Travel - Australian Traveller

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Setting up a Photography Portfolio is not such an easy task. The guidelines I was given were - 5 images with set themes and then 5-10 of the photographers choice. Considering that on a 3 week stint around New Zealand at the start of the year I took in excess of 2000 photos, you can imagine how narrowing this down to 15 shots, over my whole LIFETIME, has been a challenging task!

Then, of course, there is the decision of your own categories. Say, for example, you choose 'Landscape' as one of them. Having travelled to 22 countries you can imagine how easy that task is!

Plus you have to worry about give and take for personal likes and dislikes. Given there are 7 people looking over them, you still have to wonder about your amateur eye versus their professional eye. Are you making a big mistake by using that one with the shot from under the bridge? How about the other one that you can either use in black and white or colour? Which one is best?

Taking a photo is so different to writing in that you have one shot on a 2D piece of paper to convey something that you can describe with a thousand words. The shot has to be more than just a point-at-the-subject-and-click shot. You have to capture the emotion in the shot, you have to allow the viewer a little peek into a world, and just as with writing, you have to give it to them from an angle that allows room for the imagination to explore and delve and conjure up the magic.

None of these made the final cut, but I like them anyway. Now I just have to catch that elusive lightning!

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Is money to blame or is it the person who spends it?

November 17th 2008 05:54

The talk of money is never far from anyones lips, especially at the moment with all the crashes occuring around the world and the belts being tightened around the home. But I wonder if money really is as bad as what people make out it is, or whether its more about who's hands it falls into and what those people do with it.

I know poor people who are rich in happiness, but I also know poor people who are miserable and spend their lives worrying about where their next dollar will come from. Then again I know grossly rich people who are happy - they don`t splash their money around, live within the means of their working class neighbours and help out a few stragglers whom they meet along the way. Then I also know grossly rich people who spend their who lives worrying about protecting their mounds of gold and spending ridiculous amounts of money on things that have to be kept in vaults, shoes that remain in their boxes and clothes that have never seen the light of day.

So it would seem that everyone is in the same boat isn`t it? Is it really as idealised as what we make it? That money is the root of all evil and people who are poor are the truly happy ones in this world? Take money out of the equation, they are living with what they know - how can you yearn for a plasma screen TV when you don`t even know what electricity is? Yet they may yearn for the ox that the man 6 fields across has. It`s all relative isn`t it? It`s not just about the money, it`s about everything in life and what you want, what you expect and what you do with what you have.

SO what would you do if you could have all the money you wanted? The reason why I posted this on this blog, which is essentially about travel, is because my ideal would be to travel the world... meet people, talk about life, experience different cultures... that`s where my money would going.

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ramble on travel

October 25th 2008 16:34

I know that I`m supposed to be writing travel blogs but I just don`t have the time these days so I just have to write a post for this blog which will be in line with some of my flashes of memories posts where there is no punctuation or capitalization to confuse things just the raw writing of words and the flow of thoughts when it comes to travel which is something deeply close to me

travel opens the mind and allows the traveller to rest their weary head against the rickety wooden seat of the train which is rocking gently or the plane that is speeding across lands where people point and still to this day wonder what it must be or depending on where you are above the earth wonder what it must be like to fly in one

travel brings you closer to people you never thought you would be close to and depending on what kind of travel you have will allow you to share things with people who you would have ordinarily walked passed in the street without so much as a blink or a grin but here you find yourself in a pub with a stranger sharing a jug of some delicious cocktail mix and spreading your life upon the table like a deck of cards

so that`s about it for my ramble on travel

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Burrishoole Friary

September 8th 2008 07:54

ireland, county mayo. mountains, catholic

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Giants Causeway, Ireland

August 30th 2008 08:06

This day will be one that sticks out in my mind forever. Having spent a week with my grandmother travelling around Southern Ireland, on what would be our first and last holiday together, we decided to stop at the Giants Causeway, on our way back to Belfast, as a last sight-seeing destination. (See previous post for its history). Arriving when the sun hung low in the sky, we had to make the decision of taking the high road, a crumbly, cliff-side walk looking far out to sea and down below, to where waves crashed against the rugged coastline, or take the tarred road which weaved lazily down to the waters edge, where we could wander amongst the columns themselves

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The Giants Causeway - Ireland

July 6th 2008 05:45

Known in the 1700’s as the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World and attracting large volumes of international visitors, The Giants Causeway is some of the most spectacular coastline you will come across, the world over. Located in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, it has an estimated 40 000 basalt columns rising along the rugged shoreline. A walkway meanders along the top of the cliffs, giving views of the columns far below and a spectacular view across the sea ahead. A road leads down to the columns where you are able to wander the walkways and view them close up, which in Victorian times would have been lined with market stalls.

