The morning after my home town's Great Victory against the forces of Milan at Optus Stadium (seen in my gallery "2024 Day 02: Perth, Western Australia. AC Milan vs AS Roma Match (Fri 31 May 2024)", the rain that had blighted Perth for the previous week lifted to reveal a sunny if cool morning.

It was an ideal time to leave my hotel in East Perth and wander along Riverside Drive, which tracks the Swan River. I was heading a little north of west in search of photo opportunities and a new place for breakfast. Eventually I hit Elizabeth Quay and the Barrack Street Jetty and docks. Though I didn't recall it at the time, I had been here before. When we stayed in Perth on the 2013 trip it was at the (then) Best Western Premier Terrace hotel, about 500m away in St Georges Terrace. On day 3 of that trip we hoofed it on down to the jetty to catch a ferry across the river to Perth Zoo.

What I also didn't know at the time and only found out when I got back was that another PBaser (also not a Perth local at the time) had been exactly where I was on Riverside Drive a mere couple of hours after me. It's funny how life can echo.

But to the bell tower. This stands in Barrack Square, on the land side of Riverside Drive, north east of the jetties. It's an 82.5 metre copper and glass tower which was constructed as a millennium project between 1999 and 2001. It has 16 bells. Twelve of those date from the 14th century and were donated by the church of St Martin In The Fields... of Trafalgar Square, London. Yes, the very place where we had lunch in the crypt on Day 2 of our 2019 trip (9 September 2019), as seen in my England gallery. So, yes, there's a bit more of life echoing there.

Apparently you can climb the tower (but only by stairs), however I was there before it opened and had other plans later in the day anyway.

I saw the crescent moon over the spire and thought two things:
(a) The 40-150 is sharp enough for me to be able to get the moon as something recognisable rather than just looking like a mostly dissolved Disprin; but
(b) I'll need to do the shot hand held, meaning that it'll need to be at f/2.8 unless I gulp a large glass of a muscle paralysis drug after setting the timer first. And I didn't have any to hand. That means that there is no way on the gods' little green earth I'm going to get razor sharp seas and craters. As great a lens as the 40-150 is (and it is), there is no frapping way it will get a depth of field of 384,400km at f/2.8.

So this is what I got instead. Not the greatest, but not at bad if I do say so myself.

If anyone on PBase reads this... please don't say "welcome back". I'm not exactly. It's just that I spent this weekend redoing all of my Actions in Photoshop, and am experimenting with revised upload workflows. I still have a LOOOOOT of background work to do before I start posting (anywhere) regularly again.