American Beauty-by the sea.

 Just a bit of fun. Albeit with some impressive and easy to use technology.

Three photos. The first, the original photo, taken early morning with my iPhone13 on the Terrigal Esplanade.

The second, the same photo, after I had removed the dog walker and distracting signs and street furniture using the "Remove" AI function in Adobe Lightroom Classic.

Finally the third photo, full summer beach day, was created with ChatGPT AI using the second photo as the base.

 

 

 

Racing days-from the archive

 It's been nine weeks since my knee reconstruction but I am still not mobile although I can drive. Walking is the difficult part and even the effort of a short walk leaves me feeling tired. So it's back to the library for photos for the blog and today it's photos taken at the wonderful Barry Sheene Festivals of Speed for historic motorcycles held at Sydney MotorSport Park. 

These photos were taken at the 2015,  2016 and 2017 events. I have not managed to attend subsequent events and I'm not even sure that it is still being held. I will check for next year's event.

The photos for the 2015 and 2016 events were taken with the wonderful Leica X Vario and the 2017 shots were taken the Leica Q .

These historic motorcycle events are great for photo opportunities with interesting machinery and so many characters.

Donkey Rider-Morocco

 

The Donkey Rider. Photographed somewhere in the south of Morocco in 1994 on Ilford Pan F film using my Leica M6 fitted with an Elmar 28mm lens.

This photo is one of my absolute favourites. It makes me ask myself whether I should go back to shooting film-with an M6.

Street cat-Oman

A street cat spotted in a back street in Mutrah, Oman. 

I'd not taken a serious look at this photo until today 8 years after it was taken. Anyway here it is. Better late than never. 

  

Character studies

 

Character studies of our tuxedo cats-Smudge and Holly.

Smudge, petite and playful, and Holly, big and imperious.

Smudge taken with the Leica Q3 43. 

Holly taken with the Leica SL2 and the 50mm APO F2 Summicron ASPH.

 

Ordinary places

 Four photos from my library which, to my mind, are ordinary places with a certain charm. I hope you agree.

The main street of Herberton, a small former mining town, on the Atherton Tablelands inland from Cairns in Far North Queensland, Australia. The main attraction of the town is the camera museum-a very large collection of interesting cameras in a former shop on the main street.

The corner shop in a very small village in India. Photo taken from the window a bus late in the afternoon. It could be anywhere in India.

A fast food cafe roadside stop in the desert in Oman.

I cannot remember exactly where this shot of Main Street was taken other than it was on the Mississippi River Road somewhere south of Memphis. A very ordinary scene but so typical of many Main Streets in the USA.
 

The Vespa

Just a street shot. A florscent Vespa parked on the street in Salzburg, Austria. Taken with my Leica X1 back in June 2014.

Three years ago

 Three years ago this month Rosie and I spent two weeks in the Kimberley region of Western Australia at firstly, the beautiful El Questro Homestead and then at the Cable Beach Resort in Broome.

We had a fabulous time and saw spectacular scenery and sunsets.

I was reminded of this trip today when Apple photos popped up with one of those memories collections.

Here are three sunset shots from that trip. Even the most colourful Kimberley sunset is better with a glass, or two,  of champagne as Rosie will confirm.

 Leica Q2 photos.

 

The morning ritual

 Australia has a really great, well established, coffee culture as Starbucks (yuk) found out a few years ago to their cost. You can get a really good cup of coffee in most cafes in Australia.  

In Terrigal, which is not a big place, there are no less than 9 cafes open early in the morning and all serve good coffee.

Our favourite is Luna where the staff are really friendly and the coffee is consistently very good. We are there early most mornings for our regular medium flat whites . 

I took this photo with my iPhone 13 this morning at 7.00am on what looks like another beautiful spring day. Most of the customers were outside in the sunshine. We opted for a warmer spot inside.

Light and shade in Morocco

 Three light and shade photos from Morocco taken last October. Monochrome photos seem to be all the fashion nowadays but although I still much prefer colour these three do work in monochrome.

Taken with my Leica Q3 43 and processed in Lightroom and Nik 8 Silver Efex. 

Istanbul-in one photo

 It's difficult to believe that two years have passed since I was in Istanbul.

For many years Paris had been my favourite city and maybe it would still retain this position if I had not had to cancel my trip there this year. Now, however Istanbul is up there as my favourite, closely followed by Barcelona which I visited for the first time last year.

Istanbul, by all accounts, has always been an amazing city. How could it not be given its location -half in Europe and half in Asia? It has an amazing vibrance and multicultural mix. 

I took this photo of a very busy pretzel stall located at the end of the Galata Bridge in one of the busiest spots in the city. There is a lot going on. Locals are buying, tourists are passing by. It is a very colourful scene. For me it's the best photo I took in Istanbul and one of my favourite photos from the many I have taken over the years. It's Istanbul in one photo.

The photo above is the uncropped full frame . It was taken with my Leica Q2 with its 28mm Summilux lens. For this shot the 28mm lens was the ideal focal length.