Details for Car Rally Photos

Further to your comment yesterday Pat (I did send you an email, wondering if you received it?), here are some details for the car rally photos :) Should have added in details when I uploaded the photos but just didn't think of it! 

The old tractor was a compulsory photo, found on a road crossing between highways. The old bicycle was found at Australia's smallest Post Office, which is no longer in operation. The Santa Hat is sitting atop the Perth-Kalgoorlie pipeline - was working on an "Industrial" Christmas card theme idea for the camera club. The old factory is the derelict Refractory site out at Clackline. The Church is St Saviours and is in the Katrine area along with the house ruins. The Asian Headstones were a compulsory photo and can be found in the Northam Cemetery. The gated doorway is part of the flour mill at Northam and finally had the last photo is a railway pin sitting in a fence found atop an old rail bridge just south of Toodyay.

Camera Club Car Rally

The last weekend of November saw members of our camera club head out for the day on a Car Rally. It was very well organised thanks to one member being an ex-rail worker who knows the countryside very well! It was well executed, well thought out and LOTS of fun! We had questions that required answering along the way, certain objects that had to be photographed and other photo opportunities along the way and here are a few of my photos from the day! 

Perth City Open House

I walked our city on Saturday with friend Erika as, for the 2nd year, the city hosted an "Open House" - opening doors & floors of various buildings in the city which granted the public access to places and spaces normally reserved to those elite few who live/work/own such. Although we didn't gain access to as many buildings as we would have liked due to waiting times etc, I was excited to see what we did! 

This was one of my first shots outside the QV1 building of Erika shooting QVI through this sculpture

First building we happened accross was the Royal Insurance Building, of which the façade and main entrance  were all original (beautiful polished copper surround around the lifts ... can't imagine polishing that every night/week!), marble accents, parquet floor, etc ... it was beautiful! 

In the building we headed up to the 2nd (?) floor to the space occupied by DockWise - a shipping company that had been in business for some 30+ years (I do hope that have quoted this all correctly - our tour guide was Asian and quite hard to understand at times with his strong accent!). The DockWise space was very modern, open, inviting, happy with well proportioned work areas. I would think it would be a great place to work! I didn't take any photos here, which I am now regretting! When we left the office space we headed up to the terrace garden which was set up with an outdoor kitchen/meeting/entertaining space. All in all very well done! 

From here we dove into Theobroma for a bite to eat & drink and took the opportunity to photograph the chocolates in the cabinet! 

 Best lunch I've had in a while :)

We headed across the street to Central Park and lined up with everyone else. I did try booking us into a balcony tour however due to winds etc they were very strict of numbers taken up here so we jumped into the top floor tour. Love everything that Central Park has for the employees - a huge, lock up bike area - with servicing area, dehumidifier/wash room for sweaty riding clothes, recycling, & so much more. Very innovative and interesting. Our tour was to the 51st floor at 205m elevation. 

This view was north west (ish) with the freeway coming in from the left, St Georges Tce from the bottom, Herdsman Lake to the top right and the Indian Ocean towards the top! Despite the way the building was constructed we could still feel the sway of the building which is up to 30cm! 

The next stop was Gordon Stephenson House which is occupied by various Govt. agencies and as a building has a 5 star energy rating. Not so keen on the 'unfinished' look throughout the building but that was the architects & building owners choices not mine. Lots of plywood and open ceiling areas exposing the elements of the building ... not my cup of tea but if it works for them that's great. We viewed offices on the 3rd floor, then headed up to the 7th floor where the photo below was taken in an atrium area to the north of the building overlooking the area between the Arena and Horseshoe bridge - showing the lowering of the rail line and bringing together of Perth & Northbridge. 

A few scenes and buildings from around the city while we were walking around 

 Reaching for the sky

 Loved the angles and lines

An alleyway behind a Church

Get me out of the concrete jungle

Our final stop was the First Church of Christ Scientist, which was built in 1939 in a Modern design, now known as Art Deco. The lady who gave us a tour of the Church had been a member all her life and her father was one of the founding members here in Perth I think!
I've still got more photos to edit but these were some of my favourites of the day.
Sorry about the long post but I wanted to put this all in writing before I forgot the details of the day. 

Chelle

The Red Beak Orchid

This one was a real treat for me this year as it will only flower after a summer fire. Luckily, for us orchid hunters, there was a small fire in a reserve in the northern suburbs of Perth last summer and these beautiful flowers were the end result of that fire along with many cowslip orchids. It was a real treat to see the flowers as I've often seen the leaves (called Elephants Ears as that is what they resemble) but until this year, hadn't seen the beautiful flowers. Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge them as they always look better when enlarged! Feeling the love this year ... 

More native orchids ...

Well, the hunt continues for native orchids. I've been so fortunate this year to see so many new varieties that I've not seen in previous years and I think this is partly due to the late winter rains we eventually received. So here are a few more ... we are SO VERY spoilt here in WA! 

 Snail Orchid

 Blue Beard Orchid

 Cowslip Orchid

A day at Araluen

 Lensbaby Tulip

 Monarch Butterfly sitting on a Tulip

 Inside the tulip - taken with the lensbaby with the macro converters

 Tamara's daughter modelled for us (taken with the Lensbaby)

 Let sleeping ducks lie ... taken with the Lensbaby

"There's a Duck Season!?!"

One of my favourite places to be late winter - early spring as they have Tulips and they are so hard to come by here in Western Australia. I played lots with the Lensbaby on this day as it was an outing with fellow Friends in Focus members and the theme was Lensbaby. I loved the opportunity and challenge with this lens as it works so differently to a normal lens. 

The Jug Orchid

I literately waited months for the flower at the top to appear and open and then it was gone in a matter of a week or two. I think they only flower for a short period of time but are quite an interesting orchid. We are fortunate as this species grows locally (within 5kms) of home and it's not one of those I need to travel 100's of kms to hunt out. 

The many faces and colours of Donkey & Pansy Orchids

These little girls (& guys?!?) are such pretty examples of Donkey and Pansy Orchids and what can be found in so many places around southern WA at the moment. They start flowering around June and go right through until October or November I think. They can vary by colour, shape and size ... these are but a few! 

The gorgeous Autumn Leek Orchid

Yes, you guessed it ... yet another first for me this year. Big thanks to Julie for sharing their location. Aren't they just so pretty. Each individual flower is approx. 1/2 a centimetre (1/5th of an inch), so pretty small. Having a fabulous year for orchid hunting ... looking forward to a few days hunting next week when I head east to Merredin for the West Australian Photographic Federation planned weekend. Hope to learn lots, meet new people and hopefully it won't be too cold! Lots of rain around over the past week with more coming so the wildflowers in general should be pretty spectacular! 

Cleopatra's Needles Orchid

Yes, another first for me this year ... this gorgeous little lady is Cleopatra's Needles - quite similar to the Queen of Sheeba but flowers much earlier. Took a bit of hunting down but was really quite excited when I found her! There may have been 2 varieties of this little lady in the same spot - as you can see from the photos they do vary a bit in colour!