PJM Photography

Hot Day at the Zoo

2012-01-22T21:21:00.001+11:00

It was blooming hot today!
Too hot really for photography...but we had already arranged to go to Melbourne zoo and meet up with our friend, Dave Sumner. Dave, didn't turn up...maybe he knew how hot it would get!

We tried to spend most of the time in the shade, most of the animals were doing likewise!
The primate area did provide a few photo opportunities. Once again, the Lumix GH2 and 100-300 lens proved to be a winner...

The butterfly enclosure also provided some decent photo opportunities, but the mostly the damn butterflies were just too quick for me, and the autofocus system of the GH2! So I waited until they had settled nicely on a leaf somewhere, before firing of a few shots...

The elephant enclosure also offered some shade...for us, but not for the poor elephants, who spent most of their time spraying water and dust over themselves to keep cool. This female elephant looked particularly unimpressed by the day...

So, after a few hours of the heat we decided, enough was enough, and went home to cool off and prepare to watch the Federer v Tomic match later in the evening/ The rest of the decent images from today can ve seen at the link below...

http://Pjmbarlick.500px.com/melbourne_zoo#/0

Oz Open 2012

2012-01-20T23:28:00.000+11:00

So Thursday Jan 19th dawned a beautiful sunny day. I had already decided to take the day off work and go to the Australian Open 2012. The weather was just perfect.

I decided to take my Panasonic Lumix GH2 and the 14-42mm lens and the 100-300mm for those (hopefully) close up shots. Little did I know how grateful I would be for that decision!

I bought a ticket for the Hisense arena and eagerly awaited the 4 matches, featuring, amongst others, Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Andy Murray.

As soon as I got to Melbourne Park I headed off to the outside courts trying to get a shot or two of the wonderful Melbourne skyline from the tennis centre.

On my way back to the Hisense arena I stopped by an interview which was taking place with one of the sponsors to get some shots of one of my favourite all time women tennis players...Martina Hingis...

And so to the Hisense where Tsonga won his match comfortably. My bum was getting numb on the seats in the arena, so I decided to for for another look around the outside courts. I saw a big crowd gathered around one of the outside courts, so I decided to take a look and saw the reason for the big crowd...Federer!

Lots and lots of people were jostling for position, trying to take pictures with their iPhones and various cameras of all shapes and sizes. But no one had the advantage that the Lumix system gave me. I attached the 100-300 lens, held the camera at arms length above my head, tilted the articulated screen so I could see what the camera was seeing, set the lens to 100mm and pointed and hoped for the best. Lo and behold...it worked. The camera at arms length above my head gave me a clear (ish) view, and as soon as i got the great man in the lens, I zoomed full in to 300mm for a close up...

After 15 mins of this, my arms were hurting, so I said "Goodbye" to Roger and went back inside the Hisense to watch the Murray match and hopefully get some shots of him in action. Again, the 100-300mm lens was my saviour. I shot everything at the 300mm length, using shutter priority to set a shutter speed of variously between 1/1000 and 1/2000 of a second, depending on the light and shadow. As you can see, by late afternoon the shadows in the arena were beginning to be an issue. I tried to use them to frame some shots.

As you can see, Murray was very popular, particularly amongst some noisy Scottish lads!

After the Murray match finished I hung around on the outside courts for a few more matches, and then hurried home to watch Hewitt v Roddick on TV.

So, after a full day shooting with the Lumix gear I can report that I was very happy with the combination of lenses and camera. Sure the shots at the 300mm end of the long zoom were not as pin sharp as i would have got with a canon "L" series lens, but the cost of this lens is out of my reach, and more importantly, i could not have got some of the shots without the light weight and articulated screen of the GH2...

2012 New Year Resolution

2012-01-08T22:53:00.001+11:00

Well the less said about the 2nd half of 2011...the better!

So, one of my new year resolutions was to get out and about in the streets and learn the art of "Street Photography". I started on the weekend of January 7th and 8th and went for a wander around the streets of Melbourne.

A Place of My own...

The shot above was taken on Saturday outside melbourne Library on Swanston Street.
I have been using exclusively my Fuji X 100, primarily to get to know the camera better. I wish it had an articulated screen. To get this shot I had to use LCD screen, and because the shot was taken in bright sunlight, i could hardly see the screen, so I did a quick manual focus, and I pointed and shot!

I was very happy with the end result...

I also liked this shot below...

Street Wedding

We see lots of street weddings in Melbourne, but I wanted this shot to show just how close to the streets the action really takes place. Again I used the manual focus technique.

Some other street shots from the weekend are shown below. All were shot with the Fuji x100 and all using the manual focus technique.

I have LOTS to learn!
I have to learn how to get more out of the Fuji X100. I still find the operation a bit fiddly, particularly after the silky smooth operation I got used to with my Canon 5D Mark 2. I also need to learn more about street photography, what makes an interesting shot...and why?

Deserted Bandstand

2011-05-09T18:52:00.001+10:00

Deserted Bandstand, a photo by pjmbarlickoz on Flickr.

Sunday May 8th...a cool and wetish day in Melbourne. In the afternoon the rain stopped for a while so I went out and tried my 14mm Sigma UWA lens on the Canon 5D 2.

I quite like this shot, and when I get the hang of this lens hopefully I will get some better shots...

Maranoa Gardens Late Autumn Sun.jpg

2011-05-07T16:16:00.001+10:00

Maranoa Gardens Late Autumn Sun.jpg, a photo by pjmbarlickoz on Flickr.

Saturday afternoon..May 7th. The last month of Autumn... a cold morning in Melbourne, but as always the sun came out for a couple of hours.

I went for a quick walk around Maranoa Gardens and thought this would mike a nice record shot of the late autumn sunshine.

Anzac Day 2011

2011-04-30T19:09:00.000+10:00

Well I finally did it!
I got up at 4.30am for the Dawn Service...arriving sprightly and fresh at 5.30am at the Melbourne war memorial.

The early morning was very misty, later becoming a day of blazing warm autumn sunshine, but at 5.30am it was misty and only 6 degrees! Still the mist made for some interesting shots, particularly the shot at the start of this A/V of the "Ten Gun Salute" taken in near darkness, with the camera on a tripod and a 6 second exposure.

My trusty 28-300mm L lens got a good workout throughout the day, and I am glad I took my flash to add a little "fill" to the images of the noble old men and women in the parade.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the day...and I may do it again...in another 10 years!!!!

Finding a suitable piece of music for the A/V was a challenge, I wanted a song with lyrics which were meaningful to the day, but still had an "Uplifting" feel...see what you think?

Forever Autumn

2011-04-30T19:00:00.000+10:00

"Forever Autumn" is an A/V project I have had in mind to do for a while...

The images on this A/V were taken over a 3 year period...I just collected enough images until I had enough to make the A/V.

You will be able to notice a distinct difference in the lenses I used over this three year period, with some of the later shots coming from my trusty old Sigma Ultra Wide Angle 14mm lens on the Canon 5D Mark ii...

I have finally, after 10 years of ownership, learnt how to use this lens!

The music for the A/V was an obvious choice...

Luna Park WCC Outing April 3rd 2011

2011-04-04T23:14:00.002+10:00

What can you take pictures of, at what is essentially a run down and tatty old amusement park in the heart of St. Kilda in Melbourne?

This was the challenge we set ourselves on a blustery and eventually sunny afternoon...

Well..clocks was one answer!

This image was taken of some clocks inside one of those horrible slot machines where you use a crane arm to attempt to grab a chocolate bar.

I have no idea why there were clocks in here, but in the absence of anything else I thought they would make an interesting shot?

Or how about an obligatory amusement park ride?

The shot below was taken leaning over the safety fence of the "Wild Mouse". I under exposed the bright background by 2 stops, and used manual flash to try and fill in the car and riders as it approached at high speed.

I looked around at other rides, but they all looked a bit "sad", particularly the carousel. I could see nothing on the carousel worth taking a shot of...until I spotted the old boarding at the top of the ride reminding me very much of days gone by.

Very much in keeping with the mood created by the "days gone by"...we went home and had fish & chips for supper!

Aireys Inlet...Labour Day W/E March 2011

2011-04-04T22:52:00.001+10:00

Well well..it's been a while!
I have been MIA "Missing in Action" for the past 12 months! I have to say this role as EO of the AIPP has utterly consumed me for the past 18 months. I have had almost no time to take photos, let alone post to this blog...

But thankfully, things are a little less frenetic these days...so here goes...my first blog post in quite a while!

Airey's Inlet - Waverley Camera Club Trip. Labour Day Weekend March 2011
As, now seems to be customary on this annual club trip, the weather was excellent. Don't be fooled by the shot above. I tried to make what was essentially a warm sunny day look like a dark stormy day. This was actually a HDR handheld shot, processed later in Nik Silver Efex software.

I also did some "messing around" on the same day with slow shutter speed shots. It's not easy getting a slow shutter speed in the middle of the afternoon on a bright sunny day, but thankfully my Fader ND filter came to the rescue.

One of the challenges on these camera club trips is to try and take a shot which just might do well in our club competition. One such competition later in the year requires images "..Landscape Images With a Photographer in the Picture..." This shot is of our good friend Dave Sumner, which I am hoping will do well in the competition. The irony is I shot this with Dave's 100-400mm lens!

