This house in Emu Plains goes nuts with the christmas lights throughout December. I would have liked to photograph some more houses but felt a bit weird pulling out the big camera in peoples frontyards if there wasn’t a crowd around. Getting some decent shots without a tripod was a little tricky but I was surprised at how well the ISO1600 images turned out from the Pentax KX.

At the start of December we decorate the house and put up our christmas tree. We always take a photo of the family putting the star on the tree

For a simple shot there’s a bit that goes into it. Setting up the tripod, framing to fit everyone, setting the white balance and I’m triggering the camera with an infra red remote with a timer delay on the camera. Sneaky.

Impulse buy of the year. David and I were at Hayden Pies in Ulladulla and the idea of getting a catamaran popped into our heads again. Using the 4 bars of HSPA and our trusty Android phones, it wasn’t long till we had the eBay app loaded and sourced a boat that went off in about 4hrs. The conversation went something like “should we bid?” … “hmm it looks good” … “should we do it?” …. “hmmm I dunno…” … “YES, do it!” “go for it!?!?:” hahahahhahaa. So yeah, we ended up with a catamaran. I chose this picture not for it’s photographic value but more or less a reminder to how amateur we are at sailing… in the backyard. It took us many times to figure out how to actually rig it up and this was a victory moment. Our maiden voyage was another story in itself but we basically overloaded it, mildly sunk it and had to get rescued.

A revisit to Flat Rock at Wentworth Falls. Some guys were smacking golf ball into the abyss. The low clouds and high cliffs created this eerie contrast with a mystery as to what lies below.

Sometimes you simply just have to look to the sky for an interesting photo. All you have to do is look up and click. The cloud photos were taken at the top of Big Bit Lookout down the south coast. It was a sunny day with storm clouds rolling in the distance and the cloud formations were impressive.

Firstly… would you believe this photo was taken with my Samsung Galaxy S mobile phone! I thought that all of my weekly photos would be from my Pentax K-X but the camera in this phone is impressive and having it in my pocket all the time is handy to capture the moments. Lara did the the MS ride from Sydney to Wollongong. A 90km stretch to raise funds. I would have liked to do it but needed to be focused for an exam at uni. Anyway, we stayed in Wollongong and got some takeaway Thai food and found this bench near the Flagstaff Hill Lighthouse on sunset. The beach looked awesome, but there’s something not right about a giant polluting steel works on the waterfront at Port Kembla. Time to go down the South Coast where the landscape is untouched… hopefully the water isn’t too cold.

I’m a little behind on the weekly photos and have just started sorting through my 2010 gallery. I’ve come across a few great photos that should be included in the weekly photo challenge that got left out at the time. This is our TV remote and with an LED torch and a slow shutter speed, the results are pretty impressive.

This photo was taken down the coast in Batemans Bay as the sun was starting to go down. It was taken using the auto mode as I was being a bit sneaky and waiting for the fishermen to stop looking in my direction.

Crucial ingredient for a good stir fry.

Mum brought home 10 freshly hatched chicks as part of the living eggs program. They mostly huddled under the lightbulb to keep warm and slept for most of the weekend. Very cute.

Significant wind damage occurred in the Illawarra and South Coast, one of the windiest parts of the country. Gusts as strong as 126 km/h hit Bellambi, on the Wollongong coast, the strongest recorded there in six years.
Source

So with the wind blowing, it seemed like a great day for a bushwalk and it was. Initially I had to dodge branches that were scattered on the highway blocking some lanes and then we came across a tree that was blocking the road to the Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk. Luckily enough we were able to move it aside and get passed. The tree top walk is an amazing piece of engineering. How they built it without destroying the landscape is quite an effort. We were advised that the tower can withstand 280km/h winds so we were fine…. haha. When climbing the steps you could feel the tower swaying. Once at the top the views were of course very scenic and the coastline visible.

After the tree top walk Lara and I ended up having a look around Kiama near the blowhole. Even with the choppy water there wasn’t enough swell to cause it to go off so we let the seagulls entertain us.

After completing a bunch of assignments, I finally had some time to get out and take some photos. I had intended to get photos of surfers after last weeks swell so I was armed with my Sigma 70-300mm lens ready for some telephoto shots. However, the beach was flat and the weather was overcast so I gave up on that idea and loaded up c:geo on my phone and found that I was within 50m of a geocache. Whilst looking for the cache I spotted this eastern water dragon watching me and figured this shot is worthy of a POTW, although this isn’t the first time I’ve spotted one of these in the wild. If only Bear Grylls was around…

Bit of a delay in the photo of the week lately. Things with uni have been pretty full on and I haven’t had much time to myself to get creative with the camera. This photo represents the hard yakka of studying and the build up of work that accumulates throughout university. Hopefully things should settle down and I’ll get back on track.

