Day 31 Watermans Beach and the countdown to school

Top soil sliding down to the water line at Watermans Beach

Exposed sand bags at Watermans Beach

Today as per my promise I went back to Watermans Beach to see how the higher than normal tide and other conditions associated with the tropical storm affected the beach.

As mentioned before I decided to pick on Watermans Beach because over the last 12 months there was a substantial amount of remedial work done to protect the facilities and road from being effected by sand erosion.

Looking South along Watermans Beach

In summary it looks like the large sandbags stood up to the storm well enough although a large number of the bags are now exposed and are now an eye sore. A large amount of the top soil delivered to cover the bags has been washed around or away.

The beach has been closed and it will be interesting to see the next steps taken by the authorities in respect to reopening the beach.

Back in March 2010 the sandbags go in to protect
the slope at Watermans Beach

On a totally separate note the kids are back to school on the 2nd February :) it will be great for them to have some routine back in their lives.

Day 30 Humid but no Cyclone Bianca

Red and White Bolivian quinoa with roasted vegetables

Reuben trying his luck at walking on water

Cyclone Bianca dissipated into a low pressure system with little effect except for an increased sea hight and some wind.

Not even any heavy rain came about from the system and by now it has certainly crossed the coast.

So hot and humid meant that time in the pool was a great way to spend some time and Reuben attempted to walk on water but had little luck.

Watermans Beach today 6pm

On the way home this afternoon from lunch with friends we headed via Watermans Beach just to see how the beach was going. It was only around 5:30pm  so we were a few hours away the expected peak in tide and storm surge.

As you can see many others came to look and some to play. It was noticeable that the sand covering the sandbag wall was leaving the beach. The waters were very clouded with the eroding sand from the shore with patches of dark clouded water where vegetation was also being washed away.

I intend to have a look at the beach tomorrow, have a great day or night.




Here is a link to my vimeo account for a better quality version of the video

Day 29 Tropical Cyclone Bianca Approaches

Watermans Beach

As I write this post we are on Cyclone watch which is very unusual for Perth and the last time Perth had a Tropical storm like this was in 1978. Whilst it is totally unusual for Perth to be on Cyclone watch, one thing to Perth's advantage is that this type of storm usually is much weaker this far south.

Julia and Ivy with a sky looking like a
prelude to the approaching
Cyclone

Having said that here is the Bureau of Meteorology's  current Remarks for the Cyclone:

" Bianca will be rapidly weakening as it approaches the coast on Sunday. Tides between Jurien Bay and Cape Naturaliste will be higher than normal and are likely to rise above the highest astronomical tide level. There is uncertainty about how fast it will be moving as it approaches the coast and therefore there is some risk that Bianca could still have additional impacts on the South West of WA. People should prepare for:
. COASTAL EROSION and FLOODING OF LOW LYING COASTAL AREAS
. ROUGH SEAS and DANGEROUS SURF CONDITIONS
. DAMAGING WINDS with gusts to 100 kilometres per hour 
. VERY HIGH to SEVERE FIRE DANGERS
. HEAVY RAINFALL south of the cyclone with possible LOCALISED FLOODING."

For Cyclone Bianca's track click here, obviously this link will die after a few days from now.

Exposed sandbags on the beach

So in preparation for Cyclone Bianca we thought we would take a drive along the coast and take some before shots of a beach which has been struggling with coastal erosion on a daily basis. The intention is to shoot it again after the Cyclone ether tomorrow or on Monday. The beach is at Waterman (google maps location), and it has had a large amount of sandbags placed in support of the wall towards the road and the restrooms. It is clear that the beach has continued to be eroded as today, as you can see from the photos a large number of the sand bags are exposed, whilst when this work was first completed the bags were covered with sand.

 As to cyclones this will be my third. Outside the other one in Perth (Alby, 1978) I was also around in Karratha when one went ashore near Onslow back when I was working as a commercial diver.

And the last picture today is in reply to Stefanie's comment on my post from yesterday :)

Day 28 Albany Wind Farm

Early morning Albany Wind Farm

Albany Wind Farm Turbines

Here is a post on a trip back in January 2010, and a few photos without kids in them.

In the first week of January 2010 I had the opportunity to photograph at the Albany Wind farm.

The Wind Farm is located about 12 km south west of Albany Western Australia, and generates around 75% of the electricity used by Albany.

The wind farm is owned by Verve Energy and was commissioned in October 2001.  The Turbines are of 1800 KW capacity sitting of 65m towers with 35m blades.  Clean green power produced here is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 76,000 tonnes per year.

