Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 9/2/2020
This weeks blog post is a walkthrough of the shots I took in the Australian Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan. Was a bit wet out so good news for the gardens, and the whole east coast of Australia for that matter. The fires that have been burning for months are either out now or under control due to the rains, so good news.
This first shot was pretty much what I was greeted with as I got out of the car and walked to the first lake. A young Dusky Moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa).
The next two shots are of a Black-fronted Dotterel (Elseyornis melanops)
Like most bird shots it’s better waiting for the bird to come to you so sitting and waiting patiently usually gives good results as is the case here, the bird came closer if I had moved closer the bird would have moved away or flew, so waiting is usually the way to go. A better shot comes up later.
This next image is of a Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) not happy with this shot, not as sharp as I’d like, getting a few images like this of late, so got to work out why. The image was taken with the 5dmk4, but is very heavily cropped in. You can see al the waterdrops glistening in the background.
Here's the other shot of the Black-fronted Dotterel. In this shot, you can see the raindrops hitting the lakes surface and all the water droplets on the back of the bird. It’s just a matter of waiting for the bird to come to you. Happy with this one.
Another bird in the rain shot, not an exciting shot, but shows the weather conditions and the birds still in the rain. An Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae)
This one's again nothing special but showing the rain.
The Eurasian Coots (Fulica atra) were also out in the rain. These next two shots show the rain falling and collecting on the back of the Coot.
With the rain still falling but easing off I went up to the connections gardens and most of the birdlife was taking cover or sitting in the rain, so tried a few shots of flowers and plants in the rain. Surprisingly there were Waratahs out in full flower. These normal flower October to November and by this time of year well past flowing, so unusual to see them in flower this time of year. The flower heads collect the water drops.
Likewise with the rain still falling these gum nuts are covered in raindrops. For that matter so was I.
The last shot in the gardens for the day was this spider web with all the rain caught in the web. This shot was hand help using the Sigma 150-600mm at 600mm. I was getting too wet to set up the camera on the tripod and was heading to the car, not the best way to get a decent shot, but after all day out in the rain, I'd had enough for the day.
The last shot for this week was taken as soon as I got home and sitting out on the railing undercover keeping out of the rain was this pair of somewhat soggy Rainbow Lorikeets (Trichoglossus haematodus).
So that wraps up this week's shots out of the Australian Botanic Gardens plus a bonus shot from home.
Thanks for dropping by my blog this week. Back next week with more.
Glenn.
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 1/2/2020
This weeks blog post is a walkthrough of last weeks walk in the Australian Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan. Was only a short walk last week due to the high temperature. I left the gardens at 11:30 am and it was already 37 Deg C, later in the afternoon it topped out at 48 Deg C. so a little on the warm side, the birds were all feeling the heat and certainly didn't need me there chasing them out of any cool spot they may have found that I didn't notice.
First stop was to check if the Night-jar was still in residence looks like the Red-rump Parrots (Psepotus haematonotus) have regained their home again.
On the banks of the lake in the morning before everyone arrives and the temperature gets too hot the Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra) are all clustered on the edge of the lake. In the early morning, there's usually no wind or little wind so you get a better chance of a reflection. It helps to get down low with water birds.
This pair were staying on the island but keeping a close eye on the goings-on.
Just by walking a few steps and changing my angle you get a totally different light for the shot even thou the birds haven't moved. So always pays to walk around a little and explore the light.
The morning was still early when I walked through the woodland picnic area, a small group of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) had taken over the picnic tables but soon went to the trees.
These next two shots again show the bird in the exact same spot on the branch but a matter of getting a little lower to clean up the background.
In this shot, the Bird is in a clean background, always check the background and see if you can clean it up just by moving, makes it a lot more pleasing a shot. in this case, I just had to go about 300mm lower to get the clear patch in the trees behind the bird.
