All Roads Lead To Chrome

That's One Very Hot Rod

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

The Authorblog clan is accustomed to the fact that I often trail several metres behind them as I habitually wander off with my camera at the ready. These images were shot in December 2006, when we stopped at the tiny hamlet of Dadswells Bridge on our way back to Melbourne from Adelaide.

If you blink on the Western Highway, you’d miss the sign for Dadswells Bridge, but it’s been one of our favourite stops for more than two decades.

I spotted this yellow roadster parked by the side of the café and, just as the family expected, I announced that I would be held up for a couple of minutes while I shot some quick frames. The owner was nowhere to be seen, but how on earth could I ignore a gleaming hot rod with bright chrome under a flawless blue sky?

Yes, the sky really was an amazing blue. Want to see proof? Look at the next photograph and you'll see it reflected in the headlamp.


In the first frame, I deliberately chose an unusual composition, allowing the convex shape of the left headlamp to become a mirror for the car’s chassis. There is a certain balance between the bright yellow paintwork and the flawless chromium-plated lamp, but more importantly the metal surface reflects the vehicle in a distorted manner reminiscent of a gimmicky fairground full-length novelty mirror.

The last shot (below) is a bit of a red herring. Or maybe I should say it’s a yellow herring.

On first glance it looks as though the exposed engine block (this is a hot rod, remember) is painted yellow to match the chassis. But it isn’t. It’s chrome plated. Examine the image really carefully and you’ll see the overwhelming impression of yellow comes simply from the reflection in the shiny chrome.


Visit TNChick's Photo Hunt. Today's theme: "Yellow".

Am I In Koala Lumpur?

Even Australian Animals Amble Down Highways

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Last Friday I had to make a quick trip up to the bush, for work. The drive there and back was a 200-kilometre round trip, but I was on an extremely tight schedule. Accordingly, I made the deliberate decision not to take my camera with me, so that I wouldn’t be tempted to pull over and take photographs during the drive into the Outback.

Yes, you read that correctly. I decided NOT to take my camera. Not enough time, you see. Didn’t need any distractions while I drove.

Yes, this is the bloke who always has his camera with him.

About two or three minutes before I reached my destination, there was a beautiful field of canola, a rippling sea of gold with a red farmhouse in the background. Tough. No time to stop, remember.

Then on my way back I spotted a dead gum tree, skeletal and ghostly white, against a clear blue sky. But wait, there’s more. The tree had a huge hollow in its thick trunk, with the cornflower-blue sky vivid through the gap in the wood.

Yes, you’re right. I was gripping the steering wheel a bit tighter than I had to. Concentrating, you see. Trying to justify why I hadn't brought my camera.

Then I saw an animal on the dead-straight track in front of me. I slowed down and waited for its form to emerge through the heat haze. I had dropped my speed for 100km/h to about 40km/h when I realised what the animal was.

Of all things, it was a koala. Let me put this in perspective for you. When you see a koala, it’s a) asleep or b) semi-asleep and c) always clinging tightly to the branches of a eucalyptus tree. They are not (generally speaking) the most animated inhabitants of the animal kingdom.

So the one day when I see one gallivanting down a bush road, I don't have my camera with me. This shot, taken at Dadswell's Bridge, home of The Giant Koala, will have to suffice.

Postscript: When I told one of the Authorbloglets the unfortunate story of my camera-less encounter with the koala, he just shook his head and said: "You DID have your phone with you. And you could have used that perfectly good camera.)

Wish I'd had his presence of mind.

So do forgive me while go off and I sulk in a corner and simply grind my teeth instead.

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