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Day 42 – Heading back to the Gold Coast

Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on November 12, 2009| 7 Comments »

After our visit to Coffs Harbour and the surrounding area, it was time time to go back home. We stopped at a small town called Yumba which was lovely. Nothing flash, but had a lot of character and would be a nice place to visit in future. We then moved on to Byron Bay which is much more popular with tourists and back packers. It looks like there’s lot to do in Byron Bay and there’s always something going on.

The light house house at Yumba.

A retired couple admiring the view...

The beach at Byron Bay.

Great beach... The which is safe to swim in... 😉

This was taken around 12pm on a Monday...

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Day 41 – Dangar Water Falls

Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on November 12, 2009| 4 Comments »

Day 41 was about driving inland and going to a small town called Bellingin and not too far away was a water fall. We decided this was worth looking at and went for the drive. The weather had got worse unfortunately… Fortunately, I had my camera Storm Jacket which came in very handy!!

We stopped at a small arts centre in Bellingin and had this lovely floor pattern.

Hmm... scary!

The arts centre was just a lovely place.

This was a water fall on the main road which was named, Waterfall Way.

Yes... road works are everywhere in the world eh!

Dangar Falls! It was raining here and I used my camera's Storm Jacket.

Danger Falls from another angle.

A wider view...

On our way back to the car...

Dangar Falls is way up in the mountains. So on our way back to Coffs Harbour, I took this image from the car when we were in the clouds...

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Day 39 & 40 – Coffs Harbour

Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on November 12, 2009| 4 Comments »

Day 39 started out leaving early for Coffs Harbour… This is about 320Km from the Gold Coast. Unfortunately the weather was very extreme! This turned out to be quite exciting. I’ve not been a real storm for a while. The rain came down real heavy!! In 6 hours Coffs Harbour had more rain than Melbourne gets in a whole year!

The road flooding on the way from Grafton to Coffs Harbour.

The storm carried on through the evening… and the rain just kept coming… The next day the sun decided to come out and we did a few things which was awesome. We went to a nearby marina and took a long walk.

The marina below. We had just walked along the path you can see and we're going up a small hill.

Kim and Owen on the walk on top of the small hill.

Kim and Owen.

I liked this view of the marina path way.

Kim and Owen by the marina. ISO 200, 1/200 sec, F8, Flash at -1 FEV.

Owen on one of the marina walk ways. Program Mode, -1 EV, Flash fired.

After the marina, we went for a drive to Harbour Town a short distance away…

The Coffs Harbour horse race field flooded! Taken while driving to Harbour Town. ISO 640, 1/8000 sec, F4.

More flooding on the road side...

Kim and Owen. Taken on a 200mm lens.

Taken near were we had lunch on the river...

Another view... the water in the shot was from the flooding.

This is a bridge over the restaurant where we had a fantastic lunch!

Another view of the bridge...

After lunch, we took a walk along the river…

An on-the-river home. Notice the water level on the stairs!

I couldn't resist the reflection on the buildings on the flood water...

Hmm.. looks like Owen is struggling to walk any further after the large lunch!

Golf Course is flooded...

I asked Owen to stand by this wall... No flash for a change! 😉

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Day 37 – Evening in Coolangatta

Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on November 5, 2009| 5 Comments »

Cliff and I went to Coolangatta and we had a few beers… I took a few images of the beach area and Surfers Paradise… a few pics below…

Surfers Paradise and Main Beach at night.

Moon at night...

Taken at 4:30am in the morning...

Lovely early morning on the coast...

Hmm... Let's take the kite for a walk...

I guess the guy decided to Kite Surf after all... 😉

I used a polarising filter to remove the reflections of the sea... Taken at around 9:30am.

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Day 35 – Mount Tambourine

Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on November 5, 2009| 3 Comments »

On Day 35, we went up about to a large mountain range close by which took around 30 minutes by car. Where my brother is located, you have Coolangatta within 30 minutes and this lovely mountain range. The town of Tambourine is very “perfect like” and reminds me of a small village in Cornwall where everybody appears to be ever-so-happy!

