Australia and Connecting Cruises, 2016-2017

Taken at the Featherdale Wildlife Park near Sydney, Australia. These cute critters were walking around in the open areas of the facility. Panasonic GX85.

Taken at the Featherdale Wildlife Park near Sydney, Australia. The Panasonic GX85 did pretty well in the low lighting at this facility.

The gears of a machine at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia. It is a steam-powered printing press. This is a "tool", indeed a very important one in the history of the world. While the original hand-operated presses appeared in mid-1400's, the effect of the printing press is still being felt today in 2023. The historical researcher Elizabeth Eisenstein makes the point that society is still trying to deal with the impact of this invention. The original photo is in color, but I kinda liked the converted image. The conversion was done with GIMP. The photo was taken with the Panasonic GX85.

Taken as we entered the amazing Sydney Harbor at night. The high-ISO capability of the Nikon D700 made this photo possible. More photos at: swansongrp.com/P/p/night_narrative/index.html and swansongrp.com/oz2016/sydney_entrance.html

We were entering Sydney Harbor at night, and the sights were remarkable. The illuminated sign for Luna Park is famous, and well worth a picture. (Some people thinks it's kinda creepy) For the Sunday Challenge, this is very definitely a "type" of architecture. Note the towers on the sides of the face, they look very much like the Chrysler Building in New York. Taken with the Nikon D700 at high ISO. More photos at: swansongrp.com/oz2016/sydney_entrance.html and swansongrp.com/P/p/night_narrative/index.html

As our ship approached Sydney Harbor for a magnificent entry, I saw that the moon was playing with the clouds. This was taken with the Nikon D700, near the entrance to Sydney Harbor. More photos at: swansongrp.com/oz2016/sydney_entrance.html and swansongrp.com/P/p/night_narrative/index.html

Saw this nice iron fence in Tonga, as we walked around town. Yes there are some missing spear finials. (It took AGES of web searching to find out the name of those pointy things at the top...) Image processed with GIMP.

Another fence we saw in Tonga. In this case, there was a chair sitting in a very remote spot in someone's back yard. Image processed with GIMP.

We were entertained in Tonga by singers, dancers, and musicians. Here the brass band is waiting on the benches for their turn to perform. Image processed with GIMP. Forgot to add that these people were probably seriously affected by the recent volcano eruption near Tonga (including a tsunami). Please keep them in your thoughts.