Photography quedecree 2020-10-23 | Some of my favorite photos. I keep a folder of photos that I particularly like and use them as screensavers or just to browse through. Some are from home, some from trips, some from the kite, some of kites, some of critters and some of my various attempts at astrophotography. The music is called 'Translooscent' and was written and performed on my Novation Launchkey midi keyboard. Probably the one I use most as a screensaver is 'Kermit' - a green Ewing's Tree Frog in a plant outside my bedroom window.
Schecter SLS Elite Avenger Evil Twin review quedecree 2023-02-17 | Recently went down to Altona in Melbourne to a shop called Angkor Music to buy a Schecter with a sustaniac pickup. Saw the Avenger with the Fishman Active pickups and gave it a whirl also. Loved it. Here's why.... (ps: Angkor music have literally hundreds of guitars on display plus very friendly service. More pickups / strings etc than I've ever seen in a shop before).
Kingston 2023 quedecree 2023-01-28 | The annual get together of kite flyers / kite buggiers / blokarters at Kingston SE in South Australia in late January.
Skylounge quedecree 2022-11-27 | Skylounge! Looks great! Terrific idea! But whoever designed them either was not a biped or never actually sat/lounged in them. In fact, they are almost impossible to actually lounge in and look at the sky. Possibly the most uncomfortable seats I've ever had the unpleasure of reclining in.
Flinders Ranges Trip Nov 2022 quedecree 2022-11-27 | Our trip up to Flinders Ranges via World's End reserve. We stayed at Willow Springs Station in the Flinders which is around 15km north of Wilpena Pound which was much quieter than staying at the Pound or at Rawnsley Park.
Lake Crosbie quedecree 2022-11-27 | Lake Crosbie is one of the Pink Lakes of the Murray / Sunset National Park in Victoria. There are some free camp sites at the lake and a few more up the road at Lake Beckett. Good dirt road in - no trouble for 2wd/caravans. Plenty of space. Take your bikes and binos - some good birdlife there. Some 4wd tracks head off into the national park. It's about 11km from the highway so there's no traffic noise at night. Quite a nice spot!
Fleurieu Peninsula Road Trip quedecree 2022-10-23 | Our trip to the Fleurieu Peninsula via Dimboola Oct '22. Clayton Bay was a fantastic spot to stay - very quiet and a good launching spot to discover a few more spots around the Peninsula.
Space quedecree 2022-09-26 | A selection of my Astrophotography photos from the last 12 months taken from home near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Please note that I am not to blame for some of the ridiculous names that some of these have...ie: Running Chicken Nebula. Photos were taken though a WO Flurostar 120, Zenithstar 61 or Askar Fma180 with either a Pentax K50 or Zwo 294mc pro riding on a Saxon AZEQ6 mount.
Ballarat to Brisbane trip quedecree 2022-09-23 | Our trip from central Victoria up to Brisbane via the Darling River. Was fantastic to see so much water in the river. Some great campsites along the way - particularly Rose Isle and Nelia Gaari Stations.
A peek through the clouds quedecree 2022-04-08 | A foggy morning at home so I though I'd pop the DJI Mini 2 se up and see what was on the other side......
Dimboola April 2022 quedecree 2022-04-03 | EcoTourer caravan owner's get-together in Dimboola, Victoria. April 2022.
Echidna quedecree 2021-12-01 | Saw this little fella walking around our verandah the other afternoon. We're in very volcanic soil here, not your typical Echidna habitat but they do show up every 10 years or so!
DIY portable Tensahedron stand quedecree 2021-11-04 | A look at the construction of a portable Tensahedron hammock stand. This one has 2.7m poles each consisting of 3 x 900mm lengths of 32mm x 3mm aluminium. Joined with 300mm lengths of 25mm x 3mm aluminium which is riveted into one end, the other just slips on/off and is held under tension. Weight is around 11.5kg. I would have liked the commercial Tensa4 stand from the US but the US postal service seems to be now over four times the price of DHL out of Europe making it a bit of a deal breaker. The 2.7m pole length will allow a 12ft hammock or tarp to be used. I am surprised at how solid it felt when I got in. Will be interesting to try this with the Draumr 90 degree hammock....
