My photo club had a weekend field trip to Wagin, a rural country town with the main attraction being a giant statue of a ram. Being a serious photographer(?) I did not take any photos of the ram but if you insist, you can google ‘Wagin Ram’ and click on [images].
It was quite a drive to get there, about 3 hours. I drive-shared with a fellow club member and arrived in plenty of time to venture out to a nearby lake/mosquito swamp for a sunset shoot. A supermarket brand insect repellent worked wonders for me whilst I watched others faces swell up as their life blood was sucked out. The problem was that my eyes constantly stung as sweat washed the stuff into my eyes. The locals had arranged for a bush burn-off giving us a very good sunset to photograph
The rest of the day was spent visiting various farmsteads and sheep stations. We had three to visit and, having a convoy of some 18 vehicles, we had to split up into three groups. Some shearing sheds, farming equipment and vehicles photographed as well as the rural landscape of rolling hills of pasture and crops. Also a lot of intervening bush consisting of scrubby trees in which we did some “hunting” for wild flowers to photograph. That night we were due to do some astrophotography, sunset was clear thought the moon bright. We arrived at our chosen spot and the clouds closed in – even the too-bright moon vanished behind the complete cloud cover.
The rest of the day was spent visiting various farmsteads and sheep stations. We had three to visit and, having a convoy of some 18 vehicles, we had to split up into three groups. Some shearing sheds, farming equipment and vehicles photographed as well as the rural landscape of rolling hills of pasture and crops. Also a lot of intervening bush consisting of scrubby trees in which we did some “hunting” for wild flowers to photograph. We also visited the “Bird Place” as it was called with many different birds, Emus and some kangaroos.
That night we were due to do some astrophotography, sunset was clear thought the moon bright. We arrived at our chosen spot and the clouds closed in – even the too-bright moon vanished behind the complete cloud cover..
The next day, our last morning in Wagin, was spent at an historical reconstruction site of early colonial buildings. Interesting but none of us was too excited, probably still recovering from that 4am morning, but we ambled around and took a few good shots.
OK all in all, not a trip ram-packed full of great photo opportunities but the cameradie was good and the food provided by the home club was great. The Saturday evening meal was good too. I guess we were a large group to cope with – we virtually filled the local accommodation too.I managed to get back home in time to join Delia at the end of her Motivated in Maylands Meetup lunch at the golf club.
Just last Sunday (14th Nov) I managed to get to another Meetup group for a photo walk around East Perth. The theme was “prime lenses only” – How was this a challenge? It is easy to get used to using a zoom lens to get the “right” composition instead of using your feet to get further away (or nearer). For me, the lens I had, meant I needed to be careful not to back into the river to get “just the right shot”. Anyway here are a few of the shots. I also managed to shoot “The Impossible Triangle” – a “sculpture” that when viewed from the correct angle forms a perfect triangle.
I have enjoyed a few months of semi-retirement. The web site creation business is slow – I think lockdowns have focussed people on more diy web sites but in any case I decided I would enjoy some part time help desk work so start soon as an IT Officer. Should help us build our house deposit faster – it might slow down my blogging… lets see how it goes.