View allAll Photos Tagged optimistic
The weather has been really gloomy this week in Manchester so I thought I'd remind everyone that we do get a few nice days of sunshine each year. I took this in early May last year when everyone was getting optimistic about having a nice long summer, we didn't get one though unfortunately . Lets hope we get a better one this year to lift all our spirits a bit................
Went out for an optimistic look for butterflies this afternoon - always a chance of some relatively docile ones resting up on a dull, windy day. Sum total for roughly 1.5 hours was a green-veined white, yes one. When I look back at last year in a months time I would have been at Collard Hill looking for an early Large Blue.
Did notice a greater variety of flowering plant emerging - Bugle, Germander Speedwell and others the identity of which I have no idea. Did see a Trefoil looking close to flowering on Walton Hill - maybe some Common Blues soon?
I have no idea what this little fella is however I liked him being completely immersed in this Buttercup. Looks good on black.
I was feeling optimistic when I headed down to Birnbeck Pier yesterday evening as the tide was pretty low and the weather forecast wasn't great. I'm glad I took the chance though as the low tide reveals these rocks and sticks which add some nice interest.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III|24-105mm L|Lee Grad Filters|Lee Little Stopper
I've been teaching Poppy photography, take a look at her Flickr.
Available at HypeForType: www.hypefortype.com/affair.html
Type designers are crazy people. Not crazy in the sense that they think we are Napoleon, but in the sense that the sky can be falling, wars tearing the world apart, disasters splitting the very ground we walk on, plagues circling continents to pick victims randomly, yet we will still perform our ever optimistic task of making some little spot of the world more appealing to the human eye. We ought to be proud of ourselves, I believe. Optimism is hard to come by these days. Regardless of our own personal reasons for doing what we do, the very thing we do is in itself an act of optimism and belief in the inherent beauty that exists within humanity.
As recently as ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to choose the amazing obscure profession I now have, wouldn't have been able to be humbled by the history that falls into my hands and slides in front of my eyes every day, wouldn't have been able to live and work across previously impenetrable cultural lines as I do now, and wouldn't have been able to raise my glass of Malbeck wine to toast every type designer who was before me, is with me, and will be after me. As recently as ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to mean these words as I wrote them: It’s a small world.
Yes, it is a small world, and a wonderfully complex one too. With so much information drowning our senses by the minute, it has become difficult to find clear meaning in almost anything. Something throughout the day is bound to make us feel even smaller in this small world. Most of us find comfort in a routine. Some of us find extended families. But in the end we are all Eleanor Rigbys, lonely on the inside and waiting for a miracle to come. If a miracle can make the world small, another one can perhaps give us meaning.
And sometimes a miracle happens for a split second, then gets buried until a crazy type designer finds it. I was on my honeymoon in New York City when I first stumbled upon the letters that eventually started this Affair. A simple, content tourist walking down the streets formerly unknown to me except through pop music and film references. Browsing the shops of the city that made Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, and a thousand other artists. Trying to chase away the tourist mentality, wondering what it would be like to actually live in the city of a billion tiny lights.
Tourists don't go to libraries in foreign cities. So I walked into one. Two hours later I wasn't in New York anymore. I wasn't anywhere substantial. I was the crazy type designer at the apex of insanity. La La Land, alphabet heaven, curves and twirls and loops and swashes, ribbons and bows and naked letters. I'm probably not the very first person on this planet to be seduced into starting an Affair while on his honeymoon, but it is something to tease my better half about once in a while.
To this day I can't decide if I actually found the worn book, or if the book itself called for me. Its spine was nothing special, sitting on a shelf, tightly flanked by similar spines on either side. Yet it was the only one I picked off that shelf. And I looked at only one page in it before walking to the photocopier and cheating it with an Argentine coin, since I didn't have the American quarter it wanted.
That was the beginning. I am now writing this after the Affair is over. And it was an Affair to remember, to pull a phrase. Right now, long after I have drawn and digitized and tested this alphabet, and long after I saw what some of this generation’s type designers saw in it, I have the luxury to speculate on what Affair really is, what made me begin and finish it, what cultural expressions it has, and so on. But in all honesty it wasn't like that. Much like in my Ministry Script experience, I was a driven man, a lover walking the ledge, an infatuated student following the instructions of his teacher while seeing her as a perfect angel. I am not exaggerating when I say that the letters themselves told me how to extend them. I was exploited by an alphabet, and it felt great.
Unlike my experience with Ministry Script, where the objective was to push the technology to its limits, this Affair felt like the most natural and casual sequence of processions in the world – my hand following the grid, the grid following what my hand had already done – a circle of creation contained in one square computer cell, then doing it all over again. By contrast, it was the lousiest feeling in the world when I finally reached the conclusion that the Affair was done. What would I do now? Would any commitment I make from now on constitute a betrayal of these past precious months? I'm largely over all that now, of course. I like to think I'm a better man now because of the experience.
Affair is an enormous, intricately calligraphic OpenType font based on a 9x9 photocopy of a page from a 1950s lettering book. In any calligraphic font, the global parameters for developing the characters are usually quite volatile and hard to pin down, but in this case it was particularly difficult because the photocopy was too gray and the letters were of different sizes, very intertwined and scan-impossible. So finishing the first few characters in order to establish the global rhythm was quite a long process, after which the work became a unique soothing, numbing routine by which I will always remember this Affair. The result of all the work, at least to the eyes of this crazy designer, is 1950s American lettering with a very Argentine wrapper. My Affair is infused with the spirit of filete, dulce de leche, yerba mate, and Carlos Gardel.
Upon finishing the font I was fortunate enough that a few of my colleagues, great type designers and probably much saner than I am, agreed to show me how they envision my Affair in action. The beauty they showed me makes me feel small and yearn for the world to be even smaller now – at least small enough so that my international colleagues and I can meet and exchange stories over a good parrilla. These people, whose kindness is very deserving of my gratitude, and whose beautiful art is very deserving of your appreciation, are in no particular order: Corey Holms, Mariano Lopez Hiriart, Xavier Dupré, Alejandro Ros, Rebecca Alaccari, Laura Meseguer, Neil Summerour, Eduardo Manso, and the Doma group. You can see how they envisioned using Affair in the section of this booklet entitled A Foreign Affair.
The rest of this booklet contains all the obligatory technical details that should come with a font this massive. I hope this Affair can bring you as much peace and satisfaction as it brought me, and I hope it can help your imagination soar like mine did when I was doing my duty for beauty.
Some day, I will fly. In spite of the limitations thrust upon me by myself, and, others, I will fly. I will overcome adversity, and failure, and, I will fly. I will fly. I will.
History & Meaning of Yellow Roses:
With their optimistic hue and general association with good cheer, yellow roses are the perfect way to toast friends, lift spirits and send a general wish for well-being. And that’s great news for those who love roses—the rose is known for its simple, architectural beauty, but some colors are so loaded with significance that they can be a bit tricky to work with. Sending a get-well bouquet of red roses to your administrative assistant might raise eyebrows around the office, for instance. Suffice it to say, you can never go wrong with yellow roses.
Long associated with the sun and its life-giving warmth, yellow is the age-old spokes-color for warm feelings of friendship and optimism. In many Eastern cultures, the color represents joy, wisdom and power. But while any yellow flower will send a lighthearted message, the history of the yellow rose in particuar has an optimistic, serendipitous character that really makes it the complete package.
By the 18th century the worldwide love of roses was in full swing, but they were only cultivated in shades of pink and white. At last, the elusive yellow rose was discovered growing wild in the Middle East, and the European love affair with yellow roses was born. The early yellow rose lacked the sweet scent for which the rose is famous, however, which was not to be tolerated. So, as cultivation methods were developed and refined, the beloved sweet-and-spicy rose scent was soon introduced and the yellow rose achieved all its optimistic and aromatic glory.
www.proflowers.com/blog/history-and-meaning-of-yellow-ros...
Brief History of Mt Gambier – the second city of SA after Adelaide (region population nearly 35,000, urban 28,000).
