Hi everyone, Sorry for the radio silence these past months, I have been a bit busy and I had an issue with my website. I installed a caching plugin that caused me no end of problems uploading files, as it rewrote where files are supposed to be kept. I have now got that fixed. I had to wait till I got back to London to speak in person, with my web hosting provider who brilliantly helped me to get it sorted. I am rewriting this post as I had intended to post it just after my GR Space workshop

I was in Australia, because I had to return to help with my Dad being in hospital and then once he was well enough to search for a care home for him. Then, because the way that the Australian care system works you need to pay lots of money to move someone into a care home. I then had to find someone to sell his house, arrange to clear his house, either sell, give away or generally do something with a life times collection of stuff. While leaving him enough things, to still give his life meaning and to fill his care home with things that will make him feel like he still has a life. When my Mum moved into a care home, she did not want anything taken to it, this time as we are selling Dads house to pay for his care home, he can’t leave things behind. So we (my sister and myself) had to be particularly ruthless in clearing his possessions.

Dad moved into care

The day before my Dad moved form hospital to the new care home, I set his room up for him, so that when he arrived he had some of his things already there. It was quite emotional for him as the care home is now his home for the next stage of his life. I keep telling him that he can relax a little and maybe even try to enjoy being looked after for a change. He will never have to worry about doing his laundry, cooking his meals ever again. So he should be free to make a few new friends and to reflect on his life. We had. few teaching issues as he settled in but nothing major the Care home he is in is staffed by some really nice people.

GR Event Space, Brisbane, with Michael Wayne Plant, Ricoh and DxO.

I had also been a little busy, as I got to go to the opening of the new and only GR Space outside of Asia recently, where I meet the PR person for CR Kennedy’s in Australia. I proposed to them that while I was in Australia that we do an event. That event was planned in a week. I did a PhotoWalk in Brisbane, followed by a demonstration of DxO software. 50 people signed up to attend at the new GR Space in Brisbane. Unfortunately by the end fo the event we had. real Brisbane Tunder storm roll in. I was super excited to be doing the event as it meant that I could talk photography to a group of interested photographers. Considering that I start being a Photographer in Brisbane Australia in 1987, and my journey though photography has been and continues to be something that is a passion for myself. Apart from the rain at the end while we where inside the Photowalk went well and it was a great day where I shared insights and experiences.

Ricoh GRIV

I had the pleasure of using the Ricoh GRIV for about a week, because of all my hospital visits I did not get as much time as I would have liked to get out and seriously use the camera. However, what I have found is that it is a wonderful pocket camera, it is perfect for making images of the everyday. I am finding that I am making images with it that I would not normally make with my Leica’s. I found that am far more spontaneous with Ricoh GRIV, not so worried about the perfect image, this is actually liberating. I am going to have to have a chat with Ricoh when I get back to London, to see if I can get an extended loan of the camera. The images look fantastic.

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Above are some random images from the PhotoWalk. All processed in DxO’s PhotoLab 9 software. the black and white image also had Filmpack used for the film conversion.