The first part of the year has flown by but at the same time it has felt incredibly long and draining. Strange considering the abundance of public holidays on offer. I blame the late appearance of Easter for needing to get away for a holiday in May. Usually in the first half of the year, I get a constant run of 3-4 day weekends, thanks to a particularly awesome 9 day roster. With Easter and Anzac Day combined, there were just far too many 5 day weeks in between for my liking. What can I say? I’ve been spoiled.

So I’d put in for my leave but still hadn’t decided on anywhere to go. Given we really only had 5-7 days to go anywhere, I didn’t fancy any 14hr drives to get to where we were going. The Sunshine Coast is a little too close to home to feel like a proper holiday so we decided on a little further up the coast at Noosa. I was remembering what it was like years ago and thought it was what we both needed. A bit of peace and quiet away from the city, somewhere relaxing.

Only Noosa is not how I remember it. Not that this is a bad thing necessarily….it’s just more commercialised than it was many years ago. It’s something that the local tour operators commented on a lot – the closer you get to the river mouth, the more expensive everything tends to get. Having said that, we were lucky enough to have a decent 6 day stretch of fine weather to enjoy the place and it was wonderful to just kick back and play it by ear. Being the low season, there wasn’t a lot of crowds to compete with, apart from at Hastings Street for the Food & Wine Festival (which we didn’t even visit) on the weekend.

We even had a cruise out to the Noosa Everglades which ran with a grand total of six people on the boat. It was almost like having a chartered cruise, except with people you don’t know. Our skipper Andy was fantastic and even when we had some unexpected troubles with the boat, he kept his sense of humour and just got on with the job. He even got us back to the jetty after the steering went, somehow shifting the twin motors with his feet at the back of the boat while another passenger helped out with the throttle. It was a wonderful afternoon and because of the slower speed coming back in, we had a gorgeous sunset to drink in during our return.

On a less windy day, the water is like glass

Fishing from the Spit at sunset

Unfortunately the dinner cruise wasn’t running while we were there which was a shame because I was really looking forward to it. But hey, it just gives us an excuse to go back, maybe for a long weekend.

I tried to make my own padding and convert a plain black nappy bag and this did a great job for the whole two weeks we were in Tasmania. The strap broke just as I was getting into my sister’s car for the ride home. At least it didn’t break earlier than that and admittedly that bag copped a lot of abuse. Not only did it have my camera in it and all the aforementioned crap, it also ended up carrying water bottles and food a lot of the time. No wonder the poor bag snuffed it.

I’ve since tried out a few bags and I have what I suspect a lot of enthusiasts have – a cupboard with a large variety of bags in there. It is getting pretty scary. While each of them are great in their own way, they weren’t what I wanted on a day to day basis. What I wanted was a sling bag/satchel that didn’t overtly scream camera bag while still providing a good amount of cushioning and had room for the aforementioned bits and pieces. So of course I have the standard “hello I am a camera bag” one that I came home with from the store when I initially bought the camera. Well thought of at first until I realised how little I could really fit in there. So next came the nappy bag invention which did not last the distance.

Then came the backpack which is great for hiking or when I’m carrying the camera for long walks because sling bags just don’t cut it for more than a couple of kilometres. Eventually even the most comfortable, padded shoulder strap is going to start making you wish that you’d left the camera at home. But it’s not exactly unobtrusive, nor is it easy to whip out the camera when time is of the essence. That made me want to go back to a sling bag and so came along the Domke bag which I ordered online. Only whoa! Far too big for what I need. It is however fantastic for storing ALL my stuff in when I’m not using it.

After a bit of Googling, it became obvious that I wasn’t alone and this was a need of a lot of amateur/enthusiast photographers – we want to carry our cameras but we don’t like having a dedicated camera bag. We want something which will provide protection for our goodies, not scream that it is a camera bag and can carry other stuff as well. For a long time, all I found were people wanting the same thing as I did but not really getting any satisfaction. Until I stumbled across a solution from Crumpler called the Haven (see below). There are others available on the market that fit this bill but they don’t seem as versatile as the Haven. The dividers are all able to be moved so that you can make the Haven what you need it to be, depending on what you want to take.

