And in the end

The love you take is equal to the love you make...

Today marks the final day of the bin-fire year  2020.  I intend to celebrate with a symbolic bin-fire of my own to see the year to it's end.  What are you doing?

Mean Santa

We have a Christmas tradition where each family member is assigned another family member to buy a present for a maximum value of $120.  This stops ridiculous amounts of money being spent on what in some cases is throwaway junk.  Each guest also buys a second present for Mean Santa.  These presents are allocated randomly with each person receiving a number when they arrive.  This number corresponds to the present they receive from bad Santa.  However there is a twist.  Every person except the person with number 1 can choose to swap presents with any that have already been allocated.  It can be quite fun.  The image is the picture on the Mean Santa collection box.

Flush

There is nothing about 2020 that cannot be fixed with a good flush.  It is nearly over.  Happy holidays to all

Obi Wan

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi your my only hope.  The plans for the death Star are in this droid.... :)

The Bee

A humble bumble bee going about it's business on a very bright flower near gardens house at the botanic gardens in Melbourne.

The Expanse

Are you into science fiction? I hear a yes from some of you… Do you buy things from Amazon? A couple more yes’s. If so and you haven’t activated Amazon Prime this show might just be enough to get you across the wire. To say it is awesome does not do it justice. I have read the books and it just gets bigger from where we are in Season 5 right now. The Expanse comes very highly recommended

The Expanse on Prime

On this day

17th of December 2017

I had a visit to the NGV and sat behind the waterwall.  This was the best shot from the set

Centre Court

Entry to centre court at Kooyong.  This was our guide for the day.  I am not sure of his name.  I was a little sad to see that centre court is no longer the famous grass that was the scene of the Australian Open Tennis for nearly 100 years.

Tennis anyone

Chair under the winners board at Kooyong lawn tennis club.  The former home of the Australian Open.  Some very big names in Tennis are on that board.  the last time the Open was played at Kooyong was 1988 and the winner was M. Wilander.

The hay crop

Rain falling on distant fields.  Somewhere near Port Albert in Gippsland

90 mile beach

I can honestly say that I have never visited the 90 mile beach in Gippsland and to describe it as magnificent doesn't do it justice.  Here are two images from the exact same spot one looking east and the other west.

Park Bench

Bench with a view on the promenade at Port Albert

Water tank

It is unusual to see a water tank in Australia without an associated windmill to pump water into the tank from the underground water table.  This one is in a high rainfall area so I will assume there is enough water without resorting to the pump.

First look

After a very protracted lockdown here is my first look at a beach.  And what a fine day it was too.

Fruit

Banana in high key and colorized

A couple of weeks ago I was given a portable light box.  This was a test shot that I took with it.  It was converted to monochrome high key and then colorized.  I like the way it turned out

First hug

The first hug post covid.  Great grand daughters seeing the great grand parents for the first time in more than 6 months

Poppies

Word of the day - Poppies

This image was taken a couple of years ago in the forecourt of Melbourne's shine of remembrance

On the road again

 In honour of our pending release from a long and hard lockdown here is a musical tribute

Tete de la course

The head of the course coming towards Stoner corner at the bottom end of the Phillip Island grand prix course.  In  the background is Bass straight and Cape Woolamai

Watching the peleton

The media recording the peleton of the 2019 Herald Sun Tour as they cross the start finish line at the Philip Island grand prix track.

Portrait shoot

On Sunday I was asked to shoot four generations of a family in a local park.  This was my favourite from the session.  I was quite happy with all of the images taken.

Hunt 29 - Round

Here we are on the last day of reveals and the word is round.  I took my image of the moon on the first day of shooting.  I walked out in the morning and the moon was just hanging in the sky like a ripe fruit.  This is both SOOC and handheld

Don't hesitate to follow the link to the full reveal album.  there are some very creative individuals in the scavenger hunt community.

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-round/

Hunt 29 - Boats

Day 9 and the word is boats... Faced with a hard lockdown and a 5k travel limit... Getting a picture of actual boats was next to impossible. Amazon to the rescue. Practical and covers the brief :) I was going to do origami boats but I had already done these for the word smile a few hunts back

Don't forget to click through the links to see all of the entries in the reveal album

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-boat/

Hunt 29 - Metal

Day eight and the word is metal.  I went with the ties that bind us.  This is our wedding rings.

Don't forget to click through the link to the full reveal album to see how everyone else interpreted the word.

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-metal/

Hunt 29 - Path

Day seven and the word is path.  This particular path is at Schwerkolt Cottage not far from home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerkolt_Cottage

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-path/

Hunt 29 - Broken

Day six and the word is broken.  As I already was taking images of eggs for another word this was a natural fit.  I was after a simple high key look straight out of the camera.

Don't forget to visit the full album to see how others interpreted the word.

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-broken/

Hunt 29 - Water

Here we are at the half way mark and today the word is water.  I really wanted to portray a beach scene but our movements around Melbourne have been severely limited so instead I looked inwards.  This is a close up image of a water droplet on the petals of a flower.

