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The Bigger Island of Malta

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shows the type of coloured doors and balconies

Brightly coloured doors and balconies along with waterfront at Marsaxlokk

The Bigger Island of Malta

Thoughts before arrival

The bigger island of  Malta is only 80km south of Italy.  With it’s population of 475,000 people within an area of 246km², once again a lot of people within a small area when comparing to Western Australian standards.  This island is 27km long and 14.5km wide, once again not very big at all.  Public transport is not the best so I hear, the roads narrow, old and congested.  

This trip needs to be a Slow Travel trip (no promises but I’ll try!) and not expect to be able see everything as I’m sure that would just lead to lots of frustration on my part.

So, Malta has been inhabited since 5900BC so that 900 years earlier than Gozo.  A quick glance at the history of the island talks about inhabitants and rule by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantine, Aghlabids and Normans.  There are too many more to list here.  Perhaps by the end of the trip I’ll know more about these rulers and the battles won and lost.

Blue Grotto a popular swimming place on the coast

Thoughts after arrival

Over the course of our 2 weeks in Malta we’ve managed to see quite a bit of the main island of Malta.  Considering the large number of people on such a small island there is quite a lot more land not built on.  This is mainly put aside for farming.  Lots of vegetable farms and there is livestock somewhere.  They are kept indoors in summer so the only living things seen generally are stray cats, lizards and lots of pigeons and a few ducks.  On the coast at Dingli I saw a couple of sea birds, possibly terns.

I’ve enjoyed visiting the coastal bays and villages and the capital Valletta.  A few of the tourist areas are havens for UK residents on holidays or expats.  I guess it’s a bit like us and our relationship with Bali, close and warm climate.

About to board the plane to come home now so will cut this short.  May add to this post a little later if time permits as lots more to say.

If you missed my last post on the Little Island of Gozo click this link to take you there now.

Gzira waterfront, the old and the new building right next to each other

 

showing the size difference of boats using the Grand Harbour of the boats using the Grand Harbour

A large cruise ship and a small boat sharing the Grand Harbour

 

City of Birgu on Dockyard Creek

 

close up of the detail on the front of a Luzzu

Front of a traditional Luzzu fishing boat at Marsaxlokk

 

Traditional Luzzu fishing boats on their moorings at Marlsaxlokk Harbour

Results Wagin Woolorama 2019

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Oh wow, where is this year going?? Half way through March already and this is only my first blog post for the year. Such neglect of my website.  I will have to try and rectify that over coming months. I’ve a few ideas for topics rolling around in my head but getting them out is another issue.  But for now I’d just like to talk about my results at the Wagin Woolorama Photography Competition last weekend and to give this Agricultural Show a plug as it is a really enjoyable day out.

Photo Comp

Firstly I’d like to thank the organisers of the Photography Competition that runs as part of Wagin Woolorama.  Glenys and her team do a great job every year putting together this competition. 

1st Place 'A Half of Anything' - Repeating Doorways 2019 Wagin Woolorama

1st Place ‘A Half of Anything’ – Repeating Doorways

 

This year, they introduced two new special categories, each with great prize money for the winner.  I was fortunate enough to take out the Portrait category with this image of the Namibian man starting a fire the tradition way, which most of you have possibly seen before.  If you’d like to see the winning landscape image by my friend Richard Hall please click here.

 

1st Place Portrait 2019 Wagin Woolorama

1st Place Portrait – Fire Starter

Here’s my other entries that did well this year.  

2nd Place Open Colour KT The Cockatoo 2019 Wagin Woolorama

2nd Place Open Colour – KT The Cockatoo

Highly Commended Mono - Moses Rock 2019 Wagin Woolorama

Highly Commended Mono – Moses Rock

Two Trees - Highly Commended Landscape 2019 Wagin Woolorama

Highly Commended Landscape – Two Trees

 

Evening Rodeo

After the day events have finished, like the shearing, sheep dog trials and judging of the animals, there’s the evening rodeo.  I love to watch the action and also the fashions.  The checked shirts, bright colours, fancy jeans and those hand made leather saddles.  Love it!

Wagin Woolorama Rodeo

The dust, setting sun and cowboy hats

Cowgirl Wagin Woolorama Rodeo

Bright coloured clothing

Wagin Woolorama Rodeo

Cowgirl clothing

Bronc riding at Wagin Woolorama Rodeo

Bronc riding

Day 19 Loreto to Guerrero Negro

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Loreto to Guerrero Negro

The usual morning ride into the mountains, the twists and turns that Andy loves, then once more we see the Sea of Cortez.  Riding along Conception Bay enjoying our last day with these stunning views.

