I have a confession to make...

... When I walk out onto Dingo Beach and I find that there's no one else around, I put in my headphones, turn up my iPod, and dance...

And sometimes I climb rocks and do yoga...

But I definitely don't use my camera's timer function to take silly self portraits.

Yes.  Yes, it was.

In other news, I am still loving life here at Dingo Beach.  It's simple, relaxing, and beautiful in every way.  Sadly, though, my time here is quickly coming to an end.  I will be spending some time this week planning out the 'grand finale' of my crazy roller-coaster year of travel.  I'll be journeying across the big blue to go to New Zealand and experience a little winter wonderland before heading back stateside.  But not to worry, I may be leaving Oz soon but the adventures are far from over.

Cheers,

Amanda

Spear-fisherman (photo heavy)

I guess this post is coming a little bit late (as in two weeks late) but I still wanted to go ahead and share these pictures.  I am so blessed to be able to live just down the street from some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Two weekends ago, Tim and I met a couple of his friends down at Caloundra beach for a little snorkeling and spearfishing.  I didn't participate in the spearfishing part, but I did get the chance to put on a mask and fins and go for a short snorkel.


I was very nervous about getting in the water because I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to the alarmingly huge amount of poisonous and dangerous things that swim around Australia's coastline.  Also, Tim told me that he had seen a wobbegong while he was fishing.  They may not usually attack humans and have very small teeth, but they are still sharks and can be pretty darn big.


Anyways, here are some photos that I snapped while Tim was out fishing:

I live in paradise for real.  Whenever I hear anybody complain about wanting to get away from the coast, it makes me really sad because the people who have lived here all their lives just don't know how to appreciate its beauty.

I hope you had a lovely weekend!  I got to go to the Eumundi markets this past Saturday.  Finally!  Did you do anything fun?

Love,

Amanda

Up Close and Personal

Hi there!


Like I mentioned in an earlier post, last Saturday I spent the day at the beach with Tim and a couple of his friends.  While Tim and Kurt were off spearfishing, I kept myself entertained by taking lots and lots of photos of the scenery.  I did a few close-up photos of bits of sea life that I found in the rock pools using my camera's macro mode.  I really like the way they turned out, so I thought that I would share them here.  

I know these are a little bit repetitive but there is so much sea life that gets washed up into the rock pools here that I would never have the chance to see back home.  It's all right there conveniently placed in the shallow water just for me to come and play with.  It's all so interesting to me!  I am also pretty impressed with the detail that my little compact camera is able to show.  I have a Sony Cybershot (not sure which exact type but I can certainly check and let you know if you are interested) and it's such a great camera for the price.  I've actually had pretty good experiences with every Sony product I've owned.  I still have the very first portable CD player that I ever owned way back before they invented the ones that didn't skip the CD every time you moved the player.  I used that thing right up until I got my first iPod and it STILL works.  

Anyways, that was a long tangent that was mostly irrelevant to this post.  I had a good time finding tiny critters  in the water, especially my friend, the itty-bitty hermit crab.  Don't worry, I returned him to the water after I was done photographing him.  No hermit crabs were harmed in the making of this blog post.  

Also, I just 'discovered' Picnik's photo editing site.  I like the Polaroid frame.  Can you tell?  Picnik is soooo easy to use and I highly recommend it if you are just looking for some basic editing tools and don't want to spend a fortune.

In other news, It's already time for another beautiful, sunny, sunshine coast weekend.  I am determined to wake up early enough tomorrow to drag Tim out to the Eummundi markets and spend money on things I don't need.  I will let you know how it goes.  

I hope you have a beautiful weekend too.  Do you have any fun weekend plans?

Love,

Amanda