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Fleur Blüm

~ writer, performer, musician

Fleur Blüm

Tag Archives: Photography

Week 2 – Photo a day Challenge

18 Sunday May 2014

Posted by toearlyretirement in Art, Photo Essay

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Art, Challenge, fmsphotoaday, foodporn, Graffiti, Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, Monash University, North Melbourne, Photo Essay, Photography, St Mary's, street art

Again, slightly late, but y’know, whatever.

As promised, here are my photos, posted originally on my Instragram #dragongirlau (with my phone camera because I’m too lazy to transfer photos from my proper camera to my phone so I can Instragram them).

Day 9 - Sunset of St Mary's church in North Melbourne, one of my favourite times of the day.

Day 9 – Sunset of St Mary’s church in North Melbourne, one of my favourite times of the day.

Day 11 - seen off Little Bourke Street, for Mother's Day.

Day 11 – seen off Little Bourke Street, for Mother’s Day.

Day 10 - in the garden

Day 10 – in the garden

Day 12 - a meal ready made because I didn't go food shopping over the weekend.

Day 12 – a meal ready made because I didn’t go food shopping over the weekend.

Day 13 - I spy with my little eye a whole collection of figurines on a dashboard

Day 13 – I spy with my little eye a whole collection of figurines on a dashboard

Day 14 - Lines. Took me a whole day to realise they could be curved

Day 14 – Lines. Took me a whole day to realise they could be curved

Day 15 - From where I walk. Awesome graffiti streetart in North Melbourne.

Day 15 – From where I walk. Awesome graffiti streetart in North Melbourne.

Day 16 - My trusty lava lamp. I've had it since I was 15, it's followed me when I moved and I always feel warmed by the soft glow it creates

Day 16 – My trusty lava lamp. I’ve had it since I was 15, it’s followed me when I moved and I always feel warmed by the soft glow it creates

Day 17 - you can always find a bag left outside a rubbish bin; the detritus of urban life

Day 17 – you can always find a bag left outside a rubbish bin; the detritus of urban life

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Week 1 – Photo a day Challenge

09 Friday May 2014

Posted by toearlyretirement in Art, Photo Essay

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Art, Challenge, fmsphotoaday, foodporn, Melbourne, Michael Buble, Monash University, Photo Essay, Photography, Rod Laver Arena, State Theatre

The first week of this challenge has come and gone, oh how time keeps passing by!!

As promised, here are my photos, posted originally on my Instragram #dragongirlau (with my phone camera because I’m too lazy to transfer photos from my proper camera to my phone so I can Instragram them).

Day 1 - Journal

Day 1 – Journal

Day 2 - snack; an apple and a feijoa

Day 2 – snack; an apple and a feijoa

Day 3 - A collection of cheeses for dinner last night, and I didn't even have cheese dreams!

Day 3 – A collection of cheeses for dinner last night, and I didn’t even have cheese dreams!

Day 4 - From all of us here at Rod Laver Arena to see Michael Buble thank you for coming out and caressing us with your caramel vocals. So good!

Day 4 – From all of us here at Rod Laver Arena to see Michael Buble thank you for coming out and caressing us with your caramel vocals. So good!

Day 5 - I missed 4pm today because I was staring into the black hole of complete disengagement from my work...

Day 5 – I missed 4pm today because I was staring into the black hole of complete disengagement from my work…

Day 6 - from down below, this was an attempt to take a picture of the inside of the State Theatre in Melbourne, I thought it was arty.

Day 6 – from down below, this was an attempt to take a picture of the inside of the State Theatre in Melbourne, I thought it was arty.

Day 7 - today's prompt was taken from above, I found this abandoned scrap of knitting in the Ming Wing at Monash University, I thought it was sad.

Day 7 – today’s prompt was taken from above, I found this abandoned scrap of knitting in the Ming Wing at Monash University, I thought it was sad.

Day 8 - the theme today was blue, inspired by the blue Melbourne street sign I snapped these buskers, when I asked what their band was called the said they didn't have a name.

Day 8 – the theme today was blue, inspired by the blue Melbourne street sign I snapped these buskers, when I asked what their band was called the said they didn’t have a name.

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Swapping one challenge for another

01 Thursday May 2014

Posted by toearlyretirement in Art, Photo Essay, Writing

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Adventure, Canon 1100D, Fat Mum Slim, fmsphotoaday, Inspiration, Melbourne, Motivation, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month, Nurturing yourself, Photo a Day, Photography, Poetry, Soul Medicine Experiment, Writing

April was the month of poems, May will be the month of photos.

