Male Superb Fairy Wren

Using my new Sigma 50-500mm F4.5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM lens with the Nikon D200, I have been out photographing birds lately. This image is of one of the male Superb Fairy Wren’s that have been hanging around my office.These little wrens are great to watch, as they are very social, especially seeing as it is mating season. This male had about 5 females chasing him around. What a life!!

For the price, I am impressed with the performance of the Sigma lens. Considering how quickly these midgets flit around, the results speak for themselves.  Focus is quick, and accurate especially when following such a small subject.

The Optical Stabilisation works well, allowing me to shoot usable images handheld at ridiculously slow shutter speeds. I am yet to use with a tripod, so some of the images are a little soft, but keeping in mind that these are handheld at 500mm using a shutter speed of 300th of a second, its actually pretty good.

I swore I would never by a Non Nikon Lens when I first upgraded my camera gear, but with the price of Nikon lenses in this longer range being so expensive, I did my research and this Sigma Lens came up with really good reviews. It will never perform like a Nikon 500mm F4, but for the price, I am very happy with it. I am just waiting for some good weather to really get out and put it through its paces.

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Shot through glass and add some movement created this bizarre rendition of the sky

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Steps

Bored one day waiting for something to happen I started playing with photographing the steps on the wharf. These do lead to the water, but added nothing to the image so I went for a tight crop and working with the textures.

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Storm Clouds

Going to start posting photos that have been sitting in my collection for ages that I havent got around the sharing. Here is some storm clouds brewing off Newcastle, NSW, Australia

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A new site has been launched by the Australia Day Council Of NSW called Aussievault.com.au that will record the opinions and multimedia contributions from all Australians who want to comment, submit images or films that will help shape the nation – past present or future.

Also being launched is ‘Living Australian 2010‘, the first photographic competition which will be housed on Aussievault.com.au. The ‘Living Australian’ campaign invites Australians to photograph a moment that represents how they are Lliving Australian’ through one or all four categories – My Landscape, My Life, My Sport and My Heroes.

The ‘Living Australian 2010’ national competition will be judged by Matt King from Getty Images, Brendan Read, Australia Day’s official photographer, Angelos Frangopoulos, CEO Sky News and Australia Day Council Member, Erika Jimenez, Director, Communication & Corporate Strategy for the Australia Day Council of NSW (ADCNSW), and ‘Living Australia’ celebrity judge Erin McNaught.

So get out there and start shooting, think Australian, live Australian and Im sure you will come up with a winner. You have until midnight 7th January 2010 to submit your photo(s). As with all photo competitions make sure you read the rules and are happy with them before you enter! Only submit one photo per category or you could be disqualified.

From the Website:

One lucky winner will receive a grand prize of over $6500 worth of prizes as well as money can’t buy opportunities

Part 1 – The Australia Day Experience

• $3000 in cash
• The Australia Day Council of New South Wales will contribute to flights to and from Sydney for Australia Day for 2 people (based in NSW and around Australia)
• 3 x nights accommodation for 2 people at the 5 star Hilton Hotel Sydney (from January 24, 25, 26)
• Opportunity to be an Australia Day 2010 Official Photographer – Cover the events as a photographer in the Sydney CBD, Hyde Park – which becomes Sydney’s biggest backyard, and Sydney Harbour – which becomes centre stage on Australia Day.
• Attend the official functions on Australia Day 2010 as a guest of ADCNSW – This includes the Australia Day Cruise on Sydney Harbour and attendance at the exclusive Premier’s State Reception at Darling Harbour.

Part 2 – Exposure for the winning images and a “money can’t buy” experience

• ‘A day in the life as a Getty Images photographer’ This will be an experience of a lifetime to work one day with a leading Getty Images photographer in the area of the winners choice, i.e. news, sport, entertainment or creative photography. The day’s internship must be taken up by the 31 December 2010.
• Exposure through Australia Day media coverage, on the website, in newsletters, and on digital screens for thousands of people to see.
• Photographs displayed on digital screens and printed images on display at Australia Day events.

Make sure you check out the paragraph titled License to use photographs:

You irrevocably grant to the ADCNSW, a perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, transferable, non-exclusive licence (with the right to sub-licence) to reproduce, publish, communicate to the public, adapt, and otherwise exploit Your Material in all media whether known now or developed in the future (for example by displaying the entry on the ADCNSW website, the AUSSIEVAULT website, on any other website, publicly displaying your entry on a large format outdoor screens, or by communicating your entry to others by email, by mobile phone, by radio, television or print/online ).

You grant to the ADCNSW an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free, transferable and worldwide non-exclusive license (which includes the right to sub-license) to authorise others to view and reproduce the Your Material for government, personal, commercial or in-house use. Current and future sponsors of ADCNSW may use Entrant Material in any way they choose.

If you are happy with all that then get submitting. The site will officially be launched on Monday 9th November, 2009 with an event on the Opera House Steps by Erin McNaught and Elka Whalan.

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Silhouetted Pelican

Just thought I’d share a random photo of a pelican.

Pelicans are interesting creatures. They always appear to just be cruising around, never in a hurry or upset by anything. For such a big bird, pelicans move very gracefully.

