Another Darwin sunset

Got some nice colours at the very last moment before it all went dark.  Used a slow shutter speed to get the nice water movement amongst the rocks.

An average Darwin sunset :)

Epic Anniversary Storm

Well my wife and I went in to have dinner at the beach for our 23rd wedding anniversary yesterday evening.   We were sitting peacefully at Nightcliff watching the sunset when I heard some angry distant rumbling behind us...  alas the mother of all storms was advancing from the east!

Well we ducked into town to Fisherman's Wharf to get a better view and it really was an awesome sight.  The bureau sent out a Severe Thunderstorm Warning as it had some pretty wild winds and lightning associated with it.

Pity about the rain on the lens for this one!

Storm season is kicking in!

Got up at 2.30am this morning when I heard some distant thunder and headed into Nightcliff.  Got some keepers as a little storm went by just off the coast.

Cape Le Grande Roos

Often I find when I go back and look at old photos I see an unloved discarded one that I now see potential in.  These kangaroos were at Cape Le Grande National Park near Esperance Western Australia.  We had driven down the West Coast from Darwin and were heading across to Adelaide to drive up the centre.  This was an awesome place but we unfortunately only had half a day there - I plan on going back there some day.

Bayview Strike

Got my best close-up lightning capture just before dawn this morning.  Was awoken by thunder at around 5am and saw on the radar that it would be a home in Palmerston within 10 minutes or so.  I decided to try and get ahead of it a bit and rushed into town and ended up at Fishermens Wharf. 

Got a few ok shots as it came in but nothing really good.  I had horizontal drizzle straight at me wetting the lens and decided to pack up.  I was just driving out when I noticed the rain eased a bit and a big bolt landed to the north of me.  I grabbed the tripod out again, didn't even extend the legs and setup as quick as I could and got this one good bolt before the really heavy rain chased me back into the car.  I could put the camera side-on to the wind for this shot so water drops on the lens wasn't such an issue.

Wound the aperture all the way to F18 as I knew it would be very bright - and the exposure was perfect.  Luckily it was as I was somehow accidentally in jpeg mode and not RAW as I normally am - forgot to check that as I rarely change that setting!

At F18 it sure highlighted all the dust spots on my sensor with the big depth of field - so I had to clean up the image somewhat - also added a bit of contrast.  This shot is not cropped except for a bit of tilt to fix a slightly crooked horizon.

East Point sunset

Plenty of storm weather yesterday afternoon but not much lightning that I could find.  The sunset ended up being very grey but I was able to nab this little window that appeared for a few minutes.  This was taken at 120mm.

East Arm Bolt

Just got this down at East Arm...  was the only bolt I saw and was about to pack up when it sprung out in front of me.  *Yawn* time for bed!

Its cricket season

Saw this fella that I assume is a cricket camouflaged against the bark of a tree on the side of the highway.  I went for a drive hoping for a storm or two down the Batchelor way but it was pretty quiet.  The beauty of a macro lens in the kit is that you can pull up anywhere and find shots of bugs or flowers etc.

This guy on the left was about the size of a toothpick - I have no idea what he is.

East Point Crawler

Took this in the early hours of Saturday morning from the Museum boat ramp.  I missed a few as a lot of drizzle fell at the back end of the storm as it went over the water and it was too wet to try and take photos outside the car.

First lightning photo of the season

Noonamah Bolt

I went for a drive tonight and got this distant bolt from Noonamah.  The shot is heavily cropped and taken with a 120mm lens.  I set the camera to manual for a 30 second exposure at F5 and 100 ISO to keep the noise down.  The grass in the foreground is lit up by the carpark lights near me which I think adds a nice bit of background.

Sunset in Black and White?

Sunsets are all about colour aren't they?  I must be crazy then as I somehow preferred this one in black and white - I just liked the textures and shapes that the monochrome conversion brings out...

Taken this evening at Fanny Bay.

Out for lunch

Sorry about the lack of updates folks - but I'll be back very soon!  I've basically been without a camera for sometime but have the newly announced Nikon D800E on preorder - and I'm waiting for it like an excited kid!    In the meantime I've ordered the Zeiss 21mm 2.8, Nikon 24-120/4 & Nikon 300/4 lenses.

I'll hopefully get the new camera around mid April.

Here's a favourite from a couple of years ago for old time's sake! :)

Lightning Arch

Lightning Arch over Darwin Waterfront

Been a bit slack lately folks and even this one was an unplanned shot.  My wife and I went to our son Daniel's year 12 graduation at the Convention Centre and saw this on the way when we were leaving for the car.  I didn't have my camera with me but had borrowed my sister's camera (as I only have wide angle lenses not suitable for taking pics at a party).  Lucky I had the tripod in the car and I got a dozen or so shots of some nice lightning.  This was a 30 second exposure at around F8 I think - at ISO100.

More buildup storms

Went for a drive this afternoon - saw a promising beauty building up around Acacia but it faded.  I ended up at Channel Island where a nice storm came up just on sunset and lit up beautifully.  I did get a few shots of bolts coming out of it but no real good ones...  so these are the ones I liked but with no lightning...  I still haven't got a good sunset lightning shot!

My first lightning captures of the season

These taken today around Noonamah as I met up with a few "stormchasers".  We were to meet at Noonamah and decide where to go from there when the action got pretty good right there!

3 Amigos revisited

Went again to the same place tonight - same three trees but thought it would be interesting to show the same scene on a different day with a different lens.

It would be good to find a closer place to park to this but I guess I needed the exercise.  Tried to park closer to walk to the spot through the bush instead of the long way along the beach - but it wasn't a lot shorter and a bit more rugged walking - especially when its dark going back to the car! :)

Sandfly Creek Sunset

Trudged down to my little secret spot this evening (its not really very secret - you probably know where it is!) hoping to get a good sunset.  The sky looked very clear but then a few clouds came in and there was a nice glow whilst the sun was still above the horizon but it unfortunately got fairly dull at my favourite sunset time 10 minutes or so after the sun disappears.

This is a 3 shot HDR - basically 3 exposures of the same scene merged together to capture all the varying brightness of the scene.  Without this the mangroves would be completely silhouetted (black).  This is essentially what our eyes do when surveying a scene anyway - for instance they will adjust when looking at a dark part or bright part of a scene.