Like many countries, Australia has a Remembrance Day, called ANZAC DAY, with the acronym standing for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

The day broadly commemorates all Aussies & Kiwis ‘who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations’, however the day originated from the World War I landing at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), and remains to this day one of the most important national occasions in both Australia and New Zealand.

My father played in the local citizens marching band when I was a kid growing up in the bush, so we used to go the Dawn Service every year. I have been living out of Australia for quite a few years and have recently returned, so this was the first time (in a long time) that I had the opportunity to go again.

While there are services throughout the day, the Dawn Service is probably the most relevant and symbolic given the timing of the initial Gallipoli landing (dawn on April 25).

My son now plays in the Mountains Youth Band in The Blue Mountains, so he and his band members were able to be involved at one of the services in our district in the mountains. While he may not be old enough yet to understand the importance of this day to Australians’ and our Kiwi friends across the Tasman Sea, one day he will.

ANZAC Day in The Blue Mountains

This photo is not of a veteran, but of a young Air Force Cadet who is serving as part of the Honor Guard for the ceremony.

Why is it relevant, at least to me?

More than a quarter of a century ago as a young teenager (seems like yesterday)… I was also an Air Force Cadet in my small home town, and wore that same uniform.

LEST WE FORGET.

Kangaroo anyone?

Every year I try and take a week and basically just walk around somewhere. Backpack, some camera gear, and ideally some good weather.

This month I headed to the Snowy Mountains, in New South Wales, Australia. This is Australia’s highest mountain range, and home to the country’s highest peak… Mount Kosciuszko.

I will cover the trip in a future blog, but for now here are a couple of happy snaps of some of the locals.

Are You Looking at Me?

Australia’s bush abounds with a lot of wildlife and bird-life, and if you don’t mind getting off the beaten track a little you will get to see it in their own backyard.

Both these images were taken hand-held with a Canon EOS-1Dx and EF100-400 f/4.5-5.6L lens. I can’t say this particular lens is high on my ‘like’ list (for lots of reasons), but as a general purpose travel lens it has it moments… like these two examples.

Magpie in the Snowy Mountains

Had a great trip and will certainly go back.

That’s It… See You There!

This was the first time that I had taken photos of a live band in concert… and what a first time it was.

Country Music legends Big & Rich at Ford Field (NFL Football stadium – home of the Detroit Lions) in Detroit, Michigan USA.

John Rich – Big and Rich

I wasn’t there for the band though. It was a major Professional Bull Riding (PBR) event called Last Cowboy Standing, which was being held in the same arena.

Big & Rich played nearly a full concert as the prelude to the bull riding. I am a country music fan, so it was a great night all round for me. Some cool music, and bull-snot all wrapped into one.

I wanted to try my hand at taking some photos of a live concert, so up on the stage I went. The arena was packed, so it was a good view of all the people from up the front.

Inside Ford Field

My hat goes off to full time band photographers. There are a number of challenges as you would expect, ranging from simply not wanting to get in the way of the band or the audience, to the continuous and fast changing of the intensity of the lights and color temperature of those lights.

In the end I simply tried to expose for John’s face as best I could, and let the rest of the image fall as it may. As you can see there is a huge dynamic range in the image, all the way from black, to blown out highlights.

Will I try it again… for sure if the opportunity arises.

Here are some of my images from the event.

For those interested in the gear used for this photo:

- Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark4

- Lens: Canon EF70-200 f/2.8L II

That’s It… See You There!

This month’s photo comes from Montana, and The Little Bighorn National Park to be exact.

I was in the general area (well I was in the same State) to take photos of a Professional Bull Riding (PBR) event, so I managed to arrive a little early to do some sight seeing.

Wild Ponies in Montana

The park itself contains the battlefield site (as you would expect), as well as the Battlefield Monument and various other memorials.

From the US National Parks site: “This area memorializes the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne in one of the Indian’s last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota, and Cheyenne warriors”.

While I was driving to one of the smaller memorials I came across this herd of wild ponies. They were simply eating and roaming, so I hopped out of the car and took some happy snaps of them. There would have been around 20 of them all up.

Tree at Little Bighorn

A little further along the same way I came across this lone dead tree off the road a bit.  Would have made for a cool photo with a little more cloud in the sky, but a pleasant walk none the less.

That’s It… See You There!

I have been to Dubai several times before and it is a cool (well not temp wise) place if you are into taking happy snaps and looking around.

