Hi Folks,

You missed a great night if you weren’t there last night. As discussed last night there will be 2 outings this Sunday.

The first will be Williamstown as scheduled. We will meet at 5:20am. Yes that’s 20 minutes past five in the morning. We will meet at the top green dot on the map attached. on the Strand opposite Ferguson St. I think we might end up at the lower green dot but we will meet at the top one.

The second outing is at 9am. It is at Monash Gallery of Art and I hope you will all be there to take part in their annual Masterpiece in a Day competition. Entry is $5 and the prizes are worth winning. Shooting begins at 9 and finishes at 1:40pm. Presentation will be at 3. Check out the MGA website for more details.

See you while it’s still dark on Sunday morning.

Pete

Hi folk, I hope U all have been enjoying this spate of hot weather. I am listening to some people on the radio tell me that summer has come early this year. Not so, when Rosie and I came to Oz in the 60’s the weather in October was hot, damn hot, and we had already come from a tropical country!! Anyway the weather notwithstanding, here are some (more) photo-opportunities all of which were taken from todays Age.

Opportunity 1 – Head to the National Sports Museum where someone will teach U, or the children, or your partner, how to shoot an arrow – from a bow of course! The National Sports Museum is opened daily during the weekend and is located in the MCG

Opportunity 2 – Hotair ballooning at the Yarra Valley, really makes me take flight. This weekend from Balgownie Estate Winery; an hour in the sky, unthered, no RAAF pilot but very safe no doubt, and a 5 star gourmet breakfast when U come down. But call before U go 1800 468 247

Opportunity 3 – The Lavendula Swiss Italian Farm just 10 minutes North of Daylesford is, as The Age likes to call it, a sensory celebration. The aroma and the sight of it, a sea of purple lavanda. Fabulous. Seems they are opened from 10.30am to 5.30pm, they live out at Shepherds Flat, or try lavandula.com.au probably a daily occurance.

Opportunity 4 – …is out at the Great Otway National Park, Triplet Falls is “three distinct and impressive cascades” South-West of Melbourne via Geelong or Colac. parkweb.vic.gov.au

Opportunity 5 – Its Christmas so head out to the City and see the Big Christmas tree come to life with a burst of colour. Free tonight at 6.30pm. But Christmas in Oz goes on for months so get out there after the lights have come on. If U cant go today, go later. And finally

 Opportunity 6 – Shepherds Bush, Nortons Park at daybreak, listen for the dawn chorus of nearly 90 species of birds. The Friends of the Dandenong Valley Parklands will be there tomorrow, Saturday November 14th from 7.30 am to take U for a free guided walk to hear the morning calls. Nortons Lane Wantirna South Call 13 19 63 for more information or get on to parkweb.vic.gov.au.

So thats the lot … enjoy your weekend and keep logging into the blog site for more photo-opportunities – when they come in I will get them on to the blog site.

Andy

Hi All, the dandenong show is on from the 14th and 15th of November – I have to look far-way to my calendar but I see that’s this weekend so listen up – to coin a phrase!!

Opportunity 1 – The RAAF is organising tethered balloon rides at the show. The balloon will take U 30 meters into the sky, but wait don’t worry, it will be driven by an RAAF crew. And best of all it will be tethered, to 3 anchor points no less and held firmly on the ground!! And what’s more it will be driven by an RAAF pilot – Safe!

Opportunity 2 – Still at the Dandenong Show – the Whip Industries (?) Honda Motor bike extreme sports team will be performing. So go, watch them do their thing and photograph them in their death defying acts on their “little” Honda 50 mini-bikes.

Opportunity 3 – To celebrate Christmas my sister and her husband together with the neighbours will be illuminating their homes to the max. the lights will go on on the 28th of November and WCC members are offered a unique opportunity to set up tripods and ‘do’ a night-shoot. My sister is a medical nurse; all contributions will be donated to the Royal Children’s Hospital. Gladesville Drive East Bentleigh and environs.

Nyora Working Horse Show – I have also attached some images of the Nyora Working Horse Show earlier this year March actually. There are vintage cars, tractors, farm equipment, steam engines, working models – yes of all types and a host of other nicks – and knacks. We will talk about them later on.

Cheers Andy

Fancy some Astro-Photography?

My friend Subby is an ex pilot a trainer of pilots and an air-traffic controller. Over his long and successful life he has also become a keen astronomer offering his pilots another means of charting their way from here to there without over-shooting the preferred airport.

He now wants to take pictures of the stars and constellations and to this end has joined the mornington peninsula astrological society.  Next year he is willing to bring/take his gear to a suitable location and allow WCC members an opportunity both to look at and photograph the heavens if we so desire.

I will be joining him on this jaunt early in December and will let you know more about it later in the new year – Saves us the trip to the mornington peninsula ourselves I say!

Cheers Andy…

Hi all!  I have been researching the possibility of WCC heading off somewhere to do some bird watching/photographing and I have come up with the ‘numero uno’ spot.  At a number of now dry ‘wetlands’ I have asked where all the larger water birds are and been directed to the Werribee Sewerage Farm, now euphemistically called the Western Treatment Plant.

Here then are the details.

