Share Six: May 2024: Upside Down

Lupji Photography chose the theme {upside down}, and I have to confess that that is what my life feels like right now. Lots of changes going on with work. We are also heading out on a vacation and trying to get everything sorted out and ready to go next week.

Upside down is defined as

with the upper part where the lower part should be; in or into an inverted position.

I had to think what I had either done or could do to meet this challenge

My favorite upside down was taken at the Miami Zoo. We were watching the dolphins swimming and this big guy came and said hello. Dolphins are incredible creatures and I have had the privilege of swimming in the ocean with them. We had gone out on a scuba dive when a pod of dolphin started swimming around the boat. The captain of the boat allowed us to go overboard and swim with them. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. Seeing them in captivity is not a great feeling for me but I understand that some are injured and brought in because they will not survive out in the ocean.

Also taken at the zoo was this display of the seal and his trainer. They put on a great show for us.

Sometimes even the birds spend a good deal of time with their heads upside down, preening and primping their feathers.

Reflections make great upside downs as well. The tree below was rotated to the upside down position and it works for me. The upper part of the tree, which is now at the bottom, was a lot lighter than its reflection.

There was not a lot of difference when this image was roatated, however in this case the upper is the lower and the reflection was a lot darker.

Every so often I like to play around with my lensbaby lenses. I rotated the sunset image and while I was not 100% sold on this image, it did work.

The next two images were taken using a super wide angle lens and the dark blue is the sky. By rotating the image the appearance now is that the blue is the water.

A great way to turn an image upside down is to use a lensball. I do not own one, but I met up with a friend to get these two images. It’s a fun sphere to have when you want to do something different.

By rotating the image of the moon, we went from a waxing moon to a waning moon. Only thing is Jupiter is now on the right instead of the left.

The last two images were taken in the wetlands doing my favorite style of photography. I like to just get that sliver of clarity. In both cases the wooden boardwalk has been rotated to show it upside down.

It was a fun challenge that Lupji gave us and I hope that you enjoyed what I had to offer and that you look at the challenge and see what you can share with us.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Claire of Wilhelmina Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Instagram page.

Until next time, stay well.

Share Six: March 2024: Sky

We have just spent 8 days in Arizona, specifically in Phoenix, Sedona, Page and ever so briefly Flagstaff. So this month’s Share Six theme {Sky} I really wanted to use photo’s taken on the trip. Outside of that I have some crazy sky photo’s that I have shared before, mainly sunsets which I love. But for this blog, Arizona sky is what you will get.

