What do you do when it’s low to mid-30s day after day after day? You go to the beach!

Our choice of beach this past weekend was Surf Beach on the south coast of Phillip Island – an easy 90 minute drive from Melbourne. We had a fantastic southerly coming in off the Southern Ocean that brought the temperature down just the right amount. There weren’t many people there and as you can see, the water was amazing! Shallow and warm – perfect for a family day at the beach.

This is one of the reasons I love Australia.

 

 

Sorry, but I’m going to backup a bit here. I had prepared a couple of images earlier that I forgot to post so bear with me as I rewind to a picture from last (Canadian) summer. The timing of this image is the same rainy morning as the canoes that I posted last week. It was a very grey, wet, dark morning; not the kind that normally encourages me to get my camera out, but I’m glad I did.

 

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I’m very much enjoying the break and a little bit of time to finish sorting out my images from last summer in Canada. This one is from the same place as my last post (over a month ago!), Algonquin Park.

This was a particularly wet, rather cold morning. My brothers and I agreed we’d get up early unless the weather was bad. I decided it was bad, they didn’t and practically had to drag me out of my cabin! I got going quickly and here are the fruits of my labour.

So, these are the same canoes as my last post, but from a different angle. Which do you prefer?

You might think I’m not here any more with the frequency I’ve been posting and commenting, but the truth is that I work long hours in an office environment these days and find myself reluctant to hop back on the computer in the evenings or on the weekends.

The fact is that, at the moment, technology consulting is my primary focus. I took a luxurious, self-indulgent couple of years pursuing photography full-time and while I found my photography skills improved immensely, my earning potential and my CV took a serious beating. Not discounting everything I’ve learned about making better images, the biggest thing I actually learned was that I have no desire to be a full-time professional photographer. I’m incredibly thankful that I took the opportunity to try and now I know that it’s not for me. I’m not cut out to be a full-time creative.

By no means should you take from this that I’m giving up photography or giving up blogging, but I am re-prioritising. Photography is back in hobby status. I’ll still shoot, I’ll still blog, and I’ll still look for opportunities to sell and exhibit my work, but it’s not my full-time gig any more. It’s back to the rat race for me. I’m commuting an hour and a half every day and working 9 to 11 hours and I’m loving the challenges, the brain-strain, and the many, complex relationships that make up a busy office.

Stay tuned and keep checking in. I’ll re-balance soon enough and start picking up the camera again. Hopefully, you’ll even start seeing images from Australia soon. For now, though, we’ll have to make do with pictures from this past summer in Canada. This image is from Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada. These canoes had clearly seen some action. Despite appearances, they’re still roadworthy – I enjoyed many hours exploring the lake with anyone who was game to go out for a paddle.

 

I grew up on the eastern(ish) side of Canada, a long, long way from any ocean, but on the shore of a beautiful little lake. While the ocean was far away, there were lakes everywhere!

It wasn’t until my 31st year that  I found myself living with the ocean at my doorstep. That ocean was a very long way from home. In fact, it was all the way around the world. Despite 30 perfectly happy years without the ocean in sight, I became firmly coastal. While I accept that I’m not likely to ever own that dream beach house in this very developed world, I’m feeling pretty committed to at least living nearby. As a result, many of my favourite images are by the coast. Throw in a dramatic sky and I’m all set.

This particular piece of coast is on the west coast of Canada, in Vancouver.

 

Found these Canadian Geese on a summer stroll at Reifel Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary south of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.

 

The Atlas Coal Mine was established outside Drumheller around 1911. This images shows the shower room. After a long shift in the coal mine a whole lot of very dirty men would come here to clean up. In fact, because it was a coal mine, this was the only location in town that offered hot showers. The story goes that the women back in town were really jealous of the hot showers, especially in the deep cold of winter. The men, knowing what was good for them, argued with the mine manager to let the women use the shower when it wasn’t in use. They managed to get the women one night a week – Sundays. In the days before readily available hot water in the homes, I bet these showers felt really good.

One thing that is so striking about Israel is the richness of its history. I was raised Roman Catholic and took religious studies classes throughout school. I have a pretty decent understanding of the Bible though I can’t claim to have read it cover to cover. So, for me, visiting Israel was this constant stream of Christian history that I’d learned growing up. It’s hard to believe that I saw so much in such a short time. In just a few days, I:

– stood by the Sea of Galilee

– visited Capernaum where Jesus is believed to have walked on water

– saw the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes where it is believed that Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish

– went to the Church of the Mount of Beatitudes (the Sermon on the Mount)

– visited Caesarea, home of Herrod from 22BC

– toured the town of Akko (Acre of the Crusaders) which reportedly hosted visitors including Marco Polo, St. Francis of Assisi and even Hercules

– entered the Dome of the Rock which Islamic tradition identifies as the centre of the world and encloses the sacred rock upon which Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son.

Okay, so you get the point. There’s a bit of history there. And I haven’t even mentioned swimming in the Dead Sea, cruising past wild camels in the Judean Desert or having coffee in a Bedouin camp. It’s hard to believe we were there for such a short time.

As for the image above, that is a scene from a street in Jerusalem known as the Via Dolorosa or the Way of Sorrows. It is believed to be part of the route that Jesus took as he carried his cross to his crucifixion.

St. George’s monastery dates back to the 5th century AD and was named for St. George of Koziba. It is an active Greek Orthodox monastery located north of Jericho in the West Bank in Israel. It was originally established by monks who were seeking to achieve the experience of desert prophets. The monastery has had a rough history including long periods of disuse. It was restored in 1901 and quite recently has been opened to visitors with a road being built to the monastery. Unfortunately, my visit to the monastery in 2000 pre-dates public access so this is as close as we were able to get.

Back in 2000 I was lucky enough to travel to Israel for work. I couldn’t very well go to Israel without seeing a bit of the country so we stayed a couple of days extra to have a bit of a look. This image is from a hill above St. George’s Monastery (home to Greek Orthodox monks) as we concluded a tour from Tel Aviv through the Judean Desert to Jericho. If I recall correctly, the tour wasn’t actually meant to get to this point, but soldier turned us away from Jericho. The city wasn’t stable at the time of our visit and everyone was being diverted away. So we missed out on Jericho, but we got to see a pretty amazing monastery built right into a cliff wall. Come back tomorrow and I’ll post a picture of the monastery!