The Twilight Report

This photo was taken with my Nikkor 18-35mm f/2.8 on my D60. The lens doesn't have image stabilisation (IS in Canon lingo and VR in Nikon lingo). It's a wide angle zoom, and it's fast so you usually don't have to worry about hand holding the camera in low light (camera shake is more of a problem with telephotos and less of a problem with wide angle). It was taken at 17mm f/2.8 at 1/10 of a second. At 17mm it's the same view you'd get on a film camera as about 25mm, so the traditional rule of thumb is that you should shoot it at at least 1/30 of a second (one over focal length).

Happy Birthday Mum!

It was 41 degrees today.

Saw Slumdog Millionaire.

All of that was hard work and I am tired now. Goodnight.

Grandpa's slides apparently from a trip to the snowy mountains with grandma, mum and uncle graham.

some time in the 1980s...

July 1983:

I scanned another roll of grandpa’s C-41 today. These ones are from the same trip, and according to the envelope scroll include:

1. Taos
2. Bandelier
3. Rio Grande
4. Los Alamos

Los Alamos

The pond is named after someone named Ashley Pond (I kid you not)

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These were taken before the last set that I posted. They are all in New Mexico, closer to the area where I actually grew up. Although, again, this was long before we had any idea that we’d be moving out there. I had to spot more of these than from the last set, although the majority were completely clean! Some of them had some paper glued to the edges, put there probably by whomever had processed the film. I hate it when places do that because it is not good for the long term storage of the film.

Grandpa was a good photographer. There isn’t a single frame that is out of focus or incorrectly exposed, and the compositions are good.

Apparently when my mum traded in the Tercel for the Corolla I made her feel like a heel for selling an unofficial member of the family into slavery. She reminds me of this from time to time, but I can hardly be held accountable for my actions (I think) because I was only like 12 or something at the time, and it was years ago and I am pretty sure that the statute of limitations on that sort of thing has long since expired.

When grandma passed away this year, mum inherited her house in Gosford. It is a tiny fibro hut with poor insulation and is very cold in the winter. I wonder how grandma, grandpa, mum and my namesake uncle Graham all fit in there. Somehow it is still home to me, even though I only barely remember living there before I moved to America^[1]. One day I will inherit that property, I am certain.

Mum told me today that she and Don had decided to knock the house down (I know they don’t do this lightly) and put up a bungalow. Although I will be perversely sad to see the old house go, I am also quietly breathing a sigh of relief, because, as I told my mother, I don’t think I could bring myself to knock it down or sell it or anything when I inherit it.

Sentimental, I know.

1. I usually mark my first memories with coming to America, but I do have faint glimmering memories of that house from back then

Today for mum’s day we brought grandma home for a family barbecue. In this case “home” is Gosford, where nobody actually lives anymore. Anyway, mum was running late as always and so while Don and aunty Rae were picking grandma up from the nursing home, mum and I went looking for a mum’s day card for grandma. Pretty much all of mum’s day cards had been taken, and the only one with “grandma” on it was too frilly for me to take seriously (there were “nana” and “gran” cards but I have never called grandma anything but grandma, so they seemed particularly unnatural). It suddenly struck me as slightly absurd that I was standing there in the newsagency looking for a mum’s day card with my mum standing right next to me.

“Happy mum’s day, by the way.” I said.

The other lady in the store also looking for a last minute mum’s day card thought this was pretty funny. Anyway, I think that mum and grandma know how much I love them and how important they are to my life. That the Hallmark Greeting Card Cartel sponsors the day is rather beside the point. It was nice bringing grandma home for the day.

Aunty Rae and mum were looking through some of my great grandfather’s old WWI records and stuff. His given names were “Fredrick Graham”. Seeing his name on one of the papers, it reminded me that I am really named after him. I always think of myself as being named after my uncle Graham (and I am), but my mum actually called me Fred for the first few days of my life. Thankfully mum and dad agreed on Graham instead.

I am now the proud owner of a Nintendo Wii. It was a hit. Not just with me, but also with the family. Mum and Don both tried it out and all along the way nanna was coaching.

“Don’t move your hips!”

“Follow through on your swing!”

und so weite.

Then when Don got up to play nanna yelled at him to get out the way and not block her view. This, from my grandma, who hates computers, any form of technology and anything new.

Tennis is my favourite. Golf and bowling are okay, but baseball is terribly dull lacking any out fielding. Tomorrow I am going to see if I can snag Twilight Princess and an extra controler and the real gamming will begin :)

The Chrissy^[1] decorations are out already. In America don’t they usually wait until after Thanksgiving for that? Anyway, it’s not the timing that is unnerving for me, but the time of year. I know I will have to get over this, but this isn’t the time of year that you expect to see snowmen and fat guys in cold weather gear.

1. Australian for Christmas
2. the “Gong Ride” or Sydney to Wollongong bike ride
3. Or for that matter, how I managed to get along without it when I was over there