Weekly photo challenge: Surprise

Yesterday, Easter Sunday. Perfect weather. All I needed was coffee and water. The former to drink, the latter to gaze on. With most cafés closed for the public holy-day, I walked for some time through the town of Queanbeyan before finding the open doors of the Central Café with its sign written in Coca-Cola calligraphy. Now with my take-away coffee and cake I headed for the Queanbeyan River where the grass is lush and even and green, a rare treat.

Down on my haunches beside the water, I was quietly photographing ducks when they spotted me and all began swimming my way. I tried to focus on one or two individuals, keeping the camera and myself still as still. Suddenly there was a loud flapping and sploshing of water, but I didn’t allow myself to be distracted from the task at hand. Then the image on my camera screen changed as a huge dark bird came in from the right. Without moving, I clicked several times until the splashing stopped. When I looked up, a black swan was coming to rest amid the froth of disturbed water.

Quelle surprise!

Thanks WordPress for the photo challenge.

Weekly photo challenge: Surprise!

You might think all the men in these photos are Arabs.  Surprise!  One of them isn’t.  It’s my father in disguise.

The names are taken from the photos in his war album.

Hassan, Egypt, 1941
‘Hassan’, Sîdi Gâbir in Alexandria, Egypt, 1941
Ron the rodent, Egypt, 1941
‘Ron the rodent’, Egypt, 1941