Lucinda
Lucinda is the mainland town closest to Orpheus Is. Only a small place, it has 3 of the largest sheds I think I have ever seen which are used for sugar storage. The sugar is then conveyed along arguably Australia’s longest jetty (6km) to ships offshore. Due to damage incurred during Cyclone Yasi the jetty and sheds are lying empty at the moment.
This image is of another jetty which used to take reasonably large vessels but due to shoaling is now only used as a fishing platform.
In the background you can see Hinchinbrook Island which has some huge peaks that are nearly always covered in cloud, in fact there are still missing aircraft from WW II that haven’t been found to this day! I was hoping to get some images of the island and the sugar jetty next morning but once again, the rain beat me!
Cradle Mt.
Only made it up to Cradle Mt. once this time around. True to form, the weather was cold,blustery and RAINING which is the norm rather than the exception in this part of the world. I sat in the car for a while cursing my luck and eventually a break in the rain came through so hopefully I set off to a couple of spots that I wanted to check out.
Of course, 100 meters away from the car and a light rain started. I pulled out the camera gear a couple of times in the hope of getting a shot that wouldn’t have water spots on the lens and this was the only useable image.
I call this an environmental portrait of Cradle Mt. with the mountain taking a backseat to it’s surrounding environment of buttongrass plains which cover a large part of the surrounding area.
Anyway, hope you all like it!
Liffey Falls Pano
This is a 14 image blend and stitch shot of Liffey Falls blended in L/R Enfuse , stitched in PtGui and processed in Lightroom 3 and PS CS5. First time I had used this technique which is probably old hat to many of you photographers out there! I have to say I am pretty stoked how well it popped out the other end, might play with it a little further sometime. If anybody has any ideas on how I can improve it, I am all ears!
Last image from here, off to the West Coast next!
Mossman Canefields
I found this neat little scene on my way back fro Mossman to Cairns. Took off up a side road and drove for miles to find a spot where the sugarcane wasn’t obliterating the mountains in the background!
This is a scene that is so typical of FNQ and the fact that the Great Dividing Range is so close to the coast makes it a great area for photographers.
On another note, this will probably be my last post for a while. I am just about to head to Gladstone for 5 weeks as the Master of a 40m barge with a huge backhoe on it, basically a non-propelled dredge which is part of the push to build new infrastructure for the Port of Gladstone in Central Qld. It will probably be fairly dull but the pay is well worth it, which means a long overdue camera upgrade is definately on the cards! 
Sugar Shed 2
Another view of the Port Douglas sugar shed but with an old time look to it. I had another set of images with a paddlesteamer in it which looked great until I realised that one of the images was a little shaky for some reason. Had to ditch the lot 
Sugar Shed
I have just arrived home from a little adventure! A good friend of mine who is taking a 60 ft luxury catamaran around the world needed a hand to sail from Airlie Beach to Cairns. Along the way she heard about Carnivale in Port Douglas so we ended up there instead with a stop at Low Isles along the way
Weather was pretty ordinary for most of the trip with strong winds and squally weather so good photo opportunities were few and far between.
Carnivale was in full swing when we arrived and the town was heaving with people and the local businesses were cashing in while they could! Port Douglas is a very pretty town and the locals are friendly. Managed to get a few images while I was there although the light was not the best for most of the time.
There are a couple of very good photographers in the area, Michael Seebock and Gareth Kelly stood out for me and another wildlife photographer whose work was outstanding!
Seeing their work and what I saw while driving between Mossman and Cairns makes me want to return and spend some time exploring a little more thoroughly.
This image is of the old sugar wharf at the entrance to Port Douglas on the one halfway decent sunset I saw.
There will be a few more images from this little trip coming up.
St George Basin, Kimberley Coast
David Bettini and Mark Stothard have been posting some great images of their recent trip to the Kimberley and a couple of their images of St George Basin inspired me to have a look at some similar images i have on file.
St George Basin is a large flooded plain into which the Prince Regent R. flows and is home to one of the largest concentrations of Mangroves in Australia. The islands in the Basin create some interesting landscapes and photographic opportunities,especially in the early morning and late afternoon.
Old Hayshed
This is one from the last time I was in Tasmania. As I mentioned in a previous post, I drive past this hayshed regularly and it has always caught my eye. Conditions were pretty good this day so I stopped and took a few shots.
I like the recycled corrugated iron which gives it some character and the horse was a bonus. He even looks slightly guilty in this image!
The hours suck, but the view out the window is great!
Another one from the vault. This is an image from what used to be my “öffice”. One of my favourite anchorages in the Whitsundays, Stonehaven is tucked up on the NW side of Hook Is. Secure holding,surrounded by lofty hills, close to some of the best snorkelling and diving in the Whitsundays and you get to see some great sunsets like this one!