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-water/

Hunt 29 - Needle

Update: 28/10 This placed third in the hunt for Needle

Day four and the word is needle.  There are so many ways to interpret this word.  Apparently a record needle was popular.  Here is my interpretation.  Don't hesitate to go and look at the link to see how others see the word needle

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-needle/

Hunt 29 - Motion

 Day 3 and the word is Motion...  Well technically it was "In camera motion blur".  This theme was a lot of fun.  Keeping in mind all entries are SOOC.  Here is mine below along with a link to the full reveal album.  Mine is a laser etched album from Split Enz called True Colours...  I got you...

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-motion/

Hunt 29 - Egg

Day two of the scavenger hunt and today the word is egg.  Here is my interpretation along with a link to the full album.  Feel free to click through to see how all the contestants interpreted the egg

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-egg

Hunt 29 - Coffee

 While in lockdown Penny and I participated in Scavenger hunt 29.  Today is the first of 10 days of reveals and the word is coffee.  My entry is pictured here.  "Tea and scones with stripes"  

Don't forget to click through to the full album and share in the joy of how many people view one word.

https://scavengerhunt.photography/round-29-reveals-coffee/

Coloured skies

Blue is a colour.  This is mount Arapiles across the wheat fields in the western districts of Victoria.  It is a favourite location for rock climbers.  Although this may soon stop as there are indigenous and cultural concerns that the area may be damaged by this activity

Circles

Sometimes when you have an idea for an image, there is nothing that can stop you until you get the desired result.  The image here was taken at Coolart homestead near Melbourne and consists of one base image and around 100 additional images to get the portals.  I had my friend Jane running around the lawn placing the mirror randomly while I clicked away.  As long as she wasn't in the base shot (the one with Winston).  It took around 20 minutes to get all of the images and then perhaps an hour in post production to combine them in to one coherent image.  I just love the result

Freedom

In our state of lockdown some may think that we are not free.  I disagree.  

Here in Australia we enjoy freedoms that others can only dream about. These freedoms were hard won by those that came before us.  If I ever need proof  I look back to Ballarat and the Eureka stockade in the 1850's.  The miners staged a revolt over the draconian government of the time.  They rallied under the Eureka flag.  

Pictured here is the original hand drawn design of the Eureka flag.  This can be found on display (sometimes) at the Ballarat fine art museum.  This is arguably the birth place of Australian democracy and if ever there was a symbol of freedom then this is it.  We live in interesting times.

Chair

 Winston the lonely bear on a lonely chair.  This was taken at Coolart homestead near Melbourne

Half

 Half penny for word of the day.

Inner space

Playing with my new Laowa 50mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO.  I took this today.  Can anyone guess what it might be?  I am really liking the lens it has a very shallow DOF and is manual focus.  The good thing is that I can tether it to my laptop and take picture without touching the camera.

Glass

 The glass water wall at the National Gallery of Victoria.  It will be great to visit there again.  Perhaps 2021 will be kinder.

Hello

 Actor Amy Raffe on set of Robert Chuter's "A Beautiful Request".  they always do lighting well for the movies :)

Wordless on Wednesday

 

2020 will be a year to remember

Last night we had this amazing storm...  Short sharp and destructive.  So far it has caused three deaths from trees falling.  For us we simply had no power for an hour or so.

This morning however I get a message that the power failure has caused contamination of our water supply and as a precaution we have to boil our water before use...  Good grief welcome to #firstworldproblems

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/vic/melbourne/2020/08/28/melbourne-water-contaminated-storm/

Image is Thursday night fish and chips by lantern light

Dawn at Cape Nelson

 Back in 2016 Penny and I had a weekend away to Portland and stayed at the lighthouse keepers cottage @ Cape Nelson.  I was up early to catch the sunrise.  This image is Cape Nelson in pre-dawn light

Wide open spaces

This image was taken in the western districts of Victoria.  Gives me memories of road trips on the wide open roads of Australia

As a bonus earworm we have The Triffids and "The wide open road"

The Triffids - Wide Open Road

Clocks

There is a saying in Melbourne "I will meet you under the clocks".  What they mean is that they will meet you at the corner of Swanston and Flinders street outside Flinders street station.  I am posting this image as a contrast of then and now.  A couple of days ago I posted a picture of Flinders street station at peak hour.  There were two people in the image.  This is rush hour from a Friday night back in 2016 for comparison.  I look forward to a time when we can have this vibrancy again :)

Note the image is black and white as it was taken for a black and white photowalk.

Mostly White

 This was a test shot for focus.  Sort of abstract...  :)

Simple

 A daffodil, watercolour and pencil.  This was created while I was sitting having a cup of coffee the other day.  The bones was about 5 or 10 minutes with a little touch here and there the next day.

12paof2020 - August assignment : Silly

With all the conspiracy theorists around right now I decided to show how silly they look while trying to be serious.  At least I have my personal tin foil hat when they come with the mind control device :)

Windows 95... I remember you well

 25 years ago Windows 95 was unleashed on the world.  I remember at the time thinking how awesome it was.  The thing that stuck with me the most was Edie Brickell and the song Good times which was featured on the install CD.  To celebrate 25 years here it is again.  Good times indeed.  Life was simpler then

Landmarks

Rush hour 7:59 am on Tuesday the 14th of April.  The city of Melbourne was in it's first round of lock down for the pandemic.  Normally this would be a thriving mass of individuals.  There are exactly two people pictured here (one is behind the traffic light). 

Word of the day - Movement

This is what Melbourne's Southern Cross station is normally like