Some graffiti down an alleyway near Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia.

From the submissions, 30 people will be selected to test drive the camera, and upload 5 images per week for critiquing. After six weeks, an overall winner and a “people’s choice” winner will be selected to keep the camera.

At the moment, I’ve entered a couple of photos. Amazingly, there have only been 80 or so entries; and many of the entries so far have been mum and dad family snapshots. Having said that, what’s the bet I won’t get selected as a final contestant?

Taken some time ago and recently re-processed using Aperture 3 and Photoshop.

These are Whitestem Paperflower (Psilostrophe cooperi), a profusely flowering plant that dries cream (the original flower is yellow) and have the texture of paper. The paper flowers then hang around for a long time and look great.

The final image in the series from the Great Western Hotel. As you can see, we were quite close to the bulls. We didn’t realise why the bulls were coming up so close to us until someone pointed out that Wendy was wearing a red top!

The second of three images from the Great Western Hotel. You can see the spectators drinking beer, XXXX of course, and getting close to the action. Further back are the seated patrons eating dinner. To the side there were tables closer to the action, as well as two large sets of stadium seating.

This is the first of a series of three photos that I’ll be posting from our dinner tonight at the Great Western Hotel, Rockhampton.

The Great Western is the only hotel in Australia to have a covered rodeo arena, yes, a rodeo arena. Don’t forget, Rockhampton is the Beef Capital of Australia. There is practise every Friday night, starting at 7:00pm, except for when there is too much rain and they can’t truck the bulls in, like last week.

Whilst good in theory, eating dinner next to raving mad bulls and equally mad bull riders is actually not that pleasant. First there is the dust that gets into your food if you sit too close. Then there is smell of the bulls – both their sweat as well as the other bodily fluids. Finally, you start to wonder if the bulls are mad because you are eating their family….

Looks like this version finally gets the geolocation and face detection of iPhoto. What I’m really excited about though is the new “brushes” feature enabling non-destructive adjustments. There is also the ability to save these adjustments as presets.

Apple states that there are over 200 new features. I just hope that all these new features don’t make the program a bore to use like Lightroom.

There is not much to do here in Rockhampton except study for the USMLE, finish the PhD, and play with my strobes. The image was taken from our apartment balcony at the hospital’s staff accommodation building where we are staying for the next few months. I ordered myself the Strobist Favorites Gallery Vol. 1 before we left Adelaide, and plan to try a picture per week. This particular idea comes from Paul Duncan’s image ”Umbrella Bounce In Your Stride”.

Yesterday we did a quick exploration of Yeppoon before these rain clouds came through.

Yeppoon is a small coastal town near Rockhampton (a slightly less small town in central Queensland). From first impressions it feels like a surfer town, but a local friend tells me that the surf is pretty tame – the Great Barrier Reef stops most of the big waves. Maybe it was just the humongous Rip Curl shop on the main street. It reminded me a bit of Manly in Sydney.

We had dinner at Footlights, who describe themselves as providing ”a sumptuous three-course dinner with a brilliant two hour show performed by a professional team who have almost 3,600 shows and 27 years under their belts”. The dinner was slightly better than hospital food (I’ve had a lot over the years), and the show was fun most of the time, but there were skits that didn’t draw a single chuckle from the crowd. Still, I would recommend it to friends, as there is little other entertainment in the area.