Once at Tambourine, we went to the Skywalk in the forest where you walk close to the tree line on very high walking platforms.

Here are some photos…

We stopped at a lovely location for a coffee on our way up the mountain. You can see Main Beach and Surfers Paradise in the distance.

A kookaburra decided to join us for coffee 🙂

Surfers Paradise and Main Beach in the distance.

Garden furniture where we had coffee.

My brother Cliff on the Skywalk in the forest.

The walk around the Skywalk took around 45 minutes.

Its a long way down from the Skywalk platform!

The thick forest behind me! Photo by Cliff Cole.

Check the way that vine wraps round the tree!

At this point we're off the high platforms and walking through the forest.

The trees are really tall...

Me with my brother Cliff. Photo by Vania Cole.

Was very peaceful being here... listening to the water running by...

Can you see the Skywalk platform...

Me at one end of the Skywalk platform... I love that forest behind me! Was really awesome to look at.

Click on this image to see a larger panoramic view of the forest from the Skywalk platform.

A dead tree structure in the middle of the forest.

After the Skywalk, we moved on to a waterfall nearby...

The waterfall from another angle... Shooting in bright harsh light makes it difficult to get a shot where you can see the water running...

A very tame kookaburra! I love the way the bird is looking down. Taken at a 105mm focal length.

My last frame... taken at 200mm...

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Day 29 – Walk about in the Gold Coast

Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on October 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

My niece Bronwen took me around the Gold Coast and showed me a lot of the sites which was fantastic! It was also the first time I had met her daughter Ava! We wondered about, chatted, had lunch and the whole day was fun! Yeah! Hope to do it all again soon…

A few pics from the day…

Lovely Ava.

Ava enjoying the day!

Taking a rest from all the running... 😉

Bronwen and Ava.

On our way back to the car...

Surfers Paradise in the distance.

Back near the car park. The small lighthouse that we had been to in the distance.

Ava exploring the surrounding area.

This photo was taken after lunch. Ava has a little flower in her left hand.

How scary does this frame look! We were back at Bronwen's apartment and had just parked the car. Extreme low light with the car park entrance at the far end. Perfect for a silhouette! Taken at ISO 3200.

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Day 27 & 28 – Arriving in the Gold Coast

Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on October 27, 2009| 2 Comments »

Well… I’ve arrived! Yeah!! Been a couple of days since I posted. Been a little busy!

On Sunday (Day 27) we went out for a quick beer and wondered around Sanctuary Cove and then went over to see some bats. How many bats? Wow!!! These beasts are huge!

Day 28 was meeting up with my niece Gwen and watched her son give a presentation at his school. Very cool!

Some pics below…

The Hyatt Regency hotel at Sanctuary Cove, Gold Coast.

Us wondering around the hotel...

This bat is huge!

Bat flying through the trees. ISO 1250, 200mm, 1/50 sec, F2.8.

Owen and Kim wondering around in front of me...

The shopping mall where we had ice cream 🙂

Broad Beach, Gold Coast. Looking south towards Coolangatta. Half of Coolangatta is in Queensland and the other half is in New South Wales.

Broad Beach, Gold Coast. Looking south towards Coolangatta. The buildings visible on the right in frame is Surfers Paradise. Half of Coolangatta is in Queensland and the other half is in New South Wales.

Broad Beach looking north. You can see the storm coming in from the right.

Owen's pet fish named Rambo! Flash on the left and the right. ISO 200, 1/60 sec, F4.

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Day 26 — Mount Dandenong

Posted in Flash, General Ramblings, Outdoors on October 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Today all of us wondered up to Mount Dandenong just on the outskirts of Melbourne. A really nice place with spectacular views of Melbourne. We had lunch and admired the view. I also grabbed a few portrait frames of Ryan… Images below…

On our way up the mountain...