Up opposite the plant bank is a small dam and it often has water birds about this time a White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) up in the tree, again a bit of walking around to try and get a clean shot, I couldn't clean up the background in this case, but did manage to get a clean uninterrupted shot of the bird without anything in the foreground in front of the bird. Not a great shot still but at least its a clean shot in front.
Back on the lake, an Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novahollandiae) was slowly cruising the lake.
A pair of Chestnut Teal (anas castanea) were also on the lake today, the bright red eye against the dark green head certainly shows up brightly.
Last stop on the edge of the lake before I left was to shoot a few shots of the Black-fronted Dotterels (Elseyornis melanops) these are usually pretty skittish so take a while to be able to get close to them, it usually works better if you wait and they slowly come to you, If you start to chase a bird then it will keep moving away and eventually get too far away from you so better to stay still and wait for them to come to you.
Due to the high temperatures today there was no mushrooms out, but when I go home I did find these growing in a pot plant on the back decking so bought them inside into the cool and took a few shots of these, lit with two off-camera lights and focus stacked and post-processed in lightroom and photoshop.
So that wraps up this week's shots out of the Australian Botanic Gardens plus a bonus shot from home.
With the new year starting now the first of my workshops in the gardens is now open for books via the garden's website, link here.
There are still a few places left for this Sunday 9th Feb. 2020 even in the rain.
https://www.australianbotanicgarden.com.au/Whats-On/Learn-from-the-Experts-Beginners-Photography
This one is aimed at beginners so someone that's just got a new camera or wants to learn about the effects of aperture, and depth of field, shutter speed how to freeze or blur motion etc then this would be a good start, March there will be an intermediate workshop, this year I'll also be running a mushroom photography workshop in Autumn and of cause, the usual bird photography workshops will be running, so keep an eye out for upcoming workshops I've also added a workshop tab on this site now so you can follow along there for upcoming event as well.
Thanks for dropping by my blog hope to have it back to a regular blog post again this year.
Glenn
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 25/01/2020
This week's blog is again a walkthrough of the shots taken last weekend in the Australian Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan. Off to an early start, last weekend arrived before the gates opened, So a quick walk along the fence line from outside the gardens and I spotted an Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)
While I was waiting for the Star of the week to put in its appearance there were still a few fungi about so I managed a few setups before the star arrived. This one with the usual set up Canon 60D on the ground making use of the articulated screen, two off-camera lights.
The highlight of the week was the return of the Australian Owlet-Nightjar, (Aegotheles crisratus) These are basically little fluff balls with eyes well this one is. It's occupying a luxury hollow that has two entrances and one with a balcony. the first shot shows it enjoying the view from the balcony over the gardens in the woodland area.
This next shot shows it at the lower hollow the two are connected, but it usually flies down to the lower hollow from the Balcony and crawls its way up tot eh top through the hollow from the bottom.
Like most hollows, they are rarely free and the Night-jar appears to have take up residence in a hollow previously occupied by a pair of Red-rumped Parrots. The Parrots want their home back. So there's a bit of a battle going on for possession of the hollow. So this next series shows just one of the mini battles, the female red-rump was above the hollow with its tail hanging over the hollow. The Night-jar latched on with its beak, much to the Red-rumps dismay. The red-rump temporarily relocated and the night-jar stood guard with its mouth ready for the next assault.
After the excitement as I left the area, I spotted another fungi to shoot, this time I used a small softbox on one of the speedlites.
Tried an extra step in the processing of this one with a bit of black and white processing to see how they look, Still think I prefer the colour. But not too unhappy with it.
This week it was the Fairy Martins (Petrochelidon ariel) young turn to be feed. So this series shows a sequence as the parent flys in feeding the young while staying airborne.
The Welcome swallows (hirundo neoxena) are always about this ones still a young un As its face is more brown than the usual orange.
Of late there's been a pair of Royal Spoonbills (Platalea regia) have been about in the gardens, this time they were in separate lakes.
The usual Australian Reed-warblers (Acrocephatalus australis) are still about in the reed beds this one found a moth to snack on.
