This photo was taken in Hobart, Tasmania from a ferry staring into a dramatic landscape and sky. Sometimes the back of a boat provides the best views.
Exposure: 1/200 sec at f/8.0 and ISO 100. Focal length 15mm taken with the Canon550D
One of the most best things about travelling is the option to meet new people. You make fantastic friends, who you start awesome relationships with. But you also meet total strangers who you (or your camera lens) find interesting. You take one photograph and move on but the capture defines the travel in some way. These strangers depict the true beauty of travel. Here are 7 beautiful stranger portraits I’ve captured while travelling. Which among these is your favourite?
Dude from Switzerland
Water sports instructor in Fiji
Kids and Puppies in Japan
Boat vendor in Vietnam
Maori Guide in New Zealand
Shy girl in Zimbabwe
Highland dancing duo in Australia
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Canberra, the capital of Australia is a great tourist destination. If you are looking for things to do in Canberra, Australia’s capital, you must make it a point to visit Canberra Glassworks. It’s great place for the family where you can watch artists mould beautiful glass structures.
Typically, the transformation of materials into glass takes place around 2,400 °F (1,320 °C); the glass emits enough heat to appear almost white hot. The glass is then left to “fine out” (allowing the bubbles to rise out of the mass), and then the working temperature is reduced in the furnace to around 2,000 °F (1,090 °C). At this stage, the glass appears to be a bright orange color.
The major tools involved are the blowpipe (or blow tube), the punty (or pontil), bench, marver, blocks, jacks, paddles, tweezers, paper, and a variety of shears. Australia has developed an enviable reputation nationally and internationally for the quality and skill of its glass artists.
The Sign says it all doesn’t it?
The first form of the moulded glass.
You can sign up to work with the artists. They even let your put your hands in the kiln. The most popular place is called ‘Hot Shop’, (the place where artists blow glass) is the most spectator orientated activity within the facility and has the capacity to captivate the viewer for hours. Tip: Double check what’s happening in there before planning your trip
The final product are truly works of art. Check out some of these exhibits.
**Some of the more technical content is taken from Canberra Glassworks Officials website http://www.canberraglassworks.com/
Today’s photo is of street musicians at the Salamanca Market in Hobart, Tasmania. The markets are one of the major tourist attraction in Tasmania, and is held on Saturdays between 8.30am and 3.00pm. The musicians and the instruments just bring life to this shot.
Exposure: 1/80sec at f/5.6 and ISO100. Focal length 44mm taken with the Canon550D and EFS 18-55mm
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The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park, by the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. Their proximity to one another has made the site one of Victoria’s major tourist features; attracting approximately two million visitors a year.
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The site was known as the Sow and Piglets until 1922 after which it was renamed to The Apostles for tourism purposes. The formation eventually became known as the Twelve Apostles, despite only ever having nine stacks. At first glance you will see 7 rock stacks to the west with the rest hidden by headlands and obscured by other stacks. To the east are a further two rock stacks referred to in local vernacular as Gog and Magog.
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The apostles were formed by erosion: the harsh weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed; leaving rock stacks up to 45 metres high. Limestone is a sedimentary rock. It forms in layers with the youngest rock closest to the surface. When you look at this cliff , you are looking at a vertical geological record of millions of years.
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The ‘money shot ‘of the trip. While anytime of the day provides a great spectacle, sunrise and sunset are particularly impressive for the blazing hues created. There is a sense of endlessness that seems permanent and this juxtaposition brings the photographs to life.
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Visitors to the 12 Apostles are humbled by a seascape that is both ancient in design and dynamic in form. This shot of the limestone rocks in Black in White captures the eerie beauty of nature’s creation.
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Capturing the sun through the eye of the needle. The dramatic effects of the sun and the calm of the ocean is a hallmark of the 12 Apostles and makes it one of the most desired travel destinations for photographers and tourists alike.
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The 12 Apostles are accessible from Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road (4-5 hours). It is in an area which is one of Australia’s most spectacular coastal National Parks. As a travel destination, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
The Sydney Opera House playing hide and seek with some leaves under the winter sun
Exposure: 1/1600 at f/4.5 and ISO 100. Focal length 34mm taken with the Canon550D and lens EFS 18-55mm
Welcome to the Sydney Fish Market photoset, the second series of photosets on Sidpicky.