Lieutenant James Grant aboard the Lady Nelson sighted and named Mt Gambier in 1800 after a Lord of the Admiralty. The first white man to traverse the area was Stephen Henty of Portland in 1839 when he sighted the Blue Lake. He returned with cattle and stockmen in 1841. He later claimed that had he known the lake and volcano he had discovered in 1839 was in SA he would have immediately applied for an 1839 Special Survey. But Henty thought he was squatting on land in NSW and he was not an official SA settler so the government ordered him off the land in 1844. Thus the first official white settler of the South East and the Mt Gambier district became Evelyn Sturt, brother to Captain Charles Sturt, who took up an occupational license in March 1844 and a property he named Compton just north of the present city. In April 1844 Governor Grey and a party of assistants including the Assistant Surveyor General Thomas Burr and artist George French Angas explored the South East naming Robe and doing the first surveys. Evelyn Sturt became the first to have an occupational license to squat and the first purchase freehold land near Mt Gambier which he did in 1847- a section of 77 acres when 80 acres was the norm. He left the district in 1854 selling his freehold land to Hastings Cunningham who in 1855 subdivided some of this land thus creating the town of Gambierton. The town lands were adjacent to the site of the first police station selected near what is now Cave Gardens by the government in 1845. A small bush inn also operated at this spot. The first streets were named after early locals such as Evelyn Sturt, Compton, Ferrers and Crouch (built the first general store before the town was created) etc. The town grew quickly because of the mild climate, fertile soils, plentiful water and the influx of settlers from across the border in what was to become the colony of Victoria. Cunningham himself was a great benefactor and donated land for the first school in 1856. In 1861 the town name was changed by act of parliament to Mt Gambier. The Hundred of Mt Gambier (along with three other hundreds) was declared in 1858 and began the closer settlement of the South East.
Unlike other areas of SA the South East was seen as paradise for pastoralists and the optimistic pastoralists flocked to the area with their flocks in 1845. The large runs locked up the land and prevented farmers from settling in the region except for the fertile lands around Mount Gambier. Here small scale farmers had small properties and grew potatoes, hops, and later had dairy cows as well as growing wheat and oats. Land acts in the early 1870s designed to break up the big runs only partially succeeded in the South East where most station owners bought up their lands freehold. It was after 1905 before the big pastoral estates were really broken up for farmers and closer settlement, except for near Mt Gambier. Apart from Evelyn Sturt the other early white settlers of the South East in 1845 were Alexander Cameron at Penola, John Robertson at Struan, William Macintosh and George Ormerod at Naracoorte, the Austin brothers at Yallum Park (later John Riddoch), the Arthur brothers (nephews of Governor Arthur of Van Diemen’s Land) at Mt Schanck( now Mt Schank) and the Leake brothers at Glencoe. In fact in 1845 nineteen leasehold runs were taken up in the South East with a further thirty runs in 1846 and most had several 80 acres sections of freehold land near the main homestead. Most had got to the South East from Casterton and Portland in Victoria as the swamps near the coast were too difficult to traverse except for the country near Robe. Many of the estates were huge. Evelyn Sturt on the Compton/Mt Gambier run had 85 square miles as well as his freehold land; Robertson had 135 square miles at Struan; George Glen (and William Vansittart) of Mayurra had 110 square miles; the SA Company had 159 square miles on the Benara run; the Leake brothers had 194 square miles on Glencoe; Hunter had 56 square miles on Kalangadoo; Neil Black of Noorat Victoria had 45 square miles on Kongorong run and 101 square miles at Port MacDonnell and the Arthur brothers had a huge run at Mt Schanck. By 1851 almost 5,000 square miles of the South East was occupied by Occupational License and most licenses were converted to 14 year leases in that year. A third of all leasehold land in SA was taken up in the South East because of its higher rainfall and suitability for pastoralism and a third of all sheep in the colony were in the South East. When Hundreds were declared in the South East in the late 1850s and early 1860s pastoralists bought up the land. In one case John Riddoch of Yallum Park owned the entire Hundred of Monbulla. Another pastoralist W. Clarke who had purchased Mt Schancke station from the Arthur brothers in 1861 owned SA land valued at £1.25 million when he died in 1874 and he had 120,000 acres freehold in Victoria, 75,000 acres freehold in SA( Mt Schank) and 50,000 acres freehold in each of NSW and Tasmania! Mt Schanck was changed in Schank in 1917 when German place names in SA were changed as Schank without the second “c” is an old English name!
In the 1850s Mt Gambier was a shanty village as the South East was a region of large pastoral estates and little agricultural farming and very low population numbers. It was far from Adelaide and remote and it was only after the Princeland episode in 1862 with the threat of possible secession to a new state that the Adelaide government began to invest in the South East and really encourage settlement there. The Border Watch newspaper was established in 1861, the Mt Gambier Hotel opened in 1862 and the Mt Gambier Council was formed in 1863.By the early 1860s Mt Gambier had almost 1,000 residents making it one of the largest towns in SA after the copper mining centres of Burra, Kadina and Moonta. By the 1881 SA census Mt Gambier had 2,500 residents making it the biggest town outside of Adelaide. In 1865 four iconic historic buildings were erected-the Courthouse, the Gaol, Christ Church Anglican and the Post Office and Telegraph Station. The flourmill which later became the Oat Mill opened in 1867 as wheat farmers had now taken up lands around the Mount. Mt Gambier was growing into a fine prosperous looking town with churches, stores, banks, hotels and fine residences. In the 1870s the rural population increased dramatically with tenant potato farmers on Browne’s Moorak estate and intensive hop growing in several localities such as Yahl and OB Flat and Glenburnie etc. Also in 1876 the first commercial forestry was started at the behest of George Goyder. A tree nursery was established on the edge of Leg of Mutton Lake in 1876 on a site selected by George Goyder himself. A stone cottage for the first nurseryman Charles Beale was constructed and it survived until demolished in 1969 but the nursery closed in 1929. The nursery propagated eucalypts, Oak, Elm, Ash, Sycamore, and North American pines. Pinus radiata was first grown at Leg of Mutton Lake and was being dispersed to other areas by 1878. Pinus canariensis was also grown in the 1880s. Pinus radiata is now the most commonly grown commercial forest tree in SA and Australia. Also in the 1870s the first hospital was erected and Dr Wehl, the town’s doctor for many years was in residence.
In the mid 1880s the first rail line was laid as the railway lines pushed out from Mt Gambier to Naracoorte. The service to Naracoorte began in 1887 and connected on with the line to Bordertown and Adelaide. By 1897 a railway connected Mt Gambier to Millicent and the port at Beachport. The railway line across the border to Heywood and Melbourne was not completed until 1917 as the SA government resisted a line that would take goods and passengers from Mt Gambier to Port Melbourne rather than to Port Adelaide. Mt Gambier railway station used to be a hive of activity with daily trains to Adelaide and an overnight sleeper services several times a week. Passenger trains to Mt Gambier from Adelaide stopped in 1990 after Australian National took over the SA railway network. Freight services stopped in 1995 and the railway line and station was formally closed. The railyards and other buildings were cleared in 2013.
The Buandik Aboriginal People.
The Buandik people are commemorated in a city street but by little else. Yet they were resilient and determined fighters opposed to the white settlement of the South East. Their occupation of the Mt Gambier district stretches back to around 20,000+ years but their dated occupation from archaeological sites goes back to about 11,000 years with their myths and legends including stories about volcanic activity at Mt Gambier. The last volcanic explosions were about 4,000 years ago. Both Mt Schank and Mt Gambier were important places to the Buandik for ceremonies, hunting, access to water and stone implement making. A government report in 1867 noted that the Buandik people in government care were few in number mainly sickly and elderly. The younger people had presumably moved out into the white community. But back in the 1840s the Buandik were a force to be reckoned with. There are no common stories of Aboriginal massacres but white pastoralists certainly retaliated when sheep were stolen. On Mt Schank station the Buandik were so troublesome that shepherds would not venture out to care for sheep alone and the Arthur brothers gave this trouble as their reason for them selling the run in 1845. In 1845 the government established a police station at Mt Gambier, which the Protector of Aboriginals visited, to ensure that pastoralists did not massacre the Buandik.
William Vansittart and Vansittart Park.
Vansittart Park has been a focal point of Mt Gambier since 1884 for activities such as family picnics, political rallies and speeches, bike racing, band rotunda concerts, bowling greens, sport oval, grandstand (1927) and Anzac memorial services. But who was William Vansittart? He was an Anglican reverend from England (Vansittart is a noble and political Anglo-Irish family in the UK) who arrived in SA in 1847 as a young bachelor. He was never licensed as a minister in SA but he developed his passions for making money and horse racing here. He mixed with the elite of Adelaide like Sir Samuel Davenport, the Governor and was a friend of Hurtle Fisher and he was Master of the Hounds. In 1850 he purchased 35 acres at Beaumont where he built Tower House and 80 acres at Mt Gambier. He imported a thoroughbred horse from Hobart called Lucifer. Ironic that a minister of religion would have a horse called Lucifer! His horses raced in Adelaide, Salisbury, Gawler, Brighton and Clare as well as in Mt Gambier and Penola. In 1851 he also took over the 110 square mile 14 year lease of Mayurra run with George Glen of Millicent. In 1852 he returned to England for a short time and on his return he purchased more freehold land bringing his estate to around 800 acres. Not long after in 1854 his horse shied, he was thrown against a tree and died of head injuries but he died intestate with an estate worth over £10,000. Glen bought out his share of Mayurra; the Beaumont house and property was sold in 1867 as were his race horses and his brother Captain Spencer Vansittart eventually inherited the Mt Gambier property. In accordance with William’s wishes 115 acres were set aside to provide income for a scholarship for boarders at St Peters Boys College which happened from 1859. Later in 1883 Spencer Vansittart offered 20 acres to the Mt Gambier Council for a memorial park at the “nominal” sum of £400 which hardly seems “nominal”. The Council raised a loan and purchased the land and the park is still enjoyed by the city’s residents and visitors. Captain Spencer’s widow sold the last package of 300 acres of land in 1912 thus ending the Vansittart links with Mt Gambier. The Vansittart scholarship is still available for boarders from the South East and is operated by a group of College trustees.
