Sunrise

Some images just fall out the computer, others need some real help, this is one such shot, well series of shots, its a 5 shot panorama with each frame bracketed to increase the dynamic range. Just about everything I did to it left it looking washer out, unnatural and generally just looking crap, thus I cut my losses and ended up with this version, not one I am still entirely happy with, however at least something to show for all the darn effort 🙂

I keen for your thoughts? bin it ? too warm, too cool ?

Dragon's Perch

This small trail of rocks etched out of the sand at Collaroy reminded me of a kids fairy tale of a place where a dragon should be sitting, right out there on that rocky outcropping, ready to lunge and eat up any child who did not bring home their lunch containers… i'm looking at you here Chaos 🙂 . Scene is complete with greenish yellow dragon poo, aka seaweed 🙂

The overcast conditions and the 267s exposure time left the scene with a soft glow and completely removed that lady (who I would call crazy) swimming out in the murky seaweed infested water 🙂

D750 coupled with Nikkor 16-35 f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f11 and Shutter Speed: 267s
ISO: 100
Out front: Lee bigstopper, Lee 0.9x graduated filter and Hoya Circular Polariser

Wet Feet

There comes a time when you stop dancing over the puddles and minimizing how wet your feet are and simply accept the fact that you are gonna have wet feet, wet shoes and wet socks.

Deep in the jungle of frenchs creek..

Buried

I am getting quite the collection of Stormwater outflow pipes in Sydney, luckily for me there are barely 2 alike , although I would have thought a standardised design would have been much more cost effective..

Tvindefossen

(Frenchies version)
get a load of this one full screen and find those leeches

Well, its the aussie version aways, Tvindefossen, which i am pretty sure means twin falls is midly epic waterfall in Voss, Norway – yep where the sparkling mineral water comes from – not 🙂 its actually comes from much further south in Norway, but clearly "Voss" said with the appropriate deep Norwegian accent sound a crapload better than the boring spot where the extraction and bottling plant is 🙂

Anyways, this set of falls in Sydney, with its distinct set of two falls reminded me…a tiny bit.. of Voss, also the home of extreme sports, thats another story for another day.

This is the second cascade in the water falls in Belrose on Frenchs creek, where the water quality is.. well a small step above first stage sewerage treatment level, it smelt bad, it mostly looked bad and somehow still, the leeches survive 🙁 I am gonna name these leeches the crotch searching leeches from hell. I am not overly perturbed by leeches, however these ones seemed to get on your legs and with their gaily little wobble make beeline for higher ground 🙁 much rather they just hang about the ankle and suck some blood …

This image is a bunch of vertical shots stitched into a panorama, the conditions where good, overcast, plenty of water and the company (Rodney Campbell) was bearable 😉 plus its better if someone can be there to at least listen to the continued stream of profanities about finding yet another leech.

The Endless run

… a dog's Dream

Probably safe to say that dogs only dream of a few things, one of which would definitely be chasing.. something, anything…..and for as long as possible.. I have been regularly reminded of this by a thing that kinda resembles a dog (at that size I think rat would be a more appropriate name 😉 ) which seems to take great enjoyment in chasing me up the road on my run to train station, not at all deterred by the threat of my size 14 boot 🙂 I have given up and now just expect to see him come flying out the driveway (of his house i assume) and and lose his vita-dogs or whateva dog snacks are equivalent to a sugary lollies at the indignation that someone dare use the footpath 🙂

heres to to you little rat-dog 🙂 see ya next week.

3 shot panorama
D750 coupled with Nikkor 85mm f1.4 @ 85mm
Aperture: f5.6 and Shutter Speed: 1/1250s
ISO: 100
Out front: endless doggy dream

Broken Reflection

This one is for all the bone heads, including the trucks on the M5 who can't seem to understand the concept of merging or keeping left if not overtaking, hey you even have a lane all to ya selves on the way out the tunnel and the only time you use it is to cut up in front of the queued traffic.. boneheads – note on the flipside there are some good ones, but I feel the are getting fewer and fewer.
…. and the boneheads in the pool who don't quite get it when people in the slow lane are swimming faster then them in the medium lane and don't let people past 🙁

nothing like a good rant and there was not even any politics in there 🙂 FB is great for that gives every man and his dog a soapbox to stand on 🙂 even if its a little one..

Happy Hartzell

Engineering is soo cool – whilst most would find this kinda boring and yeah, its just a bit on a plane, Sarah Joy made a great point that many people do not realise the amount of development work and effort that goes into the hundreds of assemblies and parts that make up a plane. Here is one such bit, one of the simplest constant speed propellers/hub you will see on small 2 or 4 seater aircraft.

hc-c2yf-xxx2-2

I get to see lots of plane bits, but not that often a full propeller hub, in bits 🙂 this one was a unserviceable and had all the bits from the last overhaul. So whaddya do with a Hartzell Propeller which you have in bits, a pair of verniers and a few spare hours? you model it of course and turn it into a animated mechanism. 🙂
well the spare hours is a bit of a lie, I really don’t have those, but did spend a couple of late nights on it 🙂

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Ålesund

The home of Rollo (some viking dude) whilst appearing to be hundreds of years old is mostly less than hundred years old, back in the early 1900's there was a fire which destroyed pretty much the entire built area on this island. The island which forms the old town and the touristy area of Alesund is fairly large and back then covered with predominantly wooden structures, much like most of Norway, makes sense when you see how much wood they have 🙂 durign that fire there was also a gale force wind, described as strong enough to blow a man over, thus you can only imagine how fast a fire would propagate through nice dry Norwegian timber and it did.

We stayed at the big white one off to the left, not a bad view from it, especially in the dining area, this one of the few we stayed in during our visit to Norway and whilst expensive, it is comparable to Sydney so not that bad I suppose.

This was shot well after sunset, from memory about 11pm and the glow from the sunset, which seems to last for hours , glowed off the hotel strip and created some very nice reflections off the water.