Day 124: May the fourth...

Day 124: ...switch to manual...

It has been an odd May day. It has been cold, windy, cold and very windy. I have walked 500 miles I think, with [no] exaggeration. Not much anyway. The second half of the day was going to be a walk around our South Bank precinct on a photography course. That was to be preceded by joining the May Day march. 

Rather than carry the camera gear around on the march, I opted to park at South Bank, walk to the meeting point at Wharf Street, march to the Ekka grounds at Bowen Hills, catch the bus back to South Bank, walk to the southern end of South Bank and walk (and take pics) all the way back to the Art Gallery. I estimate that to have been about seven kilometres in total over the day...quite a hike. 

Assembling and getting underway

Sharing in the May Day march with colleagues is an important part of my political participation, my activism if you like. As someone who teaches and encourages participation and engagement, it would be wrong to not practice it. This is one of the many ways I opt to engage. I still believe that as a society we gain the most from our educational endeavours as a collective experience, not individual.


But the second half of the day was revelatory. It has been some years since I studied photography formally and I haven't since I bought the digital SLR...I've been a bit slack and used it in semi-auto mode, just aperture and shutter overrides...I hadn't really made the switch to 'M'...

Be warned, dear reader, the switch is now on 'M'...complete experience, fabulous to have that creative control again. I feel I should delete everything and start all over again...but I won't; it will be, as we say in my line of work, 'learning'. But gee, I'm excited...here's just a few samples, on long exposure...

Rainforest gardens (approx 15seconds) 

A different sense of the wheel (about 10 secs)

Across the river (approx 15 secs)

I took 143 pics in three and a half hours today...
May the fourth...be with me and my camera (and I'm not really a Star Wars fan...)

[Camera : iPhone 4S, 10.34am (May Day march); Canon EOS 60D, lenses: various, 5.36pm, 5.56pm, 6.06pm]