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Hello

Thank you for reading my blog.

I have started a new blog to focus on my photography.

Hopefully, you will visit my new blog at http://lightandfield.blogspot.com.au/

Thank you

Trip to Bluff Knoll

My friend and I had a trip to Bluff Knoll a couple of weeks ago.

This time, I had my luck with a good weather, so I woke up early to climb up the mountain. It took me nearly 4 hours to go up to the top and come back to the car park.

It is only 1,099 meter high, but the view was great.

 

 

My short shopping outing

I went to Perth to buy a new camera bag on Saturday.

The bag, which I was after (Osprey's new Ultralight Camera Case), turned out to be too small to fit my camera (the camera bag looked quite small, and it would only be good for a mirror-less or small entry model DSLR).

So, I cycled around a block and came back.

Red Sunset

I went out to shoot the strange red sunset caused by the smoke from a bushfire yesterday. 

Bushman Panoramic Head

I oreded a panoramic head from Bushman Panoramic, and sadly I had to sent it back soon after I opened a box.

First, their "Manfrotto compatible" quick release plate wasn't compatible at alll with the Manfrotto quick release. The plate of Bushman Panoramic had a wider feet, which was preventing itself to fit onto my Manfrotto tripod as well as another tripod fitted with Mafrotto RC2 quick release.  

Second issue was that it (the model called,Gobi) had a questionable rotator. I adjusted the unit on a level using its spirit level (I also used a digital level on my camera). Then I started rotating the pano head 360 degree only to see a spirit level moving all over the place like a headless chicken.

The actual unit was beautifully machined in general, and I really wished if I didn't need to return it (I got a money back in the end, but I had to still wear the cost of shipping, which was rather disappointing).

Trip to Stirling Range

I had a photo trip to the Stirling Range last week.

I arrived at a caravan park around 6:00 PM. I quickly set up my tent and went out to take photos of the Bluff Knoll as the sun was going down.

Next morning, I drove to Albany to see their wind power turbines. 

I have been thinking that it will be interesting to bring a group of Japanese students along with ours to Albany on a camp trip when they are visiting our school in July. 

It is a long road ahead for Japan to clean up a big mess at the Fukushima nuclear power station, and  I think it will be a good experience for the students to visit the wind power station here. It might give them something to think about possibilities of alternative energy sources for Japan's future.

On the way back to the Bluff Knoll, I stopped at the Porongurup Range to go up on a hill to do some bush walking.

I wake up at 4:30AM next morning to go up on the Bluff Knoll, but I gave it up as it was too windy and too dangerous to walk on the ridge, I thought. 

I was looking at the mountain from the car park, and my car was shaking left and right violently in the wind. I got out of the car to see what it was like, and I wasn't able to stand straight let alone holding my camera steady.

So I left the Bluff Knoll, and went up the Mount Trio instead before jumping back on the car to drive home.

Happy New Year 2015

Summer fishing trip

I went South for a few days for an annual pre-Christmas fishing trip.

Fishing wasn't good, but it was nice to be on my packraft and explore a few places.

Perspective

We were all saddened by the loss of people's life as a result of the Sydney siege early this week. Then, there was another news of tragedy at the school in Pakistan.


Our students had their first photo exhibition at a local gallery last week.  On the wall of the gallery, we put an information sheet to describe what photography means to us. On this, I wrote,  

"through photographic images, we can experience a perspective of those behind the lens, which can help us to learn and to see the world differently. By learning how other people see, we can be more forgiving and tolerant towards those having different views and values in life. I believe this is the biggest benefit of students learning photography at school".

Tetris

Everyone was crazy about Tetris when I was in high school. As I remembered, the game was developed by the old Soviet as an education program.

I saw piles of containers in Fremantle yesterday. They reminded me of the Russian music that was playing in Tetris, and Perestroika, which my friend and I thought was a type of Russian bread at that time.

Little afternoon visitor

It was something like 34 degree today.

I went outside to see if I should go fishing, but it felt too hot, so I went back inside.

As I was closing a door, I saw a tiny cricket hanging on the door frame.

Perhaps our visitor was taking refuge from heat as well.

Fishing at bridge

I went out fishing on Friday evening with my friend.

We are hoping to catch some tailors, but they didn't show up.

We saw a few big black breams at the bridge, but they were too smart for us to catch.

What I scored today

To finish off my holiday, my friend and I went to do a treasure hunting at a clearance sale of a local outdoor gear whole seller today.

I bought two pairs of trekking poles at a super bargain price for start (I think buying a piece of aluminum tubing at a local hardware store would have cost more). 

I also got a bag of tent pegs which I have been thinking to replace my old Macpac original pegs (they bend easily).  I believe that the set of pegs was for a tent that they used to sell, and I only paid for a couple of dollars for a bag of ten.

The last items that I bought were a few pairs of merino wool hiking socks and base-layer, and again they were very very cheap.

What a score!

Once in a red moon

The river and sky looked spooky because of the eerie moon eclipse last night.

Canon's auto white balance is usually great, but it was producing a strange colour cast.

We went home before vampires were coming out.

Richard Avedon at the Art Gallery of WA

I went to see an exhibition of Richard Avedon's work at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

I thought a photo of a female model standing in front of elephants was interesting. The model looked very graceful in a beautiful dress while elephants had a chain on their legs, and they were looking rather sad. The animals had lost their wildness and freedom while the model stood with her chin up with her pride and elegance.

I don't know what the photographer's intention was, but to me, the image was showing an ugliness lying behind beauty. Something we tend to overlook in our society. 

I must say other images didn't appeal to me much partly because of a terrible lighting that the gallery had set up. Almost every image had a spot light at it from a wrong angle and wrong height I guess, which was creating a terrible reflection not only on that image but also onto the image sitting next to it.

I moved left and right like a crab facing an enemy fish to find a better angle of attack, but my effort was fruitless. How I am meant to enjoy an art work if I just can't see the image properly?

Anyway, I picked up two brochures before I left the gallery, and it was ironic that these looked far better than what I saw in the exhibition.

Monday Public Holiday

Yesterday was a public holiday, and my friend and I went fishing to catch some whitings in the Peel Estuary.

We didn't see any whiting unfortunately, but I hooked a good size bream in a boat harbour. I was dropping a shrimp pattern from a jetty, and the fish came up to grab it as the fly was falling down to the bottom.

The angry bream was trying to go around the jetty pylons, and I thought I was going to loose it knowing the 4x tippet won't have any chance against those sharp barnacles clinging onto the jetty.

In the end, I managed to steer the fish away from pillars and rocks to bring it to my landing net. It was fun.