Palm beach, located at Northern Beaches and an hour’s drive from Sydney, is one of our favourite getaway here with its crystal clear blue water, a hilly green surrounding and unspoiled landscape, not overly populated and commercialised as most good beaches in Australia tend to be.
We have found the beach is normally not overly crowded and today the waves were not too wild, just right for few kids there to play in the water. The lifeguards were keeping an eye and people could be seen relaxing to see the 2021 out.
Global warming? Its more like Global cooling in the Southern hemisphere with rain and cold descending in Sydney when it should be blazing hot as it is only few days from Australian summer. It is fun to photograph how succulents are doing in the rain, watching out from their little flower pots out to the world.
We went for a weekend hike today to a special place in Sydney that is a secret, not many people know about.
A monument of a grief stricken wife to her late painter husband at Lavender Bay in Sydney’s east shore steps from the infamous harbour bridge, Wendy’s secret garden is a weaving pathways of lush green bushes, stone steps, thick foliage and flowers up at a steep landscape. We were greeted by a small picnic spot with full view of the bridge before entering the secret trove. The house where the Wendy and Brett Whiteley lived still stands overlooking the views. On the side is a nice stone stairs leading down to the waters of the shore and short walk would lead you to the underbelly of the Bridge and Luna park.
Today we went for a weekend hike at Carradah Park and The Coal loader wharf at Eastern shores of Sydney. A short drive from the city, the place is full of numerous walk treks, heritage of Industrial past, bush lands and look outs with stunning views of the sea. A short hike up and you will be rewarded with breath taking view of both the Harbour bridge and the Sydney sky line in the same panoramic frame in the horizon. A rewarding walk not too far.
A recent convert to Fujifilm, I had an 18-55 for a wk and was about to dump it back, not happy with pixel peeping, low light..blah blah blah.I was two minded and wanted to keep it only as a 18mm landscape if I ever decided to keep it, which I was sure was not going to happen. I was already looking up for a parking in the city to go to the store for return.
I took this decade old so called ‘jack of all’ dog on a heavy sale and wanted to to give it a shot thinking the store really wanted to get their hands off it.To make a last minute decision, I used it during a wkend family mini hike to a forest.
Then this happened.. like a bolt from the sky, colors SOOC (Straight out of camera) are a perfect balance of vivid and sublime, blew me away like nothing I had seen before, clarity and sharpness..dream like, auto focus – razor sharp, auto\manual focus both no fault. This little lens came back to me like a burst of freshness out of blue sky, a story so compelling you want to read again and again. I finally found that elusive ‘Fuji colors’ I have been hearing for a long time – sans 35 1.4 which seems to be everybody’s darling. 18-55 is a silent assassin, a Femme Fatale. It is staying and not going anywhere! It is now glued on my XS 10 and and bumped out the primes I have off my bag.
With largest aperture of f2.8 on an APCS sensor, small pocket rocket like form factor, top grade build quality, this old lens, came out in 2012, still punches way above its weight and class. I am truly glad I ran into it and finally found that nirvana of being able to say I found my ultimate all season, all purpose, travel, family, everyday camera combo with this lens and Fuji’s XS 10 body, that does not compromise image quality, has image stabilization, is small enough to be carried around, isn’t too protruding and actually pushes the primes to the backup rather than primary lenses. This is a dream lens I had been looking for in a long time, truly, enough said.
Ravi Tandukar 