Although many ships floundered in the waters off the Giants Causeway during the centuries, perhaps the most disastrous was that of the Girona in 1588. As part of the Spanish Armada, the Girona was attempting to reach the safety of Scotland, carrying with it the crew of two previous shipwrecks, when she struck Lacada Point and sank. It is believed that over 1200 men died, including noblemen, with only 5 surviving

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Visiting Ireland - Knock

May 14th 2008 22:01

Ireland is renowned for its Catholic faith. Everywhere you go in the South you find shrines on the roadside and churches EVERYWHERE. Traditionally people would stop to pray 3 times a day - 6am, midday and 6pm - and even now some of the TV stations will have a pause in viewing for people to reflect and pray

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Visiting Irish Villages

May 12th 2008 10:59

Next on the cards was a trip around the village where my grandmother was sent from England during the war. Shramore is located on the West Coast of Southern Ireland in County Mayo. The village is built around a valley overlooking the lakes of Shramore with a bumpy road linking each farm house to the next.

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Tales of Ireland

April 17th 2008 21:37

Farm after boring farm left me thinking – Ireland sure ain’t all it’s cracked up to be!

Finally reaching County Mayo, which is located in the West of Southern Ireland, my view instantly changed… quite literally. We were to visit Newport which is a quiet little village watched over by a large church on a hilltop. The road coming in winds with the curves of a gently bubbling stream, opening up as it flows through a series of arches that form the bridge connecting one part of the village to the other. A few twists and turns and we were driving next to an embankment which lined the road, hiding the view on the other side, a row of small houses lining the other.

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Narita and the Airport

April 7th 2008 11:31

The bus which was to take me to the nearby Naritasan Temple in the morning, was due to arrive back 15 minutes later than the departing bus to the airport, and so another short trip passed me be. You can imagine my disgust when I arrived at the airport to see that our flight was delayed by 1 ½ hours!

Japan Airport is as interesting as they come. Very quickly I have learnt that not too many people speak English and I don’t speak much Japanese, so the best way to get along is learn to say hello, nod and smile and hope for the best

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Arriving in Japan

April 7th 2008 11:29

At the Arrivals Hall I rushed down the corridor to try and get to the hotel and squeeze in a quick trip into the city. Careening around the corner I ran head first into a large crowd of people standing at various sets of closed doors. I imagine a man at the Departure Hall talking into his walkie-talkie saying something along the lines of “Woshi naaah hi arrrigato sushi haaa”, roughly translated as “OK Flight JL874 just took off – send in another 400!” I guess they have to control the population somehow hey?

Actually it was something far less interesting – the doors opened onto the arriving shuttle which would take us to the Immigration and Exit Hall,s where we were herded like cattle through the stalls, signs announcing ‘FROM HERE ONLY 45 MINUTES” in a sickeningly cheerful font. As we reached the sign ‘FROM HERE ONLY 15 MINUTES” a customs official came bouncing around the corner like Tigger on Speed. ‘Come, come! This one open. No passengers, no passengers!’ and pointed around the corner. With the prospect of spending a few minutes less as part of the cattle group I joined a stream of others to go around the corner… down a passage, turn left, turn right, slapping and sweating and huffing and puffing with my luggage and coat, only to arrive back in pretty much the same position I had been in the previous line

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Taking a leisurely flight over the Siberian Lowlands... a frozen masterpiece.

April 3rd 2008 05:57

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First Class isn`t all it`s cracked up to be anyway....

March 30th 2008 05:46

Why sleep when you have to be up at the crack of dawn, right? As we begin our reverse manoeuvre and I glance around at the other bleary eyed passengers, I see the expression on their face mirroring the tired tickings of my own thoughts as we collectively wonder why we never grabbed them while we had the chance.

Glancing out the window whilst I waited to board I noted the double deck bulge over the cockpit and allowed a few moments of jealous contemplation as I imagined sipping First Class Champagne (which I was sure had more bubbles than my economy class plonk) and a bed to sprawl across in (obviously more roomy than my little economy class box) sigh... maybe one day

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Driving around Brisbane - Melbourne

February 17th 2008 05:55

So at last we are seeing the signs for Melbourne and our journey will come to a bit of a halt as we take in the sights and sounds of this wonderful city. Melbourne has the most decorative cast iron in the world - by 1900 there were 40 foundaries making 161 different designs. It had become a very popular city, in fact by 1852 it was the most popular destination in the world for those leaving the UK, and why? GOLD! But I am getting ahead of myself a bit, let`s start at the beginning....

Gold

Ten million years ago there was a massive amount of volcanic activity around the Melbourne area which created large lava flows. To this day the bluestone from this still forms the foundation of many of the citys streets and houses. The first evidence of human occupation in the area, was around 30 000 - 50 000 years ago and by 1800 approximately 15 000 indigenous people inhabited the land. Sadly, white settlement shortly after, destroyed about 40 000 years of history and most of these tribes along with it

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