Charlie's WorldMore kite surfing
Posted on December 3, 2010
Yes, you might well be bored shitless of these posts by now, but I have more kite photos.
It was blowing a hoolie yesterday so I popped down to Safety Bay (which I am told is one of the best freestyle kite surfing spots in the world) to see who was out. It was high tide this time, so no toe nipping crabs. And it was freezing compared to the weekend too.
There were a few people out on the water – most notably Cesar Portas from Barcelona, Spain.
He’s currently number 13 on the PKRA Pro kite surf tour and bloody hell, he’s good. He was doing tricks I’ve not seen any of the locals do – not that they are not good, I’ve got some awesome shots of them as you can see in my past kite surfing posts, its just he was incredible.
I managed to stuff up a lot of the really good shots I had – somehow my lens wasn’t tracking the action properly and the autofocus was off pretty much every time. Bah! He even did a huge leap right over my head, which the camera spectacularly failed to focus on at all. Really not happy – especially as all the pro’s have now headed off to the Gold Coast for 10 days for the Australian leg of the PKRA tour.
Anyway, here’s what I managed to salvage..
and there was more..
Posted on November 29, 2010
More Kitesurfing action from Safety Bay, Rockingham.
Standing in the middle of the lagoon might be good for photos, but is also way too good for toe nipping crabs!
By ‘ek, it’s ‘ot (and more kite surfing)
Posted on November 28, 2010
It’s warming up nicely for the summer. 38 degrees today, which is starting to get to the level of heat you want to avoid.
So I just had to stay in and watch the cricket instead. (c’mon England!!!)
Its a hard life – the cold beers are purely medicinal.
I did get up early today and mow the lawn before it got too hot – cut me some slack!
Anyway. It’s been one of those crazy arsed weeks again, so no time for blog updates, photo taking or, well, any damn thing apart from work.
All work and no play makes Charlie a dull boy.
So, to turn that all around and because, under my layer of winter protection, I’m just an action hero kinda guy, I went out to take some shots of the kite surfers again.
There was sod all wind though, which was a tiny flaw in my plan, but hey, the wind always starts to crank in the end, so full of optimism, I wandered round to Safety Bay to see who was there.
Ah. The no wind thing. There was nobody there. Well, nobody except the Pelicans, and they freak me out. I’m pretty sure they’re not originally from this planet. So I took their photos, and some other random stuff too, just to show them who was boss.
Eventually there was a breeze and the sky started to fill with kites and I could stop taunting the wildlife and turn my attention to the kite surfers.
First up, a totally awesome dad with his son (at least I’m assuming that they were, father and son – might have been a mad uncle, who knows..) – they were so cool and came right up to get their photo taken, poses and everything – hell yeah! Best family ever.
Then, as more and more people came out, and it was low tide, I waded out into the middle of the bay and hoped the kite surfers would come and pose for me, close is good (I soooo need to remember my damn bathers though!)
Within a few mins, one of the girls came up and stopped and said hey, what kind of shots did I want to take, what lens did I have, etc. Awesome! She was pretty interesting (more on this shortly) and had been doing some good tricks already, so I thought I might be able to get some shots.
She did a close fly by (which, of course, I wasn’t ready for) but I did get a few shots before she stacked it and came back for a chat.
We chatted for a bit and it turns out that her name is Nicky Rudd, she’s a pro kitesurfer from England (with a delightful hint of a west country accent) and she’s over in WA for the summer kite surfing season and on the pro tour. You can see more of her here at her site www.nickyrudd.com
I then hopped and screamed like a baby when a crab bit my little toe. No really, I’m not making this up.
Yup, it seems the glorious bay that I have in all my photos is full of saucer sized aggressive flesh-loving crustaceans. Little mo-fo’s! I had no idea they were all over the shallows too, I just thought they liked the weedy deeper bits. Anyway, once I’d recovered my cool (ok, ok, never had any, and with a stupid handlebar Moustache – donate here – I’m hardly James sodding Dean) I realised I was standing in a crab minefield, plus the tide was coming in, so I had to retreat to carry on shooting. Bathers and stout shoes next time. and maybe a spear gun.