Some Historic Buildings in Mt Gambier and a town walk.
Your town walk is basically straight ahead along Penola Road towards the Mount itself which becomes Bay Road( the bay is at Port MacDonnell) once you cross Commercial Street which is the Main Street. There are just a few diversions to the left as you face the Mount. The coach will collect you at the Mount end of the walk near the Old Courthouse.
If you a good walker check out the fine houses in Jardine Street at numbers 1, 7, 9, 11, 12, 17 and 22. They range from cottages to Gothic and turreted mansions including the home of Jens the hotelier. This detour will add another 10 minutes to the walk if you elect to do it.
1.Catholic Covent. Sisters of Mercy setup a convent school in 1880. This wonderful convent was not built until 1908 in local dolomite stone & limestone quoins. Note the fine stone gables with small niches for statuary, the well proportioned arched colonnades and upstairs oriel windows – the projecting bay windows with stone supports. This is one of the finest buildings in Mt Gambier. The convent closed in 1986. Now Auspine.
2.Wesleyan Methodist Church Hall/Sunday School. Across the street is pink dolomite neo-classical style Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School Hall. Hundreds of children attended Sunday School in those days. It opened in 1904. It is now commercial offices. (If you want to walk up Wyatt Street beside the Sunday School and turn right at second street which is at Gray you will see the old two storey Methodist Manse at 101 Gray St. It was built in 1868 and sold 1941. As you turn into Gray Street the Salvation Army Hall is on your left. Allow 10 minutes for this detour before returning to Penola Road).
3.Methodist Church now Liberty Church. A Gothic large church built in 1862 by the Wesleyans. Opened by minister from Portland. Additions made 1877 with new entrance. The old lecture hall and Sunday School was beneath the church. Note the buttress on corners and sides. Became Uniting Church 1977 and closed 1994 when services moved to St Andrews Presbyterian Church. Behind the church (walk through the car park) in Colhurst Place is LLandovery two storey mansion now a B&B. Built 1878 for a flour and oat miller who had his mill in Percy Street.
4.St Paul’s Catholic Church. This impressive Gothic church with huge tower with crenulations was opened in 1884 and will be open today. There are 1966 extensions to the rear of it. The Presbytery is behind the church facing Alexander St. it was built in 1901 when the church was free of building debt. The first thatched bush church was built in another location in 1855. From 1857 the priest was Father Julian Tenison Woods, explorer, academic, horseman etc. A second church opened in 1861 in Sturt St and is now demolished. It closed in 1885 as this church opened. The bells came from Dublin. The church fence and gates built 1936.
5.The Mount Gambier Club. Across the street is the Club. It was built in 1904 for a local distiller as chambers for lease. The wealthy pastoralists of the South East formed an exclusive men only club in 1913 and it has used the upper floor of Engelbrecht’s chambers ever since. They purchased the whole building in 1920. The Club is a beautifully proportioned classical style building with pediments, balustrades, window entablature, and perfect symmetry. Look down the sides and you can see it is made of Mt Gambier limestone blocks.
6.Mt Gambier Caledonian Hall. Next door is the Scots Club. Its prominence signifies the Scottish links of many Gambier residents. The hall was opened in 1914 and opened by the former Prime Minister Sir George Reid, another Scot. It has classical features but is rather ugly and neglected these days. It is now a night club.
7.The Trustees Building. Next to the Caledonian is the Trustee Building erected in 1958. Its blue and bone tiled façade is typical of 1950s architecture yet the rectangular appearance has a slight classical look about it. It is on the SA Heritage Register. Accountants now occupy it.
8.Turn left into Percy Street and go along here beyond KFC for one town block to the next corner for the Oatmills (now a coffee shop and cinemas). Milling and brewing were two of Mt Gambier’s prime 19th century industries. The 4 storey complex here was started in 1867 for Welsh Thomas Williams who eventually had five flour mills. His mill was called Commercial Flourmills. A new owner converted the mill from wheat milling to oat milling. A new oatmill was built in 1901 and operated until 1975 producing Scottish porridge oats. The mill has now been restored with café, shops and cinemas. Return to Penola Rd.
9. Mt Gambier Hotel. No hotel could have a more remarkable origin than the Mt Gambier. An African American John Byng built a weatherboard hotel near here in 1847. The third licensee Alexander Mitchell, another Scot, took it over and moved the hotel to this corner site in 1862 as an impressive two storey hotel which was unusual at that time. The western wing was added in 1883 and balconies affixed in 1902.
10.Cross towards the Mount with the traffic lights then turn left into Commercial Street East.
11.Mt Gambier Town Hall. Marked as the Riddoch Gallery this fine Venetian Gothic style building is impressive with its coloured stone work contrasting well with cement rendered horizontal lines and vertical panels around windows and doors. The upper windows are mullioned with stone divisions between the glass. It was built in 1882 with the clock tower added in 1883 after a donation. The first Council meeting was in 1863 with Dr Wehl as chairman held in a hotel. Later the Council hired a room at the Foresters Hall and then they purchased this site in 1868 with a weatherboard room. This was used until 1882.
12.Mt Gambier old Institute. The Literary Institute was formed in 1862 and a foundation stone laid for a reading room/hall in 1868 by John Riddoch. The single storey institute opened in 1869. The upper floor was added in 1887, so that it would match the new Town Hall. It is built in a similar style- Venetian Romanesque as the windows and rounded and not arched as with a gothic structure.
13.Captain Gardiner Memorial Fountain 1884. The fountain was presented by Captain Robert Gardiner the grandfather of Sir Robert Helpman (his name was originally Helpmann). The fountain was made in Melbourne .Gardiner was also a benefactor of St Andrew’s Presbyterian -he donated the pipe organ in 1885.
14.Jens Hotel. After demolishing an earlier hotel (the 1847 hotel of John Byng) Johannes Jens had the first section of his Jens Hotel built on this corner in 1884. An almost identical eastern wing was erected in 1904 and the Spanish Art Deco section in 1927. Turn right here and go behind the Town hall to the Cave Gardens.
15.Cave Gardens. This spot was an early water supply. A garden was created in 1893 and then improved and reconstructed in 1925. This sink hole has recently been upgraded again and it is lit at night.
16.Post Office. This important communications centre was erected in 1865 as a telegraph office/post office. This is till one of the finest buildings in Mt Gambier and a rare example of the Georgian style for the city. . The single storey side wings were added in 1906 in a sympathetic style. It is still the main city Post Office.
17.Norris Agency Building. This superb Italianate building was completed in 1900 as chambers for businessmen. Owner was Alexander Norris who died in 1917. The façade is pink dolomite with cement quoins and unusual lined decoration work above the windows and door each contained within a triangular classical pediment.
18.Farmers Union Building. Another classical style building built when this style was out of fashion in 1914.Erected for Farmers Union as a large two storey building. It has none of the grace of the Norris building next door. FU was formed in 1888 in Jamestown by Thomas Mitchell, a Scot and others to provide cheap rates for grains, seeds and superphosphate but in the early 1900s they branched into products for dairy farmers and the marketing of milk products. The Mt Gambier district had plenty of dairy farmers. It is now owned by a Japanese company Kirin but it still markets its chocolate milk drinks as Farmers Union. Upper floor has double pilasters (flattened pillars) with top volutes but little other decoration.
19.Savings Bank Building on the corner. The former Savings Bank in Gothic style is unusual for commercial premises in Mt Gambier. It is constructed of weathered local limestone and was built in 1906. Note the different cut stone for the foundations, simulated turrets on the corners and by the door to break the façade appearance and the stone line above the lower window which then divides the façade into equal thirds.
20.Macs Hotel. This hotel was built in 1864 and is largely unchanged except that the upper floor was added in 1881. The first licensee was a Scot named John MacDonald. The double veranda supports are very elegant.
21.Roller flourmill now a painted hardware store. Built 1885 as a steam flourmill in pink dolomite. Note the small 12 paned windows set in much larger indented niches in the walls on the northern wall. (Sturt St.)
