Monthly Archives: October 2012

That Feeling Of Being Watched

You know the sensation — someone is looking at you. I had the back glass door open onto the balcony, but we aren’t overlooked by any of the immediate neighbours, so I glanced to the bottom of the garden to see if the far neighbour had his windows open and was peering out the window. Nope!

It took a minute — he blended into the scenery rather well. But then I suddenly spotted our Peeping Tom.
 

Who is peeking into our windows?


 
The next door neighbours had apparently left their window open and the Peeping Tom was out and about, standing on the red tile roof that overhangs the bump-out on the apartment below us. And he was very curiously peeking into our kitchen.

Cute fellow!
 

Our nosy neighbour!


 

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Photo Of The Day: Cast Aside Without A Purpose

We’re in Australia for today’s photo of the day, at the gritty-beautiful Anderson’s Mill in Smeaton, Country Victoria, Australia. This huge 5 story bluestone building operated from 1861 until 1957.

It’s oddly empty, eerie, and fascinating to walk through such a vast building that would have been busy and purposeful until a few decades ago. But industrial objects are fascinating to photographers. And these are best left in black and white.
 

Vintage gear wheels at Anderson’s Mill (1861-1957) in Smeaton, Country Victoria, Australia.


 

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An Unexpected Road Sign

We are back in Australia for this post and I am sharing a road sign that we stopped to photograph on the island of Tasmania off the south coast of Australia.

It’s a beautiful and mainly rural place with gorgeous undulating scenery. And it is also the home to rather a lot of kangaroos and wallabies, all of which are more active between the hours of dusk and dawn. Just as it was when we lived in Country Victoria, one has to be very alert when you drive at night lest you end up with a severely damaged front-end of your car from colliding with these very muscular and dense-bodied creatures.

Hope you enjoy this drastic change of pace from the photos of France!
 

A serious warning about what you could unexpectedly encounter on the roads as you drive at night in Tasmania, Australia.


 

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What Flavourful Goodness in France!

I have only ever seen peaches growing on a tree. But when we arrived at this tiny cafe in a tiny village off the main road in the Bethmal Valley, a man and a woman were sitting at a table nearby under the veranda overhang cutting apart the tiniest of peaches as an ingredient for one of the sorbets they made in their organic shop.

The smiling man handed each of us a piece and said, “They are wild peaches. They grow on a vine.” And our mouths were filled with the most delicate of flavours. The menu board across from us was equally tantalising since everything was made on the premises from organic ingredients.

The parfums — the flavours? Menthe, origan, framboise, mure, prunelle, coing — mint, oregano, raspberry, blackberry, wild plum, quince. Yum! We had one each of the framboise (soooo soft and sweet!) and the prunelle (and Mark said it was quite mouth-puckery but lovely).

Another slice of life in France!
 

A board inside a cafe in the South of France listing their organic sorbet selection for the day.


 

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Photo Of The Day: Historic & Ornate Red Brick Warehouses in Melbourne, Australia

We’re completely on the other side of the world from yesterday’s picture from France.

Another black and white image for you today — red brick warehouses from the 1880s taken on a day when the sky was completely flat and gray. These are right in the heart of the central business district in Melbourne and are an easy walking distance from the main shopping streets. Look at the architectural detail that went into these historic buildings. What a far cry from today’s plain facades in concrete and metal!
 

1880s red brick warehouses right in the heart of Melbourne, Australia’s central business district.


 
The two colour images below will enlarge if you click on them.
 

Blue plaque on the wall of Mark’s Warehouses in Melbourne, Australia


 

Closer image of American barrel-hoist on the top of an 1880s red brick warehouse in Melbourne, Australia.


 

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Photo Of The Day: St. Girons at Dusk in Black and White

Thought I’d share the background image of the new business cards that I ordered this week. We were crossing the bridge last Saturday evening after walking through a few streets looking at houses that were for sale.

The light was wrong for colour — but it was perfect for this black and white interpretation. This looks exactly like photos of St. Girons that we have seen from the mid-to-late 1800s into the early 1900s. This, like many other towns in France, really is a timeless place — and we love that.

Enjoy!

 

The beautiful Midi-Pyrenees town of St. Girons in the South of France at dusk from the footbridge over the river.


 

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Oh My! I’m Publishing Photos of (GASP!) People!

3 PM UPDATE: Always wanting to make certain that I am doing the right thing, I had a talk just now with two charming gendarmes from the local police department. They assured me that if I was a valid professional, had a press pass (and of course I do!), and was not trying to infringe on people’s privacy, I am certainly allowed to take photos at public events. They also suggested that I just slightly blur children’s faces in a crowd, but they assured me that I was acting quite responsibly and they had no issues with the types of photos I was taking. I had felt quite confident that I was acting ethically and it was good to have that confirmed!
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After yesterday’s interesting little foray into EDITORIAL USE in photography, I’m back with more pictures of people taken in the context of a large PUBLIC EVENT. I can still barely believe that it’s even necessary to write that!

This morning I decided to do a little research above and beyond what I already knew.

Look what I found at the local news online — photos of identifiable people, face forward, including (wait while I gasp again) children. Like I said — NEWS coverage, whether print, online, or television, allows for picture taking at PUBLIC EVENTS such as festivals, parades, exhibits, weekend markets, and rather a lot of other circumstances where there are a lot of people present in one place.

Now, enough of that — let’s move on to the fun stuff…

At the Autrefois Le Courserons parade, these wonderful tall puppets came gliding by with no wibble-wobble whatsoever. And just look at how many people are lining the street on both sides to watch.
 

Giant puppets on parade at the Autrefois Le Couserons celebrations in St. Girons, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 
And then bzzzzzzzz — there go the beekeepers.
 

Beekeepers in the Autrefois Le Couserons parade in St. Girons, Midi-Pyrenees, France.


 
Look how much fun the sausage makers were having on their float!
 

A jolly time being had by the sausage makers in the Autrefois Le Couserons parade in St. Girons, Midi-Pyrenees, France.


 
Hope you continue to enjoy these little slices of life in the South of France because it is fun to share even if I do, to quote a fellow writer and world traveller, encounter the occasional ‘Nasty Nellie’ along the way.

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