The young Little Black Cormorants (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) are pretty much full size now.
Up until the last few weeks, I've shot most of my birding images with the 7DmkII, but the last few weeks I've been using the 5Dmk4 for the birding shots. The main advantage to the 7dmkII was the frame rate of able to shot 10 frames per second and the crop factor makes a 600mm lens seem to be a 960mm lens, whereas the 5dmk4 has the better image quilty and higher megapixel sensor. So this week I took the next two shots with the two different bodies so see if when both are cropped to the same about which one holds up best. Both shots are taken with the same settings, Lens was mounted on the tripod. I've cropped both images in lightroom so the same image size the 5D image needed more cropping to get the same size image. The first image is from the Canon 5Dmk4.
Dusky Woodswally (Artamus cyanopterus)
Whereas this image is from the 7DmkII. There's not much between the two images
Back in the main carpark, a Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus) was feasting on a flowering guntree.
The Little Eastern Yellow Robins (Eopsaltria australis)are in the gardens year-round, but always pose for a shot.
Back in the Main carpark and a Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala) was also in posing mode in amongst a Grevillea. These are native honey honeyeaters.
As I was driving out there was this small group of Wallaroos, On hot days like this one they lick they forearms where there are veins running which as the airflow hits the wet areas acts as evaporative air conditioning allowing them to cool down, ones using this technique in this shot.
Last shot of the day is of a little Black-fronted Dotterel (Elseyornis melanops) there are several pairs of these on the shores of the lakes in the gardens look for them on the mud flats they are tiny so easily missed.
So that wraps up this week's shots out of the Australian Botanic Gardens.
With the new year starting now the first of my workshops in the gardens is now open for books via the garden's website, link here.
There are still a few places left for this Sunday 9th Feb. 2020.
https://www.australianbotanicgarden.com.au/Whats-On/Learn-from-the-Experts-Beginners-Photography
This one is aimed at beginners so someone that's just got a new camera or wants to learn about the effects of aperture, and depth of field, shutter speed how to freeze or blur motion etc then this would be a good start, March there will be an intermediate workshop, this year I'll also be running a mushroom photography workshop in Autumn and of cause, the usual bird photography workshops will be running, so keep an eye out for upcoming workshops I've also added a workshop tab on this site now so you can follow along there for upcoming event as well.
Thanks for dropping by my blog hope to have it back to a regular blog post again this year.
Glenn
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 18/01/2020
This weeks blog post will be another walkthrough of some of the shots I took last Saturday in the Australian Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan, Southwest of Sydney.
This week I'm still using the 5Dmk4 with the Sigma lens for the bird shots, the fungi shots are the Canon 60D with the 100mm f2.8 L Macro.
This first shot is of a Galah (Eolophus roseicapilla) sitting in a tree high up beside where I stopped the car. The shots fully zoomed-in then heavily cropped, to heave as the image has started to break down, Just shows you can never have a long enough lens. This coming weekend I want to try the same setup and swape over the 5dmk4 and the 7dMkII on a couple of shots and compare the difference to see the high megapixels Vs the perceived extra reach and see which one give the better quality image for the same setup.
Next up I came across the Red-capped Robin (Petroica goodenovii) in the usual location near the bird hide its halfway through its moult to get its colour. This shot was also heavily cropped the image is just about to start to break down this is about as far as I can go with the cropping. I'll see how he's colour is this weekend, each week he's getting more so won't be long now before he's fully coloured up.
While shooting the Robin I noticed some Fungi growing after the rain so headed back tot he car to get my mushroom kit. (Camera backpack with the 60D and speedlites) Right beside the car, I found these all growing. My first Fungi shot for a while now so a little rusty for this shot there was a bit of wind as well and these are little delicate ones so they were moving about so not the ideal subject for focus stacking. Not really happy with this shot. So need to get back into practice with these looks like.
