50 Ways To Leave Your Lover

Ever felt like the colour just drained right out of your life?

50 Ways To Leave Your Lover

The problem is all inside your head
She said to me
The answer is easy if you
Take it logically
I’d like to help you in your struggle
To be free
There must be fifty ways
To leave your lover

She said it’s really not my habit
To intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning
Won’t be lost or misconstrued
But I’ll repeat myself
At the risk of being crude
There must be fifty ways
To leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover

CHORUS:
You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free

She said it grieves me so
To see you in such pain
I wish there was something I could do
To make you smile again
I said I appreciate that
And would you please explain
About the fifty ways

She said why don’t we both
Just sleep on it tonight
And I believe in the morning
You’ll begin to see the light
And then she kissed me
And I realized she probably was right
There must be fifty ways
To leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover

CHORUS

1975 hit song by Paul Simon, from his album Still Crazy After All These Years

This past Sunday (April 09) a few of us Adelaidean Redbubblers took a little day trip to our local Zoo to give our long/longer lenses a bit of an airing, and to partake in some bubblemingling.
Despite the initial early morning rain threatening to dampen spirits, (and which probably kept a few others that mentioned they’d be coming along, rugged up in their beds), the weather actually decided to play rather nice for the rest of the day.

Bubblers Bill, Andy, Brenda, and myself, along with Bill’s daughter Megan, met at the front gates at 9.30am, with Stephen meeting up with us a little later. Since I had never met any of the above Bubblers before I have to admit I was just a teeny, weeny bit nervous on arrival…those dancing butterflies were doing their little jig. But really, as it turned out, I had not a thing to worry about, and meeting everyone was just like meeting old friends. We went on to spend a rather productive, and best of all, fun day together….Although, I’m not altogether sure the Zoo’s occupants were always that impressed with us invading their space.

All the happy hunters optamistic and enthusiastic

Brenda and Bill whip out their gear

Stephen, Brenda and Andy going in for the Hippo shoot

And this is what the Hippo thought of us.

Brenda & Andy looking totally unimpressed

I believe Andy may be thinking that Miss Fluffy might have more luck getting the animals to cooperate?

Mr Koala sure let us know what he thought about that!

Then promptly ran & jumped up the nearest tree

One Otter played dead when he saw us coming

The others simply made a dash for it

Here we are playing ‘Spot the Monkey’

The Lemur thought that was all just so immature

But it was Mr Sun bear who expressed his delight with us best, as only a bear in the woods could

Guess he showed us!!

At least Megan hit it off with the critters, and she shot some pretty cool pics on the day to boot
Note to Bill, leave good looking, upstaging children at home next time!
….. only kidding – Megan is just gorgeous.

But ALL was not lost, lucky Bill it seems, found himself a soul mate near the end of the day – true love don’t you think?

I’m still laughing at how this Nanny goat fell for the one in our group called Bill

Okay, so my little tongue in cheek account of our little excursion was obviously not the whole story of the day, in fact we all managed to get some pretty cool images and the residents were more than great models. If you’d like to check out some more of the pictures please feel free to check out the portfolios my fellow Zoobubblers I’m sure you will enjoy the visual journey.

Bill O’Neil
Megan
Princessbren2006
Stephen Mitchell
AndyGii

Or you can check more of the Zoo Trip images out here

The goal is to hold a rally like this each time there is another DV related death in SA, the aim being to keep this important issue high on the political agenda.

I was able to photograph the event, and have posted a few images from the day below.
Larger images are displayed with watermark for copyright reasons
Image copyright © Marion Cullen. All rights reserved.

The rally kicked off with a performance by Standard Deviation

Coalition spokes person Ele Wilde addressing the crowd

One Minutes Silence for the women and children who have lost their lives

Speaker for the Vietnamese Community Van Le

Elspeth McInnes (behind TV camera man)

Attorney General Michael Atkinson

No matter what age, DV does not discriminate

Minister for Women Gail Gago

Hon Vicki Chapman Deputy Leader of the Opposition

A man in the crowd raises his roses in acknowlegement

Faces in the crowd

Laying Roses in Remembrance

Says everything really…..