Amok Draumr 5 review quedecree 2021-10-27 | A look at the 5th iteration of the Draumr hammock from Amok Equipment in Norway. I found this by accident while watching one of shugemery's videos while thinking about buying a Ridgerunner bridge hammock. The Draumr looks great but I was a little concerned about balance - fortunately, they offer a 30 day money back guarantee - I figured if I couldn't live with it, then I could send it back. However, it won't be going back as it's an extremely comfy and unique bit of kit. Does require a bit of a learning curve though.
DJI Mini SE fly quedecree 2021-10-03 | A bit of footage from a couple of frosty/foggy mornings around Learmonth, Vic.
DJI Mini SE flight quedecree 2021-09-16 | A straight up flight of the DJI Mini SE looking out over the local wind farm.
A day in the office quedecree 2021-06-03 | 700 trees done, 300 to go!! An apple orchard that I have pruned for the last seven years or so. Keeps me out of mischief. This particular tree is a Yarlington Mill variety - good cider apples.
Advanced Elements Sport quick inflation quedecree 2021-04-04 | Inflating the AE Sport with a Ryobi low pressure/high volume inflating tool. It's a fairly cheap tool from Bunnings ($70 skin only) that works quite well. Gets the AE Sport 80% inflated in around 30 seconds leaving a dozen or so strokes of the pump to bring it up to 2 psi. The Ryobi is only good for .5 psi so it's not likely to damage anything and it saves quite a bit of manual pumping. Also excellent on my air mattress and blowing debris off stuff!
Scorpions in Ultra Violet quedecree 2021-03-21 | Scorpions have this uncommon ability to fluoresce when exposed to ultra violet light. Here’s a demo of me walking around with a uv flashlight and a normal flashlight as a comparison. The Scorpions we get in Australia are generally under 2 inches (although there is a species that gets to 4 inches) and are generally not dangerous to us - but they evidently can give a nasty sting.
Kite Buggying quedecree 2021-01-30 | This was a very chilled out session - my first time back in the buggy for a couple of years. This is Lake Nadzab/Paranki Lagoon - or what we simply refer to as 'The Claypan' at Kingston SE. I think it was wet last year and we couldn't get on it at all. Pretty close to perfect this year. Kite is my go-to 3.2m Nasa Star 3 from Born-kite.
eBiking at Kingston SE quedecree 2021-01-30 | A ride from Will's Beach Shack campground (a few km Nth of Kingston SE) out onto the beach, over Blackford Drain and eventually joining up with the Kingston Bike/pedestrian path which does a loop around the wetlands and then runs the entire length of the fore shore out to Pink's Beach. (about 8km). You can also cycle on the beach as far north as you like - I usually go around 15km to the Granites and back to the campground.
Kite Buggy Aerial quedecree 2021-01-27 | My second run in the buggy after a couple years of no buggying. Doug was on hand with the drone to capture some aerial video - cheers Doug! Wind was all over the place - sometimes 20 knots, sometimes 10. Kite is a Born-Kite Nasa Star 3, 2.5m.
Nasa Stars quedecree 2021-01-27 | Myself and Angus flying our Nasa Star 2, 4m kites at the Claypan, Kingston SE, South Australia. The impending rain held off to give us an hour and a half of very relaxed buggying on the wonderful surface...before the rain turned it to slippery wet clay. The 4m is the first Nasa Star I ever bought and it still puts a big grin on my face. The Nasa Star is up to V4 and you can find them at Born-kite.de
Kites at Kingston quedecree 2021-01-27 | This is our annual trip to Kingston SE in South Australia which culminates in a big display on January 26th each year.
Wind Turbine Construction quedecree 2020-10-06 | A slide show / timelapse of the construction of one of the wind turbines at the Waubra Wind Farm. I photographed this in 2007 to 2008 and edited in LumaFusion / ipad.
