Alpha Photography Blog

Well, my birthday celebrations are now over - lasting 4 days is pretty good!

It was busy for a few days, and as my birthday is also Australia Day, there were lots of other celebrations going on around the city, which made it seem even busier.

Here is some local ‘color’ - an old-fashioned lifeguard scanning the horizon for struggling walkers (rather than swimmers) in the inner city area by the river.

Each year the Australia Day celebrations become larger and more patronized, which is great. It’s good to acknowledge such a day and to provide an excuse for family to gather and have some fun in the sun.

This particular day was very warm, so it was a good thing volunteers were handing out cold pieces of watermelon. I only saw these after lunch though, when I’d eaten too much!

Here are a few other images from my actual birthday day.

This is the same area where the lifeguard was patrolling. It’s a man-made beach just over the river from the Central Business District of Brisbane.

In 1988 the World Expo was held here and after sitting as vacant prime land for years, it was turned into “South Bank” - an area locals can come and relax, swim, eat, and be entertained.

This beach is a favourite for parents, as it’s constantly patrolled and the water is not particularly deep, so it’s safe for children.

On this particular day, there were so many people, it was overflowing!

This is also the location where the fireworks are held, so there were already people lining the riverbank to get a prime position for the evening’s sky festivities.

The photos above were taken between 2pm and 3pm, and as the fireworks typically don’t happen until 7:30pm, those people were eager!

After a big birthday lunch, I headed home and had some R&R before heading out for a birthday dinner.

The restaurant chosen was right on the river - not overlooking the fireworks, but instead one of the more picturesque bridges. I have to admit I did not bring my SLR and tripod, so only had my compact digital camera with me to get this shot:

I tweaked it a little in Photoshop, but this image shows the bend in the river that our table looked out on, just as the sun was going down and the lights were coming on.

It was a wonderful end to a fabulous birthday. Lots of variety!

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