[Photo walk] Standup paddleboarders at St Kilda Harbour

One cool thing about owning a long lens is that you can take photos of people considerably further away from you. (Without being creepy about it, of course.)

Standup paddleboarders next to St Kilda Pier

Black-and-white photo of two people standing up and rowing on paddleboards in a harbour next to a long boardwalk and a buoy.

New standup paddleboarder is successful in standing up

Photo of a standup paddleboarder out on the water in St Kilda Harbour. The paddleboarder is standing on her board and is giving the shaka (or "hang loose" sign) to her friend off camera. In the background of the photo are several sailboats tied to a jetty. In the far background is the freight area of the harbour, with cranes to lift shipping containers off cargo ships.

Careful standup paddleboarder

Photo of a standup paddleboarder out on the water in St Kilda Harbour. The paddleboarder is concentrating on her paddling. In the background of the photo are several sailboats anchored to the sea floor or tied to a jetty.

Confident standup paddleboarder

Black-and-white of a standup paddleboarder out on the water in St Kilda Harbour. The paddleboarder is confidently rowing around on the water. In the background of the photo is a long pier extending off-camera in both directions.

A moment of calm on St Kilda Harbour Dog Beach

Black-and-white photo of a woman wearing shorts and a light jacket standing calf-deep in the water at a beach. The woman, is wearing a backpack, has her hands in her pockets, and is looking quietly out onto the water.

[Photo walk] St Kilda Harbour Dog Beach

I managed to take a few good photos at St Kilda Harbour Dog Beach after Melbourne Pride March.

Cruise ships at Station Pier and the West Gate Bridge

This was taken with a long zoom lens, and zoom lenses tend to compress things that are further away. That’s why the cruise ships at Station Pier and the West Gate Bridge look much closer to each other than they really are.

Photo of two large cruise ships docked at a pier. In the background, well behind the ships, is a massive, curved multi-lane road bridge.

Curious dog at the beach

Photo of a wet, brown-and-white dog standing toe-deep on a beach, looking out over the water. The dog's right foreleg is raised off the sand.

Keeping an eye on its humans

Photo of a brown-and-white dog standing in knee-high water at a beach, looking at someone off camera.

Let's explore the beach

Photo of a brown-and-white dog walking along the shallow water of a dog beach. Closer to the photographer is a young boy who is also walking along the beach while looking at what's under the water.

No, I don't want to get out of the water

This was my favourite dog on the beach that day. So much energy! And, as seen here, a steadfast refusal to come out of the water when it was time to stop playing and go home — despite the repeated calls of its owner.

Photo of a brown-and-white dog with a thick, chewed-up stick in its mouth standing in the water on a beach. The dog is ignoring the calls of its owner to stop playing fetch and to come out of the water.

Small dog on a big beach

Photo of a brown-and-white dog standing in the water near a sand bank on a dog beach. Two sail boats are anchored on the other side of the sand bank. And far across the beach, behind all this, is a large pier with two massive cruise ships docked to it.

Exploring the rocks on St Kilda Harbour Dog Beach

Photo of a figure in blue jeans, dark green/brown jacket, and a pointy black woolen cap exploring some rocks along a beach. In the background you can see a long pier (St Kilda Pier) extending into the water. Several boats of different sizes are anchored in and around this pier.

Dogs at Melbourne Pride 2023

As promised, here are my best dog photos from Melbourne Pride 2023.

Watching the humans

Photo of a small, fluffy brown-and-white dog with the name ‘Oscar’ written on his harness. The dog is standing in a large, green field with several people around him. He is looking at something off-camera. There are several rainbow-coloured flags and ribbons placed around the field where he is standing.

Handsome dog

Photo of a large, handsome dog wearing a harness, a nose halter, and a rainbow coloured bandana around his neck. The dog is being walked on a leash in a large, green field. There are several people wearing brightly coloured clothes sitting and standing in the field.

Good boy

Photo of a dark tan dog looking off-camera while standing in a large, green field with several people standing around him.

Staring at another dog

Photo of a small grey-and-white dog standing in a large field with several people around her. The dog is wearing a purple bandana with pride flags printed on it. The dog is staring at another dog, who is sitting off camera.

Must pet the dog…

Photo of a small girl and a smaller black dog. The dog is sitting in front of the girl in a large, green field. The girl is holding the leash that is attached to the dog’s walking harness. The girl is reaching forward to scratch the dog’s head.

