The Wondering Jew

So, today’s post was going to be all about the beautiful day I’ve had, and how I had this gorgeous walk down to Newport Beach, up through Bilgola Beach and Avalon, and then back. It was going to be about what a gorgeous day it’s been here, and how the views were breathtaking; the rugged cliffs and rock faces, the bush, the ocean, the crisp sandy beaches. It was even going to feature an amazing collection of photographs I took along the way. And then I realised something. And that’s that I don’t know jack about photography.

I discovered this while playing with a picture I took the other day. I was looking at it and thinking that although it had come out under exposed, and therefore quite dark, and not captured everything I had wanted the picture to be of, it was still quite atmospheric, and I was debating with myself whether I could pass it off as artistically creative rather than consigning it to the trashcan. And then something incredible happened, an epiphany of sorts. I moved a slider in the Levels dialog of the software I was using, and suddenly, the dark areas of the photograph, the bits that I thought light had not been captured from, the areas that I thought were forever lost, suddenly came into clear view. And I don’t mean the sort of grainy night vision you get with a camera that doesn’t really have night vision. These parts of my shot had actually been captured clearly on camera.

Anyway, to anyone who knows anything about photography, this will all seem quite basic, and there’s probably a few among you shouting “noob!” right now. I mean, I’ve read that this is what’s supposed to happen, I’ve just not experienced it first hand yet. Until now. What this means for you in practical terms, dear reader, is that I’ve discovered a newfound shame for all the pictures I’ve uploaded so far, and am reluctant to show you any more until I learn how to actually process them correctly. So, I have lots of stunning pictures of the Northern Beaches that I took today on my long walk (about 3 hours or so, by the way), but I’m not gonna let you see them. At least not yet.

In other news, I still haven’t heard anything back following the job interview. I called the recruiter, but they failed to call me back as promised, and then neglected to answer the phone again, so it’s been a weekend of no news on that front. The interview did go well though, and if I don’t get the job, it will be because they want someone at more of an entry level point in their career. That’s fine, whatever floats your boat. I did however have a great day on Friday doing the office setup and some training for Shared Conversations (I’ll change that to a link when their website’s up). And today, after the walk, I had a lovely beer (or three) called Fat Yak by Matilda Bay breweries. So still working my way through the local tipple, but still some way to go.

Pictures soon to follow, hope you’ve all had a great weekend.

Matt x

Australiana

Yesterday was pretty exciting. Met a guy for coffee and a chat about a job. He emailed today to say that it’s not going anywhere, but still, less than a week off the plane and already moving things along work wise seems pretty impressive to me. After that I walked round the city taking pictures, looking for all the world like a slack-jawed tourist on his first trip off the farm. You can see the album by clicking on the picture at the top if you want to take a look at some photos of Sydney, but don’t expect anything artistically creative.