Showing some appreciation to the Morton Bay Fig trees, this is what kids are meant to do 🙂 bare foot and swing in the trees 🙂 This tree must be over a hundred years old and has such cool horizontal branches that just cry out to be lounged on 🙂 It also has some really cool hidey holes between the folds of the trunk too…
So apparently, the thing at the end of the jetty is a place where you can go for a swim, kinda makes sense since the water seems like its knee deep for a long way out, not to mention the water is not that nice close to the shore – this particular scene reminds me of some scape conjured up by fantasy novel where you can punch on thru to the other side a rift or something, in any case it does fill me with some level of calm when looking at it 🙂
4 shot panorama, each shot in the landscape orientation
D750 coupled with Nikkor 16-35 mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f16 and Shutter Speed: 4s
ISO: 100
out front: Lee Graduated Filter (0.6x)
just a little field of freshy picked peas next to one of the many churches dotting the landscape in Sweden. It was the only time I drove on the wrong side of the road 🙂 which is the right side of the road really…
are orchids in the subfamily Cypripedioideae, which comprises the genera Cypripedium, Mexipedium, Paphiopedilum, Phragmipedium and Selenipedium
Its like going to the quack and getting them to explain all the freaking weird words they use.. flora is a bit like this, I am sure the names make sense to some.. but to me its gobbly-gok.. man I have wanted to use that phrase for yonks 🙂
So reading my ultrasound report on my busted ankle there is a line
there is subcutaneous oedema at the ankle
so I said to my doc, wtf man ?
to which he said swelling under the fat layer dude
and my response was why do they just not write swelling under the fat layer so your average pleb has half a chance of understanding it 🙂
he just smiled at me 🙂
…. just you wait until you come into my engineering world bro 🙂
anyways, here is a nice picture of a slipper orchid, focus stacked from a whole bunch of image on a pano rail thingy 🙂
to the Pitlochry Scotch Whiskey Distillery 🙂
Scotland
To be fair this not really a castle, more of a hunting lodge or weekender 🙂
– water source, check.
– local forest for timber, check.
– rolling hills, check.
– meandering driveway, check.
When passing places like this (on the road to Braemer) I often wondered how different the scene would have looked 300 years ago, probably in this case, not all that different, a few different trees and more or less vegetation on the hills but i reckon its not changed much…
We had just punched out a pretty big drive (for scotland anyway) and the troops were getting pretty restless with any suggestion of me stopping the van for anything other than a toilet break 🙂 however as we came across the crest of a hill there was no way I was leaving this spot untouched by my camera
So we stopped at this little 'ol place called Dornie, there is a rather large old castle there, but the more important thing was that we went to the local pub for lunch where I learnt two things..
1) fish and chups is not really like our fish and chips back home and they seem to have an aversion to using sauce bottles and hence have micro sized sauce satchels instead.. thats all well and good, but you gotta use 219 of them to actually get any useful amount of source out, this did have a positive outcome tho.. kinda.. it meant the crazy kids could only eat so much sauce.. they were limited to how fast they could open these wee satchels… hence tickles aka 'would you like a chip with your sauce' went a bit hungry and frustrated 🙂
2) I should really down multiple Guinness before heading off to work – so I am there ordering myself and the girls a real manly round of apple juice and diet coke when at the end of the bar I notice.. well it was a bit hard not to notice, a local scottish gentleman (and I mean that in the true sense) at the end of the bar with a pint of Guinness in his hand. Now that in it sense may not seem strange, however he was decked out in a full kilt and knocking this beer back at a pretty impressive rate, the barperson (note i use the non sex biased version 😉 ) had just finished topping up the second pint and placed it in front of him, at which I thought 'sh$t.. respect to these dudes in scotland' and headed back to my table with my manly apple juice and diet coke 🙂
After lunch and leaving a pile of sauce satchels 3 kms high we went and visited this castle, stuffed if I can remember the name of it.. Eleanor i think .. and during the visit in the Grand Trophy room who should be there! the dude from the pub.. and I'll tell ya what, he was pretty darn jolly and gave us a great little tour of the spot.. so good onya mate and onto the moral of the ramblings… drink Guinness before doing anything to ensure jolliness 🙂
Peak hour departures at Sydney Airport (YSSY) –
Sometimes, life is better on mute 🙂
5 shot panorama in a place dictated by simple forces of nature, water, wind and the sun.