The shot above is my obligatory shot of Jill. This is actually an HDR image, again taken handheld and processed using NIK HDR Effex. The shot was taken from the base of the lighthouse, looking down over the inlet and beach.

The shot below was taken from the top of the lighthouse, looking down over the same spot...

As always on these long weekend trips with the camera club, the photography is of secondary importance. Enjoying a long weekend away with some good friends, with some good food and a few drinks is the main purpose of the trip...so many thanks to the trip organiser, who was none other than...Jill!

Snorkelling at Great Barrier Reef - June 2010

2010-06-20T14:35:00.005+10:00

Well finally...eight years after our first holiday in Australia, we went back to Port Douglas for a snorkelling trip on the Great Barrier Reef, and this time Jill decided to take the plunge!

The weather was perfect, nice calm water and reasonably sunny skies. We left the port aboard "Calypso" at 9.30am and arrived at the reef about 11.00am. We decided to make use of the wet suits on board, mainly to help buoyancy, and after much preparation, we finally took the plunge. I hired a waterproof camera to record the momentous occasion, and "Splash!", Jill was finally able to put a "tick" in the box of one of her resolutions!

It didn't stop there however, Jill enjoyed it so much she did three more dives!

My A/V Production..."After Dark"

2009-10-22T22:26:00.003+11:00

It's been a while since my last blog posting, but I have not been idle!

During the dark winter months...(Only kidding...this is Melbourne!) I have been teaching myself how to use Pro Show Producer to produce A/V's. (Audio Visual's)

I have got quite a liking for A/V's as a medium to showcase my photos...and videos.Producing A/V's is a little bit like producing video's, so some of my earlier experience in video editing helps.

My latest A/V is called "After Dark"

I was inspired to produce this A/V after seeing a marvelous presentation from Pele Leung, a great Australian landscape photographer. Whilst my humble attempt is not yet up to Pele's "Ultra Pano" standards, I am quite pleased with it, particularly as I combined HD video from my Canon 5D Mark 2 camera, with raw images taken from the same camera.

Producing an A/V with such large file sizes in Pro Show was quite a challenge. The file sizes of the videos from the 5D are huge...so I had to transcode them to a more manageable file format using Canopus Edius, my editing and transcoding software of choice.

All the still images were exported from Lightroom as raw files (Well DNG files actually) to preserve as much detail as possible.

Once you get to understand it's workflow, ProShow is a great tool for producing A/V's...

As ever, Jill accompanied me on the several nights shooting to acquire these images. One day I may actually get her to take a night shot, but she has to overcome her fear of tripods first...but that's another story!

Anyhow, enough waffle from me...enjoy the show...

Weekend Trip to Yarra Valley

2009-07-26T20:18:00.004+10:00

Mid winter in Melbourne...So we decided to take ourselves off to the Yarra Valley and see if we could see signs of bushfire regeneration...and signs of spring.

We stayed in Healseville, at a motel called "Sanctuary House Resort Motel"...it was just about adequate, but as we were only using it to sleep on Saturday night, it hardly mattered.

We arrived in Healesville in time for an early lunch, and after a quick tour of the town we decided to explore the region in the car, listening to my newly downloaded (old) Tom Petty album.

We took the road across to Kinglake, an area utterly devastated by the February bushfires. I was very pleased to see life carryting on as "normal" in the town. The local footy team were playing, and the local pub was advertising local bands. We did see lots of temporary housing, caravans, porta cabins and even tents. I'm sure life is not really 'normal' for these poor people.

We drove back to Healesville, stopping to take a shot of the winter sun highlighting the bushfire affected area.

After a fabulous dinner at the Healesville Hotel in Healesville we retired at the ludicrously late hour of 9.00pm!!

Sunday morning saw a glorious winter day in Victoria...blue sky and and temperatures that would make an English summer day blush with shame! We decided to take advantage of the weather and take our own self guided Yarra Valley winery tour. First stop was Rochford Winery for breakfast.

From there we drove to several of the smaller wineries. Jill took advantage of the fact that I was the driver, she decided to actually taste as many of the fabulous red wines as she could...before falling over! I was left drinking water...and an occasional coffee!

After mid morning drinks, we drove on to the "Red Hut" vineyard. We found a beautiful spot by the lake (well I guess it used to be a lake once of a day!) and we sat enjoying the warm sunshine and the very early signs of spring.

From there we drove to Killara winery where we managed to snaffle up some bargains...bottles of their 2007 vintage Sav Blanc for $10 per bottle...you can't go wrong with that price, this is not cheap plonk but boutique vineyard wine. I think I will enjoy Killara winery for quite some months to come!

From Killara we travelled to Morgan winery, a very small winery run by a very friendly Ex patriot welshman. He only grew three types of grape, but still Jill managed to find a Shiraz she liked!

By this stage I was getting fed up of drinking water, so we went for lunch at the Ainsworth Winery, a beautiful lunch of baked Tasmanian Salmon. I finally succumbed and tasted a glass of the estate reserve chardonnay, which was like nectar, and so I treated myself to a $40 bottle!

The afternoon at this stage was drawing to a close, so we headed home for Melbourne, and vowed to visit the area again, and never again to buy a cheap bottle of plonk from the local bottle shop!

To see the full gallery of images from our trip click HERE.

Landscape Photography In The UK & Australia

2009-07-16T12:50:00.078+10:00

I have just recently completed a holiday back in the UK, and for the first time since moving to Australia I took my camera with me.

It was a revalation looking anew at my hometown, Barnoldswick, in North East Lancashire.

For 40 years I lived in the area and never really stopped to look from a photographer's perspective.

It is often said that you do not appreciate what you have until you no longer have it, and that was certainly the case on this trip.

Barnoldswick is dominated by Pendle Hill, and the entire area surrounding the town is known as Pendleside. There is an old local saying..."If you can't see Pendle Hill it's raining...and if you can see Pendle Hill it's going to rain".!

Not this time, the weather was perfect, with wonderful soft light, ideal for photography.

So what are the main differences between photography, particularly landscape photography, in the English summer as opposed to the Australian summer?

Firstly, the light...I had never appreciated just how soft the light is in England compared to the harsh light in Australia. Taking photos during the daytime in either country can be a problem, but in the soft summer evening light of England, photos take on a completely new dimension. The light just seems to wrap around the entire landscape making harsh shadows almost non existent.

The three images above were taken at around 8.00pm in the evening, and all are HDR images. The rich colours and wide tonal range were ideal for the HDR treatment.

In Australia, as we all know the light can be very harsh, particularly during the main daylight hours. We can often get dramatic sunsets and rich colours, but we have to deal with harsh light. The photograph above was taken in early spring time in Melbourne and shows the typical contrast range we have to deal with.

The second major difference....was the lush colours of England, particularly the greenery. In Australia we can certainly get some spectacular colours, particularly on the coastline or in the desert areas, but nowhere do we see the lush greenery which dominates this part of Northern England. The significant rain which falls on this part of Northern England is of course the main reason for this...green...green evewhere!

I almost felt as though the country was in the grip of a terrible green virus attacking the place. I guess Tom Jones sang about "The green, green grass of home" for a reason, and maybe William Blake was right when he wrote "Jerusalem"...

"And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England's mountain's green...in England's green and pleasant lands".

In Melbourne, 2009 marks the 13th year of continuing drought, so rather than the lush greenerey of England, we have all become accustomed to brown parched landscapes. We can certainly get dramatic landscapes in Australia, always with a cobalt blue sky, and great colours as this photo taken in early winter, from "Hanging Rock" shows...but brown rather than green is the dominant colour.

The third major difference is the quaint picturesque nature of the rural towns. Once again, I know that in Australia we tend to live in the major urban cities, with smaller towns in the mountain, coastal and rural areas, but nowhere do we see the small hamlets such as Downham and Barley, nestling in the foothills of Pendle.

Melbourne of course is a magnificent vibrant place to live with always lots to do and see, which certainly is not the case in North East Lancashire!

But the cities of Melbourne and Sydney tend to dominate, and in Australia our small towns tend to be highway towns, built originally as stop over places for travellers between Australia's great cities. The town of Gundagai is one such example, a small highway town built not necessarily to create a local community, but to support and entertain the many travellers who passed through the town many years ago.

The fourth major difference is the inherent history of England as manifested in the architecture...or to put it another way...England has old buildings!

But not just old buildings, but old ruins...

Just a few miles outside of Barnoldswick for example is Sawley Abbey, which is actually the ruins of a monesterian abbey built in c1147...

For us Australians that takes some thinking about, this place was built over 860 years ago, long before our Australian convict ancestors were even born!

But even the more "recent" architecture of the area is rich in character, particularly evident in the local churches.

This is actually Ghyll Church in Barnoldswick which is the oldest church in the area, and the home for most local weddings, christenings...and as you can see, burials.

In Australia, we really have to search around to find examples of great architecture, as in the example below from Montsalvat in Melbourne.

Another major difference is...WATER!...not just the plentiful supply of water which frequently falls from the sky, but also the water which forms a natural part of the infrastructure in England...canals..lakes...rain clouds, and damns.

Every where you look in the English countryside, water plays a major part, irrigating, transporting and generally balancing the environment.

The Leeds to Liverpool canal is almost as pervasive in this part of the world, as the Yarra river is in Melbourne, except the canal is always full!

