Boxing Day-Terrigal Beach

 

Seasons Greetings to the small band of followers to this modest blog. Wherever you are I hope you are having a peaceful time.

Here in Terrigal, yesterday, Christmas Day, was hot. Today is even hotter and tomorrow is forecast to be hotter still.

Sadly there are massive bushfires raging in the Grampians National Park region of Victoria, down south. The forest vegetation is very dry, the temperatures are extreme, there are high winds and dry lightning has started multiple fires. So far no loss of life but thousands of square kms burnt out and sadly thousands, perhaps millions, of native animals lost.

The photo above was taken on New Years Day, 1989 on Terrigal Beach. The world windsurfing championships were being held in Terrigal that year. Today windsurfing is not nearly so popular and the  scene on the beach is much different.

This photo was taken with my Leica M6 with a 28mm Elmarit lens on colour negative film. The negative has badly degraded and is now unusable but many years ago I made a very large block mounted print which hung in my old house. I photographed that for the photo above.

For  comparison I have just taken the short stroll down to the beach and shot the same scene today-at 11.30am. Photo below. A big difference. The beach is much less crowded but that may be down to the difference in days as not all the visitors have arrived yet. Also it may be hotter today that on NYD 1989. Today people are much more sun conscious. The umbrellas have been replaced by cabanas and there are more hats being worn. This photo was taken with my Leica Q2 with its 28mm lens.

 

Gone early morning fishing

 Fishing at sunrise on Terrigal Beach on a beautiful morning. Another hot day ahead.

Not a surf carnival photo

Today  I really would have liked to have posted a colourful photo taken at the huge surf carnival being held on Terrigal beach today. There are hundreds of children taking part and there's the problem.

I do not want to be seen taking photos near children. There is so much sensitivity around the subject. It's easy to understand why but it's more difficult to understand why the literally dozens of people snapping away with their smartphones on the beach and Esplanade don't get a second glance.

Anyway it is what it is, so today's photo is not of the surf carnival, it's our big ball of fur, Holly.

Photo taken with my Leica Q2.

Taking a dip

 I have just been down to Kiama and I was reminded that on my last time there I took what is still one of my favourite photos.

Back then, in February 2022, it was a very hot day -as I drove there on the motorway west of Sydney earlier in the day the car was showing an external temperature of 35.6ºC. It was also very humid. Late in the afterrnoon I drove south to Gerringong and I spotted these swimmers walking carefully across the slippery rock shelf to an ocean swimming pool to take a cooling dip.

The Little Blowhole-Kiama

 

Earlier in the week I spent a few days down the south coast in Kiama and Berry. Photo above shows the Little Blowhole at Kiama early morning. The blowhole was in good form the three days I was there.

Racing in the heat

Went down to Sydney Motorsport Park yesterday to the Historic Race meeting to see friends, Craig ( Porsche 911) and Colin ( Alfa GTA), competing. Very hot and humid day. I was feeling the 35ºC heat and I was not driving.

It was good to catch up with friends from the Porsche Club who I had not seen for over 4 years. However to their apparent surprise I did not feel nostalgic for the days when I competed in my Porsches. Life moves on.

The conditions and the weight of my camera gear meant that I was not able to get into more than one vantage point for the action shots and I called it a day after I had some good shots of my mates.

Photos taken using my SL2 and the Lumix f2.8 70-200mm lens for the action shots and the Sigma f2.8 24-70mm lens for the static shots.

 

Runners in the mist

 Runners from the Terrigal Trotters setting out on the monthly time trial in warm, misty conditions on Terrigal Esplanade early this morning.

Paddle board class

Paddle board class on Terrigal Beach at 6.32am today, Thursday. A very high tide this morning  and it looks like a stormy, hot and humid day ahead

Through a tourist's eyes

 A friend from France is here at the start of a one year working holiday. I met him down in Sydney last Wednesday. It was a beautiful day-not too warm and crystal clear- and we walked the Harbour Bridge.

