I can only offering my sincere regret that this situation that has arisen and also state that I am completely innocent of all the horrid and slanderous accusations being leveled at me. Whereby I truly understand how CF must feel and how shocked you must have been to find your beloved site and all your hard work, to what appears to be, in the hands of someone else let me assure you that it is not as it seems and trust me I am equally shocked at how a simple submission of details for the creation a personal website can morph into something that only Alfred Hitchcock could have thought up.

The background of all this is that I am a humble nobody who two years ago decided to rekindle my previous liking for taking pictures and treating myself to a digital camera. During the ensuing period my liking for photography has developed strongly and attend as many workshops as time and money permits. Since packing my last child off to university photography now fills more of my time and have been getting a lot of positive comments from people and suggestions that I should set up a website and display/sell my handiwork to which I have always responded with I’m not ready for it. However, a chance meeting with an old friend who was a graphic designer and had designed business cards and stationery for me some 15 years ago gave me details for a company which he does the occasional assignment for and said they also designed websites suggesting I contact them when I feel ready. Out of curiosity I contacted these people and ended up giving them a brief outline for the type of site
I would like such as photographic display/gallery, brown background utilising orange/beige and green. These colours I have always had a strong association with throughout various aspects of my life (cars, pets, interiors, clothing etc.—favourite colours) and are complementary to my love of the outdoors/nature. I also stated that these were just tentative enquiries for the future so as and to gain a better insight as to what’s involved and cost.

After some initial communications and basic outline mockups I felt I had sufficient information and said thank you I will be in touch when I am ready. A while later I was contacted by what appeared to be a rather keen developer who I have subsequently found out is not in the UK but based in Russia. I was given a link to a web site he said closely fitted my outline spec in terms of photography, colour and functionality saying this is the type of thing I can have fairly quick and should let him know what I like from what I don’t like about the site. Now, I presumed this is something he is working on. I respond saying that would like the background a slightly darker brown with a hint of red, the lightbox display of images to change, I would want small navigation and shopping cart icons, the whole shopping card process to change……etc, etc, etc.

As I understood it the whole thing was to let me see and get a feel as to what he could do and at no point did he ever suggest anything along the lines that this is not a site he owns or—and to his credit—offered no suggestion of ripping off replacing one name for the other, I was led to believe he was purely using it as an example. Also, I knew no better as I had never heard of CF before. And even when I later looked to see if the actual site existed I was still under the impression that he was somehow connected to the building of the site in particular when I saw a CF post stating that work was being done on the site and that new stuff and blog facility will be appearing soon. I was so impressed by the CF photos and site but not as something that I would want a clone copy of. I do have my own personal taste even if aspects might be similar to countless others that may be out there. I even signed-up for the CF newsletter and was even thinking of how I could make it possi
ble to get on one of the CF workshops and even bought one of the photoshop—Melbourne City—tutorial movie. Therefore I think it would be the ultimate in barefacedness to turn up on a CF workshop with his cloned site bearing my name. I felt fortunate that I had been given a pointer to an excellent artist and site and was truly inspired not filled with avarice.

I have absolutely no idea how this cybernaut acquired/hacked the site for his demo purposes but as an old-school IT person myself all I can say is that he must be a real genius boffin and had I such skills I would need to channel them somewhere too, but in a more circumspect way. Also from the little inside information that I managed to get from the ensuing fallout at the design company is that the person does have over zealous tendencies and throughout the whole process I did not think anything untoward, apart from his pushiness, as all appeared to be fairly kosher, this being my first such experience. I think it was unfortunate for him that I was in no hurry to commit to anything and he left the carrot dangling for me far too long, as from memory he made first contact and had the CF demo site on view over two months ago!