This silhouette of a pelican was taken on Lake Macquarie last summer at sunset.

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Viagra Falls

Been going through some old photos I have had lying around on the hard drive and came across a live shoot I did for the guys in Viagra Falls. If you want to see a great covers band go and check them out. Great muso’s with a wide variety of songs, they are something different with all three members playing their own instruments as well as sharing the drumkit around.

From the BIO…

Viagra Falls are:
-Adam Diver (Vocals, acoustic guitar, snare and kick drum)
-Richard Sain (Lead guitar, backing vocals, percussion and fx)
-Paul Diver (Vocals, bass guitar and cymbals)

The three members of Viagra Falls have performed in several bands together since early 90′s including the highly successful “come as you are” Nirvana Tribute and the Australian Metallica Show both of which toured extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand.
In the period of 1994 to 1997 they performed in such cities as Newcastle, Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra, Wellington, Rota Rua. All four corners of Sydney and headlines a new years eve show in Brisbane to over 7000 people.

The bands goal was to create a full and complete sounding trio without resorting to pre programmed music. The idea being “keep it totalling live” none of the monotonous and predictable drum machines or lifeless and faked backing music. Viagra Falls takes pride in reproducing every song they cover as close to the original version as possible both musically and vocally

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View down my street. Street lights are still on at 9:30

Woke up this morning to what I thought was a brilliant sunrise creating an orange glow around the curtains, but when I opened them I found it was a massive DUST STORM!! It was really bizzare to look at, as the wind is really cold but the only time I have ever seen the sky this colour was through the bushfires. At first it was hard to tell if there was a heavy miscoloured fog, or if a bushfire had been lit overnight with the lightning from last nights storm.

Dust Stom in Bolwarra Heights

Its amazing that this much dust can travel through the air to create such a blanket over the state. All over the news there are stories about Sydney and the dust down there. Ferries have been cancelled and international flights have been diverted to Brisbane. Never seen a dust storm like this

Sun Trying to shing through the Dust Storm

Theres so much dust that the sun cant even shine through properly. That little dot is the sun at 9:30 this morning.

View of the Dust Storm from my garage

I am now waiting to see how long it takes for all the greenies to get on the global warming band wagon. There will be the apocolyptic naysayers saying the end is nigh too but I just say its a really cool dust storm. Western NSW is so dry now from a low rainfall winter, that there is no ground coverage to hold the dirt in place. Once the winds picked up there was no chance for the dust to stay on the ground.

Hopefully we will never see a dust storm this bad again, well not in my lifetime anyway!

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Light Reflections on the water

After being on an extended break from photography I have managed not to post any articles on here for nearly 6 months now, I havent even picked up my camera. Its been killing me.

My reasons?? Well procrastination is a big one!!! But in all honesty, my new job has been flat out and spare time has been nearly non existent so unfortunately the blog has been neglected a bit. I am going to make a big effort over the next few months to get out and shoot regularly, because here in Maitland there are so many great photo opportunities, and I would love to share this great area with you

Going through my hard drive and clearing a bit of space I came across a heap of photos that I havent posted yet so in the mean time I am going to make a big effort to try  and post some of them and do more on a regular basis to get this blog up and happening again.

You may notice that I have increased my watermark size and placed it more prominently in the photo. Apologies, but due to people stealing my photos without credit or payment I have had to make a more distracting watermark to try and slow these pests down. All my photos are still available for sale as prints or for electronic media, without watermark of course!

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Belmore Bridge Maitland

As I write this article all flood warnings for Maitland and the Hunter Valley have been cancelled. Yesterday it was a different story though with the Hunter, Paterson and Williams Rivers all rising fast thanks to the massive drenching we got this week.

Our thoughts go out to all the victims caught up in the Bellingen floods as We escaped by the skin of our teeth, floodwaters lapped at the top of levee banks at some of the lower areas around Maitland.

While I was at work I managed to stop at a few places as I travelled around to get a few pics just to show people how high the waters had risen. Thefollowing photos were taken on the morning of 2nd April, 2009 and the Rivers still rose a little bit more afterwards.

At Hinton where the River usually breaks first, the water was just lapping at the top of the levee bank. It wouldnt have taken much more water upstream to make it go over

At Raymond Terrace where Williams River merges with the Hunter River the Boat ramp and park just inside the levee bank went under overnight.

The Dunmore Bridge at Woodville has just had repairs begun and all the workers were madly scrambling to get everything to high ground. When I drove past there were a few site sheds that had wet feet. The grass in the foreground is the levee bank that I am standing on, and didnt have too much more to go before it spilled over

Just out of Woodville this lake is usually a grassy low lying area. Whenever it rains everything jsut flows into it and becomes a lake

Taken from the Dungog side of Paterson looking towards the township, the Paterson River had engulfed these river flats and created this very serene lake. You can just see the rail bridge in the distance. It looks perfect as a skiing spot, just watchout for floating trees.

Taken from underneath the Paterson rail bridge

Tucker Park in Paterson, has now become Tucker Lake

Looking from the roadside towards historic Tocal Homestead just outside Paterson. Usually there is just a small dam in front of the house that has now become a lake. If the waters spill over from the Paterson River then this lake will rise up quite a bit more.

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