Looking straight up at a Wind Turbine - Albany

We were staying about 5 km east of Denmark so it was a 45-50 km trip to Albany, and as we wanted to be there at dawn it meant a 4am start.  The first attempt was abandoned due to cloud, and then on the second attempt the sky at Denmark was clear so it was a go, but on location the situation was different.  A clear sky or a sky with high cloud would have been preferred.

Day 27 Bowling

Gutters up but Declan is starting to not need them for some of his bowling.

Yes he did get 1 Strike

Good job Decs

A short post on today's activity and pictures, our outing was to go bowling and surprisingly all six of us bowled two games. As to how we scored, I think that Julia and I both surprised ourselves as to how badly we bowled. Having said that I have more excuses than Julia because whilst I have only bowled occasionally, Julia on the other hand trained and was on a team :) (oops in trouble again).


As it is clear that I am not going to be able to move away from family photos in the short term, I have decided to use some of my older shoots to blog about so as break up the family posts. So the next post to go up on the blog will be to do with a trip to the Albany wind Farm which we did just a little over a year ago.

 Have a great day and or night.

Day 26 Australia Day

Floreat Beach on Australia Day

Reuben contemplates the surf

Today being Australia Day typically finds many people who can get to the beach do go down to the beach at some stage during the day.

Declan in the white wash

We made our trip mid morning at around 9am to Floreat beach where we caught up with Kirsty and Rob and friends. Typical Australia Day activities would include beach, BBQ, and fireworks.

 This year though instead of fireworks we are heading to see a movie. In today's photos we are at Floreat beach which is a little less tame than the beach we normally go to and the boys did well braving the dumping waves. We had a few dumps suffered mainly by Reuben but each time he braved the waves for more.

Have a great day.

Typical outlook of the Lifesaver Station

Day 25 Today's destination Kings Park

Never smile at one of these

Ivy runs close to the edge
lucky her mum didn't see
me let her.

I didn't use my sugar so Ivy decided to have it

Today we spent some time venturing through Kings Park and I found myself again photographing fast moving kids in harsh daylight.

I find the dynamic range on my Nikon D700 to be exceptional and it often surprises me with the results.

Without using any fill flash or reflectors and when the kids have hats on to shade their face I usually try to expose for the shaded face but then adjust so as to not blow out any highlights. This then may take a bit of work in Adobe Lightroom to increase exposure on the face.

DNA tower Kings Park Perth WA

So only a week left before school starts now so we intend to spend as much time as we can doing things that are fun for the kids.

 I enjoyed bumping up the colours in the DNA tower, totally unrealistic but I love the way the orange and blue work together. I also noticed that that the censor has some dust on it so I will need to clean that shortly.

Have a great Australia Day tomorrow to all those celebrating it.

Day 24 Aidan's Monsters arrive, and a couple of other things happen

Aidan's Monster drawings

Defrosting bread for lunch

Aidan's Monsters are drawings sold by Aidan's family to help cover the costs of his Leukemia treatment. Aidan is 5 and he loves clowns, monsters and drawing his blog is here. We received the monster drawings from Aidan this week and in our first photo today Declan and Reuben are holding up four of the drawings.

Thank you very much Aidan for your fantastic drawings from all of us and especially Declan, Reuben and Ivy, and we all wish you a very speedy recovery.

Other items of note today were, a hair cut for Declan and dad, a quick game of tip and run cricket, and a bread slice tower.

Declan before haircut 

Declan after

Have a great day everyone

Day 23 Fremantle Port for Lunch, Army Museum of WA

Ivy and Julia looking out to sea

Kailis fishing boat

Declan and Ivy view an
Australian Army uniform and
 equipment from the Vietnam war

An overcast day in Perth today and a little water falling from the sky but you could hardly call it rain, but that was the weather for our trip to Fremantle for lunch.  This morning it was the usual Sunday trip to the dog beach and most of us had a swim with the Barkster .  On our return we headed to out to Fremantle for a fish and chip lunch at Kailis.

After lunch it was time to visit the Army Museum of WA where we spent close to two hours viewing the exhibits.  In a post 1945 section the Museum covered activity of the Australian Army through to Afghanistan.  I was able to show the kids the uniform and weapons I used during my time in the Army Reserve from 1982 to 1988.  During my time in the Army most of the weapons and uniforms were still very much similar to what was used in the Vietnam war.

Me second from the right (no hat) 1983 

On our way back home we caught sight of the Leeuwin Sail Training Ship, which I have had to pleasure to shoot a few times before, unfortunately this time the ship was a little far for my lenses.

