2014 moments #10

January 4, 2015January 4, 2015 / mikeosbornphoto / 7 Comments

I’ve enjoyed sharing my 10 favourite photographs of 2014 with you over recent days. These are the shots that stood out to me and had a particularly strong sense of place and meaning. You can find a gallery of the top 10 after this, the final entry.

THE CENTRE OF WESTMINSTER

This is a piece of pure architectural opulence, captured at the Palace of Westminster in London. The nerve centre of British political life, I wondered if the likes of Margaret Thatcher had ever stopped in the Central Lobby and peered upwards at this sumptuous ceiling. I also spend a lot of time taking photographs with my head flung back – it’s worth it every time.

The shots of the year – click first image to launch the gallery

2014 moments #9

January 3, 2015 / mikeosbornphoto / 8 Comments

I would like to share my 10 most memorable photographs of the past year over the coming days with you. These are shots that I am particularly proud of, while each evokes a sense of place and meaning from 2014.

FREERS BLISS

A perfectly lonely beach where the light blue water matches the cyan of a clear early autumn sky. This is Freers on the coast of Tasmania, Australia’s beautiful island state. It’s a picture of natural solitude, broken only by the scuttling of hundreds of sand crabs nearby. And it’s just one image of many contenders from a memorable journey around a small part of the other end of the Earth.

Little Australia

May 4, 2014July 30, 2019 / mikeosbornphoto / 27 Comments

This island state sitting at the foot of vast Australia has a charm and mood all of its own – at times familiar to this Briton who took a road trip there recently. We took in main cities Hobart and Launceston, the stunning east coast and the changing character of its north side and interior.

If you’re tempted to go to Tasmania armed with your camera, here are a few reasons to go south…

Its coastal landscape is second to none, including gold and orange rocks
If you’re lucky with the weather, the sky is an amazing azure, thanks to a lack of European pollution
The towns and cities have a beguiling mix of colonial and contemporary architecture – and unique charm
Its clarity is great for night photography – and a chance to catch the Southern Lights

Click first image for full gallery experience

Swansea

Launceston

Freers Beach

Launceston

Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart

Freers Beach

Penguin

Burnie

Bicheno

Hobart

Launceston

Bicheno

Swansea

Penguin – the town where they make numerous appearances

Ross

Bicheno

Swansea

Hobart

Ross

Oatlands

Playground of art

April 27, 2014April 16, 2021 / mikeosbornphoto / 14 Comments

Travel to one of the most southerly places on Earth, and you’re in for a surprise.

The Museum of Old and New Art – MONA – has made its home overlooking a bay near Tasmania’s capital, Hobart. It’s the baby of wealthy art collector David Walsh, who made his fortune from gambling.

If you’re expecting a stately trudge around an Australian Tate Modern, think again. You don’t even make it inside the doors and the outlandish architecture of the surrounds are a beguiling delight, with rusty metal ramparts and even an elaborate chapel tucked away on site.

Getting to grips with the collection is a novelty as you’re handed an iPod to navigate your way around floors of exhibits which dazzle, challenge and quite simply entertain, from water spouts which spurt out randomly generated words to the pungent-smelling cloaca, which mimics every part of human digestion.

There is also a room dedicated to artworks where “parental discretion is advised”. Hard not to make a beeline for that. It’s not all titillating and subversive at the museum, but interesting it most certainly is.

After the art, there’s the inevitable gift shop and raft of cafes. Outsized beanbags are scattered across the lawn where you can lounge and reflect, while noticing a wealth of quirky details in every corner of the grounds.

Walsh may have put his cultural playground in a distant place, but if you make it there, this experience has to be high up on your list.

Click first image to launch the gallery

Dark sunshine

April 21, 2014April 21, 2014 / mikeosbornphoto / 9 Comments

The Australian state of Queensland is best known for bright colours, balmy weather, natural beauty – and the sunshine of its sub-title.

But I came home with some shots that defy this notion. We arrived in Brisbane during a relentlessly wet spell, while some of the city’s architectural features looked moody and overpowering, like the edifice of the University of Queensland’s main building in the photograph above.

The Eleanor Schonell Bridge, which provides a link to the St Lucia campus across the Brisbane River, looked imposing against a stormy sky. The Botanic Gardens’ hothouse was admittedly bathed in light, but has a space age quality in black and white.

The morning after a night in one of the city centre’s clusters of tower blocks was sodden, and the view to a neighbouring skyscraper proved bleak and daunting.

There are two sides to every story, even in the sub-tropics…

Click first image to launch the gallery