17th January 2010 Kent group of islands

Globefish (AKA Porcupine fish) are common in the sheltered waters around Tassie. They usually look worried. I don’t know why they’re worried – perhaps they assume I’ll pull on their tails to make them puff up, as some divers do. That’s not for me though – I like to wait quietly and watch for a possible shot. It makes no difference to the globefish though – most of my photos of them are of tails or flanks as they hurriedly seek the cover of kelpy rock. They get more worried as their tiny fins and tail work frantically to move their comparative bulk; think of them as an aquatic reversed hummingbird and you get the idea.

This one just popped above the kelp for me at the right time and the right place. We were both surprised, but I was quicker.

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20th February 2010 Seven mile beach

I first met these guys at a park in New Norfolk. This was our second meeting, at the beach.

Fergus is the one with Fonzie’s tail in his mouth. He grabs Fonzies tail so often that Fonzie seems indifferent to it.

Fonzie is an athlete and ball dog.  Fergus a socialite and a tail dog. If he isn’t occupied with chasing Fonzie’s tail, Fergus will be off making friends with whoever else is around.

Like all ball dogs, Fonzie has a knack of finding tennis balls. On the few occasions that he can’t find a tennis ball, he’ll come up with a substitute, like a pine cone.

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20th May 2010 Coles Bay

We went for a walk into the township of Coles Bay from Swanwick beach. It was a beautiful morning, but on the way back the clouds started looking ominous.

Changable weather is typical of Tasmania. The great thing about it is that it teaches you not to take good weather for granted and to make the most of the day.

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15th November 2008, my place.

Today it is wet and overcast. It seems appropriate that I post this photo from a similar day nearly two weeks ago. It was raining at the time, misty and dark. This is part of the view I have from where I sit at my laptop. It is a quiet part of the Huon; most activity is from water birds fishing, fish jumping, and occasionally dolphins swimming along the shoreline hunting for food.

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23rd November, 2008, Kingston Beach.

One of the more imaginative (well, I hope it was imaginative) placards read “Bartlett eats bilbys”. Another funny one was “celebrities against the pulp mill”; this was being held up by two grinning ferals. 

The gathering occurred because nobody here trusted Bartlett’s promise of withdrawing Government support for the pulp mill if Gunns does not commence construction of the mill by November 30. Or any related statements coming from Gunns, otherwise this protest would not have been considered necessary.

During a speech describing some of the evil deeds of Gunns and the present and past Tasmanian governments, one respectable looking old lady yelled out a withering ”wicked”. She didn’t use the word with the new age meaning of “really cool”; it sounded like the worst possible adjective she could give voice to while remaining respectable.

The crowd was made up of all ages, and generally looked well heeled and conformist (new cars, expensive casual wear, pedigree dogs etc). There were a lot of children and pampered pooches.

(c) Andrew Calder

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“The elusive Pandani Bushwalkers, on the Mount Wellington Plateau.”

(c) Andrew Calder

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“1st June 2008, on the Derwent River in Glenorchy. The boat had Rescue Boat written on it’s side – it looks like the back is low to drag things or people onto it.  It  was around 0900 in the morning, sunny but the wind was bitingly cold.”

(c) Andrew Calder

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