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.

Assorted oddments

Just a few from the folder I call 'Odds n Sods'; the photos that don't really fit into any category.

I found this old truck sitting beside a run-down shack in a paddock on the edge of town. This photo was taken late afternoon and I had to shoot straight-on to avoid the heaps of junk scattered around the site. I might try going back in the early morning since there is less distracting clutter to the right of the truck (the area you would see if you photographed from the left side, facing the same direction as the rising sun. There was a little photo-shopping done to erase a really ugly post and wire fence along one side of the truck. I think I did a pretty decent job of clearing it up.

This piece of ironwork had great textural details and lots of light and shadow so I thought I'd try it in black and white to see if that altered it. I think it looks good. By the way, this piece of wrought iron is actually a decorative railing around a gravesite at the local cemetery.

I liked the way that I had managed to capture all the vehicle lights flashing at once. These were firetrucks and they were parked out the front of my house early one morning. The next-door neighbor's house burnt down late one night and this is the ensuing chaos. I wrote about it in my other blog www.majuba79.blogspot.com

A firework at the annual Australia Day celebrations at Koombana Bay a couple of years ago. It was a bit of a lucky shot since fireworks are always tricky to capture since they are not always predictable in where they will ignite and they happen so fast that you have to be really patient to get a decent image.

People watching

Just a sample of some of the, often weird and wonderful, people I have met out in my travels.

I don't know this guy's name but I do know that he's local (I see him semi-regularly in my day job). The Macaw belongs to a friend of his and she has been fundraising to find it a female mate. I do know that the two of them (the man in the picture and the female owner of the parrot) have some link to the local medieval re-enactment group.

This guy is a street-performer who goes by the stage name 'Fatt Matt', his speciality is acrobatics, juggling and contortion. He used to be a regular act at festivals around the district. At the time of taking the photo I was working as a journalist so the image was not the best quality since the camera was at a medium-quality setting to allow more space on the memory card.

The man pictured above was a farmer from my home town. He bred horses (mostly Clydesdale's). The horse in the picture is a thoroughbred which had been provided for a news event that I covered while I was at the local paper.

Pictured above is another well-known street performer. This one goes by the name of 'The Bad Piper'. The picture was taken on the last day of the 2010 Balingup Medieval Carnivale. I can't lay claim to putting him on the horse, that was created by someone else, I just seized the opportunity since it was too good to miss. The guy is usually more at home prancing around on the ground playing a set of black-leather bagpipes covered in studs that shoot flames from their ends. Actually it was a bit of an achievement to get him onto the horse since he's apparently terrified of them!! And yes, we did get to see what you wear under a kilt (bright red jocks apparently!).