Weekend in Perth, Western Australia

On Saturday I was privileged to attend a one day workshop in our State capital, Perth, with one of Australia's leading panoramic landscape photographers - Ken Duncan. He has worked on projects all over the world, including on major film sets. But this passion is Australian landscapes, working with World Vision, and currently with Australian indigenous people. What a wonderful inspiring speaker Ken was - I was thrilled to be able to hear a master photographer speak.  And how much I still have to learn! 
(Scroll down to the bottom of this post to find the link to Ken's website)

Whenever we go to Perth it seems it is to visit family or friends or for business reasons - however this weekend we had a little time to explore Perth as a "tourist" and I realized how long it has been since we have done that. We only had a day, but I managed to capture a few images to share with you. I think we need to do this again some time soon!

In the mosaic below you can see - from top left - a view over beautiful Queens Gardens which was not far from our hotel (and incidentally where we had our wedding photos taken years ago!), statue of Peter Pan in Queens Gardens - a replica of one in Kensington Gardens London given to the children of Perth in 1927, a view along the Esplanade on the Swan River foreshore (these are hotels and apartments looking over the park to the river), walking along the Swan River - at the end of the path is the Barrack Street jetty where the ferrys leave from and where there are restaurants (on Sunday morning there were lots of people out and about along the river, walking, jogging, bike riding, having breakfast, fishing or just sitting enjoying the view), children's playground in Kings Park Perth (it was such a beautiful day the park was packed with picnickers), a Rosella feeding on Flame Tree blossom (can you see him?), vegetable gardens in the Perth Cultural precinct (amazing to see beds of vegetables and fruit trees in the centre of Perth - they are encouraging home gardens), Kangaroo Paw wildflowers in Kings Park (it is the time of the wildflower festival), another view in Queens Gardens, a table made from strips of plywood, on display in the Art Galleries Your Collection 1800-today exhibition, and the cover of one of Ken Duncan's books.

Below are some more sights around Perth - from top left - Government House (where the WA Governor lives), an old church in St George's Tce (it is for sale - I think street people have been squatting there), the Perth railway station, looking across the Swan River to South Perth, the Bell Tower (home of the 12 Swan Bells - one of the world's largest musical instruments), view from the ferry going across the Swan River (we had a late breakfast at the "Bell House" on the South Perth jetty that you can see in this picture), the Supreme Court, St George's Cathedral, Kangaroos in St George's Tce!, happy football fans, the view from our hotel, St George's Tce on a quiet Sunday morning, an art work made from Western Australian mineral rocks, view of Perth from Kings Park, view from the ferry going across the Swan River from South Perth to the city.

The happy football fans are my nephew and his wife, and our youngest son Mark who had just been to see their football team, The West Coast Eagles, win one of the final rounds of the Australian football season.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and take some time to visit your capital city as a tourist.

Here is another pic - we went out to dinner at Burswood and then took a stroll around the Casino - no didn't spend any money or try to win any - just interesting looking. And then we had sat and had a drink at a place just off the lobby and people watched.  I only had my mobile phone with me, it's new, (as I didn't know if cameras were allowed in the casino) and I have never taken a phone photo before, let alone upload one - but here is is - where we were sitting is a very high "atrium" type ceiling, you can see the lifts going up and down as they are inside the building but outside the wall (if you know what I mean), and there were these big "sails" - I rather like the effect. What do you think?

If you would like to know something about Ken Duncan, please go to his web site - Ken Duncan

To learn more about Perth click on the link - Experience Perth

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday. Click on the link to see the work of Mary and other wonderful contributors - Mosaic Monday

Have you been to Perth Western Australia or Perth UK or Perth Tasmania?
I look forward to hearing from you.

And finally a beautiful sunset we saw on our way home - taken through the car window as we drove along.
Ken says, if you see something and it tells you to photograph it, then do it!