My Big Trip 2009...Iguazu Falls

I'm going to cheat with this one and simply put the link for my Iguazu Falls installment here :)

Click here to read the story & see the pictures, enjoy and leave some love if you are so inclined.
Top of Devil's Throat

More from the adventure coming soon!

Two weddings posted finally

I've shot three very different weddings in the past month or so.  I've done a beach, a grassy area beachside and the top of the Cape Range National Park - three gorgeous backdrops.  You can see a selection of images from two of them by following these links:

Liz & Paul's wedding in Coral Bay


Helen & Aaron's wedding at Town Beach in Exmouth


I haven't finished processing Rhianna & Aaron's wedding from last Sunday, yet, but I'm excited about the images so far. I'll let you know when they're up.

Hope you enjoy!

Yes, I am finally done...

...unpacking!

Yes, I have been home since February.

Yes, I have been moving the luggage from our bedroom to the living room chair to the bedroom and back again for over two months without going that extra mile and actually dealing with it.

But all that is a thing of the past now.  I am officially unpacked

- clothes are away (I foresee another closet cleaning in my near future), passports are secured, suitcases are ready for the bin. It was so cold when I left the US that when the taxi driver put the suitcase on the ground at the airport, its little wheel just snapped off into space. RIP Wally-World special, you served me well.

I am missing one glove, one mitten and one white sock, but I'm sure they are around somewhere - and since I don't immediately need those things, you know I'm not going looking for them right now!

Another week zooms by

And I've been super busy again!  Shot an awesome wedding on Sunday - it was up on Charles Knife Canyon and followed by a reception at the Novotel Ningaloo. Simply gorgeous - the weather cooperated, though it was pretty hot up on top of the Ranges, the bride was stunning and everyone was so happy. Loved it. I'll have photos ready soon.

I haven't gotten out diving again, but I have high hopes for this week. Maybe. I still haven't gotten to the photos from the last dives I did, so more of those will be coming to the blog eventually, too.

And Jennifer & Cheryl & my cruiser friends ... I WILL get to the rest of our trip soon. Well, in May sometime, at least!

Dave and I took the Girls down to the beach yesterday evening for a bit of a hunt for squid (who all survived the hunt - we had Chinese for dinner) and general chill out time. Tilly ran around like a mad thing and Dora spent a lot of time snuffling everything in sight. It felt wonderful to just get away and do nothing for an hour or so. The Gulf was mirror flat, there was just the slightest breeze, the sand flies weren't bad and there was no one else around. Perfect.

ANZAC Day - Lest we forget

This morning I went to the dawn service for ANZAC Day before heading in to work.  I was stunned at the turnout here in Exmouth - it was packed and there were cars filling every parking lot and down the road as far as the eye could see. Young, old, military, civilian, Australians, foreigners...everyone was there to solemnly honour our veterans. Many moved on to the Trustcott Club for an ANZAC Day breakfast and then for the two-up later in the day.

My favourite scene was this young father with his small bub expressing his thanks to one of the veterans. I watched from afar as the veteran removed his own poppy from beside his row of medals and attach it to the child as other adult waited patiently so they could shake his hand.

Ask and ye shall receive...

I got out for two dives last Saturday with Ross and Mary after bitching and moaning about missing out on the fantastic conditions we had.  It was so good to get out under the sea again and soon I'll even have some time to get some of the photos from these dives and Good Friday done! The dives were great and the marine life was crazy active again. I have puttered through a couple so here there are to get things started

Juvenile angelfish

Roughback ray getting cleaned. He's a little beat up.

Big school of snapper cruising while a small white tip reef shark lazes on the sand

Rakin cod getting a clean

Rankin cod hunting in a school of baitfish

Swooping school of baitfish with pair of sweetlips

Dave and I found an hour one evening to duck down to the beach with the Girls. There were actually other people down where we were going to go, so we had to drive a little further to find our own uninhabited patch of sand. Dave did the fishing thing and despite his helpers, brought in a HUGE one...

he decided to let it go instead of cooking it up for supper LOL

There were tons of red bell jellies lining the beach and washing up in the shallows. Surprisingly, both dogs gave them a little sniff but were pretty uninterested

Dora would daintily pick her way through them

While Tilly dealt with them in her usual delicate manner



Dora took advantage of Til's crazy beach running, to have a quiet stroll through the water, all by herself

I didn't do much except relax

Hellllloooooooo...I'm here!