ahh, little planets, I have missed you 🙂
At about 10 o'clock you can see Neist Ligthhouse, 4 o'clock our campervan and 9 o'clock is sheer drop occupied by birds and crazy sheep.
There were a few mountains in Norway which did try and hide from us (prolly mostly me and my camera 😉 ) but in this case my rally driving skills in the Skodastation wagon managed to pull over at the right time to nail this one trying to escape without ending up in some dudes hay field 🙂
I dunno where this was or what mountain, they all seemed to blur together after awhile, but this was pretty typical of every road in Norway 🙂 Probably somewhere near Kristiansund…
6 shot panorama
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 38mm Aperture: f8 Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 200
Out front: just another little Norwegian Village
Aksla Viewpoint – Ålesund – (c) Gerard Blacklock
ya gotta view this large and zoom in
The view from above the town of Alesund, a beautiful spot for sunset at 1030pm. I met a real nice young chap from Poland whilst up here, he was over for a few days on some cheap flights and apparently there is a direct flight from over there to Alesund. I reckon people who live in Europe do not realise how lucky they are being able to travel only a short distance to see such varied places, scenery and and also demographic. Try flying the 22 hours to Oz 😉
8 shot panorama image with each shot bracketed (0EV and -0.7EV)
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 60mm Aperture: f16 Shutter Speed: 1/2.5 seconds Normal exp and 1/10s for the underexposed bracket
ISO: 200
Out front: Lee Graduated filter 0.9X
Ålesund, Midnight Hour – (c) Gerard Blacklock
At the midnight hour.
Alesund is a real pretty city perched out on one of the many little peninsulas on the west coast of Norway, some say its the most beautiful city in Norway, it certainly has some very cool old buildings in the main touristy area which is the older part of town.
We stayed in the Alesund Scandic Hotel just around the corner from this spot, it was one of the few hotels we stayed in whilst in Norway, although it was definitely dated, it did have a nice outlook and a pretty darn good breakfast 🙂
When you think or search for Alesund the most common image that comes up is the awesome scene which can be seen from the lookout that is situated above the town, its a bit of walk up alot of stairs, but worthwhile, the next image will be from that spot and you will be able to see just where this little vista is located with respect to the rest of the town 🙂
The best thing about shooting sunset.. or more correctly twilight here was that most people were in bed so whilst normally the stop is teeming with people I was able to enjoy some quiet time to get a few snaps, this one is a 12 shot panorama which each frame bracketed to get the highlights and shadows. No reflections artificially generated 🙂 it was glassy still.
National Tree Planting Day – (c) Gerard Blacklock
Dear Australia, I am sorry for bagging you out a bit when comparing you to the Scandinavian countries 🙂 So I think its only fair that we identify some of the awesome things our great country has, you know.. concentrate on the good things and less on the bad (like the dickhead politicians.. did i say that or think it 😉 )
I live in a really great council area (now amalgamated.. 🙁 c’mon gerry concentrate on the good 😉 ) which has lots of really great community initiatives, one of which is the National Tree planting day 31st July). This was awesome, and all credit does to the Marrickville Council staff and volunteers (?) (http://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au/nationaltreeday/), it was great to be able to rock up and have everything there ready (gloves, water,and refreshments), and with a explanation of what to do, I know both our children loved it and I think we managed to plant more than we trod on 🙂 . I really like the way there was a large selection of plants placed in the right areas ready to go, kinda makes sense.. but still great idea.
We are really looking forward to heading back to the tree planting spot in a few months to check out the progress,