Hopefully I will be back out there soon!
Kimbeley Storm
The Kimberley, an ancient, timeless land where man’s influence is so far, fairly minimal. That could change in the future if the gas,mining companies and government have their way! Like the Tasmanian SW this is an area that should be left as a wilderness, free of ugly gas plants, disfiguring mining operations and the like.
Traveling through the Kimberley by sea you get a good sense of how insignificant you really are and you get a feeling that the land is watching you,impassively,waiting for you to make a mistake.
On most days during the dry the landscape is a magnificent palette of colour, dominated by the ochre colours of the sandstone of which the area is comprised. Contrasting with the blues of the sea and endless sky as well as the greens of the post-wet season greenery it’s easy to fill a memory card pretty quickly.
But on the rare occasion when a thunderstorm rolls across the landscape, it seems to take on a more primitive & malevolent feeling. You almost expect a dinosaur to make an appearance somewhere and indeed there are dinosaurs around in the form of crocodiles.
This is my attempt to communicate that feeling you get.
As Good as it Gets!
After all the monsoon weather we have had here in the Whitsundays over the last few months, Huey has made up for it with some magnificent weather over the last week!
This is the view from Airlie Beach and today it was nearly perfect conditions to capture it. The noticeable absence in this scene is people! Normally this beach would have many more people on a day like this but the tourism industry which is the town’s major industry is doing it tough at the moment. Never seen the place so quiet!
GFC, high exchange rates, flooding etc have combined to hit the area for a six. But the good news is that we are well and truly open for business!
In the immortal words of Lara Bingle “So, where the bloody hell are you?”
I Have Seen the Light(room)!
Over the last week or so I have been testing a trial version of Adobe Lightroom 3 and so far I am quite impressed!
Adobe have tinkered under the bonnet quite a bit and revamped the processing engine as well as many other things which I haven’t even got to yet.
Essentially there is better sharpening and a far more flexible noise reduction which makes for smoother tonal gradations and colour rendition. When you put files through the new process which is a one step process, the detail that comes out is quite astonishing. In fact I am re-appraising a couple of older lenses that I hadn’t used in ages. The lenses are not as bad as I had thought which is just as well as my 24-105L has developed a problem!
The down side is that after converting all my panoramic source files, I will now need to go and restitch them all as the difference in quality is like chalk and cheese.
The other nice thing is the import dialogue which is much more user friendly especially if you need to move files around. There is also a neat little export dialogue that allows you to publish images to Flickr or Facebook very easily.
I think I will be buying this at the end of the trial period and it will be money well spent (US$100)
It appears that Jamie Patterson and Andrew Brown will be heading my way sometime next year so here is an image shot on the shore of the famous Hill Inlet to keep them inspired!
Sunlit Sands
Just been playing around, so I thought I would post another view of Langford Sandspit
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Early Morning at Langford Spit
I’ve been thinking for a while that considering I live in the Whitsundays on Queensland’s tropical coast, I haven’t been posting many images of the area! While I haven’t been out around the islands for a fair while due to health reasons, I did manage to capture a few images from the area before I was grounded.
This was taken early one morning looking from Langford Spit toward Hook Is.
Here the overnight high tide has washed away all the footprints left by the many visitors the spit gets each day and left it’s own footprint of current induced sand waves. A much nicer design I think!
Cradle Mt.
Andrew Brown & Jamie Patterson have been posting some great images of the Tasmanian Icon that is Cradle Mt, so I thought I would add my paltry efforts!
These have been lurking in my archive for ages and frankly they’re rather boring images compared to others that are out there.
These two images above were shot in my early days of digital photography, so please excuse the quality. A rare beautiful day up in these parts!
These last two illustrate the extremes of weather up in the Alpine regions. It can go from a beautiful warm sunny day to freezing cold and nasty in very short time! Many people have been caught out over the years, some with fatal consequences.
My father who lived at Cradle Mt for many years and knew the area intimately treated the area with great respect even if he was going for a short daywalk.
Many times i have driven up to the lake hoping for that moody, broken cloud pierced by the setting sun type of weather. So far it has eluded me but I will get lucky one day!
Morning Mist II
After a couple of suggestions from Mark Stothard and Andrew Brown here is the revised version of “Morning Mist”.
I think this one works a little better, thanks Fellas!
Morning Mist
This image is another one to inspire Jamie Patterson on his next trip to Tasmania!
This is what Christian Fletcher would call a ‘drive-by shooting’. Scenes like this one are very common early in the morning in Tasmania, problem is that finding a place to pull over on the side of the road so you can set your gear up is not that easy!
