[wet] photowalk 22 Nov 09

The rain came down in bucket loads today as predicted by the meteorologists. While it does come as a little relief to the regions' dwindling water supply, I honestly don't like rain.

The Thessaloniki festival was supposed to be held outdoors today in Fed Square, but because of the rain, everything was shifted inside, and the scale of the event is much smaller.

There was no slowdown in the amount of visitors to NGV Australia though.

I had to wait for quite a while for the dancers to come up and do their performance, but after one dance, I decided I had enough and packed up.

Being not accustomed to shooting in "less than ideal" conditions, I decided to challenge myself and see what I could come up with in this bad weather.

Timber, concrete and grass.

Once I got the hang of it, it wasn't that hard, really. Because most of the cafes closed early, there were less folks around to clutter the frame.

In Melbourne, the less fortunate are given an opportunity to fend for themselves by selling magazines. I can imagine its quite a tough life.

You know you're nearby a cafe area when you see lots of plastic crates and empty milk bottles being left around.

Only a very limited number of alleys have been successfully converted to cafe areas to draw in tourists. Otherwise the rest of their brethren are still pretty dark and dingy. The shoes signify that one could purchase illicit drugs here a while back, though it certainly isn't the case nowadays.

Yep, despite being right in the city, no one really does anything to get rid of these plastic crates. They're just being left at a corner, and before long, I reckon you can do an art installation with them.

Everything's all wet and slippery. Not many people will be seen sitting on these public benches in this kind of weather.

Its the same case for wet cafe tables

One may say that Christmas time *should be one of the most anticipated festivities in Melbourne (or Australia), but in actual fact, no one really gives a damn about it despite the odd Christmas events here and there. The Christmas star ornaments have been recycled for years, compared to the innovative lighting systems at Orchard Road, Singapore. Kinda puts Melbourne to shame, actually.

A serious looking mannequin

Big umbrellas, small umbrella

Big blue holden and small green box. Its amazing how some folks can still litter openly on Melbourne's streets.

The rubbish collectors are rushing against time to finish their job as soon as possible.

One of the advantages of live view - not having to stoop down low to get your shot. Of course, everyone else complains about the 230K screen which is not as impressive as other models, but isn't it how your image looks on print or your calibrated Lacie / Eizo monitor that's more important?

Fresh leaves for summer

If your old folks can still walk about without being confined to bed, appreciate it while it lasts.

Hope you folks out there don't mind this picture-intensive post. As fantastic as Melbourne is in summer, it unfortunately rains too, but the sucky weather shouldn't stop you from putting your thinking hat on and start snapping away.

Cheers.