Canal boats, these days, act as holiday "homes" for people who don't want an overseas holiday in Benidorm, Majorca or the Greek Islands. But it's not too difficult imagining, in years gone by, the canals acting as the major transport routes between Leeds & Liverpool, long before the cursed M62 was built!

Now we have plenty of water in Australia, the only problem being it is salt water...in the sea which surrounds us. We have mile upon mile of spectacular coastline, nowhere more so than the Great Ocean Road on the southern edge of Victoria.

But our freshwater lakes are few and far between, and often we are left to photograph nothing better than a dried up lake bed.

The Lakes District...
I cannot believe that for 40 years I lived within a 45 minute drive of one of the most scenic and picturesque areas of England, and yet hardly ever went there!

I bet in all my years in England I only went to the Lakes District 6 times, and 5 of those were probably as a child on holiday with my parents in the "Black & White" era. (All my childhood memories are in Black & White, and all my childhood photos are in Black & White)

In Australia I will happily travel for hours to arrive at some quarter full lake in a remote area, with nothing much of interest other than the lake itself. Lake Eildon and Lake Hume are two examples which spring immediately to mind.

So on this trip I was determined to re visit the Lakes district and look at the area as a photographer...

I arrived at Lake Windermere in the early afternoon, not the best time for photography. Unfortunately I did not have time to stay until the evening so I had to make the best of the midday sunlight to take my photographs.

I have to say the views and the scenery were stunning.

Lakes full of fresh water, towering mountains and gorgeous English cloud filled skies.

I have become very accustomed to the cobalt blue skies in the Australian summer and I had simply forgotten how good the cloud filled skies of England can look.

Of course, I also remember that for most of the year, the Lakes District can be a miserable grey place with rain, wind and low scudding cloud...but not today!

I did a quick three hour tour of the area, along the narrow and seemingly becoming more narrow, roads of the area. One thing I can say for sure, the narrow roads were not designed to cope with the volume of traffic on the roads in England today, nor were they designed to cope with the big coaches and 4 wheel drive vehicles towing huge caravans.

Despite the traffic, I managed to visit Lake Windermere, Lake Coniston, Lake Ullswater, Grasmere and Derwent. Five different mountain and lake areas, all accessed within a 3 hour drive...and still I had time for a coffee. It would probably have taken me 3 days in Australia to find 5 lakes with a decent amount of water in them, certainly in the drought affected South East of Australia where I live.

In typical fashion though, the day ended abrubtly as a the warm humid English summer day gave way to a thunderstorm. I did at least manage to get one decent shot of the storm approaching.

In conclusion...
So, a very quick tour of my roots in England lasting less than 2 weeks. I learnt to appreciate my home town from a very different perspective, and I learnt to appreciate the natural beauty of the area, which I had previously taken for granted.

It's true that for 3/4 of the year the area is covered in grey cloud and is cold, wet and windy. But when it's not, as was the case this trip, it is truly stunning.

Australia, by comparison is a much easier climate to live in, but a much harsher climate for photography. We get stunning sunsets and sunrises in Australia with spectacular coastal scenery and occasionaly, great landscape shots, taking advantage of the deep colours of the land.

We get extremes of weather in Australia and very different terrains, but we also get very harsh light, particularly in the long hot dry summers.

My trip to England has inspired me to look at my new "home town" differently, and perhaps see if I can find some new ways to photograph the character, diversity and rugged beauty of Australia...

...To be continued...

UK Trip...Final Thoughts

2009-07-11T15:51:00.003+10:00

Well a 10 day trip to the UK from Australia involves a lot of tiring traveling for such a short trip.

Was it worth it?
Absolutely....It was great to catch up again with so many friends and relatives.

This trip was particularly pleasing because we managed to catch up with some friends we had not seen since we emigrated, in particular, Clare who made a lovely lunch in Hyde Park, Brian who introduced us to Jacque his new wife, Andy Makeham who seemed very contented with his new family, and especially Janine and Natalie Bromage.

It has been too long guys and we hope to see you all again soon.

The weather was kind this time around and we actually saw some sunshine in England! although true to form we got saturated on the second Friday as the English summer broke into a downpour.

I managed to get out and about and get some photos of the area. The final slideshow of our UK trip can be seen HERE .

So to all our friends and relatives...thanks for making the trip enjoyable and we will see you all again soon...

A Trip Around Pendleside

2009-07-04T02:57:00.010+10:00

I lived in the Pendle area almost all of my life.

People used to tell me how "beautiful" the area was, but I have to confess I never really shared this view.

Most of the time Pendleside is covered in cloud, mist and rain...but not so today.

So I decided to take advantage of the unique sunny day and see if I could capture some of the local "beauty"...

First stop was Roughlee, a quaint little village nestling at the foothills of pendle hill. The town was closed and the local pub was closed!

From there on to Barley, and the Barley Mow oub, which was also closed. From there to Downham and the Asheton Arms, which was open!

The village of Downham is the home of the TV series "Born & Bred", and I have to say it really is a beautiful place...on a sunny day like this!

Finally in Downhan I saw signs of life, real people actually out enjoying the day, and enjoying the sunshine.

From Downham I drove up to Pendle hill itself, well not actually up the hill you understand, but to "base camp", the car park on the ajacent farm. I did manage to get one or two decent photos, particularly rare photos of pendle hill bathed in sunshine.

From pendle, I travelled down to Clitheroe and Chatburn and around the West Bradford, area, visiting Sawley Abbey, or at least the ruins of Sawley Abbey, a Monasterian Abbey built in c 1147...a long time ago!

So, finally to Chatburn again, and another catch up, this time with Peter Smith (AKA Smithy), lots to talk about and lots to discuss.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

2009-07-02T01:35:00.008+10:00

Today, Wednesday July 1st I decided to take a trip down memory lane...well my memory lane at least.

Starting with a trip to Letcliffe Park in Barlick, I managed a few scenic shots. I was particularly keen to get a shot from Manchester Road of the view down into Barnoldswick with the "Bancroft Mill" chimney standing proud over the town.

From there I moved to Greenberfield Locks, a favourite walking place from the past.

On to Ghyll church and the cemetary to visit my Dad's grave. This visit always stirs up emotions in me and today was no different. I often wonder what he would say about the world today. I guess I will always be left wondering...

Gyhll church always has an "eerie" feel about it and I tried to enhance that feel with some moody shots. I have been to weddings and funerals here and I always feel slightly uncomfortable at the place.

On to West Marton locks, and more shots of canal boats. It was warm and humid and I stopped off for a latte. I think Lancashire should stick to the "cup of tea" as the preferred drink, The latte was woeful!

Finally, on to Barnoldswick Town Square. I have never really managed to get a good shot of the square, and once again today was no different, although bathed in sunshine it did look much better than the miserable place I remember. I tried another latte at the cafe in the square, but gave up after two sips, it too was awful!

So back to my mothers place to watch the tennis, and the beautiful sunny morning gave way, as it so often does in this part of the world, to clouds and then later a thunderstorm.

As we always used to say, summer in England comprised two days of sunshine followed by a thunderstorm...and so it was...aaahh memories!

London Calling...

2009-06-30T07:11:00.007+10:00

What a day!...

Train from Skipton to Leeds at 8.30 am, just enough time to take some shots of the early morning non activity on the canal at Skipton.

....Leeds to London arriving at 12 noon, and then tube to Paddington station, arriving at our hotel at 1.15pm...

"Oh no sir...you can't check in till 3pm"...DOH!

Leave bags in hotel and set off on foot, to find Claire at "Hyde Park. One hour later we still can't find her...turns out she is waiting for us at Green park, not Hyde park...DOH!

Anyhow we find her and have a lovely "catch up" after nearly 8 years!

Back to hotel to check in and meet up with Brains and Jacque...another great reunion after nearly 7 years...too much to talk about and not enough time...

From there a rush down to Hyde park and the Springsteen concert to catch up with Duncan & Sue...can't get through on phone to Duncan because Hyde park is absolutely chocka (est 150,000 people) and the Orange mobile network has fallen over under the strain DOH!

So after 20 attempts to contact them we give up and settle down to the concert, along with 100,000 others to watch the mighty E Street Band, and the absolute legend...Bruuuce.

What a gig. This guy is 58 years old and simply does not know how to give a bad concert. This was our 6th Bruce concert, and was every bit as good as we have come to expect.

Concert finishes at 10pm after 3 hours, and we have to wait another hour to get out of Hyde park...DOH!

Back to sweltering humid hotel at midnight...and finally sleep!!

Up at 6.30am for train back to Leeds, but still just enough time to take a shot of St Pancras Station bathed in sunlight.
What a 24 hours!!

UK Trip Day 1

2009-06-30T01:46:00.002+10:00

Having recovered from the flight from OZ, Saturday June 27th dawned surprisingly warm and humid.

We spent the morning catching up with Dave and Granville, even going to see Granville playing cricket!

The afternoon saw us ending up on Brogden lane in Barnoldswick trying to get a family photo of all the Honeyman's. I failed miserably asthe light was just too harsh and contrasty, but I did manage to get one shot of Brogden Lane, my former running and bike track, just for old time's sake.

