Queanbeyan

This week's field trip was just outside Canberra to the town of Queanbeyan. With a growing population, currently around 38,000, Queanbeyan claims to be the fastest growing inland city in New South Wales*. Its slogan is country living, city benefits, which seems pretty appropriate from what I saw. It has that sleepy country town feel, and the city part.... well it's close to Canberra..?

We invaded the town with our cameras on a sunny Wednesday morning, perfect for wandering by the river, talking to locals and drinking coffee. Oh, and taking photos.

* www.visitqueanbeyan.com

This was inside Annie's Cake Place. She had tins and decorations of every shape and size... it made me want cake.

Happy Graffiti on the path, as opposed to the usual Angry Graffiti.

This bird kept hissing at me, I was a little afraid of it.

Under the bridge... it was pretty bright so I had a bit of trouble with some exposures

There were so many lovely old buildings around Queanbeyan. I particularly liked the way this one had become a part of its surroundings.

Some nice locals... not really as shy as they look.

This little old lady was really sweet, even though all she wanted to talk about was Jesus.

Scherry's legs in the coffee shop

The Zoo!

Today I woke up as excited as a little kid because we were going to the zoo!!
It was a beautiful sunny day and awesome to walk around and take lots of photos. Of the animals, mostly.

We were given an assignment to take shots in five categories....

i. An image featuring an animal


ii. An image showing the relationship between and animal and it's surroundings


iii. An image expressing interaction between an animal and a person


iv. An image about the zoo (this is a shot of the zebra-print table tops in the zoo's cafeteria)


v. Any other aspect of the zoo (I chose an image showing the monkeys play equipment. The animals are also provided with climbing apparatus and balls to play with)





more photos I took today...

National Gallery - March 2010

On Friday 5 March I went with my Mum to the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition at the National Gallery.
The only disappointment on the day was the fact that almost everyone else went to see it too, thus resulting in a sardine-like experience. Aside from the press of human bodies and the cattle queueing the exhibition was great.
It was interesting to see the differences, as well as the similarities between artists, and how styles changed.
To be honest, I have never really been into paintings, there have been few that have moved or intrigued me the way a photograph can do.
Having said that, there were three paintings paintings in particular that I found beautiful and interesting: Vilhelm Hammershoi's Rest (Hvile) 1905, Starry Night (La nuit etoilee) 1888, by Vincent van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Rousse (La Toilette).
I love the way you could see the light reflected off the blobs of paint in Starry Night. It was as though the painted stars had a light source, which also bounces off the tips of the water, shoreline and buildings.

While I was there I also took some time to wander through the sculpture garden outside. It was a very bright day but I managed to get a couple of shots of the artwork.

Dadang Christanto
Heads from the North 2004


Willy Tasso and unknown artist
Slit Gongs 1970


Bert Flugelman
Cones 1982

Garema Place March 2010

This week's field trip was in Canberra City to practice street photography.
Garema Place is always full of characters and for the most part are really friendly, and pretty happy to let some dodgy student take their picture.
I knew I had to work on my confidence in approaching people, as there's always that nervousness and fear of rejection in the back of my mind that holds me back from potential opportunities.

So basically today was me swallowing my apprehension and getting out there and meeting strangers, and hopefully getting to take their photos....

My first photo of the day! Emmanouil made me an Orange Mocha which was to die for. His Smooth Beans coffee shop has only been open for three days (next to Sizzle Bento in Garema Place) but he has brought years of Italian coffee expertise with him.

This is a busker who calls himself The Amazing Brainboy. I'd actually bought some of his cd's a few months ago for my Dad. He's a really friendly guy and talented musician and is playing at some upcoming folk festivals.


I used selective colouring to highlight this lady's bright red dress, against the grey pavement, and glass shopfront windows


This man's name was Marco, he said he like photography so I showed him some shots I had taken of sculptures around the city.

Abbas was waiting for his wife to finish shopping. I loved the way he was so impeccably dressed and just looked a complete gentleman. He didn't speak very much English but he was happy to let me take his picture and understood when I told him he was handsome.

This little girl, Tara, was so cute. The sheep ride didn't move unfortunately, but it was still fun...

Leon was in Garema Place conducting a survey on road rules for his company, Boreel Pty Ltd. I did his survey, and he let me take his picture so it was a win for everyone!

Botanical Gardens Feb 2010

During our first week we had a field trip to the Botanical Gardens.
I mostly used this day to get to know some of my class mates, and also to enjoy the experience of being around like-minded people. It was so nice not to feel bad for holding your friends up, to stop and look at some tiny flower or run off to chase a butterfly, because they were all doing the same thing.
Here are a couple of shots I took from the day...