British Expat Forum

A Town Like Alice


Not a particularly good photo, but an interesting story to go with the mountain ranges seen in the background.

Alice Springs is one of the places where Aboriginal Dreamtime is very much alive and well.
Australian Aboriginals place great importance on their 'Dreamtime', which originates from totemic ancestestry from the beginning of time.

In the Alice Springs area, these ancient ancestors were of a caterpillar origin and great battles raged between the different caterpillar species.

The ranges seen in this photo depict the coming together of two great caterpillar enemies (now turned into rock).....the road out of town goes straight through the middle of the 'caterpillars'

Many of the aboriginal people living in Alice Springs are descendents of Yeperenya, Utnerrengatye and Ntyarlke, (caterpillar ancestors).

Nice one, Mojan. So Ayers Rock is just bigger and lonelier than several similar lumps in that part of the world?

That's right Ruggie and to my surprise, Ayres Rock or Ulluru as it's now called, is 450km from Alice Springs (and there was me thinking it was just a bit of a bus trip from The Alice! )

The reason that Ulluru is so popular with photographers is because of the way the light changes the colour of the rock throughout the day.

But good light or not, you still end up with a shot of.......just a big lump of rock!!

Sorry Mike, I just realised I didn't reply to this. The photo was taken with my Fuji S5000. This has a builit-in 37-370 lens. I just looked back for the Exif data:

Aperture:F3.2
Shutter: 1/64
Focal Length: 17mm (I don't know how the exif data is reporting that from a 37mm lens, but that's what is says).
(Aperture Priority).

Alan.

Thought you'd bought a macro lens. Has this lens got a closeup mode, which may be getting misinterpreted by the imbedded software? Sounds a very useful lens, anyway.

Yes, the lens was set on macro mode.

Alan.

Dro-o-o-o-l. It's going to be a while before I can divert funds to photo equipment, unfortunately. And I miss having a closeup/macro mode.

Mistakes are part of a gardener's life. I underplanted this Lillium with Salvias, but the lily was well in flower before the salvias got their act together.



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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/cinthep/Plants/Lillium4.jpg

Mike

Here on the north coast of Scotland I sometimes get sunsets. Occasionally, I get sunrises, though I'm rarely up in time to capture them.

Mostly, though, I get clouds. And usually they are dreich grey clouds.

But on a rare occasion, the clouds over Dunnet Bay are interesting.



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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/cinthep/Caithness/CloudsDunnetBay.jpg

Mike

Parts of North West Sutherland are generally regarded as the last true wilderness in Western Europe.

Travelling the only single track road through the foothills of Ben Loyal, on diesel at £1.03 a litre, and the nearest filling station at Altnaharra half-a-tank away, certainly reinforces the concept of remoteness.

Even more scarce than filling stations, are public conveniences.



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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/cinthep/Jake-the-Dawg/JakedrivingbyBenLoyalP.jpg



Mike

Fantastic Mike............well a dog needs a pole to cock his leg up

SSue 8)

Loved the Lillium photo Mike and you have managed to do what so many photographers aim for......captured an insect sunbathing on the petals.

Ben Loyal looks a beautiful place. Nice of JTD to help out with the driving too!

Nice photos.

I've seen both low-flying grey scuds and clear blue at Dunnet, but not the beautiful cirro-cumulus in your pic. nice one. Makes me homesick (except it was never my home - just wifie's).

Evenig light, and a fly on the petal. I can feel the stillness. No need to wire the flower up for this shot, I reckon.

A while since I drove past Ben Loyal. Didn't notice the spelling, either - maybe I was concentrating on the laddie hammering along towards me...

Great selection, Mike.

We were in Interlaken (CH) and I went to take a picture of Chantal and she pulled a face.

As you can see, a Marmot decided to pull a face in the background as well, just like kids when a TV camera appears!




And for those who are open for strange place names look here http://ogee.org/gallery/RudePlaces where you will see 3 sings of a place in Austria.

What a wonderful shot Victor - started my day off with a chuckle!