaves other hypotheses; the Romeo and Juliet possibility is just one of many.”
via CNN
With apologies to the involuntary single people reading, I know February is hard enough without stories like this!
Snow
Elizabeth February 4th, 2007
Last night we had our first proper snow since I arrived. It’s apparently very weird that we went through December and January with just a couple of dustings of snow, so there were little kids outside throwing snowballs and being all excited. Their cat was bouncing around in the snow too, it was really funny.
Tim and I decided to go for a walk down to the gas station, so that I could experience in properly. But first, I had to make my first snowman in about 15 years…
… and I have only just noticed that he has nipples. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t intended. Also, a (hand-held) long exposure of the beautiful tree outside our bedroom window:
Life is good 