I got the large Haven in a ghastly orange and grey combination (would have preferred green but they were all out) but hey, it doesn’t need to look good on its own. Truth be known, I probably would have gotten it even if it were bright pink! It fits in my canvas messenger bag and still I have room for the jolly glasses, wallet, compact camera and phone at a minimum, probably a few more small items if I had to carry them. In the Haven, I have my 40D with 18-200mm lens attached, lens hood (detached), spare 50mm lens and an external flash. There’s even room for my Spudz lens cleaning cloth, remote shutter release and spare memory cards. It might not suit everyone’s needs but it’s certainly fit the bill for mine.

I hate crowds so anywhere in the city wasn’t going to be in the running. And Surfers Paradise is pretty notorious for crowds going wild and cops having to go in for crowd control. So instead we decided to go to one of the “community” fireworks shows armed with a box of pizza and a bottle of fizzy stuff. We found the park where the fireworks were going to be set off only to find that a heap of other people had the same idea. Meh.

Then we remembered that there was a nice grassy park on the other side of the river which looked fairly abandoned so we decided to head there instead. A couple of other people had the same idea but still not remotely crowded. Pizza pretty soon got polished off and we sat and waited for the crackers to go off.

I was fairly under-whelmed by the whole experience. Perhaps it was just because it was the 9pm show but it just wasn’t that spectacular….consequently we headed home not long afterwards and didn’t bother hanging around for the midnight showing. Cue some movies and falling asleep on the couch, waking up just before midnight to hear the neighbours (who had actually stayed awake long enough) yelling out Happy New Year.

I know you’re meant to start a year how you mean to finish it, so of course there was croissants and pain au chocolat for breakfast. No I didn’t make them. Why would anyone make their own when they’re freely available from any bakery? Heated up the oven and kept them in there long enough for the chocolate to go just that little bit gooey. Noice!

The rest of the day was pretty much a lazy one….rained plenty so not much to be said for it. I’m all for having a forced rest due to inclement weather but after a few weeks of rain already, it does get a little bit old. The boys were happy because they got about 10 minutes of RC Chopper flying in before the rain set back in. I played more Wii games than is generally considered healthy. And as for the cats? Meh, it was just a day like any other really with plenty of napping to be had.

“Sunday Morning” – To be honest, they do this every day that the sun is shining but this is where I found him when I woke up on the morning after my work Christmas party. Evidently the 8hrs of confined captivity out there while my colleagues invaded his house hadn’t bothered him in the slightest.

“Hidden” – Not exactly hidden from me but Rosie couldn’t find him for quids

“Upside Down” – It made it more ironic that the sign was upside down and on a skewed angle.

“Spots” – One of the flowers in a bouquet I got given for hosting the party this year

“Weathered” – The patio table could use a lick of decking oil I think

“Dirty” – My coffee pot filter after the weekend brew had gone through. Noice!

“Busy” – I spent most of the day on Sunday cleaning up and doing laundry, real fun times

“Tomorrow” – The only way I could think of to photograph something that hasn’t happened yet and in effect never comes

“Track” – Compulsory Christmas lighting for the work do – please don’t hate me Leigh, I didn’t want to do it!

“Early” – Signifies early for me, part of my morning ritual

“Watch Out” – Mojo just doesn’t know how to play at all….he’s easy to stir up with a fascinator

“Key” – The lighting didn’t work out as well as I had hoped for this one but I kind of like the scratched up surface and reflection

“Framed” – One very precious memory from when Mischa was a puppy, she is missed very much

“Shoes” – My favourite pair, probably not worn quite enough

I wouldn’t mind doing another one of these…perhaps using a little more imagination next time though. When is the next one Tracey?

