Location: Manning Valley
Date: January 2010

January 14, 2010. I'll take photographs of anything. I spotted a couple of blokes affixing signs to road crossings, so I asked permission to take a few shots of the process. "Sure, no worries, mate." I was surprised that the signs are not painted on. They're thermo-plastic cutout letters that are placed on a swept concrete surface and then "burned" on using a blow torch. "It's a pretty poor state of affairs when people need to be told to look left and right before they cross the road," the worker lamented. "Unless they go to America," I suggested. "Yeah, mate," he laughed. "It's all ass about over there." Click here for the photo album.

January 10, 2010. Very hot day (32C) but I drove out to Manning Point at the Mouth of the Manning River for the start of the Manning Sailing Regatta, a 34 km race for all class of yachts... trailer sailers and dinghies. When I arrived, I searched desperately for a tree to park under but all the spots had been taken. DAMN! But then I got lucky... a car left the scene and I was in like Flynn. I parked right up against the trunk of a Norfolk Pine despite an effort by some of the branches to join me inside.

At one stage I was sitting in the cab taking a rest from the heat of the sun, and had the camera turned off and lying on the passenger's seat, when a pelican arrived right in front of me and did the whole landing thing... feet out and skiing to a halt. DAMN AGAIN! I'd kill for a good shot like that. But I did get lucky a little later when I photographed 3 sailing boats and by chance a pelican flew through the shot. Click here for the photo album.