Kingston SE 2020 quedecree 2020-09-29 | My annual trip to Kingston SE in South Australia in January 2020. Usually, I go there mainly to kitebuggy on the beach and claypan but this year I wasn't fit enough so it was bike riding on the ebike and some single line kite flying. I pitched the tent at Will's Beach Shack just out of Kingston which is a really nice quiet camping spot. I put this video together on the ipad using Lumafusion.
Eco Tourer Tour quedecree 2020-09-07 | A look at the Eco Tourer folding caravan. This one is a 2010 model but the outside design has remained the same for all the 510 series as far as I know. There's a few differences in suspension and fitouts that are available varying from an on-road version to a independent coil sprung off road model. Single bed, double bed and shower/toilet versions are available. Ours is a double bed, no en suite model with beefed up tires/leaf springs which is not quite the full off-road version. Being fiberglass, they are a bit on the heavy side and also a bit on the pricey side - hence we bought a 10 year old s/h one.
DIY eBike rack for caravan quedecree 2020-09-02 | An ebike rack that I made up first for the back of my car, then adapted it to fit the draw bar of my caravan. Alloy channel would most likely be a lot better for the job, but as I already had the gal square tubing, it's what I went with. Gal bolts and nylocks plus some electrical conduit to act as a spacer and tire protector.
Optitec V3 Remote caravan mover first run quedecree 2020-08-26 | This is what happened when I first tried the Optitec V3 at home in the driveway. We're currently stage 3 restrictions so I can't take the van anywhere but I did want to move it around a bit. In fairness, we have recently had nearly 4 inches of rain in the last 3 weeks so it was probably a bit of a stretch to hope it would work in the wet grass/blumetal. But hey, chuck in a few old fence palings and it was all good. First time I have ever done this and it looks like it :) Took a bit of fiddling around with the boards, but in the end, we successfully maneuvered the van exactly where we wanted it.
Atmospheric Layers quedecree 2020-06-06 | I was sitting on the verandah having a cuppa and watching the clouds when I thought 'that might make an interesting time lapse'. I've also been trying to finish a song on the keyboards which while not quite complete, I used as the soundtrack anyway.
Beware they may be listening quedecree 2020-06-05 | Wrote this one about 40 years ago and recently decided to give it a makeover...
Advanced Frame Sport kayak quedecree 2020-05-26 | Filmed with Floaty Cam Pro!! ok, that's just a couple bits of pool noodle and a bit of ply but it does have a certain ring to it..... here's an afternoon's paddle in the Advanced Elements - Advanced Frame Sport kayak. Worth a watch if you're considering buying one. I wish I'd discovered these a few years ago as they're a snap to transport and setup up/pack up. Extremely comfy and stable, light and responsive. A great little boat.
Advanced Frame Sport review quedecree 2020-05-22 | I recently purchased an Advanced Elements, Advanced Frame Sport inflatable kayak - I was hoping it would give me a really nice kayak to paddle without all the loading/unloading/storing hassle of my 25kg Riot Edge 3. I'm finding the older I get, the more I struggle with getting a traditional kayak up on the roof of my car - not to mention putting it back in shed and raising it back up into the roof space out of the way. The AE Sport only weighs a little under 12kg and fits into a case the size of a suitcase. Sounds great...but is it? Thanks to Emily at Ozinflatablekayaks for her speedy replies to my emails and quick dispatch of the kayak.
Dont Fear the Reaper quedecree 2020-05-12 | One of my all time favorite tunes. This one is for Chip Boy.
A Different Day quedecree 2020-04-30 | A friend of mine posted a picture of a park bench on facebook and asked if you could sit down with someone and talk, who would you talk to? She said she'd love to be able to talk to her younger self - this got me thinking - if I could talk to my younger self and offer sage advice, would the younger me listen? Dunno - so I wrote this.
Times like these quedecree 2020-04-19 | Continuing on with my music for lockdown theme.... this one's my favorite from the Foo Fighters.
Here comes the sun quedecree 2020-04-17 | Some more music to perhaps lift a few spirits in these times of C19.
