I plan on getting a bit more active on my blog so I have added a new category of Photoblog. To this category I shall upload a single shot and just a short description all very brief. So without any further ado.
Tinebank creek is in Willi Willi National Park just a short walk along the Waterfall Walk. It seems like quite an isolated park and I certainly had it to myself when I went. Willi Willi is listed as part of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Areas.
I got back last week from a 3 week trip to the Northern Rivers region on the north coast of New South Wales. It was a great trip, I caught up with my family and just basically relaxed. I got up on most mornings for the sunrises and as a result I think I have seen more sunrises in the last couple of weeks than I have in my entire life. I took a few days to drive up there stopping off along the way at some of N.S.W.’s world heritage listed national park the Gondwana rainforests.
When I thought about Australia and national parks a sea of trees sprung to mind such as the views you get in the Blue Mountains. When I thought about being down under the canopies I thought about the type of scrubby bush that I grew up in and around and visited on camping trips with my parents. Nice to some I guess but as they say familiarity breeds contempt. I wouldn’t say I was at the contempt stage but I just found it hard to get excited about it. The trip north really changed all that for me and opened my eyes up to a lot more of what Australia has on offer. In 3 days I visited 7 national parks on my whistle-stop tour. Not enough time to really get to know any but enough to scratch the surface and peek inside.
I tried to visit as many of the World Heritage Gondwana Rainforests as I could (the list is quite long) even if it was only briefly. I was reasonably lucky with the weather. I was following a storm up the coast so although I didn’t get much rain all the waterfalls running not something that always happens in these areas. If I want to be picky I wouldn’t have minded a slight drizzle for photographing in the forests as this really brings out the colours and adds a beautiful atmosphere.
I would certainly like to return to a few of them and spend a few days walking around photographing them. I am also planning to visit some more of the Shield Group which is up on the Queensland and New South Wales border as I didn’t get to see too many of these.
I have never been overly thrilled with the way my website displays my panoramas to you. They always seem to be lacking a lot of detail, skinny little pictures that don’t really do justice to the original shot. Today I came across a viewer that should be able to change all that. Above is my first test of the Seadragon Viewer from Microsoft. I would appreciate it if you could let me know if you have any problems using it. At the moment it is running through zoom.it a website that allows anyone to set it up.
There has been a few waves around on Sydney’s beaches this last week. Although I don’t really have the lens for surf photography I thought I should take myself down to a few of the local beaches and see if I could get any shots. For surf shots like these I could really do with a much bigger lens but that’s just not going to happen at the moment.I am going to make a special effort to get up early in the morning and get myself down to the beach to go shooting. Although I love the sunrise and all I have never been much of a morning person so this will be quite a struggle for me but worth the effort I am sure or so I am going to keep telling myself.
Stormy weather off Sydney’s coast has stirred the water on the Northern Beaches bringing a large swell with it. I went down to South Curl Curl rock pool to get a few sunset shots but was unfortunately a bit late for the sunset. I got some shots of the waves swirling around the pool though in the fading light. The panorama is made up of 6 shots. The guys in the panorama were throwing themselves off the side of the pool and into passing waves to be swept off towards the beach.
Barrington Tops National Park lies about three hours to the north of Sydney in the Hunter Valley, a region more famed for its wine growing. The park is on the World Heritage List as part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia. What makes the Gondwana Rainforests so special is that, according to fossil records, many of the species in the rainforests today existed on the Gondwana continent over 200 million years ago. The park has also been declared a Wilderness area and some of the rivers have been classed as Wild Rivers, meaning they are exceptionally pure and free of contaminants.
I spent a couple of days there in the south eastern section. Due to wet weather driving it wasn’t really possible for me to get too far into the park in my little city car. I stayed down near the Blue Gum Circuit and explored from there. The rainforest there is beautiful. There was a constant drizzle of rain and at times torrential rain but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Grey skies reduce the contrast and make for great photo opportunities inside a forest. One thing the rain did bring out though was an incredible amount of leeches. I have never seen so many before and it was near impossible to keep them off me. Whenever I stopped to take a picture they just seemed to launch themselves upon me. Somehow they even managed to get upon my face a couple of times.
Different sections of the park are supposedly completely different. The flora in the park varies from the rainforests through to alpine. In winter the high reaches of the park often get covered in snow. I certainly hope to get back there sometime soon, perhaps next time either better prepared for a longer walk or with a 4wd so I can get further into the park and experience some of the different sections.