22.Christ Church Anglican Church and hall. Dr Browne of Moorak donated half the money for the construction of Christ Church in pink dolomite and with an unusual gabled tower. Church and tower completed in 1866. Adjacent is the Jubilee Hall built in 1915, destroyed by fire in 1951, and rebuilt exactly the same in weathered local limestone blocks with the original foundation stone still in place. It has the single Gothic window in the street facing gable and a crenulated square tower. Adjoining it is the 1869 Sunday School with the narrow double pointed Gothic windows. It was extended in 1892. The lychgate is more recent as a memorial to a regular church goer, Margaret French who died in 1927.
23.The old railway station just visible along the rail lines to your right. The first rail line was to Beachport in 1879 and the second to Naracoorte (and so to Adelaide) in 1887. Portland and Melbourne line opened 1917. A spur line to Glencoe was completed in 1904. First station was erected in 1879. It was demolished for the erection of the current station in 1918 which is similar in design to those in Tailem Bend, Bordertown, Moonta etc. Bluebird rail cars started on the Mt Gambier run in 1953 when the old 3’6” gauge line to Wolseley was converted to 5’3”. The last passenger service to Adelaide finished in 1990 and the station closed for freight in 1995. The railyards were cleared in 2013 and the future of the station is bleak. The rail lines to Beachport and Glencoe closed in 1956/57.
24.The Old Courthouse, 42 Bay Rd. It has a great low wall suitable for sitting on. This well designed Georgian style Courthouse opened in 1865 and the similarly styled side wings were added in 1877. The front veranda, which is not Georgian in style, was added in 1880. In 1975 the Courthouse was granted to the National Trust for a museum. The adjoining new Courthouse opened in 1975 at the same time. Note the “blind” windows to the façade but the same rounded Georgian shaped, 16 paned windows on the sides.
The Blue Lake, Mt Schank and Volcanoes.
The jewel in the crown of Mt Gambier is undoubtedly the volcanic cone, the crater lakes especially the Blue Lake and the surrounding Botanic Gardens and parklands. The Botanic Garden on the north side was approved in 1872 but nothing happened about plantings and care until 1882. The first pleasure road through the saddle between the Blue Lake and the Valley Lake was created in the 1861 as a more direct road to the then newly created international port named Port MacDonnell. That is why the road is called the Bay road. Surveyor General George Goyder explored the lake surrounds himself in 1876 when he selected the site for the government tree nursery. Later the government established the first sawmill on the edge of the crater reserve near Moorak homestead in the early 1920s. The Centenary Tower was initiated in 1900 to celebrate the centenary of Captain Grant sighting Mt Gambier. It took several years to complete and was opened by the Chief Justice of SA Sir Samuel Way in 1907 but it was completed in 1904. The whole complex is a maar geomorphological formation which originated during a volcanic era about 28,000 years ago but in a second phase of volcanic activity 4,000 to 6,000 years ago the cones and lakes of Mt Gambier were created along with the cones of Mt Schank and Mt Burr near Millicent. Mt Gambier was the most recent volcanic explosion in Australia. The crater lakes are: Blue Lake, Valley Lake, Leg of Mutton Lake and Browne’s Lake (dry). The Blue Lake is linked to the aquifers beneath the deep layers of limestone which underlay the entire South East. Blue Lake is about 72 metres deep and some of the water in it is estimated to be about 500 years old but it is mixed with rain runoff each year as well. The Lake provides the water supply for Mt Gambier. Deep in the lake are examples of the oldest living organisms on earth- stromatalites. The lake changes colour from grey to vivid blue each November and reverts in the following April. The change in colour is related to the position of the sun and reflected light from suspended particles in the lake which reflect blue green light rather than brown grey light. Secondly the suspended matter only occurs because the water near the surface rises in temperature in the spring and it is this which causes the particles to precipitate out of the water. The precipitated matter settles on the bottom of the lake ready for a new cycle the following spring. Like the Blue Lake various sink holes in the district have linkages to the underlying aquifer through the layers of limestone too and they include Cave Gardens, Umpherstone, Piccaninni Ponds, etc.
Moorak Station and Tenison Woods College.
Moorak station as originally known as Mount Gambier Station established by George Glen in the 1840s. The leasehold was later taken over by David Power who in turn sold it to Fisher and Rochford who in turn sold the estate as freehold to the Scottish Dr William Browne who had established Booborowie run with his brother in 1843 north of Burra. The Browne brothers dissolved their partnership around 1865 and John went to live at Buckland Park and William took up residence at Moorak. William had purchased Moorak Station in 1862 and built the grand Moorak homestead in impressive Georgian style onto a smaller house there. William died in 1894 and the Moorak Estate passed to his son Colonel Percival Browne who was to disappear on the ill-fated voyage of the new steamer the Waratah in 1909 which disappeared during a storm off Durban, South Africa. Also on that voyage was Mrs. Agnes Hay (nee Gosse) of Mt Breckan Victor Harbor and Linden Park Estate Adelaide and some 200 other poor souls. Around 1909 the Moorak Station was subdivided for closer settlement and in the 1920s the Marist Brothers purchased the homestead with a little land for their and monastery and opened the Marist Brothers Agricultural College for boys in 1931. That college in turn merged with the Mater Christi College in 1972 to become Tenison College. (Mater Christi College had been formed in 1952 by the merger of the St Josephs Convent School (1880) and St Peters Parish School but the primary section of St Peters broke away in 1969 from Mater Christi College and formed a separate St Peters Primary School. This primary school in turn merged with Tenison College in 2001 to form Tenison Woods College!) The College name commemorates the work of Father Julian Tenison Woods who arrived in Mt Gambier in 1857 to work in Penola and Mt Gambier. It was he who encouraged Mary MacKillop to take her vows and establish her Sisters of St Joseph.
Dr Browne’s manager of Moorak Estate in 1868 introduced hops as a viable crop in the South East and large quantities were grown for about 20 years. Other early experimental crops grown included tobacco, cotton and flax. Dr Browne and Moorak were also important in the potato industry. Dr Browne leased around 830 acres to 20 tenants for the express purpose of growing potatoes. He was keen to emulate the British aristocracy although he was a good Scot with being a manorial style landlord with tenant farmers. Potatoes were also grown from the early years at Yahl, OB Flat and Compton near Mt Gambier. The potatoes were carted down to Port MacDonnell and shipped to Adelaide for consumers. As one of the major wool producers of Australia William Browne contributed roughly half of the funds for the erection of Christ Church Anglican in Mt Gambier. The Moorak estate consisted of around 11,000 acres of the most fertile volcanic soil in SA with another 2,000 acres in a nearby property, German Creek near Carpenter’s Rocks. Dr Browne ran Silky Lincolns on Moorak for their wool as Merinos did not fare well on the damp South East pastures. About 2,000 acres was in wheat, about 2,500 acres was tenanted to other farmers and around 4,000 acres were in lucerne, clover, rye and other pasture grasses. William Browne returned to live in England in 1866 so his sons could attend Eton and military training colleges there. He made regular trips to SA about every second year to oversee his many pastoral properties here. When he died in 1894 he left 100,000 acres of freehold land in SA to his children who all resided here as well as leasehold land. He was an extremely wealthy man. Son Percival took control of Moorak. Before Percival’s death Moorak Estate was partly purchased by the SA government in 1904 for closer settlement when they acquired around 1,000 acres. After Percival’s death a further 6,300 acres was acquired for closer settlement and the remainder of the estate was sold to other farmers. The government paid between £10 and £31 per acre for the land. Percival Browne was highly respected in Mt Gambier and a reserve around the Blue Lake is named after him. The fourth of the crater lakes of Mt Gambier is also named Browne’s Lake after the family but it has been dry for decades. In 1900 Colonel Browne planted the ring of English Oaks around what was to become the oval of the Marist Brothers College.
Moorak.
There is a memorial by the station to William Browne as founder of the Coriadale Sheep Stud. The great Moorak woolshed was demolished in 1939. The Union church which opened in 1920 was used by the Methodists and the Anglicans. It is now a private residence. Moorak hall was opened in 1926. New classrooms were added to the Moorak School in 1928 and the first rooms opened in 1913. The cheese factory in Moorak opened in 1913 as a cooperative and was sold to Farmers Union in 1949. They closed the factory in 1979. Most of the cheese produced at Moorak went to the Melbourne market. The first cheese maker at Moorak was trained at Lauterbach’s cheese factory at Woodside. Moorak was one of a circle of settlements around Mt Gambier that had butter/cheese factories. These towns were: Kongorong; Glencoe East; Glencoe West; Suttontown; Glenburnie; Mil Lel; Yahl; OB Flat; Moorak; Mt Schank; and Eight Mile Creek.
Yahl.
In the 1860s this tiny settlement was a tobacco, hop and potato growing district and it persisted with potatoes up until recent times. Today Yahl is little more than a suburban village of Mt Gambier with a Primary school with approx 120 students. The old government school was erected in 1879. It had a Methodist church built in 1880 which operated as a church until 1977 and it had a large butter factory which had opened in 1888. The butter and cheese factory was taken over by the OB Flat cheese factory in 1939 and the two operated in conjunction with each other. The OB Flat cheese factory closed in 1950 and all production moved to Yahl. The factory finally closed in 1971. The township of Yahl also had a General Store and a Salvation Army Hall which was built in 1919.
