Dude, Where’s My Carp?

Looks A Bit Fishy To Me

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I shot this over the long Easter weekend, while we were in Sydney. We had just walked into a café and while a group of friends and the rest of the Authorblog clan trooped in to place their order, I announced I was just going to spend a couple of minutes on the street with my camera.

This was on the wall of the Manly Fish Market, famous not just for the quality of its produce, but for its proximity (a stone’s throw away) from Manly Beach.

The surf was up that evening – but I was more interested in taking photographs. You just gotta do what you gotta do, right?

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Kung Fu Panda Takes A Stance

Them’s Fighting Words

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

It was after dark in Melbourne, and the lights were being switched off at Casa Authorblog. I was walking through the kitchen when I noticed that someone had left a miniature figure of Po, the Kung Fu Panda, on the island bench.

There was only one light on, about ten metres away – and the shadow was sufficiently interesting for me to get my camera out. Po by himself was not a great shot, especially since I never use a tripod.

But when I moved back a bit and included the sharper image of the handle of a coffee mug, things got far more interesting!

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Dog Day Afternoon

It Ain't Over Till It's Rover

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I reckon animals with droopy eyelids are irresistible. So when I saw this one, I had to get out my camera and shoot a close-up immediately.

No, he's not a real dog, but he still looks like he has personality. And yes, he has a woof over his head.

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Bridle Waltz

It's The Pre-Race Favourite

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

You know when you have one of those lightbulb moments, when something throws a switch and a little light illuminates your brain? I’ve often driven past this Melbourne landmark and it suddenly struck me that it would be perfect for this week’s representation of Camera Critters.

The horse that stands proud and tall above this old store has obviously been there for years. The shop is called Horse Torque And Lollies and I just thought it took its name from nearby Caulfield racecourse.

But then I did a little reading around the subject and found out that I was wrong. In its earliest guise, the place sold a wide variety of equine products and – judging by its location – must have done a roaring trade.

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Happy Feathers Day

Pretty Fly For A White Guy

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I was on the wooden pier at Milsons Point in Sydney a few weeks ago, shooting some frames of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, when this gull swooped in. He was probably wondering if I would toss him some bread crumbs, but I was busy with my camera.

It was a few seconds before I realised that he was in a perfect position for a wry shot that included the bird as well as the prominent sign.

I guess telling a gull not to go fishing would be akin to telling a fish not to go swimming. But not this gull. He wasn’t going anywhere near the surface of the water to find his lunch. I could have gone and bought him a doughnut, but it might have left him a bit green around the gills, er, gulls.


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Ram Beau

No Reason To Feel Sheepish

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

You reckon I've been rolling around in the slush, photographing livestock, right? Er, not quite. Yes, this is a merino, the famous drought-resistant breed of Australian sheep that is synonymous with top-grade wool. But there's more to it than meets the eye .....

I’m pretty observant, for a bloke. But don’t let that mislead you. It’s a well established fact among members of my clan that I cannot find things in a drawer, on a desk, on a table, in a cupboard, on a shelf, in a shopping bag, in a suitcase or in a supermarket aisle. But let me loose with a camera and I’ll see things that no one else can see.

Ya get my drift, right?


So when we recently went to Sydney for Easter, I had a bit of explaining to do. We pulled into a service station at Goulburn, a picturesque New South Wales town. Apart from the fact that the service station has plenty of bowsers, there is also a bakery across the street and plenty of other restaurants and outlets in a tight radius.

But as I drove towards the service station, we all noticed (some of us, ahem, more quickly than others) the huge merino that dominated the horizon. Yes, it’s the well-known Big Merino, a famous Australian tourist attraction. But here’s the problem. How come none of us had noticed it on previous trips, when we pulled in for a quick refuelling stop at the same place?

I went for the obvious option and said I must have been concentrating on a) traffic, b) pedestrians and c) speed limit signs. Spotting big merinos, I stuttered, was surely the responsibility of Mrs Authorblog and the Authorbloglets. Especially a merino that stands more than 15 metres tall.


Then, as I sat down to write this post, I did a bit of research and discovered that there’s nothing wrong with my eyesight. The mammoth figure of the Big Merino was actually constructed elsewhere in Goulburn. Then, when a highway bypass was built and the tourist traffic to the merino took a huge dip, the giant figure was moved, lock, stock and barrel to its present location.

I’m so clever I should take my bar exam. Or my baaaaa exam.


Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

Tea, Rex?

Must Be A Friend Of Michael Crichton's

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Picture this: you’re driving in a city that is not your hometown. You’re concentrating very hard on sticking to the rear bumper of your friend, who is shepherding you from one point to another.

