CASCADING CREEK
Hawes, England
Sunday 31 March 2013
I think I've extolled the virtues of Hawes before, a little village in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales region of England, but here I go again. This image shows the small creek running between houses and shops and cascading down a small waterfall. Picture postcard material, what do you think! (548)
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ROCK FORMATION
Lorne, Australia
Saturday 30 March 2013
Just past Lorne, on the Great Ocean Road you can find this unusual rock formation. It looks to me like lava flows with lines that seem to point in the same direction as the clouds. (547)
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PERFECT MORNING
Williamstown, Australia
Friday 29 March 2013
Up early this morning, drove to Williamstown and was rewarded with a lovely sunrise! To add to the perfect morning, four hot air balloons took off from nearby and floated across the view and a large ship came down the river right in front of me. This image shows the Westgate bridge crossing the Yarra River and if you look closely, you can see the four balloons just above the CBD skyline. (546)
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WHAT A VIEW
Princetown, Australia
Thursday 28 March 2013
This is a great place to visit if you are going anywhere this Easter weekend. The Great Ocean Road has so many great places to stop and take a photo or two and if you get as far as the 'Twelve Apostles', then this is one of the views you will find.Happy Easter! (545)
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PERSEVERANCE
Loch Lomond, Scotland
Wednesday 27 March 2013
Against all the odds this tree survives on the banks of Loch Lomond. You would think that the bitterly cold weather and snow would be more than it could tolerate, but the Loch's water also keeps eating away at the little soil that can be found on this pebble covered beach, exposing the roots to the elements. Yet it perseveres!This little tree might be able to teach us all a little about life? (544)
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CONTRASTING ARCHITECTURE
London, England
Tuesday 26 March 2013
London is now full of the old and the new, which I think demonstrates that it is a living city. This view of the Shard with adjoining buildings shows the contrasting architectural styles clearly. I presume that in 200 years people will look at the Shard and compare it the buildings of that time and make a similar observation? (543)
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STORM FRONT
Waurn Ponds, Australia
Monday 25 March 2013
This image is of a severe storm front in the rural area outside of my home town. The light dropped and this cloud formation rolled over top but didn't leave any rain on our side of the bay. This happens a lot, the bad weather seems to miss us and waits to dump it's rain on Melbourne and the eastern suburbs. (Just an observation, I'm not a weatherman!!) (542)
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MARGARET IS WAITING
Balmaha, Scotland
Sunday 24 March 2013
My visit to the Scottish Trossachs National Park was rewarded with dozens of beautiful scenes as I discovered Loch after Loch with amazing reflections.On the eastern coast of Loch Lomond there is a little cove where I found 'Margaret', a wooden hulled boat waiting patiently to go to work. Most of the other boats were absent (Google Maps shows 50 or more boats moored in this cove!) so I hope that Margaret hadn't been left behind! (541)
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ELIZABETH TOWER
London, England
Saturday 23 March 2013
To a lot of people, this scene is of 'Big Ben'. But in fact Big Ben is the nickname given to the largest bell in the tower and the tower is now officially called the Elizabeth Tower, after being renamed (from the Palace of Westminster Clock Tower) to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.In 1997 I was fortunate to be allowed to climb the tower and view the clock and be present for the 12 noon chiming of the bells. Being a clock enthusiast, I consider this one of my best experiences! (540)
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WATERFRONT IN THE EVENING
Queenstown, New Zealand
Saturday 23 March 2013
This image is of the Queenstown waterfront in the evening. I took a stroll along here on the look out for a good shot and absolutely froze, it was so cold! But it was so pretty I kept on walking until I captured several photos. (539)
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LONDON'S CHANGING FACE
London, England
Friday 22 March 2013
The new buildings along the Thames River show that London is continuing to evolve and change. The Shard tower now dominates the skyline with it's 95 floors including an observation deck which was opened to the public this year. (538)
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FLOCK OF SHEEP
Threshfield, England
Thursday 21 March 2013
I'm seeking a little help with this one. I think the image is overlooking the township of Threshfield, but using Google Maps, I'm having trouble locating the place I took the photo. If you are from the Yorkshire Dales area, would you mind leaving a comment to confirm or otherwise my guess.The photo shows a flock of sheep who were very interested in what I was doing. The field they are in gently slopes down to a small stream and you can see the stone fenced outlined fields on the other side. A small township is further back in the image.The very grey day made it very hard to get any definition in the clouds, something I don't like in my photos! (537)
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SMALLEST LIGHTHOUSE?
