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.

A Day in the City

This week my photos come from an outing I went on with an amateur photography group I recently joined. We all headed into Darling Harbour and walked around taking pictures hoping to get some nice shots of the sunset. Unfortunately it was a very miserable day, so no wonderful sunsets, but we still had lots of fun.

I started shooting in colour but because of the dreariness of the sky I shifted to black and white and really enjoyed the effect. I love shooting in black and white because it draws attention to form and texture, making you look harder at your subject than when you shoot in colour. I hope you enjoy these shots of beautiful Sydney.

 

 

  

 

  

While I was walking around I noticed how much my perspective changes when I am taking photos. I would normally just stroll through an area enjoying what I could easily see and that would be it. But with photography I am always more inquisitive, looking more carefully from different angles, behind me, noticing the effect of light, tones and textures, shapes and design.

Photography has always been such a great way to see the beauty of life and to appreciate the simple things. I live in such a beautiful and interesting city and it is always so much fun getting out there and capturing it. I hope you have all had a wonderful week and I thank those who left me messages and emails from my last post, very much appreciated.

Life and Death

As I shared in my last post, I am now the proud owner of a Canon 600D DSLR. I have been out taking photos and each week will share with you some of my favourites. This week my photos come from a weekend I spent visiting family in Goulburn, particularly photos of the beautiful local Catholic church.    

While churches are intended to be welcoming, with their ‘doors always open’ to people wanting to find God, their doors are often heavy, ornate, closed and sometimes slightly foreboding. Since moving away from religion I now find the structure of churches even more fascinating, as I contemplate the messages they send to ‘outsiders.’ I find church doors and statutes, particularly on Catholic churches, immensely interesting. I like the confidence these structures exude, the hope they promise, and the sanctuary they offer. However, I can’t help but also feel deeply distressed by the things that happen behind the doors of some churches.                                                                                              

The pairing up of this church building and the next shots of cherry blossoms has meaning to me beyond the mere fact that they were both found walking around Goulburn.

The cherry blossom tree holds special significance in my life as it corresponded with a dream I had not long after my Dad passed away two and a half years ago. No longer a believer in the Christian faith, and no longer sure what I felt about the idea of heaven and hell, I was trying to work out where my Dad might be now he had passed away.

One night I dreamt that I saw my Dad and he was in Japan and behind him were cherry blossom trees in full bloom. He didn’t say anything in the dream but I felt reassured that he was safe, happy and possibly travelling the world in some soulful way. I found out later that the cherry blossom is symbolic of beauty but also of sudden death as its flowering season is so short.

Considering that my Dad passed away unexpectedly and quickly, I found great comfort in the idea that things we love can come and go and that it doesn’t change their beauty or importance in our lives. Since that dream I always love seeing cherry blossoms out in all their beauty.  

                                                        Check out what other people are up to this week at Our Creative Spaces.