Ok this ones a little better, Still not quite there in this one. A brown gel used on the right side then white balanced back to give the blue light on the left, no blue lighting used for this effect.
This is the actual set up for the above shot. Also gives a sense of scale to the shot.
This one's a bit better, lightings much better focus is good, composition needs a little more work, but getting there.
Was a good day for Mushroom shots with the rain we got through the week This one's more like it. Happy with this one and the one above, just took a little bit to get back into it. Lighting on this one suits the shot just soft enough and not overdoing the back ground lighting.
Plus the setup shot for this one showing the actual lighting conditions for this shot.
There was some bird life about as usual, I spent a fair amount of the day shooting the mushrooms but did manage a few bird shots. This next series is of the Royal Spoonbills (Platalea regia)
This shot was again to heavily cropped so is breaking down, so something to be careful of the bird a Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) was high up in the tree and flew off after about half an hour without coming any closer.
A few of the other birds about a Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus).
Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis)
The Cutie of the day a very young Dusky Moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa)
Two Welcome Swallows (Hirundo neoxena) these almost look like they were painted, but no processing like that on this shot.
The last few mushroom shots for the day and their set up shots.
The Setup shots here really shot the scale of this tiny one.
This last shot is quite sad. After all the rain we had 47mm on Thursday 9mm Friday and 4mm while I was out Saturday this was the net effect, on of the dams in the gardens, not even a puddle at the bottom of the dam, just dry cracked mud. So as nice as the rain was, and the Mushrooms certain liked it we need a lot more.
So that wraps up this week's shots out of the Australian Botanic Gardens.
With the new year starting now the first of my workshops in the gardens is now open for books via the garden's website, link here
https://www.australianbotanicgarden.com.au/Whats-On/Learn-from-the-Experts-Beginners-Photography
This one is aimed at beginners so someone that's just got a new camera or wants to learn about the effects of aperture, and depth of field, shutter speed how to freeze or blur motion etc then this would be a good start, March there will be an intermediate workshop, this year I'll also be running a mushroom photography workshop in Autumn and of cause, the usual bird photography workshops will be running, so keep an eye out for upcoming workshops I've also added a workshop tab on this site now so you can follow along there for upcoming event as well.
Thanks for dropping by my blog hope to have it back to a regular blog post again this year.
Glenn
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 11/01/2020
Hopefully back to my normal blog posts again this year, starting off with a walk thought of some of the shots from last Saturday in the Australian Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan, Southwest of Sydney.
The day wasn’t as smoky as it has been the last few days, the temperature was also cooler than the high thirties it’s been the few days before. So I thought I’d head out and see what I could see. With Canon Getting ready to announce their new flagship Camera body the Canon 1Dx MK III (since announced) I thought I’d swap camera bodies to see how I go with a full-frame body of the Canon 5dmk4 and the Sigma 150-600mm Sports lens, compared to what I normally shot for birding shots. The Canon 7dmkII. The frame rate is a lot slower so that meant I had to get the timing better than I’d normally have to do with the 7dmkII and its 10 frames a second burst rate. I was in the gardens from 8:20 am till just after 5:30 pm so a full day of shooting. All good fun.
On with some of the shots from the day.
The first shot here one of the Flowering Gum trees in the gardens I was only carrying my birding set up at this time so taken with a 150-600mm lens, I'd normally shoot a shot like this with my 100mm Macro or the 24-105mm, the 600mm certainly gives the creamy background to this shot due to the ratio of subject to camera and background to subject.
At the same place, I was shooting the flower above I notices this old stump, this was all shot with natural light, but I can see the potential for this with lighting so I'll revisit this one in the future with lights and maybe the odd gel, and see what I can do with this one. The texture in this little one with a bit of side lighting should come out interesting, Stay tunes in the coming weeks and we'll see if it works or not.
