A Monk’s life

Posted on March 7, 2009
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Holidays, Breaking news, Photography - All about the photos Baby!, 365 | 3 Comments

Last weekend I decided, that rather than sit alone at home, bored stiff, while the other 5 units of my family spread off on their own adventures (or work), I would go on a day trip to New Norcia. It’s about 2 hours drive north of Perth and boasts a monastery town with a pretty amazing history.They offer walking tours with a guide twice a day so I timed my visit to catch the tour. I have to admit, the town has an impressive history and some pretty spectacular buildings, alters and paintings.

This was one of the 4 boarding schools in New Norcia. At the time, they were segregated. White girls, aboriginal girls, white boys, and aboriginal boys all run by nuns and monks.

Boarding school a la monk (by She'll Be Apples)

Apparently a artist was commissioned to make this piano with the little ivory that the monks had in their possession. Because there was such a scarcity of ivory at the time, there was not enough to make the traditional keys, so they are reversed. Ivory on the top instead.

Reverse Piano (by She'll Be Apples)

One of the many churches in New Norcia (St Gertrude’s I think)

Look up...waaaaaaaaaay up (by She'll Be Apples)

My favorite image… this alter and the ceiling mural were exquisite!

Drawing eyes towards the heavens (by She'll Be Apples)

Ironically, after flying 15000 km to live in Perth 5 years ago, it took a trip to New Norcia to meet another Canadian! A woman from Saskatchewan who also holds a pretty big interest in photography (as did her partner.) This commonality resounded with all of us and we spent most of the afternoon together having a drink and a laugh after the tour ended. As you can see in this next image of one of the boarding schools, the day was pretty much overcast and what looked to be a pretty decent storm was on the way!

Cross on high (by She'll Be Apples)

By the time 6:30 rolled around, I knew I should head back. With 2 hours driving ahead of me, I didn’t want to be caught in the storm or the dark really, with the road under quite a bit of construction (I.e. red gravel blocks off an on, slowing to 40km and then up to 110km.) As is turned out, the storm seemed to have preceded me, leaving tree branches, bushes and gum nuts all over the road making the drive just a smidgen longer as I avoided the debris and slowed over the gum nuts so as not to go flying off a cliff skating all over the road slam headfirst into a land train who did NOT feel the need to slow for the gumnuts.

I was almost home when I saw the sunset over the ocean. WOW! I couldn’t bear making the left turn towards home without stopping to get a shot of the technicolour sky! I convinced myself that abandoning my kids for 10 minutes more wouldn’t scar them for life (or at least not that badly) and headed to the beach.

The result.

The incredible technicolour sunset (by She'll Be Apples)

Sorry for the scars kids, but this ones a framer!

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New addition to She’ll Be Apples

Posted on December 3, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Stupidity and randomness, Breaking news, Tools of the trade - Are you sure I'm qualified?, A "How-to" tutorial of insanity, Things that give me inspiration, Photography - All about the photos Baby! | Leave a Comment

Just in case you hadn’t noticed, (I know it’s a small thing, don’t complain that I expect miracles) I’ve added a new section to the main menu.

Look up… way up… there it is! Right next to the disclosure policy. 365

One day a while back I was trolling surfing the net and I found a blog with the same category. It was a challenge. Take one picture a day (not just one, but at least one) for a year and post it as a record.

It might not sound too difficult but it’s meant to challenge your imagination as a photographer. Nobody wants 365 pictures of thier dog on display so you need to use that imagination and creativity to think of something interesting to post each day. Different perspectives, composition, lighting and subjects are supposed to give you some insight into what you truly enjoy photgraphing and hone your skills as a photographer.

I’ve decided to take on the challenge and began my 365 journey on December first 2008. I figured at the very least, I’d get through the Christmas season! I might not be able to post them daily (I might to do a weeks worth in once shot) but I will take at least one picture a day and post it to that day.

Please feel free to have a look and comment on them as you do here. Tell me if you like it, hate it or if it’s just.. meh for you. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Wish me luck!

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Fun with water

Posted on November 24, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Breaking news, A "How-to" tutorial of insanity, Things that give me inspiration, Photography - All about the photos Baby! | 2 Comments

Letting go…

This is my very first foray into pictures of water drops in motion. I sat outside and used a spray bottle to continuously wet this one leaf (whose colour I liked) It took a fair few shots but this is the result… I’m pretty pleased with it!Originally uploaded by She’ll Be Apples


Just thought I’d share the joy… my joy at finally getting a kick ass photo that I totally did on purpose.

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SEE??? A little effort goes a long way (In a country that occasionally sucks)

Posted on November 3, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Japan, Breaking news, Things that give me inspiration, Photography - All about the photos Baby!, They never should have let me be a mother | 2 Comments

Blowing ribbons, originally uploaded by She’ll Be Apples.

This is the result of our hard work this Friday. Chelsea’s geisha turned out pretty cool and she was the hit of the party.
Good thing I learned how to tie an obi properly in Japan.
Goes to show… no knowledge is useless knowledge!

All of the kids had a great time and my bandwith at home is virtually non-existant because of the massive MySpace uploads…LOL

Here are some more perspectives on her costume…

How demure

Halloween Geisha

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Spiders ARE conspiring to take out the bird population….

Posted on October 29, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Stupidity and randomness, Breaking news, A "How-to" tutorial of insanity, Photography - All about the photos Baby! | 5 Comments

ANOTHER ONE!!!!

Arghhhhhh!!!!!  I’m seriously about to start babbling gibberish and start packing my bags.

“That’s it! I want snow.”

Spiders don’t live in snow you see, but apparently Queensland is just CHOCK FULL OF THEM.  I could barely handle the idea of one massive bird eating spider but obviously they keep them as pets on the other side of Australia.

I will never sleep again….

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