There were a few locations that I had been to before that I wanted to get some photos of on this trip. To make it a little more interesting though I thought I would set myself a small challenge.

6 hours. Door to door, not counting processing when I got back to the hotel. Also I could only use one lens. Simple enough.

It was made a little easier in the sense that I had been to all my target locations before, so I knew what I was heading to… just had to get there and take my happy snaps.

Here’s how it went.

1 camera body: Canon EOS-5D Mk3

1 lens: Canon EF24-105 f/4L

1 lens filter: Singh-Ray LB Color Combo Polarizer

7:30 – Left the hotel in a taxi and headed to Jumeirah Beach. Subject: The Burj Al Arab hotel before all the tourists hit the beach.

Burj Al Arab

Given what time I arrived the beach was basically empty, except for the life guards doing their warm ups. This is an interesting hotel to look at, and photograph. It was blowing a gale, as you can see from the flag.

Designed to resemble a billowing sail, Burj Al Arab is 321 metres high. It is 7-Star, and you can’t even get on the grounds unless you are a guest. One day perhaps. The day before when I was driving passed I saw 2 helicopters land on the heli-pad (the round thing on the top left). I remember Tiger Woods hitting golf balls off that around the time it opened.

The below image is of the beach. I grabbed it simply as it was unusual to see no people. As I said, they were all still in bed or having their morning espresso. This particular beach is to the right of Burj Al Arab and is part of the Jumeirah Beach hotel complex, which is an impressive hotel in it’s own right.

Jumeirah Beach

9:00 – Back in a taxi and headed further out to the Dhow Wharfage which is located along the Dubai Creek bank north of Maktoum Bridge. It is one of my favorite places to go in Dubai.

Not because it is fancy (far from it), but if you are half adventurous and walk-about amongst it you get to see some great sites. I took the below photo of some of the laborers loading a Dhow bound for the Persian Gulf. Once I took it, this guy and his buddies crowded around me to see the image on the camera LCD. They thought it was funny. These guys don’t have a glamorous life. Smile a lot though.

Loading a Dhow for the Persian Gulf

My objective for going this time though was to get to the other side of Dubai Creek (yes like the chicken). I hadn’t been over before, so didn’t really know what was there. I was hopeful of getting a decent multi-image Panorama of the Dhows at the Wharf. I took a couple of sets, but didn’t end up with a result that I liked.

Water Taxi Drivers

The trip over was worth it though. 1 DRM ($0.25). No seats, no life jackets, and no guarantee of making it. It was cool though. The below photo is of a water taxi the same as the one I took. In fact I am on mine as I took this shot.

Water taxi on the Dubai Creek

10:30 – Back in a taxi heading to Burj Khalifia. The World’s tallest building. 828 metres high (2,717 feet).

Late last year I went up to the observation deck… which is floor 124. The elevator is so fast that your ears pop on the way up. The view is spectacular so well worth the price of entry if ever you go. It is located near the Dubai Mall shopping complex so plenty to do for everyone. This is the fourth ‘world’s tallest’ building that I have been up.

This was the building in the last Mission Impossible movie in the sand storm scene. It has 160+ floors,  57 elevators and 8 escalators, and more than 26,000 glass panels.

Burj Khalifa

It is difficult to get a decent shot of this building given how high it is. A Perspective Control lens (tilt-shift) would have been ideal… but mine were at home. It is so big compared to everything around it that it looks almost toy-like.

12:00 – Yes another (and last) taxi. To the Dubai Marina, which happened to be near to my hotel.

Dubai Marina

By the time I arrived here I had about an hour to take some shots and walk back to my hotel.

These two photos are both 11 shot, hand held Panoramas (with the images taken in the vertical). They were stitched together in Adobe Photoshop CS6, and tidied up in Adobe Lightroom 4. The original image was nearly 50 inches wide (127cm).

They are in one of my standard digital mats. This one is 24″ x 12″.

Dubai Marina

13:30 – Done. Well at least the photo taking was. I had to download, metadata, and process the ones that I wanted to keep. The single images were relatively simple, however the panoramas took some processing time given the resultant file size.

Overall I was reasonably satisfied with the result. For many of the images I would have preferred my Canon EF16-35 f/2.8L II lens, but the range of the 24-105 on a full frame sensor didn’t do a bad job.

