Project Flickr : Week 4 - Weather

Well, given the atrocious weather we've had in Australia during December and January, and the associated tragedy of wrecked homes, decimated livelihoods, and tragically, loss of lives too, I wanted a picture that would mean something to Australians that have lived through it.  For about a month, every day's news has been dominated by predicted flood levels, levees, sandbagging operations, evacuations, homes being swept away, and tragically, people being swept away too.

I count my blessings that I live in Sydney, for it was sandwiched by massive flooding to the north and south in both Queensland and Victoria, but Sydney escaped unscathed.  After the flooding, tropical cyclones affected the Northern Territory, and more are on the way, while a heat wave giving temperatures of more than 40C is currently affecting South Australia, and Sydney too is getting temperatures in the mid 30C area at the moment too.

Channel 7 has it's news studio right in the centre of the CBD here in Sydney, and they have a news ticker running around the building.  As I stood and watched it for a while one day, two headlines related to the weather swept past - the floods were causing more people to be evacuated from their homes in Victoria, and a tropical cyclone was the cause of a Severe Weather Warning being issued in the Northern Territory.  That was it - I had my picture - all I had to do was wait for it to come around again (obviously I missed it first time).  While I was waiting, I tried various different angles, and (because I was using my 50mm prime) checked the focus.  I wanted to get the ticker going diagonally across the image, as well as get the name of the building.  I liked this angle, and once cropped top and bottom to a flatter aspect, I think it works well.

Later in the week was Australia Day, and we (along with 50% of Sydney) went to the beach (the other 50% congregated around the harbour).  There was a bank of mist hanging around just 200m off shore where we were, and bright blue sky and sunshine over the beach (yes - I got a burned back while building a sandcastle).  As the mist moved towards the shore and back out again, it was hiding and then revealing a headland just a little way out around the bay.  I took several shots, but in most, the mist was just a layer with constant density.  But at one point, I managed to capture this shot, as the mist was moving back out to sea, and a thin veil of it was dropping down off the land between the two heads, giving an eerie effect like a ghostly trail.  Of course, I'm being poetic - it was just mist - I think...

Oh, and just for fun - here's one of my nephew and the sand castle that caused me so much pain the following day :D