Successfully petting the dog

Photo of a small girl and a smaller black dog. The dog is sitting in front of the girl in a large, green field. The girl is holding the leash that is attached to the dog’s walking harness. The girl has reached forward and is scratching the dog’s head.

Floofy white cloud

Photo of a puffy, bright white dog on a leash. The dog is standing in a large, green field and is looking at another dog off camera.

Hugging its human

Photo of a woman standing by the side of the road watching the marchers at a pride parade walk by. The woman is carrying a black, curly-haired dog in her lap. The dog is facing away from the marchers and has its chin resting on the woman’s shoulder.

Long tongue dog

Photo of large, fluffy, white dog standing in a large, green field with several brightly dressed people around it. The dog is wearing a rainbow bandana and is looking at something off-camera with its long tongue hanging loosely out of its mouth.

Stretching to play with a nearby dog

Photo of a brown dog in a large green field. The dog is wearing a jacked with rainbows printed on it. The dog is straining against its leash because it wants to pay with another dog off camera.

Pretty dog

Photo of a small, light-brown-and-tan dog standing a large, green field. The dog is wearing a large, pride-themed bandana around its neck and is looking at something off camera.

Waiting for the ball to be thrown

Photo of a small, white-and-brown dog excitedly focused on a scruffy tennis ball on the grass that its human is just about to kick for the dog to fetch.

Melbourne Pride 2023

I took a lot of photos at this year’s Melbourne Pride march. Here are my favourites.

Waiting for the march to start

Photo of a man wearing tennis whites with rainbow coloured accents standing in a large, green field with several hundred people standing around and behind him. The man is holding a large rainbow pride flag on a wooden staff that is taller than he is.

Queueing up to start the march

Photo of a young person marching with a large group of people during a Pride parade. The person is holding up a sign that reads "Let's get one thing straight, I'm not".

Queueing up to march

Photo of two young women, both wearing matching green t-shirts, walking in a wide group of people - several of whom are wearing brightly coloured, pride themed clothes. One of the women is holding a small brown and tan dog in her hand.

Huddled over a phone, bisexually

Photo of three young women huddled around a phone in a large, green field. There are several people standing in a rough queue on the other side of the field. The three women are wearing the pink, purple, and blue colours of the bisexual flag. One of them has a bisexual pride flag draped across her back.

Bored with all the waiting

Photo of a young child lying belly-down, as if bored and defeated, on top of an inflatable pink beach ball in a large, green field.

Hanging loose with search and rescue

Photo of a woman in a search and rescue uniform of bright orange utility pants and black t-shirt. The woman is walking away from the photographer and towards a red search-and-rescue truck that's been decorated with pride flags. The woman has pale green-blue coloured hair and is holding a rainbow coloured strap in her other hand. She is giving the shaka (or "hang loose" sign) to her colleagues off camera.

Capturing the moment

Photo of a young man wearing a red, black, and maroon coloured singlet. The man has rainbow-coloured paint finger-drawn on his arms and face. He is taking a photo of the crowd around him with an interchangeable lens camera that he is holding up to his eye.

Watching the march from above

Photo of a woman and a man, both standing on separate balconies of a five-storey building, and both looking down at what's happening on the street below. The woman is using a pair of binoculars to take a closer look.

Watching the march from her balcony

Photo of an older woman with bright, white hair standing on the balcony of multi-storey residential building. The woman is using a pair of binoculars to look down at what's happening on the street below.

Watching the marchers

Photo of a woman standing by the side of the road watching the marchers at a pride parade walk by. The woman is holding a black, curly-haired dog in her lap. The dog is wearing a rainbow coloured bandana on its neck.

Walking back to his friends

Photo of a boy wearing a bright orange school-branded t-shirt that has lots of marker-drawn signatures on it. The boy is walking parallel to the people marching in the pride parade. Slung over his shoulder is a large pride rainbow flag on a long wooden stick.

Post Pride

Photo of the back of a man wearing a t-shirt that reads "PostPride". The man is watching the rest of his Australia Post colleagues cross the road at the end of the Melbourne pride march.

Flying with pride

Photo of several people wearing bright, Jetstar-orange t-shirts. These people have rainbow flags and bright coloured flowers draped around them. Two of the people are wearing large, mascot-sized foam airplanes with Jetstar logos on them.

(FYI. I used to work for Jetstar and was part of the first ever Jetstar contingent to officially march at Pride in Melbourne. #FlyingWithPride)

Tomorrow I’ll upload all the dog photos I took at pride, so stay tuned for that :)

[Photo walk] Transport, part 2

I was in the city today, so I practiced taking photos of people.

