WOW 
what a night.....
Where do I start..?
Fom the searchlights on arrival to the miriad of waiters with trays and trays and trays
of champagne and beer to the red carpet, reporters, TV cameras, TV personalities, members of parliament milling around inlcuding, the Hon Peter Garret and Senator Kim Carr, the head of the CSIRO and Australias chief scientist to the huge stage and screen and room full of 900 people
... it was just like the Logies looks on TV
.
The three finalist images in my category were scrolling on a big TV in the entry foyer for all to see.
Most categrories were presented in Logies fashion ie each category finalist got a pre recorded blurb and footage on the big screen then the guest prize presenter or sponsor for each category would announce the winner from an envelope with a big gold seal, the winner would then come up on stage to music and accept it. For the Scientific Photography category however..the three of us were ushered behind the scenes by feverish event organisers, clad in headset mics holding run sheets etc, to go out on stage for the presentation at the appropriate time. I sudenly became little nervous at this stage and I reverted back to my pre event nerve suppression tactics from my strongman competition days
. The ABC's Adam Spencer narated each of our images and we came out one by one to spot lights
with our respective entries up on the huge screen above us
. The New Scientis representative (drop dead gorgeous too
mind you) then announced 3rd then 2nd (me) and finally the winner. Then photos on the stage, offical photos and interviews conducted at the side of the venue and cheque presentations.
The uphoria was at a pretty high level I can tell you
A lot of
's I know but if you picture this emoticon in a penguin dinner suit...well that was how I looked for most of the night
It was a thouroughly over whelming and amazing night that I will never forget and certainly the bigest event like this I've ever been a part of.
Now the down side..
I left my camera in the Taxi that took us home...
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU .....
I am shattered
There is still hope as I contacted the Cab companies and filed reports so my fingers are crossed that somone will find and return it
Th official photographs of the event will be available in a few days so meeeh...
...se la vi
The $3K prize money will help me finally get that long awaited 12" F3.8 Astrograph I recon...?
Mike
So where are all those red carpet shots! c'mon! 