Leeuwin Sail Training Ship

Day 22 Apple, iPads, iPhones, iPods and Google

At the moment my favorite IT companies are Apple and Google, the iPad I received yesterday is a fantastic tool/toy.  In fact from Apple we have purchased probably 6 iPods, 5 iPhones 2 MacBooks and have been gifted 1 iPad.

We have also spent many dollars in the iTunes store on Music, Videos, and Applications, and today someone purchase the 10 billionth application.  So congratulations Apple over the last 5-6 years we have really enjoyed your products.

Apple iTunes store sells the 10 billionth application today

The second company which I am impressed with  is Google, thanks for Blogger which powers this blog and that of Julia's and some friends.  Thanks for a very reliable and free 8Gig of storage email account, google docs, search, maps and all for free.

Todays photo shows the counter heading towards 10 billionth application sold today at iTunes.

Day 21 Last day at WebSpy, Dinner, iPad and other goodies

View out my old office window

Today was my last day at WebSpy after many years as the CEO, and founder.  I had a great day and even had time to take some shots for todays blog post.

Unfortunately I will not be able to upload the photos until tomorrow as I don't have access to a PC(since updated).

Dinner at Cinnamon Club (Photo by Stef)

Nathan and Asa

We went out to dinner with ex staff tonight and had a great evening, thanks to all for coming, your warm wishes and thanks.

I have no doubts that I have had the pleasure of working with a great group.

Stef and Asa

Thanks for the iPad, (it is in the photos to be put up).  Also thanks to Stephanie and Kim for the personalised Calendar which I have also taken a shot of.

Presents, iPad 32gig 3g, Stef and Kim's photo calendar :)  

So I will update this post in a few hours with some pictures, thanks again, and sorry for the moment.

Have a great day/night all.





And now here are the pictures added, thanks again to all.

Day 20 Kites, Dog Power and Horse Power

Some days it is difficult to make the time to put a post-up, but when those days come around I remind myself of all the positives around posting daily.

Ivy flying her kite

I arrived home today just in time to join the family in their adventure to the park as they were heading off to fly kites.

Reuben enjoying a one dog power tow

Three kids a dog and three kites meant that not as many photos were taken as I would have wished for, there were, tangled kites, kites which wouldn't fly and wind that didn't blow or blew erratically, and there were even some tears.  But most of all there was an adventure and just like this blog and these photos show life was lived by doing something together.

Ford GT40 

Whilst I intend to write some posts later that are not as family oriented, I hope you enjoy the blog for what it is, a record of a moment in time which will live in memory and on the internet.

As to the photos, as I said not too many taken but there is Ivy flying her kite, Reuben enjoying one dog power and a Ford GT 40 with the driver enjoying much horse power.

The Ford GT 40 driver was kind enough to do a lap for me to take the photo as he saw me shooting from the hip the first time he drove by as I was caught on the hop.  Thanks Mr GT 40 driver in Sorrento WA if you need any photos give me a shout :) I would be happy to contra a photo shoot.

Day 19 More Fun and then a Sunset

Ivy takes a slide

Todays Sunset Perth Western Australia

The last three days I have been home with the kids whilst Julia has been working, and tomorrow and Friday I am back at work at WebSpy for my last two days.  I have left WebSpy and this is my last week serving out my notice period.

So today it was shopping, and then playground at Watermans Bay and then home, before waiting to after dinner for another trip out to view the sunset.  All was going well at sunset and then Reuben at full pelt stacked it on to the bitumen. Some skin was lost and we ended up having to leave to clean him up but he is a tough little feller.

Todays photos include a crop of Ivy going down the slide showing only her legs, in which I love the sand falling onto the slide as she goes together with the shape and colour of the slide.  Then two photos from the sunset session.  I had intended to do a long exposure moon lit shot tonight but the clouds have come in, and this will have to wait.

Day 18 Aviation Heritage Museum of Western Australia

Spitfire on display outside and another inside

By global standards the Aviation Heritage Museum in Western Australia is small; but having said that the information which is covered and aircraft on display are mainly Western Australia or Australia.

This therefore paints a very local picture of aviation history in Western Australian covering pioneer, commercial, and the wars.

Today Reuben in front Declan and Ivy in the back

Aircraft on display include a Catalina flying boat, a Lancaster, Tiger Moth, C-47, Canberra, Spitfire, and many more.

One of the aircraft is setup for children to play in and photos 2 and three show today and August 4th 2007 in the same plane.  Amazing how quickly time changes the little people.

August 4th 2007 Reuben up front and Declan 

Have a great day see you tomorrow