Promises promises

Unfortunately I haven’t yet been able to deliver on my promise of images this year. And my wave project has yet to get off the ground! It seems there is just too much going on in this little brain of mine and I haven’t been able to focus on anything really. But, there is still time, and I feel the winter at the beach will provide some great opportunities in the coming months.

On the writing front, I start my 10 month mentoring and novel writing course in 2 weeks. Super excited, but also a little apprehensive about being able to get the head straight and get started on this amazing challenge. Its such a great opportunity, I know that I just need to relax into it and enjoy….

In the meantime, I have been doing a bit of photography browsing and have selected a wave from the 2016 road-trip. This was from the Head of the Bight on the Nullarbor, one of the really cool wave watching and photographing locations we visited. A great spot!

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Telling a story everyday

Only a few weeks in and it feels like 2017 is going to be a busy year. I am planning three ‘storytelling’ journeys. The first one is paid, my role in a NSW State Government Agency in the Digital Communications area. As well as strategy and technology, storytelling is a key part of any project that involves communication I find. I love the variety, the research and the idea generation process that this contract offers.

The other two are personal projects I will be working on this year involving writing and photography. Not sure why I have taken on two projects, but they are both things I have been wanting to progress for a while and 2017 seems like a good time to start to develop them – well get started anyway. I’ll talk more about them both in the coming months as things progress.

My aim at the moment is to allocate the precious time that I need to be able to work on them, one day at a time – bit by bit. Sometimes I wonder if there are too many stories and ideas in my head. I am also aware that to keep up with everything I also need to have a healthy and active lifestyle and get plenty of vitamin B and vitamin ‘caffeine’.

As an organiser born or organisers, I am going to set-myself a task for each week and then check in on my progress, challenges or stories.

This week my task is to come up with a plan for increasing my reading and also allocate myself some of the recommended DVDs to watch to assist with the writing course. They say to be a good writer you need to read lots and write every day. I get started on this today.

My first read will be a familiar author, and also one from our suggested reading list – Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich. This seemed to be one of my more successful genre’s in my most recent course from the feedback and I enjoy reading this type of writing, witty, on the edge of comedy but a bit of adventure and romance thrown into the mix.

I have a few DVDs from the library over the weekend and also checked out desks and chairs to get the ‘writing desk’ set-up at home by the time my writing course commenced in March. Getting organised!

My photography Project for 2017

Each day spent near the ocean, involves a new motion, colour, shade and perspective of the day . The ebb and flow of life is mirrored by the waves, as they lap, race, flatten or charge. Some days they lay like a hung-over blanket, motionless, calm and drinking in the sun for life.

On another day, the wind whips up their passion and energy and the waves crash against the foreshore or the land, vying for attention and urging action and response.

My 2017 wave project, titled Ebb and Flow will see me explore the world of waves in even more detail than before. Processing some images from my road-trip last year and creating new images at the waters edge will be my focus each month , and each month I will feature a new image on my blog.

I will also be creating myself, for daily inspiration, a ‘wave wonder catalogue’ my internal resource of awesome photographers, influenced and challenged by the ocean and the waves. If you have any personal favourites to share, drop them in the comment sections and I will add them to the list 🙂

I will also be selecting one favourite image from the year and printing, framing and donating it to a selected charity in time for christmas. More to come on that later.

But for now, settle in and enjoy the amazing ocean with me in 2017!!

Ebb and Flow

In the last 8 years, my life has been a serious of journeys. From travel, to photography to writing. From living overseas to returning to and exploring my homeland. It has evolved through the people I have met and the places I have been from a somewhat static life a decade ago, to one which is rich in experiences and growth. Since returning from our 4wd road-trip in October, I have immediately begun to focus on the next steps for me. I almost didn’t miss a beat and it is quite interesting and a little surprising just how motivated and focused I have become about many things that I would have procrastinated on for ages a decade ago. Maybe its my 40’s, the body getting older and complains more, the brain getting wiser or maybe it is just a series of journeys that I have had to take to get to the next step along. Who knows, but its my journey.

