Vivid

I know this is a photoblog of sorts but sometimes you just need to speak up and maybe warn people of how good or bad something really is. Not always one to critique food harshly at the worst of times but last night at Carine Glades Tavern was shocking and sad and the same time.

Had the opportunity to visit Carine Glades Tavern for a meal with friends. Why is it that Perth Restaurants are SO BAD, Why has it turned so bad, where have all the real foodies in Perth gone? 

Lack of complete service and a meal that was barley edible yet still have the balls to charge $30 for. From the time we arrived at 7.30pm it took a whole 90 minutes to get our meal served. The whole restaurant had maybe 60 patrons at best 2 chefs (well that term would be very loosely used, season your steak before you grill it and your red wine jus was the furtherest thing from a red wine jus I have ever seen or tasted) and 8 floor staff.

I placed an order for a beer, being a tavern you would think this would be their strengths right, WRONG, they could not supply a beer list and the waiter had virtually no idea what beers they offered. In the end I had to give him 3 choices and say, just send me anyone of those you have. He over the course of the next 30 minutes proceeded to wander around the floor taking orders but never actually placing the orders with the bartender. I had to call him over twice and ask how is my beer doing, to which he said oh I took your order its now not in my department I’ll go see if they have lost it at the bar. Freakin what, not his department, order maybe lost, this guy was a complete idiot and had zero training. In the end I received my beer and a soap stained glass, to which I asked him, you don’t expect me to pour this beer into that glass do you, to which his reply was you can drink it out of the bottle I guess.

Now that I had a drink the remaining party at the table had some how achieve to order their own drinks in a somewhat disjointed fashion but a revolving line of staff that either had no idea that when someone asks for a wine menu or round of drinks they are really supposed to taken this order and place it with the bartender. While some where almost finished with their drinks others where still waiting on drinks to arrive, someone correct me but Carine Glades Tavern is a TAVERN correct and if someone has finished a drink would you not offer them another drink to make more money per head?

After 90 minutes or so meals came out in a slow drift towards obscurity with wait staff coming out with 2 plates at a time and wondering round our table of 10, asking is this yours, one staff member in particular even tried to give me in his words “He is your well done steak and pepper sauce” Well jackass, I ordered a reef and beef, what you are holding is the bad end (tail end) of a filet steak with mustard sauce not pepper sauce that you think it is, and your reef and beef is actually a rump steak.

Would he even know the difference between Fillet and Rump steak? I think not, and considering they only have 3 cuts of beef on the mains menu, it should not be hard for him to be shown.

When my wife’s meal turned up, it was not well done as requested, we wont get into what’s well done and what’s not but to say a steak cooked that still has blood is not, but thats not the real problem, trying to get a wait staff to come over was, and it seemed it was not going to happen anytime soon, so I took the steak back the kitchen myself (it was just easier in the end) and asked the cook did he actually think this was well done. He said did you ask for it to be? Well I saw the meal order right on the bench in front of both the chef and myself so I pointed to it and said, you tell me?

In the end I really don’t blame the staff at the Carine Glades Tavern, it is the owner fault and the Perth mentality of making the fast buck and not investing in the business for the long haul. It is quite clear that the staff had no training or experience in the food industry from the wait staff to the backroom kitchen.

Why do we not invest in repeat customers and look at building wealth over time here in Perth, why do we only have maybe 2 or 3 restaurants that I know off that have history, by history I mean a working restaurant of over 25 years. Why do I need to go places in Melbourne / San Francisco / Sydney and the like to experience good food at reasonable price ? Why because we do not value good food in this town, we do not build a business for longevity and through word of mouth, we add flashing fittings in good locations, over charge and just expect to make a million overnight. There is no passion or love for food in the majority of restaurants in Perth and that is very very sad, It was not like this 20 years ago when I worked for the Ord St Cafe as a chef for Margo Grace, Troy and David. Those days seem to be long gone and replaced with owners that have no business being in the food industry and seem to want to just make the fast $ to buy the big boat and flash car for the neighbors to go wow. I would rather a 120 covers a night go wow what a great place to dine and spend time that I owned.

I for one will not be going back to the Carine Glades Tavern ever again, my hard earned money is better spent on a dinning experience in another City and or country and not this town.

Carine Glades Tavern would have to be my utmost worst dinning experience in 20+ years of dinning out.

What can one say about standing over 9000 feet up on the side of a huge monolith piece of granite, Glacier Point, looking directing opposite at yet another famous piece of granite some 10000 feet high, Half Dome, and not go WOW. I could actually see the very spot where Ansel Adams stood to take his famous capture.

This place just left us speechless when we reached the top and we spent just about all day exploring and relaxing in what was like living inside a postcard for the day. We waited round for the sun to disappear and crossing our fingers that the famous dome of Half Dome would light up orange like we saw from the valley floor the evening previous. Well the sun went down and right before our eyes it slowly turned every shade of orange, its something we will never forget and glad we have on video as well. I rolled off so many shots of this sunset and the whole area that I am only just today starting to piece together.

We waited and waited and waited for this light and if I was not such a stubborn individual I would of missed this light like many other photographers did. They all seemed to come and go, and when the light did not seem t want to play many left with just a handful let to witness the full glory of the sunset.

I am not sure if it was the sun position at that time of year or not but the lighting of the dome seems to want to show its face and almost does, around 10% lights up then after teasing you it disappears and goes a light grey from the shadows from 3 other peaks to the left not in this frame, at which time your thinking oh shit its not going to happen. I stayed longer and was thinking no way this cant be happening while hordes of others left, then around 15-20 mins later it comes back into play and your just left speechless.

Pretty much our best day at Yosemite National Park, what an absolutely awe inspiring place to see. I did my best to try and capture the shear size color and grandeur of this place, I do not think I really did it justice, maybe somethings are better left as a memory and not a photograph?

Well it looks like the arms race for mega pixels is well and truly alive. Have a read of the Hasselblad USA site and their new H3DII-50, 50 mega pixels, twice the sensor size of a full frame DSLR and 300mb files this puppy must turn out some stunning quality captures. Due out in October is you have the 39 mega pixels model the upgrade seems like a charm at only the list price difference to pay.

What will Canon do with the next series 1D’s ? Time will tell I guess, either way it is way out of my range but nice to look all the same.

Well early to bed early to rise they say. Pasted out very early last night as I had arrange to meet up with Kirk and Jamie for a dawn shoot around a hour from home, so a 4am wake up call to set off in time with a long drive ahead to be on time. Arriving a little early I found a gas station just opening up and had to do the bacon egg and cheese toastie at 5.30am YUM

Reached the predetermined spot in complete blackness and fog, but no rain so things where looking good so far. Jamie was moments behind and like always the energizer bunny to get going ( in complete darkness on slippery rocks mind you ) After hunting round for my tiny touch we made our way to a rockery slippery platform down stream a few yards and set up shop, well he did I could not see for shit so I left the camera in the car till at least I could see my hand in front of my face. After a couple of test snaps Kirk ( the 3rd and quiet one in the party - have to watch that LOL ) shows up and with all there at the location and the light starting to come out to play we all set up in and around the falls and started snapping away like mad …. 

I’m glad I made the trip out as there was plenty of water and from first glance there could be some nice exposures from this trip.

I look forward to seeing both Jamie and Kirk’s results. This is the first couple from myself with pretty much nil processing bar a little curves and sharpening, they are both 2 image stitches taken on the Canon 5D with a 24-70 lens. No grads on this image.