Tag Archives: photos

Have An Uneasy Relationship With Your Photo ID? This May Give You Hope

It was not so long ago that photos displaying a bad hair day or an acne breakout could be safely locked away in the privacy of a bottom drawer.

Some of you might remember the luxury of being able to pick and choose which photo of your person would escape for public consumption. Remember sitting around with friends looking through photo albums that had passed through the family’s Censorship Department? Apart from your passport photo for which you were always suitably attired and somewhat somber, there were generally no photos circulating out there for which you had not primped and prepared. And all of this before the days of Photoshop.

Let’s roll the film forward (pun intended) to the present day in which photo ID cards abound. Apart from having a photo album on tap via a smart phone, most people walk around with a photo album of bureaucratic memories in their wallets. An absolute highlight reel of bureaucratic encounters and of putting your best worst face forward.

Rowan Atkinson funny ID photo

Some of my personal chart topping looks are:

  • Drawn, Haggard And Sunburned at the Motor Registry
  • You’re Kidding, A Photo, Really? at my local social club
  • You’re a Security Guy Taking This In A Dimly Lit Dungeon Using a Two Bit Camera at my work place
  • Gonna Have To Live With This Legacy For As Long as I Work Here also at my work place

Now, I don’t know about you, but the question of whether I’m going to have a photo taken on any given day is not on my daily morning checklist. It is enough to race out of the house in the morning with two matching shoes. I can’t tell you how many times I have confused navy with black in the early morning light. As a business woman, I know I’m not meant to talk about this. We are after all high-powered, multitasking infallible Amazons! But, a straw poll of some of my fellow working friends reveals that this is more common than the polished, together, high-powered female business fraternity have you believe.

So, I have never worried about how I look in ID photos. Then again, I have never had to date in the world of ID photos. Perhaps it’s different when a potential would-be beau is looking through your wallet and stumbles upon Drawn, Haggard and Sunburned at the Motor Registry. Better he sees the real you, I think. Less room for morning after the night before surprises.

I am now wondering what happens to the mountains of ID photos once they are taken. As I’m writing this, I have visions of faceless bureaucrats scouring through mountains of photo ID’s looking for hot dates, perhaps even plotting the creation of a ranking system like in the beginning of the Facebook movie.

It is impossible to believe there will ever come a time when we can offer up our own selfies to bureaucracy.

However, I’m pleased to report that a photo ID miracle occurred this week. Having stumbled into a situation where I needed to create a new photo ID, I headed off to the gallows photo centre to get shot. The lighting wasn’t great (is it ever?) and the camera operator was not a professional. Nevertheless, after a little congenial conversation around how this was my third attempt at navigating bureaucracy to obtain the ID and a couple of clicks I had my photo. Expecting the worst, I took the card, eyes going straight to the mug shot. And then the angels sang! The photo was passable, even more than half way decent. It even looks like a happy and excited me. Actually, it’s probably more likely relief that I had finally been succesful in my quest to secure this ID.

So this has restored my faith in the amateur model, amateur photgrapher shoot and produce process. I now have a new chart topping look – Happy, Excited And Ready For Anything.

And I have learned that it is possible to ace the photo ID and carry around a bureaucratic legacy which you can proudly show anyone, even a would-be beau!

Do you get anxious about having your photo taken? Given the opportunity, do you prepare your appearance for a photo ID shot?

Let’s Phlog Monday: A Little Warmth And A Whole Lot of Renewal

I can’t believe that August is almost over and with it, winter. It has been a cold one here, windy and flu ridden and I am happy to bid it goodbye. Not that I desire to wish time away, certainly not at this stage of the game. But when the sun shines and the shivering stops, the heart swells just a little more and the momentum of renewal grows.

Spring in Australian doesn’t officially start until 1 September, but it has been the in the air for the last week or so. There are stirrings of colour in our gardens and insect activity has been on the increase. This is almost one of those perfect moments of the year. The harshness of winter is all but behind us and now our seasons of warmth and increased outdoor activity beckon. An almost child-like sense of anticipation pervades and it’s all ahead of us.

Not my photo although I wish it were!

And like the seasons cycle, so do the seasons within our lives. Happily, my own personal sense of renewal has coincided with the start of Spring! Coincidence? Methinks not. The Universe has a way of delivering to us the appropriate backdrops for our personal seasons or perhaps the Universe is the driving force behind the change of those seasons. Whatever the rationale, I’m riding this wave for all it is worth from the lucky position of never having suffered from hay fever!!

I am more than ready for some colour to re-enter my world. Here’s some early Spring Sydney colour that I captured over the last week together with a shot of the big bath tub that was our waveless beach.

Awakening

Renewal

Regeneration

Promise

It means that T-shirt, shorts and sandals weather is just around the corner together with cooking and entertaining outdoors. Goodbye hibernation, hello interactive community!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have a favourite flower? What colours in nature draw your eye? When was the last time you had an almost child-like sense of anticipation?

 

 

Let’s Phlog Monday: Shear Forces

M.I.A.

