Brisbane Fisheyed and Solarized

Merry Christmas!

This picture was taken from the balcony with a fisheye lens. I then transformed it into rectangular coordinates and ran it through a solarizing filter. The fisheye lens was my Christmas present to myself.

Pop Art Lou

This week we went to see the Andy Warhol show here in Brisbane. Andy created a pop art style using silk screen and vivid colors. His Marilyn Monroe pictures are icons. He also loved television.

With a digital camera and software it is pretty easy to generate pop, although I am not sure it is art. Here is "Lou on a Red Couch" converted to pop art. Since Andy liked television, I've animated it too. Click on Lou and you can see him change colors in true '60s style.

Anhinga Catches Fish

Anhinga, Round One

Today I went for a walk along the river at lunch, needing to just get out and clear my head of work. For the first time in I don't know how long, I didn't take my camera. It was cloudy, I was just taking a short walk, and couldn't be bothered.

As I walked along, an anhinga popped up about 10 feet out in the river with a small fish speared in it's bill. Anhinga have a body a bit larger than a duck that floats very low in the water. Their neck is like a snake and the beak is needle shaped and about 3" long. The silvery fish, about the length of the bird's beak, was speared cleanly through the middle of the body.

The anhinga worked it around, popped it up in the air, and swallowed it on the way down. He then smoothly dived back under the water looking for new fish. I don't know if I'll ever get to see that again so close up. Next time I'll have a camera.

Anhinga, Round Two

On the way home, I saw another anhinga, this time in a tree in the mangrove. I had my camera this time but having a camera is of limited use if you can't use it properly. The light was low and I had left a polarizing filter on from the last time I used it. Having a polarizing filter on your lens in low light is like wearing sunglasses when it gets dark. Needless to say the pictures aren't too good. All this despite the fact that I got down in the mangrove to take the picture wearing my dress shoes.

Oh well, if you want to see what an anhinga looks like, here is a picture I pasted behind Yebisu a while back: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v661/fmilburn/?action=view&current=FHM_8915Anhinga.jpg

This fine fellow was sitting on the pelican statue on the piling in the river below where we live.

Ant Down Under

This ant is surveying his kingdom. He is about 5/16 of an inch long (8 mm).

I am the king of the world!

Angel Girls on Queen Street

There is almost always something interesting on Queen Street. I don't know exactly what these two were doing but they were getting attention as they strolled along. Click on the picture and look at the expression of the girl in the background on the right.

Longfinned Eel (Anguilla reinhardtii)

I spotted this eel in the duck pond of the botanical gardens and believe him to be a Longfinned Eel, one that is found along the eastern coast of Australia. Handsome fellow, isn't he? He is about a meter long.

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CBD from Kangaroo Point

This is a view at dusk from on top of the bluffs at Kangaroo Point where the bats cross over to the park.

More Bats

Flying bats are hard to photograph - they are moving fairly fast, they are moderately far away, they are black, and they only fly at night. Moving black things are hard to photograph at night. But tonight we went up to the place on the bluff at Kangaroo Point where they cross the river to the park. There are thousands of them. This is the best picture I got, taken right at dusk. Click on him and you can see some detail in his wings. I like his pointy little ears.

I've been taking a fair number of bird pictures and have pasted some of them behind Yebisu.

Skippy at the Golf Course

Today I played golf at a golf course that had a lot of kangaroos. These three were lining up to carry bags but we rented carts instead of getting a caddy. They were thick though. I hit about a 300 yard drive right into a bunch of them and when I yelled "fore!" they all looked up, covered their heads, and gave me a look like I was the 9th yahoo that day to hit into them.

We saw another python today. He was full length beside the walk along the river just down from the apartment. I was able to pace out his length - right at 10'. It was the second time I had seen one in that area.

Howse Boat 4 Sale

Tell me this isn't good engineering, not to mention nice design. I like the way the colors of the trailor have been perfectly coordinated with the pontoons. At first I thought it was a store bought boat but when I saw all the custom features I knew this had to be the work of a home craftsman.

This is so well done I began to wonder if maybe we don't have relations here in Australia. For sure, you would be proud to have this craftsman as family.

Carpet Python (Morelia spilota)

This python was basking in the sun just next to the walkway through the park at the bottom of the cliffs on Kangaroo Point. I am no snake expert but believe it to be a carpet python. If you are good at snake identification, post me a note below.

It is easy to overestimate the size of a large snake but this one was on the order of 3 meters (10 feet). The head shot at left was taken from a distance of about two feet. He was very still while I photographed him except when I accidently moved the post beside him and he raised his head and tasted the air around him with his tongue.

Pythons are not poisonous although they can be agressive feeders I understand. They are helpful by ridding us of mice, rats, and other such pests. There are lots of stories around here of pythons getting into houses - especially the old Queenslander style. We haven't spotted any in the apartment yet :-)

Carpet Python (Morelia spilota)

Full body shot of python next to walkway on Kangaroo Point.

Balloon Man

As I have written before, there are lots of street performers in Brisbane. This fellow makes balloon animals on Queen Street. Just after I made this photograph he sold a balloon dog to a little girl with her father.

Digeridoo

This aborigine man is playing the digeridoo on Queen Street just up the street from the baloon man. If you want to know more about the digeridoo here is a site: http://www.didgeswedoo.com.au/digeridoo.html

Rainbow Lorikeet

For the last few days I've seen lorikeets in a eucalyptus tree in the park. Getting pictures of birds can be hard because 1) most don't like people getting close to them, 2) they frequently are in trees or shrubs where it is hard to see them, 3) they often blend in with their surroundings, 4) many are relatively small, 5) their quick movements make them blur, 6) the light isn't good a lot of the time, and so on.