I have repositioned and renamed this blog to develop it much more over the coming year. The next big project is one which is quite different for me. It will involve travelling to exotic countries, meeting amazing and interesting people, trying new things, falling in love, facing challenges and most likely much much more, BUT this time I will be in the comfort of my home by the sea and I will be creating an adventure for (hopefully) others to share. You see next year I am progressing my writing dream in a big way, with a 10 month novel and script first draft course with the Writer’s Studio. I will be doing this on-line, working with a mentor and it will a challenging and amazing year I am sure.

I will be posting snippets of writing up, as well as some photography projects I am hoping to develop as well as any travel that can fit into the year. So, if you want to keep up with my creative pursuits, this is the place to be.
I came up with the name Ebb and Flow as I was doing a daily walk down to the beach while I was recently job hunting. It was the name on a building, but I thought at the time that it describes me quite well I think. Just like the tide and the ocean, I have times of intense excitement, travel and then times where I bunker down to earn money and do the small things. The ebb and flow of my life. Keeps me interested anyway! Hope you will join me on this latest journey and feel free to comments or ask questions along the way.

This is a quote that recently came up on my writing course and I think it sums me up right now

“Nothing haunts us like the things we don’t say“. And this is where my story will begin…

Photo memories – South Australia

Today, I have started the mammoth task of slowly working through my catalogue of nearly 20,000 image files from the road-trip, in an attempt to feature a few memories each week, as well as find a few of my favourite images. I took quite a bit of kit with me in the end including my Canon 5DM3 and 5 lenses, my new Olympus OMD10 with 2 lenses as well as an old infrared camera and of course my IPhone. It would be fair to say that they didn’t all get used as frequently as each other. The Olympus, mainly due to weight was my camera of choice on walks or when we were mobile and travelling. It was a fantastic travel camera and the kit lenses were pretty good for coverage. I will be planning some upgrades in the future now doubt. My main camera, the Canon I used for all the low light shoots, sunsets and sunrises and I also tried out my last lens purchase, just prior to the trip, which is a 100-400. It was mainly purchased for wildlife, for opportunities on the trip but also beyond. Needless to say it was perfect for that but I also discovered it to be an excellent wave lense when the location was right. I will always remember standing atop the cliffs on the Nullarbor or on the beaches, trying to capture that perfect curl in the wave.

But back to the wildlife, this image was the very first trial of the lense at Seal Bay in Kangaroo Island. It was a lovely spot, where in guided groups we could go down on to the beach and actually get pretty close to some of the seals basking, but the longer lens meant I could try and focus on a few of the ones a bit further away and witness some of their natural behaviours just a little closer. I have wanted to process one of my images from Seal Bay right from the start, but decided to keep all the processing until I returned. I have a few favourites, but this one reflects the sense of family as we saw lots of mothers and cubs together on the beach, chilling out and watching the waves.

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What…when…where

I’ve blinked, and its over! How did that happen. Last I knew I was on the Great Ocean Road, today I am sitting in my Stayz apartment in Sydney, on the hunt for jobs and getting ready to move into a new apartment lease next week! That’s just the crazy, quick way that this journey ended last week.

On the Great Ocean Road we saw some great scenery, but were a little thwarted by school holidays, so had to stay about a 45min drive away from the coast and also rain…rain and more rain. It made it hard to get around and due to some road closures there was a small part of the road we didn’t even get to see. I don’t think the GOR was the highlight for any of us really, but it was rather lovely watching the coast unfold and also seeing some more of the inland landscapes/rainforests. I also had a lovely birthday enjoying cake and chocolate with a bit of coastal scenery thrown in.

From Victoria, we decided to head towards Jindabyne and the snowy mountains. We joked about how amazing it would be to see a bit of snow on the mountains, just to finish off the trip in a special way, and add to the variety of weather conditions we had experienced. Well, fate took its path and we ended up driving through the snowy mountains, while it was snowing, quite hard as well as getting to do a trip to the Thredbo snowfields and take the chairlift up to the highest spot where there had been recent snowfalls. It is actually the first time I have seen snow in Australia. My very first time ever was NZ and from there a number of amazing experiences overseas, so it was a rather special event in my home country.

We then headed to Canberra, with the main focus being the Floriade exhibition, and to celebrate Kath’s birthday. We stayed a bit out of Canberra, actually in NSW so kept crossing borders. Enjoyed the flower displays, before we headed back to Sydney and Kathy’s flight home last Tuesday. Its taken me a while to get my head around it as it has been a whirlwind of househunting and also starting to try and find work. There are lots of memories and photos to process so I am thinking of giving myself a ‘project’ to try and work on them before it all becomes a faded memory.

