Bangour Village Hospital is an abandoned mental hospital in Scotland, near Livingstone. It has it’s own church, and many buildings which lie abandoned, boarded up. It would have been prime development land, and was purchased by a large development company, but with the GFC, wasn’t considered worth developing.
I am not usually keen on the over-cooked HDR look, but for the mood I wanted to bring out, I pushed things a bit further.
It was hot. 36 Celsius and no breeze. The summer was coming to an end, and making one last attempt to zap anyone foolish enough to go outside with UV. But my five year-old son needed to let off steam and do something physical, so we headed up the mountain to Katoomba, and took his favourite train ride (the world’s steepest!) down from Scenic World, to the rainforest below.
It’s beautiful down here. We hike and have a picnic together. It’s green and lush and cool beneath the canopy.
Australia Day stirs mixed feelings in me. Most Australians are incredibly lucky, with democratic freedoms and an economy that makes them amongst the best off in the world. However, the wealth and opportunities are not there for indigenous Australians, and Australia Day doesn’t give this hidden Australia much to celebrate.
Australia is changing though. It is steadily becoming more multi-cultural, and most younger people are comfortable with this, embracing the mix of European and Asian cultures that surround us. I work in education, and my employer is intent on taking positive steps to make sure all of Australia is part of what we do.
I choose to take a positive outlook on what Australia Day can be – a mark in time that lets us assess where Australia has been and the progress we are making.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 21,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Somewhat off topic, but my favourite band, The Pixies, have released a new track, ‘Bagboy’. They still send a tingle down my spine.
Not only were The Pixies a core part of my formative years, some of the best friends I’ve shared time with were similarly engaged by their music. I was lucky enough to see them twice during their first career, and will never forget them playing my request, ‘Where Is My Mind?’. My lifelong love of live music was cemented by that concert.
My wife and I discovered our mutual appreciation of their music in one of our first conversations. Truth-be-told, I had already fallen for her, but it was a good omen. The Pixies had just reunited, and a couple of dates in, I was presented with a ticket to see them with her for my birthday.
I’m glad I went with my instincts.
The Blue Mountains Winter Magic Festival is held each year around the winter solstice, and is a community event that brings artists, musicians, drummers, dancers and the wider community together.
The sense of fun amongst people who were gathering for the parade was fantastic, with singers, drummers and a samba group all creating as much noise as possible. The effort people had put into their costumes was tremendous, and I was particularly struck by the drum corp, who managed to keep in character and drum out the beat for everyone to march to.
Stone garden, Maison Européenne de la Photography, Paris.
I was contacted last week by a representative of an “international press renowned for our fine art and photography publications” that wanted to include some of my photos in a publication. Wow!
Hi Mike,
XXX Australia are publishing a small format gift book (100 mm x 100 mm) on Australia for the tourist market and we are currently sourcing images to be included in the publication. As you may know, XXX are an international press renowned for our fine art and photography publications. We came across your work and feel your photographic style would be perfectly suited to this project. In particular, we are interested in using images from your Manly on a Sunday and Sydney Here we Come collections. However, we would also be very interested in any other images of iconic Sydney locations and wider NSW if you have any in your archives.
The publication will have Australian and NZ distribution so exposure to a large audience is guaranteed. We would love to include your work in this project and hope we can arrange permission with you to do so.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Kind regards,
Tahlia
Of course, I got back right away.
Hi Tahlia,
Thanks for getting in touch – it sounds like an interesting project. I have a number of photographs you may be interested in, both of Sydney landmarks and the Three Sisters.
Could you send me some further details on the terms and conditions and rates?
Kind Regards,
Mike.
I must say, I was very excited by all this. I was also contacted by Getty Images in relation to licensing some of my images I have on Flickr. The name looked familiar enough that I was sure it was the same company. The process of registering with Getty took a while (those agreements are pretty lengthy, and I wanted to make sure I understood what I was in for). I went through my photographs of Sydney, and selected a number of photos that I thought they might be interested in, and awaited a reply.
Hi Mike,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
Unfortunately after discussions with my boss, our budget has been revised and we will not be able to renumerate contributors for any images used. We would of course offer a photo credit but I understand if this is not a suitable arrangement for you.
Kind regards,
Tahlia
Great. So, this “international press renowned for our fine art and photography publications” had sent someone on a fishing expedition, to make a commercial publication filled with photos they wanted to get for free.
Oh well, this does give me an excuse to show a gratuitous photo of the Sydney Opera House – one of the photos they were interested in, and which I publish under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Mike Baker | Photography 