Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 17/01/2015
This week’s blog is again about the afternoon’s photo-shoot in the Australian Botanical Gardens Mount Annan. Today was quite hot out and the Temperature was around 33 plus Deg C. so Pretty Warm out.
I got to the gardens around 1:30 so getting ready for the heat of the day so not the best time to be there. So I thought I’d find some where cool to start with and see how the day went along.
I started up at the Wollemi pine walk of discovery as that’s always cool and thought it was my best chance for finding any mushrooms about.
As I walked into the bush I quickly spotted a small pair of white mushrooms and thought I’d capture them on the way out. So I kept walking till I got to the small stream that crosses the path, there’s usually some mushrooms growing in that area with the wetness and also the birds come down to drink. I didn’t see any mushrooms at first then I spotted these black mushrooms, well baked from the sun, they were almost like charcoal there were some better than others some looks like they were all shrivelled up and well past being mushrooms. The one I selected still had its shape but had just gone black all over so I set up and went to work on that one. When the flash fired is lit it up and gave off some colour there in the cap so happy with that shot.
I took a few more around them but that was the best, I then walked back over the stream and found a step to sit on and wait to see if the birds will come down. After waiting half an hour and many mosquito bites later a lone double bar finch came down, It was too fast in the low light and too far away to get a decent shot this one was heavily cropped in so the quality of the image isn’t great.
I then when back to the pair of white mushrooms I found earlier and set up for them. Not overly happy with the shots of these, but Ok would have preferred a bit more depth of field on these ones I think.
As I was packing up there was a large stick on the ground and just beside the stick was another lone mushroom. This one had a small piece out of it so thought it would make an interesting subject, I moved the stick out of the way and set up for the shots of this one, again not that happy with the shot but again it’s OK at a pinch.
I then went around to the connections garden to see if there was any bird activity there, on the drive around to that there was a snake racing across the hot road, must have been hot going over the black tar in the full sun by the time I had stopped to see the snake had gone and no sigh of it, I thought better if going looking for it in the long grass there beside the road so headed on the connections garden.
There wasn’t that much bird life active around mainly due to the heat I’d imaging. I did manage this satin bowerbird up high in the branches.
The next two the Red‑whiskered Bulbul and the little eastern Robin shots weren’t to great but by then the heat was getting to me as well so called it a day there at 4:00pm so all up a so so day, nothing to great a few passable shots but nothing outstanding today, I have days like that at times. Both these are again heavily cropped in so really looking forward to the new Sigma 150 to 600 seams a bit slow to hit the shops. But one I’ll make good use of when it does.
Thanks for dropping by.
Glenn
2014 top ten shots - year in review.
This weeks blog is something different, something I decided to do after listening to a Martin Bailey photography pod cast ( http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/2015/01/04/my-2014-top-ten-photographs-podcast-455/ )Where Martin picks out his top ten each year. As Martin describes it’s not an easy process to kull down a year’s work to only ten images. Martin called for people to add links to their top ten in his podcast and I expected there would be loads of submissions I was surprised to see only a small handful, but then thought hey I haven’t added in any either so can hardly complain about anyone else so spurred on by that thought here they are, my very own top ten shots from 2014 as selected by myself.
You can find the shots also in their own gallery under 2014 top 10, if you want to skip the commentary.
The First shot was taken in Early January and all but one of these shots was taken in my local Botanical gardens, (The Australian botanical Gardens, Mount Annan.) I think you’ll guess which one wasn’t shot there. The Gardens are only ten minutes drive from my place and have 12km of roads, several dams, a small restaurant and training rooms plus as of this year the national seedbank as well. Each year the gardens also run photography workshops and run a competition for the best shots in several categories, this year two of my top ten places with one wining its category.
So back to the shots, the first shot was of a Juvenile Scarred Kingfisher, this one was shot with a speedlite mounted on camera to add in some fill flash. 1/60 sec f4 ISO 400 and focal length of 280 with was a 70 to 200 f2,8L IS USM II with a 1.4 extender fitted taken with a canon 60D. This shot got second in the plants and animals Category in this year’s Gardens photography competition.
The next shot is of a Pacific Baza taken early in the morning there was a small family of these feeding on some fruit that had just ripened in the gardens. I got a series of shots of these as the flew from plant to plant. This one is 1/320 sec f5 ISO 160 and focal length of 245 with was a 70 to 200 f2,8L IS USM II with a 1.4 extender taken with a canon 60D.
