Footscray looking back to the city

What a week...

What a week it has been..
Started last monday working on my new exhibition taking photos of bridges around Melbourne.

Went to East Keilor where I took some wonderful photos of the Melbourne, Sydney Frieght line bridge where it sits next to the Western Ring Road. Very old and very grand.

Next stop was Footscray where there is a freight line that runs under the city of Footscray. The bridge is amazing as you can see Melbourne City sky line in the background.

We filmed the days events which should come up well....

My film lady found a wonderful flower which was in beded in a prickley pear bush. The flower was a bright yellow and caught a bee right in the middle of the flower... Trust me when I say this, that I will never trust camera people again... In taking the photo, I was covered in very fine prickles from the bush.. Things you do for your art. At least Eamon had the sense to stay away from the bush ...

Have found a wonderful company where they are going to do a new web site for me . We have our first meeting next week to talk about the project.

Spent the last few days also looking for a new venue in the city for my new photographic exhibition. Have 3 options open for me, so will have to go through them very carefuly..

And one more for the week was a friend of mine came over and started teaching me on how to use Photoshop. I was amazed on how good it is and in doing the basics. The program is really good and will be doing more follow ups.

Thanks to Grant, Christine, Atlanti and Philip for your great support this week...

Planet Earth Book

Got an email today from London, confirming that the Planet Earth Book is due out next month.

I submited a photo for the book along with 95 other artist from around the world. Very honored to be a part of this great project.

Media release on the book will be posted shortly.

2011 Calander

Started shooting on a Calandar for 2011.

Melbourne Bridges is the theme of this calandar.

D90 lesson and Filming.

Had a sensational day in the city today.
Thank you to Martin Bonnici from Photography Made Easy for showing me more about my D90. It was truly magic to me.

I learnt so much more about my D90 today. From how to hold the D90, shutter speeds and lots more great information. Yesterday (Thursday) I spent the day in town taking lots of photos of Trams in the city to see how the D90 worked on moving objects. It came out trumps.

I also did some more filming today with Martin which will look and sound great for the documentary. Lots more filming to come.

One of the things we identified with today is that I need some sort of signal for the D90 Battary. This is so it can let me know when it is going flat on me, so I can do a change over with out stressing.

R.M.I.T sent me an email this week to let me know hat they have passed on my request to one of the PHD students, to see what can be done for an Autio system for my D90. So between PHD and Nikon Japan, it will be interesting to see who will come back with some sort of a result for me..

Also today I had some magic news. I was approved funding for my new iMac which is awesome. Can't wait to move from my MPB to the iMac. soon..

Apex Victoria News.

Seems I can't stop people writing about me.
This is in the Apex Victoria News, due out this month.

WHO IS ANDREW FOLLOWS

Andrew is a very interesting follow to get to know, and in Apex land, I believe he is the guy that most clubs would like to have as a member.
If is was possible to put Andrew through a duplicating machine, and produce a number of Andrews the Association would be a much better profiled and have greater activities in community service.
That is a very bold statement to make and how do I back this up, well let me try to explain.
I first met Andrew in early 2000, and based on first impressions, I didn’t think much of him.
If you spoke to him, he never looked at you, as he walked around the room, he kept bumping into things, and knocking things over, this guy is his own demolition crew.
Later at that first meeting I found out that Andrew has Retinitis Pigmentosa. A degenerative ocular disease that renders him legally blind, Andrew has had this from an early age and in fact for three years of his primary school education he was educated at the Blind School in Burwood, before being integrated back into main stream schooling.
Having now known Andrew for almost 9 years, let me tell you, being legally blind does not affect Andrew, and he is a very effective member of our community.
Andrew joined the Apex Club of Coburg 1997, Andrew and Nicole Smith, and later transferred to the Apex Club of Diamond Creek when the Apex Club of Coburg closed.

Andrew doesn’t talk a lot about himself, or what he has done, so let me fill you in a little about him.

In his 10 years in Apex, Andrew has been:
• Club President on 3 occasions,
• Treasurer
• Dinner Notice Editor for 4 years
• District Governor
• Guide Dogs Victoria Open Day Coordinator for 5 years
• Apex MRAA Toy Run Coordinator for 4years
• Co-ordinator for clothing Appeal for Sri Lanka Tsunami in 2005
• Apex Victoria State Apexian of the year 2004 - 2005
• National Youth Officer 2003 – 2005
• Assisted with the reformation of the Whittlesea Apex Club
• Development of local community projects such as Eltham Children’s Playground

In addition to these activities Andrew was also involved with:
• Berry Street Foster Care – providing foster care to at risk teenagers
• Anglicare Northern – providing foster care to at risk teenagers and training potential carers
• Respite Care Interchange - Host / Big Brother / Support Worker and member Board of Management of Interchange at a local and State level, and Carer for a child with a disability over an 8 year period

Since leaving Apex in 2007, Andrew hasn’t sat back; he now has his guide dog Eamon to assist him,
He has been a member of the Choir of Hard Knocks, and it’s Steering Committee, and has now taken up photography and has had a number of exhibitions of his works, and is currently negotiating with Victoria University to run photography classes to other blind people.
He recently won the Anglicare Victoria Chairman’s Award for his efforts with the “Black Saturday Fires: and co-ordinated the Apex Santa Tours to Whittlesea and Dederang, on behalf of Apex Victoria and Apex Berowra Club of NSW.
Don’t say it can’t be done, because here is a guy that will prove you wrong.

Phil Keily Apex Victoria State Servis.

Nikon Audio.

Been a few weeks now since I got my new camera..
I am doing well with the D90 and the photos are coming up so well that I am very surprised and happy.

I contacted Nikon this week to see if they could develop a Audio program for the camera.. Being short sighted, The menu is hard to see if not at all. They liked the idea and thought it was possible and will get back to me in a couple of months.

More and more blind and vision impaired people are useing digital cameras so they can see there world. With todays Digital Tecknolegie being so good, they can develop things to help those who really enjoy photography. it should not be to difficult for Nikon to write and upgrade there program for those to use there gear. Lets see what they come back with :)

Best news for this week.
I have been invited to go to Cains in May to do a photo shoot for my next exhibition. I am really happy that the Park in Cains has asked me and to come back to hold an exhibition later in the year. Tops.

Also going to another blind photographers exhibition next week. Will be interesting to see what sort of work he does..

Thats it for now. Love to hear your comments..

Peace.