So if it was my scurrilous desire to make-off with the CF site I would surely have done so very quickly, and as first stated, I am completely innocent of these allegations and the have been made physically ill and mentally stressed to see tags linking my name to such things so much so that I have only now been able to return to this site to put the record straight for fear of what more I might find leveled at me. Whilst I fully appreciate the shock and outrage CF must have felt on discovering such a situation I too am more than horrified to find links worldwide on the internet suggesting something that I am not and have not done. I therefore politely ask that my name be removed from all these negative tags and extremely defamatory links that are coming up on google so that I can have my life restored back to humble anonymity and before my children and friends google upon them and I promise that I will NEVER EVER revisit the site for fear of being damned again. I will close b
y asking all those in judgment here whether they would like to be globally maligned in such a manner for something they have not or did not perpetrate. To me the presence of this slur couldn’t be any worst than unknown people creating unjustifiable associations to your name across the internet with pedophilia.

To RSVP phone 9581 5620 or email info@terraceartframers.com.au

The address is

9 Smart Street Mall, Mandurah

Would love to see you there.

Christian

I am selling my trusty 1Ds Mark II to make room for the new Phase One. Looking for $2995, body only. It is still a relevant camera and some of my best images were taken with it. Have a look at this one

Also, one of my all time favourites if you have any doubt about the quality of this camera. I paid $9500 for it and I know you can get a 5D2 for $3500 but you can’t get that thing near any serious dust or water. In fact, and some might say this is a big call, I think the files from the 1ds actually looked better. It is solid, reliable and like all one series Canons indestructible.

Send me an email if you would like it christianfletcher@westnet.com.au

Poor young stackky has a nice new website up and going. Go have a look the little fella sure has some talent. I had to buy a Phase One just to keep ahead of him. You can visit it here STAKKY OWES ME MORE FREE BEER

These large tanks were at the scene of the “Cyanide Affair” one that almost claimed the life of one of australia’s best idiots! They were actually shot in the shade and the light has been stylised for effect. I just love these colour together. I was out shooting this location with Peter Eastway, Tony Hewitt, Michael Fletcher and Les Walkling.

This shot from the D3x was taken whilst on a cruise of the harbour. Pulling up alongside of these massive ore carriers was pretty cool. It was a tough trip for sure.

This is what north west WA is all about, the sparseness, the colour and the heat.

Shot on the D3x with the 14-24mm. There is a quality you get from the D3s and D3x I never got with my 5D2. Bigger, better more expensive. There is your answer!

What else do you do after a vasectomy??

I’m lying in bed with an ice pack somewhere, you figure it out, so whats a bloke supposed to do. Draw a picture of a dragon of course! Now this has no bearing on how cool I am, I must be still under the influence of the drugs they gave me. I did the illustration in Corel Painter and then blended it with a photo I took up in the pilbara. Stylising it with photoshop and Nik Colour Efex till I got the look I was after.

Fellas I can recommend a vasectomy, it isn’t actually that bad. Ok everyone in the operating theatre knew who I was, they kept cracking jokes, i.e. just a little prick and you will be drifting off to sleep, When I woke up my undies were back on and everyone was walking around with a smile on their face. Hmmm I wonder what they were saying whilst I was out cold!!

The bit that hurt the most was getting all the sticky bandages off my hand where the drip went. Oh and that feeling you get when someone kicks you fair in the nurries! Go to it fellas, get it done and do your bit for population control. Hope Ken Duncan isn’t reading this or any other catholics for that matter. Don’t want to offend anyone. But hey, there are too many Fletchers in the world already.

Here is a pic of my hospital bed. Pretty comfy really, it’s a shame that you know someone is coming to get you at any minute to play hackie sack with you private bits.

These markers floated by on our Dampier boat trip whilst on the pilbara project. I was shooting with Tony Hewitt on the front of the boat when this took our eye. Wonder what Tony got. Single capture with the Nikon D3x. The image was overlaid with an aerial pic I took of the mangrove flats just south of town. It was also stylised with Nik colour efex pro. See Team Digital if you want to buy a copy. I seem to be using it on every image these days.