Watching the whales go by.

 

This is our 6th week in our new home. It's been hectic unpacking, buying new furniture, hanging pictures and generally sorting things out. Having a seriously worn out knee has not helped but at last we are coming up for air and I have managed to take a photo from the new home for the blog.

This is the view from the deck of the apartment looking over the Haven towards the Skillion here in Terrigal. It was taken today at 4.00pm using the SL2 with the 50mm Summicron lens.

It is the middle of the whale migration season and we can quite literally see whales from the kitchen or sitting at the dining room table. You catch a patch of white water when they come up and sometimes a glimpse of a tail or body as they breach.

Whale sightings were special 20 years ago but the whale numbers have recovered dramatically and now there are literally thousands moving north in June and July up the east coast of Australia from Antartica to the warm waters of Queensland to give birth before they migrate with their calves south again to Antartica in September/October.

Of course no whales co-operated with my photo shoot but there are plenty out there.

The 9000 alleyways of Fes

 9000. That’s how many alleyways there are in the Medina in Fes, Morocco according to the tourist guidebooks.

 The  Leica Akademie Australia photo tour to Morocco which I went on last October which included a visit to the city of Fes. I spent a full day there exploring the Medina . A Medina means the old city, usually the historical, walled part of a city. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the count but the Fes Medina is an extraordinary jumble of alleyways and lanes in which it is very easy to become totally disorientated. 

If you are lost Google maps won’t be any help because Google have not mapped the Medina accurately and anyway satellite signals cannot penetrate deep into the chasms of the Medina.

Probably the best thing about the Fes Medina, apart from its complexity, is that it is still very much a working city filled with houses, cafes, even tanneries and hundreds of vendors selling the necessities of every day living. Of course there are stalls catering for the tourists but when I was there the locals far outnumbered the tourists although I’m sure it’s different story in the peak tourist season.

The Medina threw up plenty of photo opportunities-and I was really pleased with my efforts. Below is a selection of my photos from that day wandering some of the 9000 alleyways.

 I was happy with my decision to take just my Leica Q3 43 with me to Morocco I have no hesitation in saying that the Q3 43 with its 43mm lens is my firm favourite. With its considerable heft it is not everyone’s idea of the perfect travel camera but it comes close for me.