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!

Melbourne in Pictures

I've been poking around town lately with my camera enjoying the warm and clear weather and grabbing some photos around town.  I've also been playing around with HDR photography and different exposures.  Here are a few shots that I've taken lately:

Melbourne Skyline from Abbotsford (standard exposure, no HDR, taken on Feb 13)

Melbourne skyline from St. Kilda pier (HDR shot taken today)

Sunset behind the city with the Abbotsford convent in the foreground (HDR shot taken on Feb 17)

St. Kilda Pavillion on St. Kilda Pier (standard exposure, no HDR taken today)

I'm still honing my skills, so I'll post some more photos soon.  Next up will be extra long exposure and timelapse videos after I purchase a timer remote.

Melbourne Sunset

This past Sunday, Lydia and I went to one of our favorite spots overlooking the city to watch the sunset and enjoy dinner and a bottle of wine.  I brought my camera along to get some sunset photos, and ended up shooting a quick clip of the flying foxes as they make their way towards the city for dinner:



The bats are pretty incredible, and surprisingly large, not to mention great in number.

From Wikipedia: Characteristically, all species of flying foxes only feed on nectar, blossom, pollen, and fruit, which explains their limited tropical distribution. They do not possess echolocation, a feature which helps the other suborder of bats, the microbats, locate and catch prey such as insects in mid-air. Instead, smell and eyesight are very well-developed in flying foxes.

It was a picturesque Melbourne summer evening!

The World is Alight

As it is capturing headlines worldwide, you may be familiar with the fact that Australia is experiencing record-breaking heat waves, and rampant bush fires in nearly all six states.  As a result, Lydia and I have donned our fire-retardant attire and forged ahead in our lives as usual (kidding).  While we’ve definitely had some hot days, Melbourne’s weather is fickle as ever, including one recent swing of one day reaching a high of 41C (105F) one day, with the following day reaching no higher than 21C (68F).  For the most part, we’re pretty isolated from the bush fires in greater Melbourne, and it would seem that most of Victoria has been spared this year (thus far).  The same can’t be said for our island neighbour to the south of Tasmania, and rural parts of New South Wales to the north, both of which have experienced some devastating bush fires.

Bush fires aren’t uncommon in Australia during the summer months, as the vegetation dries out quickly in the dry heat and winds, and eucalypt oil in much of the fallen foliage serves as an abundant fuel source.  Even in the relatively temperate and moist Dandenong mountains just east of Melbourne, bush fire has had it’s both devastating and necessary effect, as recently as 2009.  In fact, much of the native Australian flora is dependent upon semi-regular bush fire, whether to clear out old growth to make room for new, or in the case of a few Australian plants, as a necessity for reproduction.  Take for example the Acorn Banksia, which requires fire for its seeds to disperse.

Prior to European settlement, many Aboriginals would intentionally light bush fires, both as a means of hunting as well as to protect from too much dried fuel from accumulating.

And while bush fires can have devastating impacts to many homes and croplands, many times these fires are left unaltered in the rural outback.  Take for instance this image taken by NASA, known colloquially as “Black Marble.”

Source: "WA bushfires light NASA's 'Black Marble' photo of Earth," Herald Sun

Without knowledge of Australian urbanisation and geographic landscape, one might think that Western Australia is full of bustling metropolises, on the magnitude of Tokyo or New York City.  Even NASA had to take a second look at their photographs, which were taken in April and October 2012.  As it turns out, those patches of light are in fact unchecked bush fires in the Australian uninhabited expanse.

It’s pretty incredible to imagine the exact scale of those fires (although as this article reports, they may appear larger than they actually were due to the photographic techniques NASA used to assemble its images), but even more incredible is the fact that these fires would be burning without anyone really knowing.  

Itchy and "Screachy"

Two weeks ago, Lydia, Emily, and I headed down to Lorne on the Victorian coast to stay with some friends and their baby daughter for the weekend.  We were extended an invite by Jim, whom I met during my work orientation my third week in Australia.  Jim, originally from Chicago, moved down to Melbourne to be with his partner, Cathy, to have their little girl here in Australia (Cathy is originally from Australia).

