Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
So, can you guess what I've photographed here? Is it an ancient piece of Aztec civilisation? No, it's a very common object. If you're thinking that the grain suggests wood, you're on the right track.
They're here, there and everywhere. Or maybe that should be "hear, there and everywhere". They're sound investments - literally. But you knew that already, didn't you?
I'll end the post now - while my guitar gently weeps.
Today's joint winners are Akelamalu with How A Child Can Make You Cry and Mother’s Pride with Cards On The Table Again. The other top contenders were Millennium Housewife with Growing Pains; Dishing With Debbie with Us? Overdressed?; My Chaos My Bliss with A Sling And A Green Marker; Suldog with Self-Portraits Of The World’s Nicest People; Daryl with Waiting Impatiently; Lawstude’s Journey’s with Boracay Sunset; Cheshire Wife with Postcard From France and Moments From Suburbia with I’m Off To The Dentist Tomorrow. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Church in central Melbourne. Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Today's joint winners are Moannie with My Mother Was A Dancer and San Merideth with Return Of The Prodigal Blogger. The other top contenders were Spaced Out Ramblings with A Few Pictures From Paris; Katney’s Kaboodle with Sunday’s Psalm; Big Blue Barn West with Where Does Love Go?; Fat, Frumpy and Fifty with Once Upon A Time; Merisi with Autumn Elegy; Ellen B with Today’s Flowers #9; Rachel with A Lesson Of Mediocrity and Joan with Yellow. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Despite quite a few visits to Singapore since I was eleven years old, I don’t think I had ever come across the beam-structured Read Bridge until just before Christmas last year.
I was on my way to India and had very little time to spare, because I was only in transit for a day and a half and I wanted to shoot as many old-world images of the prosperous island-state as I possibly could. (Some of those photographs can be seen at Turn The Corner, Get Your Mind Out Of The Gutter and Open And Shutter Case.)
I was advised to spend some time at Clarke Quay and thought I’d be in and out of there in about twenty minutes. Yeah, right. From the moment I wandered in and shot some frames of a man washing down a glass-topped tourist boat, I probably spent close to three hours there.
I was captivated by the array of colours and sights at the riverside attraction. Comprising a huge array of restored warehouses, restaurants and nightclubs, the area is named after Sir Andrew Clarke, the second governor of Singapore.
Some of the brightly-painted junks moored at the mini-harbour also serve as restaurants, while others are used as sightseeing ferries for tourists. I thought about taking a quick trip on one, but there was so much colour and activity (and so little time) that I chose instead to walk around the whole area, exploring every nook, cranny, street corner, laneway and sub-precinct.
The light was moody, with thick grey cloud and little more than fractured sunlight, so the vibrant colours of the walls and windows were relatively easy to capture.
I walked several kilometers that day, shooting hundreds of frames. But no, I didn’t have any time to put my feet up. Next time I’m there, I’m sure I’ll find myself sitting by the dock of the bay.
Check out RuneE's "Building Bridges" theme at Visual Norway.
Today's joint winners are Kimberly with Time Travelling and Jules Stones with He Is really Here. The other top contenders were Liz with My Final Post For Tonight; Sabonai with Six Years Ago; Old Man Lincoln with Brookville Firemen’s Parade; Nap Warden with Run Report; Camikaos with What I Learned At Camp PDX; Jo Beaufoix with Proud Mummy Moment; Misty Dawn with Camera Critters 26; Lee with Killing Bugs; Que Sarah, Sarah with How About You?; Octamom with Baby Got A New Shoe; Quilly with Ella The Mattress Tester and Terri Rainer with And The Paranormal Journey Continues. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
I took these shots at Whitehorse, about an hour after I got off the Air Canada Jazz flight from Vancouver. The sign on the front door says "Yukon Mining Company" and the flowers were probably the last burst of autumn colour.
Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
This shot was taken while I was eating lunch at the High Country Inn in Whitehorse, literally a few minutes after I completed a journey of more than 24 hours since I walked out of my own front door in Melbourne.
These sachets in front of me on the table caught my eye because of the range of colours and the strong, easily definable lines and individual angles and kinks of their respective edges.
I had two cameras in my shoulder bag, but I opted for my Pentax K100D because it had my favourite lens, the versatile 18-125mm Sigma lens on it. I only took one shot and later, when I looked at my images on my laptop that night, I was quite gratified with the clarity of the result.
