Bird Life (Part 2)

"Bird Life (Part 2)" is this week's "Camera Critters" post. If you want to participate, click on the image above.

---

As promised last week, here is Bird Life (Part 2).



To view thumbnails of all of my Camera Critter posts, visit the GritFX website.

Bird Life

"Bird Life" is this week's "Camera Critters" post. If you want to participate, click on the image above.

---

Birds. What a life. Oh, to have that kind of freedom...

Here's some footage I shot of different Aussie birds flying, eating and doing their birdy thing in my garden and surrounds.



Next week: Bird Life Part 2

To view thumbnails of all of my Camera Critter posts, visit the GritFX website.

"Organics"

It's that time again for another collection of images.

Yesterday was Australia Day and I made the most of my day off, spending quite a chunk of it outside.

In doing so, I decided that the next collection should celebrate my natural environment. This collection, titled "Organics", are images that have been taken at various times while I was on holidays in NSW, Australia. (I can't take credit for all of these images, as I suspect that Dave took a few of them - but hey, I taught him everything he knows!)

Click on the images to load larger versions...















What to see more of my photos?
Visit "Manz's Photo Collections" overview page, where you can navigate to the collection that interests you the most.

Sydney Architecture - a selection of urban photographs...

After my last post of photos, I promised the next collection would be images of Sydney.

When I was a student, I had to evaluate a few of Sydney's most famous buildings and I thought that I had loads of pics I could choose from. As it turns out, I had cut up a lot of these pictures, as seen in the above banner! The collection is therefore only a small one, and as the images have been scanned from old photographic prints (these date before Digital cameras), there is quite a bit of dust on them.

---

Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who in 2003 received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour. The Opera House was formally opened by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on 20 October 1973.

The project was built in three stages - starting with the podium on 5th December 1958 - making the Opera House a 14 year build. In 1966, Utzon was forced to resign leaving the last stage of the project (the Interior) in the hands of Peter Hall, and in my opinion his absence during this stage is noticable! I must not have been alone for in the late 1990s, the Sydney Opera House Trust began to communicate with Utzon in an attempt to effect a reconciliation, and they succeeded. In 2004, the first interior space rebuilt to an Utzon design was opened, and renamed "The Utzon Room". In April 2007, he proposed a major reconstruction of the Opera Theatre. Utzon died on 29 November 2008.

---

Queen Victoria Building
Architect George McRae designed the QVB in a Romanesque style to employ a great number of skilled craftsmen who were out of work due to a severe recession. The building was completed in 1898 and named the Queen Victoria Building after the monarch. In 1959, it was threatened with demolition due to steady deterioration, but was saved and restored by Ipoh Ltd at a cost of $86 million over the course of 3 years. Today the QVB is a popular shopping spot in the heart of the business district. This year, Ipoh began a $26 million refurbishment "to keep pace with other commercial buildings in the 21st century". Changes include glass signage, glazed balustrades, new escalators, and new colour schemes. These changes have been described by critics as "kitsch and threatening the heritage values of the historic building." I personally haven't been to the QVB this year, and I'm not sure I want to now!

"The dominant feature is the central dome, consisting of an interior glass dome and a copper-sheathed exterior, topped by a domed cupola." This photo shows the exterior of the dome.

---

Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre
The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre was officially opened in 1988 (to celebrate Australia's 1988 Bicentenary), with a new section of the centre added for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre is the largest and most technically advanced convention centre in Australia. Both exhibition and convention centre spaces can be configured to suit any type of usage in this fully integrated facility, and its all under the one roof.

---

Centrepoint Tower
Sydney Tower (also known as the AMP Tower, AMP Centrepoint Tower, Centrepoint Tower or just Centrepoint) is Sydney's tallest free-standing structure, standing 305 m (1,001 ft) above the Sydney CBD (Central Business District). Tower construction began in 1975, and was opened to the public in September 1981. The total cost of construction was AUD$36 million.

After aqisition by AMP, the tower was renamed "AMP Tower" and during the 2000 Sydney Olympics the tower was given a "face-lift" which included an AMP light sign and illuminated Olympic figures, a sight that a lot of locals labelled "vulgar"! After the Westfield Group took over ownership of Centrepoint in December 2001, the name was changed to Sydney Tower... but not before AMP exploited the famous tourist location for their own advertisment!!

"Sydney Tower is a towering testimonial to the work of architect Donald Crone whose vision it was to create this landmark "needle" in the sky." - About.com

---

Sources:
1. Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia. Visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/
2. Pods - Forum, Conference, Expo. Visit: http://www.npods.net/VENUE/SydneyExhibitionCentre/tabid/219/Default.aspx
3. Sydney Morning Herald.
4. About.com - Australia/New Zealand Travel. Visit: http://goaustralia.about.com/cs/sydneysightscity1/a/sydneytower1.htm
5. Cox Architects. Visit: http://www.cox.com.au

"Coastal Charm"... colour photography of some Aussie waterways.

It's been a while since my first post of photos, so I felt it was time for another collection of images.

With the holidays upon us, I am looking forward to spending some time by the many beaches/waterways that I love around here. Therefore, the second collection of images "Coastal Charm" is a selection of colour images taken by myself and Dave in NSW, Australia.

Click on the images to load larger versions...










What to see more photos?
The first collection "On the Road" is a selection of black & white images taken by myself and Dave on the road in NSW, Australia... Coastal + Country Roads. Check them out now.

A Convenient Truth

Former Presidential candidate Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in bringing to light the issue of ‘Global Warming’. Yet the hypocrisy of the award was not lost on some as Gore continued to travel to his speaking engagements in a private jet – a machine which, in one trip across the United States, burned more fuel than the average American family car would in an entire year.
Much criticism of the issue of ‘Global Warming’ has been expressed over the last few years since the release of Gore’s award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Many scientists in many fields have issued statements regarding the state of the planet, saying that any change in climate is due to naturally occurring phenomena and not from the actions of mankind. To suggest that man, in a relatively short time since the beginning of the industrial age, has screwed the planet to such an extent as to what is claimed by Gore and his supporters is sheer lunacy, some say. In the wide expanse of time since the planet was seemingly formed, man’s existence is the equivalent to a grain of sand on One Mile Beach. The planets’ climate shifts – it has always been so and there is nothing we can do about it.

Growing evidence seems to support the idea of naturally occurring climate change. Many of the graphs and illustrations used by Gore in An Inconvenient Truth were used in a way to support the thesis being presented. Yet alternate suggestions for these changes and even alternate data point towards the opposite. For example, the ‘frightening’ claim that the glaciers of the Himalayas – which provide one sixth of the water used by mankind – are vanishing and will have disappeared completely in 25 years seems entirely false. A British study, published by the American Meteorological Society in 2006, found that glaciers are only shrinking in the eastern Himalayas. West, in the Hindu Kush and the Karakoram, glaciers are “thickening and expanding”.

Many scientists argue that if temperatures are rising on one side of the planet, they are dropping on the other side. It is all relative. Botanist David Bellamy, writing in The Australian newspaper earlier this week, points out that 10,000 years ago Australia would have been under ice. Thank goodness for global warming, he says, or we all would not be here. Bellamy and others like him voicing dissent across the globe have been met with vicious hysteria. They are branded ‘paranoid conspiracy theorists’ even though their statements have nothing to do with ‘paranoia’ or ‘conspiracy’. These are learned people who should be heard, not censored for practicing free speech.

Lately, the term ‘Global Warming’ has been replaced by the term ‘Climate Change’. Is this a response to the growing evidence to support the fact that the idea of man-made ‘Global Warming’ is a bald-faced lie, perpetuated by a select group of people with a particular agenda? There is no denying that the planet is experiencing climate change, but given the knowledge that it is merely the earth doing its’ thing, why are governments across the world creating legislation (including taxation) to combat an issue which simply cannot be overcome? What is the proposed plan of action for a problem that doesn’t exist? Any move to reduce toxic emissions into the atmosphere is definitely a good thing, but not through the use of baseless fearmongering.

If the knowledge that climate change is not the cause of man, what is the possible agenda to ignore the evidence and create solutions for a non-existent problem? That is the question worth asking.

by Max Drake

(Sources: The Australian; The Telegraph (UK). Read the articles at:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0%2C25197%2C24700827-7583%2C00.html and
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/23/do2310b.xml )