WCC Camera Club Outing to Montsalvat

2009-06-08T20:29:00.002+10:00

A cool, overcast and slightly damp Sunday greeted us for the Waverley camera club monthly outing to Montsalvat.

What a strange place this is...a curious combination of old, run down, modern and renovated. I believe this was at one time an artists retreat, although nowadays it is more of a photographers curiosity, and occasional function centre.

There were 26 hardy souls from the camera club, all seeking that one elusive shot which would have made the day worthwhile. It poured down with rain in the afternoon, so once again we took shelter in the coffee shop, but not before we managed to get a few decent shots.

I particularly like the "Errie Mansion" shot with the dark brooding sky.

Trip to Werribee Mansion

2009-06-07T22:58:00.003+10:00

The long weekend...and the official start of winter in Melbourne.

We do actually have winters in Melbourne...but they don't last for long. We teamed up this weekend with Rodelle and went to visit Werribee Mansion. The mansion itself was quite interesting, unfortunately the weather was not great and we could not escape the photographers nightmare...flat light!

Still, the coffee was good and the company was good, and we did manage to get one or two decent shots. The grounds of the mansion were actually set up for a "3 Day Event" horse jumping meeting. Unfortunately we were there on the Dressage day, which would be nowhere near as interesting as the cross country jump day...on Sunday!

I think we will come back here in spring time and get some different pictures.

Vaps Muster 2009 - Mount Macedon

2009-05-17T21:10:00.002+10:00

The weekend of May 16th saw the Vaps Muster 2009 at Macedon.

Jill was unable to attend due to her recent surgery, so I went along with Dave & Pete from Waverley Camera Club.

The weekend was predominantly an indoor affair, although we did manage to get out on Saturday afternoon for a brief photo shoot at Hanging Rock.

The weather was not good and this shot was the only decent photo I managed before the sky closed in and the rain started...oh well maybe next time!

As for the VAPS muster itself...well that's another story!

Anzac Weekend - Phillip Island

2009-04-26T21:55:00.007+10:00

A stormy weekend was promised by the weather bureau...and stormy it was!

We arrived in Cowes late on Friday evening, accompanied by our good friend Dave Sumner from Waverley Camera Club, hungry and thirsty.

Fortunately, with this being Anzac weekend, the RSL club in Cowes was still open and in full swing.

After a few drinks, we managed to persuade ourselves that getting up for the dawn service would not provide many great photo opportunities! So the following morning, satisfied with our decision we set off on a dull and overcast Saturday for "The Nobbies" at a reasonable "post dawn" time of 9.30am.

We were hoping for lots of stormy seas, but there were none. We were hoping for lots of stormy skies, but there were none, and we were hoping to see lots of penguins and seals, but there were none! Just a few low scudding clouds.

Ah well, we satisfied ourselves with a few seascape shots and hurried back to Cowes in time for the Anzac parade at 11.00am.

This was our first attendance at an Anzac parade, and quite a moving occasion it was, not least because the wind blowing off from the sea nearly "moved" us off our feet!

Dave said that this small parade at Cowes was better for photographers than the mega parade at Melbourne, and that we would get reasonably near to take close up pictures...and he was right!

After the parade and service we headed off to the local church hall in time for the start of our weekend seminar hosted by Phillip Island camera club on the subject of "Image Evaluation", just in time as the rain and wind started...and that meant the camera was snugly packed away for the rest of the weekend.

Autumn in Melbourne

2009-04-20T13:33:00.004+10:00

Most Melburnians will tell you that Autumn is the best time of year. The heat of the summer is gone and we are able to enjoy warm temparate days of sunshine without the oppresive heat.

The theory also suggests that Melbourne, city of parks and trees, produces a glorious autumn show of colour.

So, we thought, we will go and test this theory...

Well the first part of the theory is certainly correct...this weekend gave us two glorious autumn days with blue skies and temperatures of about 21 degrees...perfect. Unfortunately, the extreme heat of this summer has already taken it's till on many of our parks and trees. Lots of trees have already shed most of their leaves, most did so during the heat of February.

Also, mid April, even though we are well into our second month of Autumn is still too early for the Melbourne trees to start their winter hibernation mode...it is still too warm.

So, unfortunately, no glorious Autumn show...just one or two nice shots in and around Melbourne's parklands...we will hope for better in a few more weeks.

Easter Trip day 4

2009-04-14T20:33:00.002+10:00

Today we spent the whole day exploring and photographing the magnificent coastal area of the Great Ocean Road, between Warrnambool and Port Campbell.

It Seemed that every few kilometres there was another spectacular coast line to photograph.

This time of year in Melbourne often provides us with the best weather, and today was no exception, cobalt blue skies, a warm day and a sufficient see breeze to give the ocean some spectacular waves.

We started our photographic odyssey at about 11.00am and continued until almost total darkness.

There are no words I can use to adequately describe the magnificence of this day...so I won't even bother!

More images can be seen on our gallery site ...here.

Easter Trip Day 3

2009-04-12T21:07:00.007+10:00

Today we went to Nelson...I’ll say that again...today we went to Nelson!

Thankfully, not the Nelson of Jill’s birthplace, the East Lancashire town which seems hell bent on destroying itself, but a different Nelson, the birthplace of Victoria, the first township settlement in Victoria.

Nelson is actually on the border of Victoria and South Australia and is a small picturesque town with the Glenelg River running straight down the middle of the town. Nelson has a Nelson Hotel, (just like the other one!) but there the similarity ends. In every other respect this Nelson is a world apart (as it is..) from the Nelson in Lancashire.

We decided to take a Glenelg River cruise at 1.00pm and as we had some time to spare we crossed over into South Australia and visited “Donovan” a small country town on the edge of the river.

Talk about isolated! This little town was only accessible via an unmade round and was surrounded as most places in this area are, by Pine Trees...millions of them. And today, Easter Sunday, Donovan was having a country fair.

I have come to realise that a “Country Fair” is just a euphemism for a “market” and this one was no different to thousands of other markets around the world...lots of stalls selling rubbish...and hot dogs. At least this one had the decency to provide a genuine country steel band.

So back to Nelson in time for the cruise up the Glenelg river.

We cruised at a leisurely pace up the river to the “Princess Margaret Rose” underground caves ( so called apparently because they were named after Princess Margaret...goodness knows why?). The caves were spectacular and provided a majestic display of nature’s wonders. Just how do these formations happen and how many years ago?

Back on the boat to Nelson, accompanied by another of nature’s aberrations...a family of scousers on holiday from the UK! The four kids were noisier and more boisterous than I cared for. Maybe I am just getting old!

We stopped off on the way back to Portland at Cape Bridgewater and we were overwhelmed by the beauty of this place, and the fact that there was no one around, not a scouser in sight!

We got some sunset shots at the Tarragal caves and finally drove back to Portland in darkness...and silence.

Easter Trip Day 2

2009-04-11T21:34:00.007+10:00

Another fine and sunny morning.

What more can I say? We always seem to have fine and sunny days.

We spent the morning in Warrnanbool, eventually finding our way to the Flagstaff Hill area, a museum of sorts which attempts to recreate the look and feel of a settlement in the Warrnabool area at the turn of the century. This area of course is infamous for the many shipwrecks which occurred in “Lady Bay” the early days of shipping trade between Britain and Australia.
On a calm and still autumn day in 2009 it was hard to imagine any shipwrecks on this coast!

From here we moved on to Port Fairy, a VERY busy town. WE have been told this is a beautiful place to visit, and I’m sure on any day other than Easter Saturday that would be true, but all we could see on this visit were big 4 wheel drive cars and LOTS of people. So we moved on.
On to Lake Yanbuk.

This time we were pleased to see that the lake was still alive...only just , but there was certainly water in there, albeit salt water.

From lake Yanbuk we drove west to Codrington Wind Farm, the largest wind farm in Victoria. We stopped at the viewing platform and took a few shots.

The wind coming of the South coast was so strong it blew the tripod around, and I wondered why there were not more wind farms along this coast line?

From there we drove into Portland, apparently the oldest settlement and port in Victoria. Portland is a deep sea port so there were lots of big tankers and ships in the port, but most interestingly, being a public holiday we actually saw a “traffic jam” of fishing boats waiting to return to port after a full day deep sea fishing. We even had traffic cops at the port directing the boat traffic!

The port was populated not only by lots of tourists, but also by the resident port seals. These clever seals obviously “knew the ropes” and spent the evening hanging round the port waiting for the fishermen to throw into the water the fish carcasses. These must be some of the best fed seals around!

I tried to take a picture of the seals, but had about as much success as my macro shots (None) so instead I took some pictures of the very friendly local fishermen dealing with their “catch”. Apparently these huge fish are tuna fish which was a major surprise to me as I thought tuna simply floated around in a small tin, with lemon, or cracked pepper or chilli tomato!

Time for dinner and bed!

Easter Trip Day 1

2009-04-10T22:23:00.004+10:00

Good Friday dawned a warm and slightly overcast day. The omens were good!

We left Melbourne about 9.30am and travelled quickly to Geelong. We decided not to take the Great Ocean Road immediately, but rather travel along the A1 to Colac. We wanted to see Lake Colac. Unfortunately we were 4 months too late!

There is no longer a Lake Colac...evaporated during the long hot dry summer! Apparently there was a very shallow lake up to early December, but now it’s all gone, goodness knows when the lake will be full again?
We took some pictures of the sad Lake Colac rowing club, complete with its viewing platforms and boat ramps overlooking...a field!

