"Opposition"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Wednesday sport finals. They've never seemed so full of action as they have this winter! We had a great number of teams in the final - more than five, to my memory, which in itself is quite a lot - and one of the teams I was paying special attention to was the Volleyball Opens (since they were playing at home - that is, at Ruse). The other team was Baulkham Hills (in green shirts, for the less observant of us), and the match was played in the hall in front of about fifty people (the Open Bs, their opposition, and other spectators). Here's the Baulko team,
about to be served to by Jun.

"Spike"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Elite sport techniques are, by and large, a mystery to me. I simply don't understand how to bat in cricket and anticipate what the ball's going to do by watching the bowler's hands as he releases the ball. Similarly, I just can't get it through my head how volleyball players jump and rise so high above the net and yet still maintain balance enough to send the ball flying into the ground with precision in the opposition half. It's crazy! Anyway, something else you mightn't realise is that the Baulko dude closest to the camera is Yin, my friend from church. (Yin and his brother Tim Tjun Wong, I invited them to the ISCF HouseParty last year.) He's a very good volleyballer.

"Scorer"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Some lucky players on the B team were marshalled by Mr. Lowcock for scoring duties. They happened to be Joey and Ming-Chak. Here they are doing a sterling job keeping score with the little stand and numbers and everything (if I recall, this was during the set where we actually won; but we narrowly lost the match two sets to one).

"High-Res Drama Posters"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Multiple Images
Eight-hundred & twenty-four of these babies went around the school hitching a ride on the backs' of the weekly newsletters. They were generally received well, but that's not to say what everyone else who I didn't ask thought. ;) Anyway, I invite you to check these images out, even if you've seen the posters before - because these are much higher quality; these are what the posters were meant to look like. Enjoy!

"Poster On A Messy Table"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Yes, yes, my table was particularly messy the day I had finished doing up the poster, but c'est la vie. Maybe you'll understand why I was so excited when I had finally printed the poster. This was Wednesday night; the night before had been Tuesday (not surprisingly), and was the night when there were two all-the-way-through dress rehearsals (it finished at 11pm). All I seem to remember was someone telling me that the posters - whose photos I had just taken that night - had to be in by tomorrow to be put it into the newsletter. I don't remember who gave me those instructions, but I recall thinking of them as crazy, since I got home around 11:45PM and it was a physical impossibility to draw up the poster and print in one night (which, eventually, took about six hours total). So when I finished the poster, I hurriedly snapped a photo - no matter how messy my table was. ;)

"Shadow Cast"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I was walking home one day and for some reason, I noticed this tree - I pass it everytime I walk home, and it looks exactly the same each time - but this, I noticed the shadow it made. I thought it looked neat. So... *wrenches camera out of pocket and twenty-year-old case, switches it on* ...snap!

"Dustflower"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Something else I noticed on the way home. These peculiar flowers arched over one of the walkways nearby my house. What's with the name, you ask? Well, when I took one of the flowers in hand (it had dropped onto the ground), it simply crumbled between my thumb and index finger. Fell into a million pieces. Like dust!
So, since I don't know any better... 'dustflower'.

"Grevillia At Noon"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Remember last gallery's "Grevillia At Dusk"? Well, this is what it was meant to look like. Instructions - brandish camera, toast with sunlight till golden brown, add salt to taste, release the shutter. And there you have it: Grevillia At Noon.

"Dam Reflection"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Mr. Kemp walked us down to the farm a few weeks ago, and he was nice enough to let us have a stroll near the dam. When I looked across the muddy body of water, for the first time, I saw a great reflection.
So here it is!

"Spray"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Multiple Images
The product of yet more idle free periods. As Jim and me were having a stroll around in the nice afternoon air, we happened upon the sprinklers in the gardens near the Hall. When I looked closely at one, I thought: "Hey, that looks neat!". So I just whipped the camera out and took a couple of shots.

"A Rainbow On The Spray"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I've read the encyclopaedia and what it says about how come we get rainbows out of prisms and water particles, but to me it's still a miracle. My mum can testify to how I used to play with the hose for hours in the afternoon after preschool, watering plants - but my real motive was to check out the rainbow mirrored by the water. And so you can guess what I did when I saw my first rainbow after buying my camera...

