Big sea day

After the superstorm of the past 24 hours the sea was big this morning and the surfers were out in force. At Terrigal at dawn there were already surfers right out on the break by the Haven.
The photos were taken at Avoca Beach mid morning. The headland at Avoca Beach offers a great spot for surfer watching and surf photography as the waves break alongside the headland so you can photograph the action without having to get wet.
I broke with my usual practice today and did not use a Leica for these photos. I used a Fujifilm X-E2 fitted with an el cheapo Fuji 50-230mm lens. I acquired the whole kit for a very modest sum for action photography such as this. I am pleased with the results. I am not going to make the front cover of Tracks-the top surfing mag-with it but it's fine for media such as this.

A beautiful morning.

Not this morning... Taken back in December last year on a beautiful morning. Today is a shocker. Very heavy rain and strong winds. We need the rain but not like this.

Watching and waiting

Watching and waiting in Karlsplatz, Munich, Germany, warm afternoon in September 2018.

Watching and waiting in Marienplatz, Munich, same warm September afternoon.

Fairy floss and haircuts

Seen at the Chromefest Hot Rod/Rock and Roll festival at The Entrance,Central Coast, NSW two weeks ago. Seeing the very colourful Fairy Floss cart with no customers I asked the girl if I could take her photo and she enthusiastically adopted this friendly pose. Thanks.

The barber and his customer were in a stall at Chromefest. Again I asked if I could take the photo and whilst the customer smiled the tattooed barber adopted a rather still pose so I decided to focus on the customer and to make the barber slightly out of focus. I don't often do black and white nowadays but I think that it suits this image.

Cat in a box

What is it about some cats and boxes? Zoe is 18 years old yet she still cannot resist a cardboard box. She has been going into this winebox for over a week since it arrived. Usually the novelty has worn off after a few days but not this time. Her soulmate, Phoebe, also 18  is not at all interested in cardboard boxes.
Poor little Zoe has diabetes and is sickening slowly . She is too old to intervene medically so we are enjoying her company whilst we can. She has been a wonderful cat and has done so well to live to her ripe old age.

Blue sea, blue sky morning.

Early morning on Blueys Beach, Mid Coast, NSW, Australia. Taken on my early morning walk last Wednesday morning. It was a stunning morning. It was already quite warm .There were just a couple people exercising their dogs and this solitary beach fisherman and me.
I wanted a photo which conveyed the wonderful scene with the big sky and turquiose sea breaking on the rocks. At the time I was wishing that I had a wider angle lens as I had just my Leica X1 with its 35mm( equiv) lens but now I feel that it has worked out fine.

Last flight

It's 15 years to the day since the last Concorde flight-BA2- from New York to London. The photo was taken at the superb Boeing Field Museum of Flight in Seattle where one of the 20 Concordes built is on permanent display.
Concorde was an amazing technical achievement but it was a commercial failure. Only British Airways and Air France operated the aircraft and they both lost a lot of money flying it although there was a joint Singapore Airlines/British Airways Concorde service from London to Singapore via Bahrain from 1977 to 1980. The aircraft used on this service were owned by BA and had BA livery on one side and Singapore Airlines livery on the other. This service ended due to low loads a factor of the high ticket price and the fact that Concorde was very noisy,cramped and really unsuitable for such a long route.
 The crash of an Air France Concorde in France in 2000-hastened its demise but the final blow was the slump in air travel following the Sept 11 2001 terrorist attacks. At the end the Concorde's technology was old and it was proving very costly to maintain.
I never flew on Concorde to my eternal regret but I did see and hear them flying over southern England and the Qantas check-in at Heathrow was next to the special Concorde lounge and many times I enviously watched passengers checking in for their Concorde flight whilst I checked in for my "slow" Qantas 747 flight back to Sydney.

Silvertails

Had a morning run up the backroad to Enzos cafe at Polkolbin last Monday in company with Colin and Craig in their early 911Es. The weather was mixed. Heavy showers, light rain and then short bursts of sunshine.The roads were greasy and on the way up the Yarramalong Valley on the way to Kulnura Craig and I were stopped by the police for 20 mins whilst they were clearing away the aftermath of a very nasty single vehicle accident which was sobering. Nonetheless we pushed on up the newly resurfaced and now billiard table smooth Bumble Hill - what a superb hillclimb it would make -at a brisk pace. On the round trip I managed to avoid running over two turtles which were crossing the road at two different places. Obviously it's great weather for turtles.
I just love these small group long drives particularly on such empty roads. My 2.2 -middle car above- ran beautifully . Pure driving pleasure.

Foggy morning

Over the past 12 months since I came out of hospital I have not been taking a camera with me on my regular early morning walk. Two reasons for this. Firstly I have been seriously working on improving my fitness by walking further and faster and secondly I had decided that after 10 years of early morning shots I had run out of subjects in Terrigal anyway.
Yesterday afternoon we had a big storm and when I say big I mean it. Torrential rain. Lightning and heavy hail-many of the hailstones big enough to break windows although fortunately none of ours. This morning I woke to a foggy and very humid scene. There was a big bank of fog out to sea. I took the photo above at Terrigal Haven just after the sun had risen and the fog bank was lifting.
Leica X1 photo.

Stormy weather

After months of warm, sunny weather without rain the last two weeks have seen heavy rainfalls along the east coast of NSW and fortunately some of this rain has extended inland into the drought affected farming areas.
On the Central Coast of NSW we now over the rain but it is not giving up yet and we have had heavy showers all day today. This morning I had had enough. Cabin fever was setting in so I went for a walk along the beautiful Coastal Track in Bouddi National Park. I started out from Putty Beach -about 20 mins drive from home - and walked to Maitland Bay and back.
The top photo shows the boardwalk up from Putty Bay walking towards Bouddi Beach-just visible. The mauve clouds are storm clouds. They, or near,relatives unloaded on me on the way back.
The bottom of the two photo shows the tip of Lion Island in Brisbane Water taken from the track in a sunny break .
Both photos were taken with my Leica X1 which was having its first use since returning from having the broken battery clip repaired and a clean and adjustment. It seems to be working better than ever.
For a graphic demonstration of how good this 8 year old simple camera is take a look at the top photo at the end point of the boardwalk in the distance. Two figures are just visible.
Below is a very big enlargement of that section. The figures are clearly visible and you can actually see the backpack on the rear figure. A superb lens.

More Romania

More photos from the Romanian road trip.
Romania is still a very rural and poor country and although many young people have migrated to Bucharest and other cities-or are working in the UK- rural depopulation is not as obvious as it is say France and Portugal. Everywhere we drove there were people cutting hay -it was harvest time-or tending their animals. With the horse and carts in many ways it was like travelling back in time.