Dipping the grapes caused the skin to form minute cracks. Which aided the drying process by allowing the moisture to escape from the grape berries. Over the years, newer more efficient ways of drying Sultana and other varieties of grapes. But many fruit blocks, as the farms where grapes are grown in australia are called. Still of stacks of old metal Dip Tins. Slowly rusting away in some quite corner.

Just added to the excitations stock archive. This low altitude aerial photo of Lock 10 on the Murray River at Wentworth. Situated just downstream of the Murray Darling Junction, Lock 10 and  low level weir control river levels for the Wentworth and Curlwaa irrigation districts. Because it is close to the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers, the two bodies of water have not yet mixed. Distinctly different sediment colours are clearly visible in this photo. The water from the Darling is the milky colour.

Similarly, if I buy a piece of kit here in Australia, which you advertise as having a lifetime warranty. Please don’t tell me after six months that you don’t stock and refuse to get a replacement part, which was faulty when I bought your lifetime guaranteed bloody product. Certainly don’t let me then find that I can buy the product directly from the manufacturer at full retail price for 1/5th of the price you are charging. And they honour the warranty. Oh and please don’t be surprised if after my long conversation with the manager of the international manufacturer, that your exclusive rights to import the product into Australia. Receive some unwanted attention from said manufacturer.

Don’t get me wrong. I really believe we should support our local traders, importers and retailers. I often buy locally, pay extra, just so that I do support locals. But I am really, really getting a little fatigued with the idea of remaining competitive whilst paying prices way above that paid by my international counterparts. Oh and as a side note. If you’re going to keep ripping me off for trying to do the right thing. You’d better come up with a much better reason than citing import duties and taxes as the reasons. Because I can do that maths in my head while you’re still trying to bullshit  me.

And while I’m grumbling. Why is there a need  to charge me an  account keeping fee each quarter for a service that I pay for in full in advance annually? More specifically. Why is has that charge increased by 125% this year over last? Really $520 a year to administer an account which is paid in advance seems a little rich.

The answer to that question is really easy…. BIG. If you haven’t stood on the edge of vast inland clay pan, on a hot summers day, you have no idea of just how much blue sky is out there. If you’re a landscape photographer it’s great to see so many blue skies in a month. A portrait photographer on the other hand may not share your enthusiasm. All the harsh sunlight that goes hand in hand with vast blue skies. Makes portrait photographers work a wee bit harder. Especially if their commission is to flatter their subjects. Ya can always tell a city photographer from down south. First thing they comment on is how bright the light is. You get use to it and learn to work around it.

But back to big blue skies. We are blessed with them in much of outback Australia. Except of course when they’re full of bloody dust whipped up buy a strong northerly. On those days you look straight up and see blue skies. Look towards the horizon and you’re lucky  to be able to see anything.  Mostly due to millions of tiny pieces of grit,traveling at full noise and  trying gouge your eyes out. That’s without the discomfort of having sand and grit in your mouth and ears. Fortunately hot northerly winds subside as we head into our Autumn. Leaving us with… you guessed it blue skies. occasionally we even get a little white fluffy cloud in our big blue skies. Oh what excitement, another compositional element to play with. I kid you not. Photographing a tree against a endless blue sky can get a bit…. boring. Add a little white fluffy cloud and landscape photographers of the great Australian outback, often get so excited that they…. well let’s just say they get excited.

Back in my youth, shooting with film. Black and white film no less. In fact to be really precise Panchromatic b/w film. I use to stick a really dark red filter over my lens to render the blue sky almost black in the final print. Contrast that against the  white, bleached  skeleton of a tree, that had long before called it a day.  You where well on your way to winning best landscape photo at the local camera clubs monthly meeting. In fact most of my early black and white landscapes featured trees. Mostly dead. Photographed against a big blue sky. Actually there wasn’t much else to shoot in a flat, semi arid  landscape, punctuated occasionally by a tree.

See, no trouble finding big blue skies in outback Australia. No shortage of local comic relief either.

Because space is so limited in the outback, locals have found a new space saving way to park their airplanes. At least it gives us poor bloody photographers something else to contrast against a big  blue sky. To be totally honest I would liked to have used a tree, but the closest thing to a tree was about 100 clicks south of this location on the Oodnadata Track.

Around 6000 bikers and their associates traveled to Mildura during the last week of March 2012 for the Ulysses AGM. Was a great spectacle to see motorcycles of all shapes, sizes, colours and marque’s. If you’re ever out and about when there is a Ulysses AGM being held near you, go check it out. Even if you’re not into bikes you have to appreciated the variety and quality of the machinery being ridden.

