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This is a follow up post to the one I made in May about my first eight weeks in Newcastle. Give that a read if you like before continuing on.

Surfing @ Bar Beach, Newcastle - 8th July, 2007

This is a follow up to a post I made after my first eight weeks in Newcastle, and also a post to close what I consider to be another phase in my life. As such I will give a brief background as to my motives for moving to Newcastle and then give some reflections of the time I spent in the Novocastrian center of Australia.

The Move to Newcastle

My baby Golf did countless trips from Sydney to Newcastle and back

The move to Newcastle was prompted by what can only be described as a bad patch of life. A relationship had died, and my usual refuge from such pain (work of some description) was providing me with no relief. I wasn’t enjoying much during the last three months of my second rotation with EnergyAustralia, though I did learn a lot about the areas that I am passionate about, and those that I don’t plan on returning to any time soon. As a result I had asked the head of the Graduate Program about the most technically challenging options on the program - essentially I felt my brain was going to mush and it needed some vigorous exercise or I would consider other options in life. As it happens he came through - offering me a position with the infamous (in the industry at least) Network Earthing team - known externally in the wider world as Safearth. Headed by Dr Bill Carman, the section is the highest concentration of engineers in the company and focusses on earthing issues not only internally but externally for clients both in Australia and Overseas covering areas such as road tunnels, mines, transmission networks, other distribution networks, power stations and more. As it turns out this was the exact opportunity I needed coming along at precisely the right time.

The New Abode

My Room @ Bar Beach

The move to Newcastle also coincided with my first step away from the family home. Once more I fell on my feet when a fellow grad, Ben Lange, happened to be moving to Newcastle (having done his first two rotations at Muswellbrook) and had found a two bedroom flat. In a fifty-or-so year old art deco building, the flat was great, with two bedrooms, sunroom, original bathroom and new(ish) kitchen. The best part however was its location - at the edge of Bar Beach on Darby Street - the street where the best cafes in Newcastle also call home. So with two blocks to the beach and three to the best coffee and breakfast options in Newcastle we were most definitely set. What made this move easier was that Ben happened to have pretty much everything I didn’t - couches, television, fridge and more.

While it took a few trips, including the big one with Stu at the helm of a hired ute, I managed to drag up with me a bed, coffee table, kitchen table and chairs, desk chair and the majority of my junk that I thought I’d need for the following six months. To come would be a desk and shelving unit from the ubiquitous IKEA and a clothes hanging rack. By the end of my stay I had also acquired a 24“ Dell Monitor to assist with my photography work, new keyboard and mouse, a set of Cool Feet, some Logitech speakers and a Griffin Elevator to complete my computing setup.

The Daily Grind

The coffee machine at Wallsend made the daily grind less so

The work life at Newcastle was not bad at all. For the first four months I undertook an array of predominantly distribution earthing projects, with the odd hand given to other larger projects that may have needed assistance from a lowly E1 including injection testing and oil bunding pre-construction inspections at various zone substations. Between the two of these I was able to get out of the office and visit a variety of sites within the EnergyAustralia distribution network region - all the way from up past Scone to the north to down around St Peters and Randwick in the south.

The final two months saw me work on an internal project to assist with distribution earthing design. A first generation Web Application called “NEOn” (or Network Earthing Online) had been developed to assist with the volume of projects coming through needing earthing designs. When I first started using it I was asked, as an objective outsider, to suggest improvements - and the web developer geek in me went crazy. By the end of the first week I had a few pages worth of suggested improvements that I thought could be made.

Month five with the section saw me sanctioned to assist with another developer in creating the next generation of NEOn and my last two months in the section were spent with my time split between developing this web application to as far as I could get it and working on the occasional earthing job that was given to me to, partly to use as a test for the application to see how far it had gone and its usability and partly to ensure I wouldn’t forget the process or theory. This also saw me learn how to develop in yet another language, and I can now add ASP.NET to the list of languages I understand (though I am not a fan of its paradigm for web development at all, due to a number of reasons I want to cover in a later post). By the end of the two months development that I had to work on it I had taken the completely revamped application to it current stage in terms of project management, though with added functionality that version one was missing. I do hope to continue work on this in the future in some shape or form, even if via a consulting method, as I have a vested interest in seeing it come to fruition as a fully functional web application.

