Aaronatbella's Blog

Travelling about

aaronatbella — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:59:24 +0000

Wow, I just realised how long it has been since I last said hello. I have been busy adding posts to our wedding blog so there are a few new ones to look at there. On a personal note I have been away from home for almost a week. It is always a bitter sweet thing to go a way on work trips. I have the joy of seeing new places but the pain of leaving my Julie and kids behind.

This time I am writing from the beach of Tel Aviv. I am finding that the Israeli people I am working with are very hospitable. They go out of their way to ensure that they are looking after us. Fortunately they organise our transport arrangements because there is no way I would drive in this traffic. Though not as bad as other countries, it is worse than Malaysia which I have driven in. I have only seen a handful of cars without scratches and dings. They also organised a tour in Jerusalem for us which was great. As a Christian it has been great being in the Holy land. Seeing Jerusalem was fantastic. Having a guide discuss the history of the city really helped.

The below picture is a panorama of the Old City from the Mount of Olives. The wind had picked up and was blowing a gale. I was surprised I was able to hold the camera still enough for the shots. You definitely need to click on the image to get a larger view.

As most Christians would I found the tour very interesting and rewarding. I did however, see things that did concern me. God has directed us not to serve any other gods. So why are Christians put so much importance of artefacts? I saw people kissing stones and touching artefacts like they were Jesus himself. People He is risen and not in the stone, or cave. Get your focus on Him not items that have been turned into idols. It is especially disturbing when the logic tells me that the things they are worshipping are highly unlikely to be the real things

The sunsets have been very pretty. Just not as pretty as our Australian sunsets. I must get around to the beach one day with my camera at sunset so I can demonstrate what I mean.

To add to my travel adventures, our government has dropped their leader and we now have a woman Prime Minister. Just another Labor stunt, fortunately there is an election coming.

Bye for now.

Having fun with portraits

aaronatbella — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:40:54 +0000

I was out the other day with my family on a little walk and decided to take my new 5DII with me to give it a test run before a wedding. I must say I was suitably impressed with the performance of the camera.

Here is a shot of my daughter. No post processing done, just straight out of Lightroom and resized for web.

A lane of trees

aaronatbella — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:11:53 +0000

trees_web, originally uploaded by Aaron@Bella.

On my way home from spending time showing a bridal couple potential photography sites today I stopped by a few places to indulge in some personal photography. This shot was taken at Apex Park, which is found near our home in Gawler. These big trees are quite spectacular and have been planted in a row along the river side.

I took this with my 50mm F1.4. Handheld with a 2 stop exposure bracketing.

I hope you enjoy it.

Making a stand in faith.

aaronatbella — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:35:46 +0000

I have an old school friend who is in the battle of his life. This a time of his life that he needs to b e focused. Every moment counts and being dragged down by those who bring negativity into his life is not worth hanging around for. He articulated this so well in his blog on Dress code. Check it out is a good read and inspiring. If you leave a comment don’t forget his dress code!!

National Railway Museum

aaronatbella — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:31:37 +0000

As I said in my last post I was at a function dinner at the National Railway Museum in Port Adelaide.
The night was warm and the museum is a large tin shed so the expectation was for a sweltering experience. Fortunately with the use of some large fans the building was very comfortable. Thus making conversation easy and enjoyable.
Trains filled the room and made an excellent backdrop to the event. They even had a steam train with smoke coming out of the stack to add to the feel of the event. I would recommend visiting the museum.
We had the privelige of having David Foster, multiple world champion woodcutter, provide an address. The words he had to share were very inspiring as he tried to express the importance of having a dream and pursuing it. He also expressed the primacy of family.
I was very impressed to here a leader in his field implore the men of the group to put the family first. He expresed the benefit he had of being close with his father. He and his father achieved 11 world titles together in log cutting. The love he had from his father was a strengthening feature in his life. He achieved success because of his family not inspite of them.

The people at the museum were great. It was an honour to be able to attend this venue out of hours and have the volunteers be available to provide tours and keep the place open. They have done a remarkable job on keeping the exhibits going and in such fantastic condition.

Till next time.

Mobile blogging part 2

aaronatbella — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:56:16 +0000

I thought that by having wordpress on my phone I would get around to more blogging. Entering the mobile world does make me potentially more connected. The big problem is taking the time to sit somewhere and write. Take right now for instance I’m sitting in a car park waiting for a function to start. I’m by myself and able to put few words together. Maybe I’ll take the time to say something tomorrow after I’ve spent some time in the railway museum tonight. It should be a bit more interesting than my inane ramblings now.

