yaleman.org

On the second day, the Yale created … ok, I’ll stop now. If you’re starting here, I suggest part one, or part two

Callala Beach, Huskinsson, Vincentia, The Jervis Bay Reserve, Green Patch – all really nice places, there’s probably a few photos, none that I’m happy enough with to put up though!

In the Jervis Bay reserve there’s a place called Murray’s Boat Ramp, with a little seabreak with places for people to fish off – the water there was absolutely beautiful and clear.

I had to giggle at this sign – someone I know is called “Agg”. Why can’t people spell, especially in permanent fixtures like signs! I see it all the time; it’s disgusting how some people mangle the english language!

At Murray’s Beach, just south of the boat ramp, there was a few people setting up to go snorkelling and more beautiful white sand beaches!

At Erowal Bay – another beach along the coast – there was a little ‘tannin creek’ which made for some interesting photos, with reflections of the sky and a view across to the navy base .

We spent a lot of time driving around the many different towns in this area on the second day, having lunch at Huskinsson, marvelling at the beautiful beaches and scenery. I’ve never seen rabbits before – they are funny little creatures – but terrible pests… I think a hunting license would be a good thing to have

This is the second part – the first part is here

Continuing on from Stanwell Park and its beautiful sea bridge, we stopped so I could get a shot of the CoalCliff Arts Centre – Quite a nice building in the middle of nowhere.

Quite a few small towns later, we got to Kiama with its seaside Blowhole – such a ghostly vision I captured in burst mode.. I quite like it!

I thought it was funny that these birds were “parked” in the carpark at Kiama.

Gerringong Cemetary, the best view for the dead! Looking across the inlet to the point is beautiful.

Then we went on to Gerroa for fish and chips at a nice little place with a view over the water. Well worth going to – it’s the fish and chip shop on the left as you drive into town.

The next stop was the Seven Mile Vineyard, which we saw a sign on the side of the road for, and decided to have a look. A small winery, with a great owner/winemaker that we spent some time talking to about the wines, including a great little orange liquer that I have to find a recipe to use it in.

When we got there, we saw a pair of dogs playing together, and we found out that they were Groodles, just like the one that we own. There is a slight difference, these ones were bred with fullsize poodles, whereas ours was bred with a minature. I guess that’s why they look like dogs, and he looks like a bathmat with legs.

Bomaderry

We finally got into Nowra and stopped for some supplies – boy is that a town full of rednecks. As we were driving out of the Woolworths carpark, I saw this.

Anyone that can identify it, email me, I’d love to know what it actually is.

Finally we got to Culburra, meeting up with my uncle at his gallery, and then going home to unpack and chill out.

Continue onto part three – “On the Second Day…”

I’m home, and wow – where do I start? I was up at 0130 on the Thursday when we got on the plane and flew to Sydney to start our holiday. It was a rather hot night that night, probably nature’s way of telling us to get out of Brisbane and enjoy the weather down south.

I had to sit around the airport for a while – my flight was half an hour after my parents’ I decided to get out my camera and see what I could shoot – I’m not completely happy with it, but this is the one photo that came out well.

So I flew out at 0530 Brisbane time and got there about 0830 Sydney time. Boy do I love daylight savings – not! I jumped off the plane, got my bags and met my parents who had found the rental car in the carpark, and they’d already grabbed some Krispy Kremes from a little stall in the QANTAS terminal. There’s a funny thing about the Hertz rental cars – in the airport they have a big carpark, and they just leave the cars with the keys in them – it’s just weird. We all packed into our little red Corolla and we were away!

I haven’t been to Sydney since I was in grade seven – and that was 1994! When we were there, we spent a fair bit of time in cabs and walking around to the touristy spots – I don’t remember much. We didn’t go into the CBD – that would have been crazy talk at 0900 when all we needed to do was to get out of the city.

Avoiding Wollongong, we headed down along the “coast road” through quite a few little towns along the way. Mum and Dad had seen the “Sea Bridge” in one of the on-flight magazines, and it was located in Stanwell Park, so we headed there. All I can say is, for the first tourist-style thing we did, wow. We went up to the hills above the bridge and across the bay, to have a look at what we could see. It was overcast and foggy (something that would stay until the Saturday) but I think it made it beautiful with the fog across the bay.

Then it was down from the cliffs, through the town and across to the bridge. It’s an impressive structure – I’ll edit this and find some more information later about the bridge. Anyway, here’s some photos of the sights from the south end of the bridge, which is slightly higher. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend just driving across it, if not stopping to have a look.

There’s a lot more to post – this is part one, click for part two.

Thick white ropes,
Draped over my fingers,
Is this my life until death,
Or is it the death of my life?

Ok, so I’ve been into photography for a while – never really done anything with it, just loved framing shots, taking random things, playing with what comes out etc etc. So I decided that rather than play with the point n’ shoot POS that I have, I’d get a camera that’s going to let me learn how to do it properly.

After reading a lot of reviews. I went to Ted’s Camera Store and bought myself a Canon 350D with the 18-55 lens kit. I bought it in black, since the silver one looks faggy.

To put it in (with the bits and pieces I’m likely to collect) I got myself a nice Lowepro “Nova 2 AW” bag, which will fit the camera and two lenses with a bunch of other smaller stuff. Only set me back $60, and it’s well built with lots of padding and strong sides. The memory card is a Sandisk Ultra II 1GB Compact Flash card. I also got the “add two years to your warranty” thingy, just iin case it decides to kick the bucket in the meantime.

Well, I’ve taken a few photos, just to see how it works, and it has a nice feel to it. We’ll see how I go in a week when I’ve been using it more.