Juma Mosque and Toshkhovli Palace, Khiva

Khiva, Uzbekistan
28 September 2018.

(Click on any image to see it in a larger size.)

We’ve just left the Kukhna Ark (previous two posts), and here is a most impressive door handle and knocker nearby.

… also a cheerful dromedary camel, lying in sand.

Wedding party on the road, as we walk towards Juma Mosque. Probably Tura Murad minaret in the near background.

We are now inside Juma (or Djuma or Friday) Mosque which has a single hall interior and was built in the late eighteenth century over the remains of the previous mosque, so that many of the pillars here are much older. There are 213 pillars, each different. The oldest four were salvaged in the tenth century from the declining city of Kath, which had been the capital of the Khwarezmian Empire. Another seventeen were added a century later. Other pillars date from the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries but most of them are from the eighteenth. The acoustics of the hall are also impressive.

Kath (modern town: Beruniy) was the capital of Khwarazm under the Afrighids (a Persian dynasty) from 305 to 995AD. They were Zoroastrian until the 8th century when there was a violent forced Moslem conversion. The Ma’munids took over in 995. The Ghaznavids (a Persian dynasty of Turkic Mamluk origin) then took over a couple of years later.

I took quite a few macro shots of carvings on the pillars. Unfortunately most failed but here are two. (Technical note: I think I switched to manual for focus-bracketing the image of the hall above, and forgot to switch back to Auto ISO).

Outside, a young bride-to-be on the street.

… and we walked towards our next destination the Toshkhovli Palace.

A ceiling detail from the palace.

Toshkhovli (or Tosh Hauli or Stone Courtyard) Palace was built from 1830 to 1838 by Allakuli-Khan as an updated dwelling from the Kukhna Ark. Apparently some architects who refused to build it in two years were executed and it took eight years to build. These days it also houses a Khorezm Handicrafts Museum.

This is in the Harem area and the iwan we see (the recessed courtyard decorated with majolica tiles) is one of the four for each of the Khan’s wives. Behind this exterior was her living quarters and a lounge room for her attendants. Even courtiers were refused access here.

A section of the ceiling of the iwan at the left or right.

A section of the ceiling of the iwan in the middle.

They’re clearly not wagon wheels. Perhaps they were used for cattle to grind grain.

This is the iwan of the Khan, and in front of it on the round platform is the framework of a yurt that would have been his summer residence. Behind the iwan are corridors connecting to the iwans of the wives that only the Khan could use.

An impressive door, possibly of greater antiquity than the palace.

There are two sections to see of the palace, and you have to go outside and re-enter to see the second one. That is the exterior of the palace behind the wall.

There is an old well in the Palace, which we did not see. However there is a more important ancient well (which we also did not see) near the north wall of the old city, which is central to the story of Khiva. It was the original reason for merchants stopping here along their Silk Road journeys. It is said that on tasting the clear water they would exclaim “Khey Vakh!” (“How Wonderful”) so the locals named the well Kheyvak, which led in turn to Khiva getting its name.

Another ceiling section.

This is the Khan’s bedroom.

Opposite the iwans of the Khan and the wives, this is the residence for the concubines and the household staff.

Back outside the palace again.

An array of textiles on an open courtyard.

Shown from a different angle, this shows where we are. Pakhlavan Mahmud Mausoleum on the left and the base of Islam Khoja Minaret.

Nearby, a selection of handicrafts.

Remarkable wood carving. Maybe a door, not sure.

We are back near we were staying, cruising the markets for handicrafts. Tura Murad Minaret is in the background. The man sitting in the chair was waiting for prospective customers to don his coat and a hat and pose for a photograph. The locals passing by don’t look that impressed.

Markets and Kalta Minor in the background. I did buy a hat like one of those on the right.

The camel is still there a couple of hours later. That must be the Muhammad Rahim-khan Madrasah in the background. Perhaps that door is solely for camels from the madrassah.

A young couple having wedding or engagement photos in the old city.

Looking back at the top of the Pakhlavan Mahmud Mausoleum and the Islam Khoja Minaret.

