Cityscapes, skylines and sunsets over Bunbury, Western Australia

A view over the Bunbury skyline as seen from the top of the Marlston Lookout tower.

One of the interesting effects you can get from catching the setting sun behind a cloud.

Night view over Koombana Bay. Not one of my best efforts, need to work on it a little more I think.

Sunset over the ocean at Back Beach. I like the layers that were created by the broad bands of color. 

Sunset looking back at the city skyline from a boat on Koombana Bay in Bunbury.

Birds pt 1

New Holland Honeyeater feeding on a Grevillea bush.

Side profile of a Wedgetailed Eagle. This is the same bird featured in a previous post.

A cheeky little Singing Honeyeater swinging from a branch of my Buddleia bush.

Crested Pigeons; these are usually found quite a way inland from where I live so I was rather surprised to be walking out to my car one morning on the way to work and find a whole group (at least seven) waddling up my street cooing and chattering to each other like a bunch of elderly tourists. Must have been a dry season inland for them to venture so far from home.

A Pink and Grey Galah watches me warily from a tree in the neighbor's yard. I liked the way that the dark green leaves formed a frame for the bird's bright colors. Galah's are not native to my area and have become a real pest.

Bronzewing Pigeon. I have a bit of a soft spot for these comical little birds.

Who you looking at?

This was the photos chosen by Australian Geographic magazine for publication on their website. It was part of their regular reader-submissions competition. Even though I only go my name published (no prizes), I was rapped to get chosen and for it to get such prominence.

If your interested then here's the link to the website http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/new-reader-photo-gallery-aussie-animals.html

demolishing a house

Images from both before and after the house next door was demolished.

The jaws of this piece of machinery reminded me, somewhat, of the head of a dinosaur. It sits waiting to be attached to the JCB ready to load the next pile of rubble into a dump truck.

How sad that one of the few patches of color among the destruction was provided by a pile of charred papers that had fallen through a hole in the bedroom floor as the house burned. In it was a jumble of old bills, magazines written in Italian, picture postcards, letters, Christmas cards and an image of the Virgin Mary.

The warm, earthy tones of a pile of corrugated iron sitting in a tangled pile waiting to be loaded onto the dump truck.

The heat of the fire caused the paint to blister and peel off the walls. Actually it reminded me of one of those aerial photographs.

Looking through a window that will no longer capture the view. The newly exposed timbers of the wall create strong geometric shapes to frame the view one last time.

mourning a lost home

Some time ago the house next door was destroyed by fire. Luckily no one was hurt but it was devastating for the owners. Finally the crews moved in to start demolition, both the house and the yard. Sure, the yard was overgrown but there were some magnificent trees over there. During a break in proceedings I took the opportunity to wander around the demolition site.

While I was there I witnessed a pair of Willie Wagtails roaming through the rubble. The romantic in me imagines that this yard was once their territory and that their nest had been in one of the trees. Its not breeding season right now, so no babies were harmed, but I still can't help wondering if the two birds were mourning the loss of their home

Floral displays

Some of the flower and plant photos from my collection.

I found this creeper climbing over a friend's back garden fence and was struck by the contrast between the bright blue berries, red stems and green leaves.

I rescued this little chrysanthemum bush from the throw-away table at a local hardware store. What a sad, sorry little bush it was. It survived the trip home and is now thriving in my garden.

An unusual view of an Aloe plants. The photo looked rather ordinary in its original shades of green. But convert it to Black and White and it looks amazing.

Yes, I know there are a million photos of Frangipani flowers out there on the net but I added one more.

Tree bark can be really beautiful if you look at the right way.

Finally, a rather different way to look at leaves on a tree, with the afternoon sun shining through them. It brings out the colors and the delicate network of veins in the leaf.

Landscapes and seascapes

Just a few of the landscape photos from my collection. Some are recent and some have been in my files for a while waiting for a blog post.