The Escapes

Art Classes @ Newcastle

Not all my time in Newcastle was spent at “the end of the Earth” at Wallsend Administration Block. For eight weeks in May, June and July I undertook an adult education class in the introduction of art. I have always enjoyed art immensely, despite my lack of any great drawing skills. During High School the art teachers at Manly High School did not give me much guidance - preferring to focus on the favoured few in the class for whatever reason that they chose. As a result, and with little incentive to delve further into the area despite a keen and continuing interest in architecture and design, my sketching skills were (and still are) rudimentary at best, and I had hoped to get some of the guidance that would have helped over a decade ago. While the initial classes focussed on drawing skills, shadows and fall of shape, the latter classes move swiftly into painting and the various options available there. While that was enjoyable, and I still have a nice little guache painting to complete one day, I was far more interested in the sketching component and still enjoy to doodle. Perhaps I’ll try to find some more drawing classes in the near future.

Pasha Bulker @ Nobby’s Beach, Newcastle - 11th June, 2007

On June 8 we had the visit of the Newcastle storms and the beaching of the Pasha Bulka that brought a bit of attention to my part of Australia (and also to this blog).

Mike’s Farm, 2007

Beyond that, regular trips back down to Sydney enabled me to catch up with family and friends and so not feel so isolated. In the end I think I spent more than half my weekends down in Sydney, and the others either in Newcastle or away. I even managed to go on a couple of roadtrips beyond the return F3 route to Sydney and back. With Tom, Rhiannon, Toby and Matt I headed down to stay at Sussex Inlet for a weekend - with plans for some surf photography, but in the end the surf gods were not so kind to us, giving us crystal clear water that had not a ripple in it. The other roadtrip was the annual trip to Mike’s Farm - a trip that is into its sixth year and still going strong. Much fun was had building fires, eating, drinking and tearing around on the four wheeler and the postie bike which our resident mechanic team (Drew and Richard) managed to get working for the first time since the first trip in 2002 where stu attempted the impossible - riding up the trunk of a tree.

The Burgeoning Photography Career

During the past six months I decided to jump headlong into the world of event photography in a far more substantial way. As a result I became a contributing member to the national online ‘zines In The Mix, FasterLouder and the Newcastle-Central Coast-Hunter Valley startup I’m With The Band and started by doing some work for friends’ bands Roger Explosion (for their EP launch) and Cuthbert and the Nightwalkers (who were supporting Newcastle’s The Seabellies with their own EP launch).

Within the last six months I have had the opportunity to shoot such bands as:

• The Seabellies
• Cuthbert & the Nightwalkers
• Roger Explosion
• Grant Walmsley
• True Live
• Vasco Era
• Whiskey Go-Go’s
• Panda Band
• Cut Off Your Hands
• The Bamboos
• TY
• Something With Numbers
• The Inches
• 28 Days
• Streetlight
• Kaiser Chiefs
• The Beautiful Girls
• C.W. Stoneking
• Midnight Juggernauts
• Damn Arms
• The Paper Scissors
• Ash Grunwald
• Kora

Most of these opportunities were provided to me by Matt Parker of I’m With The Band and Angus Paterson of In The Mix, with my single gig to date for FasterLouder being provided to me by Cec Busley. The biggest coup, Kaiser Chiefs in Sydney at The Hordern Pavilion, was an example of the benefits of open source software. I had developed a plugin for the Content Management System called Textpattern to manage events - which was perfect for a bands gig roster. I was contacted by the head of the band’s web team regarding its use and potential for further development. As a small token of appreciation I was given the opportunity to shoot directly for the band at their Sydney gig in August - an opportunity and experience I won’t be forgetting anytime soon, and my first large venue gig.

I’d like to think that my skills as a photographer have grown over the past six months, but I’ll leave that for individuals to make that decision. My full listing of photographs from the gigs I shoot head to my Live Collection on flickr for anyone with an hour or so to kill. For anyone interested I also plan a small photography book at the end of this year, hopefully in time for Christmas, from a particular grouping of shots I’ve taken.