Not sure exactly which buildings the last two images are from.

That is Tura Murad Minaret again in the background though.

Kukhna Ark, Khiva, Part 2

Apr4

Khiva, Uzbekistan
28 September 2018.

(Click on any image to see it in a larger size.)

After the last post, I was expecting to move on to the Juma Mosque and views of Khiva at night. However, I was using two cameras and it turned out that the date time settings for one of the cameras was eleven hours different to the other one. So when I finished selecting images from the Kukhna Ark, these were just from the camera with the correct date time setting and the images from the same time with the second camera were mixed up with later and night images from the first camera.

Had I realised this, there still would have been two posts but I would have divided them up differently. Still, it’s not so bad because the lenses on each camera were quite different so the images between each post are quite different. The first six images here are street photography with a wide angle lens and the rest are long telephotos, many very long telephotos.

For the more technically focused, both cameras were Fujifilm X-T2s. In the first post I used six different lenses but 40% of the images were from a 10-24mm f4 lens (15mm to 36mm full frame equivalent) and another 40% from an 80mm f2.8 macro (120mm equivalent), sometimes with a 1.4x teleconverter. In this post, the first six images are with a 23mm f2 lens (35mm equivalent) and the rest were with a 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 lens (150mm to 600mm equivalent) and about half of those were with a 1.4x teleconverter. Most of those were at the longer end of the zoom range so could be up to 840mm full frame equivalent.

There are brief comments on many of the images below but for more information on Khiva and its history, go back and view the previous post if you have not already done so.
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Street markets in the old city. They must be somewhere near where we were staying but I can’t work out exactly where for the first two images.

The car in the distance puzzles me because the map shows only three gates into the Old City and it’s not one of them.

This is the Tura Murad Minaret.

We are now further in the distance from the previous image.

Now we have turned around and are heading back towards the Kalta Minor. The young boy is riding a modern contraption that I believe is called a bicycle. An early traveller in the nineteenth century rode through Uzbekistan en route from England to India. Locals who saw this strange unnatural apparition were either convulsed with laughter or recoiled in fear.

We are now on the roof of the Kukhna Ark. See previous post for more info. From left to right, Tura Murad Minaret, Islam Khoja Minaret & the Pakhlavan Mahmud Mausoleum, Kalta Minor and Amin Khan Madrassah.

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Islam Khoja Minaret & the Pakhlavan Mahmud Mausoleum. (I mislabelled an image of this in the previous post, since corrected).

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Ceramic tiles near the top of the Kalta Minor.

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The wooden structure is the Terrassa Restaurant, where we have dinner that night and I produce night images from there in the next post.

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Detail of Amin Khan Madrassah.

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A corner of the Muhammad Rahim-khan Madrasah, next door to the Tura Murad Minaret.

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No idea of the name of this minaret.

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I think we are looking south at the west wall of the Amin Khan Madrassah and the old city walls.

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Muhammad Rahim-khan Madrasah and the Tura Murad Minaret.

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Many of these images are not possible to place.

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However, this must be the dome of the Amin Khan Madrassah.

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Down below me, a workman was sawing away at something in a reconstruction area.

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I turned away to photograph this old madrassah (?). You can see how many of the tiles have fallen off. Then I heard a loud crash.

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The workman had sawn away a supporting beam and demolished a wall.

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With these long telephoto shots, I can’t identify exactly where it is….

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Two young women below, maybe walking home after shopping, one wearing a dress with a wonderful traditional design.

Kukhna Ark, Khiva

Mar27

Khiva, Uzbekistan
28 September 2018.

(Click on any image to see it in a larger size.)
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Here we are arriving at the city walls of Khiva.

Khiva was built close to the Amu Darya River though the river now flows elsewhere. It is also close to the border with Turkmenistan and on the other side of the border there is desert. It is part of the Khorezm, a fertile area surrounded by deserts that has been a centre of civilisations for about four thousand years. From 1077 until 1231 (when the Mongols turned up after their emissaries were executed) the Khorezm was the centre of the Kwarazmian Empire, including Persia, Afghanistan and much of central Asia. The Amu Darya was known as the Oxus to the Greeks and Romans, for example in the time of Alexander the Great.