This ones a Rufous Whistler (Pachycephala rufiventris) I couldn't get in front of it and it didn't want to turn around so not a great shot on this one, the background is way to busy and not a clean shot of the front. I'll often take a few steps one way or another to try and clean up the background, but this one didn't stay long enough.
The next two shots are of a pair of Red-rumped Parrots as they came down to drink at the lake. The first shot I caught the water still running out of the beak, the second the male on the log was coming down to drink and was making an interesting reflection, could have been better if the water was smoother.
The last few weeks a pair of Black swans (Cygnus atratus) have made there home in the lake so I've a few shots of these over the last few weeks, still trying to get a better reflection shot of these. So I'll have to keep trying for this shot.
Next up still at the lake a small family of Welcome Swallows (Hirundo neoxena) are always around the lake this was a portrait of one of them that was happy to pose for me, again no the best of backgrounds so need to keep trying for this shot as well.
While I was shooting the swallows, a Wallaroo and Joey came along around the edge of the lake so I had a few shots of these, the Joey then decided it had had enough and to my surprise jumped into the pouch, it looked way too big to fit in there. This shot was taken as it had just jumped in and stuck its head out so one ear was caught on the pouch. After about three minutes of staring at me and not enough time for me to get the camera on the tripod they jumped off, so this was a handheld shot. The next shot shows they didn't go far.
Next up one of the more common birds in the Area a Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala) these are not afraid of people so you can get quite close to these, or they close to you. So plenty of detail in this shot.
While walking along the woodland walk in the gardens, one of the areas of natural bushland there are plenty of examples of Hollows in older trees being put to good use. These two shots show a pair of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (Cacatua galerita). The first one in the hollow the second on standing guard in a nearby tree watching over. The second shot has a decent clean background, though a few patches that are too bright. so almost there.
A shot of one the current flower beds, not overly happy with this shot, the ideas OK but not well pulled off in this shot so one to revisit and try again. MAy need a bit of focus stacking to get a decent depth of field on this shot maybe a bit lower as well to try and get some texture into the shot showing the undulations of the flower heads. So another shot that I need to work on.
A walk around the connections gardens soon had me with this little Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) These are always great posers, and sit in trees or the sides of trees studying the ground before diving down for a quick meal. So these you can pretty much pick your spot with good backgrounds then wait (And wait) for the bird to land on the right balance. But the results are like this so worth the weight, I waited for about 3/4 of an hour just to get this shot.
A little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleuos) in low flight over the lake, these usually do a few laps getting higher or lower depending on taking off or landing.
Next up and another hour spent sitting on the mudflats to get these shots of the Straw-necked Ibus (Threskiornis spinicollis) A family was taking up residence in the lake and its surrounds.
A pair of Black-winged Stilts (Himantopus himantopus) have made their home in the small dam up against Narellan rd and Saturday, with little wind about in that corner of the gardens on Saturday started to get some reflections happening there. Thou not still enough for mirror reflections.
I did manage to catch this one in flight as they changed sides of the lake.
So that wraps up this week's shots out of the Australian Botanic Gardens. I was happy with the results of the day so all good, happy with the image quality of the 5Dmk4 with the sigma 150-600, caught a few birds in flight so the focusing and frame rate wasn't too much of an issue compared with the 7D. The close-ups were certainly better quality with the higher megapixel count on the 5d.
With the new year starting now the first of my workshops in the gardens is now open for books via the garden's website, link here
https://www.australianbotanicgarden.com.au/Whats-On/Learn-from-the-Experts-Beginners-Photography
This one is aimed at beginners so someone that's just got a new camera or wants to learn about the effects of aperture, and depth of field, shutter speed how to freeze or blur motion etc then this would be a good start, March there will be an intermediate workshop, this year I'll also be running a mushroom photography workshop in Autumn and of cause, the usual bird photography workshops will be running, so keep an eye out for upcoming workshops I've also added a workshop tab on this site now so you can follow along there for upcoming event as well.
Thanks for dropping by my blog hope to have it back to a regular blog post again this year.
Glenn