On from Colac to the “Otway Fly”, a spectacular tree top walk set amongst the Otway ranges rain forest. It’s amazing how cool it was walking in the forested area, in fact it was positively cold.

I have never yet managed to take a good photo in a forest area, and today was no exception. I find it difficult to convey in a picture the magnificence of the scene and the overwhelming greenery.

Still we enjoyed the walk.

We wanted to catch the sunset at the famous “12 apostles” so we set off from Otway about 4.30pm arriving at the 12 apostles area at about 5.30pm...perfect timing for the scheduled 6.10 sunset.

The sunset was not as spectacular as we had hoped, but nevertheless we got some good shots. We will probably try again on Tuesday on our way back home.

Darkness descended quickly after sunset and we travelled along the spectacular section of the Great Ocean Road to Warrnanbool in complete darkness. We could see nothing!

Tom Petty kept us company on the stereo until we arrived in Warrnanbool at about 8.00pm only to find it was...closed.

Maybe we will see more of this place tomorrow in the daylight when hopefully it re opens for business.

Melbourne Comedy Festival

2009-04-09T15:04:00.002+10:00

Last Saturday was a strange sort of day...typical Melbourne really, cold, warm, cloudy, sunny, windy, still and in the end quite humid!

So after an uneventful trip to Cranbourne Botanical Gardens we decided to cheer ourselves up with a trip to the fabulous annual Melbourne comedy festival.

The town hall at Melbourne is the epicentre for this festival with literally on any given day, dozens of different acts taking to the many stages. So we had a look at the running board of acts, and decided in the end to take pot luck and go for the cheapest tickets, a massive $5 each.

We went to see a show called "Comicide" and upon reflection we would probably have been better buying expensive tickets!

Ah well...some you win and some you loose.

Long Weekend Trip to Beechworth...

2009-03-10T12:47:00.022+11:00

Waverley camera club, which we are both members of, many months ago organised a long weekend trip to Beechworth. We booked our places on this trip last September, eager to see Beechworth, a part of Victoria we had never visited.

That was before the bushfires!

So it was with some relief the long hot summer in Victoria finally broke a few days before our trip, and the days preceding our trip delivered a phenomenon not seen around these parts since early December...rain! The rain helped put out the bushfires...and so our trip was finally on!

So on Friday morning, March 6th we set off for Beechworth amidst low cloud, cool conditions and drizzle...just like a summer holiday in England!

It didn't last long. By the time we were within 100KM of Beechworth the clouds had disappeared and the sun had returned, setting the scene for a long weekend of fabulous weather, great company and some good photographs.

We arrived in Beechworth on Friday afternoon and after checking in at the Old Priory guesthouse we set about exploring the area. We were the first of the party to arrive but we were soon joined by Dave & Rosie Sumner. We decided that as a foursome we should have a plan of action, and there was no better way of concocting this dastardly plan than to retire to the nearest coffee shop! Suitably refreshed we set off for a walk around the town itself, taking in the original Beechworth Gaol (Still a working jail) and most of what is called the historical precinct, an area very carefully crafted to show of the original old Beechworth buildings.

Beechworth also has a very old and deep gorge running through the middle of the town which we went to explore...and you guessed it, there was hardly any water in the gorge. We could see where the river would flow if there was water, and we could see where it had flowed...but I would guess it has not flowed for many years. Consequently the gorge became a rock climbing area for me and Dave. We thought the area may make for some spectacular sunset shots that evening, but unfortunately our view of the sunset proved to be totally obscured...not by clouds but by the pub we later adjourned to!

By early evening some other members of the part arrived and we decided to investigate the local pub, staying for our evening meal and a few drinks...and in Dave's case...a few more!

Saturday after breakfast saw a group of us get together and decide to walk the entirety of the Beechworth gorge scenic "drive". From beginning to end this was a 10km walk, a fabulous chance to walk, chat with friends, stop for a picnic lunch, and take a few pictures.

By the time we had completed the walk we decided to explore another of Beechworth's famous attractions...it's very own micro brewery! So we all retired to a shaded part of the brewery to sample the local fare and held a very impromptu committee meeting to talk about how to improve the club. Funnily enough the ideas got more and more radical as we sampled more and more of the brewery products!

Saturday evening saw us at the pre arranged BBQ at the priory gardens, with a group of us deciding to finish the evening with a Beechworth dusk "Ghost Tour", a 90 minute walk around the old Beechworth hospital and lunatic asylum. I learnt two very valuable lessons from this tour:
1. Don't waste my money on this tour again.
2. Remember my bloody tripod in future if I want to take night photography!

Back to the priory at about 10.00pm and another drink and chat before bed.

Sunday morning saw us departing as a group en masse for the nearby Myrtelford festival and a local photography exhibition. We all agreed (as we would!) that the photos for sale were no better than the photography we produce. Suitably self satisfied we set off to prove that to ourselves with a trip up Mount Buffalo.

Dave & Rosie joined us again as we decided to take the hike to the top of the "Hump" and the "Cathedral" at the top of the mountain, two huge stone facades which dominated the landscape at the top of the mountain. it was a fair old climb to the top, but well worthwhile. We got some great shots of these two iconic rocks as well as the surrounding panoramic views. Dave even tried a full 360 degree panorama shot, with me in every image...I await with interest the outcome of this when he finally does his photoshop stitching!

After the climb we drove to Lake Catini at Mount Buffalo and had a very late afternoon picnic, enjoying the warm sun and the good company.

On the way back we stopped off at the site of the earlier bushfires, just to the South of Beechworth. For the first time we really got a sense of the scale and magnitude of these fires. Thousands upon thousands of acres of land totally burned and occupied by a new eerie species of plant...dead trees with black trunks and brown leaves, growing in a scarred barren black and brown fields...

No photograph we could take could do justice to the scene...but we tried!

Sunday evening saw another group dinner at the local pub before retiring for our final night stay at the Priory.

Monday morning saw the group depart in different directions for the journey home. We decided to travel via the "back roads" to Mansfield, just to get a sight of the very sparsely populated bush areas of Victoria.

We finally arrived in Mansfield in mid afternoon with the car now covered in dust and dirt from the unsealed roads we had been travelling on for over 2 hours!

After a late lunch in Mansfield we travelled down to Jameison, but the road across to Eildon was closed because of the previous fires, so we drove back up to Mansfield and joined the thousands of other cars on the drive back to Melbourne via the Yarra valley and the Melba highway. We drove straight past the main bushfire area of Kinglake and its surrounds and boy oh boy does this send shivers up your spine. I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like for the poor souls who were trapped in this area on Black Saturday.

Mile after mile of this new tree species populated the black scarred fields. I wonder how long it will take for this region to recover?

Back home on Monday evening after a very enjoyable 4 day trip. We enjoyed the company immensely, we took some good photos and generally had a great time...but the overriding memory is of those bushfire affected areas...once again reinforcing my view of how fortunate we are...

On the road again...

2009-02-18T21:48:00.008+11:00

The valentine's day weekend in Melbourne was shaping up to be a pretty depressing weekend. The shock and horror of the bush fires hung over Melbourne, and the city was covered on Friday night with an oppressive blanket of smoke.

There was not much Jill and I could do to help...so we decided to cheer ourselves up by hitting the road again!

So late on Friday night we found ourselves traveling over the Westgate bridge, past Geelong to Torquay, our base for the weekend. An eerie smoky sunset greeted us as we drove down to Torquay, and we commented to each other just how much more aware we were of the high fire risk throughout Melbourne and it's surrounds, even in coastal areas like Torquay. The entire area is "tinder box" dry.

After arriving at our accomodation for the weekend we unpacked and hurried into town for our obligatory Friday night Chinese meal before hitting bed early ready for our weekend mini "road trip".

Torquay is the gateway to the Great Ocean Road, and although we have traveled the road twice before, this time we wanted to take a more leisurely trip, stopping off and actually exploring a little, rather than hurriedly driving through.

First stop was Anglesea for breakfast and water supplies. After Anglesea we drove on to Lorne where we stumbled upon the local Surf Life Saving beach games taking place on Lorne beach front. We felt completely out of place in this environment, having never seen such an event before. We don't have much call for Surf Life Saving activities in the part of Lancashire we come from!
We stayed to take a few pictures and amuse ourselves at the "strange activities" taking place, before moving on before our 1 hour car park expired!

On to our next stop at Cumberland River. We had passed this place before but not stopped, so this time we parked the car, loaded up the backpacks and went for a walk. What a fabulous little walk it was.

We spent a good couple of hours here, stopping to take pictures and gradually walk up the river pathway to the natural water "pool" about 3 KM from the start. I has set out this weekend determined to use my new Sigma 50MM 1.4EX lens, and I wanted to take every shot with just this lens. Equally Jill was gradually weaning herself off her canon L 24-105 lens to the Canon L 17-40 lens, and she was trying hard to enjoy this lens...

We thoroughly enjoyed this short walk, and after returning to the car moved on to Apollo Bay for a late leisurely late lunch. We had already decided we wanted to get to Airey's Inlet and "Split Point" lighthouse for sunset, so we decided to gradually make our way back, listening to the latest "James" CD in the car. James are rapidly becoming our favourite band...even, dare I say it, surpassing the mighty Bruce Springsteen in our personal all time favourite list.

