The Blues in Bridgetown

For the last 18 years the 2nd weekend in November is when the Bridgetown Blues festival happens. But having the “Blues” is not a once a year thing, if you’ve got the blues then you’ve got them for life.

Here in Bridgetown every Tuesday evening the Bridgetown pizza shop on Highway 1 comes alive to the sound of the Blues. Steve Keir shows that while he’s damn good at making pizzas, that is definitely not his main skill. He is a Bluesman through and through. Steve (Chook) and drummer Daun Crozier came together to form the duo Chookfoot in 2005 and are regular performers at the Bridgetown Blues festival as well as various gigs around town and of course every Tuesday night.

Chookfoot

Chookfoot

Steve Keir

Steve Keir

Daun Crozier

Daun Crozier

Kim Perrier feeling the blues.

Kim Perrier feeling the blues.

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The twilight after sunset

I’ve never been a morning person, I definitely prefer the night, or the evenings or even late afternoon, in short anytime but not early in the day and preferably when it’s dark. The only problem with darkness though is that most of the day’s colours are lost. And I love colours; for me photography is more about the colour of things rather than the shape of things.

Yes, sunsets can be quite nice with some pretty colours; but I like to take photographs in that period of twilight just after the sun has set. Whilst it was hard to create these images when shooting with film cameras, these colours can be easily brought out using the sensors in most digital SLR cameras. I use Nikon DSLR’s and I find the Nikon CaptureNX software easily produces the sort of image I’m after – the image I could see in my mind’s eye when I pressed the camera’s button.

After Sunset in Cue, WA

After Sunset in Cue, WA

This photo was taken about 10 minutes after sunset one day when I was passing through Cue in the mid north of Western Australia. The image was taken facing west to where the sun had recently set. The next image was taken at Lake Argyle near Kununurra in the far north of Western Australia was taken facing east – with my back to where the sun had set and it shows a very different kind of light.

Lake Argyle after sunset II

But it’s not just landscapes that can give great colours, I also like photos that can be produced from within the forests here in the beautiful south west of Western Australia.

Pemberton after dark

In this image taken not far from Pemberton, I love how almost all the shape and details of the trees have been lost, leaving only the colours.

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Wellington Mill, Gnome garden.

Gnomes #1

A gang of gnomes?

I first heard about the Gnome collection in the South West of Western Australia quite a few years ago. I sort of made a mental note to myself that one day when I was in the area I would visit these gnomes. Then I forgot about them. I moved to the south west and I regularly travelled on roads quite close to the gnome garden but never visited it.

Now I have been there. The scale of the garden was quite a surprise. No one told me there were thousands and thousands of these silly little concrete creations wearing hats. They were everywhere, along creeks beds, through the trees, hiding under debris and just out in the sunshine. Of course they were not all Gnomes. Many of them looked suspiciously like renegades from the Disney film about a runaway girl and seven strange fellows.

Gnomes #2

An endless sea of gnomes

I’m interested in how these sorts of places come into being. Are they planned as a tourist trap for people like me? The urban myth has it that once upon a time, long ago. Someone left a gnome on this particular roundabout as a sort of joke. Someone else left another, and another. Now busloads of foreign tourists arrive, take the obligatory photos, maybe even leave a gnome or two and move on to see the next idiosyncratic part of WA. Why? Is this what we need to do just to be different from elsewhere? or is this just quirky fun?

Gnomes #3

The Bard

Gnomes #4

Clare the glamorous gnome

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Balingup Medieval Carnivale

Balingup is the first town / village north of Bridgetown on the South West Highway, about 25km closer to Perth and Bunbury. The town is known (imho) for two things , the best provincial French restaurant in WA Fre-Jac and the Balingup Medieval Carnivale held on the fourth weekend of August each year.

This year, I managed to attend the carnivale but was unable to secure a restaurant booking and had to be content with some Yahava coffee and a duck pie from the Fre-Jac coffee shop.

A few pics from my day at the carnivale ….

Fire-eater at the Balingup Medieval Carnivale

Fire-eater at the Balingup Medieval Carnivale


Maid at the Balingup Medieaval Carnivale

Maid at the Balingup Medieval Carnivale


Knight at Balingup Medieval Carnivale

Knight at Balingup Medieval Carnivale


Dragon at the Balingup Medieval Carnivale

Dragon at the Balingup Medieval Carnivale


Man at the Balingup Medieaval Carnivale

Man at the Balingup Medieval Carnivale

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