Justin Oh Wedding Photography

Couple of days back I was in Canberra as I had to renew my Malaysian passport. Prior to Jan 2008 back this could be done by mailing in the passport along with new passport photos and money order. Nothing really exciting about the renewal process but I brought my camera gear along in case I see something interesting

The journey there took us about 3 1/2 hours with several breaks from Sydney. We left dark and early that morning only to be greeted with some pretty heavy rain along the way. Midway on the M5 there was a pretty bad accident too where a 4WD vehicle ploughed through the concrete barrier from the opposite side of the road and resulted in a 5-6 car pile up on our lane. I imagine the pile up would be worse if it happened during peak hour. I hope no one was seriously injured

After dropping off the passports we went to get a big breakfast just outside Canberra Centre. What a bad choice it was, microwaved scrambled eggs and rubber-y bacon anyone? Anyway, after breakfast we decided to head to the Parliament House since we had several hours to kill. Here are some pics

Main entrance was on the right in the picture. There is another set of stairs opposite this one

Up one level, here is the foyer view from above. Quite an interesting building

The Great Hall. At the end of the hall is a tapestry based on a painting featuring a eucalyptus forest measuring 20 X 9 meters. It is one of the largest tapestries in the world which took a team of 13 weavers and 2 1/2 years to complete!

After walking around for a bit and with some directions from the friendly guards I found what I was looking for, the House of Representatives

On the other side of the building, House of Senate. If only I could be there to snap a pic with a proceeding going on

On the roof of the Parliament House, a 81 meter high stainless steel flagpole. The Australian flag attached to it is 12.8 X 6.4 meters, approximately the size of a double decker bus!

On the way to Canberra in the morning I noticed the windmills and luckily enough, it was still bright enough for photos when we were on our way back. I believe the view here is part of the Southern Highlands. It was ridiculously cold out there due to the strong wind too.

The pano above is a stitch of 5 photos, taken with the 70-200 at 200mm as the view was pretty much on the horizon. The 5DII and 70-200 2.8 IS proved to be too heavy a combo for the 141RC tripod head as it was shaking a little when I was looking through the viewfinder! 

While in Canberra, I couldn’t help but notice the slower pace compared to Sydney. Obviously its nowhere as big or as busy as Sydney city but I couldn’t help but notice how slow they drive too! It seemed like everyone was driving at 50km/h in 70km/h zones!

Anyway, we got our passports renewed on time as promised and more importantly, we made it back in one piece Don’t forget to CLICK on the pictures for larger versions