Flying high above the clouds is always interesting. This looked like cotton candy or snow just hovering below us.
Another image from the sky. Hello, we are not in Florida anymore. I was pretty excited to see mountain ranges, even from up high in the sky. Florida is so flat that you can barely see an undulation.
Phoenix airport from the plane, and the sun setting in the sky. It was nice to land and have my feet back on the ground, and to be able to experience something new and exciting. In addition, I got to see my brother as well so that was really nice for me.
Day 1. My brother headed off to his conference meet and greet and we had dinner at the hotel restaurant before heading to a rooftop bar to see if we could get a sunset. The building had a very interesting rooftop that made me think of Game of Thrones. When the sun had set the lights on that upper floor came on, alternating red and green. I never found out what it was but enjoyed seeing it.
Day 2: Train and bus was our mode of transportation out to Scottsdale. Transportation is efficient and cheap. We spent the day walking around the downtown area. We were doing the Art Walk. There was some interesting outdoor art, but a lot of it was “shops” selling art. We found an interesting little “country” bar/restaurant where we rested for a while and had lunch.
Day 3: It was back to the train and bus method of travel. We headed out to the university town of Tempe. I loved the strange feel to the sky in this image. We did not get a lot done here because by midday Richard was not feeling well and complaining of a splitting headache. 5 hours later we discovered he apparently had pneumonia. Not happy to hold onto his germs he graciously shared them with us. I ended up with bronchitis and my brother was complaining that he chest felt tight. Day 4 was spent with me wandering around on my own and Richard conserving his energy at the hotel.
Day 5. We are now planes, trains and finally automobiles. We headed out on the road early Thursday morning for Sedona. The weather was great although somewhat cloudy. There was definitely a moodiness to the sky.
We passed through an area that gave every indication of a storm about to happen but somehow we missed it.
We finally arrived in the beautiful but busy Sedona. Thursday was busy and Sunday was a parking lot. That said the town is gorgeous, our hotel was awesome and the red rock was just spectacular. Given our time limits and Richard not well, and me starting to feel iffy, we just drove from location to location and did little to no hiking. We climbed a couple of hills but not too high and not to far. In the afternoon those clouds let go and we were trapped indoors for a couple of hours. It was fine, we all wanted to snooze. That evening we went to an Indian Restaurant and had a really nice curry.
Day 6: Cloudy sky but no longer raining. We were ready to head out after a stop for me at the Urgent Care and then the pharmacy to get antibiotics. Sedona and the red rocks are stunning and well worth the visit. What fascinated me was that outside of this area the red of the rock seemed to disappear and the color become more neutral. Sedona is known for it’s vortex sites as well but more about that in a later blog.
We are heading up to Page, Arizona, up near the Utah border. We had to head up through some windy mountainous roads. The sky was cloudy and the weather was cold. The mountains were scattered with snow. We stopped at an American Indian trading area, and it was freezing when we got out of the car. In addition snow started falling on us. I was happy to get back in the car and keep moving.
Over the hills and down the dale and the scenery changes again. The sky was brighter, the clouds light and puffy and the rocks a completely different color.
We had arrived in Page. Two things I wanted to do there was Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon. We opted to go down at sunset hoping that it would be good. It wasn’t and it was bitterly cold. In addition to all of that it was a fairly long walk down hill, which meant that it was an extremely long walk uphill. It took me 15 minutes of huffing and puffing and being totally out of breath to get to the top. I was timing myself because I knew there was a time limit at Antelope Canyon and I was worrying about that. It was nothing to worry about, Horseshoe Bend was much harder for me. The combination of being sick, higher altitude and just generally unfit took it’s toll. I told my brother I was convinced I was an undiagnosed asthmatic.
Day 7: Page, and I am super excited and super nervous. We had time in the morning to explore and we accidently explored into Utah. I could not resist taking this photo. The sky was clear, the temps were moderate to cool, and we were standing in Utah.
Antelope Canyon has been on my bucket list since I first saw photo’s of these beautiful rocks. The tour is not cheap and I paid for all three of us, but I promise you, it was well worth it. In the next couple of photo’s the really bright light is the sky shining through the gap at the top of the rocks. The walls undulate and it feels kind of disorientating. I found myself at times feeling a little unbalanced.
There were times I felt like the rocks looked like molten lava or that they were on fire. I cannot wait to sit down and start editing all the trips images. If you can do one thing in Arizona, my choice would be Antelope Canyon. It’s busy but the tour group we used Antelope Canyon Tours were very sensitive to the busyness and staggered the entry so that the groups were able to get images without a million heads bobbing up in the images. I tended to shoot up when our group got in the way.
Straight from the tour we were back in the car again and heading back to Flagstaff. Clear skies were perfect for the drive. Although in Flagstaff the snow was still on the mountain, some was on the streets and there was a chill in the air. A lot of my photo’s were taken from a moving vehicle because our driver, Richard, does not like to stop and start.
Flagstaff on a Sunday morning was not cutting it for us, so we headed out back to Sedona for a short while. Unfortunately we discovered that weekend travel causes Sedona to become super busy. That is not my thing. So after buying my baby boy a t-shirt, we headed back out, making one more stop in Black Canyon City. I read about a place called Rock City Pie shop and we made a detour for coffee and pie, which I will add was really, really nice.
A whirl wind week and I will confess that I have had better weeks where we are not sick. We were back at the airport with a long wait time. My brother was flying out international and had to be there by 5pm. Our flight was only at 10:40pm. Drinks were had, farewells were said, some tears where shared and then we were back on the sky train to our terminal for the 5 hour wait. Fortunately they had some chairs along the window that were really comfortable, so I settled in to read while Richard crashed on the floor.

We saw some interesting skies this week and I was grateful for the changing sky and scenery along the way. It definitely makes the trip more interesting.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Lupji from Lupji Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of his work by clicking on his Instagram page.

Share Six: January 2024: Painterly

I am not sure where time went but this group is starting their 9th year as a blog group. We have had people come and go but I have loved every minute of being with this group and learning from them. They challenge me and force me to step out of my comfort zone. This month is no exception. Claire chose the theme {Painterly} and I have to be honest that I was forced to go to Youtube to figure somethings out. 

My frustration was the brush tool. It kept brushing white on a new layer. I have not figured out the answer as to why it is doing that but if anyone has suggestions I am so open to hearing them. There were some great techniques but I was stumped with that tool. 

This is what kept happening to me. Super frustrating but it was time to move on and try something else.

The next effect I aimed for was a watercolor effect using different filters. 

Sunset out at the local National Park.

The next attempt I made with to create layers of texture. I followed a Youtube example and quite like the rough textured effect. 

Taken on a really lonely walkway in the local national park. 

