Terrigal Ocean Swims

It was the Terrigal Ocean Swims today . The weather was glorious and the sea was calm-ideal conditions-and there was big entry for all classes. First it was the1kilometre swim at 9.30am followed by the 2 kilometre swim at 10.00am. Many competitors swam both and the first placed female in the 1 kilometre swim also won the 2km swim and the first placed male in the 1km swim was second in the 2km swim. Both were young swimmers.

Looking back.

A dive into the photo library today turned up three photos from a great trip to California in May 2016 which I think deserve to see the light of day on the blog.
Firstly -Dump Trump- an optimistic demonstrator on Venice Beach and the nightmare had barely started then. I wonder how he feels today.
Secondly below a fortune teller on Santa Monica pier at dusk and finally bottom photo a man fishing on the pier at Port Hueneme, north of Ventura, California.
 Port Hueneme is a rather dull town with a naval base and a car transporter ship handling facility where we stopped overnight on our way south to Los Angeles from San Francisco. I went for a walk onto the jetty and this man was passing time fishing and he let me take his photo. I had not looked carefully at the photo until today and I was surprised to see how interesting it is and how good the light was.

Goodbye summer

It's been a long and very hot summer and temperature records have been set all over the country including here on the Central Coast of New South Wales. But now it really does look as if summer took its final bow last week. The clocks have come off summer time and the days have an autumnal feel.
Photo taken at North Avoca.

Definitely no regrets

Definitely not a British beach. A typical summer's day at Terrigal Beach

It's 42 years to the day since my wife and I arrived in Australia with our two small children having emigrated from the UK which at that time was in the grip of very nasty industrial strife on a multitude of fronts. We've never had a single regret about our life changing decision and the more we hear about the monumental stuff-up that is Brexit the more we count our blessings that we are here and not in the UK.
By coincidence it will also be exactly 42 years to the day on Friday since my 2.7 Porsche was first registered here in Australia. I am taking it out for a long run tomorrow with some other Porsche owners to celebrate.

Praying mantis

 I spotted this praying mantis walking along the balustrade beside the pool last Monday. As soon as it saw me it started to pray. Presumably praying that I would not swat it. Its prayers were answered.
Photo taken with the Leica Q in the macro setting.

More cat cam

 By coincidence after using my X Vario at cat level to photograph Zoe -see below-last week this weekend my three grandaughters adopted two young cats from the RSPCA. These were their first pets and they were so excited. I arrived at my granddaughter's house just a few minutes after the cats and they were just being let out into their new surroundings. I had taken my cat camera-the X Vario- in anticipation of recording the new arrivals. The male cat was being big and bold and was relatively easy to photograph but his very timid sister was holding back.

Wonder cat.

Zoe, the wonder cat, photographed yesterday. Zoe is 18 years old making her the equivalent of 88 in human terms according to the Purina cat age calculator on the internet. She may look like a kitten but she's great grandmother age.  She lost an eye 6 years ago and now she has diabetes but she’s still going strong. Because of the diabetes she eats loads of food and drinks loads of water. She is too old to put on insulin. She is a real trooper. As one of my granddaughters said yesterday "Awwww she's adorable!"
Photo taken with my Leica X Vario-a camera very much unloved by people who have probably never even seen one yet alone used one. In fact the X Vario is a wonderful camera with a fantastic lens and because it has an clip on electronic viewfinder which can be swivelled through 90º it is ideal for photographing cats at cat eye level.
This photo was taken as a DNG ( RAW ) file at ISO 1000 and I "massaged" it in Lightroom to handle the very contrasty light and shade and to get the detail in her very dark face. I used autofocus and focussed on her whiskers.