The next shot was my wining macro shot form this years Gardens Photography Competition. Each weekend I try and get at least one Mushroom shot to add to the google plus #shroomshotsaturday it gets me shotting at least once a week this way and I seem to have got the hang of mushroom shots as I also won this category last year as well. This one was shot at 1 full second f18 ISO 100 and using to speedlites one in an 8” softbox to the side the other as a fill flash fired in to the small stream under the mushrooms and reflecting back underneath. The lens used is the canon 100 f2.8L macro lens. The camera was sitting on a rock in the small stream get the shot. Again a Canon 60D this is where I love the articulated LCD screen saves me laying in the stream to get this one.
The forth shot is the only one not taken in the gardens and was one of those lucky shots that I just had the camera with me, this one was taken at my work on afternoon after I had finished for the day and walking out the door the sky was this amazing colour, the company I work for is a crane manufacturing company and I bought the camera in that day as we had a crane on the test pad, so with the crane up and the sky as it was It made a great silhouette against an amazing sky, The company has since paid for a 1m canvas print of this to hang on the office wall so it sites on a wall opposite my desk at work so I can see my work each day at the office. This one was shot 0.3 Sec f18 using the canon 8 to 15mm f4L fisheye len at a focal length of 15mm.
Now back to the gardens for the rest of the shots this one is of an Australian Water dragon and taken just opposite the visitors centre in a water garden. These are often seen sunning themselves besides the various small waterfalls there or swimming in the ponds, this one was caught sunning itself. 1/50 sec f4, ISO 100 focal length of 140 with was a 70 to 200 f2,8L IS USM II with a 1.4 extender taken with a canon 60D.
This next one was taken around mid-day in full sun, but again using speedlites and high speed sync to set my own light. This was also taken opposite the visitors centre. 1/640 sec f6.3 ISO 100 focal length of 115 with was a 70 to 200 f2,8L IS USM II with a 1.4 and a canon speedlite in 8” softbox held approx. 50mm from the flowers.
This year I treated myself to a new Camera and bought the Canon 7dmkII this was one of the first shots taken with it. I was starting to find the 60d wanting in regards to focus speed and low light ISO performance, but still use it for the mushroom shots as the 7D doesn’t have the mush loved articulated screen for the one the ground shots I take. This one was of a Rainbow Lorikeet feasting early one morning. 1/800 sec f4 ISO 400 focal length of 280 with was a 70 to 200 f2,8L IS USM II with a 1.4 extender taken with a canon 7dmkII.
This one is back to the mushroom shots so many to choose from, and so hard to select this one was taken just the other week. 1/250 sec f13 ISO 100 shot with the 100mm f2.8L macro lens on the 60D.
The last two were both taken on the same day again in the Australian Botanical gardens, Mount Annan. The first a Yellow Thornbill taken at 1/1000 sec f4 ISO 640 focal length 280 with was a 70 to 200 f2,8L IS USM II with a 1.4 extender taken with a canon 7dmkII.
The last one as an Eastern Spinebill taken at 1/1000 sec f4 ISO 640 focal length 265 with was a 70 to 200 f2,8L IS USM II with a 1.4 extender taken with a canon 7dmkII.
So a good collection this year and reviewing the previous years shots each year has been getting better results, so guess I’m heading in the right direction. Hope you enjoy the review of the best of the years shots.
Thanks for dropping by my blog.
Glenn.
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 27/12/2014 and 3/1/2015
G’day missed a few Saturdays over the Christmas break due to Computer problems while uploading the Christmas day family shots from the memory card the PC here decided to chuck a bit of a wobbly here, I thought the SSD drive had died and it wasn’t looking good with a black screen saying cannot located operating system location, opps not sounding good, So all through my Christmas holidays no PC to upload shots and to type to my blog, today was my last day of the holidays back to work tomorrow and I turned on the PC to copy the error message before I got it ready to take to the local PC shop they were also on holidays till tomorrow typical, Any way I turned on the PC and walked away an error message came up again and as my wife was walking past she hit a key and all of a sudden the PC came good. So all good now. So after a holiday of minimum shooting and painting a spare bed rooms which is now my photography room J, I finally get a chance to show some of the better shots of the holidays, I did manage to get out a few days at least.
The first shots I didn’t have to go far at all, Christmas Eve I had to take the family of Rainbow Lorikeets in the Bottle brush trees in the back yard, they have made it their home.
On the 27th I was out on the front lawn when a pair of Australian King Parrots came down to feast on my pine trees. They were only about 5 metres from where I was sitting I was in to minds whether to get the camera or just sit and watch them for a while, After a while watching I thought I'd chance it and stood up and they didn't move so when I came back they were still there and I managed a few shots of them.
I still went on my normal Saturday trip to the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. So a Few good days out there, a few mushrooms and a few nice Bird shots as well. These shots are from the 28th mainly mushroom shots that day as I didn’t have long there.
