The Fronty on safari. An Aussie safari, this afternoon saw an amazing amount of wildlife wander past, birds of many kinds, kangaroos and wallabies and most surprising mobs of wild brumbies. All of this in one of my favorite places the Snowy Mountains. After a few days on the plains we headed up into the hills, despite continuing dodgy weather we managed to get a bunch of great images.

The days was made even more exciting by a flat tyre that had me thankful of having checked how the car jack worked and loaded all of my 4wd recovery equipment into the car before we left. Even though this was a little inconvenient given that we have had no other major problems in well over 2000 km of driving often on unsealed country roads.

Water, water and more water

The weather has not been playing nice during our trip. The traditional photographers sunrise and sunset have gone out the window as well, there hasn't been either. A blanket of cloud has encouraged Kevin and I to look for creative opportunities other than the obvious.

Corowa on the Murray River provided an opportunity to explore, take a quick winery stop and spend the afternoon at the old Mill documenting the amazing textures present in the timber, iron and glass. Restorations have started on the building but much is still to be done. I feel very privileged to be able to record this building as it is transformed. Also a great place to pick up some tasty chocolate.

Day three, Tired, Feeling unproductive but achieving anyway.

Today we managed to to get some more lovely images while traveling to Corowa on the Murray River. The absolute flatness and emptiness of central NSW needs to be experienced to be believed.

More exploring, feeling flat about the images until editing time then some gems emerge. Catching up with friends for dinner a nice way to finish the day.

Following Your Nose

Well following my own nose actually. Tuesdays road trip started in West Wyalong and took in 400km of country roads, many unsealed. A great test for the Frontera which performed admirably with lots of dirt roads and even a couple of tracks.

Discovered gps tagging on the IPhone, Breakfast in the middle of nowhere where the only sound was the birds and wind in the trees. Went chasing lakes that didn't normally exist and found some that were just a little full after many years being empty.

The photography was challenging with poor weather but both Kevin and I managed to get some great images. A few of mine below.

Photography Road Trip

New Years intentions for 2011 include blogging some more and take more personal project photos among others.

So here we go, a throwaway line in conversation to a photographer friend about doing some personal creative work in January has lead me to posting these photos from a hotel room in West Wyalong in central NSW. Kevin and I have different themes for what we want to capture. For me an obsession with the things that we humans abandon, old railway lines, abandoned farmhouses, rusty cars.

Day one was a late start but leaving Sydney at 11:30 saw us arriving in the early evening and deciding that a bit of exploring was in order.

The photos below are the result. I am excited about the possibilities the next week or so offers, minimal plans, follow our noses, take pictures of what we find and produce beautiful images.

Role Models

Over the past couple of weeks I have had the privileged of observing a couple of people who I believe are great role models.

In our current culture the role models presented to us on a daily basis often come clothed in Hollywood glamour or sporting glory. Unfortunately the image many of these actors and sporting icons are presenting is far from positive.

In contrast to this Joe and Shirley Periera and Ashliegh Mannix this week demonstrated the positive image and personal leadership that I believe represent the images our young people in particular need to see.

Ashleigh Mannix is a performer in her early 20's who I have seen perform 4 or 5 times over the past 2 years. Each time Ashleigh has performed with a humilty and passion that lights up her performances and turns her considerable talent into something special to behold. With the support of family and others Ashleigh is building up a following and in the process showing what dedication and hard work can bring.

Joe Periera recently received an award in the Australia Day awards for his work with refugees in Thailand from Burma. Joe and his wife Shirley have worked to build a medical practice, raise a family and then in retirement gone on to increase their support for members of our global community who are most at need.

I am inspired by the positive contribution to thier fellow people and the inspiration provided by the sharing of passion, talent and skills.

Out of the Archives

A recent request from a past travel companion had me digging into photos of a trip I did to Alaska and Italy two years ago. I was blown away by how much I liked some of the images and annoyed at myself that I had left them hiding for so long.

This facilitated a spurt of image editing activity. Only a fraction of the images (I took over 4000 images in six weeks) have been singled out yet for a bit of tweaking. The process isn't finished yet, have not even got into photoshop to remove the dust spots that plagued me on the trip but thought I might share a few. Check out my Leisure Photography / Introna Photography Web Site

Getting the music right

Tonight I had the pleasure of working with a small group of volunteer musicians providing the music for our local Mass.

Over the past 12 months we have been working to change the culture of the music group and the style of music. Tonight provided some interesting insights.

We have recently been blessed with the addition of a percussionist. Having someone keep the beat has made my job as guitarist much easier. I no longer have to double as percussion and chords. It helps that Andrew just gets when stuff needs to happen and is keyed in to what is going on around him, fantastic.

Finding the best configuration for our group is challenging. We are somewhat confined by the fixed seating so it is hard to see and hear the other parts of the group. Hearing what is happening with the singers and other musicians. Our keyboard player Mon is also playing a piano that means that her back is to the rest of us.

Tonight's songs were mainly old faithful favourites. Even though they were not cutting edge contemporary songs, much of the congregation joined in and the feedback after was that they were relevant and enjoyed. We normally only play every fortnight and finding the right balance is challenging. How to keep most of the congregation happy while introducing new music and contemporary styles that suit the younger people we are trying to encourage to participate. Tonight reinforced that every now and then a Mass of old favs goes down well and is easier and more enjoyable for the musos to.

Creating a welcoming and encouraging environment takes time and effort. We have been blessed by the young people and young at heart who give up their time to lead this ministry. Our philosophy is to encourage young people to join in even if they are not the best musos or singers, through participation skills are learned, practice received and progress made. Its a tough apprenticeship because we do an hours practice and then Mass once a fortnight. I am constantly amazed by the commitment and drive of these young people to an activity that many of their peers would see no benefit in taking part in.