Three letters, one concept, apt description of the past couple of weeks.

There seems to be much to catch up on in blogdom since I was last here and I will endeavour to do so over the next few days.  But now it’s time for a good phlogging.

My last phlog centered on non-coastal landscapes and the search for the right pathway. Today, I would like to return to that landscape and explore the concept of sheer forces.

There is a duality in images of jagged rock. On the one hand the images can be beautiful and convey the passage of time and events. Examine the layers, each tells a story and provides a foundation to that which comes after it. Each layer is discreet, a beginning and an end. How many layers do we have in each of our lives? Have we built strong foundations for what is to come? Are we comfortable in having the layers exposed? Can we withstand a sheer force?

On the other had, the images can be harsh and unforgiving. The smoothness is hidden behind jagged edges and shattered pieces. Each break represents a cataclysmic  event, a force that was not reckoned with. A power that was not harnessed.

However, even a cataclysmic event, a sheer force creates something new that can be pleasing to the eye. Something that would never have been uncovered were it not for the application of an external event. Sheer forces bring a perspective we did not have before, a test of our strength and resilience and the opportunity to reshape and rethink. We may not immediately be able to deal with the exposed surfaces or jagged edges that ensue, but most will be smoothed and covered over time… if we let them and embrace the new landscape.

Enjoy these natural and man-made shear surfaces and think about your strength and beauty and the layers which represent the events and sheer forces in your life which you have survived.

Force

Fissure

Fracture

Function

Forward

Federation Square – Melbourne, Australia

Happy Monday and may you have the strength to withstand any shear forces that come at you this week.

Let’s Phlog Monday: All Is Swell

I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day – when it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May

And I’ve got these wonderful two opening lines from the Temptations 1965 classic My Girl shuffling around in my head as a precursor to the pictures to follow.

After last week’s rain burst, the sun has returned to our fair shores bringing some enjoyable winter days. Whilst it’s still cold, the sun has taken the edge off the chill during the day and brightness has replaced the dull somberness of eternal cloud.  Whenever it’s a sunny day, my optimism escalates. Most of us Aussies are sun chasers. When there’s sun, there’s hope of a warmer existence. During winter I scour the house for wind-protected sun patches and chase the movement of the sun as it filters through the windows with the passing day.

Aussies also tend to love the beach and I am lucky enough to be within reach of some amazing ones. The legacy of the Southerly of the week before was midweek six foot swells on our surf beaches. The surfers donned their wetsuits and came out to ride the waves. The dolphins smiled, looked on and frolicked. The whitewash was like shaving cream.

Before the photos, a touch of surfing humour:

 How do surfers clean themselves?

 They wash up on shore!

I consider surfers in six foot wintry swells to be very brave people. But days like these to a surfer are like rare manna from heaven and out they come to feast. The shots were taken just before dusk.

Waves Crashing

Pipeline Curling

Arms Thrashing

Board and Rider Hurling

Are you a sun chaser or do you prefer to be out of the sun?

Let’s Phlog Monday: When Winter Weeps

Wet, wet and more wet that’s what the long weekend has brought us here in the land of beaches and cream. It has been raining hard for the last two and a half days with no let up until at least Thursday. Today is a no work day, thanks to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her not so real birthday.

To begin with a winter quote from Edith Sitwell:

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth,  for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:  it is the time  for home.

This is a warm up photo and not one of mine.
Photo from flikr – song under the sugar sugar.

It certainly is a time for home … or a time for canoes, ducks, rubber boots and jumping and wading through puddles. It’s also a time for stews, dumplings, apple strudel and hot chocolate.

But first, a small winter joke and a nice topical segue…

Q: What do you get from sitting on the ice too long?

A: Polaroids

Please grab a mug of something and enjoy this week’s photos.

Driving Rain

Dark Descends

Winter Weeps

These were taken last week, just after a southerly decended on my town. A southerly refers to a cold change from the South usually bringing with it chilly Antarctic winds. In this case, the change decsended rapidly causing the light to dim and tempratures to plummet. It also brought with it heavy rain.

The pictures were taken from a skybridge in which I sought shelter. Minutes before the change, the outdoors were filled with people. Despite the weather, life pushes on.

What do you love about Winter?

Let’s Phlog Monday: How Much Does a Grecian Urn?

Answer: About the same amount as a Venetian charges to make a blind.

Sadly, the actual answer right now is probably either nothing or less than half of what he earned about 18 months ago. Hello to all my readers in the Eurozone, hope your weekend is not too shabby and you’re thinking about things far more pleasant than the economy.

Turning to today’s photos…

Another Autumnal day, another photo opportunity and if I shut my eyes I can imagine the Aegean Sea, Mykonos, fishing boats and paradise. Shirley Valentine…eat your heart out. I am dying to place some tables and chairs and have a wine or a coffee at this spot. Come join me for a Grecian adventure in Australia from your web portal.

Dream

Visualise

Feel

Escape

Wishing you all a good week.