Sink Holes: Umpherston Gardens and Cave Gardens.
James Umpherston purchased land near Mt Gambier in 1864 which included a large sink hole or collapsed cavern with a lake in the bottom. He was born in Scotland in 1812 and came to SA in the 1850s with his brother William. William purchased his first land at Yahl in 1859. James Umpherston was a civic minded chap being a local councilor, a parliamentarian in Adelaide for two years and President of the Mt Gambier Agricultural and Horticultural Society for 13 years. When he retired from civic life and farming in 1884 he decided to create a garden in his sinkhole. He beautified it and encouraged visitors and even provided a boat in the lake for boat rides. Access was gained by steps and a path carved into the sinkhole walls. However after he died in 1900 the garden was ignored, became overgrown and was largely forgotten in 1949 when the Woods and Forests Department obtained the land for a new sawmill at Mt Gambier. By then the lake had dried up as the water table had fallen over the decades. In 1976 staff, rather than the government, decided to restore the Umpherstone gardens. The cleared out the rubbish that had been dumped in the sinkhole, restored the path access, trimmed the ivy and replanted the hydrangeas and tree ferns. In 1994 the Woos and Forests Department handed over the land around the sinkhole to the City of Mt Gambier. It was added to the SA Heritage Register in 1995.
Pronounced: (De-Shu-Nay)
Well here is a self portrait of myself!
It was taken on the rooftop of the Nevada Art Museum!
I just thought id introduce myself to all my new contacts ive made in the past few months, and fill you all in a bit of whats all been happening in my life!
A lil of whats goin on with me!
Well first off many of you may know i was entered into a scholastics art competition well today is the day we find out who one number one in state! I'm extrememly excited to see what the turn out is. Even if i am not the winner im super excited to further my photography and share it once again with all of you through flickr!
Second off, I think i've changed since my old pictures when i was really active on flickr last year. I think ive become more "responsible" and grown into my own a little more. I have had a job at In N Out now for about 6 months! (no i dont flip burgers... yet) haha. And ive become a lot closer with my family! Ive gone through my stream lately and i see how my photos have become more "brighter" and i realized this change has occured because my mood has been a lot more optimistic now that im back in the states and around all my friends again!
And lastly, college has smacked me in the face. I am about to finish my junior year in highschool and have a ton of decisions ill be making throughout these next few months of my life. Ive been talking to a guy who wants me to go to Pasadena Art and Design school. (ranked highly in the states and, and founded my Ansel Adams) I really would like to tour this campus and see what is has to offer. but at the same time i would love to be on the east coast in the city of new york! Lots of stuff to think about.
Well thats pretty much all the big stuff going on!
Id love to hear from all of you. fill me in on your life and any other things you may want to talk about! Talk to you all soon<3
-Dejenee
Dawson.
Although Peterborough was beyond Goyder’s Line of 1864 indicating the limit of viable farming lands the government, grasping for land sales revenue and wanting to acquiesce to the demand for wheat farming land, allowed the Hundred of Coglin about 40 kilometres north of Peterborough to be proclaimed in 1878. Farmers and speculators moved in straight away with land sales doing very well. The town of Dawson was gazetted a few years later in June of 1881. The government town was planned on a grid pattern with 360 town blocks offered for sale. But had they waited a few months longer as the big drought of 1881 settled in the government might have been more cautions and less optimistic. But the potential farmers and business people for the town were not pessimistic. They established a thriving little town. Droughts come and go in Australia and they assumed this drought of 1881 would also pass. But this was not to be as the average rainfall of the Hundred of Coglin was too low to be a reliable area for grain growing. The so called drought persisted as the rainfall returned to its usual low average after the good years of the late 1870s ended. It was those few good seasons that had encouraged people to argue that “rain followed the plough”. This was just wishful thinking. In 1888, after ten years trying to grow wheat, some farmers around Dawson were reaping for three days to produce one bag of wheat! Then in January 1889 a thunderstorm produced floods and lakes sweeping away fences, cattle and trees. Nine inches of rain (225 mms) fell in one day. Further deluges occurred in February and in March. Hope was restored but great droughts returned in the early 1890s. Today the town is a ghost town with a handful of residents and the land is used for pastoralism, not grain growing. But it is picturesque and the dry weather has preserved its old buildings well.
Dawson soon had numerous buildings, although few now remain, and a population of over 100 residents within a few years. Among the first buildings, as in all SA towns in the 19th century, were the Dawson Hotel in 1883, a Primitive Methodist Chapel in 1882, an Anglican Church in 1883 and a Catholic Church in 1885. The government public school was built and opened in 1885 and this followed the opening of the Catholic school in 1884. By 1898 the state school had 55 pupils and early in the 20th century the average enrolment had risen to around 75 children but it declined from 1902 onwards until the final closure of the school in 1962. Along with a Post Office, a general store and a blacksmith the town was nicely established by 1887. By the 1890s it had two general stores, a butcher and a saddler and many residences. Few of these buildings now remain. Although the hotel served as a social centre for events and public meetings the town and community soon wanted an Institute or hall. This was completed in 1890. Nearby the first horse race meetings were held and the cricket ground was established. Crops were sown and yields were obtained but yields varied greatly and never reached the yields expected by the farmers and in some years nothing was reaped at all. The discovery of gold at the Mount Grainger fields in 1894 boosted optimism but not for long as nearer towns like Penn (Oodla Wirra) could provide services for the goldfield needs. By the time Australian Federation occurred in 1901 the town began to die but it clung to life until the 1970s. The town is surrounded by excellent pastoral country and farms were amalgamated into larger pastoral properties causing a drop in the total district population. Then once motor transport became common widespread in the 1950s the town died more quickly as larger service centres like Peterborough became much closer time wise.
Dawson today has few buildings. The old state school built in 1885 is now a comfortable looking residence with solar panels on its roof. The original Primitive Methodist Church of 1882 was a tin and timber building and it has gone. It was replaced with a new stone Methodist Church in 1890 that opened without plastering or a ceiling. They were added later. A solid stone water closet was built by the Methodists in 1893. It is still standing! The Methodist manse has been demolished and is gone. The outstanding Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel is still standing on the hill but the buildings around it are all gone. The church was restored inside and out in 1925. The Catholic School founded in 1884 is believed to have only operated for a couple of years. The large and impressive Dawson Hotel from 1883 with a substantial cellar is standing in a ruined state. Although Dawson established an Institute in 1890 it was replaced with a new galvanised iron and timber structure in 1926. That is still in good condition and is still sometimes used. The sports ground is unused and dilapidated with no functioning toilets or facilities.
But how does a town become a ghost town? The example of Dawson shows the resilience and determination again the odds to maintain a township. From 1902 the school enrolment began to decline. The butcher shop closed in 1903 as did the blacksmith. By 1907 families were leaving the district and the hoped for returns from wheat farming had not eventuated. But in 1908 it is amazing to think that this town and district was blanketed in snow! Nevertheless the town continued to decline. In 1915 the local branch of the Agricultural Bureau ceased. In 1954 the government began to resume town blocks if they had never been purchased or if the owners were not traceable. In 1960 the town was officially abolished as a town. The Dawson Hotel closed in 1961 and the state school closed in 1962 followed by the general store in 1963.The tennis club abolished itself in 1963 with the football club following suit in 1965. The Methodist Church held its last service in 1964 and the last Catholic Mass was held in 1969 although the last Catholic priest to live in the town had departed as early as 1942. What a sad period this must have been for the farmers still living in the district. The only town activity which continued was the Dawson Hall Committee. In an attempt to keep something of Dawson for future generations they raised money and purchased the Methodist and Catholic churches and the ruins of the Dawson Hotel in 1981 to preserve them. Today it is doubtful that even the Dawson Hall Committee exists.
I once wrote that one stranger leads to another. There is a portrait that is important to my project because it has led to a number of other portraits. However, it doesn’t appear in my stranger gallery. I photographed Jean-François Bélanger a few weeks after I first met him at the end of one of his concerts. I had heard him say he would play an acoustic concert with traditional Swedish instruments named nyckelharpas at the Redpath Museum. I offered to document it. He agreed that I shoot his performance as long as it was done very discreetly and only in available ambient light. The Redpath concert was special for its context. It was part of the Montréal Baroque Festival and set amongst the museum’s artefacts.
I met my stranger # 77, Meaghan, when I first visited the exhibition hall, where there is a standing dinosaur skeleton, to make sure there was enough light to make decent handheld camera photos. The day of the concert, I met Matthias, my stranger # 85. He is a composer and a co-director of the festival.