Yep I know it’s not really a theme. But two post about roses in one week has to come close. Today’s offering a brand new image into excitations stock archive. Created using natural light from a window on a medium format digital camera. this rose image is added to our collection of low price rights managed images. Our way of giving you the best of both worlds. Pricing similar to Royalty Free but with the added protection of Rights Managed. So that with these low priced RM images you have some protection from the old,  I’m using this image, now my direct competition is also using the same image syndrome.

The other reason I’m using this image. I have a soft spot for the old red rose. Must have, I’ve got about 150 red rose bushes in the studio gardens. Which just might be over kill, but everyone has to have a least one vice…. right.

Just for the record the red rose in this picture is “Dallas” an oldie but a goodie. I understand it is still used widely as a cut flower. I guess because it has amazing long straight stems. Dallas, doesn’t bud up all that well in our hot weather, but is a stunning red rose when fully open and holds extremely well as a cut flower. So there you have it. We wander of stock photography and started talking roses… sorry.

You can also find this image over at Photos Australia, where it might be slightly cheaper to license. Due to Photos Australia being based out of Europe and running a different pricing engine. I haven’t check so don’t take my word for that… I just suspect that maybe the case.

As I understand it David’s niece is now running the show. there is a new gallery/shop/museum with all manor of things. I was only there a very short time and was busy shooting for a client so had no time to check anything out properly. I did notice the museum will appeal to petrol heads, with tractors, race cars and early motor scooters. Eatery was of more interest to me, but then food and the consumption of is pretty much no 1 with me. No food, no work.  Also spied with my little eyes some rather neat sculptures. Mainly manufactured from corrugated iron roofing. Very Aussie. Artist responsible for those works is I believe Dudley Siviour.

Really had no time to explore but found this interesting set of Rose Hips right beside a small pond surrounded by beautiful mature trees. Not to mention a bamboo to be envied by all those who try to grow bamboo in these semi arid parts.

Hanging out with some ballooning friends recently. Lucky enough to get this great photo opp. Knew it was coming as soon as we realized the balloon would cross over the Murray River near the Abbortsford Bridge just upstream of Wentworth. I  became even more excited when I realized that it would cross the river just downstream of the bridge. Putting the aircraft into an already nice looking landscape. Great location also for a splash and dash. Where the balloon pilot just gently dips the balloon basket into the water and then climbs away. Always a beautiful sight . Many people seeing a splash and dash, somehow get the impression that the pilot has made a grave error. Or worse still they believe the balloon is crashing. In fact it’s a procedure requiring a great deal of skill, combined with incredible touch. Yes a splash and dash can go wrong, but usually it’s just plain beautiful to watch. There have been off course the odd occasion where a  mistimed burn has placed a balloon basket somewhat deeper into the water than may have been planned. Normally a few wet feet is as bad as it gets.

On this occasion I was really excited about the near perfect mirror reflection that would occur at the moment of touching the water surface. so excited that I didn’t, at first notice a boat round the corner and head straight to the balloon. Bye bye mirror reflections. Anyway still made for a good shot.  I’m guessing here, but I reckon the guys in the boat will have a story or two to tell about the day they saw a hot air balloon just hovering above the Murray River near Wentworth. Fairly confident  this image will get a bit of use over the years. If you’re interested in using the shot just click the image for licensing details or you can check out more balloon stock photos here.

At Wentworth a small outback town in far western NSW. Australia’s two longest rivers join together, at the Murray Darling Junction. Together they form the Murray Darling Basin.  A huge catchment area comprising 23 river systems. Combined the Murray Darling accounts for some 30% of all of Australia’s irrigated food production. Plus a sizable piece of the dryland cropping production. The Murray Darling Basin provides domestic water for some 3 million people.

Most aerial photos of the Murray Darling Junction take in a much wider view. Just for a change we decided to get up close and personal. Shooting a series of images of the confluence right at the point of merger. While the rivers are relatively slow flowing, even at high levels, the two large volumes of water, form interesting and ever changing patterns. Made more evident by the contrasting water colour. Often not this dramatic in contrast, but when high flows exist in both rivers, large amounts of sediment colour the waters.

The series of low altitude aerial photos of the Murray Darling Junction was only possible  because our very good friends at Global Ballooning who have the same strong desire to do things a little differently. The team at Global Ballooning are terrific, what they can do with a hot air balloon still amazes me every time we meet up. So now for the commercial plug. If you’re in Melbourne and would like to take a flight over the city, click here. Alternatively you can drift gently over the Yarra Valley to book click here.

Back now to all things Murray Darling Junction related. . More stock photos of the Murray Darling Junction can be viewed and licensed here. Remember our archive of stock photos of Australia operates 24/7 and has both rights managed and royalty free images.