Tag: Camera Club

Dogs, weather and former leaders.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Playing with a new lens – settings not right yet.

Sunday and I am tired from very little sleep. Max is, as I have already said, very overweight and the problem with that is the noise he makes. He woke me up several times last night with loud snoring and other noises so, really, I am more exhausted than tired. It’s daylight and now he’s quiet. In three hours I have to be at church but when I get back home I  will get changed and try and get some sleep.. I have not been out walking much as I would be with Benji so, as I said, my fitbit steps are way off. I didn’t even make half the standard yesterday. Go out without Max – just me and Benji – well yes,  I tried that and Annabell suffered by having to listen to his  complaining – he was not happy at us going out without him and made his feelings known. He’s a lovely, lovable dog, but he’s hard work.  Took them to the lighthouse yesterday and this time I let Benji out of the car and closed the door before I let Max out. I have to lift him into the car – and he’s heavy!!!  Was trying out a new lens yesterday – a wide angle lens – and I still haven’t got the setting quite right and ended up sending most of the shots I took yesterday to the trash – best place for them! Sometimes I get frustrated and slightly short with people who advocate all kinds on on-line courses. I have tried them and gave up.  It just didn’t work for me. Yes I know, they work for most people but I am not most people.. We used to have short-term  community courses for many things at the Tech. College here and although they still hold photography courses in Adelaide, they don’t here any more. Actually, they don’t do much here any more! – Yes I know – I am living in the past. Well, the music was better then!

I was thinking about a recently former President of the United States the other day. Why this should be, I have no idea,  but for some very strange and odd reason the following came to mind –

“How many times can a man look up,

before he sees the sky?

And how many  ears must one man have,

before he can hear people cry?

And how many deaths will it take ’til he knows

that too many people have died?

I check the  Covid updates released by governments throughout the world every morning and I find it very sad to see that the USA will reach 500,000 deaths within a month. The UK as a whole is over 1600 deaths in the last 24 hours, which is the highest in Europe. People are dying in their thousands and how any rational person can say that this is fake news and that Covid is not real, beggars belief. And people outside of hospitals in England chanting that Covid is not real and harassing nurses trying to get in to attend to their duties, is just not acceptable.

Taken yesterday morning – out with dogs 06:10. Looks better on the phone.
Just Because

This last week we had a heatwave from 33c up to a top of 46c. The top temperature was yesterday (Sunday) Today –  Monday –  the day started off quite well, humid but not too bad. I was out with the dogs and then shopping for Annabell. In the afternoon, the  thunderstorm hit and the rain came crashing down. It is now 5pm and it’s still going and by the sound of things likely to go into the night. Sorry boys – no walk again tonight  – same reason – different aspect.  Had a look at the satellite and it might be clearing shortly but the Yorke  Peninsula and then across to Adelaide  could get a bit of a hit. Tomorrow, however looks nice.  The rain stayed away and I took the dogs out – well I took Benji out. I started off with two dogs and had only gone  about twenty odd feet when he started  sitting down and wouldn’t move, so as soon as he did move I turned around back to the house put him inside, took off his harness and left with Benji and we had a good walk together. Annabell suggested that I just go out without him but that presents problems in that I take them out at 6am .If I go out without him ( as I did once)  he  whines, barks and makes a racket which will waken Annabell and that’s what I don’t want to happen, so I just take him with me in the morning. He should be going home this Thursday.  He is a lovable big soul, but he is  really not too much, but I have concerns about Benji. I mean  yesterday Max came and sat down beside me. Benji got up and was making straight for him – and I got up and put myself between them, facing Benji. He stopped, then turned and went back to his mat. It’s a worry.

***UPDATE. The Western Australia / South Australia Border has been closed – Max may not be going home on Thursday ***

Towards the Final Curtain U.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
I’m only getting out if there’s food..

The weather for the last few days has been quite mild and at 22c  good for wandering around  the lighthouse and the foreshore.. Most of the restrictions have been lifted so it’s

What ?? Get out of the car on to the cold road??? You Jest!!

good to get out and about . However, it was never really much of a problem up here. The kind of restricted period has given me  a lot of time to play with my cameras and I have bought a macro lens for the Canon and ordered one for the Nikon. As I said before, I  have a lot to learn and whilst I have no one here to teach me ( will be better when the camera club starts up again) but I like to potter around taking photographs of things and places that interest me and, of course, lots of photographs of Benji – who even has his own folder on my computer. It is still very cold in the mornings. On Tuesday morning Benji and I went up to Hummock Hill to photograph the sunrise. It was bitterly cold and my hands were freezing. Like little digits of ice! Anyway, I took  quite a few photographs of the rising sun and the surrounding area, but I just don’t seem able to get the setting right for a sunrise. Photographs club starts back next week, so I will  start to get some information that I can put into practice.  I did buy a new Camera Backpack which I am quite pleased with. With the restrictions in place the President of the Camera Club posted a letter, number or colour on the website each week. This week the letter was “J” and Annabell and I came up with a few ideas. I did go to the Shopping Centre and photograph the Jewellers, but I wasn’t too happy with that – I felt it was “Ordinary” and  I wanted something different. In the end I drove into town and photographed the Court House and posted it under the tile “Justice”. Our court house, unlike Adelaide, is  a reddish brick building, not at all inspiring but  I was quite happy with what it represented.

