I’ve been to Venice only once, at Christmas 1998 (which explains the poor quality of this photo: a scan of a bad print — there are limits to what Photoshop can do!). This was when I was living in London, and I always went somewhere over the enforced break. It was chilly, and frosty, but marvellously free of tourists. I wandered many back streets and side canals, awestruck by this beautiful, endangered, city.
Month: May 2021

Birds using selective colour

Black swan
The theme for Bird Weekly Photo Challenge is selective color with most of the photo being monochrome, black and white or sepia tone.
I had fun with this one! (Well, apart from first Photoshop and then my computer crashing; I’m having graphic card compatibility issues, very annoying.)

King penguin

Kookaburra

Lunar Eclipse

The Earth’s shadow creeps across the Moon, from right to left. These two photos were taken 9 minutes apart.
We had a fabulous view of the 26 May Lunar Eclipse here in Sydney. Clear, crisp skies (and a strong, cold wind!). I had two viewing sessions, 7.40pm to 8.15pm to see the shadow start to creep across, then again from 8.45pm to 9.30pm for totality and a bit on either side.

Just a crescent of brightness.

The brightness is spreading.

Places to walk or hike

A clifftop path beside the sea, Cornwall. Don’t get too close to that unfenced edge …
Walking is the only form of exercise I actually enjoy. And there are so many places to walk! From mountains to beaches, urban to outback, there’s a walk for everyone.

Old cemeteries can be fascinating places to walk. This is Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

A patch of bush in North Sydney.

A mountain meadow near Wengen, Switzerland.

Nothing like getting your feet wet in the surf! (Not to mention your shorts, if you’re not paying attention. I speak from experience.) Umina Beach, Australia.

Trekking in Bolivia. Granted, not something you’d do on a normal weekend!
Don’t forget your local park! Hyde Park is near my employer’s office, and on the days when I’m forced to go in (hiss boo!), I often walk here.

Hyde Park, Sydney.

Purple glow

One of the bars in City Tattersalls Club, Sydney.
This club was established in 1858, and I wonder what the founders would make of this purple glow in the bar? I find it rather eerie and disquieting, and just plain weird.
Life in Colour is purple for May. Or maybe violet. 🙂

The coming of the night

Crescent moon over Sydney at the end of a clear autumn day.
No dramatic glowing clouds for today’s sunset, but a cloudless blue sky fading to deepest orange — and the moon, “waxing crescent”, hanging low in the west.

Washing Lines 5: after snorkelling
This is my balcony on the stern of Radiance of the Seas (my sole foray into cruising on a white fun palace; lesson learned!). In this photo, we are heading away from the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia, where I’d had a marvellous, hour-long snorkelling session around La Rocher (Sacred Rock).

Washing Lines 4: Fiji
This photo is from the island of Matuku, Fiji, which I visited in 2016 on the tall ship Tenacious. I was struck — as I often am in places where people have so much less than we in prosperous Western countries have — by how clean everyone’s clothes were, and by how much effort the women put into ensuring that.

Last on the Card April 2021
Both photos were taken at sunset on 30 April in Ettalong, NSW. Thousands of rainbow lorikeets wheeled and swirled and chased each other in huge flocks above the town as the sun set. If you’ve never heard even one rainbow lorikeet at full voice, you’ll struggle to imagine just how ear-splitting and deafening the birds’ noise was!

Canon Powershot SX260: I use this camera when I can’t be bothered with the weight and bulk of my ‘real’ camera.

Huawei MYA-L02: my phone takes rubbish photos and I generally only use the camera for taking a photo to send to someone at the moment — but I like how here it caught a recognisable parrot shape.
I haven’t entered Bushboy’s Last on the Card challenge before, partly because I generally wipe the card — and partly because I never post unedited photos! But I like the symmetry of these two.
Also linking to Bird Weekly – Birds in Flight