Waverley Camera Club

Whilst the weather for our recent South Wharf Outing wasn’t ideal for a stroll, it produced some interesting opportunities for us to photograph. We had everything from sunshine to hail which frightened a few off, but the dedicated were rewarded.

We met at the Melbourne Convention Centre during the later part of the afternoon and pretty well experienced hail immediately. Inside the Convention Centre seemed to be the place to be. This gave us some opportunities to capture the architecture of the building and at the same time shelter from the rain. The three levels gave us some interesting angles and an elevated view over the Yarra. After the rain the sun shone and created some spectacular reflections.

The glorious sunset at 5.41PM never arrived so we captured some shots around the South Wharf Marina during the ‘golden hour’ and then enjoyed dinner together at Hooks by the Yarra. The meal was excellent but I think the staff added to the experience.

The weather during the evening turned out to be delightful, so again we tried the upper level of the Convention Centre by night, with different effects. The Webb and Seafarers Bridges were also highlights.

We headed home at about 9.15PM to avoid the crowds from the football but could have stayed longer. The rain definitely contributed to a great Outing!

More images from our members can be found in the gallery.

Little did I know when Anthony Yap proposed this trip last year what an adventure it would be! Those of us who made the trip were myself, Anthony, Rosie Hughes, Russell Lucas, Marie Shaw, Alan Bennett, Geoff and Jill Shaw, Cookie Chong, Jenny and Cheng Yip. Paul had to head home after KL to attend family matters. In addition to our club members there was Marcellian Tan (one of the organisers), a group of his friends and the irrepressible Jack, our local guide.

Photo thanks to Marie and her iPhone

We started in KL with a side trip to Melaka – it helped to acclimatise with the hot weather and to remind some of us how to use our cameras. KL was a dusty bustling city with a lot of building happening in a rather random fashion and terrible traffic. Melaka was charming – I would go back there any day. Highlights of the Malaysian stopover were the Iron Mosque (at dawn), Petronas towers at dusk and MelakaJonkers and the Serkam Mosque. Marie and I gowned up to enter the mosque – but as mere females were only allowed to look in from the outside areas.

Then on to China, after arrival at the Guilin airport we got onto our barely air conditioned bus with all our luggage. This was our main form of transport for the week other than various forms of local transport and all the walking. First stop was the Longji rice terraces via the village of Dazhai. This gave us an introduction of what was to follow. We transferred to a village bus, then local vans…then porters carried most of our camera gear and overnight bags in baskets as we walked to the rice terraces at Xiaozhai Yao village. The Yao people were very friendly and the terraces a wonderful exercise in graphic design- complete with local models! The trip back was equally eventful with a bit of 4 wheel driving down the mountain tracks.

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