There has been a settlement at Khiva, a depot on the silk road, for two thousand years or more and parts of the city walls are thought to date from the fifth century, but it has only been a significant city since the sixteenth century. That century saw the foundation of the Khanate of Khorezm and the shift of the capital from Kunya Urgench (now in Turkmenistan) to Khiva. For some centuries it was a regional powerhouse.
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The Russians first turned up in 1717 with 4,000 troops who were welcomed, ushered to quarters and then slaughtered. In 1839-40, another army of 5,000 (with 10,000 camels) set out to achieve revenge but perished in the desert. The Russians finally turned up in 1873. After the Revolution in 1920 there was briefly the Khorezm People’s Republic until it was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1924 and divided between the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs. Uzbekistan became independent in 1991.
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Street markets, on the other side of the West Gate.

Some goods in the street.

A map of the old city. We entered from the gate at the bottom.

This is the door to our accommodation, the Mohammed Amin Khan Madrassah (or the Orient Star Khiva Hotel).

… and here is the interior courtyard.

This is the top of the Kalta Minor (or Short Minaret).

It was commissioned by Mohammed Amin Khan (or Medamin) in 1852 and was intended to be 70 meters high but was abandoned at 26 metres after his death in 1856.
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A couple of partly corrected views using a fisheye lens which remain distorted but show something of the sense of scale.

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Across an open courtyard with the Kalta Minor in the distance. The open doorway in the middle distance is I think the Information Centre, the small rectangular building at the right is the Zindan or jail and we are heading through the doorway at the right, into the Kuhkna Ark, or the Museum of Ancient Khorezm.
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… and in we go,,,

This is not the main door to the Ark, it must be another one just inside.

The Khans of Khiva had several residences but this is the original one and since it is fortified, it was a place of refuge in times of uncertainty.

This is the Summer Mosque (1838) with tiles by Ibadullah and Abdullah Jin.

Here is a closeup of some of the tiles. My partner Jools who graduated in ceramics, tells me the glazing shows a high level of proficiency.

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A section of the ceiling.

Opportunity missed. These caps look more interesting than some of the ones I purchased in Bukhara and Samarkand.

From the Summer Mosque, we move on through the doorway at the right.

On the other side are a few guards or policemen. Three different uniforms and the ones one the right say “Milliy Gvardia” on the back meaning Uzbekistan National Guard so they are soldiers. Probably all of them are.

This is the Khurinish Khana or Throne room. There used to be a wooden throne gilded in silver but that was carried off to St Petersberg by the Russians and never returned. Receptions were either in the (open three-sided) iwan in summer or in a warm yurt in winter, erected where the circular stonework is.

Uzbekistan these days is very safe and friendly but in the nineteenth century Khiva wasn’t a democracy and there could be savage penalties for minor infractions of religious rules.
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The top of a section of the walls.

People from nearby areas come to the historic sites for wedding photos. In this case a conjuring trick – the bride floating in the air.

Behind them we see the crenulated outer wall of Khiva, potentially giving covering fire from a variety of angles.

A view to the south west.

Islam Khoja Minaret & the Pakhlavan Mahmud Mausoleum.

Kalta Minor and Amin Khan Madrassah (where we were staying).

The Chinese New Silk Road is arriving in Uzbekistan, it seems.

Crenulated city walls again.

Tower and walls in the Ark.

Part of an ancient door inside the Ark.

… which we have now left.

Looking back at the entrance to the Ark.

(More on Khiva in the next post).

(Technical note: I processed these images in both Lightroom and Capture One. About half are from each and three were processed in Lightroom and Photoshop. Capture One has an advantage over Lightroom with selections and masks (so for processing regions), where colour is an issue, or with clarity. Most of these images just received overall processing though. If anyone wants to see whether they can detect any difference, images 1, 5, 8, 9, 13, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29,32, 33 36 and 37 were processed in Capture One, while images 10, 11 and 30 were processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.)

