I have been busy. The only thing I can afford to spend on is to post a picture.
This is Glebe Point Road in the evening. I had dinner with some friends at a balcony of an Italian restaurant. That was one of those less busy periods.
I live a good 20 minutes worth of walking away from my campus and probably 30 minutes from my school. This is a far cry from what it used to be last year, when it was more Ann Arbor-like for me. While in Darlington, I could afford to wake up just 20 minutes before classes begin and still have some time to catch with my breath. Now I need a good 2 hours to just get ready, knowing that I rather be at the university all day long rather than spend some hours at the library or anywhere relevant, go back home for lunch or a nap and return to school to finish everything off, if it is possible. Such is the pain of living near at the end of Glebe and refusing to take the bus.
But they say no pain, no gain. The chance for photography in Darlington is limited. The short distance and the relative low amount of culture and life there in general necessarily limit the supply of what makes photography exciting.
Glebe is the opposite of Darlington. The skyline of the beautiful Sydney is always there to greet my morning. Dogs with their guardians on the pavement. Birds singing in the sky. School kids rushing for schools, or just slacking off. The shops with all sort of merry people. And of course, what is Glebe without its cafes? Oh, the independent bookstores too.
Just open your eyes and frame it. Not just frame it, live it. It is inevitable to know that each street has its own character. Each seems to invite me to explore them, promising an adventure for the day, or for the week, if only I dare. Hereford Street is one which I have explored quite considerably on foot.
I feel like I am starting to take ownership of this place. This morning, a team of four youths were soliciting for funds for Glebe right after I took this particular photo. I donated some cash and this is the only second time I have done so, so far, in 4 years.
Being a libertarian who at time harbors too much contempt for those who solicit for money, it is a big deal for me. It reflects what I care about.
I have always loved war memorials. I have been to the Tugu Negara in Kuala Lumpur multiple of times. When I was in Washington D.C. for a very short stay, I visited the war memorials there. Likewise in Sydney and Melbourne. The reason for my love for war memorials is not because that I glorify wars. Rather, it is closely related to my love of history.
While I do think wars sometimes are necessary, especially when liberty is under attack to make wars a serious option for libertarians, I do not cherish the thoughts of its necessity. Wars are never pretty but the wars that Malaysia went through, notably against Japanese imperialism during World War II, against communist terrorism for a good part of the country’s history and against attempt of invasion by Indonesia during the formation of Malaysian federation, were certainly wars that could not be avoided in terms of preservation of liberty.
Australia is one of several countries which have dedicated its men and women to the defense of Malaysia or its current components prior to 1963. Malaysia won the wars because of countries like Australia.
Australia remembers this in Sydney in form of the Anzac War Memorial…
…and in Melbourne in form of the Shrine of Remembrance:
Belated maybe, but I say thank you nonetheless. It has been a fruitful alliance.
….Happy New Year.
Should I edit out the hand and the phone? I kind of like it though.
Below is another among my favorites.
Up north at the end of Glebe Point Road is a park and Rozelle Bay sits in front of it. From there, one gets a full view of the sleek Anzac Bridge with its two concrete towers. Just slightly farther towards the sea, the undoubtedly more famous Harbour Bridge crosses the Sydney Harbour.
This picture looks west and clearly, taken at dusk.
I really like how the clouds hid the sun. It somehow reminds me of Metatron in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Something ominous lurks behind the clouds.
I did some processing here to saturate the color. I typically frown at those that do some processing because I feel it a kind of cheating, especially so if they do not disclose that fact. Most of the times, processed pictures would become better but what I object about it is that without disclosure of processing, it deceives others. And then there is also something called over-processing.
But I just could not resist playing with the colors here. So, I guess that makes me a hypocrite.
In the spirit of full transparency that the Malaysian government notoriously lacks, here is the original photograph, taken purely based on, if I may say so, my non-existence photography skills.
The sky was much brighter in reality. I set my shutter speed quite fast to capture the cloud pattern. Much slower speed would have turned the picture whitish. I also tweaked my camera’s white balance so that, as an auto setting would always do I think, the photograph would not appear bluish.
And oh, it is time for me to get a new lens.