Charlie's Worlddown south, part 2
Posted on January 24, 2010
Continuing from part 1, we had a quick drink in the very posh cafe at Bunker Bay and then went round the corner to Eagle Bay, which is a very small little neighbourhood full of lovely expensive summer houses, Range Rovers, a brand new Porsche Panamera and million dollar for sale hoardings.
Eagle Bay itsself was beautiful with a white sand and even bluer sea than in Warnbro where I live or Bunker Bay that we’d just come from.
Am so going there again, it was quiet and unspoiled, even on a weekend in the height of summer with Australia day just 3 days away. There were lots of other little bays and places that would be worth exploring later in the day when the light was golden – particularly on the other side of the peninsular – Canal Rocks and Sugarloaf Rock being two very popular places for photographers. Save those for another time when we have somewhere to stay for the night 🙂
We mooched back to Dunsborough for some coffee, but even at 4:30pm on a busy Saturday, most places had already shut or were shutting. WTF, Australia? I see this so much and I really don’t get it. After a day on the beach or out exploring, who wouldn’t want to come back for a snack/coffee/cake/etc before dinner later. Apparently that message was only heeded by The Dome, so we headed there for a drink before we went home.
We drove through Busselton, which quite frankly was nothing much at all – the highlight is the huge mile long jetty, but that closed last year, leaving a fenced off eyesore and basically sod-all else. Some naked girls/young women skinny dipping and wrestling in the sand was pretty much the highlight (much to the delight of some passing teenage boys who were busy picking their jaws up off the floor..). Even the beachside water park/theme park thing was closed and neglected.. Took a few piccies with the Holga Pinhole Wide angle camera, forgot to take the damn lens cap off though – meh! thats 2 shots out of 12 that will be black.. *sob*
By this time Jay was feeling tired having done all the driving (she always wants to drive, so I get to be shotgun with the cameras) and wanted to go home and as she was driving and we had a long way to go, we headed off..
And that bit will be in part 3..
down south, part 1
Posted on January 24, 2010
As the girls were spending the weekend with their dad, Jay and I decided to take a day trip south to Cape Naturaliste and Dunsborough. Its a couple of hours easy driving down there and the weather was beautiful as usual.
We were aiming for a Yoga retreat with a vegan eaterie as our first port of call – Samudra – or Ocean in Sanskrit, apparently. We had a lovely coffee and then really yummy vegan lunch before heading to the ocean to cool down a bit.
Armed with new swimming togs thanks to a surf shop, we headed down the track to the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse, which was a disappointment as you had to pay to walk up to it. Pah to that, we drove down to Bunker Bay, which was ber-you-ti-ful!
Deserted beach, white sand, blue sky, azure sea – perfect. We went for a swim in the deliciously clear ocean, which turned out to be brass-monkeyingly cold. Very refreshing though. I must swim in the sea more often.
Bunker Bay was lovely, I’ll definitely be back.
More in part 2…
sunset
Posted on January 20, 2010
Typical, both yesterday and tonights sunsets have been magnificent but I’ve not been able to get down to the beach or Point Peron, so I just watched it from the porch instead.
scorcher
Posted on January 19, 2010
Was very hot in Perth yesterday – 43 degrees according to the news and I don’t doubt it. It was already over 30 at 7am when I caught the train and when I went out to get lunch, the air was so warm it felt like it was burning the inside of my nose. You know when you get a blast of hot air from the oven when you open it – like that.
The office started to heat up a fair bit in the afternoon, so I came home early – just as well as all the trains were on a slow timetable because of the heat. Over 40 degree days happen every summer, so why on earth would you build a railway that can’t take it? The A/C on the train was really struggling too, especially as it was packed full 😦
Anyway, I got home (via the bottle shop and 12 bottles of cold beer) and was melting by then – I really must retire my English smart office trousers – they’re too thick material for this country.
Was bliss to get my shoes and socks off and get into shorts!
Went out to take some photos at Point Peron as the heat was causing some clouds to appear over the ocean – good chance of a nice sunset, but the clouds really rolled in and the sunset wasn’t like it could have been. There was another photographer on the beach – a Belgian guy called Tim – who was pretty cool – had a good chat whilst snapping away. He was getting some great pics straight out of the camera – I really miss my filters that got broken when my camera fell into the sea.
Despite the sunset colours being nothing to write home about, I got some corking photos. I messed about a little in Lightroom and was pretty happy with what came out.
Back in the real world
Posted on January 8, 2010
Got back to Perth on the 3rd of Jan and it was bloody hot coming out of the airport, especially as I’d been in either air conditioned comfort or the freezing UK air for 3 days.
Was nice to get back home though and one of the first things I did was to skype the kids.
Poor Henry, being small, burst into tears when I spoke to him and wanted me to cuddle him (we’d being doing lots of that and I miss it too). They’d had the remainder of their presents and were pretty happy.
The next day, Monday 4th I had to prep for an interview (sorry if any work people read this – its true, its not that I’m really unhappy with my job or company, it just pays to explore the market every now and again – if I get the new job, I’ll be over the moon as its a good opportunity, if I don’t, its a shame but I’ll carry on and continue to focus 100% on my current job – does that cover my arse enough?) which was a pain – it was a presentation on stuff that I don’t know anything about, so I had to put in 1/2 days work to get to grips with what I had to do.
