Tag Archives: photography

March 8, 2013 · 11:00 pm

PHONEOGRAPHY CHALLENGE – My neighbourhood, where the coffee is real!

Okay, it's a little fuzzy, but so am I at this hour of the morning. What matters is that the coffee has some colour in it. Take note, all ye would-be baristas!

Okay, it’s a little blurry, but so am I at this hour of the morning. What matters is that the coffee has some colour in it. Take note, all ye would-be baristas!


For once I’ve done this Weekly Photo Challenge strictly according to the rules. The instructions were to depict the delights of your neighbourhood as seen through the hole in the back of your phone.

So armed with nothing but an iPhone 4, out I went into the streets of Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, Australia. First stop was the Post Cafe – the old post office now converted into something far more useful early on a Saturday morning. Continue reading →

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March 2, 2013 · 3:25 am

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – lost in details (in Claude Monet’s garden)

Monet may have liked this one too. The pointillism was all done for him.

Monet may have liked this one too. The pointillism was all done for him.



This Weekly Photo Challenge asks us to think about picking small details out of larger scenes.

Last year I was fortunate enough to visit Monet’s famous garden at Giverny, France.

Naturally we couldn’t entirely avoid the obvious. I took as many shots as everyone else did of the bridges and waterlilies. Continue reading →

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January 18, 2013 · 8:44 pm

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: BEYOND – hmm, tricky…!

It's all go at Tyangboche Monastery, Nepal. But wait, what's that I see through the break in the cloud?

It’s all go at Tyangboche Monastery, Nepal. But wait, what’s that I see through the break in the cloud?



I didn’t find this an easy Weekly Photo Challenge. Usually I’m trying to focus my camera on the main subject, consciously avoiding distractions in the background.

Then I thought of this…

After a solid day’s walking we were pleased to emerge at Nepal’s Tyangboche Monastery, just under 4000 metres high.

It was Trekker Town, crowded with yaks and mules, Sherpas and Germans. The gongs and vuvuzela-like horns from the monks provided the soundtrack. The bakery provided real coffee. Tenzing Norgay, Sir Edmund Hillary’s fellow climber, was born in the Kumjung region and studied at this monastery.

All very interesting. Then suddenly the clouds parted, and there was Mount Everest beyond.

Need I say that the trek itself was one of the best I’ve ever done. To read more about it, CLICK HERE.

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January 11, 2013 · 7:53 pm

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: ILLUMINATION – misty dawn

There was just enough mist to catch the first light. Merricks North, Victoria, Australia.

There was just enough mist to catch the first light. Merricks North, Victoria, Australia.

My first Weekly Photo Challenge of 2013. A new dawn.

For more shots of this magic morning click HERE.

Taken with my Panasonic Lumix FZ24. In point and shoot mode. Nothing clever. The scenery and the light did the rest.

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January 6, 2013 · 12:34 am

MORNINGTON MORNING – a new year’s dawn

Merricks Dawn 1

Happy New Year, people!

Internet and mobile phone coverage has been limited in our corner of the world, even though the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia, is just an hour’s drive out of Melbourne.

Thank you for your patience while I’ve been on blogging holidays. I don’t know whether I should be encouraged or disappointed to return to cyberspace and discover that the number of visits to this site was about the same during my absence as when I was working hard to find good stories and post regularly.

The Peninsula is an Australian gem, well known to Melbournians and less well known to tourists. That’s their loss and our gain. I’ll have more to say about it soon.

For now, here are a few shots from my morning walk. I was very lucky with the light – there was just enough mist hanging around the trees to catch the sun’s first rays.

Dawn 3

Dawn 4

dAWN 5

Dawn 6

Dawn 7

Dawn 8

Dawn 2

It was an excellent start to my year. I wish everyone many mornings like this during 2013.

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December 14, 2012 · 8:12 pm

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: DELICATE – my life of crime

A shame I had to break the law to get a delicate photo like this.

A delicate photo and a delicate tale to go with it…

I was rather pleased with this photo. It was a shame I had to break the law to take it.

To read the kiss-and-tell, cards-on-the-table, warts-and-all story of how Shifty and I risked hefty fines, serious lectures from the judge and delicate parts of our anatomy to bring you this little sample of Blue Mountains magic, CLICK HERE.

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