That day I learned Jean-François would be playing guitar in a quite different context at the Festival Mémoires et racines, in Joliette. I spent a day there in July. At the inn where my wife and I stayed the night before, we met Vern and Pat, visitors from California and my strangers # 92 and 93. On the Festival’s site, I met another J-F. Jean-François Berthiaume is a set caller and contemporary visual artist and my stranger # 94. I also met my stranger # 95 there, Malin, a singer from the Swedish vocal group named Kongero.
Malin told me Kongero would give a concert garage in Montreal the following week. I went to it and met Rossana, my stranger # 97. Rossana told me she gives workshops where she teaches “optimistic writing”. Recently, she sent me an e-mail letting me know that I could attend to one of her workshops in the course of the twentieth edition of “Les Journées de la culture”, a week-end of open door event and free of charge cultural activities.
So, off to the workshop I go. It was held in the exhibition room of l’Artothèque, a bank of art works for rental at affordable cost. There were two tables set-up. In total, there were seven participants. I was seated with three women. One of them was Ornella. I thought the workshop was going to be a bit directive. Things turned out different. Rossana made us listen to Louis Armstrong singing “What a wonderful world” and basically told us to think about something positive and write. So we all wrote and then read out our texts. It turned out everyone could write pretty well, admittedly, with different levels of positivism. There was only one other man but he had the craftiest, most poetic style.
This almost filled the scheduled time for the activity. I hadn’t had the opportunity to speak to my table mates at this point. Ornella was with a friend whom, I felt, seemed the most outgoing of the three women. I thought she would agree to be photographed. I was wrong. It’s OK, I respect refusals. I turned to Ornella who, as you can see, accepted to pose for my project.
As she and her friend had to leave because of another commitment, I got to know very little about either of them. She said she was born in Ukraine, her friend was from Congo. Ornella clearly had a strong sense of style. She had lovely round earrings made of colored beads and was wearing what looked like a hand knitted scarf also with colorful designs. I was very surprised to hear that it was actually a table centerpiece cloth that she had cleverly diverted from its original function. The earrings and the centerpiece cloth were from South Africa.
I wish I could tell you more. The ladies had no time left and ran away in a hurry.
Who knows, our paths may cross again…
J'ai déjà écrit qu’un inconnu mène à un autre. Il y a un portrait qui a été important pour mon projet parce qu'il a conduit à un certain nombre d'autres portraits. Cependant, vous ne le trouverez pas dans ma collection d’inconnus. J'ai photographié Jean-François Bélanger quelques semaines après l’avoir brièvement rencontré à la fin de l'un de ses concerts. Je l'avais entendu dire qu'il allait donner un concert acoustique avec des instruments traditionnels suédois nommés nyckelharpas au Musée Redpath. Je lui ai offert de documenter cet événement. Il a accepté que je couvre sa performance à la condition que ce soit fait très discrètement et seulement en lumière ambiante. Le concert au Redpath était particulier pour son contexte. Il faisait partie du Festival Montréal Baroque était joué au cœur de la collection du musée.
J'ai rencontré mon inconnue # 77, Meaghan, lors de ma première visite dans cette salle d'exposition où il y a un squelette de dinosaure debout. Je m’y étais rendu pour m’assurer qu'il y avait assez de lumière disponible pour faire des photos adéquates. Le jour du concert, j'ai rencontré Matthias, mon inconnu # 85. Il est un compositeur et est co-directeur du festival.
Ce jour-là, j'ai appris Jean-François jouerait de la guitare dans un contexte bien différent au Festival Mémoire et racines, à Joliette. J’ai donc passé une journée là-bas à la fin de juillet. À l'auberge où ma femme et moi avons passé la nuit précédente, nous avons rencontré Vern et Pat, des visiteurs venus la Californie et mes inconnus # 92 et 93. Sur le site du Festival, j'ai rencontré un autre J-F, Jean-François Berthiaume, qui est un calleur de set et un artiste visuel contemporain. C’est mon inconnu # 94. J'ai aussi rencontré là mon inconnue # 95, Malin, une des chanteuses du groupe vocal suédois nommé Kongero.
Malin m'a appris que Kongero donnerait un concert de garage à Montréal la semaine suivante. J’y suis allé et j’y ai rencontré Rossana mon inconnue # 97. Rossana donne des ateliers où elle enseigne «l’écriture optimiste». Récemment, elle m'a envoyé un e-mail me laissant savoir que, dans le cadre de la vingtième édition des «Journées de la culture », un week-end de portes ouvertes et d’activités culturelles accessibles, je pourrais participer à l'un de ses ateliers. Je me rends donc à cet atelier qui avait lieu dans la salle d'exposition de l'Artothèque, une banque d'œuvres d'art en location à un coût abordable.
Il y avait deux tables de préparées. Au total, il y avait sept participants. J'étais assis avec trois femmes. L'un d'elle était Ornella. Je pensais que l'atelier allait être plutôt encadré. Les choses se sont avérées différente. Rossana nous a fait écouter Louis Armstrong chantant «What a wonderful world » puis nous a dit de penser à quelque chose de positif et d’écrire. Nous avons alors tous écrit puis lu nos textes. Il est apparu que tout le monde pouvait écrire assez bien, avec, il est vrai, différents niveaux de positivisme. Il n'y avait qu'un autre homme, mais il avait l’écriture la plus fine, la plus poétique.
Cela a pratiquement rempli le temps prévu pour l'activité. Je n’avais pas eu l'occasion de parler à mes compagnes de table pour la peine à ce point. Ornella était avec une amie qui m’avait parue être la plus communicative des trois femmes. Je me disais qu'elle serait d'accord pour être photographié. J'avais tort. C’est OK, je respecte les refus.
Je me suis alors tourné vers Ornella qui, comme vous pouvez le voir, a accepté de poser pour mon projet. Comme elle et son amie devait quitter en raison d'un autre engagement, je n’ai pu apprendre que très peu de choses sur elles. Ornella m’a dit qu'elle et née en Ukraine, son amie est originaire du Congo. Ornella a clairement un bon sens du style. Elle avait de belles boucles d'oreilles rondes en petites billes multicolores et portait ce qui ressemblait à une écharpe tricotée main comportant aussi avec des motifs bien colorés. Je fus très surpris d'entendre qu'il s’agissait en fait un centre de table qu'elle avait habilement détourné de sa fonction d'origine! Les boucles d'oreilles et le tissu provenaient d'Afrique du Sud.
Je voudrais bien pouvoir vous en dire plus. Les deux dames étaient pressées et sont parties à la hâte.
Qui sait, nos chemins se croiseront peut-être de nouveau...
This photo is part of my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
I'm not sure if my good friend Ken was looking at a bird, but I'm sure he was hoping for one. Prior to Egypt Ken did an Intrepid tour in Jordan where he spent some extra time birding. He is one dedicated birder.
The crowded, noisy, and rough around the edges Cairo buts up against the Giza plateau which then extends off to a seemingly infinite rolling land of sand and rock.
If interested, you can view my Youtube playlist of our trip to Egypt .
Thoughtful feedback, constructive criticisms, and suggestions are always appreciated. As always, I have used tools at my disposal to interpret the original files. Use of this photo is conditioned on the "Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike " conditions outlined on this page.
Classic Space is bright and optimistic and shiny and innocent.
Not any more.
Those that may have been following my photostream (or my blog ghsquarefeet.wordpress.com) may recall that I've been wondering "what if the old catalogue images are propaganda? What if the Blacktron are the good guys and the Classic Space faction are an oppressive tyranny?"
This is the first major build definitively tied into that universe. It has scary-looking Space Police. It has remote cameras. It has faceless transcorporate Classic Space goon squads. It has peaceful Blacktron protesters being gunned down. It isn't nice, and it's not innocent. This is the dark underbelly of the Classic Space System.
“McCall’s many fanciful and optimistic visions of the future life on earth show a world of matchless beauty in which humans have bested the forces of gravity, have learned to appreciate the untainted splendor of the natural world, and have come to live in peace and harmony with one another.” – Vincent Di Fate in “Infinite Worlds” (1997)
Robert T. McCall (1919-2010) began his career as a space artist with a series of space illustrations for “Life” magazine in the late 1950s, which drew the attention of NASA administrator James Webb. McCall was one of the first artists commissioned by Webb to document the agency’s activities. He worked as an artist for NASA for over 35 years, documenting the history of the space race. His work can be found on mission patches such as for Apollo 17, and on U.S. postage stamps.
In 1967, McCall created promotional artwork for Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey, and later for such films as “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (1970), “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979), Walt Disney’s “The Black Hole” (1979), and “Meteor” (1979). He has created murals for the walls of the National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, The Pentagon, Epcot, and Lydon B. Johnson Space Center.
