Sunshine Coast Daily Photo

Sunday, 28 February 2010

The Same Old, Same Old

View to Maroochydore on a murky day. Lots of fresh muddy river water in the bay mute the colour of the ocean, and the rain just managing to stay away leaves a sort of European light really, not quite what we're used to on a summer day, nor any other for that matter.

Amazingly, I look at my calendar and discover another month has gone wooshing by!

Fashion

Matching board, shorts and top. Quite nice, but I feel as though I'm working for a fashion magazine.

Skywatch with Surfboard

With a sky like that you'd really wonder why the surfboard was still sitting on top of the car!

Well the surf didn't quite live up to the promise of the sky.

If you think blue and green should never be seen, perhaps you should check out all the other Skywatch photos!

Mining

When a surfer goes straight down the wave, and his board buries in the water ahead, there is only one end to the ride; going "down the mine". This bloke isn't going to do that though, he's about to happily trundle off, to left of screen. The water is an "interesting" colour because of all the silt flowing out of the river mouth after a week of heavy rain.

In the slop

Out on the water, a lone kayaker attempts to make the most of the conditions. The sun tried valiantly but really only managed a feeble peek through the cloud.

Well we made Watery Wednesday at least.

Waiting his turn

The surf was shocking, blown out murky water from all the recent rain, so there was no surprise that no-one seemed overly enthusiastic about hitting the beach.

Surf Kayaks

The Australian Surf Kayak championships were on at Alexandra Headland over the weekend, so I suppose it was to be expected that I'd find a few sunbathing between the showers.

It's Obvious!

Well I quite like this anyway. I can't excuse it, and I can only explain it by offering that perhaps I'm going through my "taking photos of reflections in shopfronts" phase.

I'll stop now, but I do quite like this piece of 'accidental' art.

Trying too hard

OK I admit it! Sometimes I should just give up, but well, the mix of the postergirl holding onto the branch and the reflection of the leaves from outside, just fired my imagination.

Sorry.

Perhaps a less cryptic reflection tomorrow!

Mooloolaba Breakfast
Tinted Skywatch Reflection

Pesto Scrambled Eggs with Sausage and Turkish Toast $12.90.

Did we mention we were beachfront?

Of course the grey sky reflected in the tinted blue glass doesn't do much for avid skywatchers, but they can get their fill at SkyWatch Central.

Wildlife Corridor

At Maleny there is about a hundred metre wide clearing on the ridgetop from which it is possible to see all the glasshouse mountains. To my surprise, when I arrived at sunset, it was illuminated by hundreds of "lanterns". These are plastic tubes protecting new plants, beautifully caught by the sun for the benefit of my photograph at the moment it left us for another day.

Now presently I am rather sensitive to habitat, as my house is about to be resumed due to a freeway realignment to conserve habitat, (not mine) and selfishly I wonder why this planting could not have happened just a few metres further down the hill face, so that the one view of the mountains won't be obscured in the future.

Wherever I go it seems, conserving the habitat of other creatures is more important than conserving mine!

Glasshouse Sunset

There are better days to photograph sunsets, but to my dismay when I arrived at my vantage point, I discovered hundreds of trees have been planted in front of it, and I reckon I've got a year or two at best to try again before the view simply won't exist! So enjoy this for all its flaws!

Crookneck

The last of the day is almost gone, and it was hazy and murky and I thought I'd wasted another trip to photograph the glasshouses. Then just as the sun dipped below the horizon, the faintest glow appeared on the trees in the foreground and the haze turned a murky orange.

Coonoorin from the north west.

Glasshouse Mountains Revisited

At first glance this shot is almost the same as yesterday, but it's taken from quite a bit further round the range and it provides a perfect spot for a bit of revision while the sun is still high in the sky. From left to right (heights are in metres, and because we are located pretty much at sea level, the height above sea level is pretty much the height above ground:

Coochin - 230 and 235m high respectively

Ngungun - 253m (the flatter hills in the background)

Tibrogargan - 364m (the first prominant square top)

Beerburrum - 278m (the dome shape)

Tibberoowuccum - 220m

Coonowrin (Crookneck) - 377m

Tunbubudla Twins - 338m, 294m

Miketeebumulgrai - 202m (just visible in the haze)

Beerwah - 556m

For those who are new to this blog, the full story was published back here. Or to see all the previous shots, visit our September 2009 Archive.

