Weekend three-hour hike in the forest behind my place at Nth Stradbroke Island (Queensland, Australia, east coast).

It was awesome to hang out with friends and hit the hiking trail again, weaving up through the hilly forest track contours to the tall red gum trees shown above.

Hiking is certainly great exercise. No matter what type of trail you find yourself on, hiking is a whole-body workout—from head to toe and everything in between.

Including getting into nature and experiencing that one-with-nature in the moment aspect. Forgetting about everything else and rejuvenating body and mind ... letting go of those some reputed 60,000 daily thoughts that flood the mind!

Tops for sure!

🎧"Maske" (Beyhude): www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV_ramURYg0
🎧"Forest of Souls" (Feinheitsbrei): www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMkurn-lRUw

Tags:   among the tall trees hiking Nth Stradbroke Island Australia forest tall trees peace relaxing exercise workout in the moment letting go revue rejuvenation treescape landscape photography naturephotography naturelover canon

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[Flickr Explore, 21 April. 2024]

This shot was taken in the Strait of Malacca on a dark night with a fiery sunset. Editing saw it morph into this photographic delight. It reminded me of a book called 'Dracula' I read at a young age, which led to the suggestive title above. Thus below, for your interest and mine, I recount some key points about vampires and my introduction to them, as constructs of cultural, book, movie, and photographic representations; here, photoart.

Vampiric entities have been recorded in cultures around the world, beginning in the ancient world. The term vampire was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in Southeastern and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism.

In modern times, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures (such as the chupacabra) still persists in some cultures.

The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of "The Vampyre" by the English writer John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.

Following on, Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula" is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, television shows, and video games.

The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horrorgenre. [as written up in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire]

Indeed, "Dracula" was my first vampire horrorgenre book to read, from beginning to end in one go on a long train ride along the east coast of Australia at the age of 16. It also saw me ignore all the girls in the train carriage as well, a feat indeed at that age!

However, I did not become a vampire horrorgenre enthusiast being much more inclined to read ancient history texts especially on Greece and Rome, which had enough real live horrors to sate my horror curiosities. Nevertheless, photography saw this representation emerge, as fun, technique, and photoart.

Thanks for dropping by and all the 'beast'! lol :-))

🎧"Vampire" (Dominic Fike): www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUjD_nwooTg

🎧"Vampire" (Olivia Rodrigo): www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlPNh_PBZb4

🎧"Duat" (Trippin Jaguar, Raffaello Visconti): www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh4AsA37eC8

Tags:   vampire sunset dark ocean cloudscape ocean reflections high in the sky sun photoart seascape skyscape seascape photography fun technique light contrasts of light and shadow sun music Ardan Explore

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🎧www.youtube.com/watch?v=jICaiDg_0cQ

The beach waves of seduction seaside, at an island resort in the South China Sea, off the beautiful Malaysian coastline.

Tags:   calm relaxing seducing waves beach seaside tropical island fun chilling South China Sea seascape seascape photography

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🎧www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTrk4X9ACtw

This late sunrise scene is one of the last shots to be posted regarding Pangkor Island, Strait of Malacca. Notedly, the yacht featured above has been in a few shots already, as you may recollect.

This shot, however, shows the yacht motoring out from its mooring to the open sea, where it's preparing to hoist sails. At this point, however, it went out of view around the headland.

Thus, it's an apt shot to post in leading up to the final shots from Pangkor Island (coming soon).

Thanks for passing by, all the best! :-)

Tags:   yacht sailing away colours late sunrise ocean view Pangkor Island seascape Strait of Malacca SE Asia seascape photography calm relaxing

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The last pic on the take-off zone showed two surfboard riders waiting to take off, while this shot caught a surf skier taking off.

Location: Currumbin Beach, Gold Coast (Australia), with waves fairly small on the day.

As well as riding boards, and body surfing with just flippers and a hand board, I also have a surf ski. It's thicker than a broad, as it has a well shaped into the back where one sits and holds the paddle, while the feet are slid into small hollows further down the board, with not too tight straps to hold the ski, and help manoeuvre it. A long flexible strap in case one flips over is also tied to the board and the paddle, so one can retrieve the ski easily while in the surf.

Skis are quite good fun, with 360s the ultimate fun I think. On a big enough wave, as you are moving along it, you slide a paddle end into the wave to turn the ski around completely as you are on the wave.

Then, coming back to the front again, you keep surfing on the wave forward. It's fast and one yahoos when completed if you feel like it, as it's like beyond dreams :-))

🎧 "Beyond Dreams" (Elif Çağlar): www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLiW4vRZR3Y

Tags:   Currumbin Gold Coast Australia east coast ocean seaside blue surfers surfski beach goodtimes fun taking off sunshine waves landscape landscape photography seascape photography beach houses beach condos & units

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