The Home of Tom & Morven

I know it’s been a very long time since I last posted, and eventually when I’m not quite so busy I’ll do a really big catchup post. But for now, I just want to point people in the direction of my friend Jordan that released his music on the JJJ Unearthed website. Have a listen to his music, it’s really awesome for his first 3 songs he’s released.

Today James Field borrowed Morven and myself to practise his photography skills for a couple weddings coming up that he’s the photographer for. Morv and I had already been thinking about getting some professional photos done because the only photos we really have of the two of us together are taken at night in less than desirable conditions, are blurred, don’t seem to be framed correctly, or I just look ridiculous as per usual due to some random awkward stance. It was mutually beneficial for both James, Morv and I, although once we actually saw the photos he took of us there was no way I wasn’t going to reward him for his services.

The layout for the day was he took photos up at Mt Osmond overlooking Adelaide, and a couple locations in the city. All up he took 150 photos, 43 of which he decided were acceptable. From those 43, we picked our favourite 15, and he then spent time adjusting the light, contrast, etc. He even fixed up my double chin! I highly recommend James as your professional photographer for any occasion, but just make sure you pay him well because he deserves it! I’m sure he’ll smack the pants off the sort of prices other professional photographers would charge, and when you see the quality of work he’s done with Morv and I you’ll totally agree.

Click on the thumbnail below to go to a gallery of our favourite 15 photos he took on the day. In case family are reading this and want to print one of these photos, just let us know which one you’d like to print so I can send a much higher resolution file.

Having seen what can be done with a good digital camera (Canon 20D) that he uses, I’m inspired to sell my little slimline camera and upgrade to a digital SLR. I like the idea of being able to shoot in RAW, where the camera saves all the pixel and sensor data, and then using Adobe Photoshop to do the actual processing of the image rather than the little processor of the camera. If you have a powerful computer, and sophisticated software with much more advanced processing features, you’re only cheating yourself out of image quality if you don’t used it (other than the time it takes to learn the software, and actually perform it). At the end of the day, the way I see it is that I might as well shoot in RAW, use up some hard drive space, and not lock myself into a reduced quality of photo from that occasion for the rest of my life as eventually one day technology will be so much better, that processing of photos will only get better and easier. The only drawback is the fact that it’s more data to have to store.

It’s Tom’s cousin here, Carl, wishing Tom a happy 24th birthday!

Unfortunately Tom was away when I tried to contact him to wish him all the best, so instead I’ll just leave a little note here with this special comic from PBF:

Hope you had a great day buddy!

Congrats to Jame for making the coolest party invitation I’ve seen for a hell of a long time!

<Update Feb 2008: The URL has been permanently deleted!>

In fact, the only better party invitation I’ve ever seen is another one that Jame made, which was on one of those CD’s the size of a business card.

Anyone that knows Jame knows he has always - I repeat - *always* had the messiest bedroom in the world. He’s also one of the best artist I know (amongst Jordan, Vi, Nai, Sven). What do you get when you combine Jame’s messy bedroom with Jame’s talented video art? A RAD video to watch on my blog!

James’ Room Cleaning Time Lapse

I have discovered I can post on Tom’s bLog! What more can a good sister do than post a hostile take-over bid, especially since two little boys are conspiring to take over my journal. Still, I think you’ll appreciate the story of their adventures.

xxx
Nai

This is an article that appeared in The Australian about my brothers research, his supervisor, and the School of Chemistry & Physics’ Centre of Expertise in Photonics.

Defence sees the light in optic sensors

Verity Edwards
July 05, 2006

THE University of Adelaide’s Tanya Monro is dedicating her working life to bending light, and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation is sitting up and taking notice.

The professor of photonics in the school of chemistry and physics recently opened the Centre of Expertise in Photonics, enabling her team to develop fibre-optic technology to aid the DSTO and the defence industry.

The DSTO has provided a $400,000 grant for buildings and equipment.

“The vast majority of discoveries that have been made have been made in telecommunications,” Professor Monro told the HES.

“We’re focusing on applications beyond telecommunications to applications in defence and sensing to detect chemicals or explosives or biological molecules.“

Photonics allows the generation and control of light using glass fibre optics.

The centre is working to design, fabricate and develop a new class of optical fibres - soft glass microstructure fibres - that have significant benefits over the conventional silica-based optical fibres.

Professor Monro was recruited to Adelaide University last year after spending more than six years researching new classes of optical fibres at the University of Southampton in Britain. Working with a research group, Professor Monro is developing new fibres for laser-based infra-red countermeasures, which would allow aircraft to jam incoming missiles.

By using the soft glass microstructures, Professor Monro said it would be possible to transport the infra-red light efficiently within the aircraft, something that cannot be done with existing optical fibres.

“It basically confuses the target system of missiles,” she said. “Our contribution is to try to create fibre optics that transmit this type of light, that aren’t available commercially at the moment.“

Professor Monro’s team is also working on a range of sensing projects that involve new kinds of fibres that transmit light within air holes within the cables, rather than by the usual internal reflection within a glass tube.

“If a significant fraction of the light guided by the optical fibre is located within the air holes, it can interact with any material that is located in the holes,” she said.

“So if we fill the air holes within the cable with a sample of water containing bio-molecules, we can detect the biological material by its interaction with light.“

She said the defence industry could potentially use the soft glass fibre-optic sensors to monitor structures; for example, to detect faults in submarines or other craft.

The centre is part of a strategic alliance between Adelaide University and the DSTO, with additional support from the South Australian Government. In addition to the $400,000 initial grant, the centre will receive $400,000 a year for up to five years, plus research funding of up to $1 million.

A post submitted by Jame.

Yo all,

I’m about to embark on entering my first photography exhibition… the royal adelaide show this year. w00t. I’m having some trouble deciding on what to enter though. Here are some thumbnails of all of my possible entries. If you click on them it’ll bring up a page of the full-sized photos that you really need to look at to appreciate them:

Please, leave a comment on Tom’s blog to let me know which ones are your favourites. (Or if you like, you can register on the forum where the full-sized photos are).

cheers!
Jame.

A post by my cousin Carl.

I am. Oh, this is Tom’s cousin Carl, doing a test using the login feature.

Anyway:

I was pretty sick last night, and went to bed at 2115. However, I couldn’t actually fall asleep until about 0100 this morning due to all of the late night during the holidays. And I woke up due to my handy phone alarm clock this monring expecting to go to school, but felt like absolute shit. Neck hurts, throat hurts, head spins, nose hurts, most likely a fever. So I got out of bed and had a hot shower, then couldn’t stand up and went back to bed. Cut a long story short, I’m lying on the couch watching Dr. Phil waiting for some sitcoms to come on.

Holla.