Riverfire and family gatherings

Saturday night #2 &#3 and I braved the crowds to go to our first ever Riverfire  fireworks night. If you believe the TV reports so did 500,000 other people. I almost believe, I don't think I have seen that many people in one spot EVER.

LG (Lighting Guy) was the one who suggested we meet up and take some more photos (after the success of the laser night)...he stood us up, something about a better offer with less people.

We got to Southbank about 5pm ***three hours too late to get a good spot*** the black hawk helicopters where hovering either side of Victoria Bridge this looked like a good place to be. We pushed our way through the crowd managing to get a space for one person on the rail of the bridge looking directly at the lighting barge. As soon as the Black Hawks left so did half the people -I could have told them there was no room at southbank....I didn't I set up my tripod and spread out in my prime position. 

We waited two hours for 20mins of fireworks... was it worth it? Hell yes. I got some great photos, the music was loud, the crowd was in awe. Will I do it again? Maybe not. 

Southbank before the show

It took an hour to get back to the car, basically we just moved with the flow of the people until we got to the train station, where we were crammed in like sardines. I am sure this was quicker than if we had parked closed to the city... 



Daughter # 1 asked me to take her and BF to the airport early this morning, meaning a sleep over last night. Sister wanted to come and meet Lilly (my baby Golden Retriever), other family friends wanted to catch up before school started back. So we had 17 people for a BBQ yesterday. 

It was a spontaneous get together that turned into a great night.  I often find the less notice you give people when planning a night out or get together, the best chance you have of getting them to attend - no time to think of a reason not to if you already commit. No time for a better offer to come up. ***Don't get me wrong I am a big planner and would prefer everything organised weeks in advance, I have come to an understanding of how social events work after a few fails*** 

Lots of food was cooked and consumed, I was pretty spot on with my salads this time, only had a small amount of lettuce and stuff left. 

I am not really feeling chatty now so I will come back tomorrow with photos of a beautiful 3 year old who helped me with my spaghetti challenge photos.

Oh I have to pick the challenge for the Flickr group winners challenge this month.
I have an idea, I doubt I will be able to get an entry in as it is not my thing. A lot of the other members will like it and it is a good chance for me to get out and experiment

Natural light/sun flare. (I was going to do night photography, decided not to as this is a favorite of mine and everyone knows it)

Till tomorrow Bye

Brisbane Ekka

What a good night at the EKKA, the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. I expected to be bumping in to people all night with my tripod and camera bag. Don’t get me wrong there was still a lot of people, just not as many as I though there would be. It was also a lot smaller than I remember.

Is that because I am older, because I was without children to worry about? Or is it the GFC….

There were only 2 things I wanted to, go on the Ferris wheel and get a photo from the top. (This was a great idea in theory, I didn’t account for the swaying or the other people in or gondolier) I got one OK photo from about halfway up when we stoped for a pick up.

I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of rotations we had, probably because it was so quiet.

The wheel - turns out the one from the wheel was not as good as I remembered

I also wanted to get my first ever fireworks photos… I am very impressed with my results. Have I mentioned recently how much I love my camera? I have not processed all of them yet (I took 50ish with more than half being OK)

Sister wanted to look at the arts and crafts and the police display. (there was no police display...well it was closed) The arts and crafts were good; the cakes were amazing as was some of the felting and scrapbooking. I spent a bit of time looking at the photography entries, there were some that made me go WOW, some that were indifferent and some that were crap. (In my humble option). We also both wanted to look at the baby animals - I think every child at the show was there at the time so we looked from a distance

Dinner was in the Woolworths pavilion (a new building, which I will recommend to people looking for a venue to hire) lots of food sampling and being pushed to buy…just like the markets. Some of the food displayed made me drool. Sister had the most delicious snickers gelato, I had just a taste as I knew I could eat a whole one, I was give a taste of passionfruit and raspberry gelato (two separate samples) YUMMMO, lucky they were large samples or I would have caved and bought a whole one.

I am glad I went and maybe I will go again next year, perhaps on my own so there is no pressure to move on when taking photos.

 A few of my favorites

Lack of crowds was a good thing for me and listening to the radio today the reports are positive. 70,000 people went through the gates on people’s day, so I guess we were lucky to have a quiet day.

It has been perfect weather, I hope the weekend is a good.