You come to a downhill traffic intersection in the heart of the city. You look around, admiring the autumn weather. Then you notice the huge tail sticking out of the large building beside you.

You point it out to the kids. You say: "Look at that – is that the tail of a whale?"

You know you’ve got it wrong. The kids point out that it’s not the tail of the whale. Wrong colour. Wrong shape. Wrong construction totally. Then one of them spots the head that is protruding through another window of the museum, further back up the hill.

Did I say whale? I meant to say dinosaur. Honest.

If the tail curving out of the left-hand window (see photograph below) is not immediately apparent, I apologise because I only had time for two shots before the lights changed. Huh, you try shooting backwards over your right shoulder and get a frame unimpeded by the car window or your seatbelt!

It was a brief spark of belated inspiration. Must have been a Jurassic spark.


Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

Bending Over Backwards For Me

Taking Time Out At The Branch Office

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

There is a theory among my family members that I can spot a mosquito at thirty paces when I have a camera in my hand. But if I'm looking for something at Casa Authorblog, I am pretty much useless.

Like I said, it's only a theory. I ain't buying into the debate.

But here's one sight I definitely did not spot. We were at a park in Sydney during the Easter break when one of the Authorbloglets noticed this caterpillar camouflaged on a branch. As I studied the best angle to capture the view, the caterpillar also decided it would be best to bend over backwards to check me out.

Or maybe he was just completing his early-morning fitness regimen. Bendin'. Stretchin'. Surveyin' the scene.


Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

What Breed Of Dog Is This?

Maybe It's A Puff, Daddy

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Calling all dog breeders - can you identify the pedigree of these creatures? Yes, all right, I know I'm being ridiculous, but it's already Easter Sunday here in Australia and I think all that excess chocolate is starting to take effect.

Now I think I need some exercise, to work off all those calories and kilojoules. Maybe I'll take the dog for a walk.

No, really. I mean the real dog.

Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

A View To A Gill

Relax, This Is Just A Scale Model

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Time to fess up. I’m not an angler. I’m not even an occasional fisherman. I wouldn’t know which end of a rod to use. Some years ago, while I was in England, a keen fisherman asked if I wanted to go out on his boat.

Yeah, why not. But when he said he’d be out on the water from sunrise to sunset, the enjoyment factor suddenly got very diluted. Suffice to see I spent the day looking at museums instead.

I was in my mid-twenties when I travelled halfway across the world for a good friend’s wedding. I chalked in a few things for the next few days, figuring (fairly logically) that he and his new bride would be heading off on a well-deserved honeymoon.

But no. Surprise – they were going to stay home and do things instead. The day after the wedding, the groom nudged me and whispered: "Wanna come fishing?"

No, I replied. He dug me in the ribs again. "Yes, you DO want to come fishing."

But I can be really slow sometimes. I didn’t understand. So he explained (One. Word. At. A. Time) that if I said I really, truly wanted to go fishing, his new bride would let him go to "accompany" me. "But, " he hissed, "if she knows that I’m really the one who wants to leave her the day after our wedding to go fishing, she’ll kill me. "

So I spent a couple of hours on the precipice of boredom while he fished. Then he turned to me and said: "Wanna go to the pub?"

No, I replied. He winked at me "Yes, you DO want to go to the pub."

Er, no. I wanted to go and watch the cricket instead of wasting my time watching him trying to catch fish in a billabong. I don’t drink so why would I want to go to the pub?

So I spent a couple of hours sipping iced water in the pub while he sank several beers. Late in the afternoon, I asked him how he was going to explain to The New Bride how we had spent several hours "fishing" and hadn’t caught anything other than hay fever.

But he had it all under control. On the way home, he stopped at the fishmonger’s, then presented them to The New Bride and said he’d cook them for dinner.

He's still a good friend, but I’ve never been "fishing" with him again. I have a feeling I might, er, flounder.

Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

Baby, It's Colt Outside

Don’t Try Taking Me For A Ride

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

See the horse in this photograph? No? Look carefully. Still can’t see it? Would you like a clue? Okay, here goes - it’s a white horse.

Still can’t see it? Trust me, it’s there. No, it ain’t a figment of my imagination. Yes, there is seriously a white horse in the frame. Would I lie to you?

Okay, I’ll give you a closer look. This second shot (below) which was taken from a different angle using a different focal length, shows you exactly where the horse is. Naturally enough, it was shot outside the City Hall in Whitehorse, capital city of the Yukon.

If you look really carefully at the second shot, you'll even notice the clearly-defined shadow on the exterior wall.


