Taronga Zoo, Sydney 2011--

 I haven't posted in awhile, but that purely comes down to not having time.. I just returned from a trip to sydney, so I thought while I have the day off.. lets update. The trip to Sydney was primarily to watch my younger cousin (Jack Debreczeni) represent Australia in Rugby Union in the Schoolboys tournament, but while in Sydney you can't not go to Taronga Park Zoo! The day started overcast as we checked out of our hotel and then turned to rain as we got to the ferry's, we bought umbrellas and as it normally goes 10 minutes later it cleared up and the sun was warming us up. Here's a few animals and creatures from the zoo, and I might add this was the first time I ever filled my 32gig card and half a 16 one to.. note to self, take more memory cards next time. Hope you like. 

Dinosaur

Green tree frog doing what green tree frogs do.. nothing..

Do not put hands here

Trying to hide

Rattle snake, one gnarly looking snake

Most things green really don't do much

Feeding time for the giraffe's 

Play time for the youngster 

Got my reflection as he stared at me, kinda makes you feel sad for them.

Best real estate in Sydney and this goat doesn't even care

Catching rays and catching shade

I wouldn't want to come across him in the wild

So amazing yet scary

Bambi

We all have a mate that looks like this

Planning his escape

Mother and baby

Nobody's getting my food

We've all come across blokes like this

Feast

I didn't hear nothing!

The ride back

Achievements so far--

Here is some recently published photos, two were used in a TV commercial for XXXX beer as a thank you to Queenslanders for helping out when times were tough. The other is a Newspaper cover during the floods.

XXXX Community Thank You.

 (The two images used)

Quest News A&L Edition cover.

What it is to be a kid--

I remember as a kid.. (not so long ago).. doing things with friends, you wouldn't think twice about, but now I definitely wouldn't attempt half of them. Kids are somewhat fearless and do not look towards the consequences. Their all about FUN. 

On the lookout.

Playing chicken with the ocean. 

Sequence.

Late Snapper afternoon--

I had spent the day wondering the forests of Springbrook National Park, trekking to waterfalls and just all round adventuring. I arrived at Purling Brook Falls and it was flowing! but flowing a little to much, the water was spraying out sideways and the only available spots for taking photos were getting drenched. So I had just walked 4km to get there and now had to keep going, and for this you have to pass behind the water fall, I am currently sick so this was a bit of a pain, but I did it and came out the other side damp. I walked 20m away and it started to bucket down. I should have just stood under the water fall... Now a 4km hike in the rain and mud back to the car and with maybe two or three photos.. Great.. Oh well I had to do it.

 Just my luck, when I got back to the car drenched, it stopped, maybe mother nature was trying to tell me something. So I got off the mountain quick smart. Coming down I could see the Gold Coast and could tell dusk was gonna be good. So I darted to Snapper, and with the high tide and the clouds out to sea and the sun just giving enough light from behind the hinterland I was able to get to work. Here are a couple. Pretty stoked now I didn't just go home after mother nature kicked my ass. 

 The sun just beginning to set 

Snapper doing its thing behind the rocks.  

The sky just seemed to be getting better.

Dawn service 2011--

It's been a busy weekend! Getting up at 3.30am to head into Anzac Square in Brisbane city was not the challenging part of my day.. It was the over cast cloudy morning followed by street lights flickering on and off. Low light and high ISO but I just coped it. I thought I had a good spot to catch some of our finest men and women paying respects to their fallen diggers, but for this being my first dawn service I was stuck in the crowd, and should have listened to  my sub conscious and snuck into the press area while the gates were open.. Well next year I will! I guess thats how these things go. 


' LEST WE FORGET '

One of our brave.

The proud people of Brisbane paying respect.

Fingal head fun--

Not much to say here people. Here's a couple from yesterdays experimenting, hope you enjoy.

A long day of long exposures--

It really wasn't a long day. It was short and sweet, just like my words for this post. As updated earlier I finally got my camera back from Canon and with an improved kit I went out today with my new ND filter and got some 1-4 second exposures in the middle of the day. Which for me has expanded the horizons of photography. Here's a few from today.

Return of the Camera--

 I finally got my camera back from canon today! 5 weeks without a camera has been devastating. So so so many missed opportunity's and the day I get it back it's raining cats and dogs. So while my camera was away I have been able to build my kit up a little more, so I busted everything out and with a house of dogs what better subject to practice my portraiture on. Here's puppy portraits. NOTE: Taking photos of things that don't understand english = Frustrating (give me a human any day).

The Prince of chaos- Oscar

The Princess- Chanel

Going back--

I was just recently back in New Zealand. This time with no camera equipment. As my 5D mark II was in for some pixel repairs, I was losing my mind as I was watching epic sunrises, sunsets and exploring headlands and seeing views only few would bother to walk to. So now im back and im going through some photos from my trip last year and decided to put a few more up. 

 This was taken with my iPhone 4 on my recent trip with the Pro Camera App. It's a gem of a app.

This was taken in the Coromandel area, very hard to believe this photo isn't photoshop'd but believe me this is very very very real. 

 New Zealand farmland from a moving campervan.

 Some more Gisbourne barrel times. 

A beach shack for some beach shacks.

Low lying clouds and baron land. You can even see the Chateau in between the foothills. 

An internal quest.

After a day of shooting, it's time to edit and process. Yet every time I do this I discover a recurring problem, but the routine process begins anyway... Favourite iTunes playlist- check, blinds open- check, memory card- check, lightroom- check, okay lets do this. 


But now I find myself in this repeating pickle. Black and white or colour...??? I often spend hours processing my photos and I will always come back to them a few months later to do the same thing but just the opposite and I can never seem to beat this double sided beast inside of me. Black and White is a drug to me and Colour is reality, some times I know I have to come back to reality but black and white is to tempting, it's to sweet. And I know it comes down to what your subject is but I always seem to find my self in the black and white realm. So I have combined some images for comparison, trying to decide once and for all to be more 50/50 with my choices or is this my thing.. But when reality Michael left the room for a second the black and white junkie snuck in and I have some how tricked myself into uploading more black and whites..


Model- The beautiful Amber Kelly