Pretty and dangerous.

Our prettiest animal is our most dangerous as well....

Voted "most likely to decide you must lose an arm because you did one too many pats", 3 years running.

Checking social distance...

People just checking their social distance before we practice patterns in the park...
Looking forward to getting back to normal training....

Taekwondo Grading

Very proud of how everyone performed at the grading.

Xander successfully graded for his second dan with United Taekwondo

And here is a photo of a happy group of sweaty people.

A lot of space...

Halloween costumes and personalities....

Halloween parties mean costumes.

Izak went as two different things...

Jason from Friday 13th...
and a butch fairy.

Xander of course was very different and went as a very subtle, and recently fed, vampire.

More hair

Zak's hair is the gift that keeps on giving...
Originally we were going for the look of a troll doll,
but it warped into this high fashion shot!

.....and speaking of 80s.

This is what happens when you go an entire Summer Holidays without getting a hair cut....

We managed to get this shorn off before school started again, but it still looks pretty unruly.

80's Theme...

Xan heading out for an 80s themed night.
Some combination of Maverick, Goose and Iceman I think... but definitely TopGunish.

Xan's Black Belt

After a lot of years of training and several restarts with different styles,
Xan got his First Dan Black Belt with United Taekwondo a couple of weeks ago.

Couldn't be prouder.

A shot of Xan doing one of his breaks, and then getting his belt presented by Master Paul.

One light among billions

A field day with the Toowoomba Photographic Society a couple of months ago.

About 30km outside Toowoomba (which is the light you can see on the horizon there.



30 second exposure, wide open, wide angle lens, and a good powerful flashlight.

Only from vacations?

It seems that I am only taking photos on vacations at the moment....
Very poor showing.

With that in mind we recently spent a week visiting the Great Barrier Reef off Cairns.


Xan and Zak during a snorkeling trip, heading down to check out a clam on the ocean floor:

I am not in any way a marine biologist, but from my recollections when I was diving on the reef last... there are some serious problems there.  The colour of coral is so much more subdued that what it used to be.  When Ruth and I were there last, the fish were hard to spot, because there was so much colour around.  Now they show up vivid and bright in their dull surroundings...

We got to have a good look around, as well as the snorkeling, we had a couple of scuba dives as well.
Here are Ruth and Zak in a sea of bubbles of my rapidly consumed air!

Looking...

Xan looking out over the Tasmanian coastline.

Playing with a ND filter during the middle of the day (asking Xan to stand as still as possible).

Family and a selfie...

At Tahune rainforest walk.

Windy at Stanley

On top of a rock formation called, The Nut.
Yeah... a little bit of wind around!

Tasmanian Waterfall...

Dip Falls, - a bit hidden, off the main roads of North Western Tasmania,