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Roo Awakening

The Best Time To Spot Animals Is Sunset

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

While I was at the 2009 Australian International Air Show on Friday evening, I was on my way to check out the historic warbirds when I saw this sight. The Royal Australian Air Force flag was flying proudly in a brisk breeze - and it was as if a switch immediately flipped in my brain (okay, so it doesn’t happen often!) prompting me to take the shot for Camera Critters.

It had been a hot afternoon with a warm breeze, but weather conditions can change very rapidly here in Melbourne. The breeze had just turned 180 degrees and was whipping in from the south. The temperature had dropped at least 10 degrees or more in a few minutes.

As the flag fluttered, I realised that the cloud cover had increased significantly and the setting sun was providing a golden haze in the west. Problem was, the sun was behind me and the flag was in front of me.

A bit of quick manoeuvring - never the easiest thing to do when you’re moving against a huge crowd - meant that I was able to line up the flag with the sunset. I had to pause patiently several seconds for this shot, because I was waiting for the flag to fly in a particular direction.

The first shot I took wasn’t quite what I had envisaged, but the second frame (the one I’ve published here - was about as close as I was ever going to get. The diffused sunlight through the clouds has actually rendered the fabric of the flag translucent in this shot, which is very apt .

I’ve always wanted to shoot an image of a kangaroo against the setting sun.

Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

Here's A Fishy Character

Don't Can It, Just Wait For A Gannet

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

It was just one of those warm Melbourne afternoons and I decided to walk along the river at Southbank when I noticed this bird sitting in the sunlight. He was in no hurry at all. He just sat there, so I decided to drop anchor and watch him for a few minutes.

I thought I might be able to get in a fortuitous shot, because if the bird was hungry, he might launch himself across the river to pick up a fish that ventured unwisely close to the surface. But nope, he wasn’t hungry – or maybe he just wasn’t energetic enough.


As the moments ticked by, I noticed that each time he blinked, you could actually see a green sheen across the single eye that I could see in profile. He was a long way away from me, but if I’d moved closer I would have been at a different angle, merely looking at his back. So I stayed where I was, hoping to react quick enough to catch him.

This was just a lucky shot. You could say it happened in the blink of an eye.


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One-Horse Race

Yes, I Had To Jockey For Position

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

These shots were taken late at night in Singapore in December 2007, when I spent a day and a half in transit on my way to northern India. It was a very short, rushed trip and I covered a lot of mileage in the week that I was away from home, I had four flights and two all-day road trips in that time - but I returned with about 2,500 images on my camera.

On this hot humid day in Singapore - a city I have visited many times since I was eleven years old - I had walked for miles and was reluctant to put my camera away. Every step of the way, there was a unique sight for me to photograph.

Then I saw this shop selling handicrafts. I was so struck by the quality of the work (and I instantly recognised that most of the goods on display had been imported from India) that I stepped in and asked the manager if I could quickly shoot some frames on his premises.


He smiled and waved me into the shop and these were among the first half-dozen that I shot. The hand-made horses are a familiar sight in India and the colours summed my attention in a magical, magnetic way.

The light was very challenging, but I reckon the results are often better when we human beings have to ponder the best way through a situation, rather than just doing what we do in an automatic fashion.

I honestly can’t say which horse was the winner, but I have to admit that if I were a betting men (I’m not) my money would have been on the dark blue horse.

Especially in a local derby.

Extra, extra, read all about it: I've been interviewed here. Thank you to all those who have checked out the interview and voted as well.


Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

The Mane Event

Chorus: There Is Nothing Like A Tame

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

No, I didn't run away and join the circus. But I simply could not resist shooting this scene in Singapore's Chinatown area just a few days before Christmas 2007.

As a kid, I was always in awe of lion tamers in the circus and the confident manner in which they would make the big cats perform. Of course, it's been decades since I've seen a circus with lions and tigers among the live acts - so this sight really brought back memories.

And for those who like a bit of rock trivia, can anyone recall the hit track by The Eagles that begins with the following lines:

City girls just seem to find out early
How to open doors with just a smile

Your first clue is that the song was written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey. You second clue is that the track was recorded in 1975. Your third clue is contained in the photo in this post.

The answer: Lion Eyes, er, sorry, I meant to say Lyin' Eyes.

(Extra, extra, read all about it: I've been interviewed here. Thank you to all those who have followed this link and checked out the interview. There have been so many wonderful comments that I've tried to reply to each one personally - but you're setting a cracking pace. My humble and heartfelt thanks to all of you for the wonderful tributes and thoughts you have shared on the interview.)

Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright

Time To Earn Your Stripes

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

No, it’s not Sher Khan, the fearsome tiger from Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book - but it’s just about the closest you’ll ever find to a genuine, fair dinkum tiger in the concrete jungle that is a modern metropolis.