When I saw this scene I was on a main road with long grass verges which may or may not hide a large ditch. Pull off the road as far as you dare, hope your car doesn’t (A) Get sideswiped by a log truck or (B) Capsize into the ditch!
Mist was dissipating quickly, so quickly put on a telephoto lens, run across the road and squeeeze a couple of exposures at a shutter speed that really is too slow for for hand-held shots. Thankfully there was a fence post that was reasonably clear of blackberries to brace myself against.
I am actually amazed that they came up as good as they did!
Misty Mountain Hop.
A couple of images of Mt. Roland to inspire Jamie Patterson!
Hope you like ‘em Jamie!
Airlie Beach Race Week
It’s a yacht racing frenzy here in the Whitsundays at the moment. Airlie Beach Race Week is under way at the moment. 107 yachts racing around the beautiful Whitsunday Islands for a week. Winds have been fairly light but the weather has been great.
This regatta attracts entrants from Australia wide and as far afield as NZ and is known as the “Tropical Shirt Regatta” with an emphasis on good racing and having fun doing it. With nearly nearly 1000 sailors and family members arriving in town, it’s a real shot in the arm for the local economy.
Next week is the start of Hamilton Is. Race Week which is a bit more serious and a lot more expensive. That regatta attracts the cream of racing yachts and sailors.
I was invited out for the day on one of the yachts and managed to get some images during the day. I wanted to get some images showing close racing from an on board perspective but as it was a longer race the yachts were more spread out than if it was short course racing. Next Year!
Annyway, I am off to hospital again for another hip replacement so I will see you all when I get back!
Any Old Iron.
This is another one from Tasmania. I had driven past this hayshed many times and taken a few images but never really been happy with them due to the time of day & quality of light. However whenever I am in this area, I always keep an eye on it as I can see potential in it.
Early one morning As I was driving past a momentary break in the clouds lit it up and I decided to stop and see what I could come away with.
True to form the sun sat behind clouds for the next 30-40 mins! Just as I was about was about to give it away for an appointment I had, a break in the cloud opened up long enough for me to squeeze off a few frames.
I like the contrast between the battered old roofing iron and the haybales so I decided to accentuate the texture and colour of the iron in relation to the form of the haybales.
Sometimes it pays to be patient and persistent, hope you like it!
A couple of reasons to get up early!
These two images also show Gloucester Is. but from the eastern side and early in the morning.
105mm, ISO 100, 1/4s@f8.
The above image was taken from a neat little place called Dingo Beach which is one of a bunch of little bays and beaches situated between Airlie Beach and Bowen.
35mm, ISO100, 1/15s@f8.
Hydeaway Bay is the next bay around and both places have some seriously nice homes being built. Not a bad spot to live or holiday hey?
T.C. Ului
Talk about great timing! I have arrived back in the Whitsundays after some time in Tasmania (where the weather was sunny and mild) to a cyclone threat!
As I write this, TC Ului is a Cat 2 system with winds of approx 170kmh near the centre, about 350km offshore and appears to be heading sraight for us. Up until this morning you wouldn’t have thought there was a cyclone heading our way but within the last few hours the weather has slowly detriorated. Winds are getting very gusty and no birds to be heard anywhere, rain hasn’t set in yet but no doubt it will come.
Ului is expected to cross the coast sometime early tomorrow morning so I guess it will be a pretty wild night. Glad I won’t be at sea!
In the meantime this is an image taken while I was in Tasmania. Taken from a very narrow bridge in an area called Paradise, hence the title.
5 image stitch, Processed in LR2 & PtGui.
House on the Hill
This is another image from the same day as my last post,a beautiful cattle farming area in the Whitsunday coast hinterland. About an hours drive from my home, I love coming down here as I see something new each time.
It also reminds me of Tasmania at this time of the year, green and lush!
The one thing that always bugs me though are the ugly barbwire fences which usually stop you from getting to the optimum position. So, you either have to try and shoot over or sometimes through them or include them in the image which is rarely a good look.
Anybody else have this problem?
5 image stitch, processed in LR2.
Heading Home
These are a couple of random images I shot in Fiji about 20 years ago. The first one is a great illustration of the spirit of the people of Fiji, kind of ” No money, no worry!”
That attitude makes a mockery of the western ethos of selfish capitalism especially in light of the recent ”Financial Crisis”‘. I know who are generally more happy!
I shot this one purely for the colour of the umbrellas which I have tried to accentuate through some work in Lightroom 2.
Hope you have enjoyed my little trip down memory lane, the next post will probably be some images of the Whitsundays where I live.