Some of members of the wonderful team I work with from the Northern Violence Intervention Program (NVIP)

One thing has become desperately clear since my step son’s wedding last week, I came to the very quick realisation that I am NOT a wedding photographer,  nor will I ever be or do I want to be. One thing’s for certain though, I have a new found respect for anyone that does this for a living and actually enjoys it. Some words of advice for anyone that is aspiring to become a wedding photographer, Good Luck! ..and you may want to remember to keep a straight jacket as part of your kit, I can guarantee you’ll be needing it sonner or later.

I think I may have already mentioned somewhere that the wedding was to be an informal affair, and it was, very informal, rather fortunately for me. The bride & groom, being a young couple with 3 young children and 5 weeks to organise their wedding, managed to pull the whole thing together quite nicely, all credit to them. Whilst their choices were most obviously right for them, from a photographer’s point of view, well let’s just say…… maybe nothing and I’ll let you guys be the judge.

To begin with, below is an outside view of the venue, called the ‘Cosy Nook’.
Now ‘cosy’ would have to be the understatement of the year – sardine can more like, no room to swing a camera, let alone one with a lens attached! (hated it)

Cosy Nook

The inside: keep in mind 40 guests, a wedding party and ceremony & reception were being held here.
SEE all that YELLOW wood panelling…it was at both ends of the building, with not a clean wall in sight! See also the great bloody fluoro lights, there were SIX of those in that little place. And the other 2 walls, logs halfway up and then windows, windows with pink, (yes pink), window blinds! Uuugghh (hate it even more)

Inside Decor

Being the middle of winter and all, the weather of course just had to be CRAP! Not only did it rain nearly all day long, it was so darn bloody cold, hell itself must have frozen over, (not that I felt the cold much rushing around as I was like a blue arsed fly, but I sure paid for it the next day holed up in bed with a massive head cold). To boot, the heavens were filled with those dank, grey, depressing clouds, the stuff of every, but every photographer’s nightmares. So, just one more thing to loathe: the unpredictable, horrid weather.

Now on to some things I LOVED about the day.

Granddaughter and flower girl, Keeley, getting ready for the big day, with step sis Rachel putting on her pink party shoes in the background. Girls just love a wedding, and to dress up.

Grand Daughter

Rachel in a halo of bubbles, a pre wedding shot.

Rachel and Halo of Bubbles

The Groom arrives. Step son Aaron is a truck driver, and I so totally loved their choice of wedding vehicle.

Groom Arriving

Bride Kris arrives with son, and pageboy, Jake and Bridesmaid Kate in the pouring rain.

Bride Kris and Son

The rings, symbols of hope, happiness and togetherness, gotta LOVE that.

The rings symbols of hope

The ceremony: Love the sentiment….despise the décor!

The ceremony

A very happy Mr and Mrs Merritt – have to LOVE the happiness, but once again the décor leaves a lot to be desired. lol

A very happy Mr and Mrs Merritt

Jake being the centre of it all. What’s not to LOVE here?

Jake being the centre of it all

Kris & Aaron – …and so they lived happily ever after.

Kris & Aaron

THE END
(especially of my wedding photography career)

As much as this shoot was an experience, and one I’m glad to have under my belt, (notice I didn’t say, ‘great experience’), I also really never want to do it again, and especially not for a family wedding. I guess I’m just not cut out for the pressures, nor the uncontrollable forces that one is forced to deal with, eg. uncooperative guests, shitty weather, bad lighting and atrocious venue décor, as well as being starved, and kept as dry as a dead dingo’s donger all day because you just have to be there for every moment….and I haven’t even mention the hours and hours of eye crossing, post processing work yet either.

And so it is, that henceforth, I am counting on you guys to issue me with a HUGE cyber slap if I ever mention the dreaded ‘W’ word EVER again.