Tag Archives: National Park

Photo of the Month – April 2013 2

Australia, Landscapes, Photo of the Month, Travel, Walk-About Series, Wildlife • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PHOTO OF THE MONTH – April 2013

Kangaroo anyone?

Every year I try and take a week and basically just walk around somewhere. Backpack, some camera gear, and ideally some good weather.

This month I headed to the Snowy Mountains, in New South Wales, Australia. This is Australia’s highest mountain range, and home to the country’s highest peak… Mount Kosciuszko.

I will cover the trip in a future blog, but for now here are a couple of happy snaps of some of the locals.

Snowy Mountains, Australia

Are You Looking at Me?

Australia’s bush abounds with a lot of wildlife and bird-life, and if you don’t mind getting off the beaten track a little you will get to see it in their own backyard.

Both these images were taken hand-held with a Canon EOS-1Dx and EF100-400 f/4.5-5.6L lens. I can’t say this particular lens is high on my ‘like’ list (for lots of reasons), but as a general purpose travel lens it has it moments… like these two examples.

Magpie in the Snowy Mountains

Magpie in the Snowy Mountains

Had a great trip and will certainly go back.

That’s It… See You There!

Photo of the Month – February 2013 Reply

Landscapes, Photo of the Month, Travel, U.S.A., Walk-About Series, Wildlife • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PHOTO OF THE MONTH – February 2013

This month’s photo comes from Montana, and The Little Bighorn National Park to be exact.

I was in the general area (well I was in the same State) to take photos of a Professional Bull Riding (PBR) event, so I managed to arrive a little early to do some sight seeing.

Wild Ponies in Montana

Wild Ponies in Montana

The park itself contains the battlefield site (as you would expect), as well as the Battlefield Monument and various other memorials.

From the US National Parks site: “This area memorializes the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne in one of the Indian’s last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota, and Cheyenne warriors”.

While I was driving to one of the smaller memorials I came across this herd of wild ponies. They were simply eating and roaming, so I hopped out of the car and took some happy snaps of them. There would have been around 20 of them all up.

Tree at Little Bighorn

Tree at Little Bighorn

A little further along the same way I came across this lone dead tree off the road a bit.  Would have made for a cool photo with a little more cloud in the sky, but a pleasant walk none the less.

That’s It… See You There!

Photo of the Month – August 2012 Reply

Australia, HDR, Landscapes, Photo of the Month, Travel • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Well here is the next photo of the month in the series. As usual I have provided at the end of the post, the very next image that was taken after this one.

August 2012 - GLENBROOK CREEK

Glenbrook Creek – The Blue Mountains National Park

Following on from last month’s photo, the exploration of my new greater neighborhood continues. Around 20 minutes further down the mountain from where we live is a town called Glenbrook.

Every time that I have been into the town I see a particular sign that says NATIONAL PARK ENTRANCE.

Being the park stalker than I am it finally got the better of me and I went and found this entrance and where it lead to. I didn’t have much time so I literally went in… then came out again. Mind you, I saw enough promise that I will definitely be going back for some exploration. With camera and water bottle.

I did however manage to take 1 photo. And I mean just 1. This one.

Not far in from the main entrance is a small creek, and looking at the depth markers on the road, it turns into a bigger creek when it rains. In fact there was water running across the road when I was taking this image. My tripod was actually in the slight overflow to get this shot.

EXPOSURE SETTINGS

Exposures: 11

ISO: 100

Aperture: f/11

Shutter Speed: mid exposure = 0.5 seconds – 1/60th to 15 seconds

EQUIPMENT

Camera: Canon EOS-5D Mk III

Lens: Canon EF 16-35 f/2.8L II

THE VERY NEXT PHOTO

Bus Stop in Glenbrook

After I left the creek I headed over to Lennox Bridge (my original destination on this particular day)… the subject of a future photo of the month.

