Let's celebrate a small country town

Stayed overnight quite unexpectedly last Thursday at Rhylstone in the central west of NSW.  I was with Robyn, one of my photo buddies, and we were a day ahead of our tent at Dunnes Swamp.  Undeterred and ready for an extra night out with our cameras we booked a hotel room at the Globe, headed out for some late afternoon light before dinner and found some of the most beautiful buildings.  I think our favourite at this time of the day was the old Goods Shed at the disused railway station.  I have always loved the goods sheds at country railway stations.  Maybe its because we lived across from one for years and dad had the parcel run.  They were only busy for certain times each day but every day you could see new boxes lined up straight off the train and ready to be delivered around town.  They had quaint old cardboard tickets and packing string.  I loved them and occasionally got to sticky beak inside if no one was looking.  I think they must have used the one design right around the state as they always look the same.  In recent years as my photography has got more prolific, I've been eyeing them off.

This particular beauty was all alone and it had some pretty rotted beams on the landing.  But beautiful colours in the late sun.  The big double doors on either side were designed with slanted timber panels, making good patterns now that the paint was wearing off.  A local builder pulled up and had a chat and told us he used it as a storage shed.  We loved it.

The Cudegong River was another spot we pottered around.  Obviously home to wombats and the locals said there were platypus too.  I only lasted a little while down on the bank as I was being eaten alive by some insect.  Did get a couple of lush looking slow water shots tho.

Dinner at the pub was fabulous!  Robyn and I wandered about after dark with our cameras taking silly shots really.  Couldn't be bothered with the tripods but we had fun and looking at a couple of them now on the computer screen the beauty of this little town shines through.

So, if anyone is contemplating a stopover in this part of the world, you could do worse than drive into Rhylstone.  The next day I spread my love around any shop I could find.  The Anglicare Op shop was great - bought lots of small bits and pieces and a beanie to die for!  Fresh eggs from the deli were rich and yellow, good coffee from the corner cafe, amazing bread at the baker and on the way home I also picked up some great meat at the butcher.

So, thank you Rhylstone and all the town folks for making us so welcome.

A few images I've pulled out and edited in Lightroom 3 and Nik software.  Enjoy!!

This image (above) is of the old doors on the goods shed.  Great textures and tones.

Another image of the good shed.  This one is a section of the old steps.

The Cudgegong River (above) in slow motion.







Now, these next few are from the street after dark.  Beautiful old buildings, wide open streets, very few cars around and a quiet country town feel.

I think I actually like this side wall of the old building (above) the best of all.  It just has something about the textures and shapes that really intrigue me.  I'd love to return and take some more images.  Now, there's an idea!

A close up (above) of the window and a bit of outside electrical conduit and perhaps a water pipe? (below) that made an appealing design.

I've called this one (above)  "Rob in Rhylo".

And this little piece (above) is "Self Portrait with Dancing Woman"

Inspiration, Opportunity, Great Company, New Knowledge

Just returned form a few days camping in the Wollemi National Park at Dunne's Swamp.  Our photography group organised a guided weekend with Len Metcalf and had an amazing few days in a truly beautiful part of the world.


I'm trying to process a few images to upload and will do a full post in a few days time but here today I'm offering a handful of mono images.


On the drive home I detoured into Blackheath and found a second hand copy of Ansell Adams Trees.  Couldn't believe my eyes!  So, with this lovely book in mind, I was inspired to start with mono and trees.  Here are just a few.

Along the Cudgegong River @ Rhylestone on Thursday (above).  Glorious light in the late afternoon on this stand of trees.

This stately old white gum was lit by the setting sun.  Again, along the Cudgegong River, Rhylestone.

Dunne's Swamp and surrounds are full of the most beautiful white gums.  No matter where you look, the sheer number, the curves, the light, the interplay are stunning.