I am not quite sure how I got the next effect but I kind of like the embossed feel to it. I used texture images, with and emboss filter and changed the layers from normal to a different setting. 

Sunset at the local national park. 

For the next image I wanted to do portrait painting and make it look like a water color. I followed the tutorial step by step. I am not 100% sure that I like it. Added to that I have a limited amount of brushes and I really need to find some more. 

Luka at the pumpkin patch

This image already had a textured feel to it when you looked at the wall, but again I used textured overlays and embossed them and added some filters what provided a bit of grain . 

This is my sweet boy Simba, that I put to sleep the other day. He had a huge tumor growing in his jaw and across his mouth and he was having some breathing issues. It broke my heart to say goodbye to him. Tomorrow I will pick up his ashes, and lay him to rest in his favorite spot in the garden. 

This image already had a strong bokeh effect to it created with my lensbaby sweet 35. Like the first image I used attempted to get a watercolor effect to the image. Plenty of texture and paint brush swirls.

Walking in the local wetlands. 

Claire definitely challenged us this time around, but it was fun to play and find different ways to do things.

I followed a number of tutorials, some worked, some didn’t. Here are a few that I followed:

https://www.psfreebies.com/convert-any-photo-to-digital-oil-painting-effect-in-photoshop/

arizo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MAoR4-Jnjsna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obokOCj3vNs&t=644s 

I also downloaded some free brushes from

https://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/59067-free-painter-photoshop-brushes-3

Lastly I used some textured images for the overlays:

blank-concrete-wall-white-color-texture-background Image by ArthurHidden on Freepik

pexels-kseniya-lapteva-9176032

smears-from-from-brush a tmImage by kues1a on Freepik

whie-cracked-wall Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

Finally my last image was an attempt to get a brush stroke effect as well as the blended edges. Again the brushes were a problem but in the end I was happy to just get something. 

This image was taken just outside of Skopje, Macedonia. We had taken a boat trip through the waterways to a cave. The scenery was incredible and Macedonia itself, was an amazing experience.

Trying the {Painterly} effect was fun. It was a nice change of pace and I really enjoyed doing something different.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Katherine of Cobert Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of his work by clicking on her Facebook page and Instagram page.

Don’t forget to share your photos on the theme {Painterly} Tag us #sharesix_painterly.

Look out for more blogs along the way. I have Macedonia and Australia to finish and we are already planning our next trip to Phoenix, Arizona in a few months. 

Stay well

Share Six: November 2023: Shallow depth of field

For the month of November, Lupji Photography chose the theme {Shallow Depth of Field}. I have to confess that this is one of my favorite themes and I love to get out into nature to get these images.

I had the perfect opportunity to get out today. A old school friend arrived at our home on Friday. He has been hitch hiking through the USA, sleeping on the beach, catching up with friends, sleeping on more beaches. He is a very interesting character who has traveled the world. Today instead of sitting watching sport, which him and Richard did yesterday, I dragged him out into the wetlands for the morning. That freed up Richard to do his own thing.

For me nature is beautiful. I love finding leaves on the boardwalk and taking pics of them. I love that sliver of focus that I am able to capture this way.

Getting out into nature does wonders for my soul, and I have needed it this week. This walk was not as quite and contemplative as I may have wanted but it has helped lift a little of the sorrow of last week.

I would encourage you to keep in touch with family and friends, let them know you are thinking of them. If they are close by give them a hug. If they are further away, drop them a note letting them know you are thinking of them. You don’t know when time will become short or when time will end, either for yourself or your friend. While I stayed in touch with my friend, I was still stunned when I heard the news he had passed away so unexpectedly. We have no idea when time will stop, lets not waste it unnecessarily. This is in memory of you my beautiful friend. Myles you were my rock.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Elizabeth of It’s Still Life Photography by Elizabeth Willson up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page and Instagram page. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Don’t forget to share your photos on the theme {Shallow Depth of Field} Tag us #sharesix_shallowdepthoffield.

Look out for more blogs.

Stay well

30 Minutes in the Life: October 2023: Sydney

We’re back in Sydney post the Bondi walk and I had things on my list that I wanted to see. In 1846 the Customs House (below) was built near the Sydney city center. Over a period of 10 years from 1837 to 1847, convicts worked to reclaim the land to form Circular Quay. The Customs house form the solitary symbol of British power over the land and sea, with custom officers checking for contraband and smuggling.

Towering over the customs house is this very unique building. Again I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of old and new buildings and grateful that Sydney has maintained it’s unique history with the upkeep of these interesting old buildings.

We were not the only people taking pictures of the city that day.

Below is a mix of new and old that we found on our walk back into the city center.