The interview the next day went well I think, although I haven’t heard yet – its always hard to gauge what an interview panel really think – I’ll let you all know what happens as soon as I know anything.
So, we’re almost upto date – back to work this week already although very little is happening at the moment as a lot of people are still away. I have a big project to take part in this month, although I’m not sure what my active involvement as technical architect will actually be as this is going to be a hands on exercise, I’ll find out on Monday.
Well, thats a load of text without any pretty pictures..so, to remedy that..here’s some I took the other night 🙂
Its another beautiful day today, so I may pop out to get some photos this afternoon 🙂
piccies
Posted on December 17, 2009
I worked it out – I have to use image capture to download the photos as iTunes doesnt do it – very odd!
Anyway, for your viewing pleasure – some photos from the last week or so – mostly taken with “The Best Camera” iPhone app.
trips to the beach
Posted on November 17, 2009
went down to the beach last night at sunset with the girls – the sunset looked promising (it wasn’t really that special in the end but its no biggie) and we had time before the girls needed to be in bed.
I picked up the cameras and a jumper too as it was a bit chilly in the evening air (isn’t it supposed to be summer already? I remember last year it was properly hot by now) and jumped in the car (I know, its only a 10 min walk, but we didn’t have that much time)
Was lovely down there and I took some wicked photos (for which you will have to wait as I’m in the city today and my photos are at home and I’ve not quite finished processing) – abstract and motion blur ones. Took a couple of portraits too which came out pretty well, although I wish I’d thought to being the flash gun to add a little fill light to one of the shots. Next time – I know what I want to achieve in the shot and how to get it now.
The girls went off up the beach jumping over the waves and splashing about in the twilight – they got totally soaked too – they are going to have to wear their bathers when we go again, they just can’t help themselves!
So yeah, was a nice night, relaxed, creative and fun.
Oh, and for those of you who want to know where I live – well, I’m not telling you specific details for obvious reasons, but here’s a general view of the bay from Google Maps.
The bay where I live
Nice, huh?
Trip to York
Posted on October 3, 2009
York is a heritage town in the wheatbelt to the east of Perth. Its a fair old trek from where we live by the sea, so we packed the camera bags and headed out early as its a couple of hours drive through the forest and out into the fields.
On the way we stopped off at a place that makes it own olive oil – run by a charismatic Frenchman – and full of the yummiest locally made honey, tapenade, olive oil, etc. We came away with some bounty (of course) for later. The local scenery is lovely too, with rolling fields and totally unspoiled forest.
York is only a small town with architecture straight out of the wild west, quaint, with verandahs, wrought iron fretwork and the original signwriting on the buildings. Its pretty quiet and cool. We went for a walk about, had some nice lunch and went off for a tour around the old courthouse. Its wonderfully preserved – you walk into the later of the 2 courtrooms, then to the earlier basic courtroom, then the jail cells, which are scarily small and with preserved graffiti on the walls. All the pictures I took of York are on the Holga or Trip 35, so you’ll just have to wait for those 🙂
Went on to the main Catholic church – a very nice traditional building with lovely stained glass windows
church
Had a very disappointing Devonshire Tea in the somewhat crap Yorky’s Coffee Carriage tea shop, but consoled ourselves with a load of shots with the Holgas and Trip 35’s then came home via Brookton, a scenic detour through the most gorgeous countryside.
Trip 35's
Drive was lovely, through the fields of the wheatbelt – which actually extends 100’s of miles to the east.
Great Southern Highway
farm
driving
fields near Brookton
In Brookton, saw this wonderful sign. Not sure how that actually works as a business though..any ideas?
smalltown business
next post – the canola fields.
day out
Posted on September 26, 2009
Having been couped up for months due to illness, bad backs, non-stop rain and generally having other things to do, we decided to plan a proper day out.
Jay got lots of yummy food for a picnic on Friday, we programmed the GPS (thats a story for later on..) and this morning, headed off to Araluen Botanic Park http://www.araluenbotanicpark.com.au.
Its about an hours drive from where we are, so its doable within the bounds of whinging children getting fed up and Jay’s bad back starting to complain.
The GPS was more of a hindrance than a help – taking us down more than one wrong turning, including a dead end. Thanks a bunch, If there’s one thing I hate, its going the wrong way. Gah! I find the GPS useful if I’m on my own in the car – if Jay’s there, she pretty much knows where we have to go anyway as she’s lived here for 20 years.
So, we arrived at 10ish and the place was deserted. It was still a little chilly but the flowers were all out and we had the place to ourselves really. Took the Holga, the Trip and the D300, so more than enough cameras really! Got some (I hope) nice pics with the Holga as the sun was bright enough for the Velvia 100 film. The Trip 35 was in its element, making simple snaps a pleasure. Only shot a few with the digital – I’ll upload any later if they’re any good.
Its amazing how many people had DSLR’s there – more than 1/2 the people there were toting some serious hardware and almost all of them standing back and taking shots on zoom or auto mode with the flash up. *sigh* how many of them will be going home and thinking they’re the best photographer since David Bailey (Trip 35 reference – he was advertising them in the 70’s – search for the video on youtube)
Charlie's World 