In this case the bird was moving quite a bit and the light wasn't good. I had trouble getting a clear view and he was about 30 feet away. But finally, I got this shot.

Grey-headed Flying Fox (Pteropus Poliocephalus)

I've been seeing bats as I walk home through the park lately. Yesterday I followed them to see where they are going. Here is what I found...

These particular bats eat pollen, nectar, and fruit - they are sometimes known as fruit bats. The tree they were landing in is a Moreton Bay Fig tree. You can see the fruits in the picture. The yellow ones are unripe, and the bat is eating a ripe one the color of a strawberry. Moreton Bay Figs are large trees and there were at least 50 bats in it. The fruit is edible and was part of the diet of the aborigines, but I couldn't reach any ripe fruit to try it myself.

The grey-headed flying fox is one of the largest bats in the world with a wingspan that can be in excess of a meter. They climb through the tree using their feet to hang and wings to reach and pull themselves. When it has the fruit, it holds it with one leg to the chest like this one is doing while eating it. They squabble in the tree as they eat and make quite a bit of noise. This bat is endangered so it was nice to see them in the park and get a few pictures...

Fashion

It is time for me to write about fashion again. Actually, I never thought about fashion at all when I was growing up. But since I have gotten a bit older, and got outside Texas, I have started payin' a bit more attention. And I have developed my own ideas about which places are fashionable and which are not.

To be fashionable, a place has to have a couple of characteristics:

1) it must have a recognizable style of it's own,
2) a majority of the female citizens have to participate,
3) it should have seasonal and annual variation that the citizens more or less adhere to,
4) it can't just copy Paris or Milan - there should be indigenous designers and small botiques,
5) there should be an avante garde - some people on the edge.

Brisbane, for a small city, is very fashionable and has all the characteristics above. These Goths in the park are great examples. The local style is informal, changes from day to night, and is trendy. Brisbane girls look different than European or American girls.

On the other hand, Houston is not fashionable. Doha is not fashionable. LA isn't that fashionable either - there is just a small subset of the population that wears designer labels. New York is very fashionable. Tokyo is fashionable. Italians in Rome and Milan are very, very fashionable. London used to be fashionable - I don't know any more. To be honest, same way with Paris - there are some very fashionable parts but maybe not the whole city any more.

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Happy Thanksgiving

We don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here in Australia. One of the guys and I went looking for a turkey sandwich at lunch but all we could find was chicken. I was able to spread cranberry sauce on my chicken though.

Come to think of it, you don't see much turkey in the stores here. You do see these brush turkeys wandering around outside quite a bit. I haven't heard of anyone eating them though.

Mt. Coot-tha Japanese Garden

The Japanese Gardens at Mt. Coot-tha were built for the World Expo '88 that was held in Brisbane. Locals like to say that the Expo put Brisbane on the map. The style is a traditional one in Japan that has mountain, stream, and lake. It looks pretty authentic to me but the buildings don't appear to use traditional methods of construction.

Chair

This chair was in the fern house at the Mt. Coot-tha Botanical Gardens. It is essentially a bronze sculpture.

Gold Coast Tumgun Lookout

This is the view from Tumgun Lookout on the Gold Coast south of Brisbane. The lookout is on Burleigh Head, a rocky headland formed of lava. North is Surfer's Paradise and south, the direction of this photo, is Coolangatta. The stream in the foreground entering the Pacific is Tallebudgera Creek.

This area is full of waterways and beach - and is being developed at an incredible pace. It is the fastest growing area of Australia. I don't know... it is very pretty but a bit too develped for me.

CBD

I haven't put up a picture of the city from our balcony in a while. This one was taken just after the sun went down and the city lights came out.

The ferry is in the middle of the picture heading down the river to the landing at the bottom of our hill. When we first moved here I thought I would ride the ferry to work fairly often. It turns out I never use it to go to work. I enjoy the walk too much although it is starting to get a bit warmer now....

Australian Spider

This spider is about 5" long and lives down the street towards the university. I left him alone - if you don't know Australian spiders you leave them alone.

Bush Stone-Curlew

I have seen this curlew a number of times at night but today I saw it in the daytime and got a good picture. It was with it's mate and two chicks. It is a shy bird but can become tame in parks. This family lives across the river from us in the arboretum.

Pacific Black Duck

The Pacific Black Duck is the common "wild" duck in Australia. But around parks and such it is common and quite tame. It has a black mask and a beautiful blue or green speculum on the wing.

Ferns

There are a lot of ferns in Australia and this is spring so the fronds are sprouting forth...

Roma Street Parklands

The Roma Street Parklands is really nice right now. The rain (and a little recycled water) has really made the park beautiful.

Flowers

Here are some close-ups of the flowers at Roma Street...

Queen Street - The Little Tramp

We are back in Brisbane and this is Queen Street in the Central Business District (CBD). Queen Street seems to be the daytime place to be. The Valley is the place to be at night and is edgier.

Anyway, there always seem to be street performers on Queen Street. Here, as in most other places, jugglers seem to be the most common performers. But there are some unusual ones like the guys who carry fish puppets around on poles. And then there is this Charlie Chaplain mimic who is around most weekends.

I guess I don't get the Little Tramp. I know, I know, he is supposed to be a comic genius. But why? Anyway, this imitator seems to do OK. He stands still until you drop some money in his bucket and then he comes alive.

Fuji san

This last week I was back in Japan for the first time in over a year. There wasn't much time to take pictures since it was a business trip. But we were lucky enough one morning to see Fuji clearly from the hotel and I got this picture. Of course it instantly brings memories of Japan for anyone who has seen it. But when I lived in Japan I used to look for it first thing almost every morning. The view from my apartment was not too good really. Fuji was small and distant even on a good day - and most days there was no view at all. But from Yokohama it is much closer. Beautiful...