Lazy Kodachrome day poolside Muscat, Oman in December 2018. A photo from a wonderful holiday in friendly Oman.
Summer is already here in Australia with extreme heat in many parts of the country this week but not yet in Terrigal. The concern is that after a wet winter which produced lots of vegetation growth extreme heat will bring disastrous bushfires.
Photo taken with my Leica Q.
It was the annual Chromefest-'a celebration of American Hot Rods' -at The Entrance on the Central Coast of NSW last weekend.
It was the first Chromefest I had been to since back in 2019 and it certainly has grown in size-at least in crowd numbers- although the number of cars and bikes was well down. Also the cars this year were more 'straight' with very few rat cars and hearses and similar oddballs which is a real pity. A friend suggested to me this morning this may perhaps reflect demographics. The old enthusiasts are fading away and the next generation does not have same enthusiasm for the 50s and 60s.
Back in 2019 there were many more attendees in 'period' costume. This year there were few. However there were three stages and dance floors with groups and Elvis impersonators performing whilst primarily 'oldies' dusted off their 1950s/60s dance moves and showed off their period outfits.
I have only ever had a passing interest in hot rods and my reason for going to Chromefest has always been to take photos and this year was no exception. After 90 minutes and a lot of walking I headed back to my car for the 25 minute drive home with about 50 photos in the bag.
I have culled them down to this selection.
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| Why it's called Chromefest. |
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| Restrained chrome on a superbly presented Cobra replica. |
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| Intense discussion around a vintage speedway car |
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| It's only rock and roll but they like it. |
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| Hot and probably bored |
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| American chrome |
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| Silver tail |
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| Reproduction 1950s/60s Drive- in -Movies kit. Note the total lack of any safety considerations in the interior of the car. If you crash if you are lucky you are kneecapped. If you are unlucky you die. When new the car would not have had seatbelts. |
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| Lost in the 50's indeed. |
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| Riding with Elvis upfront |
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| Not so mellow yellow |
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| He bought the 'merch'-in 2017 |
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| Beautifully period dressed lady. |
The photos were taken with my Leica SL2 camera using a Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN Art lens. It is not a lightweight combination. Walking with it for 90 mins on a warmish day is about the maximum I can handle. However the results are excellent. This same lens is also sold in a Leica version but, of course, at a much higher price.
I shot all these photos except 'Not so mellow yellow' with the lens at the full open F2.8 aperture. I always try to follow the axiom-only use the aperture to control depth of field not to control the exposure-so my default aperture setting is wide open. What's the point of paying for a wide aperture lens and then stopping it down when you do not need to?
I also set the SL2 at minus 2/3rd EV. I find that at the normal EV setting the files are overexposed and the highlights can blow out. The same applies to my Q2.
Despite this adjustment the highlight on the ribbon on the woman's hat above is overexposed. I should have lowered the exposure further.
The photos were all DNG files processd in Lightroom Classic. As I was using the zoom I had to do very little cropping.
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| This lovely scene spotted in a village in northern Romania. Another photo from the archive. |
Photos from my early morning walk in Terrigal today. Another sunny day ahead. The warmer mornings are bringing out walkers and dog owners.
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| Terrigal Lagoon-1. |
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| Terrigal Lagoon-2 |
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| Dog owner's social meeting.Terrigal Haven. |
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| Long shadows at sunrise at The Haven, Terrigal. Taken with my X1 on my early morning walk on Monday.It was the start of another beautiful day. |
Photo taken from the deck of home looking south into the Terrigal Bowl. Shot at 6.14pm last Saturday just after the sun had set. It was the last day before we put the clocks forward one hour to switch to Summer Time.
It had been a beautiful, warm and sunny day and being a long weekend many of the weekender houses and apartments were occupied so the bowl was full of lights.
Photo taken with the Leica SL2 with the 20-70mm zoom f2.8 1/125th second at ISO12,500 . Photo processed in Lightroom using the Denoise feature to take out the noise generated by using the high ISO. At a very high magnification on my 27"monitor the twin newsreaders can be seen on the TV in the apartment visible in the centre of the photo.
I found this photo quite by chance last week. It was taken in 2013 at the Ocean Baths at Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia on a sunny winter's day. It reminds me of days this winter in Terrigal when the sun was shining but the wind off the sea was icy.
The man and his little dog found a sheltered spot. The fact that he is reading a newspaper and not looking at his phone dates the photo.
The photo was taken with my Leica X1. Last week I entered it into the Leica LFI Gallery and it was selected to appear in the gallery.
I quote from the LFI email 'This means your image now ranks among the top representatives of this genre within the LFI Gallery. Congratulations!'. A nice plaudit for a photo taken 11 years ago and passed over by me until last week.
Photos taken with the Leica SL2 and my new 50mm APO Summicron lens. The IQ and colour rendition from this lens is extraordinary. Leica "magic".
You cannot set these photos up.You have to take them as you find them.
After the sad passing of beautiful Marvel four weeks ago we decided that we should adopt another rescue cat so that our other cat, Smudge, did not adjust to being the boss cat of the house!
Fortunately by sheer luck we very quickly found a recue cat waiting to be adopted in a rescue sanctuary, the NinthLife Foundation, very close to home.
The foundation takes in older cats whose owners cannot look after or keep them any longer.
Sadly most people want to adopt young cats so finding homes for older cats is not easy. Poor Holly had been in the foundation for 7 months when we spotted her on their website. Her room in the sanctuary was nice but she must have been very bored. She had been surrendered when her lady owner had to move back overseas to look after her sick father.
Holly is a domestic long hair and she is big-very big. She is six years old and very affectionate and friendly. She was obviously doted on by her previous owner.
We had no hesitation in adopting her. Who could resist those beautiful eyes? She has settled in very well although relations between her and Smudge are still somewhat fraught.
Holly has a magnificent coat but she needs daily brushing to avoid knots and hairballs. She is obviously used to brushing and is fully cooperative which is a relief as she is a big cat and wrestling her would not be easy.
Every day I miss Marvel still but I cannot believe how lucky we are to have found Holly.