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I leave you with an unrelated photo that I took the following day with my trusty Canon PowerShot S-100 point & shoot. I had to go to a meeting at the Sharjah Expo Centre, and just down the road was this building.

As it turns out it is the Council Office. Much like the one we have at home….

Sharjah Council Office

That’s It… See You There!

Note: click on the photos to make them larger.

The week prior I drove 3,000Kms (1,800 miles) round trip for xmas lunch, so have put a few road and air miles down this year already.

It is not often you can say that the Middle East is cooler than where you live… no matter where you live. I was in Dubai a few months ago and it was 51 Celsius (124F) in the shade at 7:30am.

Dubai Marina

I left Sydney a couple of days ago, with much of the State of New South Wales, and much of Australia for that matter listed as Extreme to Catastrophic Bushfire risk conditions, with a number of bushfires burning out of control. Temperatures in many places (including where I live) were in or above the mid 40s (115+F).

Dubai right now is in the high 20s (80F), and very pleasant. Winter in the desert.

These two panorama photos were taken literally 5 minutes apart. They are both 11 shot handheld Panoramas, stitched together in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Dubai Marina

That’s It… See You There!

This one isn’t so much about a great photo but the view – from my hotel room balcony as it turns out.

Singapore Harbour

I was staying at the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore. Have been to Singapore a lot, but have not stayed in this hotel before, or this high up this close to the water. On the other side of the hotel you get to look at other buildings, but I lucked out and got to look at this for a few days.

As it does often around this locale, a largish rain storm came through most afternoons.. Just looking at the rain fall out of the sky is cool to watch when it comes down by the bucket load. You do expect the proverbial cat & dog to come down with it.

Marina Bay Sands Floor 57

I leave you with a cool pool view.

This is the top floor of the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore (floor 57). Some infinity pool. If you happen to leap off the edge… next stop is the bus stop (literally), and the stop is sudden.

Both photos were taken with a Canon point and shoot camera…. PowerShot S-100.

That’s It… See You There!

South West Township (SOWETO). Johannesburg, South Africa.

I have been fortunate for one reason or another to have traveled quite a bit. Current count is around 40 countries… and counting.

Like most frequent travelers I have a bucket list of sorts with respect to destinations that I want to get to before I myself kick the bucket. Today I get to tick another one off that list.

As a child I grew up in rural Australia with not much to do but chase rabbits and play rock golf with a stick. I can’t remember how I came to get them, but I read Wilbur Smith novels about Africa (all of them), and in particular the stories that followed the histories of the Courtney and Ballantyne families respectively.

As a young boy these books were fantastic adventure stories, that inevitably were replayed over and over as I went on my own safaris near our house, albeit I was chasing rabbits and lizards, and not Rhino and Buffalo, and it was the family dog chasing me, and not Zulu warriors.

Ever since that time, going to Africa has been one thing that I knew that I would do, and now that I have been, I know that I will go back again to see more of this fantastic country.

This current trip was brief, and I couldn’t bring any of my real camera gear, so had to make do with my trusty Canon PowerShot S-100 point & shoot which I normally have in my pocket on trips. It is a decent holiday camera, but nothing like my real toys.

I had less than a day to have a look around. I was staying in Johannesburg so it was a toss up between The Lion Park and Soweto. No disrespect to the cats, but I wanted to see Soweto. I knew I would be back… and would be going to one of the big game reserves, so the Lions could wait.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect. My knowledge of Soweto was based on what you see on TV, newspapers, general urban myth, and my South African friends, most of whom don’t live there anymore.

The first thing that struck me was how many people lived in Soweto. I was expecting it to be a suburb of greater Johannesburg, which in essence it is… but it is a large city unto itself. Depending on what data source you look at, the population seems to be somewhere around  1.6  to over 2 million, which accounts for approximately 40% of the population of Johannesburg.

I was expecting less than ideal living conditions, but I was a little surprised as to the diversity from quite well to do, to not well off at all.

An important note to most of the photos included here: These do not illustrate all of Soweto, in fact far from it. I elected to include these ones simply as I found them interesting. Anyone can live and survive in a fancy neighbourhood…. these guys were doing it in not so prime conditions, but for the most part had a big smile on their face as I walked by.

A Note to the Soweto Text: My apologies to the original creators of this text. I obtained it from several websites and was unable to locate a reference to the respective authors. So my thanks to them, and from my side, while I may have changed it around a bit, most of the original text and/or context is not mine, but I wanted to include it to simply add some background to the photos and their location.

