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Saturday Arvo

A Northern Queensland town.

Late Saturday afternoon, the shops all closed, street deserted.
The sun going down on another day.
Lets leave the shopkeepers to count their days takings

The pub looks inviting…

Time for a beer.

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Lead on

After forty seven kilometres of driving on a very badly corrugated dirt track in 47 degree heat!

This sign was very welcome, so welcome that I even tried hugging the tree.

What a Trip!

In fact the picture was taken using an Olympus Trip, scanned then a  Lomo preset applied in Lightroom 2.

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Petrol Station

Lomonisity in the Australian Outback.

Murnpeowie Station in Far North South Australia.
A lone bowser stands like a sentry on guard duty at the back of the homestead.

Apparently the Strzelecki Track used to pass within spitting distance of the old homestead door?
I can’t say for sure, but what I do know is this.
The station receives it’s mail twice a week, that’s two round trips and a 1000km later.

I should know because I delivered it and what a fantastic experience it was too.

The mail must get through, and it does thanks to Land Rover reliability (he says with both fingers crossed behind his back)

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Fig Tree

Todays image from my Lomonisity series.

Lomonisity, I made that word up, do you think it might catch on?
Seems rather a strange thing to do, turn an image taken with a Pro lens on the end of a semi pro camera into a picture resembling that taken on a Russian Lomo camera.
I love the effect and one day hope to get a Lomo camera myself.

But for the moment I have to be content with a Lightroom preset.

The huge Fig tree in the picture is located on a Cattle Station in Far North Queensland.
I just love the way that the bottom branches appear to have been expertly trimmed. They are almost dead straight.

Capability Brown? I don’t think so!

The Gardener(s) in question were hungry Brahman cattle!

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The Boundary Riders timesheet

The Boundary Riders lot, fixing holes in the dog fence.

Gizza job I could do that, I’d loved to do that.

Go on “Gizza Job”

Driving hundreds of kilometres along a fence in yer 4WD looking for holes to mend, surely it would send you crazy?
But think about it. No colleagues to annoy you, only you and the wildlife for company. The heat and flies by day, camping out under the stars each night.

The boundary riders each have their own section of fence to patrol, they might never see the bloke working the next section. It is a long fence after all, longer than the “Great Wall of China”
To prove they have completed their patrol, the boundary riders leave a tag on a fence post where the sections meet.

There are three tags on this post at Corner Country for it is here where the three states of NSW, QLD and SA meet up.

My story of the Dog Fence can be found here on my website…

Don’t forget to visit my Pomgonewalkabout web site to read more of my stories and to see more of my photography. Why there is even free admission to an online exhibition of Loughborough images taken in the 1980’s before I emigrated downunder. – Stories of Fun and adventure.

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Close of Day

The end of another day at Cameron corner in NSW or is that Queensland, maybe South Australia even?

A Lomo preset in Lightroom 2 transforms an image taken on my now eight year old and almost obsolete Olympus C-3000z. This image was published full page in the 4WD Overlander magazine. I got a $100 head torch for my trouble. Cheapskates!

To think that back in Sydney’s Olympic year, this camera was state of the art.
3.3 mega pixels, an 8mb Smart media card. The exchange of $2000 and my film days were over…

Little did I know.

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Go well go-Shell

A box of slides.
Yesterdays memories cast aside all but forgotten, rescued just in time from the heat and dust of an Australian tin shed.
Its the year of the megapixel, but wait film is making a comeback.
Did it ever go away Pixel peepers?

Memory rewind.

Blue Skies, an Australia summer, stifled heat. Load the car.
Hot vinyl seats burn the skin, sit on a towel.
Cricket on the radio, England 432 for 1 !!
In your dreams.

Grab the Pentax, a roll of Kodachrome.
A Sunday afternoon drive to escape the rat race of Sydney.
Afternoon tea and fill er up please.

Go well go-Shell.

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Sydney Harbour, the QE2 and a hint of Lomo

I can’t really afford one of those Lomo camera’s I’m just a poor Nikon D200 owner.

So the next best thing is to scan some old Kodachrome slides taken on my Pentax SFX.
1986 The SFX had everything, auto focus zoom lens, a built in flash and motorwind. I even traded in my Canon A1 in part exchange!
Next import the slides into Lightroom 2 and apply a nice little Lomo Velva preset.

So the first image in the Lomo set of 8ight is Sydney Harbour taken around 1991.