Tashkent to Urgench

Mar21

28 September 2018.
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We flew from Tashkent to Urgench, a Soviet-era city near the ancient city of Khiva, our destination for the day.

So the first images are the outskirts of Tashkent, then we fly over desert, then we approach Urgench.

The river you see in some of the later images is the Amu Darya. Urgench is built around the remains of a river, so that must be a previous course of the Amu Darya, and I presume that hundreds of years earlier, the Amu Darya flowed past Khiva.

The technical quality is not that good in many of these images so there’s not much fine detail to be seen. The shutter speeds were OK so I suspect the problem was smeared windows. Not much you can do about that as a passenger on a plane. (It may still be worthwhile clicking on some of the images for a larger size).

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In the foreground is probably Adya Lake in Uzbekistan but it may be Shardara Reservoir in Kazakhstan.
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Smoke in the desert at top right?.
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It turns out to be from twin chimneys. Probably a mining processing plant..
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Tashkent

Mar13

27 September 2018.
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This is the first of my final posts on my trip to Uzbekistan, Istanbul, Athens, Thira, Crete, Andalusia, Barcelona, Washington and Oregon in 2018. I made a few temporary posts at the time with some images and no commentary. I will update the list of posts in the Itinerary Post as I make new posts.

I have been slow in posting this due to moving office within my home and disk storage issues for backup. My posts may be slow for a while.

This is a map of our itinerary in Uzbekistan. We were on a custom tour with Adventour, who we found to be an excellent tour company. The first post is for Tashkent, where we flew in from Australia, via Kuala Lumpur.

Tashkent is 2,000 years old it was sacked several times and not as much has survived as in some of the other cities of Uzbekistan. However, we are in the Khast-Imam complex in the Old City part of Tashkent. The complex is named after Khasrati Imam, one of the first imams of Taskent, born in 909. Above is the ceramic decoration atop a huge doorway, but I’m not sure exactly which building in the complex.

Based on the date-time on the images, this is the ancient ceiling of a cupola beyond that doorway.

This is a wooden ceiling close by.

Out again, a nearby dome though I can’t tell which building.

Muyi Muborak Madrasah on the right and Abdulla Murodxo’jayev Mosque behind.

The paintings show the derelict state of some of the mosques and madrassas in the nineteenth century, no doubt based on historic photographs. These are not necessarily Tashkent, though.

This is one of the domes of Barakh-khan Madrasah. This houses one of the oldest Korans in the world, created for Caliph Osman. He was assassinated in 656 in Medina and the Koran is said to be stained with his blood as he was reading it at the time. We saw this Koran but photographs are not permitted. It is very large, with calligraphic Arabic script.

Muyi Muborak Madrasah.

Abdulla Murodxo’jayev Mosque.

This must be at the side of the Abdulla Murodxo’jayev Mosque.

We are now at the nearby Chor-Su Bazaar. The apricots look inviting.

It is quite massive, as you can see, and the poster at the far left is for horse meat.

This is one of the stations of Tashkent’s metro, a heritage from the Soviet era.

Our guide is waiting for use as we walk out of the destination metro station.

The crane is the emblem of Uzbekistan.

We are now in the Museum of Applied Arts, originally the home of Imperial Russian diplomat Alexander Polovtsev.

I think we are out of the museum now, in just a kind of shopping arcade.

Live Music in Canberra in Times of COVID (Part 2)

Feb20

December 2020 to February 2021, Canberra, ACT

Continuing from the previous post…. Canberra has largely escaped COVID (so far at least). It has never been mandatory to wear masks here and lockdown is a long tome ago. There are few restrictions on live music now, though you have to be seated and not use a dance floor. Other States have gone in and out of lockdown though, especially Victoria so interstate musicians were quite often unable to visit. This post is mainly of a couple of large events with many bands. I have avoided including more than one image of each musician (over both posts) except where they appear as part of a band.