Whilst he was snapping away with his iPhone I took these tourist snaps with my camera

Waiting for the train

 Spotted on Gosford station whilst waiting for the Sydney train yesterday morning

Grey days

 Here in Terrigal we are experiencing unsettled, stormy weather this week.

  It is windy with showers and not as warm as it should be for the time of year. Definitely not beach weather today.

 

Photos taken at North Avoca beach this morning using Leica SL2 fitted with Lumix Pro 16-35mm f4.0 lens at 16mm.

Smudge -the other cat

 Portrait of Smudge-the other cat in the house. Smudge is not yet a fan of Holly, the new cat, but then Holly is not yet a fan of Smudge! It's work in progress.

Smudge is a very small cat. She could be mistaken as a kitten although she is 6 and fully grown. 

 Photo taken with  Leica SL2 and Summicron 50mm f2 lens.

It's summer.

 The first hibiscus of summer in the garden today.

Thought for the day

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Kodachrome days

Lazy Kodachrome day poolside Muscat, Oman in December 2018. A photo from a wonderful holiday in friendly Oman. 

Summer is already here in Australia with extreme heat in many parts of the country this week but not yet in Terrigal. The concern is that after a wet winter which produced lots of vegetation growth extreme heat will bring disastrous bushfires.

Photo taken with my Leica Q.

Chromefest 2024

 It was the annual Chromefest-'a celebration of American Hot Rods' -at The Entrance on the Central Coast of NSW last weekend.

It was the first Chromefest I had been to since back in 2019 and it certainly has grown in size-at least in crowd numbers- although the number of cars and bikes was well down. Also the cars this year were more 'straight' with very few rat cars and hearses and similar oddballs which is a real pity. A friend suggested to me this morning this may perhaps reflect demographics. The old enthusiasts are fading away and the next generation does not have same enthusiasm for the 50s and 60s.

Back in 2019 there were many more attendees in 'period' costume. This year there were few. However there were three stages and dance floors with groups and Elvis impersonators performing whilst primarily 'oldies' dusted off their 1950s/60s dance moves and showed off their period outfits.

I have only ever had a passing interest in hot rods and my reason for going to Chromefest has always been to take photos and this year was no exception. After 90 minutes and a lot of walking I headed back to my car for the 25 minute drive home with about 50 photos in the bag.

I have culled them down to this selection.

Why it's called Chromefest.

Restrained chrome on a superbly presented Cobra replica.

Intense discussion around a vintage speedway car

It's only rock and roll but they like it.

Hot and probably bored

American chrome

Silver tail

Reproduction 1950s/60s Drive- in -Movies kit. Note the total lack of any safety considerations in the interior of the car. If you crash if you are lucky you are kneecapped. If you are unlucky you die. When new the car would not have had  seatbelts.

Lost in the 50's indeed.

Riding with Elvis upfront

Not so mellow yellow

He bought the 'merch'-in 2017

Beautifully period dressed lady.

Photography notes

The photos were taken with my Leica SL2 camera using a Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN Art lens. It is not a lightweight combination. Walking with it for 90 mins on a warmish day is about the maximum I can handle. However the results are excellent. This same lens is also sold in a Leica version but, of course, at a much higher price. 

I shot all these photos except 'Not so mellow yellow' with the lens at the full open F2.8 aperture. I always try to follow the axiom-only use the aperture to control depth of field not to control the exposure-so my default aperture setting is wide open. What's the point of paying for a wide aperture lens and then stopping it down when you do not need to?

I also set the SL2 at minus 2/3rd EV. I find that at the normal EV setting the files are overexposed and the highlights can blow out. The same applies to my Q2.

Despite this adjustment the highlight on the ribbon on the woman's hat above is overexposed. I should have lowered the exposure further.

The photos were all DNG files processd in Lightroom Classic. As I was using the zoom I had to do very little cropping.

Terrigal morning

The Boardwalk, Terrigal. This morning.

Harmony!

This lovely scene spotted in a village in northern Romania. Another photo from the archive.

 

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.