One for the ages

Return of the Seppo

Sadly, we've really dropped the ball on keeping this blog up to date over the past three months, but not without good reason.  Although not yet mentioned on this blog, Lydia and I are ending our tenure here in Melbourne to repatriate back to the US, specifically Atlanta.  The move is bittersweet and was not an easy decision; it involved a number of aspects and life choices (family and friends, financial, and temporal considerations), but ultimately we believe the time is right.

We will sincerely miss our friends here in Melbourne and it is with great regret that we'll have to miss some of their key life events- engagements, weddings, and babies.  Although we won't be able to celebrate with each of them in person, we're looking forward to staying in contact via Google Hangouts and email, and we certainly plan on returning in the not-too-distant future, if only to visit.  We're also looking forward to them visiting us in the States where we can hopefully share our lives with them.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to help fill the gaps we've left in the blog, particularly in regards to our moving preparations, our recent travels to Uluru, Perth, and Northern Queensland, and our farewells.

We officially fly out tomorrow back to Atlanta (coincidentally marking exactly two years in Australia), so today is officially our last day (for now) of our Australian adventure.  We can't thank our family back in the States and friends (both here in Australia and overseas) enough for all of their love and support.  We've made lifelong friends, accumulated unforgettable stories and adventures, and gained invaluable and unforgettable life experiences here in Australia.  We're looking forward to the next chapter of our lives continuing our adventure back in the US.  Although we won't be in Australia, we'll forever be Seppo Yanks.

An Island in the Sun

Alas, we find ourselves neglecting our beloved blog once again.  To our readers, please accept our earnest apologies, we promise it's for good cause.  While not publicised yet on this blog, we've had some considerable life and traveling developments over the past two months, which has been keeping us quite busy.  Stay tuned, as a windfall of posts shall follow.

To break the lapse in posts, here's a quick one of a timelapse I've put together from our long weekend in Fiji in May:



 And a couple of photos for good measure:

Wilson's Prom

A quick video recap of our camping trip down in Wilson's Prom last weekend.  Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of the hike or of Waterloo Bay where we stayed the second night, as I wanted to minimize weight for the 24km of hiking and I didn't want to risk dropping/soaking/destroying my camera on the hike.  In retrospect, I should've brought it, but oh well... as the song says, "No time for cameras, we'll use our eyes instead."

For those curious of how beautiful the scenery was, check out the below photos from the interwebs:

Photo courtesy of couriermail.com.au

Photo courtesy of kgrahamsjourneys.wordpress.com

5 Minutes or Less: It's a family affar (part deux)

A more substantial post to follow, but just wanted to share that Lydia and I had the pleasure of showing my sister and her boyfriend around greater Melbourne and Tasmania when they were in town a couple of weeks ago:

Thanks guys for coming to visit and for all of the fun!

Keeping up with the Jonses

Congratulations to Luke and Marnie Jones on their wedding this past weekend!

It was a beautiful ceremony right on the beach, and the reception was a party to be remembered.  We couldn't be happier for them!  I first met Luke over a year and a half ago at work.  After he warmed up to my Americaness (he was hesitant at first), we quickly became good friends, and he's become one of my best "mates" here in Australia; he, along with Nick (pictured below) have taken upon themselves to teach me the ways of their homeland, including the superiority of the metric system, the soft pronunciation of the letter "R," and what a B&S Ute is.  Not long after meeting Luke, Lydia and I had the honor of meeting his girlfriend Marnie, and we quickly all became close friends - we even spent Christmas together with their respective families.

I promised my other best mate that I'd post a picture on the blog.  You're welcome, Nicka

We wish them the best in their future lives together, and in their approaching travels.  Come April, we'll lose them both to an adventure over in Europe, which we're (selfishly) saddened by, although we suspect it won't be too long before we meet again, be it in Europe, Australia, or the States!

Good picture of Luke and Marnie, average picture of Lyds and myself

Tribeca Timelapse

As Lydia and I have both been holed up in our apartment this weekend (we've both come down with a nasty head cold), I figured I'd have a play with timelapse video.  I ordered a programmable shutter trigger for my camera about a week ago, but figured out yesterday that I can achieve the same result using my laptop and a bit of software.  Not wanting to leaving my camera and my laptop unattended in a public spot, and needing a powerpoint for my laptop, I figured the best place to try it out would be the porch of our apartment.  Unfortunately we don't have an awesome view of the night sky from our apartment (as evident in the video), so I had to frame the shot using a portrait orientation rather than the preferred landscape for video:

*Hot tip- change the video quality to HD720P to see the stars

Nonetheless, I'm pretty happy with the result, although I definitely have some ideas for improvement for next time around.  For the photography nerds out there, here's what settings I used:

13" exposure
F/3.5
ISO 800
One shot taken every 3 minutes, with the hope of capturing 80 shots (camera battery died after 62 shots)
Shots were taken starting at 8:27pm and continued until 12:31am

Hopefully more to come soon!