Pan Pacific Masters

It has been a while since I have posted, as I have been manically busy. I have just finished 8 days straight of shooting the Pan Pacific Masters. Very tiring, but the athletes are very inspirational, especially the older generation in their 70's and 80's! Prior to the start of the games was the unveiling of the official ambassadors, Natalie Cook, Glynis Nunn-Cearns and Pat Carroll. An impromptu volleyball match was held with rafferty's rules. Was a ton of fun!

Part two from Alex Heads

It has been a frantically busy time, with dog shows, and sneaking away for a short holiday, attending the Australian Photographic Society Convention, held this year in Canberra. A group of us went, and spent 4 days in Cooma, before the convention. It was very chilly, but the weather actually warmed up rather nicely in Canberra during the day. A great time was had by all, and I received my EFIAP honours certificate, of which I am very proud.
Anyway, back to Alex, here are some more bird images from the w/e, followed by the group shot of us caught in a quick snowfall when out driving. 10k's down the road, and not a hint of any snow or rain. Was our highlight for the day!

Weekend away at Alexandra Headlands

Last weekend, my camera club had it's annual weekend away at Alexandra Headlands, on the Sunshine Coast. We came here last year in Nov, and there were a few things I wanted to check out again. Foremost was the osprey nest at Mooloolaba Spit. There were a couple nesting, but can only assume there were eggs in the nest, as it is up a very high pole! Certainly hope so. We also checked out Chambers Is, and we had fun photographing the willy wagtails and magpies, even though the sun was a bit harsh at times. We went back there on the way home too, but again, wrong time of day, but still fun. Inbetween, whilst most of the group were doing a workshop, some of us chased feathers, and we had a fun time doing so. Not all our shots turned out, but we had fun regardless. On the way home, we stopped at Toorbul for some later afternoon shooting. All in all, it was a great week-end away, company was great, and look forward to wherever we might end up next year.
Here is a selection of images, I haven't had time to process many yet. So this will be part one.

A recent scouting trip

Recently I went and checked out a new area recommended to me by a friend. I was a bit early in the day, as I was travelling up the coast for a club presentation, but I still had to have a shoot whilst there. Whilst not the later light that I like, I am still happy with the results. Pity it is an hour and half from me, but I will be heading there again!
On a good note, my plumed whistling duck received an honourable mention at the South Devon Salon. One step closer to my efiap/b.

Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

Found another image I quite like from my trip up north. I haven't had time yet to look at my magpie geese, maybe in the next week or so, if I am lucky. Another specialty dog show coming up, which will take up most of my week with sorting and orders.

Cisticola

Every year I head up north to visit my family, do a dog show, and fit in a bit of bird photography. Every year I have always managed to capture something that is just that bit a cut above the rest, and this year was this little fellow. I stopped the car where there was some movement in the tall grasses, and this fellow popped out to see what I was doing. A few seconds later he was gone.

Ibis

I had a very nasty ear infection which saw me grounded for nearly a month. So it was a good time to go back through the archives and see what I might have missed. I found these Ibis images taken earlier in the year. I was quite pleased how they turned out using the 800mm, as I was able to fill the frame and throw out the background nicely. These were taken at Sherwood Forrest, a suburb in Brisbane.

more of my egret

I have discovered that this egret quite likes people, especially fishermen, who tend to throw him left over bait, and even the fish they catch. So at times he comes in closer than my focal distance, so then it is time to just take the eye away from the camera, and enjoy the interaction. As he moves along the waters edge, the background colours change because of the angles of sun and shade on the water.

Egrets

These images are from my first encounter with this egret. I didn't take the images from quite as low as my pelican shots, as I wanted to have more blue water as the background, rather than the far bank, which was quite bright in the late afternoon sun. Next time I will aim for the lower angle, as that is my preference.  I had a lovely time with this fellow. I spot metered on the white, hence the water is quite darker.
both 800mm, f10, iso 1000, 1/2500s

My support gear, and more of my pelican.

I would like to tell you a bit about my support gear. Because I use a heavy lens, I invested in a gimbal head. But, I needed a better tripod, and with the dollar being so good, and with good recommendations from top bird photographers like Maxis Gomez, I bought an Induro carbon fibre tripod from BNH. I love it. I also updated my monopod with a very strong manfrotto, and put on it an Induro tension ball head. That has been the best investment I have made. What a strong head that is, and the tension controls are great. No more flopping like with the old ballhead. I have the bhd2, and I also use that with my 800. I love the freedom of a monopod, and in certain circumstances, is a great way to shoot.
I also invested in a lowpro passport sling bag, for when I only need to carry a small amount of gear with me, and it is so comfortable, and easy to access. I rarely carry my backpack now, and can grab what I need straight away.

