A winter Monday morning stroll in Sydney

Came up to Sydney on the overnight XPT train from Melbourne last night, pulled into Central Station right on time, put the baggage into storage for the day, absorbed a coffee and a ham n cheese croissant, caught the train to Circular Quay and went for a stroll with the GX7, the 12-32, the 9-18, and the 100-300.

Afterwards, I walked right down George Street to Central again. (I am trying ti impress you here. :))

Dang! I'm getting to like that GX7!

A shot from ground level before I went up to the walkway along the Cahill Expressway. I might have lightened the foreground (in shade) a touch too much. Possibly a rather big touch. But see that clear blue sky and bright sun? Yes, this is deep in winter, folks. It was a bit nippy in the shaded areas, I admit.

100-300 cropped a bit to conceal too much empty blue sky.

The ever reliable 9-18 in action at the 18 end. The 9 end pix weren't the hit of the day -- the sun was intruding too much. Cropped this on the right and top to conceal the fact that the young fellow (viz: me) had been focusing his attention too much on the pattern of the ferries and not taking enough notice of the rest of the composition.

You should never ignore a BOR (Bird On Rail) opportunity. This is a 100% crop with the 100-300 @ 300. Not bad, hey?

The formal portrait!

The two gulls. I walked backwards to give my self a little distance for the pic -- and they followed! To get the two of them together like this, I had to shoot fast before they moved closer again.

Sydney ikons -- ferry and (through the morning haze), Luna Park, Just for fun!

Ferries coming and going, make endlessly varied patterns on the Harbour at Circular Quay.

In "The Rocks" area on the south side of the Harbour Bridge. I was pleased to see a "Jack Mundey Place" -- Jack was the local leader of the Builders Labourers Federation and organized his members to refuse to tear down this historic precinct. Developers, government, etc., fought like crazy, but Jack and his allies won, retaining the area as a fascinating window into the past -- and one of THE places to see in Sydney.

You can't take a picture of Sydney Harbour and not have atleast one shot of the Opera House!

Glass, steel and concrete are the signatures of the Sydney SBD. This is the Credit Suisse building. Heralding a financial meltdown?

Afterwards, I walked a couple of kilometers down George Street back to Central Station. I will spare you the pretty ordinary snaps I took along the way! But the town hall clock is the exception. You can see how late it is before the sun finally clears the surrounding sky scrapers. Back in the day, this tower was a dominating architectural feature, of course. No longer.

A place in the sun? Homeless people camping in the park adjacent to Central Station.

On the train again in an hour and a half, overnighting to Brisbane. Then on Thursday, the plane to Port Moresby, and home to Rabaul in the New Guinea islands.

It is warm there!!! Yay!