It has been, one of the most amazing trips of my life, not doubt about it and I have, as per usual no plans to stop travelling and exploring the landscapes of this amazing planet. Stay tuned, if you dare, for the next adventure 🙂

New month, new state of mind

The spectacular clifftop scenery continued as we made our way down the Eyre Peninsular with a few days to explore the coast and dunes at Coffin Bay a highlight. There are many tracks and locations missed due to challenging weather….still! We then travelled onto Adelaide for a 4 night stay and to complete the first loop of the trip!. We left Adelaide nearly 6 months ago now on this amazing adventure. After catchup with family, a movie night and a bit of shopping in the city centre while Priscilla got serviced, we then moved onto the beachside town of Robe for a few nights. More coast this time with a bit of walking and a few more waves on a travel day to Beachport. Lovely spot and nice and quiet.

We then headed to Victoria, crossing the border and spending a few nights in Port Fairy. Had a morning exploring Griffiths Island and the town centre before the rains returned for a dousing.

Yesterday we finally reached the Great Ocean Road and have visited a number of spots on the tourist trail including the 12 Apostles, very iconic landmark. Some amazing coastal scenery, but a bit overrun with tourists so not always ideal for ease of photographing (unless you have a selfie stick)..Some amazing stormy skies today, including a fabulous sunset sky from our accommodation as well.

With only a few weeks remaining of this big adventure, thoughts are now turning to the next chapter. Back in Sydney, finding work, place to live and then recommencing the savings so that the second part of the lap around the country can be completed. But before that, I get to spend my birthday travelling the Great Ocean Road and we have a couple more stops to enjoy that I will feature soon ☺

Nullarbor

After 3 nights exploring the beautiful beaches of Esperance, we have just recently completed the drive across the Nullarbor to reach South Australia. We broke the trip up with 5 night stays including 2 farm stays and a couple of roadhouses. We had a flat battery, which luckily happened at a morning tea stop at a roadhouse a power blackout for about 24 hours at Coorabie due to a light plane taking ut the powelines (10 passengers no injuries luckily). We also spent some time exploring the Bunda Cliffs and Head of the Bight along the Great Australian Bght. Amazing scenery, varied landscapes during each new day of driving and I was definitely in my element on the clifftops viewing whales and shooting waves! We have spent some time now in Streaky Bay (a second 30 hour blackout due to weather, and currenty Coffin Bay and the coastline has amazed and inspired me. Having lived in South Australia much of my life, there are some new photographic gems that have now been discovered and I definitely want to revisit the Eyre Peninsular with the camera again. We have continued to get lots of rain, with a spattering of perfect Spring sunny days, just to keep us on our toes. Next stop will be Adelaide in a few days time which will complete the first loop of the trip that we started when we left for the Fleurieu Peninsular on 31st March! Wow!!

Windmills have featured quite a lot, this was Esperance

Crossing from West to East

We have had a lot of rain in the South West part of the Western Australia mixed in with some lovely sunny winters days. Bit of a mixed bag you could say. We have based ourselves in 5 main towns along the way, Busselton which had some great coastal scenery and also included some time in Margaret River reigion with a day of tastings, Augusta which was coastal and river and we were right at the beach, Pemberton for forests and lakes, Albany for more great coast and beaches and now Esperance.

In the South West we have been exploring the coastline mainly, with a bit of forests thrown in at a place called Quinninump where we had a lovely place by the lake for 2 nights. Two misty morning on the lake were magic. Another highlight was Little Beach in Albany which had been recommended and didn’t dissapoint, we had some stormy skies as well which made for great photos and I added a few to my waves set, but I got a little drenched on the exploration.

We arrived in Esperence yesterday and hoping to do a bit more exploring of beaches here and also get ready for the next part of the adventure, the Nullarbor!!

Obsessed with waves

The moody skies wet and rainy days and high winds of the last few weeks have had one positive, they have fed my ever growing wave obsession. I love spending time at the shore or from the nearest cliff capturing the ebb and flow, the twists and twirls and the quest for the perfect wave curl. Here are a few of my recent efforts. I feel the call of the ocean again though..better wait for the rain and hail to stop first!