It's all on down here at the moment, and the big news is pretty big.

The Culture and Arts Minister of Western Australia announced the other day that Screen West would be backing The Reef to be made into a feature film.

A statement from the Australian Chamber Orchestra said:

The Reef – the recently released concert from world renowned violinist Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, is to be made into a unique feature film in Western Australia. The Reef is an immersive experience in music and film.  With no spoken dialogue the film journeys us through a Mythic Day on the awe-inspiring Gnaraloo Reef, and the coastal inland of Western Australia’s Coral Coast, creating an analogy for our entire lives – dawn to dusk, birth to death, with all the joy, hardship and beauty in between.

“Developing The Reef was one of the most adventurous mind and body expanding experiences an orchestra could ever have. To travel to this region with the purpose of creating a project, and then embarking on a tour that exceeded all our expectations, was a life changing experience. The idea of the film is to take us higher and deeper into this amazing journey. The inspiration for the entire project has come from Western Australia and it is fitting that the film will be realized in WA, with the wonderful support of the WA Government.” Richard Tognetti

The concert version has and will be playing to worldwide audiences (Australia, Maribor in Slovenia as part of the Maribor Festival, and soon Hong Kong, Europe and the US), and will now be translated to the big screen. With substantial material already filmed in WA, the next stage of filming will be mid-year back at Gnaraloo and inland from there, with a predominantly WA crew.

The Reef will be produced by Richard Keddie of the Melbourne based company - The Film Company;  and co-produced, written and directed by Mick Sowry; along with Perth producer Cheri Larsen. Mick Sowry, Richard Tognetti and Richard Keddie teamed previously to make the multi award-winning film MUSICA SURFICA. The ACO is also a producing partner."

Which in a nutshell means we have a big year ahead.

Pretty damn cool too. 

Preceding this we are about to embark on a REEF tour of eastern Australia, seven performances in total in this phase of the ever evolving Reef Redux. Tickets selling fast so anyone on East Coast Oz who reads this better visit the Australian Chamber Orchestra website to get a ticket now. 

Another series of journeys that started with a random email back in 2007. Check back to that far in this blog and you can read how it unfolded. Crazy stuff.

As for the rest of life, the occasional surf led to an experiment yesterday when I borrowed the board at bottom and was lightly mind blown. Of course I fell and goosed out but found the joy eventually. Given the relatively crappy conditions all I can say it is very fast, very agile and a bit of a thought machine. It also paddles amazingly well, at 5'8" it picks up waves like a board 8 inches longer. That I'm as old in numbers as the board is long think about your board choice if you think being 'a certain age' is limiting you. There are alternatives that lead to a lot of carvy fun.

Shots today, some Reef screen grabs, a return to Rachmaninoff, and that board.

The Reef. Vocalise. from The Reef on Vimeo.

Just over two weeks since the last post, a new year stretches its arms and we begin again.

No holidays away for us over Christmas, so its been kicking back at home, babysitting a little white dog called Sonny Jim, and his scruffy brownish pal Roo, getting the occasional surf amidst the endless summer on-shores, having the odd sunset beer, worrying a lot as that is what I do best, and preparing for a new tilt with The Reef.

As a few projects are needing my computer gear in good working order, and since I've not updated software for ages I thought I'd do the right thing and do so with those tools I like to use most.

Naturally after no updates for four years or so, there are some new tricks in the code so I've been revisiting some shots just to see what it'll do. No pyrotechnics mind you, just noodling about getting a feel and trying to rescue some exposure disasters or make some silk purses from my usual sow's ears.

Digging through my Reefy snaps, taken while scouting about or waiting for waves, here are a few to start.

The chap in black and white is the wonderful Warren Pfeiffer, while the two at bottom are Ryan Burch and his little white foam slab under repair. The rest are just things I saw while wandering about.
The crab is still undergoing therapy.

Well I hope the Festive Season was a happy one for all and not too stacked with the lunacy and angst that usually accompanies the end of the year.

My main hope, though, for all of you who read this, and all of you who don't, is that it has been safe. 

For us... we risked life and limb on a drive to Mordor, my name for a beloved stretch of coast, a chance to catch up with some dear old friends and their boys, who I love dearly, having watched them rise from twinkles in an eye to twinkly eyed young men. My two young men have grown up with them so this reunion of sorts was heartening and sobering too. Time has really flown.

In the village at the Trading Company, Old Bill continues to cast his sea crackled eye at the passing throng, throws out the odd nugget of wisdom, and even the odd hug, as he near squeezed a tear from my eye in memory of my Dear Old Dad. Good on you Billy. I was very touched.

One morning, too, we were gifted with some cracking waves, a little gap in a bit of a horror run typical of this time of year, what with early morning onshores and small swells.

Banks everywhere and one very sucky, hollow right was mine! mine!! mine!!! for an hour or two at the bottom of one of the most rugged shorelines on the earth. Jagged, angular and near beach less, but breathtaking too. I could go on. Suffice to say it was not perfect but perfect moments don't need to be.

To sit out there, gaze at the constantly shifting horizon and just be... was the best present I could imagine.

Pics today, some snaps of a divine morning, courtesy of being at the right place at the right time.

This time last week the weather was wild.

Relentless bands of lightning storms, so distant they were silent. I had a camera, albeit an inexpensive one, and a yen to experiment.

This meant happy accidents became the method to my madness as I'd have to be mad to expect anything sharp, but luck can play into you hands.. After all, with digital, all you lose is a press of a button.