So, more Nicky…
Thats quite enough of that before I start sounding like a creepy fanboy. It was lovely to meet you Nicky
There were some other folks out there too by this time and I got some pretty cool shots of them too, but I shall save them for another post or this one will be way too long!
If you like these though, check out these other Kite Surfing blog entries.
https://charliebrown888.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/kite-surfing/
https://charliebrown888.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/kite-surfing-2/
https://charliebrown888.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/learning-to-fly/
rain rain
Posted on November 21, 2010
don’t go away, its nice to have you to cool things down again..
Its been another crazy busy week work-wise, hopefully its done and dusted by the end of tomorrow and I can return to the more sedate pace I was previously used to. Its also been a hot week, peaking at 39C on Friday, which was pretty warm given that my air con went pop again.
We’ve had a nice rain front blow in this weekend – much needed really as there has been precious little of it this winter. Its been warm though – its 31 outside and pouring with rain right now – we have all the windows and doors open to try to capture some of the cool air.
I just went to the DIY shop for some replacement pop-up sprinklers for my reticulation – after a while they get battered by the mower and the seals start to go and they start leaking everywhere.
To you non-Aussies (or those without garden irrigation), pop-ups look like this
So I have 6 new ones ready to replace the old battered ones – that should sort out some of the dry spots on the lawn and also should stop some of the water being ‘wasted’ (it goes back into the ground anyway) with inefficient spray.
I just need the rain to stop so I can sort them..
I stopped by the beach on my way home as the sky was looking a bit interesting – and yes, interesting doesn’t do it justice – within 2 minutes, it was pouring down!
The rain has stopped again now, so I’m off into the garden to sort those sprinklers.
learning to fly
Posted on November 17, 2010
I went to Shoalwater Beach the other weekend to see the kitesurfers in action as the wind was blowing and I thought I might get a few shots with the wide angle lens.
Stupidly, I was wearing jeans, so I couldn’t get as close to the water as I would have liked – must remember to take shorts next time.
Anyway, as usual, the guys (and girls – of which there were a good few out) down there were really cool and friendly and happy to chat and pull few moves for the camera, flying upside down and all over the place, so I ended up getting some very interesting shots. I can’t decide if I prefer the ultra wide angle or the 18-200mm that I used on the last shots of Aaron.
So, Michael, Jamie and friends – thanks – see you back down there soon.
Apologies for the sheer number of shots, there are lots of cool ones!
Sydney
Posted on November 10, 2010
So, I got sent to Sydney.
I wonder, is that a bit like being sent to an Australian version of Coventry? – (which by the way, if you’re not familiar with the expression – being ‘sent to Coventry is an ‘old’ English expression which means to be sent somewhere bad).
All good fun you may think, I get to large it up on company expenses, stay out all night drinking and partying and can snore all night long in a hotel bed that gets made for me every morning.
Awesome.
Well, actually, not awesome.
The sad reality of being away from home and staying in a hotel on my own means meals for one, working late (*its 11:30pm and I’m still working) and eventually sending for mediocre (actually, I’ve just ordered butter chicken curry, and it’s not too bad) room service as I’ve kind run out of enthusiasm for yet another trip out to find food.
Joy.
The other think I don’t like is that the hotel I’m staying in is a good walk from the office. About 30 mins to be exact. And Sydney is very humid.
*Melt*
Anyway, its not all doom and gloom – well, actually, thats not true – its is all doom and gloom – its been terribly overcast here so far – thick cloud, heavy rain, thunderstorms etc. So I’ve been somewhat stunted in my ability to take any photos. Well, that and the long work hours.
