I thought I'd kick off this late post (sorry) with a panorama that I took last night as the sun sank into the Indian Ocean. Don't be deceived by the warm glow...it was freezing cold down there, but there is something about the ocean that draws me to it, regardless of the weather. Not to swim, mind you. That's not my thing at all. I just appreciate the ever-changing beauty, the power and the mystique. If I started swimming west from this point I'd eventually hit Africa and a whole world of different! Yet another place on the bucket list. In the meantime...

UK Trip

Tickets have been purchased! This is really happening! Now I'm terrified because I'm going over there for the first week by myself. I have no idea where anything is, or how to use the rail system, or money conversion. Luckily, I have some friends who are going to look after me for part of my week. For the rest of it, I need to summon the courage to actually go out and do things for myself in a place I am completely unfamiliar with. *Deep breath* I can do this! I'd be happy with myself if I can find my way to a cafe and some local shops.

Photography

I've started to take my beautiful camera with me so I don't miss great opportunities. Having said that, the sunset pics were all iPhone photos and the colour is natural!

I took some nice pics down at the beach near my favourite cafe the other day. I really need to take some pics of my local cafe. It's called Dome and it's part of a franchise chain across Australia and internationally. I've never had a bad coffee at Dome (@DomeCafeGroup), no matter where I go. I was itching to get back to my Dome after my US trip where we experienced some truly dreadful coffee. We have two of these cafes in Mandurah, but my favourite is at Doddi's Beach in Halls Head, which is where these pics are taken. The staff are wonderful, the food is delicious (my daughter loves the kids menu and especially the mac cheese and creamy milkshakes!), the views are fantastic and it is just so darned relaxing. It's not uncommon for me to go there twice on a weekend. The vegetarian breakfast is absolutely perfect. Picture this - eggs your way, mushrooms, tomato, baked beans, spinach, toast and a hash brown. I should pre-order tomorrow's breakfast right now! My travel buddy and I planned our US trip while sitting in various Domes around Perth and we are doing the same with our UK trip. Free Wifi certainly helps with this.

Well, after that massive plug for Dome...back to my pics. I really enjoy playing with the light through clouds and off water. I've also been trying to compose my pics to give them more perspective. I don't really have any idea of what I'm doing, but it's fun trying and I've been happier with the quality of my photos, particularly landscapes where there isn't necessarily a focus.

I quite like including people in my pics, but I much prefer them to be unposed. In these photos, the people are completely unknown to me. They just happened to be walking along the beach. Rather than leave them out, I thought I'd use them to help make sense of the picture.

But even taking pics of my kids and my friends, I'd much prefer to catch them with natural looks on their faces, because that is how I see them all the time and how I love to see them.

Competitions

Back in April, I entered a photo competition for Western Australian photography and scored a creditable third place on public voting (I entered with only 4 hours remaining in the competition!) The winning pic is at the bottom of this post.

Spurred on by this success, I'm going to try again, but something different this time.

I've been really brave and entered 5 of my pics in the NME Music Photography Awards. Some of my photos from the Australian Muse gigs last year turned out to be truly spectacular (though I may be a tad biased since I'm totally in love with this band). This was quite by accident. The flashing lights combined with lots of movement and crowd jostling made things rather challenging. I'm waiting for the pics to be approved so they can be added to the website for voting by the public. I'll post a reminder when that happens, but the link above will get you there. I've entered the Live category for Amateurs.If I win anything I won't be able to keep my mouth shut, so keep your fingers crossed and vote if you feel enthusiastic.

Writing

Being on school holidays has given me a bit of extra writing time, but I've also taken quite a bit of time to read. There's so much to be learned from seeing how other people craft their stories. I see techniques that I can integrate into my writing. I'm particularly interested in world-building - creating the world in which the story is set, but in a way that feels natural, as though the setting is another character to learn about in the narrative. Endless streams of description without any meaning to the characters is pointless and boring to the reader in my opinion, so I'm studying ways to bring world-building into my stories and experimenting! I do love experimenting. My own novel will require this exact skill of world-building, so I need to train myself. So to my followers who are wondering what I am doing towards my novel, there you have it. It will all come together when the time is right. I just know it. But for now, I'll continue to play.