I shot this on a Singapore street in December 2007. The huge pavement cafe umbrella was dripping wet from the downpour and I shot this frame specifically to capture the residual raindrops on the dark blue surface. But you can clearly see the word "Tiger" on the left and the corporate emblem for Tiger beer on the right.

When I was a kid growing up in India, a friend of my Dad’s was a shikari, or hunter. And one of my earliest memories of visiting their home was the sight of a tiger-skin, beautifully prepared by a taxidermist from the pelt of the unfortunate animal that he had shot.

Its glassy eyes seemed to fix me as a target and its fangs were so frightening that I could never bring myself to touch them. Now, of course, tigers are a protected species in India and I don’t think there’d be many recreational hunters who would display the cured skin of a big cat.

In my childhood and through to my late teens, we used to spend part of our winter holidays at a place called Hazaribagh - which in Hindi literally means the place of a thousand tigers.

Just the kind of place I’d love to go back to - armed with nothing more lethal than my camera.

This last shot was an advertisement painted on the side of a bus and I thought the colours were great as it went past me - so I had to take a quick shot while it was on the move. It was an interesting exercise, because I tried to compose the shot to exclude other vehicles and pedestrians.

Not often you see a tiger in the city.


Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

When Harry Met Sully

Shall We Vote Fur Or Against?

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Remember how, when we were kids, we were always told to confront our monsters? Well, the advice worked for me then and I guess it works for me now.

This shot was taken in 2006, when I took the Authorbloglets to the wonderful "Pixar: 20 Years of Animation" interactive show at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (or ACMI, as it's better known) at Federation Square. I might add that it is really hard to tell who enjoyed it more, my kids or me.

And when I came face-to-face with this lifesize representation of Sully, I swear I felt no fear. So first I confronted him, then I did what any paparazzi photographer would do when confronted by a Hollywood star - I took his photo.

I've always been a big fan of Pixar Animation Studios and Sully of course was a central character in "Monsters, Inc.", their 2001 computer animated comedy film.

Just for the record, the character was voiced by John Goodman in the Oscar-winning film, but can you remember what Sully's real name was? If not, see below for the answer.

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ANSWER: Sully's real name was James P. Sullivan.

Horse Cents

Sorry, Sir, Could I Use Mastercard Instead?

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

In late 2006 we found ourselves in India unexpectedly, on a completely unplanned trip. I was only in Calcutta for little over a week, but managed to devote some carefully chosen hours to photographing the city where I was born.

It was the third week of October and while the humidity was still high, the early-morning mists were just rolling in, heralding the onset of cooler weather.

I was shooting a series of dawn shots along the Strand, by the banks of the Hooghly River, when I decided to make my way to the racecourse nearby.

The Royal Calcutta Turf Club was one of my father’s favourite weekend haunts and to honour his memory, I was compelled to walk across the road to shoot some scenes from a venue he knew so well. I shot the grandstand, the straight, the wooden rails, the final bend – and then I noticed that a couple of racehorses had completed trackwork and were being walked by their handlers towards the Hastings stables.

In the distance was the Victoria Memorial, one of the greatest symbols of this 300-year-old city. (You can view some of my other photographs of the wonderful building here.)

Would I be able to shoot the VM (as the splendid marble edifice is popularly known) over the saddle of one of the racehorses? One short sprint later, I was able to convince the horse’s handler that I was not daft (Mrs Authorblog might not agree) and that all I wanted was an unusual photograph.

All of sixty seconds later, I was done. But the handler was in no hurry. I thanked him a second time and put the lens cap back on my camera. Then I realised he wanted a tip. I rapidly computed the value of the rupees in my wallet and realised he would get an infinitely good deal because I had no small-denomination notes.

Money changed hands. Honour was restored. Handler and racehorse departed towards the stables.

Dad, if you were alive, you would smile at this closing line – but let’s just say I was the second generation of our clan to lose money on the thoroughbreds here at the Calcutta racecourse.


Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

Parrot Fashion

No Oscar, But He's Pollywood’s Leading Man

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

So there I was, on a hot afternoon in Perth a few days ago, looking for a polygon - but I had to make do with a "polly gone" instead. The brilliant hues of this macaw’s plumage caught my attention, so I had to get a shot of him, just to capture the great colours.

Fans of the peerless TV comedy troupe Monty Python would remember the famous Dead Parrot Sketch, but there were no such worries here. This bloke wasn’t dead. He wasn’t stuffed. He hadn’t even been to a taxidermist.

He’s simply a toy parrot. Yup, flip a switch and he’ll greet you with a marvellously authentic voice. So, yes, you can get really close to him – and he’ll never get his (or your) feathers ruffled.

Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.