RXA

St Kilda Pier

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

Sunday afternoon saw Chris, Mel & Kylee grabbing our cameras and going for a photo walk.

Our first stop was a lake just around the corner from where I am. I had no idea it was there but it was a home for many ducks, swans and other winged (pronounced wing-ed) creatures.

We then bundled into the respective cars and headed towards St. Kilda where we ventured on to the pier, walked along the beach, strolled through the market area, went through Luna Park (my first time) and ended up at the community gardens which were really cool.

We all had a great time and I got a few shots I’m really pleased with. I practiced some street photography shooting (capturing people on the street, whether they know it or not) and my plan to turn Mel into one of us seemed to have worked. She doesn’t own a DSLR so she used my 300D for the day. I saw her brain working overtime by the end of the day and she came up to me and said “I’m going to have to get one of these”. Insert evil laugh here!

Kylee’s new camera got a good thrashing and I look forward to seeing what she produces with it.

Last night I was in bed by eight o’clock. Yes folks, that’s the fun life I lead. I woke at midnight for about ten minutes and then slept through to eight. Obviously I needed it.

I still haven’t looked at the photos from Friday night’s Battle of the Bands photo shoot. I had Matthew all day yesterday (which is a GOOD thing) and we saw Ratatouille, Pixar’s latest film.

I have Chris and Mel coming over this morning to go through the photos from Friday with me before Kylee comes over and we all head out to St. Kilda for a photowalk this arvo.

Hopefully tonight I can start catching up on things!

Note to Timbo: Workflow coming soon.

Tunnel

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

1.9.7 @ Melbourne

Today was the monthly meet for the Melbourne Flickr group. I hadn’t been to one of these since October 2004 and it was quite amusing to be thought of as a “newbie” until another old timer corrected them.

The walk started off at Flinders Street Station and headed down the Yarra River, past the ‘G’ and back through Treasury Gardens before finishing (as always) at the pub. This time the Rooftop bar on Swanston street.

It’s always fun to go out shooter with other photographers and the talent within this pool is quite staggering. The company at the bar was fantastic and we chatted on for hours before I had to leave to go down to my father’s for a father’s day desert (I was too late for dinner).

eBay!

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

After the park we headed down towards the pier/marina.

The best thing about these walks is you stay as a group but that group could be spread out over two hundred meters or so. This keeps the whole group mentality feel which we all enjoy but it takes the pressure of if you want to sit and spend time time taking a particular photograph.

Another thing I particularly enjoy about photography is the community. I was doing a lens swap on the pier when a person approached and introduced himself. He had a camera and saw that I had two so I must in theory know what I am doing. But as I said to Henry (his name), “Theory is a beautiful, but not always accurate thing.”

We chatted about his new camera and photography for about ten minutes and thanks to Kylee who read a recent post about wishing I had a notepad on me and bought me one, I was able to get his email address and point him towards Flickr (and rxaphotography.com of course).

Henry trundled off and I saw him taking to David about ten minutes later.

At one point the three of us (that’s myself David and Chris … not Henry, Henry had gone by then) were to be seen taking a plethora of photographs of some birds sitting in a line on (for lack of a proper term) pier posts. For some reason this fascinated us and I reckon we spent about ten minutes there. God knows how many frames we got of them (I just counted and I took 47) between us?

Our stomachs were taking charge at this moment and we headed up to the main street for some lunch at Subway.

Aside … A few people have asked me why the photograph is entitled eBay? I now quote from the Pixar Film Finding Nemo:

NEMO: I wanna go home. Do you know where my dad is?
PEACH: Honey, your dad’s probably back at the pet store.
NEMO: Pet store?
BLOAT: Yeah, you know, like I’m from Bob’s Fish Mart.
GURGLE: Pet Palace.
BUBBLES: Fish-O-Rama.
DEB: Mail order.
PEACH (a starfish): Ebay!

“My son’s in Prague, your Mother is in Rome and where are we? In bloody* Frankston!!!” – David

* Word changed to protect the innocent.