So as not to lose the habit

I realised I haven't written anything since November. So, just to keep the hand in, here's a miscellany of things that haven't really fitted in anywhere else.

Being in Sydney in early December has been a bit of a distractor in terms of blogging. Pretty much every available other minute was spent preparing to be away from work and catching up with work after I discovered that I hadn't prepared well enough. Plus travel shopping & christmas shopping. I can't call myself a veteran of the markets yet, but I have to say I'm getting more comfortable there. I've found a couple of friendly vendors, at least.

This is not China. This is Goulburn. I would say that on the basis of my recent brief visit there, this is my favourite building in Goulburn. It's really very cheerful. It must have caused quite a stir when it was built - it seems much brighter than a conservative rural community's legal profession could have been expected to embrace in the (I guess) 1930's. It's obviously not Goulburn's fault that it hasn't rained there for a decade or more, but the other thing odd about this building is that the rest of the city and surrounds are just drained of colour. And it might be the only 20th century building in the city to have caught my attention.

This on the other hand, IS China. This is more views from my living room window (and me testing a new camera). I 've always liked timelapse effects. One of the interesting things about this camera is that it is teaching me about photography; I was always skeptical of people who  buy extremely expensive accessories, but look at the stationary cars at the traffic lights and you can see that, according to their headlamps they have all just samba-ed sideways. That obviously isn't very likely and the actual fact is that between my shaky hands and

 the crummy lightweight tripod (given away free with camera),  that's the result of the vibration caused by pushing the shutter button in a 1.5 second exposure. 

This is also from the living room window (the intersection is down and right). The trick here was to get a crisp shot at night of the flashing neon. The great joy of digital photography - I finally worked out how to do it without using up a roll of film and a week's developing time. And no, I didn't take 100 shots and pick the best. I have tried that technique - it sort of works, but you spend an awful lot of time picking over the 100 shots, with no actual guarantees. This is one of 8, in fact, each with a different combination of settings. It's a better picture than a sign, though.

Art - this is my best effort so far I think. Leaving aside the faintly claw-like unleafed branch in the middle.  It's quite tricky really. 

I'm hoping this is good enough to let me move on to plants and/or orchids. I know it's wrong to be impatient, but I can practise when I get home. It's going to be hard to find a teacher in Sydney though.

I think I may have already blogged a picture of this a couple of months ago - if not never mind. 

I like this picture because there are some mornings where the light is just extraordinary and walking down the road can't help but make me smile. Even though it's winter that morning light is still spring-like. This isn't actually a picure of the particular road where I most frequently notice that effect (it's nearby), but it seems to have some of the luminescence. The light might be coming out of the tree, instead of shining down on it.