…and back in Sydney

The day I left Newcastle coincided with my final gig for I’m With The Band at the Bimbadgen Blues Festival followed by Kora in Sydney for Niche Productions. During the morning I had to pack up what remained in my room - essentially just my bed and desk and a bit of computing gear and random bits and pieces - spend five hours at a festival shooting (was a little late) pack the car with as much as I could (left the big stuff, my bike and all the cooking crap up there) and head to Sydney to try and get to Surry Hills in time. I’m not sure if I ate dinner that night, was a little bit hectic to say the least.

The move back to Sydney finds me once again in need of contacts within the music industry to maintain my gig photography, lest I gain no more. While I am on the roll of FasterLouder, I’m yet to be given another chance to prove myself since I shot The Panda Band and Cut Off Your Hands at the Annandale for the South By Inner West festival during the long weekend in June. I’ve joined The Dwarf team as a contributor but am yet to receive any word from them about gigs to cover in Sydney. If anyone is after a photographer to cover Sydney gigs I’m definitely available as a contributor to whatever magazine or online ‘zine might be starting up around the traps.

Beyond that I’ve taken up my next rotation with the Demand Management group, a part of Network in EnergyAustralia. Within the first week I’d been given my first couple of major projects that I’ll be looking after - namely acting as Owner’s Engineer in the refurbishment of existing photovoltaic systems in Sydney for their owners. Beyond that I’ll also be getting back to the SAS programming to undertake some modeling and investigation work for the group.

Moving back in with the family has been an interesting experience too. Over the course of six months my library of books had grown a little more than just substantially and now my room is more than a little cramped. Further to this is the problem I face with my computing set up that I came to be rather accustom to during my stay in Newcastle. The 24“ Dell just doesn’t quite fit under the shelves of my old desk so I’ll have to work something out… It’s always hard going from the sort of freedom you have when out of home to back to the nest, and I definitely understand this now. Away from home you’re in charge, to a degree, of the whole place you’re living in. The concept of responsibility and rights - more of both definitely applies. Back at home you’re under your parents roof. So, while I need to save for a hopeful return to academia somewhere in this big pile of dirt we fondly call earth, I also would like to move out again, if only to reduce the two-to-three hours I spend on buses now and also get closer to Sydney’s live music scene.

Thanks

I should give thanks once again to everyone who supported me (and challenged me too) in my quest for a break and a new start through a six month “working holiday” in Newcastle. A huge thanks to Ben Lange for finding me an awesome set of digs for my stay - two blocks from the beach and the same from the best cafes in Newcastle, I think I just misjudged my time in going in Winter not Summer! Cheers to all the guys in Network Earthing (Safearth) and the younger Engineers in general in Newcastle for taking one of those “Sydney Engineers” under their wing (see, we don’t all bite). I’ll be heading back up sometime to finish my move down to Sydney properly - just have to wait for clear weather and the availability of car and trailer or ute of some description - and again to celebrate Safearth’s twenty-fifth birthday (hope everyone liked their invites).

A final thank you should go to Mathew Parker and Angus Paterson, who both gave me a chance to prove myself in the highly competitive world of live music photography. I only hope that I can be given more opportunities to grow as a photographer now I’m back in Sydney (fasterlouder - I’m looking at you - give me a chance!), but who knows.

What Next?

Who really knows what tomorrow will bring? I sure as hell don’t. While I didn’t ever envisage a trip to Newcastle would occur I would easily say it’s one of the best experiences I’ve had in life to date. It gave me the escape I needed and the mental stimulation that my brain craved. It also cleared and focussed my mind on life and where I could head. My photography has grown immensely and it is something I definitely want to keep up. I continue to be actively involved with an online community that comprises some of the top “up and coming” product designers, graphic artists, web developers, user interface designers, typography geeks, photographers and more from around the globe. I still hope to get a scholarship to head off overseas and undertake a PhD in electricity markets (watch this space), but even if that doesn’t happen I know I have plenty of other opportunities if I put my head and heart into it. But there is one thing that I know, if I’m not enjoying the work I’m doing after six months, I’m heading somewhere that is more fulfilling.