An area south of Melbourne known as Brighton is home to some of Melbourne’s wealthy. The colourful huts on the beach are handy storage for beach toys and preparing a snack. They sell for a cool $500,000 and if you are interested they are in demand and hard to purchase so some patience is required. The community is beautiful and so are the people!!

The downtown is full of shapes and colour and I’m searching for images that capture some of the uniqueness of the city. The mix of new and old is everywhere and a lot of effort has been put into retaining old structures.

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I thought I would seek a high point of land to capture an image of the whole city skyline. Hmmmm, Australia and a high point of land? After walking for a very long time I looked back and saw the city, took a shot, and perhaps gained 50 meters of elevation. So back to the city and got a few more shots of the eclectic mix of architecture.

Oh, by the way, couldn’t resist another street art pic.

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Today I decided to get my head out of the back alleys and lanes and put on hold the search for more street art. So, with no plan in mind I walked the main streets just on the outside of downtown. There was time for a long black coffee on Lygon street to add a little punch to the day. Well, it was a nice long coffee break doing some people watching.

The images attempted to capture a few shots of the sky line and sharp edges of the buildings. Some fun images were added as contrast.

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Still having fun taking shots of street art in Melbourne. Maybe its everywhere in big cities; Melbourne certainly has gone for it. This time I walked the streets of Fitzroy, a suburb just outside the central business district. It is a hip area with coffee shops, funky clothing shops, ethnic food shops, and yes; hipsters everywhere.

Barwon Heads is an awesome place and my hosts from my last visit offered their vacation home for me to stay and enjoy the area. Just before I left Melbourne I took another street art image and it is in the post as well. I’ve discovered that street art is a big deal in Melbourne and it pops up everywhere.

The beach area is very addictive and I found myself visiting it several days in a row. One of the reasons is to capture images of race horses getting a chance to run the beach. Unfortunately they must have been running a track and were absent except for their hoof prints. Oh well, the warm water and spectacular vistas make up for the lack of horses; next time. The photo shoot was bit of a fumble fest as I dropped two polarizing lenses in the sand, filled the tripod legs with sand and water, and generally was awkward. Must have been gawking at the views!!

The community of Barwon Heads is surrounded by Moonah trees. They apparently live for a very long time and are protected. They are gnarled and appear hardened by drought and wind. In the summer (now) they are in bloom and they roll back and forth in the wind. I thank my hosts Warrick and Kathy for yet another great time at Barwon Heads.

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Barwon Head is a small seaside community and part of a chain of resort communities south of Melbourne on the Southern Ocean. Friends Kathy and Warwick own a vacation home in Barwon Head and we stayed for several days. They were great hosts and showed all the sites in the area ranging from beautiful beaches and landmarks to a “show and shine” car show. This is a place I would come back to often as it has something for everyone and is on the beginning of the Great Ocean road. For the extreme surfers there is the famous “Bell’s beach” just down the road. By the way it is only 3000 kms to Antarctica due south.

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Walking around downtown Melbourne is a treat. My friend Kathy and I got some advise from a photographer familiar with some of the interesting spots in the downtown core. We walked into laneways covered in graffiti and some of the painting has been done by notable graffiti artists such as “Bansky”. Everything that is paintable is covered and would take days to see it all.

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