As mentioned in my previous post about preparing to set up a seller’s bay at the upcoming Popanyinning Markets (here) I decided to make a Popanyinning themed calendar.

This is something new for me. In all the years I have been taking photographs I have never bothered to compile and have printed a calendar before.

This is something I may never do again. The stress and angst involved is considerable. The problem is getting them right. Getting them to look how I wanted them to look. Getting the colors right when the calendar is printed. Especially when the ‘help desk’ for the printing company I elected to use is in the Philippines.

I went for the full double-A3 folded wall calendar. The type where you have the picture at the top and the calendar below it and both are more-or-less A3 sized. A nice big bold calendar with lots of room to write notes for each day.

It took me a pretty solid ten hours to find 12 suitable Popanyinning related pictures in my archives and then edit them so that they would be suitable to print for a calendar. This meant sizing each photograph perfectly to fit the required size while still maintaining a resolution of 300 dpi to ensure that each picture was tack sharp and crisp when it was printed.

And then, when the calendars were delivered, to my critical eye all of the pictures had a slight green/yellow colour cast.. I just wanted to cry. Just ask my niece. I had to have a Valium and a double vodka and orange. I had spent so much time and work getting the colours perfect. Such is life. Sadly.

You can see what I mean in the following shot—taken to send to the company who made the calendars to show them the issue—which shows the image printed on my Epson XP15000 Colour Photo Quality printer (bottom right) compared to the picture in the actual calendar. Check out the amount of green in the tin roof.

However, as I showed the calendars to other people I was assured that the ‘average’ person is not going to even notice the slight green/yellow cast in the pictures. And I would like to make it VERY clear that this green/yellow cast was not in the pictures I suppled to the company I chose to make the calendars for me. The cast was introduced by their printing process. The pictures I provide were ‘perfect’ and were checked with Luminar AI on a DELL UltraSharp monitor.

Following in month order are the pictures I selected. Note that the pictures shown here are significantly smaller with lower resolution than the pictures used to make the actual calendar. Also, these pictures are ‘colour correct’, unlike the pictures in the calendar after I got them back from the company that printed them.

The Monthly Photographs

January

The first picture, used for the month of January, is of the blue “R U OK” tree(s) on the side of the road between Pingelly and Popanyinning. It just so happens there is also a rusty old truck there as well.

There are actually two “R U OK” trees in this shot. Notice the one behind the old truck.

February

February features a picture of the Cuballing Tavern. Cuballing is slightly south of Popanyinning but this is a good place to go for a quenching ale as there is no hotel or tavern in Popanyinning. There used to be once, but it burnt down and was not rebuilt.

March

For my third shot I chose this old tree with some beautiful amber colours on the trunk. As a bonus there is an old tractor in the background on the left and an old cart to the right. Plus a wagon wheel leaning on the tree …and no … I did not place it there.

April

The month of April shows what was once an old shop with the Rosella Soup’s logo painted on the side. You can clearly make out, “Over 100 varieties” and then the Rosella logo.

This picture is taken looking down the ‘main street’ of Popanyinning to the south..

Sadly this beautiful little building is no longer a shop. Somebody uses this structure as a house now.

May

This photograph features the ruins of an old house almost due east of Popanyinning out along Neamutin Road taken circa 2012.

I love the mixed use of clay bricks with what I assume is local rock. When you first look at it you tend to think it is not what it seems. That it is some kind of wallpaper rather than rock used along with clay building bricks around the doors and windows.

The following close-up of one side of the building (not used in the calendar) gives you a closer look.

June

This picture was used for the sixth month. This structure, which I am sure would have had a big square tank on it, can be found in the Dryandra Reserve southwest of Popanyinning.

A railway line once ran along the right-hand side of this tank and back then this tank would have likely been used to top up steam trains with water.

July

For July I picked this picture of the ‘silver’ horse that is on the side of the road between Cuballing and Popanyinning.

As you can see, this horse is made from hundreds of silver horseshoes.

This shot was taken on a cloudy day which made it a challenge to get the silver to shine and stand out but I did this by slightly overexposing the picture and then, in Photoshop, adjusting the exposure of the rest of the picture back to the correct exposure but leaving the horse overexposed by about 2/3rds of stop.