Below is the Sydney Sky Tower. We did not go up but it stood tall amongst the buildings and was pretty neat to look at.

The building that impressed me the most, and one that I had researched and also been told to visit was the Queen Victoria building. I loved the old dome roofing and the beautiful arched windows, along with the intricate scrolling on the outer façade of the building. Walking inside this gorgeous building is a shopping mall. And I wanted one pic, but I did get a few more.

The pastel window in the ladies bathroom was gorgeous. In fact, the ladies bathroom was impressive.

In the center of the mall was this tall clock with historical images in the center of the clock.

There were also some incredible stain glass windows.

This was the photo I wanted showing all the levels and the beams of the roofing.

We’re back out on the street again and the first thing I saw was this vibrant burst of color.

Last but not least I was out of time and added to that super tired. I will explore the clock tower on another day.

We’re back at the hotel, ready to put our feet up, but there is still the repacking to do. We have to switch up the contents of the suitcases because we are traveling Qantas in the morning to Melbourne, and honestly my camera back is equivalent to a small suitcase. So I am going to be booking my two suitcases and Richard’s one, and he will take clothes for both of us in his small suitcase, just in case.

My nerves are already getting the better of me. We are off for a quick dinner and then it is off to bed. We have an early start in the morning back to the airport. I am looking forward to seeing family again. We have not seen our nieces since they were 5 and now the one has a little girl who is 5. Crazy how time has flown. I am so glad that we are doing this trip now.

Check out my friend Lupji Photography to see what he has to share this month.

Until next time …. stay well.

Share Six: September 2023: Beautiful Light

This month theme {Beautiful Light} was chosen by It’s Still Life Photography by Elizabeth Willson. Beautiful light can mean different things to different people. Since I am still working through my Australian images, I decided to look though them and find the images where the light appealed to me. Walk through them with me as I share just a little bit more of our Australian trip.

As most of you know, sunrise and sunsets are my thing. I really enjoy them. This was taken on our first morning in Sydney where we went out to watch the sunset rise over the Opera House. It was a little to the left and a little bit cloudy but I still loved what we managed to get.
Above and Below: We went into St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, situated on the diagonal corner to Flinders Street train station. I loved the light shining through the stain glass windows and the natural light that came into this stunning cathedral from the upper windows.
I could be wrong but I believe we were walking in the Dandenong Ranges to a waterfall. I happened to look up and enjoyed seeing the trees splayed across the sky above us.
Still in the Dandenong Ranges and enjoying the natural light filtering through the trees as we traversed the uphills and downhills to get to and from the waterfall.
We were on the second day of our Great Oceans Road Trip. Waking up to a really overcast morning with this purply tinge. It did not bode well for the day ahead, although I would say towards mid morning it started to get a bit better.
Another look at the Great Ocean Road and if I did not know better I would assume that this was a black and white image. Nope, the gray light was our morning drive. It was a little frustrating because this was to be the day we would get in and out of the car to see the different rock formations.
The hazy light that we found later in the day at the 12 Apostles was a little frustrating because it did not show the crispness of these beautiful statues in the ocean, although as I have already mentioned there is no longer 12 of them.
We are back in Sydney and out walking about. I loved the play of light and shadows.
The all famous Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge as we set out late afternoon towards Watson Bay. The sun was setting and the light was so interesting.
Walking in Sydney towards St Mary’s Cathedral and we happened upon Hyde Park and the Archibald Memorial Statue. It just so happened that the combination of water and the refraction of light created this beautiful ray of color.
Last of the Australian pics was taken early morning at Circular Key, when all the trams were heading out to start the day.

In addition to the Australian photos are some of my older sunrise and sunset photos which are favorites of mine.

Sunrise on the beach
Sunset at Locxahatchee
Sunset at Loxahatchee

And, finally, a few outdoor flora shots.

Waterdrops in the early morning light
Fir fronds lying on the wooden railing.

Beautiful light, I believe, is in the eye of the beholder. We all see light differently. When googling the definition of light my favorite was this found in the Marriam Webster dictionary:

“the sensation aroused by stimulation of the visual receptors”

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Liz of  It’s Still Life Photography by Elizabeth Willson is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page and Instagram page. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Don’t forget to share your photos on the theme {Beautiful Light}

Look out for more blogs.

Stay well

30 Minutes in the Life: Augutst 2023: Sydney

We postponed 30 Minutes in the Life last month as Lupje had a conference and since it is just the two of us blogging these days, we are open to being flexible. That said, I have been editing for the past 3 hours. Friday I spent most of the morning making a birthday cake with intricate flowers and fondant icing. It takes a while to get that all together. Saturday was a memorial service and then it was Lukie for a sleepover. We took him home after his sleep today and had enough time for a swim and hang out and then it was back home to edit. Life seemed really busy this weekend.

