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John Arthur Nichol

30 Day Photo Challenge Official March 2023

  • Practice

    Practice on a Pest

    A bird called an Indian Mynah, an invasive species, seen from behind with its head turned to the left and blurred grass in the background, sits on a concrete gutter. Its feathers are shades of brown, with a thin white band at the tip of its tail and another on the edge of each wing. The head and neck are dark brown, with a yellow mask around its eye linked up to a pointy yellow beak.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 31

  • Slice

    A slice of our beautiful coastline

    Portrait-oriented image. The top of the photo is all sky, leaving about a third at the bottom for the foreground. Dark grey clouds at the top merge into white clouds stained with grey, which descend to meet a thin slice of flat grey sea. Unmown grass in the foreground encroaches on freestanding sandstone boulders in the middle ground, and a sagging temporary fence on the left, surrounding a big, net-covered mound. A sign attached to the fence says: ‘Work Safe - Home Safe’, and a bent metal sign lying beneath the fence says: ‘Danger - Construction Site - Do Not Enter’. The lighting is overcast and gloomy, and the top of the fence is in stark silhouette against the clouds.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 29

  • Support

    It’s a strong support network, but they make it hard to sit down.

    Beside a busy road, building scaffolding begins in the right foreground and stretches into the distance, top left corner. The scaffolding stands at the edge of a tiled footpath, and immediately outside it is a bench, with metal frames and arm-rests and brown timber slats. There’s very little room to sit comfortably. Against the back of the bench is a planted area with tall grasses, trunks of palm trees and tall, dense, spiky green semi-succulents.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 27

  • Instrument

    The Instrument Repair Shop

    A street corner on an overcast day. A two-storey building takes advantage of its corner location with a third frontage, which faces the intersection on an angle so that advertising can be seen from multiple directions. The bottom storey is a glass-fronted restaurant with signs saying ‘Oporto’, and an awning bolted to the top storey. The top storey is red brick, with two old, timber-framed windows and an air-conditioner on the side. The angled section has a sign saying ‘Ben Dickson Instrument Repairs’, with a web address. Beneath this, another old, timber-framed window has its panes covered by two signs. One sign says ‘Service and Repairs’, and the other says ‘Woodwind and Brass’.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 26

  • Spice

    So ... The Spice Shop has Closed Down

    A tiled shop-front with two big windows and a glass door plastered with signs and stickers. Inside the two big windows, grey holland blinds are pulled down almost to the bottom, with a small Australian flag in front of the nearer blind. Above the shopfront is a red, hanging sign saying ‘Nepalese Store’. The windows reflect passing traffic and a man seated on a bench.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 25

  • Court

    The dog park at Long Reef includes a tennis court, for dogs who are serious about ballplay.

    A big area of rain-wet grass begins in the foreground and extends to a line of wind-blown bushes in the distance. Three trees and a stump stand in the middle distance. In the left foreground is the corner of a children’s fenced-off play area, and just past that is a blue tennis court with a big, spreading tree overlooking it. The tennis court is wet and shiny from the rain. The sky is pale blue, with dark and light clouds.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 24

  • Chance

    Chance encounter with the past, as bottles rise from 60 years beneath a carpark

    Three old-looking, dirt-caked, clear glass bottles lie on a patch of brown soil littered with broken bricks, loose stones and terra cotta pipe. The left-most bottle, beside a stretch of rusty mesh, has the classic shape of a Coca Cola bottle, and part of the brand name is visible, cast in the glass. The middle bottle is tall, with a heavy green base and a broken neck, and the last bottle is a small rectangle with rounded shoulders. Between this and the tall bottle lies the broken neck of a brown beer bottle, filled with dirt. All around, bits and pieces of glass and bottles lie scattered on the surface or half buried in the dirt.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 23

  • Insect

    Insect Focus Out of Focus

    Two small, elongated flies, with black bodies and shiny, translucent wings, with their heads down as they feed on a light, reflective surface.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 22

  • Tiny

    Behold: the Tiny Head and Beady Little Eyes of Thoth

    A white ibis bird stands on grass with its head turned to face the camera. Its body is similar in size and shape to a chicken’s, but its legs are longer and its head is smaller. Its beak is as long as its legs but very thin, curving downwards and tapering to a point. Its head, beak, legs and tail are black, the head looking smooth and bald. The bird’s bright, dark eyes are on either side of its head.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 21

  • Houseplant

    Schrödinger’s Houseplant

    High up in the sunlit white facade of a high-rise building, a big window is boxed with a black timber surround that protrudes from the wall. Several baskets sit on the base of this surround. In a basket at one end, succulent plants are green and thriving. In a basket at the other end, a dead plant displays brown, drooping branches.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 20

  • Analog (Analogue)

    A Feat of Feet as Handy Analog Saying 22 Minutes Past Six

    A man half-sits on a bench with one leg bent at the knee and the other straight, his calves forming an analogue of an analogue clock’s hands at about 22 minutes past six.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 19

