Our backyard & beyond with our cameras

Tags

cooloola, D50, Holiday, jeep, national park, nature, Nikon, nikon d50, outdoors, Photography, rainbow beach, Travel & exploring

This holiday I actually took my SLR camera with me, with a 70-300mm lens and I’ve just downloaded the photos and wow what a difference it makes actually having the kit to take a good shot with. There are so many opportunities to take great wildlife photos here, everywhere you turn there’s a lizard or something so its really great to be able to capture and share it.

Years ago I was lent a manual 35mm SLR camera by Steve and he taught me the basics, Steve is a great photographer and sometimes I just let him take all the photos. Anyway I was just getting the hang of it when along came digital compact cameras which I loved and documented everything.

My Steve, a self portrait

I was given a Nikon D50 from Steve a few years ago for a Birthday present and honestly, I’ve always struggled with it, not sure why but I have. I know the theory, I understand film speed, shutter speed, aperture, exposure, composure but somehow getting all those things happening together to create a great picture always bamboozled me somehow, I never seemed to get what I thought I would.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took and I’m pretty happy with these, there are a lot of nature shots as this is what we saw mostly and a couple are from our back garden too. It’s more like spring watch rather than holiday shots. Ok they’re not mind blowing but they’re not too bad and that really is annoying, when you get back home and you have a ton of bad pictures.

Note: It’s best to click on the first photo and flick through them so you can see them much bigger

: What’s this in the garden? George has been trying to get to it, it looks like a snake!

: Nope on closer inspection with my 300mm camera lens and a while later it is a lizard, and I have identified it as a Cunningham Skink but I’m not sure.

: One of the locals on the fence in our backyard

: I managed to get this although he’s not perfectly in focus

: We arrived at Rainbow beach to grey skies

: lovely little waves, apparently you could, if the conditions were right, have the longest surf ride here in the whole of Australia

: loving having these guys around

: but not these, We went to Rainbow beach as we had been recommended it as a great place to go 4WD but its not for us. They just drive up and down like it’s the local high street, very strange.

: Because they can’t be arsed to walk, or because they can I dunno?

: Even Steve is amazed at such behaviour

: Nice beach where there are no 4WD

: Another Kookaburra just chilling in the picnic area

: At camp in the National park some children spotted this Goanna, smelling the air with its tongue for food

: I think the species is a Lace monitor

: back down the tree

: I love the patterns all over their skin and the colours, I found these really beautiful

: A robin spotted on a walk to the Freshwater lake, near our campsite. Luckily I read about these a week or so ago. they are the same as our British Robins except they have yellow breasts not red.