I'm back from Gold Coast and Sydney with photos

I finished my trip to Gold Coast and Sydney, uploaded some of them to Flickr and wrote two posts on my blog, please check out:

Trip to Gold Coast

Trip to Sydney

I asked the question before the trip, that what lens I should take, since the flight only allows 7KG carry-on. I got different answers, thanks again for your replies, in the end I brought 20mm, 25mm f1.4, 45mm f1.8 as well as the Lumix 14-42mm ii.

The reason for not bringing 12-35mm is that I found it big and heavy, given that at least half of the time my left hand would be holding a drink or something, and only one hand is available for camera; Also I'm used to primes. After the trip, I found most photos were taken with 25mm and 20mm, which means I could only take 20mm with me, also means I should stay with the kit 20mm from the beginning...

I found M43 is perfect for my kind of travel, mainly street photos and too shy to get close to people.

Thanks!

Started reading the text but couldn't get the pix -- they were coming up too slowly. Any chance of posting a few cut down versions omn the forum?

Sounds like you had a good time!

Funny thing about Sydney -- I have never had a notion of where Chinatown is located. I know Little Bourke in Melbourne, of course -- that's my home city and I've been in and out of Chinatown for more than half a century.

You would have chuckled at the relaxed Island Chinese here in Rabaul/Kokopo -- they have always honored the Gregorian New Year -- back in the day, the 60s, it was on New Year's Day, now the lion dancers turn out at midnight on New Year's Eve at the Ralum Club, to welcome the year! LOL.

Unfortunately it was raining so I couldn't get down there to et some pictures and my friend, Cedric Choi was too busy taking video to get any worthwhile stills.

Hi

Some very nice shots there. I took the Pana 12-32mm and 20mm f1.7 with me on holiday recently and left the Oly 12-40mm at home. Travelling light gives a feeling of freedom.

Hen3ry wrote:

Started reading the text but couldn't get the pix -- they were coming up too slowly. Any chance of posting a few cut down versions omn the forum?

Sounds like you had a good time!

Funny thing about Sydney -- I have never had a notion of where Chinatown is located. I know Little Bourke in Melbourne, of course -- that's my home city and I've been in and out of Chinatown for more than half a century.

You would have chuckled at the relaxed Island Chinese here in Rabaul/Kokopo -- they have always honored the Gregorian New Year -- back in the day, the 60s, it was on New Year's Day, now the lion dancers turn out at midnight on New Year's Eve at the Ralum Club, to welcome the year! LOL.

Unfortunately it was raining so I couldn't get down there to et some pictures and my friend, Cedric Choi was too busy taking video to get any worthwhile stills.

Hi Hen3ry,

The photos are in my Flickr album:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskr2rcVk

I guess if you browse on your mobile phone with 3G, it should show the mobile optimised web instead?

Sorry I'm at work now so not very flexible downsizing the image and upload

What is modern Australian food is like trying to answer what is modern Australia? Nothing really... the broth of your soup that is left over without being strained. What is in broth? Everything and that's what makes Australia when we take down the fences and let everyone in before politics gets in the way.

Australia is a very ancient country with a modern history that is deliberately open ended. You are Australian whether you're Greek, Chinese, or Somalian. For what we care so long as you respect the law of the land, you're free to be whoever you want to be.

In short, it doesn't really matter. There is nothing much in modern Australian history that is Australian, and we've done a good job of removing any legacy to the fact that our European settlers were Anglo-Celtic.

My grandmothers house is Victorian English and red brick, they say the legacy of our early university systems is sandstone. Historically there is one type of abode that is quintessentially Australian. The Asbestos surf shack on the beach and this is the only legacy we have imprinted into the landscape that is Australian. A some what modernist approach to living thrown together out of fibre board and corrugated iron. These are the oldest modern homes in Australia and they're quite British really.