I was not involved at the RFDS Fundraising this weekend but I did drive down to the Cuttlefish Area to  catch up on what was happening. Both days have been very productive both for the  RFDS and the Cuttlefish Dive

the Point Lighthouse

Organisers. It was very busy and despite having extra supplies, the RFDS  was starting to run out. Fortunately by that time things were slowing down and heading towards the end of the day. Benji and I left the Cuttlefish area and drove round to the far side of the point  and  the Lighthouse. I like the lighthouse – it’s a nice drive and  it’s a  quiet enough area and the lighthouse always makes for a good photograph subject.  I have a one-person tent and I was thinking of upgrading this to a larger tent  which would allow me to go off overnight with Benji and a photo trip. Of course we would always be at the edge of the National Park and actually driving through the Park should not be a problem as long as I  keep him in the car when I get out to take any photographs.  All pretty much in the air at the moment – not really the weather for camping.

I went back out and did another round of sunrise photographing, but still not happy with the results. I’ll most likely delete them again. Well,  if nothing else, the delete function on the camera is getting a good workout. Anyway, it was -1c and bitterly cold so I’m not doing that again – at least, not until it’s a bit warmer. Benji and I have not been going out in the

Ada Ryan Gardens

early morning walking because it has been so cold. We have taken our walk later in the day when it’s a bit warmer. We also go wandering in the Wetlands and the Foreshore.  To add to the cold the last two days have been wet. According to the forecast we will have showers  until Tuesday – so not a lot of walking. The Cuttlefish Diving is on again this weekend for a three day period – Friday, Saturday and Sunday (today being Saturday) and the RFDS are organising the catering for the three days. A very busy three days for the crews involved, For the remainder, I have been to the council and the two hardware stores and no indication as to when they will be ready recommence their weekly barbecues.

I include the Ada Ryan Gardens photograph mainly because the Council with grants have been working out there and have spent a bunch of cash to install new  ground lighting. It looks impressive on the council  page so as soon we as get some dry weather I will go out some evening and take photographs of the gardens under the new lighting.

Wetlands, Lighthouse and Dust Storms

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Dougal and Benji at Wetlands

Dougal came for a stay last Thursday.  Being flat out for much of last week we didn’t get out much but I did manage to get  them both to the Wetlands for a walk. Still no rain to speak of so there is no change in the water levels. It might not seem like that from the photograph, but then looks can be deceiving , however, the main pond still has water in it. Still it was a good time together and if he is still here, I  will take them both for a drive  out to the Lighthouse at the weekend.  At the end of this month we may be looking after a new dog for two weeks. One of the ladies at the church asked me if I would be willing to look after her dog for two weeks . Annabell was there at the time  and she said we would love to. I totally agree since the lady in question is one of the coffee ladies group and she has a Pug called Max – that should be fun.

During this week we experienced one of the  consequences of the drought.  The weather up until last Thursday was  fair – bit warm but fair- Friday was a different thing

This was at Port Wakefield , I believe.

altogether. Friday we had high winds – as high as 95 klms per hour in places. The traffic ground to a halt in Port Wakefield area as visibility was  zero, due to thick dust storms. We had high winds here and some experiences of the dust storms but nothing like the other areas of the  peninsula. Port Lincoln faced winds of over 100 kms. per hour and it was so bad that the power company shut off the power to Port Lincoln and the surrounding area – some 15,000 people without power. The reason was to protect Port Lincoln.  The power company was concerned that the high winds would bring down trees and branches onto power lines sparking a fire, which, in the high wind conditions, could take hold and spread very quickly. Adelaide also took a bit of a

Wont look at the Camera.

battering. As I said, we were not too bad – things happen above us or below us,

In the far north of the State, things are different  and the desert is blooming again. The flood waters from Queensland have made their way down and are currently pouring into Lake Eyre – normally  dry. As the waters have made their way down from Queensland and filled the dry river beds, the desert is now watered , everything along the way is blooming and there is an abundance of wildlife, swans, ducks, wild geese and pelicans. The  water will create islands in the lake where the birds can breed and raise chicks without foxes and dingos being able to get to them. Lake Eyre is 9,500 square klms however the Lake Eyre Basin and catchment area is 1.14 million square klms. It’s a big, big basin and lake Eyre itself is some 15 meters – about 50 feet – below sea level.  Last time it flooded my  son, John,  took the  flight up there and flew over Lake Eyre and the surrounding area. I did see the photographs and it was quite a spectacular sight to see the water flooding into the lake.

I took the dogs to the lighthouse and we had a good wander around the place and a good long walk  around the point. The weather was nice – bit on the warm side (34c) but quite nice. Benji did his usual and refused to look at the camera.  The drive to and from the lighthouse is 76 klms. or 46.25 miles, so it’s not something I do  too often but there’s no where else we can go – everything else around us is either a conservation area, or a  reserve area and  the whole of the Flinders Ranges are National Parks.

One of the things I enjoy doing is taking photographs. I agree I’m not all that good at it but I like doing it. I did go to a photography club some years ago , but  wasn’t too impressed with it. I am thinking I might give it another go. It seems to have a  different attitude to it these days so perhaps I might not find it quite as I did last time. One can but try. But then I have also changed since then and and I do believe I have quite mastered the Box Brownie now.