On the way, adjacent to a school is this bus stop. Many of the bus stops in the area are painted in similar fashion. Looks better than the typical vandalistic graffiti (as opposed to good urban art, which I like).

So I stopped and got my kit out and took a quick HDR image of it. I got the odd ‘look’ from the locals, but that is nothing new.

There is a lot of distortion in the image (see telegraph poles) simply as I got as close as I could to try and get some of this effect (and had the lens all the way out to 16mm with a full frame sensor), plus my butt was on the road as it was so I couldn’t really back up much further anyway.

That’s It… See You There!

My New Back Yard 1

Australia, Equipment, HDR, Landscapes • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Well this entry, while short, incorporates a few firsts for me.

It is the first entry written on my iPad (using the WordPress app), it incorporates some Instagram photos, and is the first written from Australia.

After living overseas in various countries for the second time (this time for around 12 years) it was time to come home so that our kids could get a couple of years in high school before starting University. They needed to get into a southern hemisphere calendar, learn how to speak our version of English… and just as importantly… get to know what Cricket and Aussie Rules Football is all about. And eat an aussie meat pie with tomato sauce… while watching the football. We may be at the bottom of the planet, but we have our priorities straight.

20120527-062443.jpg

Arriving in Sydney on Instagram

This rotation had us in Beijing and Shanghai in China, and the north east of the U.S.A. in Cleveland, Ohio – where they filmed some of the battle scenes for the Marvel blockbuster The Avengers; home to The Drew Carey Show; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and source of the Charlie Sheen movies about the luckless Cleveland Indians baseball team – ‘Major League’.

We have lived in Sydney two times before, and while it is certainly one of the nicer large cities on the planet… It is still a large and busy city. So this time we elected to go semi-urban and move to the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains at Day Break

From a photography standpoint there is certainly no shortage of things to point your camera at. On the downside side though, given what this place actually is and how popular it is – it will no doubt be challenging to find that particular place or subject that hasn’t already had ample happy snaps taken of it… from every angle imaginable.

I have only been out once (just after I landed)… more to get over jet lag than anything else, so I have not had a decent look around as yet. I took these three images within a couple of hours of each other in different parts of the mountain.

The first one (above) was actually my first photo taken (ever) in our new home. It is a 7 shot HDR taken with a Canon 5D MkIII, with an EF16-35 f/2.8L II lens with a Singh-Ray LB Color Combo Polarizer, a Really Right Stuff ball-head on a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod, and a PromoteControl remote. I managed to carry this on the plane with me on the trip back (the mother-load of my gear is hopefully on a ship… and will equally hopefully turn up in one piece in a few months).

The location is Wentworth Falls. As the name would suggest there is an actual waterfall… quite a beautiful one. It is around to the left from where I am standing (see below photo). It looks like about a day trek to get down to a good spot to take a decent photograph of them, so that is a photo op for another day.

Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains

The last photo that I took was probably of one of the most photographed icons in the mountains, if not all of Australia (Sydney Opera House and Bridge being a couple of others). It is of the Three Sisters rock formation at Echo Point near Katoomba. Same sort of deal here as with the Falls, while the tourist lookout offers some great views (where I was standing when I took the below photo), as a consequence, there is nothing great or unique about the photo… and one that has likely been taken  a bajillion times before from the exact same spot. I see some more research and trekking in my future.

The ‘Sisters’ range in height from 922, 918 & 906 metres tall, respectively, which makes them more than 3,000 feet above sea level. You can check out the Legend of how they were formed here.

The Three Sisters at Echo Point

On my brief drive around the mountain I of course located the local camera store. Katoomba Camera House… so if  you are ever in the neighbourhood drop in and meet owner Steve. Friendly and nice guy. I am on a huge commission, so buy something while you are there.

So I am looking forward to the rest of my stuff turning up on the boat, and to exploring my new back yard. If anyone has some cool suggestions on where to go please drop me a note. Thanks.

That’s It… See You There!