Sunrise at Echo Point, Katoomba

Sunrise at Echo Point, Katoomba, originally uploaded by Adriana Glackin.

It's not very often that I find myself witnessing a sunrise with a camera in hand. Not very often, as in, ummm, never. So it was with a little apprehension that I tagged along to a sunrise shoot at Echo Point this past weekend.
Now, I'm not one to be anal or superstitious about things, but as soon as I put on my shoes and socks in the incorrect order, I knew this was going to be one of those days. Sure enough, I wasn’t 200m from my door when I realised that I had forgotten my jacket, beanie and gloves. Although it’s October, these items are essential for the upper mountains, especially since the sunrise shoot would be one of two locations that day. In the process of performing a U-turn, I managed to spill most of my espresso into my centre console (why don’t they make travel mugs to fit centre consoles I’ll never know...). So with jacket, gloves and beanie now in hand I hurried, as best as the speed limits allow, up the mountains before the sun rose over the horizon. Did I mention there are major road works being carried out in various locations up the mountains, which I hadn’t factored into the time required to get from one end of the mountains to the other?
I could see the sky was getting increasingly lighter with each passing kilometre and I was possibly not going to make it in time. Not only that, but there were no clouds or mist to be seen. I was also 10 minutes behind schedule, and I was meeting two other photographers, lets simply call them P1 and P2, and I certainly didn’t want to keep them waiting. Taking advantage of a red traffic light, I took the opportunity to call P1 and P2 to ascertain their whereabouts. Imagine my surprise (read horror, shock, astonishment) to find they were actually about 25 minutes behind me and would certainly not make it in time...P1 and P2 are dedicated and passionate photographers who think it quite normal to get up at stupid o’clock, drive countless kilometres simply to shoot a stunning sunrise – had they put their shoes and socks on incorrectly that morning as well?
Needless to say, it’s just as well P1 and P2 didn’t make it in time. The sunrise, while pink and pretty, was also very plain, very quick and very ordinary. This wasn’t going to be one of those Kodak moments. There was no cloud. There was no magical Katoomba mist rolling through the valley. And it was over in a matter of minutes.
Remind me again why Cosy Bed Syndrome as mentioned in a previous blog posting is a bad thing?

Long Live Rock and Roll

At the moment I'm reading the book "10 Songs that Changed the World" by June Skinner Sawyers. I should actually be reading that Sister's Keeper book, but that's another story... Back to the songs that changed the world, I'm only at number three, and I am totally engrossed with the amount of information that has been compiled for the songs. The book is a mixture of history and entertainment - so would that be histortainment or enterstory? Who knows. I'm not going to spoil it and announce all the songs here - you'll have to read the book yourself for that! I will say that the book is a trivia-night nut's delight! The question remains: will I be able to retain the information, and will I also be able to retrieve the information at the crucial time during a future trivia night? Only time will tell.

Sawyers' discusses the many aspects of the song "Hound Dog" in particular as sung by Elvis Presley, and how that changed the way we listened to and enjoyed music worldwide. Notably, she talks about the time Presley sang that particular tune on The Milton Berle Show in 1956. In Sawyer's words, "he slowed the rhythm right down to a licentious bump and grind to such an extent that everyone knew what was on his mind. The arbiters of good taste must have felt that the world was coming to an end, and all decency thrown out the window". Phew - thank goodness for the world of YouTube, because this "licentious bump and grind" I had to see for myself - could it have been so risque? Well, for 1956 it certainly was as Presley was only shown from the waist up in future performances, so as not to offend the television audiences...

Here's the clip from that historic performance, I won't spoil it and tell you when he slows that rhythm down, you'll simply have to see it all for yourself. Enjoy! Long live Rock and Roll!

~Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon ~

~Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon ~, originally uploaded by Adriana Glackin.

Recently I came upon a collection of surreal artworks created using simple pencil. The drawings were extremely detailed and quite large and I can only imagine the hundreds of hours taken to create each drawing. I only had time to admire about 6 or 7 of these beautiful drawings - there were so many more - and the ones I did view took my breath away. I have no idea of the age, gender or name of the artist, but I know they were very beautiful drawings that Salvador Dali would have been proud to call his own.

At the same time, I had bought a bunch of daisies I was intending to photograph. And while I did take photos of the daisies while in their prime, they remain simply 'photos of daisies' - really nothing special at all. As the daisies slowly wilted and decayed, it was interesting to see they took on the surreal features - they became very Dali-esque, with gravity dragging down the petals and flower heads. I wouldn't have considered photographing wilted daisies, thinking them too ugly, but instead seeing those wonderful surreal drawings inspired me to capture the daisies in their surreal best.

"Hot Water Service from the Sun!"

Yes, even in 1957, we were thinking of ways to utilise the sun's energy for our everyday household heating and electrical needs. This small article, scanned from the "Home Beautiful" Magazine March 1957 edition shows that even then, sourcing alternative power was a serious consideration. Such a shame that I don't have the April edition showing the survey results they refer to in the article. And here we are in 2009 and we are still striving for "free power for all". How disappointed would the editors from that time be to know that although solar hot water is readily available, not many households have taken it up... If you happen to have the April 1957 copy showing the survey results and related articles, then please add your link in the comment box.

Dust Storm hits Australia's eastern states

If you live in the eastern states of Australia, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd woken up on an alien planet, perhaps Mars, this morning. While the wind howled all night, we were greeted this morning with a most bizarre sunrise - a heavy, thick red/orange "fog" blanketed not just Sydney, but the state. According to the weather bureau, the last time visibility in Sydney was this poor (less than 1 km) was back in 1944. Normal life was disrupted as we marveled at our new look city. Images from today's dust storm are being posted to websites including Red Bubble - surreal images of the state being bathed in a heavy orange glow, in what I hope is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Make with the clicky-clicky (thanks Rhana) and view some amazing dust storm photography.