A Return

This is very much a return to my old style of photography; heavy textures, accentuated shading, no true blacks or whites etc. It was fun to throw caution to the wind and go nuts with the curvature :D

I hope you like it!

- tom

Wedding Anniversary/Australia Day

It's my brother and sister in law's wedding anniversary sometime soon (or maybe it's already been? I'm not too sure). This was taken of my sister in law, Erica at the rehearsals, a night before the wedding a year ago. I always found this photo rather intriguing but never really knew what to do with it. I'm still not entirely happy with it but there it is!

Also, it's Australia Day today! I've never quite known how to respond to this celebration; of course I think we have a lot to celebrate, but today certainly does shed light on what we value as a nation and a lot of that saddens me or even angers me at times. What little treasures we cling to!

Nonetheless, I wish you happy Australia Day!

- tom

Autumn Longing

As you can probably tell by my new blog header, I am craving the Tasmanian autumnal weather. We are in the middle of our summer and, so far, it has really been very enjoyable; spending time with friends, reflecting on the previous year, planning, praying and growing etc. but I feel it's almost time to come out of holiday mode and start getting to work!

Autumn is by far my favourite time of year, especially in Tasmania; all the leaves turn golden brown and begin to fall, littering the streets, the rain comes to wash away the summer dust and make the city luminous, ah! It's just beautiful!

So as I look forward to this, I decided to, once again, pull out some old photos and retouch them to enjoy a taste of what is to come. Enjoy!

Here's a great folk song I like to listen to during said season; Kingfisher Sky - Big Fish. And, of course I have to share my favourite cups of tea to have in Autumn; Blue Mountain, Melbourne Breakfast, and Creme Brulee.

God bless!

- tom

London Fog

Happy 24th of January guys! Today is a wonderful day because I discovered a great new way of enjoying my cup of tea which, I'm sure at this point in my blog you realise this is a big thing for me! This wonderful concept is called London Fog, which is essentially a tea gone latte style with a dash of vanilla! One word resonates in my mind; YUMMY!!!

Steam your milk with a dash of vanilla extract/essence or vanilla syrup/flavouring so that you have a thin, fine froth, pour it through your lose leaf tea infuser (which, of course, will contain tea), and voila! You have a warm, sweet, and light cup of London Fog!

It's traditionally enjoyed as an Earl Grey (or T2 French Earl Grey as I had it), but the person who introduced it to me today loved it with Monk Pear so go mad with the experiments! I know I will be.

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera to document this momentous occasion so I thumbed through my old photo archives for the foggiest photo I could find; I think this will suffice...

Thanks Andy for the great chat and for introducing me to this wonderful way of enjoying creation!

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Note: I tried this for the first time at home today and I would just like to say that it's still wonderful! But vanilla syrup or flavour works much better than essence. Also, make sure your milk is hot enough for the tea to infuse and give it at least four minutes to steep. Enjoy!

- tom