So out on the front porch for a few minutes, ducking the rain and trying to hold still leaning on a pole, the usual 'how the hell do I do this?' internal questions coupled with incomplete mastery of my tools resulting in a couple of shots that I like for their painterly oddball-ness.

It was fun, and as I've heard said before by a slightly crazed friend, fun is the key. The more Jackson Pollock of the two came about as I thought the shutter had closed and I'd wandered about, camera in hand.

Soon they may stink, the test of time a bitter mistress, but having a noodle with an idea... playing... well it beats lying down with unseeing eyes staring at the lid of a box, and if you cant' play, then go for a walk.

Which leads me to my next digression in this ramble.

Going for a walk has meant my eyes have been on the ground saving me from tripping, stepping in dog do and/or falling off a cliff.

It does lead you to the bottom of them though and there I found the 'split in two' rock on the left in the pic below. It was in western Spain at the eastern edge of Playa Rodiles, the home of a ridiculous left, and the former home of large gatherings, as I was about to discover, of ammonites, a nautilus like shellfish, though that was around 300 million years back. On a hunch I'd thrown it hard to the ground, breaking it open. Inside was this ammonite, my distant cousin, via an even more distant shared ancestor. 

An ain't life wonderful moment.

A couple of years later, some k's inland from the Moroccan coast near Agadir, at an altitude of maybe 600ft, a glance towards the path side cliff face revealed a not very fresh oyster. I have yet to research the geology of the spot but I bet old Bishop Usher is well off his creation of the world date of 6000 odd years back as this particular mollusc bit the bullet well before Adam was a boy.

That too was an ain't life wonderful moment, bitter sweet in a way though as I love oysters and this one looked like it was a beauty. 

Once.

Why am I going on with all this?

I suppose just a couple of examples of being in the moment.

You never know what you might see, or have fall into your lap, or wished you'd eaten when you had the chance... when you were an ammonite.

Pics for today: Experiments, rocks, and Winki a couple of days back, the first good waves in a few weeks,  hungry crowd just out of the frame.

Little adventures present themselves occasionally, and should be treasured when they land thudding in your lap.

On Friday a lunchtime phone call offering a chance to surf a not so secret but very hard to access wave that I'd last surfed maybe thirty five years back was not to be sniffed at. 

The winds were not quite right, with the anticipated crowds far different to those encountered when we'd sneak in through an army base risking arrest and board confiscation way back when... but I still said yes.

How was it? Not perfect, but still pretty epic. The crowd was testy, the wind was up, and most surfers were way more at ease with it even though I will guarantee I first surfed it well before many of them were born. 

How did I go? Not as well as I'd have liked, and not as bad as I might have, though if I am brutally honest with myself you could say I copped a flogging but kept a smile.

It was so beautiful just to be there it was worth the submarine tours of the sandbank.

I need to go back, re-acquaint myself with the place, perhaps earn a place in the youthful lineup and learn how to pig-dog with more finesse.

Pics. Into the glare. Had no clue what I was shooting until I got home. Thanks for the ride Marky.

It's been a bit of a busy week in Reef Land as both Liquid Notes, the Making of The Reef, and the ABC's broadcast of the Opera House performance have hit the airwaves, and we've been in the edit suite revisiting a few bits, just because we can, and we have the time. 

I've been working with Jonny Frank and Ed Saltau (check his site for some great stuff from the Reef), sitting in our little room, improving on some dreams...after all a good painting is rarely ever completely finished. 

Naturally all this with a view to a near Reef Redux in time for the February East Coast Tour.

Watching the broadcast of the performance I found particularly difficult as I am very close to it, know every moment and so when the cameras cut away from the vision to show the orchestra it was doing my head in, as, naturally, there is meaning invested in every visual and to have it missed was killing me.

Not that I didn't watch it through to the end as catching close up Richard and the rest of the orchestra do their thing gave me other insights that were precious in themselves.

The morning of the Opera House broadcast I spent half an hour on Radio Marinara having a chat with Bron and the team, which was a lot of fun. On hearing the podcast later I had at least managed to sound relaxed, which is a good thing, as sometimes I get a bit tongue tied with a microphone under my nose.

Other than that, very little surf to report, apart from a session at Phillip Island a couple of weeks back that was rewarded with the shot below, and a couple less flattering as my 58 year old tummy is not a six pack any more.. probably because of too many similarly named beverages.

Life. If you can't laugh....

Yesterday saw the end of a long run of great waves and balmy weather.

I'd had things to do most of the day, thankfully, but the late evening check of the water surprised me. Not many out, quite small, but glassy and beautiful too. 'Why not!' I thought, so a quick hour before dark delighted.

I'd taken out my hull, a 6'6" trimming machine. It sort of takes the pressure off. You really just have to go with what the wave dishes up, fly around sections, style a bit, (pause while I stop laughing) and relax. 

The light as the sun shot occasionally through the low clouds was just short of divine, though on one wave the divinity factor shot through the roof, that or someone had slipped me something mildly psychedelic. Trimming along with fingers tracing the chest high lip line, wafts of spot lit spray were coming off the wall ahead. Embedded in them were little saturated rainbows, bright and proud agains the dark blue grey of the cloud reflected water.

As I said in a post a way back... 'the things I see, the things I see'.

A magic dusk, perfect for the festoon of grommits who'd paddled out for afterschool confections far sweeter than a bag of lollies. 

Pics: One lucky guy's solo session further up the reef past Bells, and what was on offer at Winki.