Revisiting Australia

[Mongo]

Thanks Mark, any good camping spots for an RV you can recommend?

On my way to Byron Bay now and tomorrow Ill head to Nelson Bay / Port Stephens for the coffee and pelicans

Enjoy ....and no eating any pelicans. Mongo has them each labeled for future snacks when he next marauds in that area .     

[Jan Anne]

The whale watching boat trip was insane in so many ways, attached a borrowed image from the Whalesong.com.au of their boat for reference. I choose this operator because they went out the latest (14:00) covering the sunset while on the water, a decision I definitely did not regret making but more on that later

Humpback Whales a very intelligent and curious animals, they swim over from Antartica to calf in Hervey Bay where they come across these floaty thingies with these unfamiliar humans on them so for them we are the show and the more you wave to them the more interesting it is for them to come in for an inspection.

Once we found the first whales we stayed with them but more came in to investigate what was going on, in the end we were surrounded by a group of 7 surfacing on all sides of the boat incl swimming under the boat. Did see one breach but but couldn't take an image as I was on the wrong side of the boat when it happened 

All in all a very special experience and another check off the bucketlist

[Jan Anne]

Still have to go through hundreds of images but here's a few that stood out so far.

First a reference image of how close the whales got, here's three of them checking out the waving dude with the cool tattoos.

[Jan Anne]

Btw not looking to replicate the zillion commercial grade images out there so went a little creative to make it a little more interesting for myself

The "Blue Whale" was captured with the a7RII and Zeiss 35/1.4 FE and the high keyish b&w of course with the D500 and 200-500VR. The difference between the two cameras became very obvious during this outing btw, the D500 focussed way faster and never run out of buffer even at 10fps whereas the little Sony ran out after 5 shots or so which caused me to miss a few shots here and there. But when the a7RII did nail the shot the 42MP images offered a lot more detail and cropping possibilities, made me curious whether the new Nikon ML can deliver both the MP's, good AF and decent buffer

I was constantly switching cameras as the whales were constantly passing by the boat, a bench was very helpful to store the second camera as carrying both and trying to keep the shouldered camera from banging the railing was a bit too distracting.

[Jan Anne]

And now on to the icing on the cake

While the majority was sitting inside enjoying a cold beverage on the way back to Hervey Bay I put on a wind jacket and set myself outside on the starboard to enjoy an amazing sunset. Thinking the day couldn't get any better a squadron of fruit bats flew over so I had to put the cameras back to work, most people around me had now idea what I was shooting at as the bats were very hard to see with the naked eye but somehow both cameras nailed the focus any way which was rather impressive.

What a treat to see these flying foxes again after almost two decades, back then we hunted them in Arnhemland as they are considered a delicacy for the aboriginals but this time the shooting was limited to just taking images of these beautiful animals.

[PeterN]

A wonderful report and photos, Jan Anne. I am sorry for you that you had to waste your time on work. ;-)
Having been in Victoria, Tasmania, and Sydney I am again planning a trip at the end of the year.
I am looking forward to seeing more photos and reading your stories.

[Frank Fremerey]

The first shot in #63 is wonderfully crystalline

and of course I love the HiISO shots. What do we see here 8k? 20K?

[chris dees]

You should have trade in your sony and bought the 16-80/2.8-4.0E 

[Jan Anne]

Contrary to what names like "Pacific Highway" and "Old Ocean Road" suggest there were very few if any views of the ocean during the long trip South back to Sydney and most of the "Tourist Drives" also didn't offer any photographic opportunities but were merely a detour through some small towns where one could get a cup of coffee or lunch.

During one of those rather lacklustre tourist drives I did however encounter my first and only siting of a few skippies which weren't turned into roadkill.

This family of three was chilling in the shade besides the road, I pulled over, quickly grabbed the D500 with the 200-500VR and jumped out the RV to get a few shots. They got up when I got closer to inspect what I was doing, jumped across the road into the better light and disappeared into the bush when an cyclist passed by and spooked them.

Very impressive to see how big and muscular the male kangaroo was, definitely a lot bigger than the dozens of wallabies I encountered up North almost two decades ago.

[Jan Anne]

As my drive from Byron Bay to Nelson Bay was to become yet another long evening drive I pulled over at a riverside rest area half an hour or so before sunset for a bit of relaxing and consuming the necessary nutrients and calories for the rest of the trip.

As I walked back from the picknick table to the campervan to do the dishes a pelican swoops by so I dropped everything and ran to the riverside for a closer inspection but sadly enough the pelican landed on a rock in the middle of the river which was too far away to be of interest photographically. As my attention diverted to a small heron a second pelican flies in, turns around and swims towards me into the golden light of the setting sun, passes me by and starts grooming itself for an awesome backlit puffy feather shot with a nice ring of fire around the neck.

All three shots were taken within a 5 minute timeframe, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right equipment   

[Jan Anne]

Meanwhile the little heron returned to the scene demanding some attention, as the sun was very low the water in the background was in the shade of a small hill while our subject was nicely lit with soft golden light for a nice warm vs cold capture.

Was about to call it a day when a rather cute blond showed up to give her dog some exercise so of course I couldn't resist showing off my "big camera" and took a few shots of her canine in action

[Jan Anne]

Friday night I camped in the bush near Nelson Bay, was kind of a remote camper spot which involved a rather bumpy 10 minute ride into the woods but luckily all the plates and glasswork survived the journey.

As I was the first on the scene around 23:00 at night I thought it was going to be quiet night of solitude but as it turned out the opposite happened. Another car came in shortly after my arrival and setup a tent for the night, a couple of 4x4's passed by a few times headed for the 4x4 only camping area further down the road and the next morning I woke up surrounded by a noisy pack of Boy Scouts gathering for a hike in the area

After a rough night I headed to Mongo's favourite feeding ground and favourite hangout of the local pelican population. The reason why they hang out there is that there's a cleaning station for the local fishermen and the pelicans get all the scraps or fish not deemed fit for human consumption.

This of course this provided an awesome opportunity to shoot some pelicans swooping in for a free lunch or get really close to them for a nice portrait as they are accustomed to human interaction. Their wingspan is btw really impressive when they come flying in straight at you

[Jan Anne]

Here's a quick snapshot of the fish cleaning station to give some context to the story posted above

[Jan Anne]

This morning it was time to cleanup my looks after the crazy 5 day 2500km road trip and trim the beard to be a little more presentable for my office duties this week.

Simply had to take an image of the carnage in the sink because my road trip comes full circle with this trimmer as I had it with me during my backpacking adventure 19 years ago (hooray for replaceable AA batteries).

The melted surface of the trimmer is from a leaking container of DEET anti-mosquito creme btw so please let this be a warning to keep that junk away from your precious gear as it will literary melt the plastic parts away 

[Fons Baerken]

That seated peli in #71 is quite the character