What am I ?

Design quiz "What am I ?

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/2500 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/2000 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/250 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/64000 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/4000 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/5000 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/1600 sec

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It's a car dealership! This is the new Audi’s ‘terminal’ architectural design. the building a has folded honeycomb pattern brushed aluminium facade with curved windows and curved silver surfaces inside, which is what the company says reflects the brand’s motorsport history. The Audi terminal was originally designed by architects, Allmann Sattler Wappner for Audi AG who are headquartered in Ingolstadt, Germany and is being rolled out globally.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/4000 sec

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Night Landscapes and VIVID 2010

Running from 27 May to 21 June 2010, Vivid Sydney brings together large scale light installations and projections, music performances, and creative ideas. I did a couple of posts last year for Vivid Sydney 2009 here and here and it returns in 2010. It once again featuring the lighting of the Sydney Opera House sails but not a bright or interesting as last years designs in my opinion, but worth seeing just the same. This event sees art and colour projected on to the iconic sails, transforming them into interesting harbourside artwork. This year they have also lit Macquarie Street from St Mary’s Cathedral down to the Hyde Park Barracks, Parliament House, the State Library and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. You can even follow this here on Twitter. You can walk from St Mary's towards circular quay past the Macquarie era buildings and the Royal Botanic Gardens to the Sydney Opera House.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/10 sec

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A street performer with LED lights paints a dance in a long exposure.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/4 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 400, 35mm f5.6, 3 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 16mm f2.8, 3 Sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 13mm f2.8, 3 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 0.8 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/5 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/8 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.7, 1 sec

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Just a few of the projections on St Mary's Catholic Church

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 3 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 0.6 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 14mm f2.8, 1.6 sec

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Three of the projections on the Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f5.6, 10 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/5 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/5 sec

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Cold, Wet but Thankfully no Wind

Its a cold rainy overcast day in sydney but Hermione and I went for a long walk anyway. It turned out to be quite a pleasant morning with Hermione enjoying the adventure of playing in puddles and running in the leash free park to keep warm.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm Macro f2.8 @ ISO 200, 105mm f5.6, 1/20 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm Macro f2.8 @ ISO 400, 105mm f8, 1/250 sec
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Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm Macro f2.8 @ ISO 400, 105mm f2.8, 1/60 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm Macro f2.8 @ ISO 400, 105mm f3, 1/160 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm Macro f2.8 @ ISO 200, 105mm f3.2, 1/100 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm Macro f2.8 @ ISO 400, 105mm f8, 1/250 sec

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A Self Derivative Work

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 400, 35mm f2, 1/50 sec

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Painting with Light

Light painting, light drawing or light graffiti is a technique in which exposure is made in a darkened setting and moving the camera while its pointed at a light source. The first photographer recognised to use this technique was Man Ray in his series "Space Writing"

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 400, 35mm f16, 5 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 400, 35mm f20, 10 sec

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Grass Anyone?

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/64000 sec

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Going Cold Turkey on Facebook

So guess what's trending high on Google searches? "how do I delete my Facebook account?" Facebook is experiencing a backlash amongst its users at the moment as concerns mount over its privacy policies or lack of fair ones. So today after recent hacks and leaks of Facebook users data, like accidentally making users' profiles completely public, I have decided to delete my Facebook account. Some other reasons that lead me to this decision are; Facebook's Terms Of Service state that they own your data, your posts, photos everything. Facebook gets you to share information that you might not otherwise share, and then unknown to you they make it publicly available. Your private data and all the accessible data of all your friends is shared with applications that you install, Dogbook, Farmville, Mafia Wars etc etc most consumers will have no idea that this data is basically public. Facebook makes it incredibly difficult to truly delete your account. The account deletion process is incredibly (and I think intentionally) confusing. And if you do delete your account for the next 14 days if you or any linked application or website tries to log back in to that account, you're back like nothing ever happened, undeleted and you will have no idea! Go here for instructions if you need to http://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-Delete-a-Facebook-Account

One interesting open source alternative gaining some popularity is Diaspora at http://www.joindiaspora.com/ and it does not even really exist yet.

Others are Flickr, Twitter, Google BUZZ etc.

Victoria Hill, Bendigo

Bendigo had rich gold bearing quartz reefs and more gold was found between 1850 and 1900 than anywhere else in the world combined at that time. Deep shafts were sunk with at least 140 shafts exceeding 300 metres in depth, 67 exceeded 600 metres, and 11 were over 1,000 metres deep and represents the largest concentration of deep shafts anywhere in the world. Quartz mining on Victoria Hill was the world's richest and deepest reef field and by 1861, Victoria Hill had yielded at least 35,000 Kg in gold. A lot of mining was also conducted on the surface as well.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/2000 sec

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The end of a mined seam of quartz. Maybe it opens out and is full of gold just beyond the surface? who knows?

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/800 sec

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These above ground diggings were all hewn by hand and the most basic of digging equipment like hand picks.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/8000 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/250 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/1000 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/200 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/80 sec

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The remains of part of an automated quartz crushing battery

Witches Falls

The Witches Falls section of the Mount Tamborine National Park became Queensland's first national park in 1908. Although this walk is just 3 Km from my house I had never been down this track. Witches Falls only runs after rain and after the deluge yesterday I figured it would be worth looking at.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/160 sec

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Being a national park Hermione had to stay at home, this sign at the entrance to the tunnel like track . . .

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f8, 1/10 sec

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In the early morning of a sunny day, birds chirping all around as I look at the the mist from low clouds wafting across the path winding down the mountain side . . .

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/30 sec

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A dark and silent wet track punctuated now an again by piccabeen palm groves . . .

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f16, 1/10 sec

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The eerie mist creeps through the palms as the lower down I went it fell completely silent as any birds were very high up in the canopy now . . .

Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, 200mm f2.8, 1/40 sec

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A sudden flutter close by in the shadows scares the living crap out of me as a Bush Turkey is disturbed by my foot fall . . .

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/40 sec

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Massive Strangler Figs tower up through the lower trees . . .

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/30 sec

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This photo does nothing to convey the enormous size, probably a once common sight . . .

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/50 sec

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Winding ever down with moss growing on anything that is not moving . . .

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, 35mm f2, 1/160 sec

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The sun shines rays down onto the rainforest floor and within seconds thick steam rises from the cool wet forest floor to join the cloudy mist . . .

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 400, 11mm f16, 1/5 sec

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Fenwick Creek was running, here shown cascading under the foot bridge and several metres later falling some 40 metres over a sheer cliff. Unfortunately even from the viewing platform the thick undergrowth mostly hid the view of this narrow cascade. It would look more interesting from below but there was no obvious way to get down.

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 400, 11mm f16, 1/2 sec

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Looking upstream was more interesting with the mist falling down the mountainside behind . . .

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 400, 11mm f8, 1/10 sec

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A very large rainforest hardwood tree, very rare in any location a timber getter could have easily extracted the tree . . .

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 400, 11mm f2.8, 1/5 sec

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Cycads, palms, strangler figs and tall rainforest hardwoods line the path as it meanders along the ridge before winding upwards towards the plateau once again.