What you're looking at here is simply a scaled-down, low-resolution version of the original, but on the high-res shot you can actually see the little details on the corner of the sachets. I was very pleased with this result, because it looks as though I've used a macro lens instead.
I guess I was lucky because the light was fairly good. But if you're keen on the details, I shot this at F8 and 1/90 of a second.
I guess this is also the best place to answer a question I got asked on Friday - how many shots do I take before I'm satisfied with an image? The answer to that is very simple. I shoot on instinct, just as I write my novels. So if I'm satisfied with the first shot, I don't hit the shutter a second time.
If I'm shooting a landscape and it's a wide vista and the light is changing, I'll shoot between two and four frames or more if the situation demands. I'll shoot half a dozen if I am trying to capture a scene from several angles.
But I am drawn to these unusual shots of everyday objects and maybe - just maybe - it says something about my approach to photography, because they are generally the result of a single frame.
(The Odd Shots concept came from Katney. Say "G'day" to her.)
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
The first of the standard questions. Why do you blog?
Blogging started for me with lurking. Although I can talk the hind leg off a donkey, the other side of me is quite shy and sensitive. So for a loooonng time I lurked. I didn't know much about blogging then and just read one or two blogs. Occasionally. Sometimes dad would mention to me to start a blog, but I always felt I didn't have much to say that the world would be interested in. Then for the umpteenth time, I fell ill. Ill for me has varying degrees but this degree was the lying on the couch unable to do anything but toilet and feed myself. At least I could do that. I couldn't concentrate to read (I love reading) so I read blogs more avidly. Occasionally I would comment.
In February (2008), I was well enough to sit with a laptop on my knee and type. So I started a blog to fill the long hours of the day when I couldn't sleep and when waking hours were filled with anxiety. I started to blog to write about all the stuff that kept churning inside or the good stuff I wanted to share with the world. I started to blog to prove to myself that I was still alive and would remain so for as long as I could. If I couldn't keep up the living bit, the blogging bit would be a bit of me left behind for others. I am glad to say that the living bit is as strong as it ever was now, as is the blogging bit. There is no danger (currently) of either of these ceasing! ;0)
What's the story behind your blog name?
I love the English language and how you can make patterns with it. I love alliteration. I use it to gently chastise my children - 'You Silly Sausage!' 'You daft duck!' etc. My name is Cath and very definitely with a C. It is the only bit of my name I am precious about. It is NOT a K! I get Cath, Cathy, Catherine (my full name) in various spellings. As long as it is a C, I don't correct. I don't know why - I'm just crazy like that. I also was until recently a psychiatric nurse. I have been all my life. That's working with the emotionally disturbed, unbalanced, mad or simply - crazies. (I don't really think that about my patients - honest. It is the labels they get stuck with.)
Anyway, some of that rubs off a bit and to get through a day sometimes you have to be a bit crazy yourself. So there I am. CrazyCath. The 'Reflections' bit speaks for itself. I am reflective naturally and I knew I wouldn't be able to write without reflecting a bit. Reflections give an image of what is looking at the reflector - and that is what the blog is. It reflects a bit of me. It is not a true picture of me of course, like all mirrors, it only shows a part of me. But it is still me. It is just a reflection. So the blog was named: CrazyCath's Reflections. That is what my blog is.
What is the best thing about being a blogger?
Without a doubt, the best thing about being a blogger is the friends you meet. This was not something I thought I would get out of blogging. I hadn't read many blogs and hadn't considered that friendships could develop. I have met the most genuine, caring souls out there in BlogLand, or the blogosphere as some call it, and I would not be without these friends now. Some I keep in touch with through email, one or two through 'instant message' on another application and still more through their and my comments box. Such support, such care, genuine care and advice.
Sometimes I want to quit for a while, because I am tired, or stressed, but then I need to give back a bit of what I have taken too and I can't be that selfish. I would miss the feedback on my reflections, the attempts at making some prose or at photographing, etc. It's the communication with others that is the best thing. And unless you are a blogger, with real blogger friends who have helped you through some really tough times, (which is how it is for me) then you won't understand. But to feel that wave of love, encouragement, support and understanding come galloping through your screen, totally disregarding the miles.... That is what is the best thing about being a blogger.
What key advice would you give to a newbie blogger?