Youth Ministry Services

Time for a plug for myself and some of the areas I can help with in the field of Youth Ministry.

My experience includes 20 years of volunteer and paid ministry work and leadership. I have served as the youth ministry co-ordinator in two parishes and a convener or workshop co-ordinator at a number of festivals. I have a degree in Leisure Management, Crad Cert in Environmental Education, A certificate IV in Worplace Training and Assessing as well as being accredited in MBTI and DiSC. Much of the past 10 years has been spent designing and delivering workshops and presentations in the corporate world.

• youth ministry leadership workshops
  - planning a meeting
  - themes
  - using multimedia to share your message
  - running small group discussions
  - action planning
  - community engagement
  - designing youth ministry strategies
  
• vision development and strategic planning
  - compression planning
  
• Myers Briggs Type Indicator and DiSC Personal profile workshops
  - leadership
  - communication
  - team development
  
• program design for youth groups and youth ministry activities
  
• position description development workshops
  
• meeting facilitation
  
• key note speeches
  - servant centred leadership and community development
  - starting a youth ministry, why bother
  - why youth ministry is different to school
  - faith, relationship and community
  - hospitality, the key to vibrant ministry

Manna Fest Images

Check out some images from the 2009 Bathurst Diocese Manna Fest. Make sure you have pleanty of time, 16 pages of fun.

Manna Fest, Manna for the soul

Had the privilege of presenting three leadership workshops at the Bathurst Diocese youth festival called Manna Fest over the weekend. Today am suffering from the exhaustion that going hard for three wonderful days brings.

The festival brought together young people from all over the diocese, Mudgee, Orange, Cowra, Bathurst, Lithgow and lots of other small towns. The festival was laid back and friendly, a refreshing expression of community in a time when individualism is rife.

In future blogs I will be posting some of the content covered in detail but what we covered in short was:

Workshop 1 looked at the nature of leadership, what are the attributes of personal leadership needed to make things happen in your life and in community.

Workshop 2 tapped into creative skills, focusing on visioning possibilities and then sharing the visions with the rest of the festival.

Workshop 3 got down to the nitty gritty, an action planning worksheet was used as a blueprint for turning ideas into action. Identifying goals, team, resources, locations and assigning actions, followed up with how to do a review and swot analysis. Although only a small group three concrete action plans were sketched out.

Highlights included Cameron M. Semmens Performance Poet, Petia giving her amazing story, lots of great music and of course the wonderful people (particularly Bec and the rest of the red group). Also a big thank you for Gabrielle Sinclair for bringing such a great event to life.

Leisure Photography

Over the past couple of years I have been building up a photography business. Recently I have been in the process of rolling my branding into Leisure Photography.

2008 was a big year for this business with contracts to cover many of the lead up events and activities of World Youth Day for Sandhurst and Broken Bay Diocese. A number of wedding photography gigs and a couple of events helped make for a busy year.

Check out the Leisure Photography Gallery for examples of wedding photos, portraits, corporate and event work.

Time for Action

A call to action seems to be the theme of the month. Starting at the Thought Leaders Summer Conference the theme of action has come up over and over. Tonight I am working on three workshops I will be presenting over the weekend. One of the workshops is all about turning ideas into momentum, getting out there and get started.

Ironically this is something that I struggle with constantly. The draw of all of life's little distractions is very strong. One action that I have taken recently is to employ someone to do the jobs that I have been avoiding for one reason or another. Sheet music that I have not been able to find for years is now at my finger tips and the mess that has clogged up my study for ages is now eight nice tidy ring binders in alphabetical order. And at the same time I managed to get a whole lot of dollar productive work done at the same time.

What I have realised from is that there are a number of the things that my business requires that I don't have to do myself, turns out that there are people out there who can do some of the tasks better than I can (shock!! horror!!).

For me the learning is that gaining momentum sometimes requires getting lighter, offloading the things that someone else can do quicker and better than me. Looking forward to getting more of what I love to do done.

Christmas musings

Another Christmas has come and gone, the traditional Introna family gathering was filled with lots of littlies a great meal and lots of Christmas cheer.

On Christmas eve I was lucky enough to help lead a bunch of young people in providing music for our Vigil Mass. While a little rough around the edges the response was positive and has a seen a few new young people wanting to join in our little group. I am very pleased with this outcome as we have been working at building the group up for around six months.

I am passionate about building opportunities for people to feel comfortable to engage, it does not matter if our efforts don't result in pefection, being engaged in an authentic way is what is most important, being open to ideas and encouraged to share gifts in a way that builds and affirms them.

I am looking forward to the possibilities that the next year has in store, particularly to the joy of discovering them in the company of a supporting, encouraging community.

A snapshot of 2008

I can't believe that another year has gone by and my posting has been non existant.

This year as seen many projects come and go. World Youth Day dominated the beginning and middle of the year with the last quarter seeing the wedding season kick off.

World Youth Day provided many opportunities. Spending three weeks traveling with the World Youth Day Cross and Icon taking photos allowed me to see community spirit in a way that I have not seen for many years. Seeing young people getting excited about their faith and relationships was encouraging. One of the weeks with the Cross and Icon was spent in regional Victoria. I have not been there for some time and enjoyed the chance to experience country hospitality and see some iconic Australian landscapes.

My role during these weeks was to record the journey photographically, nearly 15000 images later the task of pulling out the highlights became quite a challenge. Many of the images are on my gallery here