Then yesterday’s trip to the Australian Botanical Gardens was a good one with quite a few bird shots and mushrooms
The Wagtail was just sitting on a branch only a couple of meters away from me preening its feathers not minding me at all as I managed to get of a few shots.
For the first time I saw quite a few Double Bars in the gardens and in a few different spots as well so guess a small flock has moved in.
Also around the Stolen General memorial I saw a Pacific Heron in one of the small dams as well as a small tortoise.
I then went up to the Wollemi Pine walk where there are usually a few mushrooms and as soon as I started in there was a great little group of them there.
A Little further were these delicate white ones, vivid white against the ground.
And yet further on were theres little red ones.
While I was shooting them the Double Bars re-appeared A different pair as the distance was too far for them over the short time frame, and a European gold finch as well.
So a good shoot, yesterday and now I’ve got the PC up and running again I’ve had time to edit these ones now.
So all things being equal should be back to regular weekly posts again, if not I'll have to ask my wife to hit the right button agian to fix it :-).
Thanks for dropping by.
Glenn
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 20/12/2014
This week again I went to the Australian Botanical gardens, Mount Annan. I started off by stopping earlier than normal at the stolen generation memorial there is always abundant bird life around that area in the Cumberland plain woodland as I stopped the car there was a sulphur crested cockatoo investigating a hollow from a recently fell branch of a gum tree.
From there I started to walk along the trail and at the first dam there was a pair of Australian White Ibis foraging along the banks, I only managed to get one of them.
Around the Memorial there was plenty of Bird life but I didn’t capture any there but walked on further were I found a yellow Thornbill chasing insects in a wattle tree.
Walking a little further I found an old log which has a pair of mushrooms growing on them, there were looking a little worse for wear but still worth a shot so the first shot is with the 7Dmk2 with eh 70 to 200 plus 1.4 extender on, the second is from the 60D with 100mm macro lens and one speedlite used.
From there I turned around to walk back to the car and found a Black‑faced Cuckoo‑shrike sitting in a tree, The shots not the best but still another one off the list form the birds in the gardens. 81 down another 96 to find yet.
I then went back to the car and drove up to the Wollemi walk of discovery to see what was around there. I only fond one mushroom there compared to last week’s load, ( Last week’s mushroom shot I entered into the Camera house Friday photo competition and managed to pick up a $20 print voucher for making the top ten for the week so we’ll see looks like another shot for the wall coming up.)
From there I drove back to the connections garden and found this Eastern Spinebill sitting in a mountain devil singing away.
So another good week in the gardens. A few nice shots for the week so I’m happy with the results this week again.
Thanks for dropping by.
Glenn
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 13/12/2014
This week’s outing to the Australian Botanical gardens, Mount Annan, was much better than the last few weeks, it was one of those weeks that it all happened right I guess. We had our second week in a row here in Sydney so the garden was alive with mushrooms, so plenty to choose from, I managed to get nine different decent shots today. So I’ll have some for future weeks to post to #shroomshotsaturday.
The first two my attention was got by the bright oranges and reds.
The next patch were single mushrooms but white and they had others growing in the background to so lining them up made for an interesting shot with the ones in the background being out of the depth of field, softening them.
Then there was the next one all alone, I took this one form two different angles both are attached here, I liked the texture of the Cap on this one the way it was slit in several sections.
The next patch was looking a little worse-for-wear so they always make for interesting shots, so I picked two bunches and tried various lighting on each, happy with the results I got on these.
Lastly there was one more small group which also looked ready for a shot so I had to get them as well, after all who knows if there will be any left for next week.
After I took the mushroom shots I headed away from the Wollemi pine walk of discovery and headed tot eh connections gardens to see what was there today, the temperature today was a bit cooler than of late so the gardens were alive with Bird life, so I gave my new Camera the 7dMk2 a good work out today, coming home with just over 1000 shots from that body alone, the mushrooms were all taken with the 60D as I prefer the articulated screen rather than laying in the dirt :-).
So starting in the connections gardens there were quite a few European Goldfinches around today, so the first shot is of one of the ones that were actually showing them self the rest were about you could hear them but were a little shy today.
The next shot is of a little Grey Fantail. Sitting in between insect chases.
I then walked to the top of the connections garden and found a large rock to sit on and just waited before long the little Eastern Yellow Robin was hopping around so I managed to get a few shots of it while it was foraging in the leaf litter. There was also a male Superb Fairy‑wren bouncing around.
So after some time there I went down to the lake where the garden staff were preparing for tomorrow night’s Carrols in the gardens, so I sat beside the lake and practices panning shots of birds in flight, here is a collection of some of the better efforts of the day.
So all in all a good days shooting in the gardens today.
Thanks for dropping by.
Glenn.