A bit of background; Jim and his partner have been participating in a number of house sitting stints throughout greater Victoria, as he's taken his paternal leave and a leave of absence to spend time with his family.  It's been an awesome opportunity for them to get to experience different living situations for free, while also "paying it forward," by looking after the home owners' property and pets.  They've spent time in the mountains of Tasmania, on a cattle farm in northern Victoria, and most recently, coastal Victoria.  In terms of life experiences, Jim's got some pretty incredible stories from their times house sitting.  I was most intrigued by their time on the cattle farm, including learning how to patch fences, ride tractors, and herd cattle.

I hadn't seen Jim for nearly three months when he called me to invite us down to the coast.  I was pretty excited about hanging out, sharing some of our homebrew, and seeing the beautiful coast.  Lydia and I also figured it would be a good experience for Emily on her last weekend with us to get out of the city and see the coast.

We got a late start Saturday morning leaving Melbourne, as we had to get everyone mobilized and the car packed up.  We hit the road around 11 and rolled on down to the Great Ocean Road- a windy road that runs along the coast which starts about an hour west of Melbourne.  This wasn't our first time on the Great Ocean Road, as we had taken it to get down for our camping trip along the Great Ocean Walk back in March.

The ride down was relatively uneventful, although as per usual this time of year, we experienced nearly four seasons in one day.  When we left Melbourne it was a sunny and warm day, but by the time we arrived in Lorne, it was gray, cold, and pouring rain.  One thing about living down here is I have a greater appreciation for the different manifestations of rain; it's not like back home in Georgia where it either drizzles or pours marble-sized drops; here there is a much wider spectrum of possibilities, including such variants as the popular sideways mist, the dribble and pour, the it's-not-raining-yet-I'm-still-getting-wet and who could forget the not-uncommon sunny-day-blue-sky-where-the-hell-is-that-coming-from rain.  On more than one occasion on my way to work, I could've sworn that I've seen rain rise upwards, but maybe that was just the result of a couple of bleary-eyed mornings.

Regardless, the rain and cold didn't detract from the beauty of the coast.  We rolled in, or rather up, around 1pm.  One thing about the house that Jim and family were staying in was that it's perched on top of a coastal cliff, which one the one hand provided incredible views over the ocean, but on the other required considerable effort on behalf of our little Golf to ascend.  Coupled with slicked, unfinished road, I was impressed and surprised to find that our little Kraut (the car, not Lydia) had almost no issue at all making it up.

We were received warmly where we promptly turned our attention to both the adorable toddler and the two household pets, a cat whose name I can't recall, but for the purposes of this post, I will name "Screachy," and a dog named Flea (after the insect, not the mononymous bassist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers).  Upon arrival, I promptly ingested more than the recommended dose of anti-allergy medication to negate Screachy's effect on my sinuses.  We were informed that although friendly, apparently Screachy had a penchants for, without warning, jumping from furniture or the ground onto one's chest and shoulders, with no hesitation of using his claws for stability.  Screachy also had a bad habit of walking on the kitchen counters and dining table, which required constant attention to ensure that he, and more importantly his allergy-inducing fur, remained free from consumables.

Artist's Depiction of "Screachy"

We had a light lunch then headed down to the beach for some volleyball and pictures.  Sure enough, as soon as we got down to the sand, the skies opened up, with an impressive rendition of both sideways mist and substantial rain.  We weren't deterred however (and the little one was a trouper hanging out on a blanket on the beach), and had a good time bumping the volleyball back and forth, while chilling our feet in the frigid sand.  Not long after it began, the rain stopped, leaving us with a full double rainbow.  According to Jim, rainbows aren't uncommon along the coast, at least since they had been there, as they often saw at least one per day.  We paused briefly for some photo ops before returning to our volleyball game, though this time with the inclusion of soccer-style headers:

After sufficiently chilling our feet to the point of numbness, we returned back up to the house to relax by the wood stove heater and prepare a curry dinner.  I helped Jim "shuck" the chicken from the hip (do chickens have hips?) bone.  This proved more difficult than anticipated, although we were aided by the formidable sustenance of beer.  After finishing with the chicken, we left the bones aside in a bowl, which Screachy promptly retrieved and attempted to ingest, although unsuccessfully.


