Travelling to Canberra

Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Canberra.  I was there as a chaperone to some young riders who were racing in the Canberra Women's Tour, there was also a Junior section.  Part of the deal with going up, was that I was not allowed to go the racing, seems that the coach has decided that my daughter needs to start being more independent.  I say great, but good luck.

I knew I would be travelling up alone, as Briony was going to be in the van with the other girls who was also going up.  So I wouldn't be alone, bored and risk falling asleep while driving, I invited a friend to come with me, Kate.  She has a friend who lives in Canberra and she would be staying with her, but spending time with me.

The first day in Canberra, Simon picks up all the kids I'm looking after and I leave to go and get Kate.  Canberra is a not an easy place to find your way around and I manage to lose my way once, but quickly turn around and head in the right direction.  I get to Kate's and we are off, heading to the National Gallery of Australia.

On the way my petrol light comes on and we start the search for a petrol station.  Really, you should do research on this type of thing when travelling to Canberra, because you don't see them anywhere, too ugly apparently.  We had to phone a friend to find one.  Was not a good feeling knowing you are running out of fuel, but can't find anywhere to refuel.  We found somewhere and didn't run out.

We made our way to the Gallery and parked the car and proceeded to walk through the sculpture garden to the entrance.  One thing that Kate and I have in common, besides doing our fine arts degree together, we both love photography.

My camera bag is a backpack and it wasn't something that I wanted to carry around all day, it's heavy, and, and, I knew that when I got to the gallery I wouldn't be able to take it in and I would have to leave it behind.  As far as I was concerned that wasn't an option, so I decided to carry just the camera with the 18mm to 105mm lens.  It should cover everything I would want to shoot and if it didn't then I could always crop.  (I don't like shooting like that, I know people recommend doing that, but I think I'm still in the film mentality and I try to compose my images through the camera lens.)

I liked carrying the camera with me, it was over my shoulder and ready to use anytime I saw something that I thought would make a good composition.  Of course walking though the sculpture helped me to find many things to photograph.
There are some really big and beautiful sculptures here and the garden surroundings can really help to show them off.  It is like they are part of the environment rather than the enveronment being there for them.

It is a shame in some ways that it was a drizzly overcast days, then again it made the lighting more even and I didn't have to deal with direct sunlight giving me very bright patches and harsh shadows.

Next we entered the gallery.  I was told the gallery was amazing, not just what was inside but also the building.  I could see straight away that their were some interesting elements in the building.  We decided to head straight for the coffee shop and get coffee, look at the map and make some decisions about what we were going to see.

You can see from the photo of the coffee shop part of what I was saying.  The ceiling was quite amazing.  Perhaps had aged, and didn't look as spectaclar as it once had, but still impressive. 

I didn't get to take any more photos really, I made the mistake of asking what the policy was on taking photos and was told that I could not take photos of anywhere inside.  I could take photos in the gardens outside, but not inside.  Shame really.  I wasn't interested in photographing the artworks, but I did want to take photos of the buildings.  I say it was a mistake to ask because there is always the element of ignorance, doing it until you are told otherwise.  I know not the best way to deal with it, but still...

After we had a look around we headed over to the portrait gallery.  What an amazing place.  We had lunch there, definitely a fantastic decision to eat there.  The food was extremely good.

The building was incredible as well.  It reminded me a art deco building, but it is not that old.  It has the elements of being a modern building, yet it has those design aspects of another era.  I thought it was beautiful and couldn't stop looking at it.  I wanted to take lots of photos of it.

I did go and ask someone about their photography policy and was really pleased to learn that I could take photos of the building, inside and out, but could not photos of the galleries or the artwork.  This all suited my purposes and I took several photos looking at these.

This above image reminds me of people sitting on a train.  I suppose it is the way the seats are positioned and the way the people have sit down, as if to face the way they are travelling.

This is the entrance to the toilets.  I know it is not the usual place to take photos, but I thought it fun the way the wood is placed.  Again, it is all lines, but it brings me into the first Willy Wonka movie.  The room they went into that got smaller and smaller.  It was almost disappointing when I did go towards the ladies to discover that it didn't get smaller. 

Something I got from Canberra, was that I should always try to carry a camera with me.  I know it isn't always possible, but perhaps I should make a habit of it as much as I can.  Being able to grab the camera and take a quite snap was really good.