VIEW IN HD720p HERE

In this day of heads down bums up.. stop and look to the skys once and a while, theres more up there than you may realise.

This is an entire day from sunrise to sunset. Shot with my Canon 50D SLR and Sigma 10-20mm Lens.

On the 30 April - 2 May 2010, over 4000 people gathered to be a part of the Planting Festival weekend held at the Woodfordia site. Which was an enormous 25% increase on last years festival.

The Idea behind the Festival to allow people to get their hands dirty planting all the trees that were sponsored during the 2009/10 Woodford Folk Festival, and join in to be part of the Woodfordia 500 year plan. And not only to get involved, but learn about the land and how to take care of it.

Heres some of the Stats for the 2010 Planting.

- 270 cubic metres of hardwood mulch
- 137 species
- 6400 trees in 17 planting areas
- 1.6 tonnes of tree starter - organic soil conditioner locally made
- 9500L of water used on trees
- 300 bales of hay that were harvested onsite
- 1200 eco covers - Organic 100% biodegradable mulch mat, made in Australia by not for profit group “Challenge”
- 5500 tree guards
- 6400 stakes
- 10 tonnes of weeds pulled
- 47 team leaders
- 8 gophers
- 1 truck driver
- 2 drinking water deliverers
- 5 waterers
- 4 skill centred utes
- Total plants planted to date 93, 000

To get involved  and the opportunity to spend more time on this lovely property join the Woodfordia Tree Huggers. we Gather at the site on the last week of every month to tend the new plants that were lovingly put in the ground at the Planting festival. Its FREE and a great way to get out of the city rush every month. Also check out some of the other Tree Huggers Weekends here.

For all the images from this years Planting Festival see my Flickr Account here.

Next up.. The Dreaming Festival 2010. Australias International Indigenous Festival. Check out my Experience from the 2009 Dreaming here.

]]> http://www.monkwhy.com/the-planting-festival-2010/feed http://www.monkwhy.com/frog-fest-2010 http://www.monkwhy.com/frog-fest-2010#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 02:50:05 +0000 monkwhy http://www.monkwhy.com/?p=95

Joining the Woodfordia Tree Huggers and attending the monthly meet ups, is a great opportunity to experience the Woodford Folk Festival site without the mass crowds, demountable buildings & Tents. It’s so different that I found myself completely disorientated despite frequent festival visits to the area.

One thing that really stands out is the wildlife . When all the events have packed down and moved out, the wildlife quickly moves back in. Loads of Wallaby families, Lace monitors & Snakes. And some are always there but go mostly unnoticed during the noise of festival time such as Birds, Possums & a very large number of Frog species.

Frogs are one of our favourite little creatures. And the WFF site has no shortage of them. One in particular is the Dwarf Eastern Green Tree Frog, largely confined to the Southeast region of Queensland Australia. And probably the most abundant species here on site.

During the March Tree huggers meet up (& Planting / Dreaming Program Launch) (2010) Rosanna and I were on a special mission. See, Rosanna is a Florist and contained in a delivery of flowers from the supplier was a tiny little stow away. The cutest little Dwarf Eastern Green Tree Frog & already owning a few aquariums, Rose rescued him and built a large home as close to his natural habitat as possible. However now after observing him chase and devour tiny crickets for a few months, it was now time to let him go in a place where he can live a frogs life.

And finding an area to release him was easy. Spending the huggers morning clearing weeds in the day camping areas, we discovered an unusually large amount of his species. up to 5 on one single leaf. and around 50 in one single shrub, along the edge of the ponds in the area. And another good sign, everyone of them looked rather plump and very contented.
So just before we headed home, and after all the weed clearing had finished, we Headed down to the same area and released him.

And I’m not making this up, it was like a story book.
we opened his little transport container, and he instantly lifted his head up and leapt out onto a large leaf. Within seconds another much smaller eastern green hopped over and sat right next to him. then after a few seconds, they both hopped off together into the shrub. It was beautiful.

And now during the Planting Festival, Rosanna and I have joined Sam’s Frog Team, to located, Document and study the Frog Species on the site. This is just one of the environmental projects being undertaken here, along with the Butterfly project, Nesting Boxes, Orchid planting, Crayfish studies and much more.

Planting coverage Coming in a week or so.

For all the images from the March Tree Huggers Frog fest see here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkwhy/sets/72157623764311435/

This time last year (March 2009) I ventured off and purchased a motor home. The Plan being, to completely rebuild the beast and travel the country for a few years. However, 12 months on, I find myself browsing multi-million dollar estates on a daily basis. Not quite according to plan, and maybe even a little bit abstract at times, but most definitely not what I envisioned just one year ago.

With the bus gobbling up all my spare cash, a new relationship, sudden need for cash flow, meant I was back on the dole cue looking for an income. However, being focused on photography and music of late guided me toward looking for work within the industry I was actually interested in working.

Then late one night, whilst supervising a complete system backup, I discovered an ad online for a Real estate Photographer. And since I’ve had not one reply from a seek.com application, thought nothing of it.
To cut a long story short, I received a call the next day and have been working at Vivid Productions, a hi end real estate Production company in Brisbane, ever since. Not your usual real estate photography mind you, we produce hi quality professionally executed video and photography for properties where the simple happy snap image won’t cut it.

The bonus is, I still have plenty of time during the week to continue writing and playing tracks with my good mates, continuing with live music photography and Band Promos (which are booking up quickly), and spending heaps of time with Rosanna, while still making a decent living. An Ideal situation perhaps ?

The moral of the story… if you want to do something, do it, if you want to be somewhere go there, and if someone tells you “don’t get your hopes up” ignore it.. FOCUS… and it will happen, and probably right when you least expect it.

The Woodford Folk Festival 09/10 program has landed and what an awesome festival this is going to be. More than 580 acts on 22 stages over six days. The 24th Woodford Folk Festival is upon us and you seriously don’t want to miss this one.

On Saturday October 24th 2009, a large group of Woodfordians gathered together on the festival site to be the first to get a glimpse of the much anticipated 2009/10 program. Being part of the woodfordia treehuggers and repeat volunteer for the festivals held here throughout the year, this was a weekend I could not miss.

We arrived on site Friday afternoon ready to get stuck into the tree huggers working bee Saturday morning, being moved forward a day to free us up for the program launch party on Saturday evening. This was also a mini test run for Machete the motor home as this folk festival will be our first with her. But enough about me…

 heres some high lights of the line up…

Afro Dizzi Act
Angie Hart
Chocolate Strings
Dallas Frasca
Don McGlasham
Dubmarine
Hungry Kids of Hungary
Iwantja Band
James Blundell
John Butler Trio
Swamp Dogs
Mama Kin
Miguel
Mojo Juju & the Snake oil Merchants
Paul Dempsey
Rapskallion
Street Warriors
the Medics
The Panics
Tripod
Vince Jones
and many many more amazing acts, along with real freakshows such as the new Disturbia, a new approach to film throughout the festival, more acts, more street entertainment more stalls, food, workshops than ever seen at past woodford folk festivals . This is one not to be missed.

For more info see the official website. http://www.woodfordfolkfestival.com 

Volunteer Positions are still available so get in now.

For all the images from the weekend please see my set on Flickr here http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkwhy/sets/72157622533521011/

I will be running a full recap of last years festival over weeks leading to this years festival, right here on monkwhy.com. stay tuned. 

DAMIEN QUICK | PHOTOGRAPHY
www.damienquick.com