80% humidity and enough flies to pick up the stick itself!

I ran out the door screaming this morning when that wonder-of-wonders of an overcast day decided to rear it's head. I've been waiting for one for a while so I could reshoot a shot I did a few years ago at Quinns Beach.

As it was - always is! - there were roadworks being done exactly where I wanted to be so I ended up just wandering instead.

A good companion to the wander has always been talking heads radio and I lucked upon on old interview from Margaret Throsby with Ben Elton.

I particularly like - if that's the right word - his thoughts on distraction.

I have since found this on The West from AAP.

One of those issues is the prevalence of distraction in our lives, he says.

"I think that people are being disenfranchised from their own imagination, if there is no time to dream to look out of the window, to be bored then there will be no personality.

"If from the first day of your life you're watching a Britney video followed by a Pepsi commercial followed by downloads of last night's Australian Idol you grow up emotionally stunted."

The 'looking out the window' example was reiterated in the interview in relation to a bored child in a classroom. Instead of the imaginative geist being awakened, the child instead focusses on his or her favourite digital distraction - be it SMS or even TV on the phones they all seem to have.

As it turned out I shot three 120s of gold - otherwise called Astia - in the terraformed wastelands not far from where we live.

The exercise has spawned an interest in writing a series of essays titled 'De-mystifying the aesthetics of contemporary photography'. I was very aware whilst making the images that this or that image felt like a 'proper' fine art photo in camera. Almost like they sat within some hidden frame work or scheme.

Then further in the wander I started thinking about portraiture and landscape work from top contemporary fine art photographers. There would seem to be commonalities in composition, tone, colour, etc. Variations exist but a path or pattern is there. It is a complex pattern but threads are obvious when you look for them.

It is obviously close to impossible to define it all but I had thought it might be an interesting exercise to look at some specifics in more detail.

It could be hard not to be cynical in the process... a step-by-step guide? Model to be wet - metaphorically or literally as an example.