  • Portico

    A line of very thick white columns runs into the middle distance, with a roof projecting out over the tops of the columns, on the left. To the right of the columns is a long stretch of tiled footpath and the external wall of a commercial building, both in deep shade. To the left of the columns is hot, bright, glaring sunshine and a glimpse of cars on a main road with trees in the background.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 18

  • Early

    Early Morning, Collaroy Beach

    The edge of a sea wall and a building with an iron gate and open walkway, overlooking a beach and a small surf at dawn. The horizon is a fuzzy read with faint headlands fading into the distance. The beach and the building are lit with red and deeply shadowed. The sky is red, orange and purple.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 17

  • Road

    Light-Bombed on Pittwater Road

    A very early morning view of buildings on a main road, lit with a red hue by the first rays of the sun. In a side-street directly opposite, a car blasts the camera with an explosion of white from its headlights, as it waits to turn onto the main road. The sun is behind the camera and the sky is blue-ish purple. Houses and trees climb a plateau in the distance.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 16

  • Patience

    Weeds Have Endless Patience

    In the detritus of a gap where big, vertical blue tiles and flat stone pavers come together, a humble weed is growing. Its six broad, green leaves are spattered with grains of sand and dirt, and variously draped with spider web and loose, dark thread. It has the patience to thrive against the odds.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 15

  • Horizon

    Horizon with Fence and Ponytail

    A street corner with bicycle stands and cafe chairs and tables in the foreground, palm trees across the road and the ocean beyond. The sky is a mass of pale grey cloud and the sea is dark grey and choppy. In the middle ground, on this side of the road, a woman stands facing left behind a pole, waiting to cross the side street; her ponytail spikes out behind the pole and her nose pokes out in front of it. The front and back of her body are on either side of the pole. In the distance, across the road, the timber top of a fence runs along the horizon from the right and dips below it in the middle of the image.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 14

  • Connection

    The connection you don't want to make

    A horizontal pipe is silhouetted against a sky of dark grey storm clouds. The pipe hangs from a short chain, which in turn is suspended from a metal bracket near the top left corner. The chain and bracket are also in silhouette. The bracket, chain and pipe are part of a low-tech mechanism to warn drivers if their vehicle is too high to enter the space beyond.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 13

  • Shiny

    In a lane whose surface has weed-filled cracks, a long narrow drain with a metal grille, and different texture laid down over many years, a black car stands parked. The car’s window and roof are very shiny, reflecting the images of two unseen buildings; the reflections curve and distort with the shape of the vehicle’s skin.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 12

  • Gimcrack

    Gimcrack's not a word we use in Australia, but these window arches are pretty shoddy.

    In a white-painted brick wall above the awning of a shop, white plastic overlays transform each of three windows into the appearance of four arched panes.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 11

  • Ritual

    My Ritual Journey South on the B1 Bus

    A view from near the back of the top deck of a double-decker bus, looking forward at the backs of five passengers’ heads on the left and two on the right. A screen at the front says ‘This stop: Manly Vale’. Outside are shop signs, apartments and traffic lights.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 10

  • Together

    A middle-aged couple seen from behind, standing side by side, heads raised and angled in the same direction to read the ferry departure times. A crowd of disembarking passengers walks towards them.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 9

  • Walk

    When you walk, not all of you is moving.

    People walk from left to right across a sunlit plaza, looking blurred because the long exposure has captured their movement. One foot of each walking person is clear, not blurred, because that foot was not moving when the shutter opened. Everything else around the walkers is clear and in focus, like figures standing in the background, and an arched entrance saying Information.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 8

  • Whole

    This used to be a whole building, but now it's just a facade.

    A two-storey building on the far side of a main road. The ground floor is completely hidden behind white hoardings. The upper storey, of rendered brick or stone painted white, has a tall section in the middle with three tall windows, and a narrow, shorter section on either side. The side sections have one tall window each. The front facade of the building is all that remains. The rest has been demolished, and the windows all show a view of trees and sky, and parts of a huge crane that towers above.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 7

  • Engineering

    Long-Term Shade Engineering at Manly Beach

    A small Norfolk Island Pine Tree stands within its protective timber fence on a walkway overlooking a beach filled with umbrellas, gazebos, deck-chairs and people. In the foreground, a man and a woman walking towards each other are about to pass the tree in opposite directions. In the distance, swimmers stand or bob in a small surf. Beyond the white of breaking waves, the ocean matches the sky’s blue intensity.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 6

  • Tile

    This is my bathroom tile: it's full of pictures

    A large, square, glazed ceramic tile fills the frame, with grouting visible round the edges. The tile is dull yellow ochre in colour, and its surface is covered with lines in dark ochre and grey which appear to be random. As you study the tile, the lines resolve into odd little figures and scenes, like a cartoon dog with one eye in the middle of an oval head, or a princess in elaborate head-dress being attended by a dwarf in a robe and hood.

    March Photoblog Challenge Day 5