Whaddya mean a newbie blogger? I am a newbie blogger compared to many here! I'll have to take that label off my blog now. That was one thing I did - I made it clear on my blog that I was new to this, so any blogging faux pas would be unintentional and accidental. Secondly, when people would visit me, I would return the visit. It is just common courtesy and how I was raised. I treated it as though some one had placed a note through my letterbox complimenting me on an article in the local magazine. I would write and thank them, or at the very least do a blanket thank you in my next article or write a letter to the editor! So that is one piece of advice.
The other is to be yourself. If you try to be anything else, it is false. So just be natural on your blog. Also don't get too stressed about joining memes and things. They are good and lead you to a lot of friends with common interests, but if you are like me, you start to worry about deadlines and returning visits etc. When you get to the stage that it is stressing you, you need to take a step back. I did. I do my memes and I enjoy them but I try not to let myself get stressed because it takes all the fun out of it. So be yourself. That's the best bit of advice I could give. Blogging is to be enjoyed not endured. That is my baseline.
What is the most significant blog post you've ever read?
That is the most difficult question to answer. There are a number of posts out there have touched my heart. Still others have made me laugh till I cry. There is an extraordinary amount of talent there, in writing, in photography, in art - all types of art. I seriously trawled through my emails and some posts to try and pinpoint a selection of significant posts, (I simply could not name only one post) but I just can't pin it down. So I will save you the job of listening to me going on and on and on and on and.... you get the picture. Posts touch people for different reasons. Are significant for different reasons.
For me, it is those posts that show emotion, like your recent one and others about your mum David, Suldog's post about his dad '14 years on', those who have dealt with illness, and still deal with it daily. And not just the sad ones. There are those that make me laugh so much, and photographers - there are some great ones out there.
The photographer who impacted me most at the start of my blogging was John in Norway with his 'Fotoblogg'. Since then I have found so many good photographers in BlogLand, there are too many to mention. It is quality writing I enjoy too, be it emotional or funny. I can honestly say I meet at least one post each week that is significant to me. Mostly because of Post of the Day because that shows me such a variety of blogs, I end up on a roller coaster of emotion on some of the days I get to all the posts. 'Basically, what I want to say is this: Take a look at the blogroll and bloglist on both sidebars of my blog.' There you will find where I have read the most significant posts. In each and every blog and more besides I haven't got around to
putting on my sidebar yet.
What is the most significant blog post you've ever written?
There are a few, believe it or not, even after only a few months of blogging. But at least this is easier than the last question! Probably the most significant of all is one I wrote early on, to my mum. Who did read it in the end. That one got POTD if I remember correctly and it is significant because I never told my mum often enough or how much I loved her and appreciated her. That post rectified that. Our relationship is far more solid even if we do clash.
I think we are actually very alike. Not to forget him, the post to my dad is significant too, because it is the first time I think I blogged a bit about my childhood memories. As they are to all of us for one reason or another, childhood memories are special windows on those magic moments. Unforgettable. And now blogged. There are two others. The most significant one of all time I think is the tribute to my eldest son. You all know him as #1 son and more recently, as the Firstborn. I do not often name my children on my own blog so as to give them some protection.
But occasionally I have and here I am happy to tell my friends that the Firstborn is Liam. And along with my husband, he is an absolute rock. My Firstborn, My Son is without a doubt, for me, the most significant post I have written. Along with Losing Me. Which was all about.... losing me. In depression. The DS-Kid (formerly known as #2 son) is called John and will probably want to know why I have not mentioned him so I have to say that it is the things he does for me which are significant, not necessarily the things I have written. So that is my Sunday Roast. Which, incidentally, I have every Sunday. On the blog and literally. If you have read through that lot, thank you (and well done! you deserve a 'I survived Cath's chattering' medal!) and thank you to all of you who have ever visited me because your encouragement and comments are often the main thing that keeps me going.
I treasure the friendships I have found as much as any friendships I have in 'real' life. I started off thinking this was a fad that would die out in a bit. Especially if I was writing to myself all the time. Hmph. How wrong can I get....? (I now insist on getting an internet connection wherever I can if away. The first thing I do is turn on the pc and check the blog and my email inbox. My life is now a double life - the real world, and the blog.)
Today's Sunday Roast with Crazy Cath is the 37th in a weekly series of interviews with bloggers from around the world.
When I was very little, I remember the joy of reading, because it opened up a whole new world for me. I clearly recall being in church each Sunday, at the beautiful Missions To Seamen Church called St Nicholas in Calcutta - and suddenly being able to read the brass plaques on the walls, between the high, narrow, arched windows.