Akaroa, New Zealand
Thursday 21 March 2013
The pretty little town of Akaroa in New Zealand's South Island boast what must be the smallest lighthouse in the world! Looking at if from the water doesn't show just how small it is, but this view from the track opposite gives a more accurate view. (536)
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FULL MOON
Geelong, Australia
Wednesday 20 March 2013
Possibly not one of my best photos, but I love this image of the full moon over Corio Bay with the soft pastel lights of Cunningham Pier. The clouds parted at the right time to reveal the moon and leave a trail of light across the water. (535)
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PUBLIC ART
London, England
Tuesday 19 March 2013
One of the things that strikes me with old cities like London is the public art, mostly in the form of statues and monuments. I don't get a sense that society does this to any great extend anymore, which I think is a pity. Perhaps I'm wrong, but if we don't continue to create permanent art in our newer cities, there won't be any for future generations to experience their heritage. (534)
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LINE IN THE SAND
George River, Australia
Monday 18 March 2013
Where the George River meets the sea a sandbar blocks the flow, but the previous wave action on the bar has left these wonderful lines in the sand. (533)
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STONE WALLED COUNTRY LANES
Near Threshfield, England
Sunday 17 March 2013
This photograph shows a five second window of opportunity between showers of rain as I drove through the Yorkshire Dales. I fell in love with this part of the UK, particularly the narrow country lanes edged with stone walls. The walls also form the fields that rise up the hill sides creating mosaic patterns on the landscape. (532)
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THE OLD AND THE NEW
London, England
Thursday 14 March 2013
Well, this is the last post from London. I will be travelling home in the morning, swapping freezing snow filled days for heat and unbearable nights being unable to sleep! The world is really very small when you think that a period of time of 24 hours can see such changes in temperature and environment.My last London post is of the Millennium Bridge looking back towards St Paul's Cathedral ... the old and the new. Such is my experience of London this time. So much has changed! (531)
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THE RIVER URE
Hawes, England
Thursday 14 March 2013
One of the prettiest towns I stayed in during my UK visit was Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales. The Bulls Head Hotel is in a grade-II listed building and provided a great place to sleep for the night (non paid or expected advertisement). The River Ure passes between houses and shops with a small waterfall making for a great photographic opportunity. (530)
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LONDON KEEPS CHANGING
London, England
Wednesday 13 March 2013
Blue sky in London ... can't believe it, although the temperature is still down around 2 or 3 degrees. Seeing that it wasn't snowing, I took a stroll down the Thames River, on both sides from the Westminster Bridge to the Tower Bridge. A taxi driver was telling me how nothing changed in London on the way in from the airport on Sunday, but I think that London has changed considerably since my last visit, and if the number of high-rise cranes dotted around the skyline are any indication, it will change a lot before I return again.This photo is of the amazing new City Hall building with the old Tower Bridge still guarding the Thames River, as it has since the late 1800's. (529)
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A HEILAN COO
Loch Arklet, Scotland
Tuesday 12 March 2013
Well, what a day London has turned on today! Large amounts of snow and strong winds, and this on a day when I made the mistake of taking the open top bus for a three and a half hour tour around the highlights of the city. I have arrived home without any photos and a bad case of hypothermia!I hadn't expected to take any photos from a moving bus anyway, but did want to post a photo of an animal for my friend Anne, who keeps pestering me for a less than average photo. So here it is Anne, a Heilan Coo (highland cow) that I came across on the road past Loch Arklet. (528)
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ANY SUGGESTIONS?
London, England
Monday 11 March 2013
The second time I visited London, I was fortunate enough to climb the Westminster Tower and visit 'Big Ben' at midday ... very noisy with all of the bells going!This time I plan to visit a few of the newer attractions including the London Eye and Millennium Bridge, along with some of my other favourite attractions. Do you have any suggestions for places I could go to capture a great image in London? (527)
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GUESS WHERE!
London, England
Monday 11 March 2013
Guess where I am today! Last time I was in London the 'Eye' wasn't here and the icons for the city were Westminster Tower and Tower Bridge, but this new attraction has become just as recognisable for London as the other ones. The weather down in the south of England has been colder than I experienced in Scotland, with snow and sleet the order of the day. I still managed a photo of the London Eye, albeit with rain spots on the lens, some of which I have been able to remove, but one or two were a bit more stubborn! (526)
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MIRROR FINISH
Loch Chon, Scotland
Saturday 9 March 2013
Yesterday was not a good photography day, heavy mist all morning and fog which became very thick the closer we drove towards London. So I am bringing out a photo from earlier in the week while in Scotland.I freely admit that my knowledge of Scotland's Trossachs was sadly lacking before this trip and was pleasantly surprised by the large number of Lochs and a single lake that we found. Each of them had a mirror finish first thing in the morning that provided the most wonderful reflections of the surrounding mountains. (525)
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TYPICAL ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE
Yorkshire Dales, England
Friday 8 March 2013
'The characteristic scenery of the Yorkshire Dales is green upland pastures separated by dry-stone walls and grazed by sheep and cattle. The dales themselves are 'U' and 'V' shaped valleys, which were enlarged and shaped by glaciers, mainly in the most recent Devensian ice age.' [Wikipedia]The drive through the Dales yesterday was beautiful, if somewhat grey and drizzly. It is your typical English countryside, with sheep in stone fenced fields grazing on the greenest grass you will ever see (in sharp contrast to back home in Australia). (524)
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GREEN MOSS
Keswick, England
Thursday 7 March 2013
One of the nice things about driving though the UK countryside is the narrow roads, sometimes edged by hedgerows, and sometimes by stone fences. This fence caught my eye because of the wonderful green moss that was growing on the stones, giving it a softer look than the other stonework found in the area. (523)
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BONNY SCOTLAND
Rowardennan, Scotland
Wednesday 6 March 2013
This is a first for me, taking a photo, processing it and posting it to the world while away from my office (actually away from my country!). I have processed this image on my small notebook computer so hope the quality and colours are reasonable?Rowardennan is on Loch Lomand in Scoltand's Trossachs. The scenery in this region is amazing and although the sky was grey for most of my visit, I think I have a few good images that I will roll out over the next few weeks. (522)
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ARE WE EVER HAPPY?
Twelve Apostles, Australia
Sunday 3 March 2013
I've not long been in Scotland, visiting family and ready to go sightseeing. But it is freezing here. Just to think that 48 hours ago I was complaining about how hot it was back in Australia, one of the hottest February's I can remember! Do you think we are ever happy?Today's photo is from a hotter time (only last week) and is another in the Gibson Steps shoot, thought I would share it to warm me up! (521)
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