On connectivity though I did enjoy the ability to approve a comment from the phone rather than wait till I got to the computer at home.

Til later
Aaron

New stuff

aaronatbella — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:29:49 +0000

We have been getting more into developing design wedding albums. I have posted some sample design pages in the Photograft blog.

Keeping in touch with grandparents

aaronatbella — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:41:05 +0000

After reading a blog recently by Jasmine Star (a photog in California) about the death of her Grandmother and her process of letting go I was motivated to write down my thoughts about the loss of my grand parents. Most of my life I have been distanced from my grand parents. One set lived in Melbourne and the other set travelled to warmer climates most of the year. I didn’t really have much of a relationship with either set of grandparents. I only got to go to the funeral of my Pop. He was great in the later years. He embraced my lovely bride into the family more than anyone else at the time. I was truly sad to say goodbye. However, when my Nan (his wife) passed away I wasn’t that upset. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate my Nan. We just didn’t have anything to do with each other. She didn’t want to be around my kids so I didn’t try to be around her and then I moved interstate. The last time I saw her was at the nursing home when my Uncle took me round to see her while I was visiting Perth on a work trip. She was well advanced with dementia and non responsive so the visit didn’t seem to be of much benefit. At least as far as I know.

My other grandparents lived in Melbourne all the time I knew them. We lived in Perth on the other side of the country. I didn’t really know them well at all. The tireny of distance laid waste to this relationship for us. Things did change in a positive way when I got a job over in Victoria for a while and we got to spend some time with them. The thing I liked best about that time was the unconditional acceptance of my wife Julie. Joining my family has been challenging for Julie but my Grandmother and Grandfather took her in immediately. We shared stories and laughed many times during that period.

We moved on but my relationship with them had changed for the better. Sadly my Grandmother died in her sleep one night while we were in Sydney. So now all I have left is my Grandfather. Even still I took him for granted and rarely called him. My family isn’t strong on the communication side. It took the description of a strong family relationship to jog me into action. I have changed my behaviour and started to call my Grandfather. We don’t talk long as he still thinks of the cost of long distance calls as he remembers them. Even though it costs me the same regardless of the length of the call. However, we do talk now and I feel closer to him and more appreciative of him now. Family is important and it is easy to forget that until its gone forever.

Just remember its never too late until they are gone.

Learning new things

aaronatbella — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:33:53 +0000

Well this week has been quite an adventure for me. My lovely wife has been away with my son in Perth. I have been at home with the girls. Normally I get to go away and the more competent Julie is left at home with the kids.
So to make sure I get the full experience of kid minding challenges Julie enrolled me in a fixing and flushing night course. The first three nights occurring while she was away. So here I am trying to do Mr mum and all that, renovate the house and attend a course. Thanks to the late hours from the course there hasn’t been much in the way of renovation going on. It has been a good course so far, learning on how to install plasterboard.
All the other guys on the course are doing it for work purposes. Not me, I’m doing it because Julie thought it would be a great idea to get me some trade skills. More reno work coming soon!! She also added the justification that I would be more useful in a missions environment if I could build stuff. My normal line of work is more aligned with bringing stuff down.

The first night was all about the theory. Useful info, last night was about fixing the plasterboard to the walls and ceiling. Tonight we get real dirty and start doing the flushing. I must remember my hat tonight.

If I do any good I’ll see if I can get some photos of my work.

Creepy crawly things – cute ones

photograftimagesolutions — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:12:08 +0000

Please note that no creatures were deliberately harmed after the production of these images. My youngest daughter helped to relocate the animals to suitable plants before I finalised felling activities.

Anyway after that disclaimer. I was clearing some trees from my front yard today and after taking a break to rest my vibration weary hands from chain sawing I noticed some caterpillars climbing around the tree I was in the process of bringing down. These guys were quite interesting to watch and I decided that getting some shots would be a good idea. I had never seen the two green caterpillars before and was quite interested in them. Not that interested to the point that I would look up what type they were, but interested enough to take some shots and get my girls out to have a look. Anyway, here are some images to see. The photos were taken in Gawler South Australia so if there are anyone who is interested enough to look up what they were. I’d be glad for you to drop a comment here about what they are.

Shots were taken with the 50m f1.4 and the 70-200 mm F4. I was using the camera flash for a touch of fill light to combat the bright sky in some shots with the 70-200 lens.

All the best

Aaron