Meanwhile, starting off with some expired Fuji 100 Acros, feeling a bit sea sick on the train…

After arriving at Circular Quay I was surprised to see Customs House doing a roaring trade in food, as seems to be the custom these days…


Across the road they’ve turned the old Paragon Hotel into a McDonald’s. Now that’s uncustomary… and un-Australian!…

The Quay essentials, drugs, money and food…

The pigeons are different here…


On the ferry heading to Manly. Obligatory tourist shot of the Sydney Opera House…



More tourists having a captain cook. Not a bad endeavour…


Kids doing what kids do best. Trying to stop the pavement bubbling…

Manly Beach. Time to update that myspace profile…

Everyone seems to be point and shooting these days. Old new school street photographer?…

A man’s not a camel so we headed to the pub for some replenishment…

Luckily the next bar was open and seeing as they call it Harry’s Gym we obliged by doing our right arm curls with pints of beer! The girls on the left were balancing a little camera on top of a beer for their myspace self portrait update. I had to balance mine on the table for the quarter/half second exposure and to appease the objectionable dickheads on the right. Suck eggs fellas…

Waiting on the ferry to head back the oldies thought it a good time for a cup of tea…

We went in search of something more substantial and found a nice young lady pouring overpriced Lowenbrau’s around the corner…

Swapping to HP5 Plus @1600 and Sydney Harbour bridge from the ferry…

And skyscrapers that float…

They have these portable wheelchair ramps under lock and key on most platforms. The station master has the key. He isn’t always accessible tho’…

Windows on the World…

The train was packed on the way back and I relinquished my seat (seeing as I already had one!) to a lovely young lady with kids who plied me with cans of bourbon most of the way back. I wasn’t complaining! The bored commuter on the other hand…

Waiting for the driver for the final leg home…

Conclusions:

The inter-city trains can be a pain if they’re full or you can’t do a standing transfer to the seats. The internal doorway into the passenger compartment is very narrow and it gets claustrophobic sitting in the little access area (drinking helps!). The city trains are much better. No access to dunnies.

Getting on and off the trains can be a breeze if you’re a bit of an Evel Kneivel. Some stations have bigger gaps than others though so it pays to always board the last carriage as the guard has the key to the ramps and can give you a little assistance.

I was surprised at the number of stations becoming accessible. City Rail has some good info on it’s website but is not always up to date. It helps to phone ahead if you’re unsure. I even got a call back while on the train advising me the lifts were out at Central and to transfer at Stratfield instead. The guard also checked with me to make sure I knew.

The Manly-Sydney ferry and terminals are excellent and have good facilities.

….until next time

….the journey IS the destination

….Pete

Circular Quay, Sydney. Leica M6 TTL with 90/2 ‘cron on Ilford HP5 Plus @ 1600 in Microphen.

I was invited to submit some photos to the local Festival of the Arts exhibition this year and scored another highly commended for this one which I found surprising. In a sea of photoshopped ‘illustrations’ it’s good to see an old school film shot nearly get up, and street photography to boot! Then again, maybe they thought it was photoshopped because of the nasty vignette (not as pronounced in the original)!

I was told the judges took their time deliberating because of the slight angle I shot it at. Others would spend three minutes to ‘correct’ it in photoshop but that’s not how I captured it and besides, Aperture already does too much!

Of course, a photoshopped shot I did submit barely rated a second glance. All the HDR’s won. It’s a funny old world!