Lake Ngakoro meaning The Grandfather in Maori.
Waiotapu rocks, the Oyster pool and the Artist's palette

Here I am again with some more photos from New Zealand, as promised.
The Champagne Pool of Wai-o-tapu, situated within the Taupo volcanic area, is a 2000 square meter crater formed over 700 years ago by a hydrothermal eruption. The bubbling water at 74 degree Celsius resembles the festive drink.
The bright shade of ochre is caused by considerable amounts of arsenic and antimony, while amongst the other minerals silver and pure gold are the most valuable.  look in the upper left corner, is that gold?
The tilting of the pool is the result of several earthquakes. It is a really magic landscape.

The colours are entirely natural and the only filter that I used was a circular polariser, to reduce a little bit the water reflections.    

I haven't posted any picture in a while. Since I just returned from a wonderful holiday in New Zealand, I thought of sharing few photos with you. Wish everybody a Happy and prosperous New Year, with many good opportunities to take the shots of your dreams!
Coromandel peninsula
Napier beach
Opoutere beach
Tairua

We've been Whale watching last Saturday. Despite my seasickness, I managed to shot some of the well-known aspects of the humback whales behaviour: the roll over,
 the spyhopping,
 another head spying,
the tail slap,
the blow of the mother guiding the calf,
white light travelling through drops of water, guess what this leads to? and they eventually got bored of our presence
 and left.      

The old harbour. The smoke behind is from a bush fire.
The promenade
The colours of South
Clocher de l'Eglise de Saint Tropez (The Clock Tower)
Expansive and bizarre toys - That car is strange, isn't it?
Can I have this one, please?. Mehari, by the way, is the name of a dromadery breed used by the Berber nomads.  
Cafe le Senequier, the most famous cafe in Saint Tropez, with its scarlet-red chairs for the people watching the "bold and beautiful" passing by.

S I M P L  E

December 2006. I was driving back from New South Wales to Queensland. It was a lovely morning, without much traffic. My husband, who sat on the passenger seat, started to take some photos of the landscape. He leaned over the open window and started to shoot. I noticed that he didn’t have the camera’s strap around his neck and I started to be concerned: what if the camera will fall down or a bug will get smashed on the lenses? I turned my head for a few seconds towards him to make sure everything’s fine with the camera. Shortly after that it was clear where we were heading for.
We were not injured at all, and so was the camera, but the car was written off.  
PS: Sorry for the quality of the photos, if not for the story, I wouldn't post them.

It must be passion if you don't mind to be
wet, dirty hot kissed exasperated or in the air.
Not everybody has the gentle passion of a lazy cat in the winter.    

The humorist Robert Benchley once sent a cable to the New Yorker saying about Venice: "Streets full of water . Please advise."
Here are some of the photos I took a month ago in Venice. It is a wonderful city but quite challenging when it comes to photography. I found it pretty difficult to get the right exposure on those narrow canals , where the less than great lightning conditions and the darkness of the water can fool you so easily.
It is a car-free city, so even the ambulance is a boat.
A gondolier reading the sport page
The flag of Venice
Just watching Somebody else watching
A table at a trattoria
"Love of the friends" street.  
When you talk about Venice, you have to think with your senses and feel with your mind

We should learn, from time to time,
To play the old sad song
About the grey days and the wall that we must not forget
About the man he used to be aging now beautifully
Like a low tide leaving its marks on the sand
We should try to understand the silent life of a tree
Bridging the past with the future
And watch the falling lines of a rainbow
Defeated by beauty    

late afternoon in Sydney harbour...1 2 3 4

Apple flowers Spring flower 1 Jasmine Spring flower 2 Wild flower 2 Wild flower 1

Moore park 2 Moore park 3 Moore Park 1 Elliott Heads Lady Musgrave 1 Lady Musgrave 2 Lady Musgrave 3 Lady Musgrave 4

1 2 3

F R A S E R