River Trip

We have had some very hot weather here over the past week.  Fortunately a cool change came in yesterday and today was much nicer.  Today I was invited to go on a fishing trip for the morning.  I wasn't going to fish but to just hang around.  We had a great time and I took lots of photographs, some of which are shown below.

At one stage I noticed this little grey thing running along and closer inspection revealed it to be a crab, it was extremely small and was indeed running sideways.

As the fishing was winding up, the two of us not fishing (there were four in all, two fishing, two not) started to wander along the waterline and the surrounding rocks.  I found little snails clinging to the rocks which were tidally submerged and the other person found little purple flowers growing in the sand between the dry rocks.

Finally, as we were leaving, a pelican (dubbed 'Percival') swam by.

A great start to the new year!

Water, Water, Everywhere...

It has been raining a lot recently.  It is also cold and at the moment blowing a gale.  Sewing machine wise there has been nothing recently and that overlocker is still doing my head in.  Anyhow, a few weeks ago I seem to remember promising to upload pictures of water droplets.  Below is that promise.

In case you're wondering, the first picture is water droplets on cactus spikes.  It has the longest spikes I've ever seen and I was rather anxious about doing my camera lens an injury with one.

Peace

Everyone finds a feeling of peace differently.  For me it's photography, being alone and considering the image, wondering how I can get a different effect, a shadow, a bright patch, translucency, mystery, sadness, loneliness, joy, freedom etc.  I don't get much time to just wander with a camera these days but here are some images from a week ago when I could do just that.

When one finds that peace, that comfort, one can analyse each thought rationally and carefully.  It reminds me of one of my favourite Dusty Springfield songs, although a lot of other people covered it too, 'Windmills of Your Mind'.
Windmills of Your Mind - Dusty Springfield

Roses

We have a vase of roses in the kitchen.  It had been raining all day and an hour before sunset the sun came out.  I was inspired to do a little photography of this vase of roses in the sunshine.  Very unusually for me I then spent some time manipulating the images in paint.net.  I present the finished results below.

I really love this one, it looks soft, almost like feathers.

This was the first one I took, sadly the roses are a little dark

This one is just plain odd!

Green roses anyone?

I know they are far from perfect but I do like playing with all the tools in paint!  With any luck I should be posting the promised pictures of the overlocker tomorrow evening.

Some Photographs

Four to be precise.  I was sick on the weekend and didn't get to work early enough to work on machines.  I was rather annoyed actually as I had a new overlocker to work on.  With any luck I will get to that on Wednesday.  I'm rather busy with studies at the moment which doesn't help!  Anyhow, below are four photos, two I took a couple of months back and two I took last night, if you look very closely you can see the moon peeking out from behind the branches in number four.

Flowers

A few weeks ago I went out with my friend B.  I took many photos.  I have attached quite a few here, as an Easter theme.

This garden was fabulous, lots of lovely roses with littler plants in between, like the daisies above.  The roses were amazing, hundreds of blooms in an assortment of colours and shapes.  Sadly my camera is on its way out and doesn't like focusing all that much, often in an attempt to get my camera to focus I'd move it and not notice.  I ended up with some interesting photos because of it!

I don't think I have ever seen so many gum trees so tall.  They were incredible and appeared to stretch never-ending to the sky.  Up in their canopy many parrots and other birds fossicked, showering the unwary in pieces of tree.  I took quite a few pictures of these trees but this is the only one I can find at the moment.

Wherever you are, have a happy and safe Easter!

Sea-side

It is hot here.  42 degrees C + for the next dew days.  Today there was a thunderstorm in the afternoon.  Here are some photos from the beach.  At the beach it was cool, overcast, noisy, wet, raining, beautiful.....

The clouds were heavy.....

....the tide was coming in....

.....the waves were fast and furious....

....there were some brave swimmers....

...and unwary photographers got wet!

There was a thunderstorm whilst we were there and some spectacular lightening.  Unfortunately pictures of the lightening eluded me.  A lovely evening!

Christmas

We spend Christmas day with relations.  Here are some photos.  Christmas day was beautiful, sunny and not too hot, with a lovely blue sky.

There was very little wind and the reflections were great.

There was a stunning sunset.  It was splendid to stand in a cool paddock and photograph the sunset.

 
We celebrated Christmas on Boxing Day.  The cheese platter was delicious!

More on the blue and red dress soon.

Fashion and Photography

Where do fashion and photography overlap?  When you get a necklace so beautiful you have to photograph it, of course!  I love this necklace, it is really delicate and in bright sunlight casts the most incredible shadow.  I've just got to find something to wear it with now......