Surprises in the City

My favourite place to be is either down the coast or in the city at Circular Quay. I think Sydney is such a beautiful city with the harbour, bridge and Opera House. I also love all the different sorts of people it attracts, from local Sydney-siders to tourists and buskers. With the gorgeous warm weather we have been having I can’t wait to enjoy a glass or two of champagne near the harbour somewhere soon.

These first few shots were taken during the day as I walked around the city enjoying Hyde Park.It was such a beautiful day. I was in the city to see Louise Hawson speak about her photography work ‘52 Suburbs’ and at the end of the talk someone called out my name and it was a friend I did honours with and then worked with at the Attorney General’s. It was great to see her after being out of touch for a while.

We chatted and walked down to Circular Quay and enjoyed the views of the harbour from City Extra and had coffee and a catch up together. I always love when days go from being great to being fantastic! I hope you enjoy these photos.

After I said goodbye to my friend and as the sun started to set I took my camera out to see what I could capture. I hadn’t taken a tripod with me but I was really happy that I still managed to get some good shots because the light was particularly lovely that night.

The Opera House is one of my favourite places to photograph. It has such interesting angles and comes up so well in black and white. I can spend so long just wandering around this fascinating building, seeing something new each time. 

I hope you have all had a wonderful week. Thanks for all the lovely comments. Have a great weekend wherever or whatever you are up to.  

Spring Fair

One of my favourite quotes comes from Marcel Proust who said ‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.’ So on Saturday I headed out to the Cronulla Spring Fair to see what I could find. I am at Cronulla a lot but the wonderful thing about viewing the world from a camera is that life takes on a much more interesting slant and you see things differently.

The first thing I saw at the Fair was an animal petting farm for kids. One goat was very adamant about getting food from anywhere and was quite happy to launch himself up onto two legs while using the fence to balance to get at the food…case in point! Poor lady…

 

They weren’t all like that thank goodness, this one was so well behaved and adorable…

Just like this gorgeous little fluffy duckling…

l had heaps of fun taking photos of all the colours around…

 

There were lots of kids rides, fairy floss and show bags and of course the clowns…I find them a bit scary still.

I also had the opportunity to hear a wonderful Bolivian band.Their music was so much fun and attracted a big crowd.I definitely want to try and see them again and I bought one of their CDs which was great.    

 

On Sunday I met a friend at Hurstville and as I was getting off the train I heard an all mighty racket of cymbals and drums and when I got up to the ticket machines I saw a group of Chinese dragon dancers. I happened to have my camera with me ‘just in case’ so quickly got a few snaps as they moved through the mall. It seemed very random to me but apparently it was moon cake festival. It was great fun, sort of like a Chinese version of flash mob.

These guys did such a great job and were so energetic. I loved their costumes, especially their pants. 

Well I hope you have all had a great week and have started to enjoy the warmer weather of Spring.

Kiama

This past week has been quite a difficult one, with Father’s Day and also the loss of a friend of my mum’s to cancer last Thursday. My mum was meant to be going into the city for a weekend with a choir she is in but felt it would all be a bit much after the news of her friends passing so we decided to go down to Kiama for the weekend and stay in a friend’s caravan.

I always love the south coast but this weekend seemed to be more vivid than other times. To know that someone had just had their time cut short seemed to make everything we did so much more meaningful.

Mum and I generally spend most of our holidays drinking coffee, sitting in the sun and reading. This weekend was no different, but it felt like such a privilege to be able to do these things and to share them with someone I love.

It really is the simple things in life that make you the happiest. It is a shame that it takes such devastating events to remind us of how lucky we are in the everydayness of life. I hope you enjoy these photos that come from a very special weekend.

On the second night in Kiama I went out to take photos of the area, and as always I just felt so excited to have this lovely camera to experience the world through. Dusk is my favourite time to take photos-the light is just so beautiful. Just when I think I have ‘got’ a shot, 10mins later when I look over my shoulder the light has totally transformed the subject- it really is magical. These are some photos of the lighthouse at the blow hole.  

  

I didn’t use a tripod for these shots which was definitely pushing it but I just love the colours that came up in these beautiful buildings. I think these photos actually looked better than what the buildings actually looked like in real life.

  

The next morning we went down to the beach to have a wander and I just laughed my heart out watching this man ‘flipper’ into the surf. I don’t think anyone could do this gracefully!

 

I highly recommend the coffee chocolate shop in the main street of Kiama. Their little chocolates were amazing, especially the orange chocolate, such a great combination. Great coffee too. What more could you want.

                                   

I hope you have all had a wonderful week. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to my Dad and Helen- thank you for being part of our lives, you are definitely thought of and missed.

Local Markets

Welcome to the first day of Spring 2011. I hope you all have had a wonderful week, and thanks again for the lovely messages. This week my photos come from the local Rotary market that is held once a month on a Sunday morning just up the road from where I live.

I love the colours that pop up at markets and the sense of community as people gather to look for a bargain, buy some fresh veggies or just wander around with their dogs or kids.

This week was a family fun day so there was a lot of wonderful eye catching toys and gadgets to get the attention of the children (and no doubt the wallets of the parents lol). 

  

I love this next shot. Scattered on the asphalt were so many childhood favourites- Superman, Batman, Ernie, Fred Flintstone, …even the Gingerbread Man from Shrek. It was so lovely watching the young kids scrounge around looking for their favourites. It’s nice to know these characters still hold special meaning for the young ones too.   

Poor old Ronald McDonald was doing his best but he seemed to just be frightening children and dogs. He left screams and tears in his wake. He freaked me out too. I think I caught him by surprise here…

 

This was a funny shot. Just after the above photo, Ronald went over to pat a dog and the dog freaked out and was barking and growling. This was the poor dog. He still has his eyes on Mr McDonald. 

I love the fresh produce at the market- sure beats Coles and Woolworths…

 

This was the first week I have seen buskers at the markets and it was so great to have some music to wander around too. I couldn’t resist getting a few snaps of this guy. His accordion playing was lovely and I enjoyed pretending I was in Paris as I strolled around! I thought he had a wonderful face and was really getting into his playing, always nice to see passionate people.

 

You never know what beautiful things you will find as you wander…that is all the fun of markets.

If you would like to check out what other people have been up to this week, go to Our Creative Spaces.