There are also a few of these still dotted around Sydney, the Queen Victoria Building is the most grand of these, but they're not Australian, neither are the terraces of Sydney or Melbourne, or the few in Brisbane, or the iconic Queenslander/Federation homes which follows the lines of other British buildings.

This is the Australia you're looking for. The one period briefly from the post war era to the 1980s where we made something ourselves, you still see them dotted around the country side. Most of them have since been knocked over because they're deemed a modern health hazard. Those that remain are often seen as doer uppers and have become quite kitsch. You want Australia? This is it. Go looking around the coastal towns where every other surfer went chasing the endless summer and you will still find a few of these.

After this period we moved into the generic brick homes that can be found almost anywhere in the world, suburbia.

Some of them have been modernised with the other thing that is quintessentially Australian. Corrugated iron.

I like your photos, you have good composition and timing. Did you do any post processing or was it all in camera?

Your pages are a little slow to load, perhaps your web hosting company is not the fastest.

Thanks for sharing your work.

Your narratives and photos are equally good.  I enjoyed your first paragraphs about your father's camera and how you came about your GX7.  Funny captions too.

Looks like you did a great deal of PP on your colors or maybe Vivid picture style?  In any case, the B&W pics were well interspersed with the (very) colorful ones.

Hen3ry wrote:

Started reading the text but couldn't get the pix -- they were coming up too slowly. Any chance of posting a few cut down versions omn the forum?

Sounds like you had a good time!

Funny thing about Sydney -- I have never had a notion of where Chinatown is located. I know Little Bourke in Melbourne, of course -- that's my home city and I've been in and out of Chinatown for more than half a century.

You would have chuckled at the relaxed Island Chinese here in Rabaul/Kokopo -- they have always honored the Gregorian New Year -- back in the day, the 60s, it was on New Year's Day, now the lion dancers turn out at midnight on New Year's Eve at the Ralum Club, to welcome the year! LOL.

Unfortunately it was raining so I couldn't get down there to et some pictures and my friend, Cedric Choi was too busy taking video to get any worthwhile stills.

Hi Hen3ry,

Here are a few photos, I downloaded the Medium version from flickr, I know there's a 10 photos per thread policy so only 10 here:

berni29 wrote:

Hi

Some very nice shots there. I took the Pana 12-32mm and 20mm f1.7 with me on holiday recently and left the Oly 12-40mm at home. Travelling light gives a feeling of freedom.

Yes, 20mm is not that slow on GX7, and quite versatile.

pocoloco wrote:

... I think I mixed up the Gold Coast with the Great Ocean Road.... Sorry.

That's fine, I don't think I have any longer lens...

Your photo looks nice, especially the two rocks on the right which made me first thought as a shadow or some overlapping magic.

biggles266 wrote:

I like your photos, you have good composition and timing. Did you do any post processing or was it all in camera?

Your pages are a little slow to load, perhaps your web hosting company is not the fastest.

Thanks for sharing your work.

Good to know you like them!

The page might be slow but the images are from flickr, so I don't know which is faster/slower. I used hue-light profile then increase exposure a little bit.

addlightness wrote:

Your narratives and photos are equally good. I enjoyed your first paragraphs about your father's camera and how you came about your GX7. Funny captions too.

Looks like you did a great deal of PP on your colors or maybe Vivid picture style? In any case, the B&W pics were well interspersed with the (very) colorful ones.

Yes I used Vivid style, but I edited RAWs with Huelight profile and also increased exposure a little bit.

I love picking up the multicultural nature of people enjoying themselves in the street as you have done, and that interior shot of the guy on the stairs (?) with the stained glass windows behind is ripper!

I don't browse on my phone, I have 3G modems for the computer to plug into the two 3G mobile phone networks -- most of PNG is not connected to landlines and my hovel isn't, so most of us, including many business houses, do our internet by 3G. It is slow, it is chancy, but in the end, it mostly works.

But big picture files and video are pretty much not on the agenda.

…and certainly a lot better than any I have ever taken!