The view from Busselton Jetty looking back towards shore. I didn't create this shot by adding all the different elements from other photos. This photo just happened. Maybe its a little cluttered but I liked the range of different elements; the yacht and the buildings on shore and the start of the jetty to the right. The long building is a restaurant. The row of blue buildings with white windows house the jetty ticket office and souvenier shop. The round tower is a waterslide at a funpark. The park is about to close. Kind of sad since its been there since I was a kid but its certainly looking ragged now. 

I guess I could have cropped this photo more but I liked the contrast of the wide blue ocean meeting the wide blue sky. The white yacht added a good interuption in all that blue-on-blue.

No, the sunrise didn't have all that purple and orange in it, or at least not that much. This is what happens when you play with photoshop a little too much. But I liked the effect so I kept it.

A view of some of the white-trunked gumtrees that line one of the main roads in Bunbury. Taken at night with their trunks illuminated by the orange-color of a nearby streetlight.

This photo was taken several years ago when I was out covering a story for the newspaper. I liked all the horizontal layers - water, earth, grass, forest, clouds and sky - in this photo. All of it broken by the clean vertical trunk of the lone tree.

A rather striking windvane that sits far out on the Busselton Jetty. I liked its image of a small boat racing before the big waves as it seeks the shelter of the bay.

Family portraits

While my brother and his 5 year old daughter were visiting this past Easter weekend my mother requested that I get her some family photos. Then she complains that I made her look terrible. Still working on the problem with the overly red/pink skin-tone. Maybe its just something about our family? By the way little brother, that shaved head makes you look like a real thug! Am going to have to do more work on the photo of my sister and niece, that one has rather a yellow tint now. More tinkering to do. That and give mum a cyber-facelift.

Girl and Dog on the beach

Going walking on the beach with my 5 year old niece and my mother's dog I couldn't resist taking my camera. My favorite photos of people are those when they have forgotten the camera is there and are relaxed and enjoying themselves. Kids are always good for these type of photos since they have a short attention span.

I got copies of these printed to give to mum and was annoyed to find that they came out very red/pink. I don't know if that was caused by the camera or my attempts at photoshopping. For these I was using a blue filter since it was near sunset and I've found that it can give photos a real blueish hue.

Big Waves

As promised, some more photos from my recent trip photographing body-boarders and Kite-surfers in Bunbury, Western Australia.

As I told you before, the waves were absolutely amazing that day. They were smashing into a big rock outcrop right on the beach and really throwing up some huge spray. The Body boarders were loving it....even if I thought they were crazy.

This was probably the best shot I got of the Kite Surfers. I would have liked one with both the surfer and his kite in the same frame but the ropes they use to connect themselves were so long that it was just really hard. The ships in the background are freighters waiting to get into the nearby port to unload.

This photo wasn't taken because I like the image of a semi-naked guy. I just liked the image. Sort of 'Fallen Angel' or 'lost wings'. What had happened was that one of the Kite Surfers had lost his kite after seaweed got tangled in the harness and caused the safety catch to release without warning. The guy with the speedos seemed to be a friend and was helping him retrieve it before the strong wind carried it away. 

I was just about to pack up for the day when I spotted the kite surfer standing up on a rock with his kite over his head to dry it in the wind. He got embarrassed and tried to put the kite down when he saw me taking the photo; it took a little cajoling but he ended up letting me re-take the shot till I was happy. Still playing with the 'Wings'theme. It didn't help that his friend was standing behind me teasing him about his 'modelling career'.

Gone Surfing

I was down at Bunbury's Back Beach yesterday and I promised a couple of young bodyboarders that I would post some photos of then chasing the waves. Just up from Ex-tensions restaurant and the Surf Life Saving club there is a big outcrop of Basalt rocks. The wind was rushing in off the ocean and driving the waves up against the rocks; creating these absolutely insane waves as the outgoing swell hit the incoming waves. These waves were a good 10metres or more and seemed to spin in a spiral. I'll post some pics of the waves later. However the waves were driving the bodyboarders crazy and they were pulling some crazy moves. Pity all the spray blocked some of the best shots. The heavy swell was also stirring a lot of sand and weed so the water was pretty dark. After I finished with the bodyboarders I moved further up to the area of beach just over the sandbank from the boat harbor to get some shots of a couple of Kite-boarders. I'll post them later.