Dinner was amazing.  Cathy made homemade naan, which was delicious, and the chicken curry came out wonderfully, particularly after the addition of fresh vegetables.  After dinner, I headed out on to the porch to play around with some long exposure photography, with mixed results:

To end the night, Jim and I made the trek down (via a creative shortcut that may not have actually been a designated path) to the only pub in Lorne, whose owner also owned the house we stayed in.  Being a school holiday, times were busy at the pub- there was in total maybe six people there, all bemused by what must have been the top 100 worst songs of the early 90s.  Jim and I played one game of pool, called it a night, and hiked back up to the house to head to bed.


To keep Screachy at bay, Jim locked him in the laundry and bathroom facility of the house.  Screachy didn't appreciate his solidarity and proceeded to reprise the power ballads from the playlist we heard earlier at the pub, this time all in the key of what I can only assume to be C minor.  After track six or seven, Screachy retired to his chambers, only to pick up two hours later when I had to startle him awake to use the bathroom.


We awoke late the next morning to a wall of fog.  Jim headed down to surf as we mobilized- I was meant to join him as I had brought along my wet suit, but my aversion to cold water and inexperience kept me in the house, as the swell was easily over a meter.  I do intend to head back down to the coast at some point to try my hand, although I think I'll wait until January when it warms up a bit.


We said our goodbyes, hit the road, and headed back to Melbourne to let Emily pack, as she had to fly back to the States the next day.  We made sure to stop along the way where we picked up a couple of beers from a small-shop brewpub in Forrest, Victoria.


All in all, it was a great quiet weekend and we had a lot of fun catching up with Jim and Cathy and spending a short time down on the coast.

Winter is Here

June 21 marked the official first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, where we experienced the shortest sunlight-day of the year.  It's admittedly still a bit odd to have our seasons flipped here; given that today is seasonally equivalent to the day before Christmas Eve.  Below area few shots I took with my new camera to capture the season:


We're still deciding on how we want to celebrate the quickly approaching 4th of July, but we're pretty sure it won't be spent grilling hot dogs outside by the pool...

5 Minutes or Less: The Weekend in Pictures

Just a quick post of our weekend in pictures:

A view of Melbourne from Southbank Saturday night.  Lydia and I set out to see the Crown Casino Fire Show but unfortunately got sidetracked into "World Bar," which touts itself as "appealing to all cultures and tastes."  We didn't buy it and figured it's lack of discernible theme or atmosphere was due to lazy marketing...  Although we enjoyed our drinks and Entrée (appetizers here are called "Entrées", whereas Entrées are called "Mains"- Who knew the Aussies are more up-to-snuff on their French than the Americans?), we experienced first-hand the disadvantages of not practising tipping- poor service.  The wait staff were incredibly friendly, just not all-together devoted to their jobs.

On the walk home from the CBD through Fitroz Gardens, Lydia was noting how she was glad to not be walking in the park alone, for fear of someone jumping out of the bushes and grabbing her, when, on queue, this possum popped out of the trash can a mere yard away from us.  I tipped him for his performance

The next day, we made our obligatory journey to Ikea (as we do almost every two weeks) where I snapped a few photos of the Spring growth.  As we move further into October, it is becoming readily apparent that we are most definitely in a very different place.  Although still cool outside (average temperatures this week have been around 57 degrees), it is a bit odd to be watching UGA football, then walk outside to budding trees and longer days.

How quickly weather can change in Melbourne

I thought I would take some pictures of views from my office on a pretty day and share them with you. You all would both get to see Melbourne, and see what my office is like!

But then the clouds started to roll in.....

And this became a post about how quickly weather can change in Melbourne!

Thunderstorm video below: