Critical Mass Ride – June 25 2010

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Traditionally, the ride begins with numerous loops around the Albert Park fountain before leaving the park for our ride around town. It can be an amazing sight with upwards of sixty cyclists taking part. This ride only had ten of us as the weather had been attrocious all day. It cleared just in time for Critical Mass and held off for the entire ride, and a couple of hours afterwards too. I like the spooky shoes in this particular photo.

Similar photos that I took can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/groups/ak-critical-mass/pool/

Obfuscation

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In honour of the longest ever tennis match being currently played at Wimbledon by John Isner and Nicolas Mahut (at this point the winner is still undecided), I have decided that today’s photo should be of tennis. Unfortunately, I have not taken a photo of John Isner, however one week after I took this photo, Isner won the Auckland Heineken Open on the same court.

This photo is of Slovenian Polona Hercog and her Kiwi doubles partner Marina Erakovic at the ASB Classic (the women’s equivalent of the Heineken Open) in their 6-3 7-6 loss to the world’s top doubles pairing of Cara Black, of Zimbabwe, and American Liezel Huber on January 4 2010.

I like it because it shows the subterfuge that doubles players engage in. Hercog has her back to her opponents, while Erakovic is covering her mouth while talking to her partner. The players tend to be very paranoid about their conversations being heard or lip-read by their opponents.

Arrowtown

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During the gold rush in the 1870s, more than 3,500 Chinese lived in Arrowtown, mining for gold in some very harsh conditions. This is one of the few remaining huts from that time.

Gold can still be found in the Arrow River nearby. We tried panning for gold about six years ago. After about 30 minutes we discovered a flake of gold in our pan, but in our excitement it got washed away. Back to the day job…

The Importance of Good Grooming

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I was hoping to get some nice photographs of roses and bees, but the rose garden was under maintenance and the bees nowhere to be seen.

I did spot this little fella though and was amazed to see through the magnification of the lens that it was grooming itself – its back legs sliding down its back from behind the wings to its end. This photograph captured it best although it doesn’t show it as well as I would have liked.