“Curve” – I was given a few frangipani cuttings when we moved here and I wasn’t really sure what flowers they were going to produce. It turns out they are the usual white variety but these seem to have a different curve to their leaves than the last one we had.

“Strange” – an old tractor on the way home from work one day. Why is it strange? It wasn’t out of character for the area I was driving through but more because it is for sale. I can’t think what plausible reason anyone would want to buy it – it is old, rusted out and I doubt it has worked in a month of Sundays (if the other two old tractors were anything to go by). Perhaps it might make a good ornament for a rural garden.

“Round” – the first and only peach to be produced from our stone fruit tree this season. It was ripe, extremely juicy and possibly the best peach I have ever tasted. I guess that’s the result when your plant puts all it’s energy into producing just one single solitary fruit.

“Indoors” – the very unusual decor at one of our local cinemas. Probably could have made this indoors and strange really.

“Arrow” – most unimaginative and obvious one I could find.

“Weather” – summer rain falling on the wind screen

“An animal” – Getting into the Christmas spirit….although probably begrudgingly

As it happens, my work Christmas party is next Saturday and I have been ordered to make the place look festive. Yeah bah humbug. Anyway I thought I would attempt to comply with the request. I bought a set of outdoor lights which can be staked in the ground near the patio even though having lights up at Christmas time strikes me as an insane waste of power. At least the ones I got are LEDs so they won’t chew up as much as the standard lights.

I even bought a wreath that is designed for my front door. Unfortunately we have a security screen so I’ve put it up on a hook where some silver wind chimes normally hang. I think it looks just as nice up there and the tinsel star shaped decoration that I got to hang there is now adorning the security screen. That’s problem solving for you.

]]> http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/reflection/feed/ 2 http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/awesome-a-photographic-scavenger-hunt/ http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/awesome-a-photographic-scavenger-hunt/#comments Thu, 04 Nov 2010 07:47:37 +0000 admin http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/?p=804 Continue reading →]]> Leigh has drawn my attention to yet another photo challenge courtesy of Sh1ft which sounds kind of interesting and one I might actually complete. I enjoy doing the photo challenges….even if I don’t make it right to the end with them all. This one looked easy enough….until I worked my way down the list to “tomorrow”. Hmm…might have to think about that one.

I’m stepping away from my usual methodical process and starting with something that is easiest. For me, that’s something green…..so macro to the rescue it is. I am pretty spoiled for choice finding something green close to home thanks to all the recent rain. And I <3 my woolly bush so it was a natural choice.

Now for something tall, amazing, round….and the list goes on.

]]> http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/awesome-a-photographic-scavenger-hunt/feed/ 0 http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/farewell-canon-powershot/ http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/farewell-canon-powershot/#comments Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:08:47 +0000 admin http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/?p=776 Continue reading →]]> Today is a very sad day for me. My faithful Canon Powershot which has been my handbag or pocket companion camera for a fair few years now is on its way out. I love this little camera….it takes AA batteries so I never have to worry about running out of power and consequently  never need to recharge. The SD card conveniently slots into my laptop without needing a card reader. And I could take it anywhere, particularly if my luggage space was limited and still get a nice shot. Sure it doesn’t have the capability of the DSLR but for a small point and shoot camera, it’s manual functions really weren’t that bad.

It still takes photos on landscape mode but the flash refuses to fire on any setting. It also refuses to focus in any way shape or form unless on landscape. I could take it to Canon to have it assessed but being well out of warranty period, I’m assuming that the price of repair will be much more than the price of replacement. I can’t complain though – it has been thoroughly tested over the years and truth be told, it’s probably had its shutter pressed more times than its shutter life span should allow.

Fortunately we have another pocket sized camera, a small Canon IXUS, which is still going strong. But it’s a lot heavier, doesn’t take batteries and I’ll need to get a much bigger CF card – 256 MB just doesn’t cut it for me.