On 20th December 2020, the Canberra Blues Society held its Christmas party, featuring Bonnie Kay and the Bonafides from Sydney. It also included the monthly jam and there were six jamming bands. This is Catherine Golden with Bonnie Kay and the Bonafides, who played both at the beginning and the end.

Wayne Rigby (Bonnie Kay and the Bonafides).

This is Ross Buchanan, with Jamming Band 1.

Steve Hartnett (Jamming Band 1).

John van Buuren (Jamming Band 2).

Dave Jensen (Jamming Band 3).

Leo Joseph (Jamming Band 3).

Jeffro Martin (Jamming Band 4).

Mimo (Jamming Band 4).

Berno (Jamming Band 4).

Johnny Huckle (Jamming Band 5).

Juanita Cucinotta (Jamming Band 5).

Calvin Welch (with Bonnie Kay and the Bonafides but playing here with Jamming Band 5).

Bonnie Kay and the Bonafides is back up again at the end. This is Bonnie Kay.

Illya Szwec.

The next big event was on 9th January, Bucky’s Birthday Bash. This is Bucky (David Buckmaster) in an image from 2007. The event has been held for many years and he played in last year’s event but he died of cancer last year, so the event continues in his honour. There were six bands this year and P.J. O’Brien Band was supposed to be the climax but they were unable to attend due to a lockdown in New South Wales, so it was all local bands.

Johnny Reynolds (Johnny Reynolds Band).

Dave O’Neill (Rodeo Clowns).

Chris Van Der Wielen and Dene Burton (Urban Drover).

Mitch Preston (Chris Harland Blues Band).

Chris Harland.

Cam Hall (Sunbears, but playing here with Moondog).

Dylan Harding ()Sunbears).

Sunbears.

Wiesse Wade (Sunbears).

On 19th January there was a celebration of Mitch Preston’s Birthday at Smith’s Alternative (now a venue; originally a bookshop).

30th January. Fiona Boyes, who lived in Canberra for some years, came up from Victoria. This is Ali Penney accompanying for a track or two on the piano.

Fiona Boyes.

4th February. Blues Roulette visited from Melbourne. Organised by Ben Wicks, this is an array of eminent musicians that changes with each visit. This is Jimi Hocking.

James Southwell (Blues Roulette).

Davo Fester (on drums; Blues Roulette).

Jimi Hocking, James Southwell and Ben Wicks.

5 February. Pachamama at Gang Gang Cafe, Downer.

Live Music in Canberra in Times of COVID (Part 1)

Feb14

February to November 2020, Canberra, ACT

I covered Thredbo Blues Festival in January 2020 and took some photographs at Goulburn Blues Festival in February. Then COVID hit and we went into lockdown.

Usually I cover Blues Festivals but not so much local bands because my processing methods are very time-intensive and three hours photographing may lead to three to five days on the computer, processing. During the last year I had more time on my hands and no festivals for me for 2021, so I covered more local bands. There will be two posts, this one and the next.

Altogether, since lockdown started last March, I have photographed eighteen events, 36 groups (including solo performers) and 153 people, though seven groups and 48 people are duplicated in different performances. All performances are in Canberra but some of the musicians are from Sydney or Melbourne.

My selection may be somewhat arbitrary and I’m not trying to cover everyone but I have avoided putting anyone in twice.

This is the Sisters and Brothers Community Choir playing upstairs at Beyond Q on the 29th February, just before we went into lockdown. Beyond Q was a wonderful second hand bookshop and a great music venue. They had had to change addresses due to a lease issue and just got organised at the new location. Sadly, they closed down due to COVID 19. From left to right there is Juanita Cucinotta, Juliet Reeve, Chris Cavanagh, Michelle Mannion, Julie Manley (my partner), Simon Daly, Don Dennes and Mary Bryden.

It is now 7 June. We have been in lockdown for three months. This is the first gig I saw a notification for and must have been close to the first after lockdown. We are outside a small group of shops at Belconnen markets and in the open air because lockdown is just being slowly relaxed. Some of the shops appear to have been abandoned including the one in the background. This is DJ Gosper and Jeff Prime.

