This week I managed to get out both days for a few hours each with the cameras. Again to the local Australian Botanical Garden's Mount Annan.

The First shot here is of a Grey Fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa) these ones are all over the woodland area chasing down small flying insects, they perch for a short time then back in the air hunting.

This next ones a Fan-tailed Cuckoo (Cacomantis Flatbelliformis), in Spring you can hear these calling all over the woodland area with their distinctive trilling call. This one was in the middle of a wattle tree so not really clear shots, till it moved on to another tree branch here I got this shot. Still got one branch in the way so not the best shot. The one a few months back I posed in the blog was much better.  

As always the Eastern Yellow Robins (Eopsaltria australis) were about, These little ones are all over the tree trunks studying the ground for insects to drop on. 

This weekend on both days I spotted a couple of Rose Robins (Petroica rosea) about as well, these certainly added a splash of colour around the woodland area with their bright, red.

There was a few Jacky Winters ((Microeca fascinans) about competing with the fan tails for insects in the woodland area as well. 

The last one for this week was this Red Wattle Bird, (Anthochaera carunculata) high up in one of the gum trees, I haven't seen to many of these in the woodland area so something different for this area of the gardens. 

These next few shots as some of the shots taken over the last few weeks in the odd times I managed to get out with the cameras while carrying out the home renovations.

This first three is of a purple fungus growing on the base of a tree stump up in the Wollemi pine walk of discovery area of the gardens. This one as best as I can get is Chondrostereum purpureum as ID-ed by Ray Palmer over at flickr, Ray has a good collection of mushroom shots there on flickr for anyone that likes those sort of shots. It wasn't till I got home and viewed these shots on the screen till I realised just how fluffy these ones looks up close, these are only tiny and no more than 2 to 3mm high so just looked like a layer of purple over the stump.

 This next shot of a katydid was taken right out side my front door,  so this one was a easy get in the middle of the renovations. 

This one was from the back yard again another one that I managed during the renovations with out spending a great deal of time away from the work. 

This last one is of a Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) again taken in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan.

That's it for this weeks shots and some of the ones from the past few months for this week. So should be back to normal now with the regular weekly blogs again rolling out.

Thanks for dropping by my blog, be back again next week.

Glenn.

Ok I'm back, Been away from the Blog for a few months now, sorry for those that missed the regular weekly blog post, should be back to normal now again. For the last four months I've hardly touched my cameras, instead been touching tools renovating a bathroom, but thats all finished how so weekends and week nights are back to normal now, so on the odd weekends I got out I will post some of the shots in the coming weeks, plus any that are worth while for the week. 

To start with these are shots I took back in January on one of the days I did get out, these are taken again in my usual place of the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan.

The first two shots are of the same mushroom for different angles, this one was growing in the grass beside the first main lake as you drive in the gardens. 

While I was taking the mushroom shot I was being watched by this little Australian Eastern Water Dragon. This ones only a small one, and he soon jumped into the small creek he was over looking that feeds in to the lake.

A family of Australasian Grebes (Tachybaptus Novaehollandiae) came paddling past as well and I managed this shot. Before they were shepherded out into the middle of the lake. 

This next ones of an Olive-backed Oriole (Oriolus Sagittarius) there are quite a few of these around the woodland area of the gardens and they have a very distinctive  call that usually draws you automatically to them. Their bright red Eye certainly stands out. 

Next Bird I found was this female Grey ButcherBird (Practices torquatus). 

There was also plenty of Mushrooms to be found that day up in the Wollemi pine walk of discovery area of the gardens. the ext few shots are just some of the mushrooms I found that day.  

I'll leave it here for this week but in the coming weeks I'll share some of the other shots taken over th last few months plus some of the shots from each weekend as I get back out and start taking shots again. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog again, sorry for the delay in posting but most nights after work I was working on the renovations as was most weekends so didn't have time to shoot or post images the last few months, but should be back to normal again now. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog.

Glenn

Following on from last year top ten shots of the year This weeks blog is again a review of the year and the top ten shots, Again very much following Martin Bailey's idea of the top ten shots of the year. You can see Martin's top ten and the process he followed to get to them here at the link http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/2016/01/04/my-personal-top-ten-photos-for-2015-podcast-504/

Well this year was another successful year for me in the photography area, Again this is only a hobby of mine and don't attempt to make money from it, just something for weekends for me. Most of my shots are taken in the Australian Botanical Garden's Mount Annan, which I can see for my back window so a close trip for me there. The Gardens have 12 km of roads within the borders of the gardens so no small gardens by any means these gardens have natural areas as well as cultivated gardens and some flower gardens. 

