Terns

I am a little behind, so a belated Merry Xmas. Santa was good to me this year, but more on that later.
I am now up to Moreton Island, where I was invited to join a photography club on their week-end outing.
It has been an awful long time since my one and only visit to Moreton, and I fell in love with the island all over a gain. Accommodation was camping at a permanent camp site, catered, though the cold showers took some getting used to! Moreton island is a sand island, so everything is sand! It can get heavy walking at times.
Anyway, first morning, up early for a sunrise shoot at the dunes. I am not so good on landscapes, so though I enjoyed the view, the light wasn't so great, and I couldn't get a composition going. Back at the bus, I noticed a tern flying overhead, so swapped lenses, and lo and behold, quite a few of them landed right where our bus is! How nice of them. So us keen birders had a great time photographing the terns, but we had to go eventually, as we were already late for breakfast.

Following morning we went to the other side of the island, and what should there be, but a colony of terns, so again, us keen birders spent a happy while with them. I could have stayed all day, but when you are part of a group, your movements are a bit restricted. However, if it wasn't for the group, I wouldn't have been there, so I am not complaining. I will definitely go back, just need to tee it up with my friends who own a 4wd.

All images taken with the mk4, and the 400mm prime.

cormorants

Well, after returning home from Broome, 24 hours later I was back at the airport, for a flight to sydney, to photograph the cavalier specialty show. After Broome, Sydney was decidedly chilly! Back home, and madly processing dog photos, before disappearing down to Port Macquarie for the annual photography convention. So my next series of photos are from this trip.
To start the ball rolling, we stopped at a little town called Iluka, and decided to stay the night. In the morning, we were lucky with lovely light, and trawlers coming in with their catches, and the following of birds in their wake, the majority being gulls and terns. So we spent a pleasant time honing our skills on birds in flight. Can't say I got too much I was really happy with in the end, and I tend to want to process nature shots without the hand of man first. I will need to go back and relook at my images, but for now, from that morning, here are a few cormorants. Taken with the mk3 and 400mm prime.