Glasshouses Revisited

Well it's time to have another go at capturing my old adversaries, the Glasshouse Mountains. I thought I'd take a spin into the hills late one afternoon to see what I could see. This is the view heading up towards Maleny from Landsborough. I rather like the khaki in the green at this time of day, it says "you are in Australia."

Rocky Beach

If you have to have a rocky beach, there's no prettier way of having one than the one at Noosa National Park.

Noosa Heads

At last! A sunset sky!

I'm not sure if this isn't my first ever Skywatch post that didn't have some sort of oblique sky reference in the corner somewhere. If one stands on the top of Mt Coolum and looks vaguely west north-westish when the sky is strangely greeny orange, this is what one sees.

It reminds me of the sky in a painting depicting the battle of Waterloo that hung in my grandparent's house half a century ago.

We lived to fight another day though.

Coolum

Hot Tub

In a crevasse in the rocks, two chaps with a death wish, frolic in the foam. It's an incredibly foolhardy pastime, and they have to dive under each incoming wave to avoid being dashed against the oyster covered rocks.

Noosa Heads

Monochrome Naturally

If you are here for Watery Wednesday, you will easily spot the patch of blue, (or you could just visit yesterday's post!). The monochrome look doesn't necessarily rely on sun and water, sometimes the trees take on the colour of the rocks as well.

Noosa Heads

Another for good measure

I liked yesterday's photo a lot, so I thought I'd post another. Once again in full colour, it's enough to make one want to experiment in monochrome!

Noosa Heads

Full Colour

Before sunset, when the sun is low but still at full strength, the ocean sucks the colour out of the day.

Noosa Heads

Seven Days of Wood
7 - the Sunset

The sun sets through the timber frame of a new house.

Seven Days of Wood
6 - Plywood

The Wood is there somewhere. Wood I lie to you?

This weird yellow light was to be my skywatch photo for Friday, but, well I just got my days a bit muddled this week! Strangely the sun looks very high in the sky going by the reflection on the cloud, but as can be seen from the depth of shadow in the background, it was in reality almost beyond the horizon, hence the strange illumination.

There's still time to and check out all the other Skywatch photos!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Seven Days of Wood
5 - Old Meets New

In days gone by the vertical pieces of this picnic shelter would have been morticed into the bottom rail, and over fifty years or more the mortices have probably had their share of water resulting in a bit of rot. The modern solution is simple: whack on a new bit with a few screws out of a gun.

New screws look terrific for about half an hour, before the salt air descends for the first time.

Then every thing new is old again.

Seven Days of Wood
4 - the Paperbark

The melalueca is often referred to as a "paperbark" as it's bark is very reminiscent of a strong tissue paper. Each layer is in a different hue, and it was quite fashionable for a time, for artists to create entire pictures using different coloured bark pasted to a board background.

I suspect that that particular art movement has now been relegated to the "tourist kitsch" school.

Seven Days of Wood
3 - The Boardwalk

The Boardwalk through the Melaleuca forest will carry you to the beach, without damaging the understory plants.

Seven Days of Wood
2 - The Entry Statement

Everything needs an entry statement apparently, gone are the days when clever planning and design allowed one to discover where to go of one's own volition.

This one says:- "This is the way to the beach", or it would if it could speak.

Seven Days of Wood
1 - The Post

By the beach, timber ages to a beautiful grey if you let it. Although I've done no one a favour with the reduced size of the photographs, if your eyes are good enough you'll see a small procession of ants in profile as they march to the top of the post, which itself is sun bleached to a colour which is complimentary to the sky.

This is my contribution to the City Daily Photo Blogs theme for February: Wood