HMAS Ovens

In all the years I've lived in Perth, I've never been to the Maritime Museum, despite the desire. So when my folks came to visit for a couple of weeks in November, it was one of the things we ended up doing. All 3 of us enjoyed it for the Submarine tour. Having never had the opportunity to step into a military vessel, getting to inspect the HMAS Ovens was way cool.

The Captain's cabin is tiny. To look at the bunk, he must have slept with his knees up around his ears.




Our guide, whose name now escapes me completely. He has many stories, seaman's tattoos and wry humour.


The engine room. Because the Ovens is a diesel-electric boat, her engines were used for charging battery banks and not actual propulsion. The sub, our guide informed, was run by electricians, not engineers.




This class of sub was the first to have a one stop control shop. The person sitting at this particular seat could control the whole boat. See more here


The periscope


The sub's RAN history page says: "To remain submerged for lengthy periods a ‘snort’ system was incorporated into their design to allow batteries to be recharged and to expel stale air. " More on the 'snort' at Wikipedia




I emerged from that tour generally awed, in particular at just how much went/goes into maintaining the sub's fine balance. Stuff that wouldn't occur to the uninformed layman (me): flooding fuel tanks with water as they empty, and then separating the mixture before use. Keeping the compressed air that ejects the torpedo from being released out its hatch to avoid detection. Flooding said tube with seawater post firing. The story behind the Thetis clip.

Fascinating.

Random gratuitous images of museum exhibits:






And of course, for good measure, one of the distinctive Museum carapace:

Film shots

I started this particular project back in July, finished my first roll of black and white (C41) film in September, carted the roll around in my bag for a month and a half forgetting to send it to the lab, and finally, finally, picked it up today.

I wasn't kidding when I said I might only end up shooting 3 rolls by the time my year is out.

Trigg Beach


Jogger on the cycle path at Trigg

A very blurry shot of the view over one of the fences of my new home


Nostalgia for an old home


My friend Pri being teased about something. Pri and I have known each other since the equivalent of senior high, and it was just a stroke of luck that we ended up moving to the same city when we left the motherland.

Courtney & Glen | Autumnleaf Photography

Back in the beginning of September I was shooting Courtney and Glen's wedding for Autumnleaf Photography. I've converted all of my images of the day to black and white, but you can see the entire set, in glorious full colour here.