Before the sun came up………

After a bit of a lay off due to other work, I jumped out of bed with gusto.

Off to the beach to capture a nice sunrise or two.

I drove to the beach, strolled out to the rocks, coffee in hand and waited….

The sun now rises almost an hour later since I last was at the beach !!

So I captured some shots before the sun came up…….

Before the sun came up….

 

Light Painting…well, sort of……..

There are lots of very creative photographers out there that push boundaries all the time.

HDR, Lensbaby, even infra-red images are created.

Me, I stick with what i know..,most of the time.

The other morning whilst walking along the creek, I noticed that the street lights painted these rocks and gave them an unusual hue .

To me it was kinda like light painting…well, sort of………….

Light Painting, well, sort of….

Surfing brings the crowds………

Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast is always popular. A beautiful beach with great surf, cafes nearby and a sub tropical headland with a jungle setting make this location a favourite regardless of the weather, but stage a surfing competition with a couple of world class pro’s and bingo, not a parking space within thirty minutes walk.

 

Recycled canvas………

I remember hearing when I was younger how struggling artists in times gone by used to buy other artist paintings at markets or jumble sales and render their art over the existing work.

Yesterday I witnessed the modern equivalent, on a local graffiti wall. The lads had permission to use the wall and turned up on the weekend, painted over the existing work with a base coat and then applied their well conceived  designs on to the wall.

When I approached the guys to ask if I could photograph them I was met with happy, proud artists that were taking genuine care with their work. One of the artists and I struck up a conversation and he told me that these blokes spend weeks thinking thru their next work and mulling over colour choices to emphasise particular aspects of the work.

In the past I have used graffiti walls as backdrops for photo shoots, mainly due to the colour and the underlying emotional currents that these scenes can trigger.

I firmly believe that this form of graffiti is in fact modern art, applied via modern means and relevant to a modern society, and the link to the recycled canvas only confirms this colourful addition to the urban landscape as art !!

 

 

Fifties Fun……………….

I was watching a show on the TV this evening which was focusing on fifties music. Coolangatta at the south end of the Gold Coast hosts a fifties themed event.

Music, fashion and cars combine in a week of booby socks, twirling skirts, slicked back hair and revving motors doing their best to bring back the happy days.

The cars are simply awesome, loud, colourful and with an aura of lawlessness.

The girls go out of their way to recreate the fashions with a modern twist.

And the bands hammer out the well-known hits of yesterday.

Hinterland Beauty………..

With all the rain we have had the Gold Coasts normally beautiful hinterland has raised the bar in the beauty stakes a bit higher. Normally sedate creeks are now raging torrents and trickles over rocks are now waterfalls.

Higher up the valleys, the mist hangs over the limestone escarpments almost till midday and provides a magnificent scene of country life albeit 10 minutes to the beach.

Waterfront property…………

As I have already mentioned it is storm season here on the Gold Coast, but really should we have to sell the car to buy a kayak?

The local surf beaches didn’t have their normal fantastic outlook, not only is the ocean a dirty muddy colour, but also the blue sky has been replaced by torrential curtains of rain.

We have a large creek running by the back of our place and normally it’s probably 150 metres across, today it was double that. Areas of flat land were inundated with the run off from the hinterland and it effectively turned our abode into a ritzy waterfront property. Of course when this is all soaked up the hinterlands natural beauty will be more like a work of art.

According to the weather department more is on the way……where is that scuba gear??

The road to nowhere…………….

In the valley that heads up into the hinterland away from the coast from where we live there is this bridge. Everytime I approach it I think to myself the bridge to nowhere or the bridge to adventure. Ying and  Yang !!!

The wheels keep on turning………..

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ down the highway. Well not quite the classic lyrics to that classic song, but it sum’s up what is happening on the highways and railways of central Queensland. Trucks, some of them carrying other trucks for the mining industry never stop rolling up and down the highways of the region. Single, double and even triple trailers are common place at anytime of the day or night. The magnificent scenery would be lost on the drivers of these rigs as they push on to unload the materials that keep the coal industry digging.

Of course if the machines are digging, it means that the resource is coming out of the ground and at a prodigious rate. Everywhere you look you will see laden coal trains heading for one of the coal handling ports along the beautiful coastline. Whilst on a two-hour journey I saw several of the empty mammoth trains stopped waiting for a full to capacity counterpart to pass thru on its way to the port.

Machines are everywhere in this part of Queensland and some remind me of creations from Star Wars or indeed herds of Dinosaurs on the move. Kinda ironic really seeing that the coal being dug up today was laid down at the time of the Dinosaurs !!!

dedication………..

Golfers, runners and fishermen/women are, in my opinion are the epitome of dedication. They participate in their chosen fields regardless of weather, location or in the case of fishermen, chance of success. They endure these hardships silently and without adulation from admirers. Those of us that don’t feel the need to beat a little white ball into submission, or run up hills when a motorcar will take us there quicker and with the air con on, don’t understand what the disciples to these addictions gain from the work they put in, and as for those hooked on fishing don’t they realise that they can just go to the fish and chippy and buy the whole family dinner for less than the price of a lure. This is all tongue in cheek of course its great to see people enjoying their chosen pastimes, and I am sure they shake their heads when they see us clambering over rocks with thousands of dollars of equipment.