One plaque honoured the memory of a sailor who had sacrificed his own life to save a shipmate who had fallen overboard. The inscription at the bottom of the memorial plaque read: "Great love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for a friend."
Those first five words are central to a very solemn part of Melbourne, the city that I have lived in for the past 20 years. In the Shrine of Remembrance on St Kilda Road, there is a special reverence that is hard to describe. This marble inscription is at the heart of the Shrine's interior and it has a very significant meaning.
When the Shrine was built, the architects were helped by calculations relating to astronomy and mathematics. The intricate design means that a ray of sunlight shines through the high atrium on a special commemorative day, to illuminate the word "love".
That day is the 11th of November each year. And the ray of light strikes the word "love" at exactly 11am, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The calculations ensured that this accuracy would endure for 5000 years.
But then the state of Victoria introduced daylight saving - which in turn meant that the careful calculations would be thwarted. That's when all sorts of solutions were considered - and the simplest one was put in place.
Now, a simple prism refracts the light ray by exactly one hour. And at the appointed time on Armistice Day, the sunlight still illuminates the word "love".
Visit TNChick, creator of Photo Hunt. Today's theme: "Sad".
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Today's winner is Mrs Nesbitt with It Could Only Happen In Yorkshire. The other top contenders were Jennifer Harvey with The Sweet Spot With A Side Of Ice Cream; Kim with Elements; JoAnne with Sunset On Markermeer; Rhea with My Seven Seconds As A Superhero; Corey with Reflections; Quoth The Rav with The Key To Happiness; Valarie Lee with Flashback; Glimpses From South Pasadena with Line Dance; The Zen In You with Shed Some Light On This Situation; Eudae-Mamia with Hello? and Katherine with My Writing Group. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Today's joint winners are I’m Being Held Hostage with The Three Rs and Woman In A Window with Her: A Photo Essay. The other top contenders were Wisteria And Roses with Dear Lord; Over Good Ground with A Prayer For Gracie; Crystal Jigsaw with Freedom Of Choice; Menopausal Old Bag with The Seven Stages Of Grief; Expat Mum with Harr Harr; The Lehners In France with Burning Bridges; From A Thin Place with ABC Wednesday K and Marcia with Wordless Wednesday. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Today's joint winners are Moannie with Goldilocks Ha Ha Ha and Absolute Vanilla with Whale Of A Tail. The other top contenders were Mushy with The Long Gray Hallway; Millennium Housewife with Growing Pains; MamaGeek with All We Are Saying Is Give Leaf A Chance; Holly with More Doesn’t Lead To Less; Not Enough Mud with Even More Photos; Cowgirl with Of Woolly Lambs And Daffodils; Kathryn with Stewing; Carol with Amish Innovations. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.Hike, Eisenhower
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
It’s hard to pick a single outstanding feature of Kluane National Park in the Yukon. When we started off, skirting Lake Kathleen, the clouds glowered briefly over the water (as you can see in the first shot), giving my lens a study in varying shades of grey. They passed swiftly, leaving the water looking like mercury, as you can see in the post The Lake Was Placid.
So, what makes this place so special? Is it the changing light across Lake Kathleen?
Is it the clouds that cloak the snow-capped mountains and then move slowly aside to reveal their true majesty?
Is it the array of early fall colours splashed across the hillside? Well, I honestly don’t know the answer, but maybe if I give you all the pictorial evidence, you can tell me what the true answer is.
As we climbed, the delicate shades of the sky looked like someone had daubed a paintbrush across it. To emphasise the skyscape, there was no shortage of tall trees standing like sentinels along the ancient hillside. You just had to pick one tree (see above) and hit the trigger.
The snowline on the mountains to our right was clearly defined. When I took this shot I thought the dramatic white slashes across the dark grey shale looked like deep-powder versions of a lightning strike.
It can be very interesting when you’re climbing a narrow pathway and the soles of your sturdy hiking boots bring you great reassurance. You have to contend with tree roots, loose rocks, slippery tracks and trying to emulate Rudolf Nureyev as you leap gracefully (ahem) across gurgling rivulets.
You also have to decide where your priorities lie and whether to use both hands to steady the two cameras, both with long lenses, around your neck. Sooner or later, chances are you’re going to slip (I did) and either you use your hands to break your fall or you use them to protect your cameras and lenses (I chose the latter option, naturally).
And just when you think you cannot possibly take another shot of a mountain peak, the light changes to prove you wrong.
For the home of ABC Wednesday, go to Mrs Nesbitt's Place.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