Len Metcalf has been a wonderful and very generous teacher and mentor for me over the past couple of years and I love his subtle composition and framing.  This image (above) was seen and captured with Len's images in the back of my mind.  I love it!  I'm hoping that it prints well.

Huge boulders amongst the pagodas, trees and logs and everywhere brilliant wattle.

This year the wattle is spectacular.  I can't remember seeing it this beautiful for a number of years.  The blossoms (above) play beautifully with the white trunks and forest floor.

These beauties (above) remind me a bit of the men drinking in the Rhylestone pub.  Strong, solid, earthy.

Looking across the dam in the late afternoon sun.  This sapling stands tall.

The critics will comment that the overhanging branches detract from the image and they may well do so.  However, the sight of these young trees growing above and among the boulders and rocky outcrops were beautiful.  "Pruning" this image will clean it up, but this is what I remember so i include it.  

In the zone @ Tarana

Highly recommend all photographers find some way of isolating themselves for a short time just to focus on photography. It is the advice you see so often from those who are successful photographers and artists. For me it's always so easy to forget this advice and it's only when I find myself with this special opportunity that I begin to sing photographically and make all sorts of promises to myself to repeat this activity more often.

Don't get me wrong. I pretty much have my head in my photography world most of the time, but it's often in the midst of doing 3 or 4 other things. All of these photographic opportunities are fabulous - I never know what I'm going to get or what I might see or what might present itself. However, when I truly remove all the "noise" from my daily life and just allow myself the time to soak in all that is around me and think, dream, imagine, talk photography .... my work is so much better.

A few days ago I headed over the mountains, west of Sydney to spend a couple of days @ Tarana and the Fish River area. It was cold and much of the Autumn foliage was already on the ground. I travelled with 2 other women photographers and our brief was to laugh, talk, share, shoot! And I think it is fair to say that we excelled in all aspects!

We stayed at the Tarana pub in the cabins that were warm and cosy. The BBQ worked, the fridge worked, the water was hot and the sunrise the next morning was to die for - that's for those who were up in time to see it. Sadly (or wisely?) I was in bed but my buddy photographer kindly brought the viewing screen in so I could see what I was missing.

It was once the home of trout fishing 
http://bluemountainsfishing.net/fishriver.html  and looking at the river as we drove around you can see why this is. Much of the river bank that we drove around is fenced so it was only accessible in a couple of places. One of the better ones was Flat Rock Picnic Area on Mutton Falls Rd between Tarana and O'Connell. Really worth planning a couple of hours here if ever you find yourself in the area.

One of our group is working on a personal project about water so it was a great opportunity to spend some time in an area that had boulders, rocks, gravel, flowing water, small rapids and unbelievably beautiful colours and reflections. I'm still working out how I want to show some of the work I did but including here a few of my early edits. I've also uploaded a handful to my pbase site. http://www.pbase.com/ssteel If you clock on "recent" you should see them.

Enjoy! I think I will get some real pleasure out of working with these images over the next couple of weeks. 

This image (above) was taken in the area close to Flat Rock reserve.  I'd been working with a wider lens and an ND filter and polariser but just had a feeling that I wanted to see if I could get something different with my 105macro.    I like the result and particularly some of the underlying colours in the water.  Interestingly a couple of the images taken in this river look to be black and white.  I can see no colour at all.

Early morning, close to the hotel.  I was wandering around with some pretty weird looking clothes - I ran out of the cabin excited about the light and dew and didn't bother dressing for public view!  I was warm and I got some great shots and that is really all that matters.
I loved the pearls of light behind this wispy plant.  It was moving slightly in the morning breeze and I like how the movement adds to my enjoyment of the image.

What glorious colours!  A birch tree I think?? Or maybe a beech??  I get them mixed up.

The hotel had a few pieces of old farm machinery in the grounds. It fitted in beautifully but it was at its most captivating early morning with dew drops and low sun in the sky. I let my wonderful Sigma 105Macro do its thing and the abstract image (above) is the result.