Happy New Year!

Glengallan

Just outside Warwick is a fascinating building which has seen the ups and downs of pastoral life. Glengallan is a mixture of unfinished wings, a polished front face, collapse and decay, careful restoration, lost land, and restored rose gardens.
Here are a few images taken in and around the homestead.

Light Trails

They say necessity is the mother of invention and these two experimental images came about due to not having a tripod while walking through the Toowoomba Christmas Wonderland in Queens Park. I had hoped to do the slow shutter manual zoom combination next time I took lights like these, but running through the display 10 minutes before closing time with just my camera in hand, that was simply not possible and after a few muffed shots, I thought of turning the inevitable shake to my advantage... Clown Dynamo and Balloons of Fire

Shots from Sydney

This week I spent three days in Sydney for a conference. In between learning about software and information architecture, I ducked out into the coldest few Spring days for several years to catch some of the surrounding views.

Sandringham Gardens Gate
Inside Hyde Park is a small but impeccably kept garden as a memorial to George V and George VI. Looking at the detail of the gates, I thought I could spot the initials GR incorporated in the patterns.

War Memorial Frieze
It was far too wet and windy to get a shot of the Pool of Reflection, so I went for one of my typical close up shots of the frieze on the east-facing wall of the memorial.

War Memorial Deco

There was such a wealth of Art Deco in Sydney. Due to the bad weather I couldn't line up any shots except this one, but the pictures in my mind I shan't forget.

St Mary's Detail

Over a side door of the magnificent St Mary's Cathedral

Town Hall
I could see the Town Hall from my hotel window and just about managed to get out at a time with enough light to bring out the ornate tower.

Down The Rabbit Hole
This quirky door and stairwell was in the Queen Victoria Building and looks for all the world like something out of Alice in Wonderland. While I don't normally put effects on my photos, this one seemed to warrant a soft focus look to suit the surreal dreamlike appearance.

Band of brothers...

Taken at the Grand Champion garden in Toowoomba.
I originally thought it was the deep magenta that caught my eye, but on looking at the image later I realised it was the multitude of little bullseyes, so this got the B&W treatment.

Ranunculus

These beautiful blooms were taken at the Grand Champion and Runner Up prize gardens of this year's Carnival of Flowers.

Very popular with the Toowoomba gardeners, these cultivars have come a long way from the humble buttercup.

By the Lake

This week, I was reading 'Streams in the Desert' by L B Cowman. The entry for Sept 18 caught my eye - you will see why:

Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18
Waiting on God is vital in order to see Him and receive a vision from Him. And the amount of time spent before Him is critical , for our hearts are like a photographer's film - the longer exposed, the deeper the impression. For God's vision to be impressed on our hearts, we must sit in stillness at His feet for quite a long time. Remember, the troubled surface of a lake will not reflect an image.

How true! Today on my morning walk, I decided that instead of hurtling around the lake, I would stop and think, and look out for reflections. So here is a part of the lake, amidst the rest of the surface disturbed by the wind and birds of the air, much more still, almost perfectly mirroring that which is above it.