Melbourne - More Street Art

Narrow Alley Gallery
You don't see any and then without warning you bump into a whole bunch.  This set from a small alley in the north of the CBD.

Melbourne - Royal Botanical Gardens

Late Spring Luck
Pure happenstance that we visited in late spring.  This is a beautifully green city with a large botanical garden.  At this time of year the leaves are fresh and the flowers bright.  We walked from one corner of the park to the other and it was absolutely lovely.  At the end of our walk we stopped for a high tea at the side of a lake.

Melbourne - Rained out at St Kilda

But at Least it was Memorable
St Kilda is a beach town south of Melbourne a few kilometers.  We went to check out the Sunday market and as soon as we stepped off the tram a nasty storm hit.  It was so windy and rainy that we ducked under one of the vendor's tents.  It got worse and worse - to the point that some of us grasped the tents-sides and roof poles to keep it from being blown away.  For a few precarious moments I thought I might go airborn and get a birdseye view of the town.

Melbourne - Out to the Burbs

Heading South to South Yarra
Melbourne is a town of many neighborhoods, one known to be schwanks - South Yarra, about 3k south.  According to my research, Melbourne has the most extensive tram network in the world and it's hard to doubt that fact - they're everywhere.

Melbourne - Night Shot

Missed the Flames...
Along the river, for the first 2 minutes of every hour, huge flames shoot up from cauldrons.  Of course, it took me a while to figure this out.  When we were down there - nothing.  I will try to catch a photo of it before we leave....

Melbourne - Checking in from the Bottom of the World

Working and Planning
I took an overnight 7-hr flight to Melbourne, arriving around 10am local time, 7am body time.  Our hotel is perched on the southern banks of the Yarra river, across from the Central Business District.  Today's my last day of work so I spent most of it in the hotel on the computer.  I did, however, sneak out at lunch to get a bite and snap off a few shots.

Singapore - Working Hard

Trying to Wrap Up a Lot Prior to Vacation
The Dodo is already in Australia - Sydney to be exact.  I am still in Singapore until Thur evening and then I head out to Melbourne where she'll meet up with me Friday night.  I've been working double-shifts to try to wrap up some work prior to my two week year end vacation.  Today I worked most of the afternoon at an outdoor cafe.  I am in the "reflections" phase of my photography hobby, for some reason.  I can't seem to get enough of them.  In this shot I was trying to get the palm tree reflection in the sunglasses, table top and iPhone.  The focus was the fronds in the iPhone reflection, blurring everything else.

Singapore - Rainy Season

Making the Best of the Bad Weather
Bad weather is in the eye of the beholder.  I love the rainy season here, it cools things down and now that I'm shooting more with my new camera, it offers up all kinds of reflective surfaces.  I didn't have an umbrella yesterday but I managed to duck and run and stay mostly dry.  While waiting for Dodo to arrive at lunch I snapped a few shots.

Singapore - Chip off the old Block

So Like Her Aunt....
Let me count the ways.  First and foremost: stubborn.

Paris - Braving the Elements

At Least this City Has One Thing Going for It...
Paris on Sunday is like a funeral.  Everything is closed up.  So damned boring.  However, it is a photogenic place so now that I am using a tripod I can go places and try new styles of photos.  Let's call this one the "cliched water reflection shot in Canal St Martin."  I think everyone who comes to Paris takes this exact shot but I wanted to see if I could do it.  There is a fisherman on the right, believe it or not.

Paris - Jetlag

Four Days and Counting
I handled the jetlag pretty well but I simply cannot get to sleep early yet.  Midnight, shot through my living room window.

Paris - Snowstorm

Musée de l'Armée - During a Snowstorm
After a nice breakfast in the 7th I walked by this artillery museum to take some shots in the snow.  One thing I learned is that if you are taking shots with a tripod everyone assumes you're a photography expert.  People kept coming over to request I take photos of them with their cameras.  It happened about five or six times.

Paris - Night Photos

Getting Up to Speed
After reading up on night photography and borrowing a tripod from a colleague I went out tonight in freezing 25 degree weather to give it a shot.  I jumped on the train to Chatelet and walked over to the Seine.  These shots are looking towards the west.  I took about 50 shots of varying aperture and exposure and ended up with four that I liked.  Enjoy.

Paris - Decathlon, Part III

The Kid Goes Up 2 to 1 in the Overall
Colin and I battled tonight in bowling, a decathlon event we added so others could join.  Four colleagues joined and we battled on two lanes.  I beat Colin in all three games but the best of all was the final game in which each person put up five euros on a winner take all.  I bowled a 150 for the win - which I then used to take a long, expensive cab ride home.  In that final game, even Ming beat Colin, something he is bound to be teased about tomorrow.