I started the National Poetry Writing Month challenge one day late, but managed to complete the month with 30 new poems under my belt. I’m the first to admit that their quality is not consistent in any way, there were days where I’ve written a potential masterpiece, and other days where the drivel I came out with embarrasses me to look at. None the less, I plan to print out all of the poems from the month and take them to a nice coffee shop somewhere and read them over, a little bit like I did with my novel manuscripts. I’ll also have a think about editing them but that might have to wait a few weeks so I can come back to them with fresh eyes.

Given that the April poetry challenge is over, a good friend and fellow blogger, Katharine, suggested that I take up a new challenge, Fat Mum Slim’s Photo a Day challenge for May. So that’s what I’m going to do! I’ll try to post all of the photos here on my blog, probably only once a week due to life commitments (study in particular is hectic at the moment) along with social commitments and work and writing and yknow, stuff! Plus I don’t know whether you all want to be bombarded with my (potentially not very good) photography all the time.

In other news, I’ve been feeling pretty up beat of late. I’ve made a few important decisions regarding the second half of the year which have changed my head space for the better, and I’ve met some amazing new people who fill me with inspiration and energy, which is nice.

So, with that, bring on the photos! Feel free to sign up and photograph with me!

Photo a Day guidelines - by Fat Mum Slim

Photo a Day guidelines – by Fat Mum Slim

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St Kilda Festival 2014

10 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by toearlyretirement in Music, My Journey, Photo Essay, Travel

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Adventure, Artist Date, blues, Canon 1100D, Chris Russell's Chicken Walk, House of Lawrence, Inspiration, live music, Melbourne, Music, Photo Essay, Photography, psychadelic rock, St Kilda Festival, St Kilda Vaults

Yesterday afternoon I braved the harsh summer sun to wander around St Kilda and soak up some of the festival good times.

The St Kilda Festival is a free annual event which runs for a bit over a week and culminates in Festival Sunday (yesterday). There is free live music, and rides, and stuff, and they close off the streets and it’s generally pretty good. A lot of people seem to get very drunk and wander around not closed streets and cause ruckuses so it has it’s problems, but most festival type events do.

I was there for a couple of hours in the afternoon, so before the real drunkenness started, and I snapped  couple of cool shots with the 50mm lens on my Canon 1100D.

New Music Stage: House Of Lawrence.

New Music Stage: House Of Lawrence.

House of Lawrence are a Melbourne based psych rock four piece. They were pretty awesome. You should check them out here.

The crowd in front of the main stage.

The crowd in front of the main stage.

Detail of a wall inside the St Kilda vaults, which are underneath The Esplanade.

Detail of a wall inside the St Kilda vaults, which are underneath The Esplanade.

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Alfred Square Stage: Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk

Chris Russell, of Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, a two piece which was just drums and guitar, described as blues, and they definitely rocked. You should check them out here.

It would be impossible for one person to capture everything that was happening on festival day and do it any kind of justice, so I didn’t try. What I saw, I enjoyed, and what I enjoyed I have shared with you. Yay for Australian Live Music! Rock on!

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Richmond Adventure

31 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Art, Photo Essay

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Adventure, Artist Date, Canon 1100D, Challenge, Graffiti, Inspiration, Melbourne, NaNoWriMo, Photo Essay, Photography, Richmond, Writing

After taking myself out for a coffee at a semi local (about 10 min walk) cafe to write up my plan for NaNoWriMo (that’s National Novel Writing Month) I went on a bit of a ramble through the suburb I call home. There’s quite a lot of cool graffiti, given the number of people in the area who are what you might call disadvantaged it’s hardly surprising, but I have to admit the gentrification of the area is almost complete. There’s hardly any of the shabby sharehouse type places left and the housing commission estates are covered in tags, rather than art, but even then not as much as I would have imagined.

So here are my photos from today’s adventure.

I liked the rust colouring on these grids; they were on a quite dishevelled shed in an alley.

I liked the rust colouring on these grids; they were on a quite dishevelled shed in an alley.

On a wall near Victoria St

On a wall near Victoria St

Experimenting with lens flare I tried to capture the graffiti takeover of this pub - it hasn't been vacant long but the opportunists are in already

Experimenting with lens flare I tried to capture the graffiti takeover of this pub – it hasn’t been vacant long but the opportunists are in already

Seriously, writing your name in big letters does not make you a graf artist, I hope KwizHard does take that wall and show Rope how it's done

Seriously, writing your name in big letters does not make you a graf artist, I hope KwizHard does take that wall and show Rope how it’s done

Really love this sticker work

Really love this sticker work

Now speaking of NaNoWriMo, I have to tell you all that for the next month (starting tomorrow) I will be desperately trying to write 50,000 words and as a result may be really quiet on the blog front. Hopefully I will get the novel written and will be able to report to you all by this time next month, that I am the proud author of a second novel!