"Another Trip To The Gardens"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I've published photos from gardens before. One of the main reasons is because since flowers are so difficult to photograph well, it's an achievement worth getting excited about. And besides, the things look cool (as you'll no doubt see later). Here's the family and I at the Wistoria Gardens in Parramatta. These Gardens are owned by the Cumberland Hospital and used for the therapy of special patients throughout the year - though they're opened to the public for a very short time during Spring.

"Detailed Brilliance"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
As soon as we entered, my mind's eye was at work, framing this and that, seeing what would look nice in a photo. (I typically reserved the passive enjoyment of the plants for the walk backward along the same path - since the daylight would be fading and good photos would be impossible later.) I spotted these two flowers. It struck me, how detailed each flower was - shape, size, colour, structure, all sorts of things. Whoever invented them must have been brilliant, don't you think? Well, that's what I reckon.

"Bed Of Beauty"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Multiple Images
I framed another one. Shiny orange flowers with red centres - reminded me of some Chinese cakes I had eaten only a few days before. As I held the camera over the flowers and squeezed the button, I quickly pulled back (since I was about to fall over and lose my balance)... and a greater photo caught my eye. It was this whole bed of flowers, of which the original three were only a part, which had eluded my focus before. I thought it looked very nice, and I couldn't decide whether I liked the smaller view or the bigger view. So I put up both.

"Myriad"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I once visited a garden many years ago. That's nothing special, but it was a rose garden. Even that isn't completely extraordinary, but here's the clincher: it was several acres of just roses, and there wasn't a single breed of roses there that had been repeated. Hundreds upon thousands of unique types of roses... kind of like people, huh? I didn't believe it at first, but it was true: I couldn't find a single rose alike in that garden. (They even had a photo of a blue rose - they do exist, but cost ludicrous amounts of money because of all the research put into making them.) So when I saw these flowers, I thought of those roses - all similar in type, but each different. Myriads and myriads of different colours, like a glorified rainbow. And you know what I think of rainbows... ;)

"Golden"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
This flower stood, looking rather lonely, surrounded by greenery. At just the right angle, the Sun seemed to make the flower look golden. Ahhh, wonderful!

"Hybrid"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
There are a special breed of plant breeders (heh!) who believe that purity is best - pure plants, like the Classic Red Rose, must be kept untouched - but it's obviously not those dudes who were responsible for this plant! Look closely at these cherry blossoms - yes, the same ones as on my home street - they seem to have three different colours (white, pink and light purple) on the same tree! It's certainly no mistake. These are fifth-generation hybrids - deliberately bred to have several different colour flowers.

"Car Boot Sale & Food Fair"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Multiple Images
Let's take a quick break from the Gardens and bring the camera a bit closer to home. Here's a few visions from the Car Boot Sale & Food Fair (which you dogged, Harry! Booooooo! :p). There are a couple of shots of the Inspya and Zyasta stalls; as well as some of the general fair-goers with their car boots and all. Great fun for all! (Well... all who were there, anyway...!)

"In The Mirror"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
After taking a break from our warm soccer game and our 'surveillance' duty, we stopped by Bonnie, Charm, Eyls and Pallavi at the Inspya stall. I spotted this mirror and thought "well, that lighting's interesting"... You can see how red I look; it's because of the red table cloth that Bonnie so lovingly ironed, which reflects all the red light onto me. (Ignore the thing that looks like a vampire's tooth in my mouth; it's a bit of dust on the mirror.) And, to finish the photo, Nguyen looking on in the background.

"Our New Super Soaker"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Nguyen and I are greatly in Julian's debt. Not only was I able to pick up a Lemmings Pick-Your-Own-Adventure book (I never knew there were Lemmings books, let alone Lemmings Pick-Your-Own-Adventure books!!) from his little stall, but me and Nguyen went for a Super Soaker that was marked for just $3. (You can still see the price marking on the side.) Endless fun for the whole family! And affordable too... ;)

"Showing Off The Merchandise"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Charm rapidly became bored taking care of the Inspya stall. I don't blame her - the entire CBS&FF was quite quiet - but I was a bit puzzled when she started putting strange things on my head. And, notably, amidst the wind which blew everything else around, the jewellry on my head stayed solid. Strange how things work out...

"Definitely Crazy"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Multiple Images
At times I wonder... are some of my friends really crazy? I mean, I know they do some really extraordinary things sometimes - and I mean extraordinary... "The Piggyback Experiments" are a good example (hilarious as they were, they were crazy!). But when I saw this... I really knew... these two are definitely, genuinely crazy...!