Today I got some video of my cousin doing backflips at Glenbrook skatepark. Whilst I was I was using my Pentax KX in video mode for most of the day, I had to get a few shots for photo of the week and I reckon this one is quite awesome! It has been about 3 years since we made our last bmx video and his skills have definitely improved.

Woot woot, I got a new phone. Still working out all the hacks but it’s pretty awesome so far. It has a real nice screen on it and syncs to everything online with all sorts of Android apps and can also  shoot 720p video.

Kalang Falls is located at Kanangra Walls, passed Jenolan Caves. We had a quick stop at the caves and looked at the Blue Lake, to our surprise we saw a platypus! This is the first time I’ve ever seen one in its natural habitat. A 30km dirt road lead us to Kanangra Walls, there was a short steep track to get down to the falls and after some heavy rain the water was cascading down with a decent flow. After taking about 20 shots of the falls I settled on this one. It would have been nice to have less light to do a longer shutter speed but it wasn’t viable. I settled on this taken at 1/1000th of a second leading to a sharp photo and even managed to capture the rainbow. If only it was summer, the temperature was actually quite cold and it was a windy day but any day is good for an adventure. After the hike back up to the top we did the plateau walk and the view looking back towards the lookout was fantastic. It reminded me of scenes from Jurassic Park.

Taken on an adventure with Ross out near Hanging Rock. The sun was setting just as the moon was rising. I was standing about 50m down the mountain with full zoom giving Ross directions on where to place his hands. I thought it was pretty creative.

The rope on the front deck of the Rivercat taken with the nifty fifty.

Whilst back in the mountains for a break from uni I got some mates to come on a photography adventure into Sydney with the only real purpose to see the  Sydney Morning Heralds 1440 Photos exhibition at the State Library.

We were armed with:

• Pentax K100D Super + SMC Pentax-DAL 1:3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL
• Pentax K-X + SMC Pentax-A 1:2  50mm
• Canon 500D + Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II

To enhance the photography adventure we caught the Ferry from Parramatta. Although it was actually Rydalmere as the water level was too low for the ferry. It was about 50mins to Circular Quay with a better view than what Cityrail could offer.

Once off the ferry we blended in with our DSLR’s, a lot like ninjas. It didn’t feel as awkward to take random photos as about 80% of everyone else in the city was doing the same thing. I used the cloning technique that I had previously learned to create the skateboarding photo and also utilised some HDR techniques for the Centrepoint shot.

The exhibition was held at the State Library. The majority of photos were significant moments captured in time from around the world. A lot of the photos came across as being in the ‘right place at the right time’ but the text detailing each photo was both interesting and sometimes disturbing. As the city lights switched on and the day turned to night it led to some interesting night photos.

We couldn’t go into the city and avoid taking photos of the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House. The 50mm prime lenses came into the spotlight in the lower light conditions.

A long walk to Chinatown led us to an array of restaurants with plenty of Chinese girls trying desperately to coax us into their restaurant. It was slightly annoying getting a menu shoved in your face every 3 metres. The way to deal with them was to simply take a photo of them, they didn’t like this too much. After reviewing some of the menus we were still hesitant on where to go so we consulted to the 20c coin toss. She didn’t like that either, but it was her lucky day and we made our way up for the $16.50 per head banquet that consisted of:

Entree:

• Springs Rolls
• Dim Sims
• Chicken & Corn Soup

Main:

• Satay Chicken
• Mongolian Lamb
• Beef & BBQ

The only thing missing from Chinatown was dessert but we had that covered and took a walk to Darling Harbour to arrive at Pancakes on the Rocks just before closing time to finish the night off.

Actually, there was an old drunk on the train that provided us with Cityrail entertainment for a good half hour that finished the night.

I’ve never really taken photos of flowers because our garden doesn’t have any. Whilst working at the hardware store I took the opportunity of getting some colourful flower photos even though it was a cloudy day. I’ve no idea what type they are but find the various colours interesting.

I’ve had a busy few weeks living on my own. I came across this tutorial and felt inclined to test it out. Quite a simple but effective technique.