The name Soweto is an acronym, made up – in apartheid days – from the first letters of the words ‘South West Township’.

Soweto is a sprawling mass on the south west flank of Johannesburg. It is a hodgepodge of makeshift houses, all the way through to very upscale residences. It is fourth world and first world living next door to each other.

Soweto was created in the 1930s, with Orlando the first township established. In the 1950s, more black people were relocated there from ‘black spots’ in the inner city – black neighbourhoods which the apartheid government had reserved for whites.

Soweto is home to the largest hospital on the African Continent (and according to their website, the largest in the World), the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, and was also the site of the 2010 Soccer World Cup final.

2010 Soccer World Cup Stadium

I did the standard tourist sites, including Nelson Mandela’s house where he stayed before he was imprisoned in 1961. Also Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s house, and the Hector Pieterson museum.

The Hector Pieterson Museum is worth a visit, and I would suggest that you go here first (either that or the Apartheid Museum… which I unfortunately didn’t get to).

It is named after a 12 year-old boy (Hector Pieterson) who was shot on the 16th June 1976 during the Soweto uprising that today is a symbol of resistance to the brutality of the apartheid government. Some say that this event was the beginning of the end of Apartheid.

Soweto came to the world’s attention on 16th June 1976 with the Soweto Uprising when mass protests erupted over the government’s policy to enforce education in Afrikaans rather than English. Police opened fire in Orlando West on 10,000 students marching from Naledi High School to Orlando Stadium. The rioting continued and 200 people, including two white people, died on the first day in Soweto.

The first to be killed was Hector Pieterson. Another among the killed was Dr. Melville Edelstein, who had devoted his life to social welfare among blacks. He was stoned to death by the mob and left with a sign around his neck proclaiming “Beware Afrikaaners”.

The impact of the Soweto protests reverberated throughout the country and across the world. In their aftermath, economic and cultural sanctions were introduced from abroad. Political activists left the country to train for guerrilla resistance. Soweto and other townships became the stage for violent state repression.

Since 1991 this date and the schoolchildren have been commemorated by the International Day of the African Child.

I also went to Constitution Hill before going to Soweto (home of Constitution Court). On this site, once the Old Fort Prison Complex, commonly known as Number Four, political prisoners and common criminals awaited trial and sat out their jail sentences. At the height of apartheid rule, up to 2,000 black South Africans were processed through its entrance daily. Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Luthuli, Robert Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela were guests in the cells reserved for black males at Number Four.

My guide (who was from Soweto) took me into some of the back streets (I am not so good at staying on the well beaten path). As I have said before, you can’t really see a place from the window of car, and where the local tourism board wants you to go. Sure, go and see the sites. But also go and see where real people live and work.

People going about their daily chores, or just hanging out on the street.

Now don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t 5th. Avenue, and nor we’re these people living an easy life, but like most people in this type of situation, they went about their day with a smile on their face, and a friendly wave.

I leave you with this final image that made me laugh.

In the background you can see the McDonald’s advertisement, while in the foreground a guy is selling a bull’s head in his open air market of sorts.

That’s It… See You There!

Well it’s Professional Bull Riding season in Australia and the opening round of the Australian Cup Series kicked off in Wollongong (not far from Sydney) in New South Wales this past weekend.

It was the 2012 Wollongong Invitational held at the WIN Entertainment Centre.

I will follow up on the first half of the Australian Cup Series season in a later blog, but for now here are a couple of images from the weekend.

Note: If you want to get to all of them then head to the bottom and check out the animated slide show. 100 Photos / 3 Minutes.

Both main photos are of event Champion Jock Connolly. In the one below he is riding a bull named Sin City for a score of 85.5 points in round 2. As it turned out this ride won him the event.

Champion -  Jock Connolly on a bull named Sin City

Both these photos were actually used for the cover story for the event on PBR’s website (see screenshot below).

The below photo of Jock was taken a short time before he got on the above bull. He was simply hanging out on the bull chutes. If you haven’t been before, there was an actual bull just below his right foot. He was about to help a fellow rider get roped in for their ride.

The contest is based on each rider’s combined score for riding 2 bulls, then the highest ranked combined scores get to ride in a round 3 called the ‘Short Go’. The highest scoring rider entering the Short Go gets to ride last, which was Jock.

