Save Brooks Jetty

Unfortunately, Parks Victoria have taken the interesting step of demolishing one of the prettiest little jetties we have in St Kilda. Here's a link to some photos of what we've lost:

Brooks Jetty
(they're up for sale by the way, and definitely check out the lightning shots!)

And what was the other night:

And tonight:

:-(

And now... I love this little Olympus OMD

It's getting pretty warm here at the moment. Without bothering to look up any actual Buereau of Meteriology figures, I would say we've already had two or three really hot days in Melbourne already that just melt your brain (hence the not bothering to look up figures - it's hot again...) and it's only the 17th. We're actually a fair way down South in Melbourne, which generally makes for more stable weather - not too hot, not too cold, juuust right :-) but I do understand a lot of the rest of world pictures Australia as being a constant day at the beach (ala tropical Queensland- just get home before the storms roll in). Long story short, Melbourne, or the inner city suburb of St Kilda more specifically, is currently beach perfection. Awesome!
I have been out on the bike most days recently. After teaching in (bloody) Pakenham (65km each way), there is nothing better than to get down on the beachside bike path, a little camera over your shoulder and see what comes.
This is what comes... enjoy :-)

(oh, have a go at riding along a crowded route on a very unstable but very fast road bike, kitted up with a Canon 1d / 70-200 f2.8L IS combo. Or rather, don't. Get an Olympus mirrorless!)

(I hope this all makes sense by the way... it's too hot to be bothered with proof reading to be honest - oh, but there are more photos up on my flickr page
cut and paste:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/haydencharles/
or if you trust me, here's the link directly Hayden Charles on flickr )

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why i won't be switching to mirrorless just yet

Granted my experience with the little Olympus OMD EM5 is not a fair comparison to the 5+ years on Canon gear and the 20ish before that on fully-manual Pentax film equipment, but I have now had a solid month using it as my exclusive  camera system. I've tasked it with a variety of jobs, situations like landscapes, street, architecture, and portraiture. I've learned the respective required setups for each and I have been, in general, very impressed... but one of the biggest strengths of all my DLSRs, being quick and accurate auto-focus, has been sadly lacking on tonight's adventure. It's really quite a let down for me too, because to carry 10kgs+ for 12hours+ shooting weddings, is not fun.

Tonight:

St Kilda, on nights like this, unfortunately always seems to play host to a small number of random idiots who decide the best way to top off a perfect day at the beach is with a fight.
A hot day spent relaxing down at the beach with your friends, is often followed, once the sun has retired for the evening, by relocating your group to the eating and drinking establishments of Acland and Fitzroy Streets.  You would still feel the sun's warm kiss as you walk in the direction of nourishment, when you catch a familiar yellow glow in the distance. Perhaps subconsciously you actually think this to be your earlier, enormous, hot yellow companion, having only just departed, returning to you to play on.
But alas no, it is Maccas who beckons you, like a siren calling, resistance is futile. Fighting ensues.

Anyway, here's today's instalment, in short:-
I saw: agro and fighting, cops then in attendance, followed by a mad dash to "freedom" by a "big man".
You see: a sequence of images, taken by a working (and currently also teaching) photojournalist, that are well-composed to tell a full story, that also are all perfectly out-of-focus....  enjoy!

 FYI, to all the punks who think fighting makes you a man... a man would not have run when police arrived. He would feel safe, confident that he had justifiable reasons for his earlier actions. This is what comes when you think before you act. If you take on-board this little piece of advice when dealing with all conflict-based situations, I hope that one day you may even see the futility of fighting fullstop. Then will then be a real man, grasshopper.