"Mr. Wearne's Dog"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Mr. Wearne brought along his dog (Corey? Why can't I ever remember dogs' names?!) to the CBS&FF. Here we are, playing fetch with my soccer ball. The funny thing was, we kicked the ball everywhere, and he chased everywhere; but the ball was actually bigger than him, so he could never bring it back! Heheh. Funny dog!

"Silhouettes"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
As a few of us circled the dam, I noticed some pretty shadows on the water... they were us! The Sun was at just the right angle of elevation to make the shadows around the length of our real heights. Way cool!

"Mr. Kemp & The Grass"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Mr. Kemp, ever the conscientious agriculture teacher, saw an opportunity to teach us and snapped it up. Here he is pointing to some very green grass and making a comment. It almost looks like... he's all alone, with the grass.

"Oooh, A Melon!"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Random crazy comments can be surprisingly frequent from a bunch of people like my friends and I (probably you, if you're reading this). This one from McHardy is a pearly. No sooner do I hear the words and turn to him, is he brandishing this strange melon he's found on the ground. Fascinating!

"'Wild' Life"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
Cows and ducks. It's like a bona fide barnyard story... take a look! This is nice for all those newbies who haven't had a trip down to the farm yet - as for the rest of us, we've been seeing these for years. Except maybe the ducks...

"Simply Red"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Remember those 'purists' from "Hybrid" (see above)? I think this kind of flower would have been much more appealing to them. Man... it's so... red...

"Paper Daisy"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
These flowers are called - yes, they really are called paper daisises! Why? Their petals have the same texture as rough paper (kind of delicate and thin, like the one you find in Bibles). This one is actually only half open; but I thought it looked even cooler like this than fully opened.

"Mother & Ducklings"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Okay, so my 'Wild' Life photo wasn't very detailed - I couldn't get any closer to those ducks or those cows - but to this mother and her five ducklings, I was able to get quite close (with the help of my good brother!). This was the point where Mum decided to take a dip in the water. The kiddies followed her a few seconds later.

"Incomprehensible"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Remember my comment from "Detailed Brilliance" (see above)? When I happened upon this collection of flowers, I realised each was as complex as those two first flowers, and that there were dozens of these (this was a small section). When I try to think about it... well, when I was little, my kindergarten teacher told me to imagine how big the universe was (this was after I had drawn the same thing, five art lessons in a row - plain white stars on a black background). Imagining how complicated these flowers are is, I think, just as impossible.

"Sixteen Point Seven Million"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Here's a lesson for you. When you're looking at your computer screen (and your TV, for that matter), you're not looking at a single, coherent image like a painting but rather, at lots and lots of tiny dots lined up row after row. If you look closely (not recommended - radiation is baaad for you!), you can see them - typically around 800,000 of them. Each dot is coloured, and together they create the illusion of a single picture. Now, each picture can be (on most computers these days) any one of about 16.7 million colours (the exact number is 16777216, or 2 to the 24th power). The human eye can see many times more colours than that. When I look at this photo, that's what I think of - how many colours we can see. Incredible!

"Compact"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
This is an interesting one. Load it up and note the enormous size of the flower, and then contrast the unopened buds nearby. They are only a few hours apart - that is how amazingly it transforms.
Space bags, eat your heart out...

"Peaches"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
This is ONE photo for which I don't have a really cool introspective comment for. I just thought these peach-coloured flowers looked neat. That's all... honest!

"What's... That... Smell..?"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
My brother and I were just relaxing peacefully in our lounge room when Kev sensed something. "Do you smell... burning?" Kev's sense of smell is acute and mine is weak, so I expected little as I lifted my nose. But... jumping Jehoshaphat, it was like the scent of a thousand barnbecues! And as we donned sandals to investigate, the sight met us as soon as we looked down the road. Hmm... a little bit of smoke, eh?

"Red Sky"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
The sky is meant to be blue roughly because the particles of the air are just the right size and type to reflect the wavelength of blue light (clouds are big enough to reflect all light and hence appear white, while rain clouds absorb some light and hence appear darker). But this day, the light was an awry shade of red - backburning!

"Multitasking"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
A completely unrelated photo that I took on the last table tennis session we had - Chak doubling up with Parry and playing table tennis. But notice what Chak's doing at exactly the same time - eating a pie! Boy, I wish I was that co-ordinated. Keep it up, Chak!