I did get a few shots on my first day here, before the heavens opened and the mother of all storms rolled in – so, here, for your viewing pleasure are some photos 🙂
weird stormy skies from my hotel room
Apocalypse Sydney
incoming...
convention centre
morning skies from my hotel room
Darling Harbour at night
So, there you g0 – its either work or shots from my hotel – hopefully tomorrow it might be sunny and I can take some photos of a nice bright city…
incommunicado
Posted on November 10, 2010
Well, not totally, but I’m seriously busy with work – I had to go to Sydney to work on a large bid for a new client, so I’m lacking free time at the moment
Normal service will be resumed just as soon as I can.
Which may be tomorrow if I can break the back of this job today 🙂
Tuesdays on the beach
Posted on November 3, 2010
As luck would have it, I have to run big’un around on a Tuesday, so it means I get almost an hour of photography in before I have to collect her again.
At the moment, that hour happens to be the golden hour just before sunset, which is awesome for photos.
Last week, I took the old jetty shots and was pretty happy, so I gave that location a miss this time and went further on up the beach in search of some boats and things to get up close and personal to with the wide angle lens.
Mangles Bay in Rockingham is where all the boats anchor and it’s really cool, underused and very quiet. The yacht club could do with some updating, but apart from that, its lovely.
However, this whole place is under threat from a massive marina development (please visit http://handsoffpointperon.com/) which is will destroy hundreds of hectares of previous ‘permanently preserved native bush’ (yeah – that status was overturned – amazing what happens for a quick buck) and replace it with millionaires canal side houses, apartment blocks and an enormous marina. Nice.
Anyway, so before we lose this wonderful place forever (which, lets face it, once the money starts to flow, no amount of local objection is going to make any difference whatsoever), I thought I’d get some photos.
The light was amazing, clouds make such a difference to the sky and the feel of a shot, plus the circular polariser creates outstanding definition between white and blue.
Thats all for now – I’ll be back out later in the week or next week for another location, work and personal commitments being equal – so if you like the pretty pictures, check back soon.
In other news – its the middle of the week, which means – Red Wine Wednesday – stay tuned 🙂
Mo-tastic
Posted on November 1, 2010
Attention all thee who pass by this blog – please read and, if you can, throw a few sheckels at this here good cause.
Movember.
Where men around the world grow dodgy moustaches to raise awareness of mens health.
You see, men, being men, don’t like to go to the doctor if they’re feeling depressed or have trouble peeing – its a man thing. Trouble is, that typically male thing of ‘it’ll be okay’ or head in the sand and wait for it to go away actually kills loads of men every year. In fact, prostate cancer kills just about as many men as breast cancer does women. In fact, close to 3,300 men die of prostate cancer in Australia each year and one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime.
Men just don’t want to go to the doctor to have a ‘look see’ if things don’t feel right, or open up and discuss with a stranger that they might not be feeling all that happy and maybe they might need help.
So, in order to change that and change the paths of fathers and sons across this scorched land, I’m shaving off my beard and growing the most ridiculous moustache for the whole month of November.
Sponsor me here please, you’ll feel good, even if it’s only $1
To help, you can click this link http://au.movember.com/mospace/635372/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account (please do this!!)
To get it started – off came the beard this morning
Here’s before (taken last year, but I looked the same earlier)
and here’s at 11am this morning (dammit, I think I gained weight in a year!)
I’ll do an update every week so you can see how much of a plum I look.
if at first..
Posted on October 27, 2010
..you don’t succeed, then try try try again.
You may remember I took a few photos of the jetty (again) last week – well, I wasn’t happy with them, so I went out again last night to take some more
My fave of the night:
Same view, just a slightly different range of colours – I think this was a slightly longer exposure
And lastly, a random view back towards Rockingham that grabbed my attention that actually came out rather well.
Of course, all the time I was doing this, I didn’t really notice that the sky to the west (the jetty faces pretty much North) had lit up bright amazing red and would have made a fantastic backdrop to some of the other westerly facing beaches and jetties. Ah well, I’m still stoked at these shots and don’t really care!
Charlie's World 