Scenes from the aquarium

First, I must update you on yesterday's blog entry.  I forgot the weirdest feature of that particular fish.  The dang thing had buck teeth.  I'm pretty sure it was a parrot fish, similar to the last picture on this page.

My little buddy checking out the fish parts they're going to feed to the sharks.  The shark feeding itself was extremely underwhelming.

From Perth2014

Maybe the only giant shark enclosure with a small solar farm on one end?

From Perth2014

I admit to spending more time trying to get a decent photo of this bird than I did watching the sharkies...

From Perth2014

Back inside!  The tanks inside were much more interesting to me.  EELS!

From Perth2014

Blurry clownfish and ... what's that back there?

From Perth2014

Sweet, MANTIS SHRIMP!  A terrible photo, but a good memory.

From Perth2014

Of course, every aquarium needs a resident spider friend!

From Perth2014

Funky Fresh Fish

Upon reaching the aquarium, we went on their tour.  That's the only way they'll let you see stuff.  One of the first things we saw was this weird fish.  It generally swam around like this, half out of the water.  And it made weird noises.  And I totally forget what it was called. But it was funky.

From Perth2014

My first emu

As we were heading to ... somewhere (perhaps the aquarium) there was a kerfuffle, and suddenly, EMUS!

From Perth2014

Just a couple of boats...

and lots of stars!  My favorite shot from this particular session.  The boats look kinda weird, and I have some ideas on how to improve this in the future, should I have another opportunity.

I should also note that these starry shots were all taken in the middle of what felt like a sandstorm.  I had to hang my 30lb backpack from the tripod just to get it to stop vibrating in the wind.  Even then, I think some vibrations still made their way in.

From Perth2014

Milky Way many ways

The big bright thing is the moon.

From Perth2014

From Perth2014

I think the galaxy is a bit more evident in the black and white version.

Using some different settings yielded this:

From Perth2014

Starry night

While in Denham, I played around with astrophotography a bit.  Check out the Milky Way:

Hamelin Pool is cool

From Perth2014

From Perth2014

Losing this boy was nearly impossible with that hat!

From Perth2014

From Perth2014

Lots of stromatolites, just chillin' like they have nowhere else to go.

From Perth2014

From Perth2014

Old living rocks

After our brief respite at the Billabong Roadhouse, fortified by a 'roo burger and other sundry roadhouse confections, we made our way to Hamelin Pool.  Hamelin Pool is basically a bunch of rocks on the sea shore.  It doesn't sound very interesting, does it?  It's pretty and all ...

From Perth2014

Well, there were some birds ...

From Perth2014

And this rock made out of shells was pretty cool ... (I guess it's probably not actually a "rock" but I lack the proper term for it)

From Perth2014

From Perth2014

These are the rocks that Hamelin Pool is known for.  But they're not rocks - they're actually living colonies of marine organisms called stromatolites!  These colonies have been growing for thousands of years.  Fossil stromatolites have been found that are over 3.5 billion years old!  Holy crap.

From Perth2014

A lone stromatolite:

From Perth2014

Stromatolite field!

From Perth2014

The BIllabong Roadhouse

From Perth2014

One of a few roadhouses we stopped at, the Billabong Roadhouse was full of character.  It's where I got my first taste of kangaroo:

From Perth2014

Kangaroo was pretty tasty.  It's a bit gamy like venison.

It's all full of just ... random stuff.  The walls or full of photos.  If I recall correctly, most of the photos are of tattoos, but click and zoom if you'd like to verify for yourself:

From Perth2014

The other wall also had some instruments that patrons were seemingly encouraged to play.  We did not partake.

From Perth2014

Found in an Aussie Roadhouse

From Perth2014

(you must read the label)

Panoramic beach in Dongara

From Perth2014

Advised to click and look at the full screen version.  Lovely beach.

Checking out the seaweed

From Perth2014

As an aside, apparently I now have 26k hits on this site.  I'd like to thank my mother and that other person who checks out these photos.

In pursuit

From Perth2014

Crash go the waves!

From Perth2014

The breakers were full of seaweed

From Perth2014

From Perth2014

Flying seaweed!

From Perth2014

I never got used to finding sponges just washed up on the shore

From Perth2014

Fisherdudes caught something!  They actually caught two or three while I was being a creeper.

From Perth2014

Doggie is just full of joy!

From Perth2014

Good morning Dongara!

I love to walk on the beach in the mornings when it's generally deserted, and that's just what I did my first morning in Dongara.  Of course I took some photos while I was out there.

Some rather uninteresting large chunks of driftwood.


Finally started to see some bigger waves!



and birds!



Some dudes were up pretty early getting their fish on.



The blue here ... seems much bluer on this monitor than the one where I edited the photo ... water tunnel, though!



Crash!



Fly droplets, fly!



Let's end with puppies.