Wide Brown Land - on ways to make photos when the sky is too blue, and the sun too hot

wide brown land - sculpture at the national arboretum, Canberra

My other half informs me that I need to rename my blog. He feels that my life is not ordinary enough.

I feel that my life is better than it has been for a while, and that I like this kind of ordinary.

It doesn't involve much cooking, washing or ironing. The sun shines all day, and I get to explore new places.

I am now in Canberra, catching up with some of my good friends from The Arcanum

We have been virtual friends for 2 years now, meeting on line most weeks to chat and learn from each other under the guiding hand of Jackie Ranken. It is a real delight to meet some of them in the flesh, and also surprising how different the real person looks to the screen persona. 3D is better than 2D in so many ways.

We have been spending time exploring the Enlighten 2016 festival, in which the city buildings are illuminated at night. I feel immensely pleased for of one of my fellow photographers, Mark Kelly, who has his images projected digitally on three of Canberra's famous buildings.

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Exploring Enlighten after dark is a good way to avoid the relentless heat of the sun.

Photography at 35 degrees in blinding sunlight is not for the faint hearted.

National Portrait Gallery, Canberra

National Portrait Gallery, Canberra

Enlighten 2016

lanterns at the night noodle market

Questacon building , Enlighten 2016

National Gallery of Australia- exterior, Enlighten 2016

National gallery 'uranium chandeliers' installation 

uranium glass chandelier

exterior, National Gallery, Enlighten 2016

Stepping outside in daylight is only sensible at dawn and dusk. We dutifully got up early most mornings, heading off to the National Arboretum to see the sun rise. 

Later in the day we kept relatively cool at the National Gallery of Australia, either indoors, or in the mist sculpture amongst the trees in the sculpture garden.

mist in the sculpture garden

We fell in love with James Turrell's sculpture installation 'within without' 2010. Not only could we be indoors and also see the sky, but also we could spend time exploring the light and shapes created by his rooms within rooms, and the reflections in the interior pool.

'within without- exterior '

within without -interior

within without- pool

visitor to within without

some visitors attracted more attention than others.....

inner chamber of within without

reflections in the pool

This land is indeed brown and wide.

Red and parched underfoot.





The heat unforgiving.

The sculpture on the hilltop at the National Arboretum echoes the words of Dorothea Mackellar's poem 'My Country"

It is not my country, but it is the country of some really special friends.