Success in monochrome

I entered three photos in the 2022 Australian/NZ Monochrome Awards photo competition-two in the People category and one in the Places category. To qualify the photos had to have been taken since 1st January 2021 which really restricted me as I have taken very few photos in the past 18 months.

Last year I was awarded a highly commended in the People category of the 2021 Monochrome Awards with a my single entry, a photo of a Lightning Ridge opal miner, taken on my NSW road trip back in May 2021.

This year I was highly commended for my three entries but frustratingly still no cigar. According to the organisers there was a big number of entrants-up 40% on 2021 -and the standard of the entries was very high but I was hopeful that my photo of Surfers at Sunrise would make it into the prize winners.

Poppywas taken with my Leica Q2, Men of the Cloth with my Leica Q and Surfers at Sunrise with my iPhone SE. All three photos were shot in colour and converted into monochrome using Silver Efex Pro 2.

Here are the three succesful 2022 entries-Surfers at Sunrise, Men of the Cloth and Poppy.

Doggytown by sea

Terrigal is suffering from a plague. Not a mouse plague but a dog plague. It seems that every other Terrigal resident now has a newly acquired dog.  There are dogs of every size and whilst the majority of owners do pick up their "deposits" some do not so the Esplanade and boardwalk often remind me of the streets of Paris-25 years ago. It's definitely a case of watch where you step in Terrigal these days.

Doing the crossword

Doing the crossword. Terrigal, August 2022.

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Chaos-Marie Kondo's nightmare

 I'm downsizing. Putting my beautiful house with its many rooms, ocean views, swimming pool, large garden and four car garage up for sale. It's too big for just me and Marvel and the maintenance is becoming a chore. I can manage the many steep stairs today but that will not be the case into the future.

I have spent the past two weeks clearing out. It's a mammoth task and far from finished. I wish I had heard about Marie Kondo years ago. Maybe we would not have accumulated so much stuff. The garage-photo above-is the clearing station. Four sorting areas-firstly stuff for the tip ( landfill) by far the biggest pile and three truckloads already moved there. Secondly stuff for the charity shop, thirdly stuff to go to the new place and fourthly stuff belonging to the children-to be reclaimed and removed!

Onwards and upwards but no time for photography or the blog for a while.

New toy

 In a moment of weakness bought on by the prospect of a substantial boost to the bank balance by the sale of the Porsche I purchased a couple of new toys a few weeks ago.

 Although the last thing I actually needed was another camera I bought a Panasonic Lumix S5 and a couple of lenses including a mighty Panasonic Pro F2.8 70-200mm zoom lens. It really is a monster at 1.6kg (3.4lb) I had not intended to buy such a monster but digiDirect here in Sydney were offering it at a large discount and I could not help myself. Nonetheless the lens alone cost more than the camera body with the 20-60mm kit lens

I have not had a chance to use the new kit much so far and as I have just embarked on a major time consuming project so it will not be getting a workout for the next few weeks. In the meantime here are the first efforts from the new lens featuring, of course, Marvel and two surfers at Avoca Beach. I'm very pleased with the results. Now where can I hire a sherpa?