When, oh when will either of these two fantastic live acts come to Australia?

So we arrived at Aireys Inlet at about 6.30pm, plenty of time to look around and get set for what we hoped would be a spectacular sunset....Of course it did not happen!

We got lots of shots of Split point and the inlet area itself, but just as the sun was due to set a great bank of clouds rolled in from the West and completely obscured the sunset!
Oh well, I guess it would not have been as spectacular as our Mungo sunset photos!!

Back to Torquay and a pasta takeaway and we spent Saturday night watching Rockwiz on a crappy TV.

Sunday morning saw a quick pack up and departure from our accommodation and into Torquay for breakfast. We decided to travel home via Queenscliffe, the ferry and the Mornington Peninsula.

Unfortunately Sunday was very windy and our idea of traveling back via the Ocean Beaches of the Peninsula and getting lots of great shots, backfired. We dare not take the cameras onto the beaches for fear of the camera's worst enemy...sand!

So a relatively uneventful trip home, back to smoky Melbourne and back with our thoughts for those poor souls who exactly one week ago had perished in the bushfire horrors...

How lucky we are!

RoadTrip...Upon Reflection...

2009-01-11T19:39:00.004+11:00

We travelled exactly 4197 KM's from beginning to end on this road trip, so I think the first thing to reflect upon is the fact that our car was absolutely flawless. I guess if you are going to travel this far on Australia's long straight roads, at a steady 100KM /hr average, then a 4Litre V8 engine is the perfect tool...with air conditioning!

The Sat Nav system also worked perfectly, although in truth was only really needed at the very detailed end of each journey to find our motel easily, but nevertheless it was good to have.

We were VERY fortunate with the weather. We did not see one drop of rain on the entire trip, but more fortunately we did not suffer much of the horrific heat that Australia in January can throw at you. We had one really hot day on New Year's day in Sydney (39 degrees) and a real "hottie" in Yarrawonga (40 degrees), other than that it was mostly mid 20's to early 30's degree temperatures, with lots of sun....very nice.

We tended to travel from destination to destination during mid morning to early afternoon, arriving in most places in time to check in and enjoy late afternoon and early evening. much better light for photography than mid day sun!

I was testing out my new Canon EOS 5D mark 2 camera, and Jill was road testing her Canon 40D. Both camera's worked perfectly. Apart from the skill of us as photographers, it is really difficult to take a bad picture with these cameras.

We enjoyed all the places we visited. We particularly liked the North East area of Victoria (Petrina was right!) and Bright was our favourite stop off point. Jill's highlight was the "Cemetery of Trees" at Falls Creek. We both enjoyed our walks in the Blue Mountains, and we were particularly pleased with our effort at walking the "Giant Stairway" (1011 steps...I counted them!) on two successive days. We even walked two thirds of the way down, and then all the way back up again on our first attempt!

We both agreed that our favourite area from a photography point of view was Mungo National Park. We were stunned by the wide open spaces, the big sky and the majestic views. This was the Australia we wanted to see...

Stay tuned for more photo blogs throughout the year....

Road Trip Part 8...The Final Destination

2009-01-10T21:18:00.008+11:00

Back to Civilization...or at least it felt that way as we arrived in Bendigo after a 4.5 hour journey.

I have to say the journey from Mildura to Bendigo was one of the most boring and easiest drives I have ever done. There was simply no traffic on the Calder Highway, or very little. The highway was just mile after mile of single lane highway with very little of visual interest, unlike the other highways and roads we had travelled on. I simply set the cruise control to110 KMPH, and point the car in the right direction and then sit back and listen to the music.

So what do we make of Bendigo?

Well firstly the weather was again fabulous. sunny but not overly hot as Bendigo can be, a modest 29 degrees today.

We spent the afternoon walking round the Pall Mall and Rosalind Park area, admiring the gardens and the splendid architecture, with the occasional stop for a drink and an ice cream.

The conservatory area in Rosalind Park was particularly impressive, surrounded by colourful flower beds in pristine condition, despite the Stage 4 water restrictions here in Bendigo.

After a good walk around the city, completing well over the 10,000 steps demanded by our Pedometers, we went for a well earned drink and a meal.

Tomorrow, the final day of our holiday we will spend more time in Bendigo looking at the old gold mines and tramways...and then back home to Melbourne.

Road Trip...Part 7...Mungo!

2009-01-09T23:03:00.013+11:00

We have lived in Australia for nearly 6 years, and tonight we finally went into the outback...the wilderness...the desert...call it what you like, we went to Mungo National Park.

Mungo is relatively accessible from Mildura, a 3 hour round trip. However about 2.5 hours of the trip is on unmade rough roads. Thankfully I was not driving, we went on with a local "guide" in his 4 wheel drive Land Cruiser.

The journey to Mungo goes from civilization (Mildura), through country towns, to remote farms, through outback scrub country, and finally to the wilderness that leads to Mungo, about 110 KM in total.

Mungo National Park is mainly comprised of "Lake Mungo", or at least it was a lake about 15,000 years ago. This whole area we now know was inhabited by Australian aboriginals, long, long before we white men stepped on this continent. The lake, and therefore this national park is about 300 KM square, a huge flat landscape. The far eastern side of the lake contains the rock and sand dune formation known as "The Great Wall of China" (apparently named as such by early Chinese migrants who worked here on sheep farms).

In the early 20th century, through to mid 1970, this whole area was a sheep farm, and in fact the Mungo visitor centre focuses on the original sheep shearing station which operated here. Goodness me, this must have been atough isolated existence!

The "Great Wall" is the area most photographed by visitors, but the thing is these pictures do not adequately convey the scale of this place. As Jill said, at sunset, it was like we were on top of the world. We watched the most amazing sunset spread 360 degrees around us, and finally we understood the meaning of the term "Big Sky". I have to say, being in a place like this makes you realise just how insignificant you are. 40,000 years ago this was a teeming freshwater lake providing life for all sorts of plants, animals, and early aboriginal human beings!

Time, I think to reflect further on this, and go and have a beer!

Road Trip...Part 6...Mildura Day 2

2009-01-08T23:54:00.009+11:00

Well, what a blessed relief today.

Overnight we had a "Cool Change" and we woke to find Mildura bathed in sunshine from a crystal clear azure blue sky, with a temperature of only 17 degrees.

The cool temperature did not last too long, it climbed to 30 degrees again by mid afternoon, but the cool morning was a welcome relief.

We set off in the morning to see Wentworth.

Wentworth is important because this is the place where the Murray and Darling rivers finally meet and join together, although as our photos of the river meeting shows, it is all fairly inocuous...no brass bands heralding the meeting, no neon signs, no souvenir shops, not even a MacDonald's...nothing! Just a green field, some gum trees and a serene river of one brown colour meeting another serene river of a less brown colour.

Oh well. Whilst at Wentorth we also went to look at Lock 10, part of the 15 lock system in this region of the Murray which govern the flow of this mighty river.

Once again it was all very non descript.

So, we got back in the car and drove back to Mildura.

Mildura itself is a strange place. A bit like New York it is built on a series of grids, with street names given numbers (11th street) and street avenues given names (Lime Street). The city CBD, is very small and sits slightly back from the main river frontage. We expected the river front as the main attraction for Mildura to be very busy. But once again, it was all very underwhelming and quiet. The river frontage itself is predominantly populated with "House Boats", and camp sites, although thankfully, unlike at Albury, there was enough water in this part of the Murray to allow operation of the Paddle Steamers. So once again we decided on a paddle steamer ride in the afternoon.

By mid afternoon it had actually become very warm again, and the sun was beating down. The paddle steamer cruise was quite docile, apart from the section when we went through the lock at Mildura (Lock 11). WE were first lowered by about 6 metres to the level of the river beyond the lock system, and then on our return journey raised again by 6 metres. It was all rather like a giant watery elevator, and I half expected Dido songs to be played from a hidden elevator PA system whilst we were in this lift. Thankfully this was not the case.

In the evening, we went on another "Dinner Cruise" cruising from 7pm to 10pm along the Murray river, in the opposite direction this time. Dinner was a pseudo "school meal" type of affair, but we did enjoy cruising in the cool of the evening, and we got some great shots of the setting sun along the river banks.

As the sun sank lower, and the light levels faded, I finally got a chance for some real life High ISO pictures from my new camera. I was able to get good exposures along the river banks, in very little light, at ISO 25600 and ISO 12800, although as you can imagine, the final images were a bit grainy. Still, with my older camera I would have got nothing, so kudos to Canon for this.

Tomorrow we are off to Mungo national Park for some sunset photography...I am looking forward to that.

Road Trip...Part 5 - Mildura at Last

2009-01-07T22:12:00.006+11:00

Well, we finally made it to Mildura after 6 hours of driving from Yarrawonga.

We have always wanted to visit Mildura, but it is such a long way from Melbourne we have always shyed away from the idea. Well this time we knew we could make it as part of our "Road Trip".

We basically followed the Murray River all the way from Yarrawongo to Mildura. It's a journey like this that makes you realise just why the Murray is called the "Mighty Murray".

