Kangaroo Point from Mowbray Park

A Subtle Shift

It seems that Brisbane is full of people that dislike boiling hot weather yet that's what we get here for at least 6 months of the year. The rest of the year it ranges from quite hot to pretty warm. Being from a much more changeable climate, it took me a few years to tune into Brisbane's seasons. We've just ticked over from 'boiling hot' into 'quite hot' (i.e. Autumn) in the last week or so. We don't get leaves turning orange and falling from the trees or cold gusty winds or anything quite so obvious. It's a barely detectable change in temperature - perhaps 2 degrees c. lower than a couple of weeks ago - with a drop in humidity. But it makes all the difference to important stuff like sleeping comfortably or being able to touch the steering wheel of your car without receiving third degree burns.

Row Boats

Despite being in the middle of the city, you often see rowing boats, canoes and jetskis weaving their wa around the CityCats. This little jetty is a means of getting to and from the nearby marina.

Story Bridge Climbers

You can do a "Story Bridge Climb" which means donning a blue and grey jumpsuit (so that you blend in with the bridge and the sky) and climbing the steps to the summit and checking out the river 80 metres below. I went on the climb a few years ago and loved it but I found it frustrating not being able to take pictures. Anyway, the organisers of the climb have introduced a Photographic Climb where you can bring your own camera and snap away to your heart's content. It's limited to just the camera - no bag, extra lenses, tripod or anything else.... but it looks like you get some great shots from up there. That is on my list for 2012.

Riverfire 2011

For the next three weeks, Brisbane will play host to all sorts of theatre, music, dance, wacky races and all sorts of other fun stuff at the Brisbane Festival. Last night was Riverfire which is a spectaular fireworks display that runs all the way from the Story Bridge to Victoria Bridge. Fireworks spray from bridges, tall buildings and barges in the river. Thousands of people line the banks - it's a great night out. I managed to get a good viewpoint from the 16th floor Riparian Plaza. This was shot through glass but I think it came out quite well :-)

Riveting Information

Doing a quick internet search, the general consensus is that there are 1.5 million rivets in the Story Bridge.

Your Chariot Awaits...

There's a bit of a hoo-haa (that's the technical word) going on about our cycle-hire scheme. While I have seen more and more people riding on them, some politicians and sections of the media are suggesting they're a complete flop because they are still running at a loss. Well it's only been 8 months. Not nearly long enough to scrap a project that promotes less traffic congestion, a cleaner environment, a healthier, fitter and more gorgeous population.  AND with their banana daquiri trim, (yes it looks like iced tea but I'm sticking with the daquiri) the bikes themselves even have a sort of kitsch style about them.

Postcard From The Edge

Taken last night at 5.56pm from the northern end of the Story Bridge. I think I managed to get one star - just above the curved green building. I like the glittering lights from the distant cranes on the left of the shot. That's the new Mater Children's Hospital site. The white and red stripe on the water at the bottom left is a passing CityCat with it's blinking orange light.

It was the last (and best) in a series of about 40 shots that I took with the sun going down. As time passed I played around with the shutter speed and aperture. I also chose to set the white balance to cloudy for a less blue/more orange glow to the reflections in the water.

For anyone who's interested, this was shot with my Nikon D40 on a tripod
aperture: f9
ISO: 200
shutter speed: 5"
focal length: 26mm
white balance: cloudy

Under The Bridge

Story Time

It's been a while since I've photographed the Story Bridge. This is a new angle for me. I've never been to the little park under the bridge on Kangaroo Point before as it's a dead end and I don't know anyone who lives around there. There's even a beach! (sort of) 

Geography Lessons

Down at South Bank, there is a section called Aquativity with all sorts of water activities for kids of all ages - including a big map of Brisbane. The city's tall buildings are represented by grids of fountains which shoot up when you are least expecting it and you can follow the Brisbane river in your bare feet as it winds its way from one side of the city to the other. The Story Bridge is represented by an arc of water (above).

Story Bridge Walkers

If you happen to be in Brisbane, I recommend walking along the Story Bridge walkway. You can do the Climb which is fun and informative but a bit time consuming and expensive and you can't take your own pictures. The walkway underneath is free and has views which rival those of the paying walkers above.

See a view from the east side of the bridge here.
See what's west of the bridge here (taken from Bowen Terrace).

Kangaroo Point Jacarandas

I make no apology for milking the Jacarandas In Bloom thing. There will be more purple on this page before the season's out if I have anything to do with it.

Riverfire 2009

To celebrate the opening of the annual Brisbane Festival each September, Brisbane is treated to "Riverfire", a half hour of pyrotechnics stretching for a couple of kilometres along the river from the Story Bridge (above) to Victoria Bridge. According to the paper yesterday, they were expecting 600,000 people to be turning up to see the display which included the F1-11 "dump and burn". Dump and burn, you ask? Lovers of the environment look away now. They do this low flyover with the F1-11 jet and, as the jet reaches the city, the pilot dumps fuel out of the back of the plane so that it catches on fire, giving the overall effect of a rocket blasting across the sky... with bone shaking, face melting sound. It really is spectacular and everyone gets very excited. A local radio station does a live cross into the cockpit of the jet and just before the pilot dumps his fuel he says "BRISBANE LOOK UP". Unfortunately, I missed getting a photo of that. I think I was too busy staring, mouth agape.

Being someone who has friends in high places, (well... the 16th floor) I was able to get a pretty good view!

Story Bridge Again

Sorry I just can't help myself.

I'm back! I heard it rained a lot while I was away but yesterday as we drove back from the airport, the sky was blue, the river was sparkling in the low winter sun and the light was bright and crisp making everything shine.

Thanks to everyone who visited while I was away.

Fenced Off

Posting magically continues despite me being on me hols. Back in late June.

Chainlink view of wharf

Posting magically continues despite me being on me hols. Back in late June.

Friends In High Places

On Saturday I was lucky enough to be invited to have a look out of some windows half way up Riparian Plaza. It's real picture-postcard stuff. I was very excited!

And the "Simpsons" sky just topped things of nicely.

What Lies Beneath

Indulge me: it's the Story Bridge again.

Did I tell you that the road that runs along it, the Bradfield Highway, is the shortest highway in Australia? It only goes for about a kilometre. It was named for John Bradfield who designed the bridge... oh and that other one down in Sydney...

Cloudwatch

It is currently lashing rain in Brizzy. It's great: the local dams have had a good soaking and are I think up to about 45% full. Last year they got down to 15% and we had to limit our showers to 4 minutes. There were a lot of brown gardens and dirty cars too it was awful. So the rain here is always welcome and on a personal note my chilli plants are getting their first flowers. I should mention that while it's all about nice long showers and blooming gardens here, the same low pressure trough has caused Coff's Harbour in New South Wales, south of us, to flood doing all sorts of damage to houses and cars.

From a Skywatch point of view, the thick blanket of cloud doesn't make for a very interesting photo so here's one from last week where the morning cloud was clearing for another sparkling day.

For other skies, far and wide, visit Skywatch Friday.