And I do need the practice. I’m still getting the hang of using my new camera in a fast-paced environment.

Given three seconds, I can compose a pretty decent photo — like the ones below. But I need practice with composing and shooting a photo in just one or two seconds.

And that’s why I practice every chance I get :)

Anticipating a near-future request for customer service

Black and white photo of three people standing at a tram stop. Two of the people are customer service officers wearing high visibility vests with the words ‘customer service’ written on them. The third person is a woman looking up at a sign. One of the officers is observing this woman, as if a request for customer service from her will be forthcoming.

Customer service at Flinders Street Station

Black and white photo of a man standing at a window with a customer service sign above it. He is being helped by a customer service officer on the other side of the window. A poster on the wall next to the man reads ‘Please hold the handrail when using escalators’.

People-watching on the steps of Flinders Street Station

Black and white photo of three people sitting (and, in one case, leaning) on the stairs leading into a train station. All of them are looking off-camera to the left.

[Photo walk] Transport, part 1

Some more photos from my walk around the Melbourne CBD today.

Bicycle hoops in Docklands

It was a public holiday yesterday (Thursday), so many people took today (Friday) off so they could get an extra-long weekend. Which helps explain why there were only two bikes locked to these bicycle hoops on Collins Street in Docklands this afternoon :)

Low-angle photo of a row of on-street bicycle hoops (where you can lock your bikes), almost all of which are empty at this time.

Low-angle, black-and-white photo of a row of on-street bicycle hoops (where you can lock your bikes). Almost all of the hoops are empty at this time, except for the last two.

Waiting for a tram on Elizabeth Street

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit leaning against the safety railing of a tram stop. The man is looking down at this smartphone, which he is holding in his hand, and he has wireless earbuds in his ears.

[Photo walk] Melbourne buildings, part 1

Now that I’ve got myself a quality interchangeable lens camera, I’m looking for any excuse to walk around somewhere I can take interesting photos.

So one thing I’ve started to do is walk through the Melbourne central business district every Friday afternoon after work.

Here are some photos of buildings that I took today. I expect I’ll be taking many more building photos in the future, hence the ‘part 1’ in this post’s title :)

Reflections of the city (Docklands, Melbourne)

Photo taken from a higher vantage point of streets, cars, and buildings reflected off the side of a tall, shiny building on a bright sunny day.

Telco base stations at Media House in Melbourne

Photo of three mobile service base stations (that is, antennae) mounted at the top of a white, modernistic building.

Sun shining off Mövenpick Hotel Melbourne

Photo looking up from the ground of a very tall, blue-glass covered building. The building has rounded edges and two large curves along its length, making it look somewhat like a fancy water bottle. Next to this building, and much shorter in height, is a colonial-beige coloured building inspired by Art Deco archicture.

A slice of the Supreme Court of Victoria

Photo looking down the length of a narrow alleyway. At the end of the alleyway is a large, domed building in the classical Renaissance Revival style of architecture from the 1880s.

Australian Open 2023

It’s time for of our annual Australian Open selfie :)

Selfie of a man and a woman in a tennis court. They are both wearing wide-brimmed straw hats, face masks, and black t-shirts. They have bright blue lanyards around their necks.

Here are some other nice photos I took at the Australian Open this year.

Though this one is probably my favourite :)

Black and white photo of a child watching a tennis match. The child is leaning back in his chair and has his feet up against the railing in front of him.

Walking around in Melbourne

My favourite type of photography is street photography. And, thanks to the excellent weather we’ve been having in Melbourne, I spent the last couple of days walking around the city taking photos with my new camera.

You can see all my Melbourne photos in the (appropriately titled) ‘Life in Melbourne’ album on Flickr. And you can see all my street photography photos in the ‘Out and about in the city’ album.

But here are a couple of my recent favourites.

Tram stops

People in black and white

Looking down

Cool truck

Black and white photo of a large, old truck cab with the brand ‘international’ in all capital letters affixed across the front grill.

Out and about in the city

Here are some photos I’ve taken with my new camera. They’re nothing particularly exciting, but taking them has given me a chance to play around with the camera and its settings.

Wide angle

Walking by platform 1 on a sunny day:

Photo of a suburban train station platform taken from the level of the platform floor. Across from the track are are row of tall trees. A sign on the platform tells you this is platform 1 at Gowrie Railway Station.

