Back taking photos again!

After a very long break from photography, brought on by lack of motivation, time and inspiration, I am on the path to re-invigorate myself and my passion for photography.

My first step was to get rid of all my DSLR equipment and downgrade. I have bought myself a Panasonic GF3 Micro four thirds camera to make getting out and about less of an effort. This means that bird photography is a thing of the past and general and landscapes are back on the table.

My first brief outing was more of a practice session with the new camera and its touch screen menus, no view finder and other fiddly options.

 

Stay tuned for hopefully more posts!

WPOTY and Newcastle baths

The Wildlife Photographer Of The Year exhibition is on again at the Newcastle Library and once again I have dropped in to make myself yearn for some of the opportunities these other photographers get with wild animals. A few Australian photographers in the categories is a nice thing to see. This year, four aussies got noticed by the judges, although only one actually took his photo in Australia.

Before the library opened I decided to go to Newcastle Ocean Baths for some sunrise pics. Well that went as well as some of my recent birding attempts as the coast was blanketed in fog with a cold on shore wind. I tried to photograph the crazy surfers but no inspiring waves or particularly energetic surfers to point the lens at, had me looking at Silver Gulls and Crested Terns instead.

Early morning found the resident birds bathing and darting out to sea looking for breakfast, so a good time for some not quite static bird photos.

Those that know the Ocean Baths will know the far side of the pools can be slippery and I nearly went butt up a couple of times while grabbing the lens and pulling it close to avoid it hitting the concrete!

Kitchener

A re-invigorating bird outing with Grant on the weekend has started to bring me back to a birding photography mode after weeks of down time. While not too many photos were kept, we did manage to see quite a few species and I scored another lifer.

The morning was a cool one as we started out. Grant was hoping to see the reported Gang Gang Cockatoos and Swift Parrots recently spotted in the area. While a possible hearing of over flying Swifties was noted, we definitely scored with the Gang Gangs as a small flock of five were observed on the Kearsley South Fire trail.

We tried in vain to photograph Scarlet Robin as the sly bird kept us walking up and down the forest trying to get close enough for a picture.

Lots of mixed Thornbill flocks and a few Spotted Pardalotes kept us entertained and our shutters clicking like mad although we would have liked nicer light.

Species seen included Black Swan, WBSE, Eurasian Coot, Dusky Moorhen, Little Black Cormorant, Little Pied Cormorant and Great Cormorant, Thornbills (Brown, Striated, Buff-rumped and Yellow), Robins (Scarlet, Rose and Eastern Yellow), Honeyeaters (Yellow-tufted, White-eared, Black-chinned, Yellow-faced), Cuckoo-Shrikes (Black-faced and White-bellied), Gang Gang Cockatoo, Little Corella, Eastern and Crimson Rosella, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Grey Shrike Thrush, Spotted Pardalote, Eastern Spinebill, White-winged Chough and a couple of others I have obviously forgotten.

White-winged Black Tern

A walk along the breakwall in stockton with the family yesterday was not only windy and wet, but also a new bird day. At the end of the breakwall I was trying to photograph a tern with a blacker head than the normal Crested Terns, but it's high speed and unpredictable flight with the winds made it pretty much impossible to capture for an ID shot. After giving up on the bird I ventured out to the end rocks where a small flock of little birds were skimming the water. After watching them for a while it was time to walk back to the car with the family, so I snapped a few average photos to take home for ID purposes and headed off.

ID'ing these birds prooved fairly easy and I quickly discovered that I had a new tick. White-winged Black Terns! The bird in the photo appears to be a juvenile but they definitely don't look like their name suggests. Names based on breeding plumage makes non breeding birds tougher to ID for sure. :)

Long time between birds

Well it's been just short of two months since my last blog which means it's been that long since my last attempt to go taking photos. Work, family and weather have all plotted against me going out until now and even though this outing was not a great one, I still concidered it worthy of a post.

Friday morning saw me head out to Werekata NP, near Kitchener. Usually a nice place to see birds, this time however it was pretty quiet. Noteworthy birds seen were a pair of Peaceful Doves, Wonga Pigeon, Striated Thornbill, Yellow-tufted Honeyeater and White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike.

Today, Sunday, provided me with an unexpected bonus right in my very own back yard. A peaceful Dove among the Spotted Turtle Doves gave me the chance to snap a few photos from the comfort of my dining room and also taught me to check the camera as I took about 30 photos before realising there was no memory card.

Penrith and Ourimbah

A 3 week course in Sydney has disrupted my photo outing plans and the weather has been so average in the afternoons that any photos I have taken have been poor quality. That aside I have 3 new ticks this week with Red-whiskered Bulbul, European Goldfinch and Black-faced Monarch being seen and poorly photographed :) Hopefully the weather improves next week....

Black, White-faced Heron

My wife spotted a strange 'Black Heron' a week ago on her daily walk and I was unsure what to think of her sighting report. Today she called me on her mobile and said she had seen it again. With the location I set off in the car to view this strange black bird and was surprised to see it was exactly as she had said. It was indeed a heron and a black one at that! It looks for all money to be a White-faced Heron and feedback seems to say that it is Melanistic (affected by dark pigmentation).


What do you think??? :D