That said, it was back to editing our time in Sydney. These photos come from a short walk from the Oversees Passenger Terminal point along the green walk way, under the bridge, around the corner and back again. Seems short but I managed to find a lot to see.

As I have said before, is that I love the fusion of old and new. You will see it in so many pictures. I love that they have preserved the old buildings while adding in new development. We often see historical buildings torn down to make way for new and I did not get that feel in Sydney.

This is the ASN Co building and it was and is an extremely prominent building in Sydney. The Flemish styled building was designed by William Wardell. It was one of the many store houses found in the Rocks in the early years.

Walking on I came across this piece of artwork on our walk that looks like a front to a the Park Hyatt Hotel.

It was in the same area that I came across this young man sitting on a set of steps, probably listening to his phone. I used this image in yesterdays blog where we were challenged to create the Adamski effect. This probably was one of my favorite images that I created.

Moving along the walkway there were a few boats moored in a small bay area and I loved the rigging to this boat.

We arrived at Hickson Road Reserve and stopped to look back. This is just a different perspective of the Brewery, The Squires Landing and city sky line.

One thing I have to say. People were out and about running, walking, doing some form of exercise. For me, it was walking and a fair bit of it. It was amazing to be standing just below this enormous structure, The Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Across the waterway, near Milsons Point area is Luna Park, the amusement and entertainment park. I have seen some amazing pics incorporating the Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Lunar park.

Another thing that I really loved about Sydney was the billboards showing the history of the city. There was a stretch of them where we walked. Above was the view of Millers Point from Balmain East with the Sydney Observatory in the Center c.1870

Above is the view along Sussex Street from Napoleon Street c.1890

Above, Trinity Avenue, Dawes Point, site of the present day Trinity Avenue playground c.1901.

This gave me a feel for the early days in Sydney when my grandfather would have been growing up.

Looking across and beyond the Opera House is the Royal Australian Navy Heritage Center and this large ship was looming in the background.

From what I can work out this building is the present day Arts Exchange. It was initially built between 1902-1908 for the purpose of a direct current power station. In 2015 it was restored and now houses meeting rooms and facilities along with it being a major hub for Sydney’s major festivals.

Heading back we are again looking at the Brewery and the city skyline.

I actually took this photo for our staff. We use Salesforce, USA as our platform that houses our EMR system.

The local gulls.

Again a fusion of green space, old and new. This area is the famous Rocks of Sydney. In the background you will see the Metcalfe Bond Stores which was built in the 1910’s. A feature of the building is the steel and timber columns. From what I have read there could be a gin distillery opening up there in the future.

I came across this graphic while walking along the area. The painting painted by convict artist, Thomas Watling shows two men, watching the sun rise and ship set sail on the morning tide. The board cites this painting as c1797 and goes on to share that many of the landmarks can still be identified such as Pinchgut Island (For Denison) and Kirribilli Point. The man with the telescope appears to be looking at the small hut built for the Wangal man Bennelong, on the site of what is now the Sydney Opera House.

This is a typical picture of Richard, waiting patiently for me to catch up with him. I get side tracked with what is around me.

We are back walking past the Oversees Passenger Terminal back towards Circular Quay.

While there is a lot of old in Sydney, there is also a lot of glass and I for one, would not want to be the person cleaning the windows of those Sky Scrapers.

We had a quick stop at Circular Quay to learn more about the ferry system and how it works, what the running times are and when they stop. We are going to be making use of the ferries in the coming week.

Next stop will be the Opera House, so look out for the posts.

My friend Lupji from Lupji Photography is co-blogging with me today. Don’t forget to check his blog to see what he has been up to.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Stay well.

Share Six: August 2023: Adamski Effect

How did we get to August. Seriously this year suddenly seems to be flying. Share Six is up again and this month I chose to challenge myself with something I skipped in another project. The theme for this month is the {Adamski Effect}. Its a very neat technique, but I was challenged with new tutorials and working with my old CS6. Sometimes I did not have the tools they were talking about or I had to get to them via a different format. That said I did what I could to try and get the effect I was looking for.

I used my Australia photo’s again to play around with this technique. It is painstaking selecting process to get the main object, and I think on a couple my selection was a little off. I also found that they talked about modifying and expanding the selection but that did not seem to work for me. Then I found on some images it would fill with content aware and on others it would not. The effects typically used a motion blur but I did do one with gaussian blur to see what kind of effect I would get.

All that said, it was fun to see how creative I could get. So some of these pics you may have already seen in their normal format and now you will see them in the Adamski Effect.

