Saturday, March 12, 2011

Downunder

As a member of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, i attend the Update conference every year. The conference is held in Australia, usually in Sydney. This year the meeting was in Melbourne. And this year, it was a little bit more than just a conference for me. This year, i was there to attend a small ceremony where i have officially become a fellow of the college. Oh, we got a certificate at the end of the ceremony too. Though i must say the college was being very cheap, giving out a certificate without a cover or a case of some sort. I had to stuff it in my hand carry bag and ended up tearing it a little bit after my 3.5 hour flight.

The best part of conferences like that is i get to fly for free, as all our expenses are reimbursed under medical education claim, with a limit of course (otherwise i will be flying to Hawaii every 6 months!). My trip there this time was not without a few hiccups. Firstly my flight got delayed for two hours, which means i touched down at Melbourne at 11pm. Then i realised i have booked into the wrong hotel. Apparently there were two Medina executive apartments, one at each end of Flinders street. I was supposed to stay at the Medina at the Northbank instead of the one on Southbank. Anyway, at midnight, i walked the entire length of Flinders street and finally reached my hotel just after midnight. Luckily, the apartment was very nice. I could see the iconic building of Federation square from my balcony.



Due to the fact that i got the wrong hotel, i had a fair distance to travel to my conference venue the next morning. It would have taken me 25-30 mins on foot. I chose to take a tram. As usual, i carried my DSLR with me wherever i go. I walked pass this lane with cool Graffiti on my way to the tram stop.




On Sunday, i got a little fed up with the very facts packed talks. So, i decided to flag some of the talks and went wondering in the CBD of Melbourne.  Melbourne streets are busier than ever, packed with people, cars and all kinds of street performers. On the same street (Bourke street), i have seen a few but two of the performances caught my eyes. First act was by a group of Italian men, playing their music. The music had a heavy Latin swing to it. The band actually attracted lots of attention.












The second act was a man who painted himself gray to look like a statue. But instead of standing still like just another boring statue wannabe, he created another three statue who looked like him. It was kind of freaky seeing four faces in stone-form, especially when one of them could move.







Of course, Melbourne is not all pretty and civilised. Here's a dodgy one.....



3 comments:

  1. You cough some nice expression on the kids face, while they are looking at the entertainer. Would be nicer if you could drop the back ground a little more off focus. :) Just my opinion.

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  2. Hi Kee,

    Melbourne has changed so much! It feels really surreal it was back eeerrr... 12-13 years ago when we first met in this beautiful city. I am so envious of you having the opportunity to 'pop through' to this amazing city as and when you like it. As you know I've not been back to Melbourne since we left because Britain's simply too far away from that part of the world. I love your pictures. You have a great artistic eye for great photography. I really like your blog too. Instead of taking lots of pictures which are mostly irrelevant like what many photographers do when they are abroad, you take pictures to tell a story and to share your experiences whilst being at that very place. Well done mate!

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  3. Thanks Kieren for your comment. Melbourne has changed indeed. Must say i like the Melbourne 12 years ago more.
    A agree with you Cheng Hiang. It is always difficult when all i had was a simple midrange zoom. I used a 17-50mm and that shot was done opened wide at f2.8. If i had my tele with me i could have created more background blur. Another thing i found difficult was getting exposure right. As you can see from some of the photos of the "statue man", he was in the shaded area while the background outside the street was very bright with the sun. Getting the right exposure right without over exposing the background was difficult. I did not bring my speedlite for fill flash, so i was not that happy with some of my over exposed background.

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