My first picture is of a real Scottish Piper. F 6.3 at 1/320 sec 28mm ISO 200
I heard the sound of bagpipes playing and went off in search of the source of the sound. I didn't have far to look as he was just around the corner of the main building having what he thought was a quiet practice! Bagpipes, quiet? Anyway, I greeted him and remarked that the tune he just played wasn't very Scottish. He asked me which one and I said "Marching to Georgia" and wasn't that an American tune? He agreed but went on to tell me that the tune was used with Scottish words "Hey, the Billy boy" (I think that is what he said!) and gave me the interesting story about the song. Having befriended this uniformed man I asked him if I could take a picture of him at the top of the steps and he willingly obliged. Just as well because I had to ask him to move twice because I didn't want the building behind him, I wanted to get the sky as his background. I think the shot shows his strength of character and his stance conveys that defiance that I always associate with the Scottish attitude to the over-lord approach by the English.
Yesterday I showed the flags lined up waiting to be raised at the start of the Australian Citizenship ceremony. The flags were to be raised by four people who had been given special awards for their contribution and work with the community. Before the raising of the flags the MC told all the people waiting to swear their oath as Australian Citizens to turn to the people on either side of them and shake their hand and say "G'day". My next shot is of two of the people who had been awarded Citizen of the Year for the Gold Coast.
F6.3 at 1/320 sec 65mm ISO 200
The 17 year old had been awarded Young Gold Coast Citizen for his work as a member of the Junior Council program and the man with the wonderful whiskers was awarded Gold Coast Citizen of the Year for his work with trouble youth.
The third shot in this collection is of an Axeman. The Woodchop has been an Australian event since the beginning of settlement. There are three different sorts of events with the timber (in this event it is Ironbark) held upright as in this shot, horizontal and the axeman stands on the timber and at the top of a three metre pole where the axeman has to cut chips into the pole, put a plank in the chip, stand on the short plank and cut the next chip and put a plank in and so on until he is high enough to be able to cut the block of wood at the top of the pole.
This shot was also shot with the same Aperture of 6.3 but a higher speed (it was so bright!) 1/500 sec and using the telephoto end of the lens - 120mm and the same ISO 200.
I wanted to be able to freeze the chips of wood as they flew from the axe - this is why I used such a high shutter speed.
AJ
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