McCall was also commissioned by The Walt Disney Company to do a painting called “The Prologue and The Promise” for the Epcot attraction, “Horizons” in 1983. Guests could see the mural at the end of the attraction as they exited.
McCall’s immensely popular work contributed to his induction into the Illustrators’ Hall of Fame in 1988.
[Sources: Wikipedia, and Vincent Di Fate’s “Infinite Worlds” (1997)]
A new portrait shot using day light.
And this time I tried to keep it in colors so it would suit the title and the expression that the girl have.
Hope you like it and like always you can see the b/w version from this link.
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iso : 100
shutter speed : 1/80
Lens Aperture : F2.8
Focal Length : 200mm
Lens : Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM
Light Source : natural
programs edited with : Photoshop Cs5
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Optimistically entitled, this treaty promised an alliance between England and Scotland, sealed with a marriage alliance. James IV of Scotland was betrothed to Princess Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII of England. The borders of this document illustrate the thistle (James’ emblem), the Tudor rose and the marguerete representing Margaret.
This document is held in the National Archives.
There are lots of optimistic signs here at North Redwood, MN. First, it's finally warm and the snow is melting, so work on the railroad and (hopefully) in the fields can begin. Second, the old elevator here is being given a second shot at life as it has been purchased by a grower who is using the property to transload organic soybeans into covered hoppers, a few of which can be seen on the siding. Finally, the new ties are a sign of the ongoing investment being made in this line to slowly but surely bring it back. It has been left for dead several times in its history. Hopefully it continues to live on for a long time to come.
Optimistic girl that I am, I bought this Summer dress four months ago with the idea of being the Belle of Blackrock. We have the fire on tonight trying to dry clothes and keep warm so it's fair to say that it didn't quite work out as expected. Never one to be daunted, however, I'll buy a large bag of sand on Monday and pretend I had a lovely time at Bangor (as the song goes).
Outside of the Town Hall theater on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, a crowd of smiling and optimistic people Friday overflowed into the one-way street. Delivery trucks and yellow taxi cabs creeped by, their engines engaged in a shouting match with Bennet Weiss, a man who bore a fleeting resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate they were all there to support.
"We don't have billions of dollars! All we have are people wearing Bernie pins," Weiss yelled, a large black umbrella covered in Bernie Sanders campaign pins at his feet, catching drops of sweat from his brow. The Occupy Wall Street protester-turned-Sanders supporter urged the crowd to wear the pins at all times with no exception -- even in the shower -- and gave them away freely to anyone who said they didn't have enough cash to afford to pay the suggested donation.
That's the kind of populist support Sanders' campaign has steadily been attracting since the U.S. senator from Vermont formally announced his candidacy in late April. Friday was no exception, with passion-filled people who think Sanders has proved himself the worthy champion of causes they care about the most, such as income inequality, climate change, Wall Street reform and further healthcare reforms. But, perhaps most importantly, they also think he can win the White House.
"Absolutely" he can win, said Joe Trinolone, 30, a former finance industry worker from Long Island, New York, who is studying mathematics at St. Joseph's University. "I mean, he's winning right now."
Sanders, during a fundraising speech Friday, ticked through the policies he cares about and areas of change he wants to see in Washington should he become president. At each turn, his blend of outrage, optimism and sly sarcasm brought raucous cheers from the crowd of 1,100. He rejected recent Wall Street Journal criticism of the high price tag of his proposals, including making public colleges and universities free, lowering so-called real unemployment by pumping funding into infrastructure repairs for the nation’s roads and bridges and implementing a universal healthcare system.
Instead, he pointed to European nations that already have those programs. He implored the crowd to think about what many of them were already talking about: that taking on the big-money interests in the United States that impede those sorts of policy changes is a shared moral obligation.
“Welcome to the revolution,” Sanders said, describing what he believes must happen to American politics. “We can accomplish all of this and more.” And the crowd ate it up.
When asked why they support Sanders, many described his candidacy as a movement. They love his policies, and have a hard time thinking of much they don’t like about him. They especially like that he has been a consistent voice during his time in Washington. That’s a big perceived difference between Sanders and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Those "feeling the Bern" were split on whether they would consider voting for her if she becomes the nominee. Many were newcomers to political action but felt compelled to join the fray when they heard Sanders and his message.
“I’ve never been excited about a politician my entire life,” said Meira Marom, 34, a Brooklyn third-grade teacher with a master's degree in creative writing. When Marom started seeing social media posts about Sanders and reading about him, she decided to stop focusing her personal time on writing for herself. She now writes and publishes something about Sanders every day -- Dr. Seuss themes every Sunday, poems and parodies. “I decided this is the most worthy cause to put my rhymes to use.”
Sanders has seen an unexpected rise in the polls since he joined the race for the Democratic nomination shortly after the current national front-runner Clinton announced her candidacy. While Sanders was trailing Clinton by 21.4 percent in national averages of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, a look at early nominating states like Iowa and New Hampshire paints a different picture of vulnerability for Clinton and strength for Sanders.
The two candidates are tied in Iowa, which constitutes a dramatic drop for Clinton and an impressive surge for Sanders, who has been distancing himself from Clinton in New Hampshire at the top of the Democratic pack since Aug. 25, when he jumped past her in the state for the first time. He currently leads there by 10.5 points.
The candidates are noticeably different in many ways, from policy prescription to fundraising strategy.
Clinton has moved leftward since announcing her candidacy, but she is still threatened by the populist appeal of Sanders, who has long championed the causes that seem to be coming into grace for the Democratic Party. While the candidates currently hold some very similar positions on issues such as immigration reform, gay rights, gun control and campaign finance reform, Sanders has been able to stake out positions to the left of Clinton on other issues that excite some vocal voters.
Among them are his strong anti-war and anti-government surveillance positions as well as his distaste for President Barack Obama's Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Sanders also has been a vocal critic of Wall Street and champion of financial reforms, and his stance on those issues has drawn attention to Clinton's cozy relationship with Wall Street executives and the huge paychecks she has received for speeches to large banks since leaving the U.S. State Department. For some Sanders supporters, though, the perception that Sanders has been a consistent proponent of these liberal policies, and cares about them more than winning, is key.
“It’s the message that supporting Bernie Sanders is not just voting on a horse in the race” that attracts Brian Dillon, a 28-year-old self-employed Web designer and developer for e-commerce, said Friday. Dillon has voted just one time in his life, but he has been organizing meetings to drum up support for Sanders.
Sanders's fundraising portfolio also is the reverse of Clinton's. While the former secretary of state is expected to spend somewhere north of $1 billion should she win the primary and head into the general election for 2016, the same has not been said of Sanders. Currently, Clinton has raised, through her campaign committee and super PACs associated with the campaign, $47.5 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Sanders, on the other hand, has raised just shy of $16.5 million, according to CRP data.
Their most startling difference in fundraising, however, can be seen in the size of the donations they're receiving. The Clinton campaign received 82 percent of its donations from large contributors, and her top industry donors, not including retired people, so far have been lawyers, business services and the financial industry.
In contrast, Sanders relies much more on small donations, which are defined as donations totaling $200 or less. So far, 69 percent of his contributions have come from small donors, and the biggest industries that have given to his campaign have been from the education, legal and healthcare sectors.
Who are those small donors? The types of people who showed up Friday. Some said they donate $25 to $30 a month to Sanders. Some said they have donated several hundred dollars since he jumped into the presidential race. Nearly all of them mentioned they don't earn a ton of money personally. One in particular, Machumu Sakulira, said he donated $500 before attending Friday’s event.
There is “no way” he would support a Clinton ticket, said Sakulira, a 31-year-old senior political science student at the University at Buffalo. He got on a bus Thursday night at 11 p.m. and arrived in New York at 7 a.m. for the Sanders speech. He said he was going back Friday night. “Bernie represents my interest. My vote is a moral choice, I don’t give it to somebody who doesn’t deserve it.”
www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-bernie-sanders-nyc-fundrais...
- Pigeons are a common sight in the UK and are often seen as pests due to their reputation in urban areas and it's easy to forget them as doting parents. As I was working today I watched this Wood Pigeon spend twenty minutes or so struting about the lawn inspecting numerous twigs and sticks which might pass the judgement of his nesting partner, discarding many as either not the correct length or thickness. Clearly impressed with this selection it ultimately proved too much to manage and more appropriate building material was eventually chosen. Thurnham Court, Devizes.
An overly optimistic photographer was waiting for one more ray of sun.
He told me he had seen photos of the arch lit from the underneath at sunset. Well, he may have to wait there till a different time of the year, because on that day the sun definitely was not going to jump up a little higher in the sky just to humor him!.
The strange thing to his right is a shrub, though it looks more like a lying matted wild boar.
"Mesa Arch is perched on the east rim of the Island in the Sky plateau (or mesa) high above the middle fork of Buck Canyon. The view through the arch, looking out towards the distant and often snow-covered La Sal Mountains, is one of the most photographed in the park, especially at sunrise."
