by the light...

Andrea is...meant to be figuring out manual settings on her camera

Experimenting with my new camera, I got some ok shots of the full moon rising over Roebuck Bay the other evening. The first one shows the 'Staircase to the moon' effect where the light is reflected off the water and mud flats. It wasn't really as dark as it looks in the picture, so the effect was not very pronounced. It would have been better last night if it wasn't for all the cloud. Tonight it should be good though.

If it isn't, there will be lots of disappointed tourists!

I went to see it last month and was overwhelmed by the volume of people who had turned out. Lucky I road my bike, because there was no car parking for blocks. They hold a market in the park near Town Beach which is pretty much just the same stuff as the Saturday market (jewellery, paintings, photos, pearls, souvenirs) but with more 'Staircase' themed jewelry and crap. I wanted to get some food there, but it was all the same over-priced, unappetising stuff as the weekends. Yum $8 for a plate of fried-rice and salmonella from a van. They probably sell the left-overs from the weekends.

Most people were too busy saving their spots on the beach to look at the market. I ended up sitting somewhere where you couldn't actually see the moon at all and had to move to the spit, which was full of people, and peer between heads. If that wasn't bad enough, everyone was taking flash photography! There should be a warning to epileptics because the constant flashes produce a strobe light effect. I had a headache already, so I left pretty quickly, my eyes still blinded.

By the time I found my bike in the dark and headed off, cars were already tearing away, perhaps trying to beat the rush, but actually creating one. It was like when I used to go to the football with my dad - if you knew who was going to win, you'd leave at the start of the 4th quarter to beat the crowds. I guess they knew how it was going to end.

I am meant to be going to see it tonight in full, so I need to go and read my camera manual.

P.S you may be able to watch it too on this website: http://www.broomewebcam.com/ at 7.30pm WST (9.30 EST) 21 June.