Outdoor Bondi Beach Milonga

Good tango music, dance, and the beach is an absolute winning combination. Held outside the Bondi Beach Pavillion, this milonga provides the opportunity for Sophia and Pedro Alvarez from Patio de Tango to introduce tango dance to the public. And of course for us, dancers, to show our skillz of giros, enrosques, and boleos.

It was especially good to see the dance in a totally different background: the beach!

It was great for me, because I do not need to worry about shutter speed and aperture to give enough light for the photos. On the other hand, having a big metal thing stuck in front of your face doesn't encourage guys to ask me to dance! I got a good tanda. I was happy.

I had the enjoyment of being their Sophia and Pedro's level 4 student since I came to Sydney. I've been trying to catch Sophia in one of my pic, because she said she haven't had a really good picture of her doing Tango. It's not easy! She moves fast!

Lastly I think I will leave you with a slightly different photo style. The original (and the rest of other pictures) are in my picasa album here What do you think?

Sculpture by the Sea

Sculpture by the Sea is an annual event of sculpture exhibition along the Australian coasts. This year, I was lucky to had the opportunity to attend it on the last day. It was hot, high noon, certainly not the best condition to take pictures, but I tried my best for the sake of sharing it with you guys!

Bondi beach was packed that day. It's good to see families out together to enjoy the exhibition, and yet makes it more challenging to take photographs of the sculpture without making the result looks like an ordinary tourist photo.

The next two are a picture of the same sculpture. I love this curvy metallic one. It's Mitsuo Takeuchi's transfiguration "screw" IX. I love the way it gives different sense of feeling when viewed at different angle. And the shiny reflection, to top it off, Wow!

The winner of this year is actually this next photo of green leafy sculpture by Phil Price called Morpheus. The amazing thing about this, is that it is moving, changing shapes, rather like a chaotic pendulum. I think it portrays our current times, where things are slowly going back to the environment, yet not leaving the technology behind. I love it.

Paul Trefry, "little boy lost" is the next photo. I tried to take a picture from the front of the boy like everybody else, but in the end I decided to take the other angle. I wonder why the artist made a bigger size rather than the normal proportional size of a boy. Perhaps avoiding controversy? It would give a bit more impact were it to be the faithful size, especially taken from this angle.

The next one, a straw coming out of the ocean! This would have been a great picture were I to go with someone else who can pretend to suck the ocean! It's Big drink, by Justin Drape / Simone Brandse.

Pamela Lee Brenner / Emma Medwell's "step by step, inch by inch ... towards the precipice" is quite neat. I love the fact that most of the lady shoes are Tango shoes look alike! :)

Check out more photos in my picasa album directory.