March Theme day: Electricity

Today is the first of the month which means it's theme day for those of us in the City Daily Photo gang. This month's theme is Electricity. So being storm season in Brisbane, my intention was to get out there and get the classic shot of lightning over the city but I always seemed to be working or in bed, or very comfortable with a glass of vino when the electrical storms passed through this past month. So I have gone for a shot of the generator at work which is at one of the TV stations up in Mt. Coot-tha. At this time of year with the weather being so charged with electric storms, and with a giant transmitter tower sitting on top of the building, you have to factor in the possibility of being struck by lightning. In the 5 years that I have worked in the building, we have been hit several times and each time this enormous generator keeps us on the air. We run it every time a storm passes near Mt. Coot-tha. It's about 2 metres high and 5 metres long, burns 9 litres of diesel an hour and is very, very noisy.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

The New ABC

The ABC in Brisbane has been through a lot in the past few years. The old ABC building in Toowong had to be abandoned after several staff members working in the same area developed cancer. The staff were spread across several buildings around the city. The TV staff came up to Mount Coot-tha with the other TV stations and rented part of the Channel 10 building for 5 years, working in the basement with a pretty basic set-up. The other day, I went to visit the ABC's brand new digs in the middle of South Bank which houses all their staff comfortably. This is their TV MCR and Media Exchange area. Not too shabby!

Off With His Head!

This one just makes me laugh - it's of a cameraman and a journalist taken at work a few weeks ago. The cameraman on the left is about 6' 8".

Sitting on the Renovators' seat

This is the seat that some of the contestants from the TV series "The Renovators" made for the people of Brisbane. It's made from steel and inspired by frangipani branches and ibis birds both of which you get a fair bit of round these parts.

Screen Love

Who would've guessed you could get 7 kids to sit quietly around a 6 inch screen?

You Already Have Everything You Need

as seen on TV... on the roof of Box Vintage on Vulture Street.

Working on a Sunday

I haven't taken any pictures for days and it's surprising how that creeps up on you. I had a bit of a panic moment yesterday while I was at work. I know. Working on a Sunday really is very unsociable. I was wondering what on earth I was going to post today so I had a quick glance around the half-empty newsroom and this is what I've come up with: The vision mixing desk in the control room where they make the news.
Thanks to Troy for being the hand model. 

Cat in a Hot Tin Roof

There were reports of Miaoowing at work the past few days. There was some confusion. We are a TV station at the top of Mount Coot-tha with no houses for miles and plenty of bushland in between. Not a very convenient place for a domestic cat to get stuck. At first we thought someone was editing a tv show starring a very upset cat... but then we would hear it in the engineering area, in the canteen, near the manager's office, in the toilets. Well... it turns out it was a domestic cat. How did it get here?? Who knows!

She was de-sexed, well looked after but didn't have a chip. Surely she couldn't have come all the way up the mountain?? I didn't meet her in person (thanks to Dave for the photos) but all reports are she had a beautiful calm nature despite her ordeal. One of the editors has taken her home to be looked after properly. If this is your cat and you want her back, get in touch!

I've been given a new place to park my car at work: under one of the transmission towers in Mount Coot-tha, which is about as high as you're going to get in Brisbane... even without taking a step onto the tower. If you were allowed to climb it - which I'm not- it would be a 202 metre climb to the light-bulb at the top.
The view, I've heard, is stunning. The Glasshouse mountains, the sparkling Pacific, Stradbroke Island, the Gold Coast and everything in between.

Five Kids Watching Telly

A Coiled Spring

 

The news chopper on one of the helipads at the top of Mount Coot-tha, ready to spring into action.

Batten Down The Hatches

As if Queenslanders didn't have enough to deal with over the past few weeks with most of the state affected by the recent flooding, now a giant storm 500kms wide, Cyclone Yasi, is on it's way.  Brisbane looks like it will be safe, but in the north of the state, people are getting as far away from the path of the storm as is possible.

Storm Cell Skywatch

 Picture: courtesy Network Ten

The weather in Brisbane has been pretty exciting these past couple of days with storms rolling in and dumping hail the size of golf balls in some areas around Brisbane. While I was at work on Wednesday, I happened to be recording the traffic helicopter's camera footage as it was passing by a wild looking storm cell in North Brisbane. I've taken a screen grab from it... pretty cool, huh?

Check out other skies around the world this week at Skywatch Friday and have a fab weekend!

At The Top of Mount Coot-tha

And Now For The Weather...

I have my friend Jake to thank for these photos. He took them while setting up a live TV link for a weather report from the rotunda at Kangaroo Point cliffs. It was a pretty grim day yesterday in Brisbane with lots of low lying cloud over the city and plenty of rain overnight.

Couch and movie weather, definitely!

I know those drawings!

A funny thing happened to me last night when I turned on the telly. An artist was being interviewed and he was talking all about these people that he drew - and how they all look like they're straight out of the 1970s and all the men have these giant beards

The drawings looked vaguely familiar to me and he said he was from Brisbane... then all of a sudden he started talking about how he was asked to project his drawings onto the Willian Jolly Bridge. It was a bit of a Eureka moment for me as I had been wondering who had drawn them and what they were about when I posted the projection a few weeks ago. The artist's name is Laith McGregor and you can see plenty more of his work by doing a Google Image search on his name. He works a lot with biro which I really like.

 He's also exhibiting at the Melbourne Art Fair between August 4-8 if you're in the area.

Or if you like here's a little video. (I'm not sure if that's available outside Australia - sorry if it's not)

Today's picture shows the same projection as my original post,  just a little wider.

Undermined

Something pretty big happened in Australian politics yesterday; the prime minister Kevin Rudd was ousted from power in a bloodless coup that surprised pretty much everyone - even him. This was taken where I work during his emotional exit speech. He has to pause several times to regain his composure.

It's widely believed his proposed tax on mining profits was his downfall.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!!

We were lucky enough to know a bloke from Ghana (that's him in the middle with the vuvuzela, draped in the Ghanaian flag) who opened up his backyard last night and set up a big screen so that the neighbourhood could watch the Australia vs Ghana game. Kick off was at midnight so we all rugged up. Happily, Australia didn't lose (1-1) and so they remain in the competition - if only by the skin of their teeth. Come on you Aussies!

A Welcome Distraction

After Australia's painful 4-0 loss to Germany on Monday morning in the World Cup, it's nice to focus on something else for a day or two. Brisbane is gearing up for the State Of Origin Game 2 of 3. Incase you care, New South Wales need to win this game tonight to stop Queensland from a 5 series whitewash.

Tonight's game is at Suncorp Stadium (aka Lang Park), close to Caxton Street where all the hard core revellers will be heading. It's a great atmosphere with bars and restaurants brimming and the street closed to traffic. It might even make you want to like Rugby League a little bit. Maybe. This house is within spitting distance of the ground. The picture was taken last year at the start of game 3. Hopefully they'll set it up again tonight. As you can see, they built their own grandstand, big screen, signs and everything. A great effort, if you ask me! All they need is a nice heater.

State Of Origin - Game 1

The State of Origin is an annual best-of-3-game series of Rugby League between Queensland (the Maroons) and New South Wales (the Blues). Last night was game 1, played in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales. Queensland won 28-24.
The competition is a very big deal in these two rival states. People go nuts. And woe betide you if you happen to have worn the wrong colour to work that day.
I suppose the build-up is much like (proper) football except the players have bigger necks and more fun off the field.