It’s now a month later, 5th July, and indoor gigs are now allowed, albeit with limitations on seating and distancing. We are at the Artists’ Shed in Fyshwick. It may look as though we are way out in the country but that is just a backdrop. Dan Fernandes is playing solo as support.

A couple of hours later, this is Bernie Keenan playing drums for Johnnie Reynolds Band.

10th July and further liberalisation has allowed Shane Pacey to come down from Sydney and play solo at the Keller Bar in the Harmonie German Club. Shane usually plays with the Bondi Cigars or the Shane Pacey Trio.

31st July and this is Frank Sultana (based in Kiama) playing in the Keller Bar at the Harmonie German Club. He has Grant DW Barnes (not shown) supporting him on harmonica on some tracks.

8 August and this is Ana Key and the Underdogs playing at the Artists’ Shed in Fyshwick. You can see the background in context here.

Ole Nielsen.

Ana Key.

5th September and this is Milena Cifali launching her book Mallacoota Time at East Hotel, Kingston. The event included book recitals, poetry recitals and musical performances. While Milena and Jim were away in Queensland they were burnt out of their Mallacoota house in the huge fires of January 2020 and lost all their possessions and most of their birds. Here, I am also in the photo, using a cable release to trigger the camera and fisheye lens.

This is at a second book launch the next day at the Artists’ Shed in Fyshwick. This is Peter Swain.

Jim Horvath, Milena’s husband.

2nd October and this is 19 Twenty at the Abbey. John Gwilliam is on double bass.

Syd Green.

Kane Dennelly.

19 Twenty.

9th October and this is Paul Callan with Johnny Reynolds Band at the Austrian Club.

Johnny Reynolds Band.

15th October at the Basement, Belconnen. Chris Harland Blues Band (setting up). Restrictions were in place including that you need to stick to your seat, not visit other tables and no dancing on the dance floor. Most of those restrictions are still in place but now you can mingle.

Paul Leeder.

Rick Milliband.

Moondog was up next, playing solo.

Owen Campbell was the final act for the night.

It was a three-piece band, including Matt Nightingale on bass.

27th November, this is Llara Weaver, part of Stella’s Way, at the Basement Belconnen.

Stella’s Way.

Next up was Ana Key and the Underdogs, This is Stephen Deakin.

Keith Joliffe.

Last band for the night was Carnival Road.

Not set up, this was just at the side of the stage.

3rd December. Julian James, Keller Bar, Harmonie German Club.

Keeping quiet in Canberra

Feb6

February 2020 to January 2021, Canberra, ACT

My last local post in January 2020 was Australia Burning, which included images taken in Canberra on one of two days when bushfire smoke meant Canberra had the worst air quality of any city in the world. Then COVID struck.

There was lockdown in Canberra for a month or two but there have been no local cases since last April, just a handful of incoming people in quarantine hotels. There are currently no locally-sourced cases in Australia, just a few incoming travellers. Though many criticisms can be made, State and Federal Governments did fairly well, supporting many people (though with glaring holes) and following medical advice. State Governments have been prepared to engage lockdowns where necessary and from time to time closing off State borders and isolating localities. People arriving from overseas have to stay for a fortnight in a quarantine hotel.

Unfortunately, while the Federal Government has been prepared to follow medical advice, it shows no signs of being willing to follow scientific advice on climate change. Huge areas burned in January and a significant majority of the population want effective action on climate change. If nothing continues to be done, temperatures will continue to rise, fires will become larger and more prevalent, the ecology and wildlife of the country will be devastated and the capacity for agricultural production will greatly decline.

In the meantime though, I have made no overseas trips since 2019 due to COVID and have been keeping fairly quiet.

Buoys in a small canal at Kingston Foreshore.

In March I joined a Fuji event that allowed you to use various new cameras and lenses. I tried some of these but this image and the next were taken with my X-T2 and 100-400mm lens.

Reflections in the same canal.

Roots of a bonsai tree at the National Arboretum.

