Footscray station architecture

I’ve always loved how, at Footscray Railway Station, designers and architects managed to meld the original red brick structures with modern metal and plastic ones so well. That contrast of straight and solid old with angular and swoopy new works so well.

Entrance at one side of a train station. There are red brick buildings in the background and a large metallic rain shelter over the ticketing turnstiles in the foreground.

Also, can I say once again how much I love Moment smartphone camera lenses? This photo wouldn’t have been possible without their 18mm wide-angle lens.

Melbourne pride march 2020

Happy Pride, Melburnians! And happy 25th anniversary of the first pride march in Melbourne.

The backs of two people wearing body-length rainbow pride flags on their backs. The photo is taken in a large sports field with lots of other people in the background.

This year the Victorian bisexual community had the largest marching contingent ever!

A group of people are sitting, crouching, and standing in a large sports field. People are wearing bisexual pride flags colours are holding flags and signs that say things like ‘live and let bi’, ‘bi-fi’, and ‘not a phase’.

The weather was lovely, the crowd was great, and the march was lots of fun :)

A group of about 75 people are cheering as they post for a group photo. The group is wearing bisexual flag colours and are holding up flags and signs.

The biggest cheer of the march — and rightly so, particularly this year — went to this group, though: the Country Fire Authority.

Firefighters from the Country Fire Authority hold up large flags: one for the CFA and one rainbow pride flag.

Sadly, despite the plethora of dogs at today’s march, I only managed to photograph a few of them. So let me end with a photo of the adorable, friendly, and all-round good boy Charlie :)

A small brown poodle on a rainbow coloured lead.

Ludovico Einaudi at Sidney Myer Bowl

After a day at the Australian Open tennis, Nadia and I went to the the Sidney Myer Bowl to watch the fantastic Ludovico Einaudi on his Seven Days Walking world tour.

This is ten minutes before the performance started.

A large crowd is seated on a hill overlooking an open air stage area, the front of which is visible to the extreme left of the photo.

And here’s the man himself, along with his accompanying performers on violin and cello.

A stage showing a man playing a grand piano while two performers on the other side of the piano are playing a violin and cello.

My favourite bit of the performance, I think, was when the three musicians improvised what they were playing based on the outline of peaks of three mountain ranges in the Alps (where Einaudi was when he came up with the music for Seven Days Walking).

Three performers are stage on playing a grand piano, violin, and cello. They’re looking at a massive screen behind the stage, across which three coloured lines show the outline of mountain ranges. The musicians are each following one line and are adjusting their music based on what these overlapping coloured lines are doing as they’re drawn across the screen.

Even if you’re not into classical music you should check Einaudi out. If nothing else listen to ‘Night’, which is my favourite track from his 2015 ‘Elements’ album.

Australian Open 2020

It’s January, which means it’s time for our annual Australian Open selfie :)

Selfie of a man and a woman, both wearing sunglasses and straw hats.

This year’s Australian Open was fun. We didn’t wander around too much, but we got excellent seats at Court 3 and stayed there for most of the day. (The joys of getting there early and getting lucky with the day’s schedule of play so that most of the matches you want to watch are all being played on one court.)

A woman crouches low in front of the net on a tennis court while her partner - behind her, at the other end of the court - serves the ball.

One of the doubles matches we got to watch on this court included top-ranked Australian player Ash Barty. The queues to get in just before that match were the longest we’ve seen in a while.

Long queues outside Court 3 at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Fortunately we’d arrived early enough to watch the match from a nice, shady spot :)

World #1 Ash Barty waits to receive a server from her opponent.

Also, we were sitting just below one of the Hawk-Eye cameras that tracks the ball during play. I only learned today that this ball tracking technology is accurate up to 3.6mm!

A camera mounted to a pole around a tennis court.

Today in macro photography: wide brimmed hats

Today in macro photography and selfies: the textures of my various wide brim hats.

Bushwalking hat

Starting with weathered polyester…

A dense, dark brown fabric weave with lighter coloured fabric threads woven in.

…which is from my Cancer Council hat. This hat is tough, water resistant, crushable, and washable. I’ve had it for years and it's super dependable.

Selfie of a man in sunglasses wearing a tough-looking, wide-brimmed hat. The man has a backpack on and is standing in front of a rock formation. He appears to be on a hike.

Gardening hat

This is rush straw…

A criss-cross weave of straw that's not tightly woven, but isn't too loose either.

…from the hat I wear when it’s sunny, but not too hot (ie when I don’t need hardcore sun protection).

Selfie of a man lying in a garden in front of a house. He is on his side, with a sleeping dog leaning on him. The man has a wide straw hat placed on the side of his head, protecting his head from the sun.

Picnic hat

A textured weave of relatively narrow straw.

This is paper straw (in a crushable braid weave)…

Selfie of a man in a large public park. There are tall trees around him and people sitting on the grass in the background having a picnic.

…from the safari hat I wear when I want sun protection and I want to look good :)

Backyard party hat

Finally, this is toquilla palm straw…

A tight criss-cross weave of high quality straw.

…from my Panama hat (made in Ecuador, which is where Panama hats originated from and all good Panama hats still come from). I wear this when I want to look proper stylish.

Selfie of a man in a residential lawn wearing sunglasses and a stylish Panama hat. He is giving a thumbs-up to the camera.