This weeks shots are again taken in the Austrlain Botancial Gardens, Mount Annan

First up as I pulled up the car to the side of the road for my first stop I noticed this pair of Long-Billed Corella (Cacatua tenuirostris) in their hollow just checking out the passing traffic to see what’s going on.

Again plenty of mushrooms about this weekend, this one was pretty much turned inside out so made an interesting subject.  Look smore like a flower than a mushroom.

This pair was also in the same grouping The orange and green always stand out together so makes for a good combination in a shot. 

This one’s a Grey Shrike-thrush, these really do have a great call when they are singing. The pair around the stolen generation are often heard calling out. This one was high in the trees so not the best angle, but happy with the focus this week compared to the last few weeks so over those issues it appears.

Up the top of the connections gardens I found a pair of Brown Thornbills (Acanthiza pusilla), these are tiny little birds and don;t stay still to long to get a shot, but managed this one. Again happy with the focus this time. 

Competing with the Thornbill was this little Jacky winter (Microeca fascinans) seeing who got the insect first. Both shots nice and sharp again so all up happy with the collection of bird shots this week.  

Last up the final collections of Mushroom shots from this week.

These first two were taken up in the Wollemi walk of discovery area and along the track was quite a few of these white mushrooms growing.

These next two were taken in the connections gardens again in the elevated garden.

So that's it for this weeks shots. Little bit better quality than the last few weeks I feel, I was happier with them at least.

Thanks for dropping by my blog, Back again next week. 

Glenn.

This weeks blog is again shots from last weekends walk in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. Another go and playing with the new Gimbal head and of cause the weeks mushroom shots. 

First up just as I got through the main gate there was this Black shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris) hunting over the first patch of grassland. Managed quite a few shots of this one thought not really happy with these, Still trying to get to the bottom of this issue but think partially to do with having image stabilisation switched on when it should have been off not eh tripod, partially depth of field issues so to wide an aperture little bit more work to get to the bottom of this one, but here are three of the better ones for the week on this one. 

While shooting these one the kite would fly off for a bit then come back so in-between stints I walked over the other side of the road and found a pair of Striated Pardalotes (Pardalotus striatus) investigating a hollow up in one of the river gums. 

In the same tree was a pair of Galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla) snuggling up against the cold. 

Thought I'd try the Topaz effects with this pair to see how that worked out, not to bad on this ones, with the blown out background the topaz added texture to it and gave it a bit of life to the background to break it up a little. The Sky was blown out to correctly expose for the birds who were in shade. 

From there I moved on to around the Plant back where again I found some mushrooms growing in the longer grass there. 

This next shot is the same as the one above but processed with Topaz, I masked back in the mushroom so it's not so strong effect there but left it on the grass so make it a little less messy compared to the shot above. 

This next ones of a little Rose Robin (Petroica rosea) Didn't quite get the angle right for this one, I'd already moved to try and get a cleaner shot but this was the best I managed before it took of. Would have been better if the branch was a little more to the left of the shot, otherwise happy with this one and the mood it creates. 

A White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) was hunting in the small dam opposite the plant bank.

Not to be outdone by the Rose Robin the Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) also put in an appearance for the day, and this is not the last I saw of these this week. 

From there I headed up to the connections gardens to see what I could see there. and found this crop of mushrooms again in the elevated garden from last week. 

Another Eastern Yellow Robin came by to see what I was up to for the day. 

A long with a small flock of Red Browed finches (Neochmia temporalis) where were looking for a feed amongst the Sheoak litter.

Late every afternoon in the Gardens the Red Rumped Grass Parrots (Psephotus haematonotus) come down to feed on the freshly mowed grass around the main lakes. These are always colourful. 

This one I caught as it was taking its evening drink for the lake.

Last shot for this week again playing with the gimbal head tracking a flock of Intermediate Egrets (Ardea intermedia) as they came in to land on the Island in the middle of the lake.

So that’s it for this week’s shots from the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. A bit better than last week, though again room for improvement on some of the shots here.

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

Glenn. 

This week’s Blog is a walk-through of the shots this week in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan, plus my first outings with my new toy. A Gimbal head for the tripod.

Been waiting a few weeks for this one to come in and it finally came in last week so managed to take it out two days this weekend, the first three shots are the unboxing of my new toy. 

The first day out I had a few issues with the camera and Lens not talking not each other, Had a few issue with this the last few weeks but only once or so a day, Saturday was a constant issue having to turn the camera off drop the battery out and restart, not a fun time and missed a few shots, on a whole Saturday wasn't the best days shooting.

The Next few shots not the best were of a wattle bird as it darted across the grass areas near the main lake, but the Gimbal head was smooth and kept the camera steady, the shots are pretty heavily cropped in, but the first signs of a good thing, a lot easier than the ball head and steadier than hand holding. 

Sunday was a better day and after taking he lens off the camera trying it on the other body and shaping lenses around trying to see if it was lens issue or Camera issue I put it back on the right body and didn't have problem all day so a better day all round. 

First shot for the day was a Mushroom, little messy in the foreground so not the cleanest of shots, but interesting enough, I do like the reddy brown cap and the cream stem.

I wanted to try out the Gimbal head so I headed down to the lake to see what was flying about and quite a bit actually so plenty of birds in flight shots, some better than others and a few pretty heavily cropped in, but no trouble tracking the birds as they flew so that was a good thing, Some of these are from the same flight sequence so you can see the tracking and how it kept up, especially with the white Intermediate Egret (Andea intermedia) as it landed in the Sheoaks on the Island. Some of the Magpie shots aren’t the best as it was flying straight towards me s not the best for the camera to track thought still I seemed to do a reasonable job, Though none of these shots are that great, But a good start to the first time out with the new tripod head, bit more practice and should be fine, but certainly from what I've seen happy with this one. 

After that I decided to see what I could find in Mushrooms and while looking for them I found a small group of Superb Fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) and managed this one, again not the happy with it but not that often I get a clean shot of the males. The Females are usually a lot less shy.

From there I found a few mushrooms and for once they were in one of the elevated gardens so they were taken with the camera on the ground of the elevated garden bed and I could stand up to take the shots for this series which makes a change for mushroom shots. So I took a few here. Also had a play with a few of them in Topaz again so a few the same shots here some before Topaz others after.  Tried one here a little less heavy handed which turned out OK.

While shooting the mushrooms I notices a few Spotted Doves (Streptopelia chinensis) laying around on the woodchips. 

So that’s it for this week’s shots, certainly happy with the Gimbal head so far, the Shots aren't the best but that will come but for not managing to track the birds keep them in the shot, so the rest is just practice. which is always fun. So all good. A few decent mushroom shots again this week as well, and still getting the hand with Topaz Impressions as well. 

So that wraps up this week’s blog, thanks for dropping by. Be back next week with more. 

Glenn.