We arrived in Mildura about 4pm and after a quick visit to the information centre, we headed down to the river to look at the lock and weir system which forms part of the Murray irrigation system we first saw way back at lake Hume.

This time, unlike Lake Hume and at Yarrawonga the lock system was working, regulating the flow of water, and we finally got some pictures of a working lock and weir on the Murray River.

2009-01-06T22:43:00.002+11:00

Road Trip...Part 4...Day 11

Oh my gosh!...
40 degrees today in Yarrawonga, far too hot for walking, in fact too hot for anything, well almost anything.

We managed to find a paddle boat cruiser operating on Lake Mulawa, and we went on TWO cruises, we figured a lake cruise was the only way to stay cool.We did a 2pm afternoon cruise, and a 6.30pm dinner cruise, and it was still bloody hot on the lake on both occasions!

The lake is actually quite interesting. It is a man made lake dating back to 1939 which was constructed to dam the Murray River and create a weir at Yarrawonga which helped flood all sorts of feeder irrigation canal systems as far as 300KM into NSW and Victoria.

The dam was created on the site of a natural flood plain in Yarrawonga, and the plain contained thousands upon thousands of trees, and guess what all these trees are now dead.

So once again we were confronted with more dead trees. This time though at least we knew the trees were killed for a purpose.

It was still an eerie sight, dead trees sticking out of the lake. Apparently a lot more were visible up to 10 years ago, but now after 60 years, most of them have rotted and fallen over into the lake.

TO be honest, it was so warm we both felt like falling over into the lake...but we did not have our bathers so we stayed woith the boat trip and went for a cold beer at the end of the day.

Tomorrow we are off to Mildura for 3 nights, where apparently it is warmer still !!

Road Trip...Part 3 (Day 10)

2009-01-05T20:47:00.006+11:00

Our second day in Bright, and another beautiful warm sunny day.

In fact the locals had suggested that it would be too hot down in the valley of Bright today (and it was...35 degrees!) so we should go to Mount Buffalo where it would be 10 degrees cooler...and it was exactly!

So armed with lots of water, walking shoes...and of course cameras we set off for the beautiful national park area of Mount Buffalo.

We got to the top and once again were confronted with a "tree cemetry".

This one was not as bad as Falls creek, but still contained millions of dead trees from the 2003 bushfires. It was eerie at the top of the mountain because not only were we confronted with another tree cemetry, but we realised just how deathly quiet this area is now...no birds...no wildlife...nothing!

After a quick drink and a bite to eat, and lots of dead tree photos we found our way to Lake Catani, a man made lake at the top of Mount Bufallo. You can still see evidence of dead trees at the top of the lakeside banks. This is a beautiful tranquil area, and yes it was cooler here...a mere 25 degrees!

We decided to take the 5K Lakeside walk to the "Gorge" lookout, so off we trekked in the midday heat! The walk was quite easy and our camelback hydration systems really do make these walks pleasant.

After finally arriving at the Gorge I decided to make use of the tripod I had carried all the trek, do set up a shot of me & Jill together. The photo really does not do justice to the view...

Maybe this one does...

So a quick lunch of cheese and biscuits and we set off back to the Lake, and back in the car to Bright to meet up with Petrina, our friend from Melbourne who now lives nearby in Wangaratta. It was 36 degrees back in Bright and I suddenly developed a huge thirst for the local beer, from Bright brewery...I had several...and I can't remember what happened to the rest of the day!!

On to Yarrawonga tomorrow...more walking i guess.

Road Trip...Part 2 (Day 9)

2009-01-04T22:05:00.013+11:00

So another early start, this time for the relatively short trip from Albury to Bright.

The car had become a bit of a dumping ground by this stage so we decided on a quick car tidy up before we set off. We also took the opportunity to lighten the load and get rid of some rubbish...particularly the CD's we listened to on the journey, from Dido, UB40 and James Taylor! Sorry guys you are just not to our taste!

Our first stopping point was en route at Mount Beauty, which is actually not a mountain at all, but a rather arrogantly named small town in The Alpine High Country area. Once again it was very hot and bright (Excuse the pun!) but I did manage to persuade Jill to pose for this shot overlooking the township of Mt. Beauty.

From there we drove up the mountain pass to Falls Creek ski resort where we were greeted with the most bizarre sight, millions and millions of dead trees. It was like a tree graveyard as Jill said. Apparently the Falls Creek area was devastated by a bush fire in 2003, and all these trees on the mountain side died as a result of the fire. One day they will simply all fall over, but for now they offer one last eerie visage of "death row"...literally row upon row of dead trees.

As for falls Creek itself, well it was nice and cool, a temperature of only 21 degrees as opposed to 32 degrees down in the valley. It was a typical ski resort which brought back fond memories of all my skiing trips in the Alps (French Alps!).

From falls creek we drove into Bright and after checking in at our motel we went into Bright town and decided it would be a good idea at 4pm to do the 5km "Canyon Walk" along the banks of the Ovens River in temperatures of 34 degrees!

The canyon walk took us along the banks of the river through the old Gold fields. I tried to persuade Jill to do some panning for Gold in the river, but all she could muster was a feeble attempt at cooling her feet!

Still, the walk had its compensations, it finished exactly opposite the local Bright brewery where cooled down by sampling the local brews...a great end to a great day...

More to come...

"Road Trip"...Part 1

2009-01-03T21:12:00.030+11:00

We have lived in Melbourne for nearly 6 years and this is our first opportunity for a "Road Trip". Don't run away with the idea that we are going to look around far north Queensland, or even Western Australia....No this is to be a "Road Trip" in our own car around our "Near Neighbours" in Victoria and NSW.

Armed with enough bags to sink a battleship, and enough camera equipment to set up a market stall, we set off as intrepid adventurers, Jill with her trusty Canon 40D and Pete with his shiny new Canon 5D mark 2...and couple of polarizing filters!!...oh and lot's of CD's tossed in along the way.

Day 1 saw us driving approximately 5.5 hours to Mallacoota in Eastern Gippsland. We set off from home at approximately 8.30am and after a number of stops along the way arrived at 4.00pm in Mallacoota. It was warm afternoon with temperatures of roughly 26 degrees Celsius. However the beautiful visage of Mallacoota we had been led to expect evaded us. The sky was blanketed with a warm grey overcast sky. Not at all great for landscape photography. Apparently Mallacoota had a massive storm earlier in the day, although we did not see any rain...the town and the "campers city" was very damp.

We did our best and got some very nice early evening shots of Mallacoota and its lakes and bays.

Day 2 saw us wake to a brilliant blue sky...and to be honest we haven't seen any cloudy skies since!

We set off for another 5.5 hour journey to our second destination...Wollongong. I have to say the journey up the Eastern coastal road was spectacular, flanked by the great dividing range on our left, and the Eastern seaboard on our right. We stopped often, just to take in the views...and finally arrived in Woolongong on day 2 at about 4pm.

It was rather warm in Wollongong...about 29 degrees. After checking into our motel we went for a walk along the famous promenade. Above all the sight of the Wollongong lighthouse dominated the area.

We were really quite impressed with Wollongong, a perfect example of how to blend an old industrial mining town with a modern tourist centric city.

The man made harbour in particular was very impressive. Unlike it's near neighbour, Sydney, Wollongong does not have the luxury of natural harbours to shelter it from the ravages of the mighty Pacific Ocean...a fact which made for some spectacular ocean beaches and rollers.

After a lovely meal (and a bottle of wine!) in the harbour we decided we would quite like to come back to Wollongong one day...

Day 3 - Off the the Blue Mountains and our "base" for the next 4 days...Katoomba.
What a spectacular place this is...and we were utterly blessed to have 4 days of Cobalt Blue skies and temperate days...26 degrees and no more!

We took literally hundreds of photographs here...how can you not do when you have such spectacular scenery. This photo was taken on New Year's eve at about 8pm. just before we headed off for our NYE Chinese meal...

We walked...and walked..and walked...
On day 2 in Katoomba we walked to the "Giant Stairway" and arrived there at about 5pm. Foolishly we set off down the stairway. We got to about 2/3 of the way down (600 steps!) and decided it was too late in the day to continue, so we walked back up those 600 steps!!!. Reebok steppers have nothing on us!

We were both upset at the prospect of failing on this trek so the following day we got up early and set off from "Scenic World" on a trek to "Echo Point"...and from there to the Giant Stairway. This time there was no stopping us...I counted 1016 steps from top to bottom...in temperatures of 28 degrees....and from there another 3km trek through the rain forest back to scenic world!

A well deserved drink and meal in the evening saw us early to bed...and early to rise for a New Year's day drive into Sydney to see my long lost Uncle Jack...now 87 years old and still walking around Sydney!

Not today however as Sydney greeted us with a 36 degrees day, and even Uncle Jack found it tough going...we decided on a drink or two in a sheltered wine bar and the chance to look over some old photos on my laptop.

We still took the opportunity of some photos in and around Sydney, including the famous fountain in the Kings Cross area where Uncle Jack lives.
A 90 minute drive back to the cooler climes of the Blue Mountains saw gave us some welcome relief...and another early night before our trip to Gundagai.

Day 6 - Gundagai...
I wanted to visit Gundagai for no other reason than I knew it was once a major highway town between Melbourne & Sydney along the Hume Highway, and that it was infamous for the fact that in yeas gone by the town elders decided to build Gundagai on a "Flood Plain" of the Murrumbidgee river.

