Almost a month ago (yes I am very backlogged, and I have another half-written draft) my family decided to take a little day trip up to the Blue Mountains to see autumn leaves and pick some apples (literally). I wasn't going to go, except 10 minutes before they were meant to leave home I decided to get up and go with them. It was mostly a 'cram as much work in as you can during the car trip' and 'hey let's take lots of photos' kind of road trip, but it was fun either way and I'm grateful got to spend time with family during a time where I spent almost every day at uni or work.

I really like this photo. Unfortunately I cannot take credit for the photo taking part, just editing. | Photo by Katrina Wu

We hit up an apple farm to pick some pink lady apples (and devour some while we were in the orchard) before we headed off to find a place for lunch. The most interesting part of the day was the fact that we couldn't get into the Botanical Gardens, and we couldn't even get into a picnic area because the traffic was banked up and there were too many people.

The most ironic thing?

Most of them were Asian, and I can tell you from past experience there were not this many people heading to the area at the same time last year. It's crazy how something can be blown up on social media, especially when thousands of people in a particular region of a specific ethnicity send something viral. It's extremely powerful, and it was the cause of our traffic woes that one sunny day.

I actually love this photo - I saw the van and the first thing I said was "I need this shot".

After wildly suggesting that we drive to Lithgow, we ended up driving to Blackheath and my sister and I ran off to try things with our new DSLR camera - we had a bit of fun and some of it was a hit and miss, but here's what actually turned out alright.

I spent ages editing this one because I wasn't happy with the brightness/vibrance of it - but it worked out in the end. | Photo by Katrina Wu

Just casually rocking my leather jacket and new-ish Quay sunnies that I finally splurged on. | Photo by Katrina Wu

We also visited a smaller garden to see the infamous 'red leaves'. One thing that really frustrated me was how much noise our family friends were making in the garden, and I feel like this a common trend among young people who feel that their family act inappropriately and are not informed of the correct etiquette. The garden was a very peaceful space and all the noise disturbed the tranquil and serene atmosphere, and more importantly, my zen. We ran off from the main group just because it was nice to be in your own headspace with someone else who understood, and we managed to capture some interesting shots (although again, I can only take credit for the ones featured below).

Trying to take this shot made me realise how hard it can be to get the angles right.

It was a relaxing day overall and I'm glad I managed to get out and take some nice photos as I said I would in an earlier Tweet - and I'm looking forward to doing this more in the coming break. I have so many spontaneous moments where I want to jump into a car or on a train and just go somewhere with no aim but to explore somewhere new and capture some moments on camera, and it's so frustrating when I'm stuck at home or at uni trying to do something else. I also don't really have any travelling buddies if my sister is busy - but hey something always works out.

And just a side note - I'm constantly being astounded by the fact that people actually read my blog, even though I've put up two posts since the uni semester started. Don't get me wrong - I'm very grateful to have an audience and I can't thank you all from the bottom of my heart for sticking around this long.

Take care.

With love, Sarah x