Sydney Harbour In Lights

I  travelled to the north side of Sydney recently, arriving by train at Milson’s Point railway station. I was greeted by a flourescent Harbour Bridge, with lights climbing over the arch. I had forgotten that there was a light show on around Sydney harbour.

Traffic travelling north roared off the Bridge right beside the railway station. Luckly I had forgotten the tripod.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge presides over the brightly lit city. I used the timer, but the camera was not quite stable balanced on a garbage bin lid, creating this interesting vertical blur.

Sydney Central Business District appears as a ghostly apparition.

An impressionist image of the north pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Hopefully I will never gain full control of the camera, so that I can keep allowing it to take interesting and surprising pictures.

I have not been using photography as much as I thought I would on my other blog, so when I took these, I thought of you here on ImageChest. I’ve missed you! I am still deciding how to organise my blogging and other projects, and am thinking maybe I do want to keep this outlet for photography.

Lovely Lavendar Bay

Recently I had the opportunity for an evening stroll around an area of Sydney called Lavender Bay. On my walk down from North Sydney I passed this Secret Garden, complete with lavender plants. Not sure about the signage.

Here I caught a glimpse of the boats moored in the Bay. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and Luna Park formed a spectacular backdrop. Lavendar Bay is on the north side of the  harbour, to the west of the Bridge, and has a good view of the city.

Real estate on Lavender Bay is expensive due to waterfront location and stunning views. Yachts and cruisers nestle into their moorings, apparently unaware of their spectacular surroundings.

Notice anything alarming about the roof of this boat? A snake. Someone’s idea of a joke, or perhaps in lieu of a guard dog?

From this wharf we have a good view of the Harbour Bridge and the central business district on the south side of the harbour.

Here you can see the walkway which goes around past Luna Park and under the northern side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Milsons Point is crammed with apartment blocks jockeying for a good view.

Looking back at Lavender Bay at dusk.

In the next post we will take a closer look at Luna Park and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You can read more about my evening walk by the harbour and view the out-takes in a post called Finding Focus on my May and September Blog.

Austinmer Headland

Little Austi is the second beach at Austinmer, located to the north of the main beach. At its northern limit is a tall headland, surrounded by and extensive rock platform.

On top of this Headland is the Headlands Hotel, scene of the 2005/2006 Australian TV series called, strangely enough, headLand. This was taken in 2010, so it may have changed since then.

The headland rises towards the sea to form a high cliff face, with a steep drop to the rock platform below. Its a dangerous area as this sad memorial testifies.

At the base of the cliff is a flat, wide, rock platform, criss-crossed with lines in the rock. Here is a man collecting shellfish or bait.

This image shows the triangular pattern in the rock platform.

Water rushes in and out of this opening in the rocks. Its best to keep away from the edge of this type of rock platform as freak waves can catch you unawares.

Standing on the rock platform, the cliff face reveals the geology of this area, which includes and abundance of coal.

On a nearby rock platform, a keen rock fisherman prepares his kit.

Some images from the Austinmer holiday have been selected for greeting cards available in the ImageChest Etsy Store.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Culture

This post is on the WordPress Daily Challenge theme for this week which is Culture. The instruction was to show an image that would generate curiosity about a culture and a desire to learn more.

I was taking photos at Niagara Falls, USA when a large group arrived, apparently on group outing. I was curious as to who they were but was too shy to ask.

The image was taken at the edge of the Horseshoe Falls from the USA side of Niagara Falls. The buildings in the background are in Niagara Falls, Canada.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Up

Todays theme for The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge is Up.

I have stood at the foot of quite a few tall towers, and mostly, thats where I stay. So when I heard the word Up my thoughts went to the one tower that I did go up, the CN Tower in Toronto Canada. Its very up. Way up.

After 20 minutes happily experiencing being Up in the donut shaped viewing tower, a new word began to press upon my consciousness with  increasing urgency. DOWN.

See more images of the CN Tower here.

Summer Garden at Sydney Park Australia

Sydney Park is a large recreation grounds on the edges of the inner city in Sydney. It is a place of stark contrasts with the rough textures of the brickworks, admidst large expanses of very green grass under a very blue sky.

On a recent visit I chanced upon a Summer Garden, just along from the brickworks.

The garden had all the hallmarks of a lovingly tended community garden, although it seemed to be temporary.

The pink rags tied on the fence wire gave the area a festive appearance.

This raised crop bed showed a eye for colour and artistic imagination.

The only shade was amongst the growing plants. If I wasn’t allergic to straw, I might have been tempted to crawl in for a nap, away from the penetrating sun.

The garden provided a gentler and more personal space than the stark expanses of the rest of the park.

This area was the source of the Windows 7 eJoke post on my other blog site.

Historic Brickworks at Sydney Park

Across the highway from the entrance to St Peter’s Railway Station in Sydney Australia is Sydney Park, featuring remnants of a historic brick works.