Scarborough Fair quedecree 2020-04-16 | Since we're all watching a bit more youtube and netflix etc as a lot of us are in lockdown while this terrible virus goes around the globe, I thought I'd share a few of the songs I play and sing at home. Some are covers and some are originals. This one is Scarborough Fair. While I was singing it to the camera, I was also recording it on the computer, I then added some reverb and compression, then added another guitar and some keyboard and did my best to sync it all back up in the end. Enjoy
Crows are smart. quedecree 2020-02-22 | Sneaky crow pesters up to 4 whistling kites out of their meal. I was fascinated to watch the crow keep sneaking up behind the kites and grabbing their tail feathers. The kites didn't seem at all aggressive toward the crow.
Blackbird quedecree 2019-12-09 | Pop your headphones on and have a listen to a Blackbird going to town in the dawn chorus. You can pretty much ignore the pics in the video unless your interested in the gear/location. This is more just a listening thing! Recorded Dec 8, 2019 with a Superlux 524D Stereo mic into a Roland Duo Capture EX and iphone. The sky was just beginning to get light while this was going on.
Superlux 524D Review quedecree 2019-12-08 | A stereo condenser microphone that can be powered by an AA battery or 48v phantom power. A very modestly priced mic that punches well above it's weight but has a few quality control issues. Retailing at around $165 - I picked this one up at half that price from Artist Guitars in a black Friday sale. Voice/guitar and ambient recording samples in the video which was entirely recorded with this mic through a Roland Duo Capture EX. Recorded as a .wav 16/44 - (I hope youtube doesn't squash it too much). Listen with headphones if you can.
High Speed Bales quedecree 2019-12-04 | High speed hay baling! A time lapse of 8.5 acres of cut grass being baled up by a round baler.
Murray River Track quedecree 2019-11-03 | An ebike ride along part of the Murray River track. A look at a Goanna and some campsites along the way. Beautiful spot for a peaceful ride through the River Red Gums and Black Box that tend to dominate this area. Bird life is spectacular. This section is from Liparoo towards Wemen where the track runs into the Murray Valley HWY. Free camping along the river but no facilities. Keep away from under the Red Gums as they tend to drop large branches unexpectedly.
Working on Updates quedecree 2019-10-18 | Born out of frustration of having my computer locked out while it's working on updates. Thanks for the choice, Microsoft!
Real Racing 3 steering wheel demo quedecree 2019-10-17 | In the previous video, I looked at the 'steering wheel' for the iPad that I knocked up. Jim requested a demo video - so here 'tis. This is also how to do the endless endurance at Porsche Short with the Ferrari FXX K in the exclusive series.
iPad steering wheel DIY quedecree 2019-10-16 | A few years ago I looked into getting a steering wheel for the ipad as I was getting stiff neck/shoulders from too much Real Racing 3. There was only one steering wheel for the ipad that I could find - it was a kickstarter project and it was a steering wheel that held the ipad to it. I figured I could knock something up pretty easily to do the same thing. As far as I know - feel free to correct me if I'm wrong - there is no 3rd party add-on steering wheel for the ipad like you'd get for a PC - they are all 'wheels' that hold the iPad. This cost me less than $10 for the brackets and some pine/ply scrap from the shed, works perfectly well and no more sore neck/shoulders.
Morning ebike Ride quedecree 2019-09-15 | Glorious early spring morning ride around the Avenue of Honor and Lake Learmonth. Also experimenting with 24fps and bike camera mount mk IV ! I've been trying to come up with a mount that I can detach and point the camera anywhere while I'm riding but one that doesn't rattle and pick up too much motor noise - I think I'm getting close....
Halls Gap Cycling quedecree 2019-09-11 | A look at the Halls Gap cycle path in the Grampians, Victoria. It's around 7km from the start out to Lake Bellfield in stunning surrounds. Take your own bikes or you can hire them in Halls Gap. I highly recommend riding out to Moco Gallery and playing the Adventure Mini golf - it's just a scream and I'm normally not fussed by mini golf but this is really worth a look. Did I mention Halls Gap is my favorite town?