Legend has it that the Aboriginal wise men warned against this...but were ignored...and sure enough in 1852 (I think!) the Murrumbidgee river burst it's banks, flooding the old town and killing over 80 people...still to this day, Australia's worst natural disaster.

It doesn't look like it would flood anything now!

The old site of Gundagai town is just a dried up cow field, with no sign of a river or flood plain for miles around, and its old disaster confined to the past. Its more recent claim to fame being the notoriety from the "Slim Dusty" song.."on the road to Gundagai".

Still, we got some great shots of the old township, and in particular the old railway station.

So...Gundagai...a very sleepy old town with a past not forgotten...

Day 7 - Albury. Up early for the relatively short hop to Albury and Wodonga. A mere 2 hours drive...which Jill drove!

I knew that Albury & Wodonga were like an Australian version of Nelson & Colne (Only Joking!!) Twin towns with different allegiances. I particularly wanted to see Lake Hume and the Hume Dam. I knew that the dam was an important part of the Murray River water scheme...although having seen the very low water levels in the Murray River area we had no expectation that the dam would be as full and free flowing as shown in all the publicity photos.

Well we went to the lake and the dam...and it was a very hot (32 degrees) sunny day, not at all ideal for taking photos, and guess what...?
The lake was very still and the dam has not flowed to capacity for 16 years!!

Oh well...we made the best of our trip with plenty of drinks and ice creams!

Stay tuned for part 2 of our "Road Trip" blog.

P&J

Melbourne Botanical Gardens

2008-12-07T21:41:00.008+11:00

One of our favourite places in Melbourne is the Botanical Gardens.

When all else fails, and we have nothing particular arranged, we nip down to the Botanical Gardens in the expectation that we will manage one or two decent photos during the day. Waling round the gardens is also a great way to ensure that our pedometers reach the magic 10,000 steps in a day!

And this day was no exception...

We were accompanied by Dave Sumner, one of our friends from Waverley Camera Club. Dave was trying out his new Canon 100-400 MM L lens...a heavy beast.

As usual on a warm sunny Sunday. the gardens looked like "Picnic City" with the odd liberal sprinkling of weddings at various locations. The gardens did not really look their best. The spring flower show had largely faded and lost some of its spleandour. Still it was in many places a colourful display.

I was particularly taken with this shot of a yellow plant (I have no idea of its name!) which in this festive season looked like an Australian Christmas tree (At least I thought so!!)

We spent most of the day practicing different types of shots. In particular we were all experimenting with HDR and macro shots.

I still struggle to get a decent macro shot, although I know the answer to this problem lies in the tripod...I just haven't figured out how to get close enough with a tripod for a great macro shot. This was my best effort of the day (again I have no idea of the plant name!)

We are very lucky here in Melbourne to have such a marvelous facility so close at hand. It's a great place to test and push your photography techniques. I am fairly sure we will go again before the summer is over...

Southern Star - Harbour City

2008-12-06T22:11:00.007+11:00

I am actually quite looking forward to the opening of the Southern Star Melbourne observation wheel at the newly created harbour City in Docklands.

I last visited this site in July, and it was nothing more than a "building site". I didn't think for one minute it would become the attractive harbour area it is now.

But I was wrong!

The big wheel, the Southern Star is a VERY impressive structure, with its tag line "...like nothing on earth" it utterly dominates the skyline and the Harbour area.

Jill and I will definitely go back there when the ride opens...soon I hope.

X Mas Polo Tournament

2008-12-06T17:47:00.007+11:00

Our office Christmas Party this year was at the Werribee X Mas polo tournament.

"Hmm.What do I know about polo?" I thought to myself.

Well apart from the fact that it used to be a mint with a hole, or a little green VW hatchback which Jill drove for many years, I know absolutely nothing about polo.

I knew that Prince Charles plays polo, and that it involves horses (Wrong actually!) but other than I know nothing.

So armed with this vast wealth of information I decided to take my camera along and as they say, see what I could see

Well, I now know that polo is a game played between two teams of four horsemen. The game is divided into four quarters, and at the end of each quarter the horsemen change their "ponies" (See not horses!). Each quarter lasts 7 minutes or so, and the object, like soccer is to get the ball into the goals and score a goal.

Polo is played on an arena which is roughly the size of three cricket pitches...huge! So I rapidly discovered that my 28mm to 300mm Canon L lens was useless for getting shots, except when the riders came near to where I was sitting. However I consoled myself with the knowledge that even a vast 600mm Canon L behemoth would have been useless.

Hand held was the order of the day, and therefore Image stabilisation essential. The riders come past at such a pace that using a tripod would have been a waste of effort. I also discovered that horses and fields and hot sunny days in Melbourne equate to the evil cocktail dreaded of all Canon 5D owners...dust...lots of it!

No lens changing for me then in those dusty conditions, which is where the 28-300MM lens comes into its own. It is such a sharp lens for a 10 x zoom and allowed me to get close to riders at the wide angle, and use the zoom at the 300mm end.

So back to the polo...

Well I would say that polo is definitely not a spectator sport. Most times the action is too far away to see anything. But it is a great sport for justifying the consumption of Pimms!

In all seriousness, the riders are very skillful. They are great horsemen and have very good hand eye coordination, although on a hot dry, bumpy Melbourne field, that ability was often negated by the uneven bounce of the ball, resulting in lots of "air shots" (a bit like my golf swing!).

Oh and a tournament consists of two or three matches, and often players will play for more than one team in a tournament, and basically the players are the only ones who know (and care) what is going on in the match and what the score is!

So, will I go to a polo tournament again?
Only if invited...and next time I will go without the camera and concentrate on the Pimms!

Weekend Trip to Inverloch

2008-11-30T20:28:00.014+11:00

Being an Englishman and having spent most of my life in England I guess I have become "programmed" to want nice sunny days for my holidays and weekends.

The problem is, here in Melbourne, "nice sunny days" can quickly become hot sunny days and sometimes "unberably hot sunny days". Hot sunny days are not only difficult to enjoy on a photo walk because of the heat, but also because of the harsh contrasty lighting that bright Australian sun provides.

So it was with a mixture of disapointment and satisfaction we woke on Saturday in Inverloch to find grey leaden skies with a cool southerly wind and a hint of showers in the air.

"Never mind, lets get breakfast and see what turns up" we agreed.

Well a hearty bacon & eggs later the weather has still not improved so we decided on a ride in the car along the stunning Bunurong Marine Park coastal drive.

First stop, Eagles Nest beach. What a stunning location! Even with grey overcast skies.

The erosion which has created this visage boggles the mind, or at least it boggled Jill's mind. She took no less than 300 exposures in this one location, although in her defence she was using exposure bracketing because we agreed beforehand that in order to do this location justice we would need to create HDR images. Jill uses a canon EOS 40D and the high speed drive capability on this camera is great for handholding multiple exposures...much better than my Canon EOS 5D.

So we spent a good hour or more exploring "Eagles Nest" and taking lots of pictures. Once you get away from Melbourne city, the Victorian coastline, and in particular the ocean coastline is spectacular and rewards you with lots of rich colours, awe sinspiring rock formations and stunning location shots...even on a grey overcast day!

After we had finished at Eagles nest we drove on to several smaller locations along the coastal road before eventually deciding on an about turm and heading for "Venus Bay". What a quiet sleepy town this is...or at least it was on the Saturday we were there. Like all these ocean beach towns it has several beaches. We walked down to "Beach No.1" and were confronted with one of the longest most isolated beaches I have seen...with just one solitary fisherman enjoying his undisturbed Saturday afternoon!

After a quick coffee and a muffin we headed back to Inverloch and decided on a walk through the nature reserves, easily beating the 10,000 steps demanded each day by our pedometer!

A few more photos followed and then a quick drive into town and a chinese meal and glass (or two) of wine.

The best of the photos from this trip can be seen on our web site HERE.

Videos on a Photo Site!!

2008-11-27T17:58:00.005+11:00

Yes videos on a photo site!

I have just finished uploading a few video clips. In particular I have finally edited and uploaded some High Definition (HD) clips.

I think as still photography and videography continue their slow progress towards union, we will see more and more examples of video and photos being shared and treated as though they were the same thing.

We all know that You Tube hosts videos, and now Flickr can host videos, but the quality of the Smug Mug video hosting and streaming is fantastic. See for yourself .

I am looking forward to getting my hands on the new Canon EOS5d Mark 2 which combines both high resolution stills photography capability with high definition video capability. Now that will be interesting!

In The Beginning...

2008-11-25T19:58:00.002+11:00

Well here we go...blog or bust!!

The idea of this blog is to try and give some background to the many images we are now posting on our web site. For those of you who read this blog you may find this interesting (or boring!) but for Jill and I the blog will serve as a valuable reference source for the years to come.

The starting point for this blog is a reference back to our web site as it stands today. Have a look at the site and you will see that we have organised the many galleries into categories.

The main category is "Around Australia". But you will also see our "personal images" category, a category for the portrait shots taken by PJM at Melbourne Camera Club and Waverley Camera Club. In addition we have a "Video" category where you can see vide clips from our time here in Australia.

Have a look at the "High Definition" category and see some of the very high quality HD movies.

More to come...

Enjoy!!