as i read thru my quarterly Tollway statement it suddenly dawned on me… and lets keep it succinct… as a member of society, no lets be real, as a number in society, i am nothing but a revenue source for corporations and governments each finding new and unique ways to screw me over.. example on point, my good friends at Tollway are one such company, i get charged a fee for them to make an automatic credit card payment, i get charged another fee when its declined cause my card got max'ed out from the going thru 3 toll roads in Sydney in one day, thats enough to max out any card 😉 … then they want to charge me another fee to send out a paper statement….
.. next they will be charging me to use the exit way on the motorway to encourage me to use more toll road 😉

On the days when I catch the train, i get a little extra sparkle knowing that for at least on that day i have avoided paying motorway tolls. 🙂

here's a picture of a happy place and 'my' enlightened path.
(before all you marine savvy peeps jump up and down, that red light over on the right is a fisherman with his red headlamp… not a Nav light 🙂 )

A little background on the image, its a panorama image made from 7 portrait orientation frames, each frame is bracketed (one at 20seconds and one at 5sec) to capture both the bright lights of the town, lookout, nav lights etc and also the less bright sky. The exif for each one is f2.8 iso 5000 @ 14mm

I have watched this now not so little Pandanus grow over the years and am very glad it has weathered the storms and exposure, which is pretty impressive given the harsh conditions where it is, several metres from the ocean and ontop racks.

10 years ago it had a friend that stood only metres away from it and was certainly the bigger sibling at the time, it however succumbed to something, weather i suppose.. now this one is reaching similar height and i do wonder about how long it'll last . Most people probably don't give a crap about some half baked tree on a rocky outcropping, but i sure do, if only from the perspective of it being a nice photographic scene, that said its always nice to walk along the beach and see it still standing up there, a reassuring familiar part of the scene … its a bit like that old friend you have not see for yonks which you catch up with every now and gas bag and see how things have changed….. sure as night turns to day its more interesting than those freaking rocks, those things dont change at all…

….. unless.. people come and build cairns 🙂 seriously what is the fascination with stacking a bunch of rocks on top of each other..? some pointless exercise to say that you were there ? that leads me to the next point (as you can see there is some linkage in my rambling 😉 ) there is a really cool rock right about where I am standing to take this shot which some clowns have turned into a rather large mound of rocks…like.. not pebble size but like 20kg like size rocks… as my daughter would say.. what the heck ? so each time i go and visit my old mate 'Pandanus' i'll be sure to uncover his other mate.. 'stoney cold rock' (or whatever the his name is…) one rock at a time..
Why can't people just leave stuff as it is, take a photo if you want a memory 😉

Aerial Triptych

the best way to distract one sand eating baby ? play with the waves 🙂

I stare at this and it brings some small level of respite to the pain that is… driving in Sydney on a weekend …for I know there is only just a few more stars out there then cars in Sydney.. 😉

also..here's to banning uber drivers, uber eat bike riders and all those other delivery services which seem to be nothing more than a race to the bottom….

Meandering flows of Bangalow

I like a challenge, in this case it was keeping my toes dry whilst also getting close enough to get some wave action, i did have to dance a bit to keep the old sneakers dry. Gerry one, waves zero.

(especially mums reaction)

Warm haze, for all the SOOC (straight out of camera) buffs, this is just 3 shots stitched together no further editing

or… agriculture vs forest 🙁

"hey dad want some help ?…." i'm gonna irrespective of what you say btw! 🙂 )
"right let me have a look at these instructions…"
"yup they are crap, throw them away dad…"
"there we go that was not so hard right"

say what you like about Ikea furniture, but those swedish designers and engineers deserve a medal, to be able to design something that is pretty well idiot proof is nothing short of amazing, the refinement and effort that has gone into their fittings and hinges is awesome, these things just work.. sure its still all just chipboard furniture and its not that durable but hey……

so here's to you Ikea engineers, nicely played.

and the story of the Goanna that chased the snake away.

Aboriginal mythology and the associated stories are so fascinating, my mum has a whole bunch of books of various stories relating to creation stories of Aboriginal lands and legends, some of the earliest stories that she read to me were from these books, one which I remember vividly was the story of the rainbow serpent and the way it created the land for the first time, another about who some people where cut out of a snake only to have them turned into birds 🙂 ok, they may be a bit lost in time and memory there.. but hey its been a few years 😉

I have visited Goanna Headland many times over the years, mostly not knowing how culturally significant this location is, but more recently becoming aware of its history – this place contains a Rain Cave (sacred place for trying to get rain to come) , nope i have not gone in there 'cause you get bad kaarma and if you do and floods occur.. apparently 🙂 its got some sacred ceremonial grounds (up on Snapper rock) and neatest of all a great big goanna forming the shape of the whole headland.
It is also of course not complete without some some quality input from the newly arrived europeans who felt it necessary to kill a bunch of aboriginal people out on the headland, i try and avoid thinking about that as i walk out in pitch darkness to get down to the rocks by first light :/

Now, back to that story about the Goanna who chased the bad snake away, apparently the Goanna rests here keeping a watchful eye out to the ocean for the return of the snake, well, i'm here to tell you Dirawong (thats the Goanna spirit) these snakes are making a mockery of you 😉 they are everywhere out there on the headland ! and those Kangaroos, they are certainly not little ones 🙂 feel free to wake up and shuffle a few of those shakey snakes on their way – on a positive note, I have noticed a significant decline in the number of spider encounters in my walks out to the headland, possibly due to the time of year etc, but sheesh thats a welcome change not to face plant those big fat spiders that string across the path.

This picture is taken on one of the legs (the rear one) of the goanna, its one of the many cool rocky outcroppings filled with nooks and crannies perfect for the seascrapers taking a photo or two.

So, here's to you, the people of the Bundjalung Nation, who sadly no longer inhabit, in the way they should, the lands of Goanna Headland.

Looking south, you can see Lennox Head in the background. Pretty nice spot except for all the tourists 🙂

This shot is just as the dawn broke over the horizon letting the warm sunshine glance off the ridges. Its 3 shots stitched together as a panorama image

D750 coupled with Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 @ 140mm Aperture: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 400s
ISO: 500
Out front: no filters .. just some nice rolling hills.