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30-Day Project | Day 25 | Bush Fire!

Spot News in Laverton? Woo hoo!  Well, kind of…

I was just taking a drive around town when I saw a bunch of smoke coming out of the bushes.  Being the lazy Sunday that it was, I stopped and found it was a bush fire.  I was going to call somebody but just as I was getting ready to, the police showed up.  They called the volunteer fire department and in the meantime, the two cops and myself just sort of stood there and stared at it– much like people stare mesmerized at a campfire.  It had some pretty good flames to it but by the time the fire department showed up, it was just smoldering.  The cops and I must have extinguished the fire with our bored stares.  But hey, it was some excitement on an uneventful Sunday afternoon and it gave me a photo for my 30-day project today…   Thank God I had all that wildfire training in Nevada last summer!!!

Laverton Bush Fire 02

Laverton Bush Fire

Laverton Volunteer Firefighter Mua, my across-the-street neighbor, tackles the flames on Sunday.

Aug 29, 2010 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: , , , , | Leave A Comment »

30-Day Project | Day 24 | Mt. Margaret

Today, I drove to the community of Mt. Margaret, about 35km outside of Laverton.  Mt. Margaret was set up as a Christan mission for Aboriginal people back in the 1920’s.  I met a lot of great people while I was there and a couple of them are letting me take pictures while they hunt for kangaroo and Goana (giant lizards) next week.  Before I left, I climbed up the actual Mt. Margaret and took a panorama from the top (you can scroll the picture below to see the full panorama):

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Aug 29, 2010 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

30-Day Project | Day 23 | Biking Accident?

Sorry I keep taking pictures of abandoned junk.  Sometimes I just have to stop and take a pictures of the things I see along the roads.

Because my last two posts were of objects that were not meant to be in their current positions, lets play a game.  It is called: “How the Hell Did This Get Here?”  My guess on this one is a horrific biking accident.  I am guessing a guy named Jake had great aspirations to be the next Lance Armstrong.  He would bike for miles a day along Outback roads training as hard as he could. That is, until a kangaroo jumped out in front of his bike one day, causing him to swerve and meet his ultimate match– This tree.

Your thoughts on how this bike got here?

Aug 29, 2010 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

30-Day Project | Days 21 & 22

Day 22 | Outback Junk

For some reason, I have always liked photographing old junk.  When I was shooting black and white film for my photography classes in college, I was always attracted to old junk yards, abandoned cars, etc, etc.  While I was driving around the Laverton area, I cam across one of the many junk piles that you find scattered throughout the outback.  These places always make me wonder how and why the objects ended up here.  For example, how the hell did somebody leave an entire campervan in ditch?  A wrong turn?  A camping trip gone wrong?  Who knows…

Outback Junk near Murrin Murrin Australia

Day 21 | Back in Laverton

After a little time off to show some friends around Perth, I am back out in Laverton.  To get out here, I fly on a chartered plane that brings mining workers out from Perth to the Murrin Murrin Nickel Mine (about 70km from Laverton) for their two-week shifts.  Minara Resources, the company that owns Murrin Murrin is gracious enough to let me hop on their planes.  Without them I probably couldn’t do my project logistically.

As for the mine, Murrin Murrin is the world’s 5th largest Nickel mine and it is really amazing to see the logistics that go into getting that nickel out of the ground and keeping the 1,000 or so employees living happily in the outback.  I tried to look at a diagram showing the mining process but a little part of my brain exploded.  Here are a couple of photos from the plane while flying in today:

Murrin Murrin Nickel MineThe Murrin Murrin Nickel Mine seen from the air


Aug 27, 2010 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

30-Day Project | Day 20 | Extinction

Kind of random… But then again, Australia is kind of a random place…

Aug 26, 2010 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: , , , , | Leave A Comment »

30-Day Project | Day 19 | Jason Eats Wave

Today, I experimented with photographing in the water.  I don’t exactly have the proper setup for water photography but I improvised.  I took my old point and shoot camera, put it in a clear waterproof bag and went for it.  The pictures didn’t turn out spectacular mainly because the clear vinyl of the bag made the photos look a little out of focus.  But, I did get a couple of photos of fellow Mizzou Photo-J’er Jason Lenhart (who has been visiting us for the past week and a half) getting eaten by a 6 foot wall of water…

And the photo below is probably what it looked like from the wave’s perspective…

Aug 23, 2010 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: , , , , | Leave A Comment »