The backyard blacksmith at work

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day all

Last week I had a few days with friends in the gemfields - at Sapphire in central Queensland. This couple enjoy the fossicking and chipping away at ancient volcanic outpourings searching for sapphires ~ and they seem to make a living from it as well

But every activity needs maintenance for it to continue - and in this case, the picks need repointing and tempering every so often


1- stoking the fire ~ heating up the pick heads

exif= Panny G2; 1/100s x f5,6; 42mm; ISO-100; +flash

2- "panel beating-1" here's Chris hard at work before the heat goes away

exif= Panny G2; 1/100s x f4,5; 22mm; ISO-100; +flash

3- "panel beating-2"

exif= Panny G2; 1/80s x f5,6; 42mm; ISO-100; +flash

4-"panel beating-3"

exif= Panny G2; 1/60s x f5,6; 42mm; ISO-100; +flash

In our commercial world of 'buy a new one ~ it's cheaper' etc etc, I found it very comforting to see some of the old ways being retained and utilised to the full

As always, comments welcome
Regards, Phil

[Phoenix]

Pretty cool to see how things used to be done in the iron age.
I like the closeup crop in image one.
Like the blur with the hammer in the last too, interesting motion action.
Shame they were wearing high vis clothing - get them to wear hession and leather aprons next time.

[Lost]

First question. How the hell did you find him on the Gem Feilds? That place is a maze of road between the mines and bush. Not sure anyone knows how many live there but I reckon a few ''dead'' blokes are working down in those holes.


I like the hammer movement in the last two

The first one; imo the pick heads would be better if round/down more to the left hand side so they lead into the fire.

single image HDR for an experiement

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day mate

Yeah - I like the crop ... I wasn't sure earlier on that -if- I cropped too hard, would people recognise what the devices actually were ??
As to the 'whitening' of the charcoal lumps - it now looks like the one where I used flash [in error] and I thought it had done odd things to the image. ~ maybe / maybe not

Phil