Notice all the trees in the distance!

Yes... its me! Photo by Barry Johnston.

Melbourne city centre in the distance...

To demonstrate the power of a 400mm lens, this image is at 24mm. If you look very closely, you can see the city centre in the centre of the frame.

To demonstrate the power of a 400mm lens, this image is at 24mm. On my camera body, this would be 24 x 1.6 = 38mm 35mm camera equivalent focal length. If you look very closely, you can see the city centre in the centre of the frame.

Taken with Barry's 400mm F2.8 lens! I can't even get all of the city centre in the frame! On my camera body, this is 400 x 1.6 = 640mm 35mm camera equivalent focal length.

Portrait of Ryan in natural light.

Portrait of Ryan with flash. ISO 200, 1/200 sec, F13.

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Day 24 – Evening out in Melbourne

Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on October 22, 2009| 4 Comments »

Tonight Barry, Sharon and I went out in Melbourne and had a fantastic night! And we took our cameras for some night shooting… We stopped at a couple of bars along the way and had a bite to eat. Beer always helps the food go down! 😉 Here are a few frames…

Melbourne at night...

A fantastic singer on his guitar... goes by the name "Mojo Jacket".

It's nice having a beer with this view!

On our way back to the car....

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Day 18 – Great Ocean Road

Posted in Flash, General Ramblings, Outdoors on October 17, 2009| 5 Comments »

Barry took me on the Great Ocean Road and wow! It is so beautiful! Its quite a long journey so we had had to get up early and head off… We left around 7am and eventually got back just before 7pm. We did a total of about 460Km.

Our first stop was Anglesea where we had breakfast, then on to Leone where we stopped for lunch and finally turned round at Apollo Bay. We chose to come back to Melbourne along the sea front as it was so amazing… There’s something very comforting about looking out over the sea…

Anyhow, here are some photos… choosing which ones to include in this post was agonising as its easy to just publish all of them here… Enjoy…

Our frist stop for breakfast.

Walking to the Lighthouse at Anglesea. Photo by Barry Johnston.

The lighthouse up close.

The lighthouse up close, even closer...

View of the lighthouse. Used a 3 stop Neutral Density Gradient Filter for effect.

The view out to sea from the lighthouse.

View from the lighthouse out towards the coast line.

Portrait view of the above shot. I didn't know which one to use, so I decided to use both.

On the road from Anglesea to Leone.

Leaving Anglesea, we came across this house!

The official start of the Great Ocean Road. Photo by Barry Johnston.

Along the route... see the road on the right, that's where we travelled along.

Quick frame from inside the car.

Just endless coast line...

I love the bird in this frame!

The sea washing over rocks.

We stopped here for lunch in Leone.

Back on the road from Leone to Apollo Bay.

I wanted to try a couple of portrait shots using flash. Photo by Barry Johnston.

And a portrait of Barry.

We then stopped to photograph bikers heading towards Philip Island... Photo by Barry Johnston.

Biker on route...

More bikers...

Barry was across the road and grabbed many action shots like this one. Photo by Barry Johnston.

Where the bikers in the previous photos had just come from.

We stopped to get a few shots of kite surfers.

Unfortunately we didn't have the big 400mm lens with us.

My first frame at Apollo Bay.

Again... I can't make a choice of which of these frames to include, so I included another photo.

You can see the rain coming in from the right...

Even with the rain coming in... Barry's on a mission! 😉

We drove a little out of Apollo Bay and I grabbed this stormy shot.

We decided to head back to Melbourne and I thought I'd get this shot of that house with the lighthouse in Anglesea in the distance.

On the way out of Anglesea (towards Melbourne), we could see this amazing rainbow! We stopped and within seconds (about 15 seconds), the rainbow had gone. I managed to get this shot that shows a slight hint that it was there.