The Sydney Fish Market (SFM) is the second largest fish market in the Southern Hemisphere after the Tokyo market. This is also the third most popular tourist destination in Sydney It was established by the NSW Government in 1945. In 1994, Sydney Fish Market became a privately owned company (50% by the Catchers Trust and 50% by Sydney Fish Market Tenants and Merchants Pty Ltd) and in 1999, the marketing or selling of seafood was deregulated, meaning seafood no longer had to be sold through the Market in Sydney.
The tagline for the SFM is ‘Get hooked on fresh fish’ and true to its mission the SFM sources product both nationally and internationally and trades over 14,500 tonnes of seafood annually – with up to a hundred species traded every day. That’s a lot of business!
One of the most unique aspects about the SFM is the auction system that takes place at dawn every working day. Held from 5.30am every weekday, the Dutch clock auction is a silent auction which begins at the highest price and drops until a bid is made. The starting price is usually set about $3 above what the product is expected to receive. The clock then winds down at a rate of $1 per revolution and the price drops until a buyer stops the clock by pressing a button. It is a test of buyer’s knowledge of current market prices and a sense of how much your competition is willing to pay for it. The successful buyer then selects a number of crates from the ‘lot’. Two clocks auction seafood simultaneously to ensure product is sold quickly.
Under the Dutch clock auction around 1000 crates are sold every hour. On average each crate weighs 23 kilograms. SFM sells around 2700 crates at every auction, or 65 tonnes of fresh seafood every day.
Here are shots of some Mud Crabs. Generally cooked with their shells on, when they moult their shells, they can be served as a seafood delicacy, one of many types of soft shell crab. Some consider them to be among the tastiest of crab species and they have a huge demand in South Asian countries and Australia. In the northern states of Australia and especially Queensland, mud crabs are relatively common and generally prized above other seafood within the general public.
These are snaps of some snappers (see what I did there) which, is actually a bream and has pinkish skin with pale blue spots and a distinctive forehead hump. The ‘snapper’ is one of Australia’s most widely known fish and has gone by this name for over 100 years.
Disturbing at first glance, these are pictures of some sharks at SFM with their heads cut off to balance the weight to meat ratio. I was assured that shark fishing is highly regulated in Australia and fishermen are forced to follow the most strict regulations when it comes to Shark Fishing.
This is Julie, one of the best Oyster shuckers in the SFM. Watching her work was delightful. She first washes the whole oyster under a steady stream of water and then uses the specialized knife to craft out the oyster with skill and dexterity every single time. Julie can shuck between 2500-3000 oysters a day.
The Sydney Fish Market is open through the year from 7am every day (except Christmas Day) and often for extended trading hours during public holidays. It is one of the most sustainability conscious fish markets in the world.
If you are a Sydneysider or a tourist visiting this beautiful city, I would definitely recommend waking up early and going on the ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour at the Sydney Fish Market. Its a great place for families especially young kids to understand where their fish is coming from.
DON’T FORGET TO TAKE A CHANGE OF CLOTHES THOUGH, THE SMELL IS SURPRISINGLY STICKY….
This picture was taken in front of the St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, Australia. Taken with a 10mm lens, the dramatic shift in landscape fits the imposing structure and the dramatic sky into a single frame. St Mary’s is the largest church in Australia, and is located in the heart of the City of Sydney where its imposing structure and twin spires make it a landmark from every direction. The fountain you see in this picture is called the Archibald Fountain and is considered the centrepiece of Hyde Park. The fountain was designed by François-Léon Sicard and donated by J.F. Archibald in 1932 in honour of Australia’s contribution to World War I in France. You can spend hours in this park capturing the different facets of life.
Exposure: 1/320 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 100. Focal length 10mm taken with the Canon 550D and lens EFS 10-22mm
Look at this photo, what do you see, just some rocks by the ocean. Look again! Today’s photo is titled ‘The real marine seals’
The Bruny island in Tasmania is known for its gigantic population of seals and spotting them in the wild was one of the highlights for this photo hog. Every single seal in this photo was a male ( you could tell, they smelled funny and were really loud). The camouflage for the seals is essential for survival from land predators. Bruny island is also the gateway to the last land mass before Antartica in the southern hemisphere. So I literally travelled to the end of the world for this shot. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