I choose this image because it was the easiest of images to start with. That said I was not crazy about the black streaks to the right of the man. It was a person and I should either have selected them as well or cloned them out. This was taken on our walk from the hotel to Darling Harbor. Australia has what I think they would call green walkways. No cars and it is the best.

This image had the tall buildings and I kind of visualized the rainbow effects being a little different. We started walking up towards Bangaroo Reserve and then kind of did a detour and I am not sure where we resurfaced but we did eventually find our way back to our hotel.

So this is the effect I was looking for, however, I was not too crazy about the giant white pole in the way but I had spent too much time on the selection and was not starting over again. I loved the movement in the tall buildings. This was on one of the main streets in Sydney, George Street, on our walkabout back to our hotel.

This is probably my favorite of the images I played with. Instead of blurring vertical, I blurred horizontal. This was taken the morning we went to watch the sunrise over the Opera House. This guy was randomly sitting on the steps listening and looking at his phone.

I honestly love the background effect to this building. The boat was on it’s way in but it feels a little awkward given the height of the buildings. This was taken from the Sydney Harbor Bridge looking back towards Luna Park – the amusement park near the Kirribilli markets.

You met this guy in my last blog of the walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte. For the most part I think I did a reasonably good selection of the surfer and I do love the effect of the slightly off horizontal blur. And who doesn’t like a surfer.

For this image I used a Guassian blur instead of a motion blur. This is such a common picture of Richard – he always has his toes in the water. That comes from growing up within walking distance to the beach and spending time out on the water either fishing, surfing, paddle boarding, you name it and he’s probably done it.

For this image I was back to the motion blur. However, I did not want to do too much so this has more of a painterly look to it. This is the 12 Apostles on The Great Ocean Road. What I will say is I think that they are down to about 6 or 7 apostles these days. This image was taken on an overcast day with lots of wind and water spray. The scenery is stunning and this will be back on my bucket list when we go back. The cliffs here are incredible and so high.

For this image I used a horizontal motion blur. I loved the colors in this image. We had visited Australia in the fall and so we got to see a lot of reds and yellows. I am not sure where this was. It could have been after we came out of the Great Otway National Park. We had taken a detour through the Park to the light house.

I did this image twice. The first time I just isolated the leaves, but then it looked like floating leaves so I redid this to get the vine in to ground the leaves. Again I opted for a slightly off horizontal effect. This was taken during our time in Melbourne where we decided one afternoon to take a drive to a wine farm. What I loved about it was that it was about 15 minutes from where our family live. I could do that easily on a weekend for sure.

This is my last image. By now I was tired of tirelessly selecting the image. My version does not have “select subject”. So it was a painstakingly back and forth to get the selection as accurate as I could. I loved the way the colors in the back ground blurred. This was taken in Sydney 2 days before we left. There was a local market that we thought we would walk through and see what we could see. I had visions of bringing things home but that did not work out. So we ended on one of those Richard walks through the Rocks and up to the Lord Nelson Hotel and then made our way back to the hotel. This was a great day, as my childhood friend, who was now living in Brisbane came through with a friend to Sydney, and after a few beers back at the market area we headed by ferry out to Watson’s Bay to meet my cousin and his wife for the first time.

So those were my attempts at the Adamski Effect. Not perfect but I enjoyed trying to get the effect. I really hope that you will be challenged to try it as well.

Here are a few links that you can check out when trying:

https://photographychef.com/how-to-get-the-adamski-effect-in-photoshop-step-by-step/

I used this one a fair bit.

and this one as well.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. I hope that they are all challenged to do my (Adamski Effect) challenge. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Janet of @wiredtothemoon_ is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her IG page. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Look out for more blogs.

Stay well

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: July 2023: Bondi to Bronte, Australia

Two months in a row we have tried to do a particular theme. It’s not happening. First, I came back from Australia to a dead computer. It took around 3 weeks before I got it back. Then this past weekend, I managed to damage my 34″ monitor giving it the kiss of death. A huge black spot and then black lines going up and down the screen. Reminded me of Christmas bows, and it was definitely a expensive oops. That said I managed to get a new monitor via Amazon within 3 days and it is all set up, and it is better than the last one so I am all good.

Most of us were challenged with the theme we had originally chosen. So to keep it simple this month, we made the choice easy. The theme we finally selected for Share Six is (Your Choice). However, just a heads up this post is going to be a lot longer than 6 images. I would like to keep the whole story in one blog.

So why Bondi Beach to Bronte? My childhood friend, who lives in Brisbane, shared with me that this was a must do on our list. She told me this was the opportunity to get out and explore the natural coastline of New South Wales, and to really enjoy the beauty of this area. Not everything is about the city.

