Stormy Strahan sunset

 Whilst sorting through my Lightroom photo library this morning I found this previously overlooked photo of a stormy sunset at Strahan Harbour,Tasmania taken in March of this year.

Friday 11th October

 Photos from my early morning walk in Terrigal today. Another sunny day ahead. The warmer mornings are bringing out walkers and dog owners.

Terrigal Lagoon-1.

 

Terrigal Lagoon-2

Dog owner's social meeting.Terrigal Haven.

Morning shadows

 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.

Dusk

 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.

 

Out of the cold wind

 

 

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. 

The trumpet player

 Grandson, Felix, doing some trumpet practice yesterday.

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.

New cat on the block

 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. 

 

  

A beautiful day for a walk.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was a beautiful, warm day. Unlike Monday-see previous post-there was no cold wind.  It was 24ºc -ideal for walking-so I decided to walk up the Coast Track in Wyrrabalong National Park just a 20 minute drive from home to hopefully see the displays of flannel flowers along the track.

Flannel flowers -Actinotus helianthi- are found on sandstone heathland in small areas around Sydney and the coast of New South Wales and they briefly bloom in the spring.

I drove to Bateau Bay and then walked up the Coast Track to Crackneck Lookout and then along the track towards the Wyrrabalong Lookout. As the first part of the walk is a steady uphill climb I decided to take only my water bottle and the light X-Vario camera. A sensible decision.

The flannel flowers did not disappoint.  I only saw the displays along the track on the ridge but was told by some walkers that there are equally impressive displays further along the track which involves going down -and then coming up again- a long steep set of steps. I passed on that one.

I did not see any snakes which are now starting to come active in the warming weather and I did not even see any snake trails in the sand on the track. However I did see a large bluetongue lizard which unfortunately did not stay around long enough for me to take a photo.

The beautiful walk up the hill through eucalypts and scrub. The large dark bulb up the tree is a termite colony.

180º views from Crackneck Lookout. This is looking north. The pristine sand beaches extend into the distance

Flannel flowers

The scrub vegetation is bent over by the wind which blows off the sea onto this cliff top location

Typical sandy heathland vegetation enhanced by flowering flannel flowers

The flannel flower lined Coast Track.

Monday morning

 A beautiful sunny Monday morning but the strong cold southerly wind meant that it felt much cooler than it looked. I drove to the Munmorah State Recreation Area, 38kms to the north of Terrigal, an area I have not visited previously. It is stunning and I'll be there again.

I took my Leica SL2  and a 16-35mm lens with the intention of taking some panormas. Here are the "keepers"

The top two were taken from Snapper Point and the bushland was beside the track on the way there. This type of bush with low grasses and ferns is ideal habitat for very venemous Eastern Brown and Red Bellied Black snakes so I was reluctant to venture off the track.

Morning walk photos-2

 It's a week since I posted the collection of photos I took on my one hour walk in Terrigal with my revived X1. I've walked every day since but I forgot to take the camera with me until today. Here's today's haul.

A morning walk

My 'vintage' Leica X1 has been restored to health thanks to friend Wayne fitting a new internal battery. It's not a straightforward task so many thanks Wayne

Last Monday I gave it a shakedown on my early morning walk here in Terrigal. It's been 5 years since I'd used the X1 and I'd totally forgotten how small and light it is and how simple the controls are. I'd also  forgotten how good the image quality is and particularly the quality of the jpeg files. It may only have a 12mp sensor and it certainly lacks the frills and bells and whistles of later digital cameras but when measured on the only criteria which really counts it's still a top contender.

A few days ago Wayne had pointed me in the direction of an outstanding photography website  A Cambridge Diary  The outstanding quality and consistency of the photos on this site has really motivated me to keep taking photos even here at home.

So I set out on my beachside walk at 6.30 on a really beautiful morning. I'd set myself the target of taking  three acceptable photos on the one hour's walk. The plan was to walk at my normal exercising pace and not to go deliberately seeking photo opportunities. In fact I came back with a bigger haul of worthwhile photos than I had hoped. Here they are-all taken within the hour and all jpeg files.