The area is located on Wianamatta Shale which is excellent brick-making clay, and provided bricks for the building of Sydney for over 100 years.

This is the site of the old Austral company brickworks, now providing a sheltered space for homeless people who appriciate the cool shade it offers in the summertime.

The area is now preserved as a historic site within the park, and offers some interesting shapes and textures for photographers.

As you can see, I was there in the hot, bright, contrasty early afternoon. I’d like to try dusk or dawn, although I think it could be rather spooky.

Experience the English Seaside at Paignton in Devon

I must admit that until I included Paignton on a self-guided mini-tour of Devon, I had never heard of it, and had no idea what to expect when I arrived. I stepped off the bus into a delightful seaside resort enjoying the last days of the warm weather before autumn made its presence felt in earnest.

A fun pier stretched across the red sandy beach, but only the seagulls seemed to think it worth the effort to get their feet wet. Unless you are an out of place tourist like me, if the season is over, its over.

I could only imagine this Cod and Chips stand surrounded by wet, hungry children with money in their hands and feet burning on the pavement. Fortunately I did not have to imagine the Cod and Chips, very nice indeed.

As mentioned in the previous post, it was from here that I decided to walk around the red sand to Torquay, which I could see in the distance, across Tor Bay.

On the way, I encountered the pretty beach huts of Preston, which apart from a few retirees, seemed like a seaside ghost town.

I couldn’t resist a close up of these iconic dressing sheds, a popular image for seaside photographers.

Between Preston and Torquay are the stunning red cliffs that have provided the colouring for the distinctive sand of the beach.The red earth is a startling contrast to the green vegetation. Man and nature seemed to be having a competition as to who had the superior colour palette.

It was great to get a glimpse of English Seaside life, albeit after the crowds had gone home. It wasn’t the only time on my travels that I felt puzzled that people we not drawn to such a beautiful place in such nice weather. Ah, how quickly we travellers forget that the demands of work and school still apply on pretty days.

I am trialling some greeting cards from this Tor Bay area in the Esty store, including the Colourful Beach Huts and Cod and Chips. I hope to build them into an English Seaside theme, at which time I will include them on the Greeting Cards area of this website as well.

Tourism and Yachting in Torquay

My approach to the famous seaside town on Torquay was on foot. I was in neighbouring Paignton and it didn’t look too far around the sands of Torbay. This was my first close encounter with the red cliffs that characterise the area. As an Australian I have seen my fair share of red dirt, but I didn’t expect to see it on the English coastline.

Famed for being the home of Agatha Christie, Torquay has been dubbed the English Riviera for its warmer climate and beach lifestyle.

Tourists can enjoy the shops and restaurants that line the waterfront.

You can even go for a ride on the famous red train.

Small boats take shelter in Torquay Harbour near the bustling centre of the town.

Yachties from the UK and beyond find shelter in the large marina at North Quay.

Despite all this fun and relaxation, Torquay is also a working port, as this jumble of nets on the harbour walls testify.

Those last two images contributed to the Fishing Boats of Devon and Cornwall Greeting Card series.

After a full day of sightseeing and photography it was time to leave Torquay and get the bus back to my accommodation in the town of Totnes. At this point I realised I had left my jacket somewhere. Retracing the walk back to Paignton did not seem so appealing in the late afternoon, but I was reluctant to give up on the only warm jacket I had with me. These are the extra little moments that make travel interesting. Fortunately I found the jacket in a park where I had sat briefly to make a phone call and was able to get the bus as planned.

Scenic Fishing Village Porthleven Cornwall

If you travel 20 km (15 miles) east along the coast from Penzance in Cornwall you will find the scenic fishing village of Porthleven. This charming village has all the features of a working fishing port, with a few scenic pubs thrown in. The focus of the village is the harbour, where boats can take refuge from wild weather.

Porthleven was one of the prettiest villages I saw in Cornwall, with its white houses ranging up the steep hillside.

I find it hard to believe I climbed to the top of the hill to get a birds-eye-view of the village, but I must have. Here is the photographic evidence. That’s Cornwall for you, everywhere is on top of, at the bottom of, or on the side of a hill!

I could imagine smugglers stopping in here for a pint or two, a few centuries ago.

It was a beautiful day when I was there. I walked around to the breakwater at the mouth of the harbour. There was a sign, just out of view in the image below, which said not to walk out during high seas or you could be swept away. The sea must be very rough indeed.

To the east of the town is the open beach, fully exposed to the pounding elements.

The boats in the harbour were very colourful, although as it was low tide, the water was very muddy.

I was surprised to see some swans swimming in the harbour. Thanks to the murky water, they are not likely to make it onto a greeting card.

There are two images from Porthleven in the Fishing Boats of Devon and Cornwall series. One is a close up of the boats in the harbour.

The other is two boats tied up to the harbour wall.

You can see the full range of the Fishing Boats of Devon and Cornwall on this website. They can be purchased from the the ImageChest Photography Etsy Store.