Orange, Clockwork

I Think It's Beyond A Shadow Of Doubt

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

These images were shot in late June this year, as I walked toward a city car park. It was early in the afternoon and there was a strong breeze tossing the thin branches of nearby saplings that had not quite lost all their foliage.

I stopped to admire the shadows dancing across the walls of a nearby building. Then, as I approached the car park, I realised the shadows etched an interesting motif across the bright orange tiles of the support pillars.


Doesn't matter if you’re in a hurry. When you see a sight that forces you to stop and admire it, you simply have to gets the lens cap off your camera and shoot the scene.

Light is capricious. Trust me. A great light effect you see today might not be there tomorrow or the day after.


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X Is For Xtra Special

Another Feather In This Street Musician's Cap

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Terry Sansom would have to be one of the most unique musicians I've seen anywhere in the world. He’s unique not because he plays the piano in the Bourke Street Mall here in Melbourne - he's unique because he treats it like a fully portable instrument.

He pushes the piano into the mall every day and when he’s finished, he pushes it away again. No fuss, no bother. No worries, mate. Me, I've never pushed a piano anywhere in my life, let along down a public mall, so I can only guess what a huge effort that would be.

And can he play? Mate, let me tell you, he so can play - he has a wide repertoire and he plays with a sense of fun as well. But because Bourke Street Mall is not one of my usual haunts, I'd never seen him until about four weeks ago.


Like I said, I don’t really spend a lot of time in this part of the city, but I was racing through the area one afternoon, in pouring rain. Naturally, I did not take my camera with me. My Pentax is efficiently weather-sealed, but I wasn't going to tempt fate in heavy rain that day. As I raced on foot through the mall, I suddenly heard the sound of a piano.

That’s when I saw him for the first time. Sitting there with a plastic poncho to protect him from the elements - and playing his heart out as the city bustled around him. He wasn’t part of a store promotion. He wasn’t playing with corporate sponsorship.

Just a bloke and his big old piano. Naturally, I had to ask the obvious question. I walked up, put some money in his bucket and asked him how on earth he gets a piano into the mall.


“Van”, he answered in a monosyllable because he was intent on playing. I had to find out more and I had to get some pictures of him. I asked if he would be there the next day, He nodded.

The next day, when I returned with my camera, the weather was clearer. Again I had to ask him how on earth he manages to push a heavy full-size piano around. This time I waited to ask him the question between songs. He told me he loads the piano onto his van at the end of the day and then brings it back into the mall the next day.

So how did he actually push it around? He pointed to the left-hand side of the piano. His eyes twinkled. "There’s a bit of redgum under there and I drilled through it to put a detachable wheel in so I can actually 'steer' the piano."


See, that another thing I’d never thought of. How on earth would you push a piano on your own - and "steer" it to ensure that it travels in the intended direction? It’s not like getting into a Ford, and turning on the ignition, is it? Just one of those things we don't think of because we've never had to do the task before.

I had picked the right day to meet him. With winter's embrace of our city, he was heading up north to seek warmth and longer days. He won’t be back in Melbourne until November.

When I ask permission to take photographs, he nods with a smile. Then he tells me people don’t generally ask permission. But he’s not complaining. He tells me he’s on YouTube. Passers-by film him and upload the clips to the site.

Then he tells me about the German tourists who bought one of his CDs. They took his music back to the factory where they worked - and the CDs were an instant hit. They were so popular that no one was allowed to take them out of the workplace. So they then had to put in an extra order for some more stock!


Does he do gigs? Yes, he says, he's doing a 60th birthday tomorrow. Far from where he lives? He shrugs.

I have to ask one final question. Where does he live?

He gives me a wry grin before he replies. "Wherever I park the van".

POSTSCRIPT: A big thank you to Craig Glenn, who tracked down this YouTube clip of Terry Sansom playing.


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P Is For Parade

The Melbourne Cup Is The Ultimate Gallop Poll

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Melbourne loves a party. And Melbourne loves sport. So when the two combine, as they do each year for the Melbourne Cup, a 3200-metre handicap horse race, Melburnians party like no other city in the world.

These shots were taken at the Melbourne Cup Parade on Monday. It's a good thing I'm six foot three, so I was able to hold my camera aloft over hundreds of heads to take these photographs. There were literally thousands lining the streets, so it was no easy task to get a clear shot.

This photograph (below) shows Lord Mayor John So and the famous gold trophy that is the greatest prize in Australian racing - the three-handled Melbourne Cup itself.


There were real jockeys and real horses. And yes, there were some mock jockeys on steeds that would never make it down the straight at Flemington.


There were celebrities, too. I managed to get this shot of Carson Kressley (below) as he was driven past. He wasn't difficult to spot, especially in that fuchsia shirt.


These colours (below) have a special place in the history of the race. They are the silks worn by Glen Boss, the first jockey to win three Melbourne Cups. In 2003, he won on Makybe Diva, the champion mare whose unusual name came from the first two letters of the names of each of the women in owner Tony Santic’s office.


Boss and Makybe Diva won again in 2004 and 2005 and there is now a statue of the horse at Flemington Racecourse. This is Boss (below) closest to the camera, in denim jeans and a blue jacket.


In 2006, he told Liz Hayes on Channel Nine’s high-rating 60 Minutes programme: "I've watched that tape over and over again. I still cry it when I watch it and I still get the goose bumps and I'm sure that I'll still be getting those goose bumps when I'm an old man. That is simply what this race does to you. No other race does."

Then, when his interviewer asked him if it was a dream come true for a kid from Caboolture, he replied: "Oh, it's a dream for any kid, you know. When I went past the winning post here, I remember putting my hand over my face. I just couldn't believe it, I thought, you know, it shouldn't happen but here I am. It's reality, it's real, it's history."


Not surprisingly, there was a media scrum around Australian jockey Damien Oliver (above) in sunglasses, surrounded by media keeping pace with the slow-moving convertible. He first won on Doriemus in 1995, but his victory on Media Puzzle in 2002 was one of the greatest moments in Australian sport. His brother Jason, also a jockey, had just died in a racecourse training accident, just as their father Ray had lost his life in a race fall in 1975.

But Damien Oliver flew back to Melbourne immediately after the tragedy and wore his brother’s breeches in the Cup. He rode Media Puzzle on a stirring sprint in the last 400 metres, overhauling Mr Prudent to win by two lengths and saluting the heavens as the crowd roared its approval.

Unashamed by the tears that coursed down his face, he announced over the roar of the crowd: "The Melbourne Cup doesn't mean anything to me any more. I'd give it away right now to have my brother back."

Then, while the biggest names in international racing partied in Melbourne, he boarded a flight all the way back to Perth for his brother’s funeral.


Legendary trainer Bart Cummings (pictured above, in the blazer and red tie) who will be 81 this month, trained Viewed, the winner of yesterday's big race. The horse was ridden by Blake Shinn, winning by an eyelash to hold off Bauer in a photo-finish.

Cummings has been associated with the Cup for 50 years and has won no fewer than 12 Melbourne Cups. His first runner was Asian Court, who finished twelfth in 1958 and his first winner was Light Fingers, in 1965. It's been nine years since his last Cup winner, Rogan Josh, back in 1999.

My favourite story about him goes back several years, when an official visited his stables. At the end of the visit, he fronted Cummings and said there were too many flies on the property.

Cummings, a man of very few words, just looked him straight in the eye and shot back, deadpan: "How many flies am I allowed to have?"

Fair dinkum, there's no flies on Bart Cummings.

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