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OMG Fangirling

20 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Art, My Journey, Photo Essay

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Adventure, Artist Date, Arts Centre Melbourne, Canon 1100D, Fangirl, Geoffrey Rush, Inspiration, Meeting Idols, Melbourne, Mentors, Photo Essay, Photography, Victoria

So this is basically a massive brag on my part, I wanted to share with the internet that I met Geoffrey Rush today at the Arts Centre in Melbourne. They have been hosting an exhibition there called The Extraordinary Faces of Geoffrey Rush for a while and he kindly agreed to do a signing engagement. The following is my boast in photo form.

Maddy, Me and G Rush (please note the hand on my shoulder, I was trying very hard not to get overly excited by this and fangirl everywhere!)

Maddy, Me and G Rush (please note the hand on my shoulder, I was trying very hard not to get overly excited by this and fangirl everywhere!)

The proof: my copy of the signed exhibition program with signature

The proof: my copy of the signed exhibition program with signature

Maddy looks meaningfully into middle distance

Maddy looks meaningfully into middle distance

A whale made from bubble wrap and suspended at Federation Square.

A whale made from bubble wrap and suspended at Federation Square.

This is Melbourne - we have cool trams and ornate theatres

This is Melbourne – we have cool trams and ornate theatres

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USA – Urban Monuments

30 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Photo Essay, Travel

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Canon 1100D, Graceland, Las Vegas, Memphis, New York, Photo Essay, Photography, Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach, Washington D.C.

Post number six in my collections from the US; urban monuments. There are some places that just inspire photos, and a lot of them that are from New York! It’s like I’m all about the east coast.

I like the idea that these are man made objects that have become the object of worship and awe. There is something about these places that triggers a response to take photos in tourists, this reflex to capture the moment, even though you may never look through your photos again.

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Grand Central Station with at least one person coming from the LGBTIQ Pride Parade, can you spot them?

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The New York City Public Library. This reminded me really strongly of a scene in the Harry Potter Lego video game, and when I showed a colleague at work they said the State Library in Melbourne was better.

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Radio City Music Hall. I really liked the art deco stylings and the use of neon lights, it’s very different to a lot of the stuff you get here in Melbourne.

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The classic night time shot of Times’ Square. I actually didn’t enjoy it that much (the Broadway show I saw excluded, because that was amazing!), it was full of other tourists and street hawkers trying to get money from me, but it was definitely an experience I am glad I had.

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Manhattan city skyline from the top of the Rockefeller building. The day was weirdly overcast, but still very warm and glarey.

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Obligatory photo of Lady Liberty. It was the same day as the photo of the skyline but the sun had come out by then. I tried to get a bit arty with the angle, I’m not sure I succeeded.

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World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. Each of the pillars you can see in the background represents a state and their contribution (and losses).

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On the fourth of July the Washington Monument was lit up by fireworks as the sun set; it was pretty spectacular. Unfortunately the monument is still covered in scaffolding because it split during an earthquake a couple of years ago.

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This is Elvis’ grave at Graceland, Memphis. You can see from the contributions left there that people literally worship it. According to the guided narration device, they will display any and all tributes on the grave until such time as the elements degrade them. The graves along side are Elvis’ parents and twin brother who died as an infant. I must say it’s weird visiting graves when the weather is nice, it seems unfitting.

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To contrast the impressive image of the original Lady Liberty, here is a shot of the replica in Las Vegas. There is something about the city that makes me wary; some seething underbelly of human misery upon which these glittering, gaudy monuments are built.

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The last photo in this group is of Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. The weather here was a bit strange, it was a little bit cold, and the clouds were coming down over the hills behind the ferris wheel. I think it was also a lot less busy because it was not a nice day so I got a different feeling of the area than what’s shown in movies and TV. It’s hard to imagine this as the Baywatch Beach from this photo.

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USA – Natural Monuments

28 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Photo Essay, Travel

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Arizona, Canon 1100D, Carlsbad Carvern, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Navajo, New Mexico, New Orleans, Photo Essay, Photography, Utah

For part five of my adventures in the United States I decided to put together all the really awesome nature shots.

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The Bayou in Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans.

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Native to the swamps is the alligator; a strangely majestic, dinosaur-era creature. Although they were pretty big, they have nothing on the salt water crocs in the Northern Territory.

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Inside Carlsbad Caverns. These were huge underground structures, lit beautifully and filled with people.

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Monument Valley. A collection of huge red stone structures rising out of the desert in Navajo country.

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It’s very hard to get a good idea of just how big these things are, and how unnervingly silent it is to stand amongst them.

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The Grand Canyon, from a helicopter, with the Colorado River running along the bottom.