A short break at Mulege Mission Santa Rosalia which is small but rather nice and sits on a hill over the town.

We head a little further up the coast back on the water for our lunch stop at a little taco place in Santa Rosalia.  Awesome soft shelled beef tacos.

The afternoon sees us head towards the Pacific Ocean and the town of Guerrero Negro.  Not much here but a nice meal at a local restaurant.

Due to the nature of the roads (mountainous with tight curves etc) and not very strict road rules (people still allowed to ride in the back of utes) we have seen lots of little (and some not so little) roadside shrines where people have lost their lives.  The example below is the largest we saw but they do range from a simple cross to a small building.

Sea of Cortez

Moulage Mission Santa Rosalia

Build your home around the palm trees

Camping at Concepcion Bay Sea of Cortez

Roadside shrine

Day 2 on the Bikes Ensenada to Catavina

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Through the desert today passing many Cirio Trees and Cardon Cacti with temperatures in the forties.  Also travelled through the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve which is the largest wildlife refuge in Mexico.  Can’t say we saw much wildlife except for Turkey Vultures, which are everywhere.

This is a real short post, time to head out and explore the town.

 

 

52 x 2 Journal

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I can’t believe that it’s been 6 months since by last blog post. Where has this time gone I wonder, I’ll not leave it so long next time.

Ok, so my excuse is that I’m doing a 52 x 2 in a journal, I think that that’s the limit for me and putting words down on paper (or online). For the uninitiated 52 x 2 means I’m taking 2 images a week for 52 weeks, printing them and sticking them in a photo journal and writing a little story about the image. One image needs to be black and white (mono) and the other in colour. After I’ve selected my two images of the week I then take a photo with my iPhone.  Editing is carried out in Snapseed and then posted on Instagram. Click here if you’d like to take a look at my progress so far.

Coming up with the idea of starting this 52 x 2 journal came to me just before the new year.  I had purchased the journal months before but put it aside as too hard, then as happens around New Year and “New Year Resolution” time I had the bright idea of what I was going to do with this neat little photo book.  The main purpose was to help me polish up on my writing skills, which have just disappeared over the years. I’m often a couple of weeks behind in the writing department, which just goes to show that it’s not one of my favourite pastimes. I’ll keep plugging away at it though.

Here’s a couple of weeks to give you an idea.

52×2 Wk20

52×2 Wk14

52×2 Wk15

New Zealand Photo Book Finally

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New Zealand's South Island

Well it’s been 16 months in the making but the New Zealand Photo Book is finally with the printers.  That printer being Blurb, the only company that I use these days, due to the fact that Lightroom has the built in book module which uses Blurb.  I’ve gone for the large format for the first time (13″ x 11″) and gee I hope my images look good.  To take a look at the book click on the book below.

If you’re interested in creating your own book with Blurb please click here to Start creating your Blurb book today >>



Autumn in the South

By Chris de Blank

Abstract Trees after the Fire

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About 5 weeks after the devastating bushfires that flattened the historical town of Yarloop I headed up the highway to see what inspiration Mother Nature could shed.  She didn’t let me down.  The native trees and shrubs were making a comeback with green shoots appearing everywhere you looked.  Some trees were covered in them and others just had one or two new shoots starting to break their way through the charred bark.  The colours were amazing.  There is one particular stand of trees which caught my eye, they are so straight and a light colour but black around the ground.  This is where I started my “Abstract Trees” series.  A small collection of images of trees where I have used blur to add interest.  I have stopped down (or decreased the size of my aperture) to help reduce my shutter speed to show blur when I drop my lens whilst pressing the shutter. As it was a particularly bright morning I had to use a CPL filter also, to get the effect I was after.  All of these images were taken at f22 with a shutter speed between 1/10 sec and 1/15 sec.  Here’s just a couple of my favourites. Click Here to see the ABC’s before and after aerial images of Yarloop.

After the fire abstract

After the fire abstract

After the fire abstract

After the fire abstract

After the fire abstract

Hello world!

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Bunbury City Walk

New Street Art in the Bunbury CBD

 

Welcome to the launch of my new website. As those of you who have created their own websites will know, it is a big job. Lots of new terminologies to take on board like, hosts, SEO, analytics, keyword structure, crawling and I could just keep going. Anyway, I'm going live today even though it's not "finished". I don't think a website is ever finished, there's always updates to do to keep things fresh and people interested.

This blog (and website) will show you my current photographic work, both business and pleasure and I'm hoping it'll also contain some hints, tips and links for those just starting out on their photographic journey.

Please, my friends, if you ever see any major faux pas that I've posted, please let me know. Editing my own work is not one of my strong points.
Thanks for looking and hope to see you back again. Chris