Vancouver, A Swinging Joint

So, Vancouver, home of some very strange people and other creatures, unveiled its Winter Olympics Torch.

I could smoke toke carry it round all day.

Get High in Vancouver's mountains

Camera Critters #26; Baby Bat

Too small and young to work out its species. Not that I know a lot about bats anyway.

Just that they are very cute mammals which need to be avoided because they can carry nasty infections.

This one was found by our resident animal collector and lover, Phoebe, who convinced it not to get too stressed by all the bright flashes which were happening while I was doing the photography.

Foggy Night

Perth does not suffer from a lot of fogs.

So, when yesterday’s rain turned into a night-time fog, I was drawn to attempting to capture the ghostly atmosphere.

I found that sodium vapour street lights are far too intensely yellow and even with attempts at photoshopping the colour balance the quiet mistiness was lost.

Even with major colour and saturation correction too much was lost. Perhaps the reality of modern city streets will stop them from becoming eerie. Or maybe a sodium filter would help.

Looking through a tree with only distant white mercury vapour lights showing seems to catch some of the atmosphere.

Oh well, I hope I can remember these lessons the next time Perth is foggy and quiet.

Friday’s Feathers #3; Australian Sheldrake

I have found a new, to me, urban wetland. Filled with birds.

The Eric Singleton Bird Sanctuary is filled with over a hundred different types of bird.

I will be visiting it often.

Here are a pair of Australian Sheldrakes I spotted,

Would you like to join Friday’s Feathers?

Duck Duck

Sorry, Mr Duck, I’m pekin – - -

Splashdown

Sometimes, in photography, an event happens a little too fast for neat things like focussing and aperture adjustment.

So while trying to get a shot of a duck preening, when a Black Duck suddenly flashes past and lands, reaction is automatic.

It really is point and shoot and hope. But the greatest of these is hope.

This time it almost worked. Just don’t ask for the full sized blurry image.

Photo Hunt #103; High

High is all a matter of perspective.

The Shaw River in Australia’s mainly desert Pilbara region was a little high after a cyclone had passed through.

The bricklayer who added the final bricks on this brick kiln chimney was pretty high up.

Torn between two cultures, this Martu tribesman from the Great Sandy Desert was high up on one of the landmark hills of his ancestors as he looked across his “country”; the land to which he belongs.

But for really, really high, I guess you have to look at something like this.

Succulents in Close-Up

Wandering around Buff’s garden the other day, I was struck by how her succulent collection looked close-up.

I find succulents to be boring and often ugly when viewed from a distance yet looking closely, there is beauty in their form and delicate colours.

Photo Hunt #102, Metal

After spending days looking through my photo collection and finding many images which included metal, nothing really caught me as being “Photo-huntable”.

In the end I decided on another form of metal.

HEAVY METAL

I just happened to be wearing this T-Shirt.

One of my favourite bands. Loud, uncouth and lots of fun!

Photo Hunt #101; I Spy

Another subject with different points of view.

Firstly, one I took in the desert some time ago. The well camouflaged Rainbow Bee Eater in flight. Normally they are seen from below and beneath their wings they are a brilliant green. In early mornings and evenings they provide sudden flashes of colour as the sun catches their wings in insect-hunting flight.

This one, I spied from above.

Then, as I looked through my collection, I spotted several eyes and I began to wonder at just what they were spying.

Tikaani the Siberian Husky did not look as though she approved of what she was spying.

 

This pigeon was probably eyeing me off and wondering if I was dangerous.

 

Peregrine Falcons enjoy Pigeon Pie and this one was waiting for some lunch to fly past. She had spied me but had decided I was not a suitable dining companion.

 

Odd Shots on Monday #1

Some of you may have noticed the new logo in my sidebar.

Odd Shots.

A chance to display some of those “odd” sights which I photograph.

Here is a magnificent stairway leading to – - -

Hmmmm -  Odd, isn’t it 

Haven’t Done This For a While

SUNSET
Refractions burned red through suspended soot
Blood dripping from the upper reaches of Hades
Pollutant mingling with pollutant -
In such things men may see beauty

Photo Hunt #97, Free

tnChick has set us a very hard task this week.

We have to find images of “Free”.

Free is a state of mind and that can be hard to photograph without an MRI machine.

I decided to begin with this little guy who is a total freeloader.

The Pallid Cuckoo has a catchy little song which runs up the scale but she is not at all popular with other birds.

She steals their nest for her own egg, then leaves the unsuspecting nest builders and owners to raise a cuckoo nestling.

Then I thought about the free things which BIG Business has yet to find a way to place a price upon.

Like nice fresh breezes for kite flying. You don’t have to buy an expensive kite. You can make it from sticks and old paper. And the wind-power and enjoyment is free. As is the delight of a young child seeing his first kite fly.

Of course the sheer beauty of a Dawn or a Sunset is also free. This is a sunset I took about three years ago across a salt lake in the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia. We may have been remote from most of the “Mod Cons” but we had a surfeit of free beauty.

Then there is something we often feel costs a fortune but in reality is absolutely free.

Friendship.

 

This week, I truly thank you, tnChick, for letting me reassess my values in life. We are rich in what we have which is free.

If only we recognise it.

 

Photo Hunt #96, Heavy

Out here in the desert we have a lot of very dry weather.

But February and March are the months of the “Big Wet”.

Trying to find a photo for this week’s photo hunt was hard until I thought of the HEAVY rain we had a couple of nights ago.

It washed away part of our road and could have had tragic consequences. Luckily everyone was OK and even the vehicle was rescued.

We needed HEAVY machinery to save the day.  Note how the vehicle was tilting further over.

 

Just 24 hours later, today, everything is calm again. Except that the road is only half its normal width.

You can see the wheel mark on the right of this photo. Another foot over the edge and the vehicle would have rolled right over!

During the afternoon of the storm I was videoing my house in the rain and I received a BIG surprise!

Photo Hunt #95; Narrow

The North-West of Western Australia is full of mines for all sorts of minerals. This means some big equipment has to travel on the roads. For safety, there is a pilot car about three Kilometres in front and another just behind the monster.

This was 7.2 metres (about 24 ft) wide. The road is about 8 metres wide.

At first glance, this has nothing to do with “Narrow”.

But spare a thought for the other motorists on this road and the narrow section left for them to use.

If he is coming at you, get off the road like I did! He won’t leave much of it for you.