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It's an urban jungle out there and I've discovered there is no better way of exploring the concrete trails and roads of Sydney than on my bike. I am especially impressed with Sydney's many bridges. Maybe Sydney should be renamed the bridge city. Below are photos riding around Sydney's two largest bridges the ANZAC and the Harbour Bridge from a view you won't see in a car. My thanks to riders Kath Bicknell and Mike Blewit of the Subaru/MarathonMTB team.
I woke up this morning at 5 am to heavy rain outside. Nothing too special about this in Sydney where we get more rainfall on average than Seattle. But this morning the rain had a special implication because I had a 7 am location shoot. Normally I don't let a little rain stop my shoots, but a look at the weather radar convinced me this cloud was big and wet. If your talent looks more like a drowned rat than a wet athlete that's not a good look. So I made the call and the shoots postponed 'til tomorrow.
It's unique living in a city where you can paddle your sea kayak over to a big art show. That happened today when Melanie and I crossed the Sydney Harbour to check out the work by over 150 street artist, including Banksy, being exhibited on Cockatoo Island. These are photos of the art.
Much of the street art was exhibited an authentic manner and could be found in and on warehouse buildings. but some works, like these by Banksy, were framed and hanging gallery-style.
Australia has a well deserved reputation for vicious and poisonous creatures. While I was walking on the Cape to Cape track on Cape Naturaliste I came across this little guy, the Western blue-tongued lizard actually he's really a skink.
I am happy to report this species has no teeth and is non-poisonous, but I still wouldn't try to pet him. This one had a bad attitude and didn't enjoy the attention of a photographer.
Driving north along the Caves Road, in Western Australia there are dozens of commercial caves. Guided tours are usually not my cup of tea, but when I saw the sign for "self-guided cave" I knew that was the one for me. This is Calgardup Cave located 250 kilometers south of Perth. This limestone cave isn't especially big or spectacular, but I had the whole cave to myself for close to two hours and that's worth the entry fee that also comes with a loan of a helmet and a couple of lights.
All I can say about cave photography is the light is always the same, total darkness.
Have you heard of the genre of photography called the "contributors photo"? Who makes these photos because I need one?
When a magazine publishes a feature they often want the photographer or writer to send them a photo that goes in the magazine with a short text. These photos are published on the contributors page in the back pages of the magazine. I rarely have these "in the field shots" because I am usually the only guy taking photos on my shoots, also I always forget to make a self portrait or I forget to have someone else snap a pic of me.
So it happened today a magazine emailed to say "Hey Bill we need a contributors pic". Of course true to form I forgot to shoot a self portrait when I was on that shoot in Utah two months ago. So I had to hunt through my hard drives for a likely desert self portrait. That's when I found these photos I took while waiting for a sunrise in the Utah desert.
I think they make a fun series. I emailed the editor the horizontal photo in the series. She hasn't called me back so maybe they plan to use it.
One of these days I should just step to the plate and have someone shoot a bunch of contributor photos of for me, enough to last a decade. With my hair getting thinner that's probably not a bad idea. I wonder if other photographers do this for their contributor pics? Who do they call?
When I am out alone shooting photography and there is no one around to photograph I just plug my Pocket Wizard wireless unit on my camera, put the camera on a tripod and shoot me. This is a series of photos from the Canal Rocks in Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, Western Australia.
I think placing someone in a landscape just adds more drama to the shot. But I don't get too close to these wave washed rocks. While observing this sunset and sunrise from the rocks I watched intently for the so-called King waves. This location is just south of Yallingup a surfing destination known for it's epic waves. On the OZ coast these massive maverick waves regularly wash fishermen and the unwary out to sea. The evening I was shooting at Canal Rocks there there was a strong Westerly wind blowing off the