Burst mode

Pair of pushy seagulls at Federation Square:

Photo of two seagulls, walking forward side-by-side, eyeing something off camera.

Low angle

Watching a movie at Federation Square:

Photo of two people sitting in foldable deck chairs watching a movie being shown on a large screen in a public square. Behind the funky, off-angle building on which the screen is mounted you can see the tall buildings of the city centre.

Zoom

Letting the world pass them by:

Black and white photo of a couple taken through a gap in the trees. The couple are sitting on a park bench facing a river, while a cyclist crosses the walking/cycling path behind them.

Favourite mailbox

I didn’t think I’d ever have a favourite mailbox. Turns out I do, and it’s this one :)

Photo of a wooden residential mailbox installed atop a small mound of dirt in the front garden of a house. The entire mound of dirt is covered with pink coloured flowers.

Born in a barn

This house in our neighbourhood has no other Christmas decorations, just this nativity scene. Which I think is pretty cool, given the whole understated, born-in-a-barn origin story they’re representing.

Photo of a small Christmas nativity scene created using ceramic figurines that’s been set up in a residential garden.

Not. Happy. Jan.

Maggie is not happy that summer holidays have started in Melbourne. She relies on the kids from the nearby primary school to provide her with dropped snacks on her daily walk!

Photo of a red/brown dog sniffing intently at a spot in the grass on a nature strip by the side of a residential street. The dog is wearing a walking harness that’s attached to a red leash.

Waiting for a train

Waiting for a train at Yarraville Station in Melbourne, Australia.

Photo of an empty outdoor train platform, taken with the camera placed very close to the ground. The platform extends into the distance, and the bit of pavement the camera has been placed on shows cracks from years of use in the hot Australian summer. Across the train tracks you can see an out-of-focus train station build on the other platform.

Top-down photo of the edge of a railway platform, with the top half of the photo showing one of the train tracks and the bottom half showing the thick white line that marks the edge of the platform. The photographer’s white sneakers and the cuffs of his jeans are visible at the very bottom of the photo, with the front part of his sneakers on top of the white line. The edge of the platform and white paint on it is cracked and peeled from years of use under the hot Australian sun.

Hood art!

This is probably the coolest car hood that I have ever seen in my entire life!

Photo of the hood of an older Volvo car parked just off the street on a sunny day. The hood of the silver car has been hand painted to show an artistic depiction of a scene from the film ‘Alice in Wonderland’. The scene shows the yellow brick road making its way through some greenery. On the road are Alice, her dog Toto, and the Tin Man. The Tin Man is shown in the foreground, and he is holding a small hatchet. Toto is in the background and next to him we can see only Alice’s feet and lower legs under her blue, patterned skirt.

2022 NBN update: 3% faster

Every time we move house my first blog post is always an update on what the NBN internet speeds are at our new place. This time is no exception.

What is different this time is that, instead of renting, we’ve now bought a house in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. (Yay!)

Compared to our last place, the upload and download speeds at our new house are around 3% faster – which is cool.

A graphic titled ‘2022 NBN update: speeds up 3%’. The graphic shows two sets of bar charts, one with a heading of ‘average download speeds’ and the other with a heading of ‘average upload speeds’ — both showing download/upload speeds in megabits per second, or Mbps.

There are six bars in each chart, one each for the years 2009, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022. Both download and upload bars increase dramatically in size from 2009 (when the internet connection types was ADSL) to 2015 (when the internet connection type was FTTB).

The bars were highest in 2018, with 105.2 Mbps download speeds and 37.2 Mbps upload speeds in Kingsville. The connection type in this location was FTTP. In 2022 the bars show 94.7 Mbps download speeds and 18.9 Mbps upload speeds in Melbourne’s north. The connection type in this location is FTTC.

Our NBN connection type is still FTTC though. But that’s okay, the speeds we’re currently getting are sufficient for our needs.

There’s just two of us here, so Nadia and I can stream multiple 4K videos simultaneously without a hitch. And both of us can seamlessly participate in 1080p video conferences at the same time as well.

Of course, the second NBN Co give us the opportunity to upgrade our connection to FTTP, we’ll jump on that straight away :)

For now, though, I’m super happy with what we’ve got.

Gaps in the rain radar

I’m very pleased with my ability to find the gaps in the rain in which to walk the dog.

The arrow on the rain radar map below shows the direction the clouds are moving in. The gap marked out is when I walked Maggie.

And this is what happened exactly two minutes after we got home!

Animated GIF showing of a wild and windy downpour in a residential back garden.