The Island in the Sky district of the Canyonlands National Park, Utah. November 2019
Outside of the Town Hall theater on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, a crowd of smiling and optimistic people Friday overflowed into the one-way street. Delivery trucks and yellow taxi cabs creeped by, their engines engaged in a shouting match with Bennet Weiss, a man who bore a fleeting resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate they were all there to support.
"We don't have billions of dollars! All we have are people wearing Bernie pins," Weiss yelled, a large black umbrella covered in Bernie Sanders campaign pins at his feet, catching drops of sweat from his brow. The Occupy Wall Street protester-turned-Sanders supporter urged the crowd to wear the pins at all times with no exception -- even in the shower -- and gave them away freely to anyone who said they didn't have enough cash to afford to pay the suggested donation.
That's the kind of populist support Sanders' campaign has steadily been attracting since the U.S. senator from Vermont formally announced his candidacy in late April. Friday was no exception, with passion-filled people who think Sanders has proved himself the worthy champion of causes they care about the most, such as income inequality, climate change, Wall Street reform and further healthcare reforms. But, perhaps most importantly, they also think he can win the White House.
"Absolutely" he can win, said Joe Trinolone, 30, a former finance industry worker from Long Island, New York, who is studying mathematics at St. Joseph's University. "I mean, he's winning right now."
Sanders, during a fundraising speech Friday, ticked through the policies he cares about and areas of change he wants to see in Washington should he become president. At each turn, his blend of outrage, optimism and sly sarcasm brought raucous cheers from the crowd of 1,100. He rejected recent Wall Street Journal criticism of the high price tag of his proposals, including making public colleges and universities free, lowering so-called real unemployment by pumping funding into infrastructure repairs for the nation’s roads and bridges and implementing a universal healthcare system.
Instead, he pointed to European nations that already have those programs. He implored the crowd to think about what many of them were already talking about: that taking on the big-money interests in the United States that impede those sorts of policy changes is a shared moral obligation.
“Welcome to the revolution,” Sanders said, describing what he believes must happen to American politics. “We can accomplish all of this and more.” And the crowd ate it up.
When asked why they support Sanders, many described his candidacy as a movement. They love his policies, and have a hard time thinking of much they don’t like about him. They especially like that he has been a consistent voice during his time in Washington. That’s a big perceived difference between Sanders and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Those "feeling the Bern" were split on whether they would consider voting for her if she becomes the nominee. Many were newcomers to political action but felt compelled to join the fray when they heard Sanders and his message.
“I’ve never been excited about a politician my entire life,” said Meira Marom, 34, a Brooklyn third-grade teacher with a master's degree in creative writing. When Marom started seeing social media posts about Sanders and reading about him, she decided to stop focusing her personal time on writing for herself. She now writes and publishes something about Sanders every day -- Dr. Seuss themes every Sunday, poems and parodies. “I decided this is the most worthy cause to put my rhymes to use.”
Sanders has seen an unexpected rise in the polls since he joined the race for the Democratic nomination shortly after the current national front-runner Clinton announced her candidacy. While Sanders was trailing Clinton by 21.4 percent in national averages of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, a look at early nominating states like Iowa and New Hampshire paints a different picture of vulnerability for Clinton and strength for Sanders.
The two candidates are tied in Iowa, which constitutes a dramatic drop for Clinton and an impressive surge for Sanders, who has been distancing himself from Clinton in New Hampshire at the top of the Democratic pack since Aug. 25, when he jumped past her in the state for the first time. He currently leads there by 10.5 points.
The candidates are noticeably different in many ways, from policy prescription to fundraising strategy.
Clinton has moved leftward since announcing her candidacy, but she is still threatened by the populist appeal of Sanders, who has long championed the causes that seem to be coming into grace for the Democratic Party. While the candidates currently hold some very similar positions on issues such as immigration reform, gay rights, gun control and campaign finance reform, Sanders has been able to stake out positions to the left of Clinton on other issues that excite some vocal voters.
Among them are his strong anti-war and anti-government surveillance positions as well as his distaste for President Barack Obama's Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Sanders also has been a vocal critic of Wall Street and champion of financial reforms, and his stance on those issues has drawn attention to Clinton's cozy relationship with Wall Street executives and the huge paychecks she has received for speeches to large banks since leaving the U.S. State Department. For some Sanders supporters, though, the perception that Sanders has been a consistent proponent of these liberal policies, and cares about them more than winning, is key.
“It’s the message that supporting Bernie Sanders is not just voting on a horse in the race” that attracts Brian Dillon, a 28-year-old self-employed Web designer and developer for e-commerce, said Friday. Dillon has voted just one time in his life, but he has been organizing meetings to drum up support for Sanders.
Sanders's fundraising portfolio also is the reverse of Clinton's. While the former secretary of state is expected to spend somewhere north of $1 billion should she win the primary and head into the general election for 2016, the same has not been said of Sanders. Currently, Clinton has raised, through her campaign committee and super PACs associated with the campaign, $47.5 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Sanders, on the other hand, has raised just shy of $16.5 million, according to CRP data.
Their most startling difference in fundraising, however, can be seen in the size of the donations they're receiving. The Clinton campaign received 82 percent of its donations from large contributors, and her top industry donors, not including retired people, so far have been lawyers, business services and the financial industry.
In contrast, Sanders relies much more on small donations, which are defined as donations totaling $200 or less. So far, 69 percent of his contributions have come from small donors, and the biggest industries that have given to his campaign have been from the education, legal and healthcare sectors.
Who are those small donors? The types of people who showed up Friday. Some said they donate $25 to $30 a month to Sanders. Some said they have donated several hundred dollars since he jumped into the presidential race. Nearly all of them mentioned they don't earn a ton of money personally. One in particular, Machumu Sakulira, said he donated $500 before attending Friday’s event.
There is “no way” he would support a Clinton ticket, said Sakulira, a 31-year-old senior political science student at the University at Buffalo. He got on a bus Thursday night at 11 p.m. and arrived in New York at 7 a.m. for the Sanders speech. He said he was going back Friday night. “Bernie represents my interest. My vote is a moral choice, I don’t give it to somebody who doesn’t deserve it.”
www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-bernie-sanders-nyc-fundrais...
(Everything about this shot - from the angle to shoot it at, to perfecting the pose, to choosing the right body position - was a pain in my ass but I really liked the idea of this shot & do love the outcome so I guess it's worth it ;3)
Optimistically headboarded Peckett 0-4-0ST no 2111 'Lytham St Anne's' heads the last Midland Railway Centre vintage train service of the weekend away from Butterley.
Optimistically headboarded Peckett 0-4-0ST no 2111 'Lytham St Anne's' fair belts along with the Midland Railway Centre vintage train.
unfortunately i had no time to mount my zoom lens, so the always mounted 50mm gave its best for another time
A MKU3A visit to the Chinese New Year in London.
My old photostream is at www.flickr.com/photos/emaybe/
A positive attitude is important, but it is only part of the story. Understanding how to surmount pain, doubt, and failure is a vital component in winning the game of life.
- Chin-Ning Chu
flooded film archives
film scan
Kodak Plus X Pan
Minolta SR7/ 50mm Rokkor
sepia tones courtesy of nature
scratches courtesy of the rewind mechanism in my old camera
taken mid-80s. might be New Orleans or there abouts - anyone know for sure?
*edited to note: Susan solved the mystery! This is Aransas Pass in Texas. Scroll down for more details. Thanks Susan!!
Call me Snake offers an optimistic provocation – ‘imagine what could be here’ by Judy Millar. On a walk into the city October 3, 2015 Christchurch New Zealand.
The work is comprised of vibrant graphics of Millar’s looped paintings, which are adhered to five intersecting flat planes, and draws inspiration from the forms found in pop-up books. The colourful piece will add a dramatic and rhythmic counterpoint to the city’s current urban landscape — a mix of flattened sites, construction zones and defiant buildings that have stood through the quakes. The work employs theatricality, playfulness and visual trickery, whereby the viewer is unsure about the work’s flatness or three-dimensionality; and it has been designed to offer a different perspective from each angle. The bright colours interrupt the grey of the work’s surrounds, and as buildings pop up around it,
SCAPE 8, New Intimacies curated by Rob Garrett was a contemporary art event which mixed new artworks with existing legacy pieces, an education programme, and a public programme of events. The SCAPE 8 artworks were located around central Christchurch and linked via a public art walkway. All aspects of SCAPE 8 were free-to-view.
The title for the 2015 Biennial – New Intimacies – came from the idea that visually striking and emotionally engaging public art works can create new connections between people and places. Under the main theme of New Intimacies there are three other themes that artists responded to: Sight-Lines, Inner Depths and Shared Strengths.
For more Info: www.scapepublicart.org.nz/scape-8-judy-millar