POTN WORLDWIDE PHOTO DAY Part 8 APRIL 29-30 TRAVEL- SOMETHING NEW

[Meaty0]

Okay, my wife banned me from going down to Brisabane's Red Light district to photograph the...ahem..."Working Girls" last night. I had to settle for taking a trip to Lone Pine Sanctuary. This is an animal sanctuary in Brisbane, which despite having lived here 49 years, I have never been to. So, something new! Was a pretty good outing until it rained too



This guy is a Lace Monitor; A kind of Goanna. He was about 4 feet long and would happily chew off your finger if you stuck it near his mouth. He'd be more likely to steal the meat from your hamburger though!



Well if you don't know what this is, you deserve a good whack on the head with a boomerang!

[::John::]

oh cool! Well shot - so clear. Excellent job - those damned koalas always seem to be looking the other way when I try and get them.

[blackviolet]

Originally Posted by kiwibloke

...those damned koalas always seem to be looking the other way when I try and get them.

maybe they're trying to tell you something...

[cdifoto]

Nice shots Meaty. I don't have anything like that around here...

[blackviolet]

ok, we took the train to the city today



i've never taken a photo of the clock tower @ central station.


we also haven't been to cold rock ice cream, so we did that too

[condyk]

Love the train shot Blackviolet ... wonderful, but I hope you didn't try and catch that one Good standard this week

Ok, mine is a funny one because I decided to take the theme of 'travel/somewhere new' as a metaphor and incorporate several different 'journeys'. I'm on a long weekend off so nice to have time to chill and play for a change!!

First I wanted to experiment with my new tripod, also with flash (which I very rarely use), with a couple of my ultra cheap classic lenses that rarely get a run out, with a totally different type of shooting that I never do (almost still life!!) with a new approach to sharpening and finally ... with a new way of cooking Risotto

I had a great time and learnt quite a bit. First, how once you crack manual exposure then with camera on a tripod almost every shot can be a keeper (tho' a tad trickier with MF lenses, esp. in a steamy kitchen!) Second, it's a mistake to add a pinch of dried herbs to a perfect Risotto just to get a visual effect. Third, how bl**dy hard it is to shoot still life type stuff!! There is so much detail there, shadow and light, and so many chances to screw up. It's a bit like Macro

Anyway, first shot is with my amazing £6.00 Helios 58mm f2.0 and second two with my £50 Pentax SMC 50mm 1.4 and always using manual everything.



Here are the basic ingredients. Rice, stock, olive oil and butter are less photogenic so I passed on shooting them.



Here we have everything simmering away nicely.



Finally we have the finished meal which was very nice indeed - 8/10 I often eat out so actually cooking properly with ingredients was also something rediscovered. A good Risotto should be moist but with a tiny crunch still left in the rice. This is almost perfect apart from the slivers of cheese melted too quick on top. I am pretty good at cooking but usually too lazy these days.

[saravrose]

very impressive Dave.. risotto is great, and yours looks wonderful.. as for me cooking .. I can ruin mac and cheese, and have been known, allthough it was a long time ago to fail at popcorn... but, I can bake. So I guess i'm not a total girl/kitchen failure... LOL..

[Claire]

I had totally forgotten about this photo assignment! Oops.

Nice shots everyone. I was going to shoot a parade in gothenburg that the engineering students have every year. It was raining though, so didn't happen.

At least now I know the theme for this week and will see if I can come up with something tomorrow!

[eenorton]

Well, the something new for me was to try taking shots with my 70-200 stacked with a 1.4 and a 2x TC... which also required manual focus... another new thing for me 'cause my eyes aren't all that great. Both shots are at 33% and the best of the lot. Think I'll stick with just the 1.4 in the future.

[Becca]

I did several new things this weekend. The first was driving down to Princeton, New Jersey and then going to a recital performed completely in German (Italienisches Liederbuch composed by Hugo Wolf.) I had never taken photos of a live performance and so I had to try a few new things (tripod, remote shutter release, high ISO, etc). I got a lot of unusable shots, but I thought this one came out pretty good.

.

[Mike Bell]

Today I was asked by professional bassoonist, conductor and music tutor Laurence Perkins to take this group shot for his wind day in Dunkeld. A new departure for me.


Afterwards some of us went for a drink at the Taybank, Dunkeld's live music bar by the Tay. To keep to the 'new' theme I used my new lens - the EF 28 f1.8. We started in the garden:


When the sun went down we went inside and Laurence and Andy started playing whistles, pipes, clarinet and bassoon! This guitarist joined in:


The 28 f1.8 proved its worth as the light was quite low.

[beachgirl]

Originally Posted by Meaty0

Okay, my wife banned me from going down to Brisabane's Red Light district to photograph the...ahem..."Working Girls" last night. I had to settle for taking a trip to Lone Pine Sanctuary. This is an animal sanctuary in Brisbane, which despite having lived here 49 years, I have never been to. So, something new! Was a pretty good outing until it rained too



This guy is a Lace Monitor; A kind of Goanna. He was about 4 feet long and would happily chew off your finger if you stuck it near his mouth. He'd be more likely to steal the meat from your hamburger though!



Well if you don't know what this is, you deserve a good whack on the head with a boomerang!

Wow meaty0, great shots. I love the koala, was he a youngster??
BG

[BLS]

Something new for me was going to a convention (?) for greyhounds (dogs, not buses) that were retired from racing and then adopted by regular families. I learned some interesting things about greyhounds. For instance, apparantly they're bred strictly for speed, so they have a wide variety of colors and markings. Their personalities are laid back and easy-going, so they don't jump up on you, bark incessantly, dig holes all over the yard or do lots of the other things that can make dogs somewhat difficult to live with. I heard one owner describe her greyhounds as couch potatoes. I can attest to their civility -- I saw at least 100 of them over several hours and never saw a single one misbehave. Amazing, really. So here's shot #1:






Among all those gangly greyhounds I came across another "something new." It was a small dog called a Something Crested -- I think it was an Asian Crested, but can't quite remember. This poor thing has no hair to speak of except on his head, feet & tail. I talked with his owner and learned that he's a pretty high-maintenance critter. Because of his lack of hair, he needs to wear a coat in the winter and sunscreen in the summer. He had been outside the day before and had got a bit sunburned, which explains his pink areas in the picture below. He also needs a bath about every 10 days. Otherwise, his skin turns pimply and also develops blackheads. So here he is in all his glory!

[75D]

Very interesting theme this week, but all the same quite challenging. Was walking around after visiting my parents, while my wife did some shopping and came across this alternate form of Transportation. The local hobby store had started their out door electric train display.



Found this collection of Harley's parked outside the local Tavern.

[Meaty0]

Originally Posted by beachgirl

Wow meaty0, great shots. I love the koala, was he a youngster??
BG

Thanks BG and everyone else. Good pick-up there BG. Yes he is a young'un. They divide the koalas into three different enclosures; The Nursery for the kids, The Working Class enclosures where the working stiffs are, that have to do "cuddling" duties with the Japanese tourists, and The Old Folks Home where the cranky old fart koalas are kept. I unfortunately, identify with the later.

Yes folks....If I were a Koala...this would be me....



One from the "Retirement Village"