As it turned out he had already won before he had to ride in the final round. He rode his final and third bull, giving him 3 for 3 on the night, but unfortunately for him, as he was dismounting (a.k.a. getting tossed off) he landed pretty hard, and when I last saw him up close immediately afterwards it looked like he had busted his collar bone. Either that or he had grown some extra lumps on his right shoulder and he looked like he was in quite a bit of pain, and I mean a lot.

PBR Website

I leave you with a slide show with some images from the 2012 Wollongong Invitational.

100 Photos / 3 Minutes

See You There!

Well here is the next photo of the month in the series. As usual I have provided at the end of the post, the very next image that was taken after this one… except in this case, it is the ‘photo before’ I took this one.

October 2012 - UP THE CREEK IN DUBAI

If you follow my blog you will know that I travel a lot… around 2 weeks out of every 6 somewhere overseas.

Where possible I try and manage a day on one of the weekends to go for a walk around. I don’t carry any major camera equipment with me on these walks (for lots of reasons), but will always have a small point and shoot in my pocket.

My go-to camera for walking around is the Canon PowerShot S-100. I have a Canon PowerShot G1x also that I travel with sometimes, but this is too clunky to stick in your pocket so it invariably stays in the hotel room unless I have a small backpack with me, or want to do some basic HDR (I have made a small travel and remote control kit that works quite well).

What is good about the S-100 is that it is small and light. It really does fit in the pocket of your shorts. I only shoot in RAW on all my cameras, and this is about the smallest camera that does this, so that is a big plus also (at least for me).

What isn’t so good about it… regardless of some of the reports I have read, is that the noise level sucks at any ISO above 400 or so. Probably even more annoying though is the built in flash… it sucketh a lot. About the only thing it illuminates is the flash housing that it is contained in.

Still, it is all a game of trade-offs. Small camera… don’t expect a lot of horse power in things like the flash. For what I use it for… size is the key so I am fine with it.

Note to Canon… there must be a way to get some more oomph out of the flash without turning the guts of the camera inside out. Either that or put a ‘mini’ hot-shoe on it and make the Speedlite 90EX or 270Ex or similar fit it.

I am looking forward to the new Canon EOS-M series hitting the streets. This is the new ‘mirror-less’ version that I am hoping will make a good travel camera. We will see.

Anyway, back to my story.

On this particular day it was 51 degrees Celsius (124F)… hot. I had been to Dubai before, and had been to where the Dhows are moored on that trip, which happens to be not that far from the Spice and Gold Souk (market). But I wanted to see them again, so in a taxi it was and off I went.

I am not a ‘market’ person, but the Spice Souk is worth a quick look, if for no other reason than to take in the aromas. Fantastic.

Gold Souk… if you are into gold then have at it. I am not, so breezed through this and got to the boats.

The Dhows are pretty much all the way down the side of Dubai Creek. There is the actual Wharfage (shown on map), but they run most of the way down the shoreline passed the Souk. So if you want to see both without having to walk too far, there are plenty of boats to see right across the road from the Souk (and there is a toilet in the car-park there… don’t laugh, they are few and far between).

Here is a bit from the Lonely Planet review…

Lonely Planet review for Dhow Wharfage

The actual above photo is not of a Dhow or one of it’s crew, but of a water taxi and it’s driver (or whatever it is a water taxi pilot is called). They are stationed across the road from the Spice Souk, and right next to the Dhows.

Both the photos were taken with an S-100 point an shoot. I ran them both through Topaz Labs  (Adjust 5) in Photoshop to punch up the color a bit  (at least to my eye).

Given that he was sitting under the shade I really needed a decent flash to hit him with so that the background wouldn’t be totally blown out. As I didn’t (see flash remarks above), as a tradeoff I underexposed him a little, which meant that I could get most of the background back in Photoshop/Lightroom  (the bright sky was totally gone though).

All up though, for such a small camera, the result was half decent, and for basic travel photography, good enough for what I was doing.

EXPOSURE SETTINGS

ISO: 200

Aperture: f/5.9

Shutter Speed: 1/500th

Focal Length: 26mm

EQUIPMENT

Camera: Canon PowerShot S-100 point & shoot

THE PHOTO BEFORE

Dubai Spice Souk

The above photo is simply large containers of various spices inside a small shop… which were one after the other. Smelt great.

That’s It… See You There!