The listeners

A mystery photo I had overlooked until this morning.  It was taken in the Sulaimanya Mosque on my Istanbul trip last year .

Why is the guide pointing? What is he telling the women? How do the older women manage to sit crosslegged on the floor?  So many unanswered questions.

 

Leica Q2 photo. 

Celebration portraits

 

It’s almost a year to the day but it’s taken rescue cat, Holly, all that time to fit into our family. The feline Prozac I have been giving her daily for the past month seems to have made a difference. In the past three weeks she's become more relaxed, even with Smudge. She's become that big, lovable fur baby we wanted her to be when we adopted her. I shot this portrait of her to celebrate. 

 I could not pass up the opportunity to take Smudge's portrait too. 

 Photos. Holly Leica SL2 Smudge Leica Q3 43

Exam time

I visited my daughter and twin granddaughters in Sydney on Sunday. The granddaughters were hard studying for their mock Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams which start Monday morning. The real exams are in October. 

This is Poppy studying in her room. Compared with her sister Scarlett's room, which was too untidy to show in a photograph, Poppy's room was surprisingly tidy. 

I've converted the photo to monochrome because to me it looks much more atmospheric and characterful than the colour original.

  

Leica SL2 with Lumix Pro 16-35mm lens at 16mm.

Only the birds for company

 

 

A rather unpleasant winter's day today in Terrigal. I ventured out mid-afternoon with my Q3 43 hoping that it would start drizzling again and I could get some rain shots but the weather did not co-operate. I came home with just this one shot taken at the Surf Cafe. A lone customer looking at his phone with just a few birds for company.

Leica have released a series of Leica Looks on the Leica Fotos app. They can be downloaded onto the SL3, SL3-S, Q3 and Q3 43. This one is called Greg Williams-after an apparently well known British photographer-and I am very impressed. I don't do much monochrome and when I do I've always converted DNG (RAW) files in Silver Efex Pro until now. The tonality of this photo is better than I have ever manged to achieve with Silver Efex. To my mind it is very film like.

I will try the colour versions of Looks next. 

Another really big storm

 We've just  experienced another huge storm. With very strong wind gusts, torrential rain and some thunder and lightning thrown in for good measure. It was the third big 'un we've experienced this winter. It lasted 3 days and it may not be over yet, although it's brighter now as I type this at 2.00pm. When the photo was taken at 6.38am at Terrigal Beach huge waves were pounding the beach as they had done for the past three days. 

iPhone13 photo 

Made in the USA

 Made in the USA. Orlando Florida. it says on the T-shirt. If it really was DJT would surely approve. 

The wearer was another very affable passenger on my Douro cruise. He is a retired Corporate lawyer who specialised in mergers and acquisitions. From his long hair and pony tail and numerous tats you would never have guessed. He explained that he always wore a long sleeve shirt to business meetings. 

I found him very knowledgeable and good company. and he never rode a Harley. 

 Leica Q3 43 photo.