August

Towards the end of August, typically in the second last week of the month, the Popanyinning Progress Association arranges the Popanyinning Bonfire. This event always has a huge bonfire (obviously), live music. food, and now and then there are fireworks or mower races also arranged.

Caravanners and campers are encouraged to attend and are permitted to set up on the large, grassed oval—once a cricket pitch—adjacent to the bonfire. From memory power is available. There are toilets and a tennis court nearby, although I am not sure as to the current status of the tennis court.

Over the last ten years or so I have made it to all but two of these events and I always enjoy them. There is something about a huge bonfire. It is so huge and so hot that people generally start off about eight metres or so from the fire, but by the time the fire catches and is at full burn (so to speak) people have generally moved about 15 metres away.

This composite image from the calendar shows the bonfire before and after being lit.

September

This photograph features the Hotham River which runs through Popanyinning. I used this composite image for September. These two pictures, taken at different locations, show the Hotham River in flood.

Most years this river has little more than a trickle running through it.

I am not certain about this but I think that the Hotham River becomes the South Avon River at some point on its travels northwards. This being the case then I assume it feeds into the Avon sometime before Northam. Then the Avon becomes the Swan River as it goes under the Yagan Bridge north of Midland.

October

My memory on this shot that I put in for October is a little vague. I am pretty sure this old bridge is alongside Napping Pool Road which is pretty much 14 kilometres due east of Popanyinning (as the crow flies). Napping Pool Road is a right-hand turn off the Williams Road.

If my memory on this is good, then this old wooden—now unused—bridge is to the left or east of the new Napping Pool Road bridge.

November

We are now up to November.

This very colourful almost ‘painted’ tree is not really that close to Popanyinning. But I do like this shot and just wanted to get it in there somewhere.

It is easy to miss this tree and its two mates, which are just as awesome. The three of them line a dirt road going into a property on the left of the road about two kilometres, maybe three, coming into Brookton on the Brookton Highway.

I know it is easy to miss because a very good friend of mine who has used the Brookton Highway many times asked me where this was taken. Hence, he has managed to not notice them in all the times he has driven past them. But as other landscape photographers will know, as we are driving along country roads we are always on the lookout for worthy subject material that needs a good photograph to be take of it.

The following close up (not included in the calendar) gives you a closer view of the colours and textures on the trunk of this amazing looking tree.

December

This shot seemed like a good choice to close the calendar out with. Very suitable for the Christmas month.

I am not sure if this still happens, but back in time a bit the owners of this property just south of Popanyinning on the main road to Narrogin would put this ‘decoration’ out for Christmas. Here we have Santa in a very red outfit tootling along on a penny-farthing bike. This is presumably after he has delivered all the presents to all the kids because I am sure, even with his magic and tricks, he would not be able to cart many parcels around on that bike.

I think the names on the penny wheel of the bike are Kevin and Simone.

The Cover Photographs

The picture on the cover of the calendar is a composite of the following four pictures.

The top left of the composite is a shot of an old sign I found on the Laze-a-Way Caravan Park. At least I think that is what it is called now. But it seems that at one time it was called the Laze-a-Way Holiday Farm and Caravan Park. And the cost was from $12 per night.

The top right section of the composite features what I believe are the remains of the old Westbrook Hotel about halfway between Brookton and Pingelly.

These ruins can be seen on the right-hand side of the road heading from Brookton to Pingelly.

The picture above, not included in the calendar, shows more of the ruins of the Westbrook Hotel.

The bottom left picture in the composite is a different view of the Hotham River flooding featuring a very black burnt broken tree stump in the foreground.

This was taken where the Hotham River goes under the Great Southern Highway coming into Popanyinning about seven kilometres north of the town.

This is the bridge located more-or-less where the Old Hotham Reservoir is/was located.

The last picture on the cover on the lower right is of a wildflower spotted at the Yornaning Dam, or what should likely now be called the Yornaning Picnic Area as I don’t think this body of water is used as a dam anymore.

This bright little flower was spotted by my friend’s wife, Shirley (now deceased), and the photographer in me decided the interesting colours would come up a treat against the otherwise dull background of dead leaves.

I like this picture plus it always reminds me of Shirly. I almost used it in the calendar for one of the months.

Featuring Popanyinning: My First Calendar