It’s around 7:30am and we are trundling along the city streets, by bus, watching with interest the world going by. The outer suburbs of Sydney city are much older and the buildings are dated, but they are interesting as well. People hop and off the bus using the tap on and tap off system.

Richard always has these options of how to get to places that involve walking. We could walk from the main Bondi terminal or catch the bus. Obviously I opted for the bus.

The weather is not bad, but kind of hazy while we were heading along the walk. This is also the one day in Sydney that I carried a light jacket. I wasn’t expecting to be cold but there was a gusting wind coming off the ocean.

Bondi Beach

We finally arrive, about 20 minutes later, at the infamous Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is Sydney’s most famous beach. Is it a nice beach town? Absolutely. We did not explore the town as we were on a time agenda but it looked like there was a fair amount of shopping that could be done. As for the beach, it’s a wide open beach with lots of space and it spans a fair distance. I could imagine that it could be quite busy on the weekends. There were some surfers out, not as many as I expected. Perhaps because it was a weekday.

Richard walked down onto the beach. He loves to get his toes in the sand and he wanted to get closer to the ocean, since his camera was his phone.

Bondi Beach
Bondi Beach

I, on the other hand, decided to walk along the promenade taking photo’s of the graffiti. Eventually Rich and I met up again at the end of the beach boardwalk.

This image and the one below were really moving. I remember the bombing in Bali. It was just after we had moved to the USA, and just over a year after the 911 terrorist attack. What I did not know was how many Australians lost their lives.

Below I tried to capture the bay’s two heads and the rolling waves in-between. The surf appeared to be pumping, however the only person I saw going into the waves was the lifeguard. The were a few people hanging out on the beach enjoying the weather.

Northern head at Bondi Beach
Loving the wind and wave action here.
Southern Head at Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach has everything you could want. Lots of restaurants and cafe’s, some interesting shopping area, a grassed area for you to sit on or picnic, and a very interesting board walk filled with beautiful graffiti. I did spot this interesting surfers code below as well.

The life guard heading out into the ocean. My gut feel was that the water was definitely cooler than that which I would venture into.
Clearly this was her hang out house
I loved seeing people just hanging out on the beach

At the end of Bondi beach we climbed stairs (the first of many) up towards Bondi Icebergs on Notts Avenue. Bondi Icebergs is a local swimming club with a restaurant and a beautiful sea pool.

This is where we started our Bondi to Bronte walk. For the most part the walkway is concrete, with a lot of ups and downs. The map below gives you a time frame for the walk but I think that is for speed walkers. To give you a time frame, the first photo I took was at 7:58am (at Bondi Beach), and the last one of the walk was at 9.26am. Of course, I keep stopping to take photos and Richard keeps walking, eventually he would have to wait for me to catch up. Clearly the beach area is a more upmarket area and the homes are really nice along the walkway. Perfect views of the water line.

Another heads up is that this is a popular walk so you are constantly passing people. There is also a exercise workout stations along the way as well.

The map at the start of the walk
I have no clue what this person was doing but this was an interesting image.
Bondi Icebergs swimming club and restaurant

We walked through some incredible rock formations. The pathway left the concrete road way and headed down some steps and along a created cement pathway.

Bondi Beach to Mckenzie’s Beach follows this kind of pathway which also includes steps up and steps down.

I loved the rocky out crops and the different colors in the stone . We passed Mackenzie’s point lookout, and were heading down towards Mackenzie’s Bay. From what I read every so often Mackenzie’s Bay becomes a beach when the sand gets washed up. For the most it is a bay.

Wave action heading towards Mckenzie’s Bay
A lone jetski out in the ocean
Mckenzie’s Bay with Tamarama Beach/Bay in the distance

Beyond Mackenzie’s Bay we arrive at Tamarama Bay seen above in the distance. Tamarama Bay generally offers rough surfing conditions and strong rip tides and is generally better for suntanning. As you can see there is a wide open beach.

Every so often I tried to remember to look back. This gives you an idea of the walkway we had just navigated.
The rocks are a great place to just stop and relax.
We did not see a lot of natural wild life, but this Australian Magpie was one of them. It is about the size of a crow and has a similar attitude.
Tamarama Beach
What I thought was a canoe from the distance turned out to be graffiti.
Signs are posted warning of rough conditions, however the beach looked awesome.
The green area looked very relaxing as well, and what I would have done to sit in one of those chairs for a while. However, I am not sure I would have been able to get out of it.

Moving along we now were on the last stretch of the walk, from Tamarama Beach, to Bronte. Again there is this rugged coastline to traverse and steps going down and back up again. While Bronte is a surfing beach, the water can be dangerous at times.