This year I managed to take 33961 shots. between my Canon 7Dmk2 and the 60D or as I call them Birds and Mushrooms. The 7Dmk2 fitted with the Sigma 150 - 600 Sports lens. This lens is something else and the image stabilisation on this beast of a lens is amazing I've managed to hand hold a shot at 1/15 of a second at 600mm and the shot was tack sharp so can't complain about that. The 60D though getting on a bit fitted with the 100mm f2.8 L Macro lens for Canon still does a great job and the articulated screen is great for the mushroom shots with the camera on the ground. I have a fair selection of lenses but these two are the only ones used in the top ten shots about to be reviewed below. So looks like my main set up based on these shots. 

This year I entered two local competitions the Gardens run a competition each year and I managed to win that one again, with a mushroom shot from late 2014 it made the 2014 top ten in last years review.  I also entered the local Council competition and managed to win the macro division of that one as well with another Mushroom shot. So mushroom shots are doing OK this year. 

One of my bird shots also was featured in the Australian Geographic's reads shot of the week they saw my shot on Flicker and requested that they can put it on there web page they also linked to my blog and had a small write-up about me so I was happy with that.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/photography/reader-photos/2015/07/reader-photo-brown-thornbill

The last highlight of the year came from my work each year the company has a  calendar with various photos of the cranes we build, this year they used on of my shots for Junes photo Each employee gets a copy of the desk calendar. The company has office in Malaysia, China, USA, Denmark, Singapore and Australia.

So all up happy with this years results plus from the winnings from the two competitions pays for my web site and a few extra bits a pieces. 

This next one is of a Brown Thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla) These little fellas are very inquisitive and bounce around seeing what you are upto again taken the 7dmk2 and the Sigma combination. This is the one that the Australian Geographic used. 

After the success of the Bird shots I thought I'd turn the 600m to the shy and took a series of moon shots over a few nights getting the various phases go the moon. I also managed to get the orion nebular and the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, I was surprised to see the detail in the nebular that I captured including some colour so very happy that night. The best of the shots was this moon shot. 

This shot I love the mirror reflection I managed to get, this was a lucky shot, I was actually shooting some wrens on the opposite side of a small creek flowing into one the the lakes int eh gardens when this Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) came swimming past, right place at the right time. 

As usual several mushroom shots also made my yearly top ten. These I shoot with the 60D on the ground and two speedlites usually one 90 deg to the axis of the lens giving side light to show up the details and gills, I'll position the second light either behind to give some rim lighting and maybe some see thought light as shown in this shot. and maybe use a small piece of alumni foil I use a sa small reflector to add in some fill light to the opposite side and front. 

These little ones are common in the gardens and make great subjects as they sit and study the ground searching for insects then dive but while they wait they stay still so a good chance to line up a shot. 

This one was captured handheld with the 7Dmk2 and the Sigma 150-600mm again. 1/640 sec f8 ISO 1600. Australian white Ibis (Threskiornis Moluccan) 

This little Mushroom has been in the gardens now for over a year, so when I can't find a mushroom I know I can rely on this one to be there. I've named it Spiky Mikey, This Mushroom won the Campbelltown council photography competition.  

This year I tried my hand at focus stacking some of my macro shots, Starting to use this a lot more now on my shots. this one is a close up of a Barb wire fence post. Still need more practice at some of these focus stacking shots but getting there certainly shows up the textures in the post. So I've added focus stacking to m tool kit this year. 

The last shot in this years top ten is another Mushroom shot this time focus stacked and lite with the two speedlites and same deflector so using all my toys and skills for the final shot. 

So that was my top ten for this year. My flower shots and landscape shots didn't make the cut this year so looks like I'll need to spend a bit more time on some of these. To improve my skills there. I've booked in already this year for a photography workshop tour of the Macdonnell ranges central Australia, so we'll see if this makes an improvement to my shortfalls this year. But overall happy with my shots this year. Even managed to do a photoshoot for a friend who just had her second baby, so first baby photoshoot, still processing those ones but for the shots I've shown her so far she is very happy with them. So definitely a bigger year photography wise for me. We'll see what this year brings.

Thanks for dropping by my blog Be back next week with more. 

Glenn