To enter the sewerage farm you will need a key and a permit.  The permit costs $20, is not transferable and may be used over a period of 2 years; the key costs $50 which is a refundable deposit, it must be returned within 2 weeks of the permit running out to get the deposit back.  There is a provision however for short term loan of keys;  short term loan keys may be collected at the time of arrival and returned at the time of departure but because someone is not always around, (I wonder why?), call 9742 2828 tell them when you are coming and a key will be left for you to pick up from a mutually convenient place. Needless to say returned to the same place when you depart.    Problem solved!  Each Bird Watching Permit is good for a car full of as many as 5 people.

Have a great time and don’t get your feet wet!!

Cheers Andy

Hi all, the main purpose of this email is to bring you all up to date with the arrangements for Christmas Dinner.

We will celebrate Christmas together, at dinner on Friday the 11th of December at Madeline’s at Jells.  Madeline’s is located within the precinct of Jells Park where parking is available either opposite the restaurant or beside it. We have booked out the main function room which I believe is called the Alexander Room.  Suggested arrival time is, say, between 6.30pm and 7.00 pm for a dinner service which might begin at, say, 7.30pm.  The restaurant would like us to make full payment, and where possible to tell them what we would like to eat, before we arrive.  They also ask that if U have any food allergies they be told about it so they can sort the issue out in the kitchen before we arrive.  This, they say, makes for a quick and easy service.  So, given we don’t have many full meetings left, I must ask anyone who has not yet made a payment to see Rodelle our Treasurer for 2010, and please do that as soon as you can. The full cost for the 3 course dinner is $50 per head not including drinks.  This is a strictly no BYO venue. Rosie and I have eaten at Madeline’s and we were impressed with the level of service and indeed the taste of the food.

Your choice of meal can be made from the menu on the blog site but for those of you who, like me, have trouble with anything even vaguely electronic here it is again;

Entree – selection of either …
Pumpkin Soup
Lamb Kofta or
Crispy Calamari

Main Course – selection of either …
Fish of the day
Fillet Steak
Fettuccini or
Chicken Breast

Dessert – selection of either
Chocolate Addiction
Sticky Date Pudding
Trio of Ice cream

We have a list of 36 members who say they would be there which makes for a right crowd.  If anyone else is still thinking about it don’t wait too long.

Cheers Andy Armitage

This Sunday coming WCC will be going to Werribee. Meet at 10am at the Werribee Mansion.

Parks Victoria: Werribee Park

Unfortunately I will be missing my first outing for the year so you won’t see me there.

Enjoy,
Pete

Hi folks.  Great response to the Christmas thingy on the 11th of December.  16 acceptances – I have now been able to get my hands on a Dinner menu suitable for a function taking about 4 hours;  But if U haven’t responded yet please do so quickly as I must BOOK this real soon. Here goes!

On arrival
Pita Bread with oils (?)

Entree selection
Pumpkin Soup or
Lamb Kofta with jasmine rice or
Crispy Calamari with the lot

Main
Fish of the day or
Fillet Steak (250g) with mushrooms and veg or
Fettuccini with mushrooms, white wine, cream and parsley or
Chicken breast with feta and sun dried tomatoes with a cream sauce

Desert
Chocolate addiction or
Sticky Date Pudding or
Trio of Ice cream

This is a strictly No BYO folks – under any circumstances but there is a substantial beverage list and what the restaurant quaintly calls a ‘beverage package option’.  We can talk about that later.
Cheers Andy Armitage

A quick message from the President, Pete regarding the club visit to Point Nepean on Sunday 4th October 2009.

Sunday the 4th of October is the next of this years exciting outings. This time around we will be visiting Point Nepean.

For those that don’t know Point Nepean is at the end of the Mornington Peninsula. The plan is to be there for the sunset which we believe is at 7.20pm. Roger Howell has very kindly arranged for the Parks people to hang around for us to shoot the sunset as they would normally have booted out all park visitors well before then.

There is a cost of $20 per person (for the bus) for them to do this for us but as the bus is normally $16 it doesn’t seem like such a rip off. We must have a minimum of 10 people on the bus and a maximum of 40. The cost per person does not change based on the numbers we have.

Once you have said you want to go you are up for $20 per person regardless of whether you show up or not.

We must be at the visitor centre by 4.45 sharp.

We will drive down with cars to the inside car park where we will be met by the park transport. That will take us to the Point and return us to the car park.Sunset is 1920 and they do want us to leave the park by 1930 or shortly afterwards. Should the weather be unsuitable there are arrangements for cancellation.

If you want to go then please rsvp with the number of people attending by 7pm next Tuesday (29th).

Pete

I have spoken to Perry regarding his fall on Sunday and it is good news that not only is he okay but more importantly (just kidding) his lens has survived it’s meeting with the concrete in Degraves Street. Perry informed me that after removing the broken glass from his UV filter and then snipping the outer frame, he was successful in removing the filter and the only damage to the lens was to the threads where the filter screws on. The lens threads will still accept a filter so all is well.

This is one side of the filter / no filter argument that rarely gets discussed but in Perry’s case it has saved him a lot of money because it is fair to assume that if that filter hadn’t been there then it would have been his lens that he would have been throwing in the bin and as it was a $2,000 Canon L Series lens, that isn’t a cheap option. I’ll be keeping my filters on in future especially in Degraves Street.