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A rainbow over the canyon. The weather was quite beautiful on the chopper ride, we saw the rain sweeping over the canyon, leaving a patchwork of light and dark spots all over the rocks.

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There is no way to explain to someone who has not been there what it’s like to stand on the edge of the canyon and see nothing else all the way to the horizon. The sheer vastness of the landscape was like nothing I’ve ever experienced.

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USA – Food

24 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Photo Essay, Travel

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Austin, Canon 1100D, Food porn, New Mexico, New Orleans, New York, Photo Essay, Photography, Texas, USA, Virginia, Washington D.C.

As the fourth in my instalments of themed photos from my trip, I present FOOD.

Yes I was one of those people who whipped out the DSLR at restaurants and cafes and fast food stops, and you know what? I don’t care! I was on holiday and I wanted photos of what I ate. I put a lot of emphasis on eating, it’s one of my favourite things, and here are the photos to prove that American food can be pretty darn good!

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Nachos in New York. The Americans seem to have a love for liquid cheese, which is fine while it’s still hot, but ends up being sort of disconcertingly shiny when it cools down.

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Frogurt with various toppings in New York. I bought this on my way back from seeing a show on Broadway (it was a version of MacBeth with Alan Cummings and it was extremely good).

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New York Pizza; bought from a place near the ferry I took to go around the harbour and see the Statue of Liberty. I have to say, it wasn’t that good, but I probably didn’t go to the best pizza place so I can’t hold that against the New Yorkers.

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Tortilla soup in Washington D.C. It was really tasty, but not that hot (to me anyway). I spent a lot of time in the US smothering things in hot sauce. MMmmmm, hot sauce.

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After having hot tortilla soup we wanted smoothies. I think we were hoping for something with a bit more fruit and ice, but we ended up with very tasty yogurt and milk ones.

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From memory this is ginger ale in a peculiar little place in Whytheville, Virginia. They ran on a very slow timetable, they said that their food was made with love and as a result it would take time. It was quite good, but quite slow.

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Curly fries and buffalo wings at Hooters in Memphis. This was not my meal, but it looked good! Also in that Hooters there was a sign explaining that you couldn’t bring firearms into the restaurant. Only in America!

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I acknowledge that this meal does not look so good, but it was possibly the best meal I had while I was away. Pulled pork, slaw, beans and a bun. So good, I can’t even tell you (also in Memphis).

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Beignets (French doughnuts) at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. The were truly excellent, but you had to be very careful not to breathe in or out while taking a bite or the powdered sugar would get you! This place was also open 24 hours a day, everyday. By all accounts it’s a requirement when you’re in New Orleans to go there.

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Chocolate mole enchiladas in Austin, Texas. Another fantastic meal! Also the black beans in the top right were amazing.

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Probably the artiest food shot from the collection; gorgeous honey bread in a steak house in Texas. They made the bread on site. The steak was really good too, but I was too busy eating it to take a picture.

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I believe this is called the Big Bowl. It’s beans, rice, corn, minced beef, chilli and cheese all together. The puffy thing on the side is a sort of hollow bread puff, called a sopailla. This is in New Mexico.

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The last photo in the series is an Asian stir fry meal that we ate in Las Vegas.

One of the things I missed while I was away was Asian style food – Vietnamese and Thai in particular. I guess it’s a geographical thing, a lot of their restaurants are Mexican, because they’re close to Mexico, while here we have a lot of south east Asian food, because we’re much closer. I dunno, but it was a treat none the less.

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USA – Arty

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Photo Essay, Travel

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Adventure, Arizona, Brisbane, California, Canon 1100D, Maryland, Monument Valley, New Mexico, New Orleans, New York, Photo Essay, Photography, San Diego, Santa Fe, St Louis Cemetery #1, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington

The third in my series of photo essays from my travels in the USA. I like to think of these as the ‘arty’ shots; here I put less emphasis on what the photo is of, and more emphasis on the aesthetically pleasing elements captured in the image.
Given this, I’m not going to tell you a story about these photos, I’ll just tell you where they were taken, and you can make up the story that goes with them.

IMG_5711 Southbank, Brisbane.

IMG_6218 Battery Maritime Building, Manhattan.

IMG_6213 Battery Maritime Building, Manhattan.

IMG_6357 Washington D.C.

IMG_6532 Wytheville, Virginia.

IMG_6553 Nashville, Tennessee.

IMG_7073 St Louis Cemetery #1, New Orleans.

IMG_7247 Somewhere along the road in Texas.

IMG_7484 Santa Fe, New Mexico.

IMG_7616 Monument Valley, it’s either Utah or Arizona, the state line runs through the whole area.

IMG_8063 San Diego, California.

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fleurblum@hotmail.com

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