In June I visited the Bonsai Garden at the Arboretum and took this photo with my Fuji 80mm macro lens. It is focus-stacked, which means I have taken many images at different points of focus and later combined them with software.

Succulent in the front garden.

In August I had purchased a Fuji 8-16mm zoom and took some test shots in the front garden, this one and the next one. The succulents are quite small so it’s almost macro because the lens can focus quite close. These are also focus-stacked but because I was using a very wide angle lens, that required only a few exposures.

Small flowers in the front garden.

Grevillea Macleayana.

I also visited the Australian National Botanic Gardens from time to time, this image and the next four. The first three were taken in September and the last two in October.

Telopea Speciosissima.

Banksia Spinulosa.

Pimilea Physodes and panorama near the Visitor’s Centrte.

I took this with a circular fisheye lens and it is also focus-stacked, with just two exposures. The depth of field is amazing, but not quite enough to go from the stamens of the flower (0.1 metres) to infinity in one exposure.

Grevillea Macleayana.

Another focus-stacked exposure with the Fuji 80mm macro lens. This one took 70 exposures and I had to wait for it to be still and retake it several times when a breeze came up during the exposure.

Archie Webb in the Top 12 Challenge.

I have also gone back to table tennis, both socially and competition and this is an image I took in October at the Top 12 Challenge, with the top 12 Canberra players competing for prizes. Archie is the leading competition player but he did not win this challenge. Here he is gearing up for a forehand loop.

ACT Table Tennis Open.

I also took photographs at the ACT Open in November. Table Tennis is remarkable in that players of very different ages can compete equally. The far player is Faisal Pirwani and he is returning the ball with his backhand, He is one of Canberra’s leading players; I do not know the name of the youngster but from his shirt he probably comes from Melbourne. Some young players can be very good. We had a couple of players as old as 93 in the Social Seniors Group prior to COVID though they have not returned since.

(The two table tennis shots were taken with a Nikon D850 and 85mm f1.4 and 50mm f1.4 lenses respectively).

Malua Bay rock pool.

In early January we went for a trip “down the coast” (which means to the south coast of New South Wales, near Canberra). This image and the next two were taken on that trip.

Glasshouse Rocks, Narooma.

At Glasshouse Rocks looking through to Montague Island Lighthouse.

Kangaroos at an Ainslie pond.

I live backing on to a reserve and a week or so later, we had a long walk to a couple of ponds in that reserve.

Pond reflections.

Since I am mentioning equipment in this post, the Malua Bay rock pool was taken with the Fuji 80mm macro and the last four with the Fuji 100-400mm.

Joshua Tree National Park Monochromes

Jan31

5 October 2016, Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA.

Links go to colour posts (for more information and context). If an image does not have a link, the preceding one applies.

Click on any image to see it larger.

Agriculture in the desert to the north of the Salton Sea.

Cottonwood Spring and Teddybear Chollas.

Cottonwood Spring.

Joshua Tree National Park (IR).

Mountains and desert.

Cottonwood Spring and Teddybear Chollas.

Ocotillo and desert landscape.

Joshua Tree National Park (IR).

Desert landscape.

Teddy-bear Cholla.

Chollas.

Cottonwood Spring and Teddybear Chollas..

Desert landscape, possibly with Triffids.

Joshua Tree National Park (IR).

Jumbo Rocks.

Jumbo Rocks and Hidden Valley.

Joshua Tree.

Hidden Valley.

Coyote.

Rock climber.

Joshua Tree National Park (IR).

This was the last post of my expedition to Cuba & the Caribbean (Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic, St Martin, Antigua, Jamaica, California). This has included over 2,500 images and more than 52,000 words. I have updated the index of all posts on this expedition which you can find here.

Next I will make a couple of local posts and then I will start on the final posts for my trip to Uzbekistan, Istanbul, Athens, Santorini, Crete, Andalusia, Washington and Oregon. That is the last trip for which I have not made final posts. I may not make any overseas trips until 2022 so those posts should keep me occupied for a while.