31 December 2012

New year clip

December clip from Max Olijnyk on Vimeo.

Here's a clip of our skating adventures over these past few festive weeks. Happy new year to all!

15 December 2012

New camera!

Forgive the radio silence, I've been waiting on a new camera. It's a delicious kind of torture being obsessed with something for ages before you have it. Waiting for this camera reminded me of all those other things that I decided I needed and set about making them exist. I think the first one was the set of space Lego that sat above the door when I was learning how to use the toilet by myself. I used to go in there and just stare at it. When we went to the shops, I'd find that particular set and examine the box, calculating how all these new pieces would add to my overall Lego experience. When I finally pooed enough times by myself without incident and earned the set, I can recall the sense of relief of how it was exactly as good as I expected. It wasn't a surprise, it was just such a validating relief. It was repeated over the years with various vital objects: a Gray Nicolls GC Master Scoop, a Matt Hensley H-Street pro model, a pair of burgundy Vans, an industrial sewing machine. That's how it is with this new camera.

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Oh yes, we've also moved house. Above, you can see Tess proprietorially sitting in her new West Brunswick backyard. Below, you can see a wonderful sight: Sam back on the board. So great! Evening museum sessions are happening again. On the downside, I fell on my head last week and got concussion. Bloody museum!

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Another wonderful sight - Siggy in Melbourne! He tricked us all and kept his visit a secret until a surprise unveiling last weekend. Incredible!

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The new house has a big kitchen and a barbecue in the backyard that we procured from Bunnings. We pretty much cook every meal on it.

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Rosie!

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Tess has been getting to know the local characters. There's no Merri Creek close by, but we make do.

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We did go for a walk along the Yarra yesterday. I'm basically just trying to get used to the camera and taking photos of everything. It's a Fuji x-pro 1.

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Beautiful summer's day in Melbourne.

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Two of my favourites

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Barbecuse to honour Siggy and Charlotte's (temporary) return at Charlotte's folks'.

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What a lovely man he is, that Siggy.

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Just then, we had dinner in the park for Amanda's birthday. We live around the corner from Amanda and Conor now, and Raph and Beci - a serious leasing point on the area.

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Tyke was just chilling in a tree.

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Ari up to a similar game, but in a more Ari-sized tree.

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Amanda's mum brought the cake over from New Zealand!

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Tess was on the lead

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Raph

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Me

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7 December 2012

Islands in the Stream

Last weekend was a good one. Amongst other things, it was Anna's 30th birthday and Ben, Rosie and Michelle sang her an awesome rendition of Islands in the Stream. Then the next day I had an awesome hungover skate. This is all about that.


8 November 2012

A few pictures from a trip to Adelaide

I just got back from a week in Adelaide. My camera is still 'in the shop' getting fixed, so I borrowed my dad's Nikkormat and took some photos.

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The camera had a half finished roll of film in it. When I got it processed, I found this - a photo of  Auntie Kat with my grandmother, who died a few years ago!

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Back to the present day, here's D and Joy

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Pen and Bub

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Anna

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We watched the royals at the races

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The next few are from a walk Anna and I took one day when it was really hot

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That's all for now.

22 October 2012

A roll of film

I spend quite a bit of time arguing with my similarly photo-obsessed friends about the relative merits of digital and film photography. I'm a staunch supporter of digital, mainly for its ease of use, its accessibility and the fact that it's 2012. I roll my eyes when my friends talk about the special quality of film and how it has soul and all that crap. But then I got a roll of film processed and I'm eating my words!

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I think I decided I didn't like film mainly because it's always been a pain in the ass and I kind of resent people thinking it's somehow nice to have to wait for your photos and be surprised by the results, like the gods who designed film actually wanted it to be that way. Here's a lovely photo of Amanda and Bonnie that was a nice surprise when I saw it because I forgot that I took it.

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Jake was talking about how you just can't get good greens with a digital camera and I scoffed at him. "Use the eyedropper tool!" I said. Really into the tree behind Tim here.

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Yep, the greens are pretty amazing in this one too.

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It was nice shooting through my old 50mm lens, too.

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I think the other thing was that I used to burn through so many rolls of film trying to get a good skate shot, or the 'make'. Then I'd get the photos back and they'd be a bit dark or something and it was so frustrating! Maybe I should just relax a bit. I think that's the moral of the story.

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20 October 2012

10 October 2012

Tokyo

We landed in Tokyo on Sunday morning and went exploring around Shibuya. It turns out we were staying right near the famous crazy intersection from Lost in Translation.

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It's all a bit of a blur. We just roamed around freaking out at everything and having a great time.

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We met up with Rosie's brother Will, who is living in Tokyo. He showed us some of his favourite spots and ordered all our food for us in a very gentlemanly fashion.

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It's a bit of a complicated place to get around.

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One of Will's best spots was this shrine. Will explained a particular thing you had to do with clapping and praying and flipping a coin into a thing. I did it all but stuffed up the flipping of the coin - bad luck for eternity.

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We ate at a little place in Piss Alley and it started raining.

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Managed to get the cover shot for Will's next album while we were there.

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Maybe he'll be the next Sexy Zone! These trucks are rolling around everywhere blasting songs by pop bands. Our favourite is 'Follow Me' by the E-Girls.

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We took a train or three out to the Studio Ghibli museum, which was completely booked out. This was as close as we got. Totoro!

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Cool area near the museum.

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Harajuku

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Missing Tess

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Ginza

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More Shibuya

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Will took us to his favourite restaurant on our last night. They cook everything on the spot and hand your food to you on a big wooden paddle. Such impressive knees. It was delicious.

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That intersection again. What a great trip.

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