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Outlaw Motorcycle club

 The unmistakable sound of a troop of harley-davidson engines rolled slowly along the Manly beach front turning heads. An Outlaw motorcycle club was in town. I was on my way to the Manly surf festival to hunt down some photos for the beach culture series, but put the beach on hold as the cops had pulled the outlaws over just as I arrived on the scene. As the bikers removed their helmets and unwrapped their face masks a crowd soon formed on both sides of the street. The police asked questions, checked ID, brought in a sniffer dog and radioed for support. The crowd grew bigger and the theatre that was the show down between the police and the motorcycle club was played out to their delight. No arrests were made and the bikers mounted their bikes and in single file roared off up the sea front. Some whooping and cheers sounding out from the masses as the bikes pulled away, the audience was clearly thrilled to see such a show.

Beach Culture IX

Beach Culture VIII

Beach Culture VII

Beach Culture VI

Beach Culture V

Beach Culture IV

Beach Culture III

Tightrope walkers (or funambulism) pitched up in Manly today close to the surf and skate festival. 

Beach Culture II

 These photos are from a photo essay I am working on called 'Beach Culture'.

Beach Culture

Beach Update

 Heard there was some big swell in Manly today so headed down to the beach front to see what was going on. Big rollers coming in, Queenscliff bombie was breaking and Fairy Bower also looked big from Manly beach. Manly council also had a load of diggers down at Queenscliff filling big sacks with sand. I asked what was going on and apparently the swell is set to increase over night and to protect the Skate bowl and grandstands that have been erected at North Steyne Beach they are going to drop a load of sand down there in from of them. Wondering how this bodes for the Australian Open of Surf, often after a big swell all the sand banks get flattened and you end up with close outs all along the beach. 

The Beach

Manly beach is about to host a big Surfing event called the "Australian Open of Surfing", billed as "the country's biggest-ever surf, skate and music event." Its a nine day event and it starts on the 11 February 2012. For me this will be a good opportunity to photograph beach culture and I hope to put together a photo essay of this event. In anticipation of this and also wanting to test out a new camera I went down to Queenscliff & Manly this afternoon and photographed the last couple of hours of the day. Had some good light to play with and plenty of activity on the beach and its surrounds. 

Below is an edit from today, which isnt finished. Still undecided on a few shots. May end up with just 6 from the below. Once I've completed this project I will post the whole photo essay at once.