My picture of Richard was photo bombed. What can I say, Bronte was definitely a surfers paradise. Sorry I could not resist, lol
Out in the waves
Watching from the rocky outcrops.
The little town of Bronte, with it’s very interesting restaurants heading up the street. The grassed area has various picnic sites and you are definitely able to just hang out on the grass if you want to. This was also our final destination where we could catch our bus back to initially the Bronte terminal, and then switch busses to catch the second leg to Sydney.
It looked like it was a surfers delight on this particular day. There was more than one surfer out and about.
There seemed to be some discussion as to the wave action before the guy with the red board took off to go and jump into the water from the rocky outcrop.
If you were to continue walking you would pass Waverly Cemetery on the way to Gordons Bay.

Bronte was the end of our journey, but the walk continues and you can follow the trail to Coogee Beach and Gordon’s Bay and beyond to Malabar Headland.

The one interesting thing that happened was switching busses on our way back. If you are traveling from Bronte to Sydney, the bus drops you off outside the terminal in Bondi. The pick up bus was about 15 steps away from where we were dropped off. However, due to our lack of knowledge we ended up walking into the terminal and then had to look at virtually every pick up point before trying to find our way back out of the terminal to the street. My advice check the outside bus stops prior to going into the terminal.

Bondi to Bronte was a beautiful walk and I certainly recommend it if you are traveling in the area. The area is rugged and stunning and like Day 2 on The Great Ocean Road it coast line was very impressive.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Janet of @wiredtothemoon_ is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her IG page. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Next up is Days 2 of exploring Sydney – The Opera House, a short walk alongside the Botanical gardens, a bit more exploring through the city before packing out bags to head to Melbourne.

Look out for more blogs.

Stay well

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Sydney and it is day 2…Sunrise over the bay

Sleep came early the previous night. 5pm and we were lights out. That does not bode well for wake up time. 3am and we are hello… it’s still dark outside. Somewhere around 4:30 Richard decides that he is going to walk down to the Opera House and go and watch the sunrise. Well, of course I am going to go, but I see no point in going all the way back to the hotel, to go all the way back virtually to the Opera House to start our day.

So off we go…… navigating our way in the semi dark, down to George Street and along to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It’s somewhere around 5am. We are going to hang out there to watch the sun come up around the Opera House.

George Street and the trams are on the move.
Heading down to Circular Quay

We stop at the end of the pier adjacent to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The bridge is one huge piece of metal. Fascinating structure that spans the river from one side to the other. Interestingly, you can actually climb the arch of the bridge. Not something I would choose to do but I found it interesting that others would want to do that. It’s a lot of steps and I am not crazy about heights. When you stand under the bridge you really look so small. Looking across the river, you can see Luna Park, the amusement and theme park, in the distance.

In front of the harbor’s international passenger terminal

One thing I do have to say about the people of Sydney, they are very health conscious. There were more people out running so early in the morning than I expected on a work day.

Coffee in front of the brewery seems conflicting but it certainly started what was to be a long day.
A huge ton of steel that spans across the Paramatta Rive, which ultimately becomes the Bay that Sydney is settled on.
On top of the bridge is the Australian flag and the Aboriginal flag. The Aboriginal Flag is recognized as one of the official flags of Australia. Designed by Harold Thomas in 1970 the black upper portion represents the aboriginal people of Australia, while the lower red portion represents the earth, and color of Orche. The circle in the center represents the sun. For more on the flag click here.

Sunrise is happening and there is nothing nicer than watching the day start with the sun peaking out through the clouds. OK, the setting sun is pretty awesome as well but we really did not do any of that on this trip. However, watching the sunrise over the Opera House is pretty epic. I never thought I would ever see that happen.

The ferries were off on an early morning start to pick up passengers and ferry them back to the city.
The incredible Sydney Opera House.
Like the trains, trams, and buses, the ferry system in Sydney, is a tap on tap off system and very efficient. All ferries leave from Circular Quay but there are multiple combinations and stopping points. An excellent system for getting around.

This morning was the culmination of a dream that has long been on our hearts. Standing in Sydney watching the sun come up was a thrill. Standing in the city of my grandfathers birth was even a bigger thrill.

Next on our agenda is the Bondi Coastal walk. So another cup of coffee and sausage roll later, yes…. I said sausage roll. Do you know when I last had a decent sausage roll? Not for a long long time, unless I made it myself. Okay I digress. With the coffee and sausage roll in hand we head back to Circular Quay to the bus that will take us to Bondi Beach. Join me as we walk along one of the beautiful coastlines of New South Wales in my next blog.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.