Wow, I can't believe that April is flying by at such a pace!  I've been bad at keeping in touch with friends and family, so I do apologise.  I hope now that we are over the crazy Easter weekend period I'll have at least a few minutes every few days to update what's going on down here.

As pathetic as it sounds, I really don't have much news at all. I've been in the dive shop from well before sunup to sundown every day since Easter Saturday (has that really only been seven days??!!) so haven't gone to the beach, taken any photos for fun or done much of anything except go home and collapse. I did finally get a load of laundry done last night - whooppeee, what an exciting life I lead!

The dive shop has been busy and the diving conditions have been absolutely fabulous. The whale sharks have been cooperative and we've been having just an awesome season so far. I've been a bit grumpy about not being able to get out to enjoy the crystal blue waters and incredible marine action lately, but know that I'll get a chance eventually. Gotta work first!

I have been trying to be good about keeping our new Exmouth Dive Blog updated with reports from our tours. We are getting some great feedback on it, so I think it's worth the effort. I've also finally gotten a couple of Meet the Team posts up there so hope to finish those this week - if my crew get their photos to me!

I haven't even had a chance to process many of the photos I managed to take on Good Friday's dives! Here's the only two that I've even glanced at. This is Mary behind one of the massive walls of baitfish that covered our first site.


The dives were awesome with excellent visibility and so many fish it was nuts. There was also a massive turtle - easily as big as I was - just cruising along on business of his own. I was very happy to get out for the morning but it was a little bittersweet since I knew what I was missing for the rest of the weekend!

I also shot another wedding on the 11th here in Exmouth. It was a really lovely wedding right down on the grassy area at Town Beach. Since the wedding I haven't been in my office at all so haven't processed those yet either! This week I'll get to all of my backlog ... just in time to shoot another wedding on the 26th!

We didn't get to do anything for Dave's birthday (April 11) since we were both working and I had the wedding on that evening. He did take the Girls out for a beach fish but overall it was about as much of a non-event as my birthday was in March.

You can see some photos from a couple of my recent shoots over on my KJA Photos Blog. No weddings up yet, but they are coming soon! I have one more family shoot coming up in the near future, then things get pretty quite on the photography front for a little bit.

This weekend I think I might get a little respite from manning the dive shop all by myself but it depends on how crazy busy the boats get. So far it's a possibility so I'm crossing my fingers!

OMG - it's more dogs on the beach

So it's becoming clear that my life revolves in a very small circle.  If I'm not in my office, I'm at the dive shop, and if I'm not either of those places, I'm at the beach with my dogs (and lately with my husband, too)!  The only one of those three places that provides anything interesting to take photos of is the beach ... so here are more doggie shots from our outing yesterday.

We were going to explore a new, secret beach but at the last minute we invited a new kid in town to come with us because his co-workers ditched him from their fishing trip. Adam is very nice and was very patient with Tilly, who decided she needed to sit in the back seat with him!

We ended up going to Learmonth Jetty. I have to admit that it is another place that I haven't been to since living up here! I think I did go once, way back when, before it was revamped, but I barely remember it so it doesn't count.

The dogs HATE the walkway - and I don't blame them, even I wear shoes to walk on it. But they HATE being away from Dave even more, so they'd stand at the edge of the jetty and pine for him. Dora would venture out but it was just too pitiful to watch so we got off the jetty and went down on the beach


The beach is very strange. The sand is super sinky in places so as the dogs would run, they'd sink in all the way to their butts...Dora sank faster than Til ;) It reminded me of running over snow banks and getting caught out and ending up buried to your knees! They did finally make it to the water for some typical Sister playtime



And back on land they practiced their grizzly bear impersonations


Dora had a little swim away from MatildaLily, then checked to see if the coast was clear

before having a big shake

Dora seems so totally happy when she's in the water (by herself, at least)

and when she gets going, she's lightening on the beach

I thought this perfectly summed things up

Tilly thinks harassing her sister is a hoot

Til just has so many goofus moments, I never tire of trying to capture them

It was a glorious evening and the light changed so often and so fast and so beautifully...it was just stunning.

This is the Solar Observatory

Old pylons running along the new jetty

The sun is sinking faster each evening, but the skies are staying pretty for a while after it goes...another peaceful evening away from everything


Can't wait for the moon to be full again coz it's awful pretty itself