Anyway, back to my pelican. Here are some more images from last saturday when I took the other shots I posted last week. The weather has been miserable since, the only sunny day was when I was shooting the polocross (which was really lucky), so fingers crossed for some sun this week.

I love this photos, just so cute!!

Pelicans

I went with a friend to Colleges Crossing, a waterway near my home. I had been there the day before, and got some good egret and heron shots, but today someone was smiling at me. As it was my birthday, I would like to think it was my mum! After all, it is thanks to her that I have the camera gear that I do. Anyway, the plan was to shoot the egret from a different angle to the day before, when this pelican flew in, and filled my frame. A mad scramble to move myself back so I would have a little bit of space, and then the fun began. The sun was going down, and created that lovely afternoon light, and the pelican decided to have a quick clean. These would have to be my best pelican shots to date.

Introducing Huey

Well, after a lot of soul searching, a lot of researching, I finally decided to purchase the Canon 800mm lens. The main reason was that I was tired of never having enough reach with my 400mm. For me, 500 wasn't a big leap, even though it is a great lens. I wanted more reach, and did not want to continuously shoot with a convertor on. The 600 was the largest and heaviest lens, funnily enough, so then the 800 came onto the radar. While still an extremely large lens, I am very happy with my purchase. (thankyou to Photocontinental at Mt. Gravatt for giving me a good deal). I have used the 1.4 convertor with it, some birds are just so small, and won't let you near. So being such a big lens, and my baby, I named it Huey, after the cartoon duck character.
He is taking some getting used to, the dof is very shallow, he is heavy, and I can only shoot using a tripod, but using a gimbal head is a breeze.  I do feel somewhat restricted from my usual handholding.

The bird photos in my previous blogs from Ash Island are taken with Huey. Here are some images from my first outing to Sherwood Forest.

cormorants

Finally have processed some more images from my trip to Maitland. We visited Ash Island, and struck fairly lucky, given we had no idea where to go exactly, or what we would find. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, and the weather was rather variable, with the sun being hidden behind clouds for small periods of time. Hopefully, when I finally do go that way again, I will have better light, and a bit more time. Could be a few years though!

Used one shot, focused on the near bird's head, and used a deeper dof to get them both in focus.

I had to clamber down the rocks to get eye level, was a little bit tricky with a heavy lens.

skink

On our trip home from Maitland, we pulled into a picnic area in Cunningham's Gap, outside of Warwick, and lo and behold, this little guy was sitting on the log. Stayed long enough for a few snaps. I am not good on my reptiles, but I think it is a skink. If you do know what it is, then please let me know.

Trip to Maitland

As I mentioned previously, I went to Maitland to judge my first large international photography competition. A friend came with me, and we took 2 days to get there (would be about an 8 hour trip normally), and 3 days to get home. We detoured and toured along country roads, finding all sorts of gems. The weather wasn't the best, very overcast, showers etc. In fact, we left the big wet at home and had a reasonably dry trip down considering how it was pouring with rain at home and along the coast road.
The judging was a terrific experience, and the Maitland team looked after us really well. I hope one day they will ask again!
Anyway, on the way down, we pulled into a truck rest area, as we had spotted some lovely coloured grass. Thought we would try for some photography, even though we didn't really know what we were doing. Well, as luck would have it, we actually parked almost on top of a pair of Tawny Frogmouths. They were in a pretty good position too, eye level, though the background did cause some issues, as I love nice clean backgrounds. My friend and I probably spent an hour photographing these elusive birds from different angles. They are around, but are so hard to find, and they camouflage so well!! The only reason we saw them was because one moved! I think i is a mum and bubs, but not sure.
So here is one of the many that I took that day.

                                             

So we arrived in Maitland on a high, and hoping for some sun the next morning, before I had to front up for judging after lunch. Luck smiled upon us. We were at Ash Island, near Hexam, home of the rather ferocious mozzies, lucky I had covered myself in repellant, though one saw fit to bite me on the thigh through my pants.

We found a log where several cormorants and darters stopped by. The light was variable, with the sun coming and going behind the clouds, but it wasn't raining, so that was the best part! My images looked much better on my laptop, I was a bit disappointed when I looked at them more closely at home, but here are a couple anyway.

tennis

Well, what can I say. I have just spent 8 days as part of the official photographic team covering the Brisbane Tennis International. Totally thrown in the deep end, and boy did I have to swim! I learnt a lot! It was a fantastic experience, as well as very tiring, and today my feet are very glad to be resting while I catch up processing my orders from my pet photography. Unfortunately I can't post any images, but most of my brief was people shots, with a little bit of tennis thrown in. A two week break, and then off to Maitland to judge my first international photographic competition. That too will be a great experience, and looking forward to it very much. Taking a few days there and back, as I have never really explored any of the areas along the New England Highway. Normally it has been just to get from a to b. A friend will be coming with me, and should be a lovely trip.


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