WAY out West

 We recently spent a few weeks travelling through Western Queensland. This was our first trip out west, (well for "us" as I used to work out that way.Details about where we stayed and how far we travelled are in the link beow. we use WIKICAMPS to plan our trip, the places we stay and to allow friends to follow us. (Jealous buggers 😁).https://wctrip.co/au/411173/258501595Given the light, textures and starkness of the landscapes, even in winter, I decided on black and white photography, Landscapes and B&W are not something that I have dabbled in much as I have shot cityscapes (preferably at night) and wildlife in the past.Here are three of what I consider my best from that trip.This is in Texas on the Queensland / NSW border at a free camp used by the Grey NomadsJust outside of Windorah is a bridge over the iconic Cooper Creek. There wasn't much water in it while we were there but that only made this majestic old gum stand out even more!We were staying just outside of Quilpie when the clouds started to gather late in the afternoon, alas, no rain but made for a beautiful shot.CheersDADFAP

Posted on: 26 August 2020 | 1:25 am

Kyogle Bull Ride Spectacular 2017

Action under lights, Kyogle 2017 A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Northern Rivers area of NSW to Kyogle. It was their Annual Bull Ride Spectacular and we always find these great events. Photography can get a bit tough, the lighting is against you, positioning is hard and the damn dust (as you will see in a couple of the shots) makes life interesting; in both good and bad ways. Positioning is probably the hardest to contend with, it is difficult to get positioned so that you can see the action and not get too messed up by the bars around the arena. The bulls can be tough too, the winning ride in the open section came late in the night. After no winning rides in the competition, a pot luck ride off was held. The riders pulled a bull's name from the hat and rode in a winner take all ride. The winning ride, Open Bull Ride, Kyogle 2017 The winner scooped the pool, taking the entire winning purse in one wild, 8 second ride. With a bit of showboating, you can see that he is pretty happy about it. The riders don't always win and the "clowns" or rider protection athletes in more politically correct speak, are there to make sure that the bull can't turn on the riders. These guys earn their pay, they are involved in every single bull ride, needing to anticipate the moment that the rider looks like coming off. Out for revenge, Kyogle Bull Ride Spectacular, 2017 If it is a win by the bull and the rider is tossed or a more dignified dismount at the end of the eight second ride, their job is to put their own safety on the line to protect the rider. The training that these guys must do to stay safe and in one piece must be intense. Small size, big heart, Kyogle Bull Ride Spectacular 2017 Riders come in all shapes and sizes with the juniors riding smaller calves and steers. The animals are a bit smaller and the riders have some growing up to do but no one can doubt their courage and enthusiasm! Sunset Barrel Race, Kyogle Bull Ride Spectacular, 2017 Barrel racing started out the evening and the event leaves you breathless. The speed and the agility of both rider and horse is amazing. From full gallop to dead stop before the collide with the fencing after the ride, the event is definitely one to be watched. Some colourful abstracts from the night by my wife. I am sure that she is much more creative than I am! Kyogle is a very pretty little town and is only a couple of hours from Brisbane so is an easy day trip on the weekend. Stop in and see some of the craft galleries there, especially interesting is Mudwood Studio, a place that specialises in the local artists. Cheers DADFAP

Posted on: 24 March 2017 | 12:27 am

Breakfast on the Veldt

Working on shots for my next calendar, I came across this video that I took on a chilly July 2016 morning when we were at Shawu Lodge. This pride had taken down a buffalo not long before we arrived on the scene. Thanks to Grant and the fact that everyone in the vehicle was a photographer, we must have spent about an hour on the sighting! The week there was organised by Wildeye (going to use them again!!!) and our guide was Grant Marcus, great guy, great photographer and great host! Grant is based out of Madikwe Lodge where they have an underground hide, yep, gotta do that one day! Cheers DADFAP

Posted on: 19 March 2017 | 12:16 am

Weekly Reading List, 18March17

Hi, Here's a collection of some great posts that I read lately on photography: Bad Weather Photography It reminded me of a project I did for Uni last year Probably the greatest hack you will ever see. This guy turns a Sony into a digital back for a film camera! Weird Lens. Lenses come in all shapes and sizes but this is bizarre! I gets better after dark! Some interesting stories of the night photographers Enjoy DADFAP

Posted on: 18 March 2017 | 3:30 am

“Ghost trees 1” was uploaded to Flickr

High ISO shots of trees early evening, South Africa embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/La91gk Ghost trees 1 was taken on July 13, 2016 at 04:01AM

Posted on: 18 August 2016 | 12:05 am

“Early morning hyena lookout” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/KjXEEM Early morning hyena lookout was taken on July 21, 2016 at 04:49PM

Posted on: 17 August 2016 | 8:20 pm

“2P9A4017-3.jpg” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/L3LYFf 2P9A4017-3.jpg was taken on March 21, 2015 at 06:34AM

Posted on: 16 August 2016 | 12:28 am

“2P9A4052-2.jpg” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/Kggrrb 2P9A4052-2.jpg was taken on March 21, 2015 at 07:46AM

Posted on: 16 August 2016 | 12:28 am

“Hyena with pillow” was uploaded to Flickr

This hyena had been dining on a warthog and decided to use the rib cage as a pillow embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/Kgw4Ke Hyena with pillow was taken on July 19, 2016 at 03:26AM

Posted on: 16 August 2016 | 12:28 am

“Leopardess in tree” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/KggBhy Leopardess in tree was taken on July 23, 2016 at 06:46PM

Posted on: 16 August 2016 | 12:28 am

“Night drive back to Chitwa Chitwa, KNP, ZA” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/JXC2qm Night drive back to Chitwa Chitwa, KNP, ZA was taken on July 22, 2016 at 04:13AM

Posted on: 6 August 2016 | 8:36 pm

“Nightdrive on the airstrip, Chitwa Chitwa, KNP ZA” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/KRoziN Nightdrive on the airstrip, Chitwa Chitwa, KNP ZA was taken on July 20, 2016 at 04:50AM

Posted on: 6 August 2016 | 8:36 pm

“African Selfie, Chitwa Chitwa, KNP, ZA” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/KMpgEP African Selfie, Chitwa Chitwa, KNP, ZA was taken on July 22, 2016 at 04:38AM

Posted on: 6 August 2016 | 8:36 pm

“Lady on Path, Tanda Tula, KNP, ZA” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/KJUm37 Lady on Path, Tanda Tula, KNP, ZA was taken on July 24, 2016 at 07:32AM

Posted on: 6 August 2016 | 8:36 pm

“Cheetah and Cubs on kil, Shawu, KNP South Africa” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/JWsAK3 Cheetah and Cubs on kil, Shawu, KNP South Africa was taken on July 14, 2016 at 03:11AM

Posted on: 6 August 2016 | 6:54 am

Photography On A Wet Weekend

What to photograph in crappy weather? The forecast for this weekend on the Gold Coast is pretty poor. Strong winds, heavy rain coupled with a King Tide Photographers are known to be light addicted, so what to do when the light / weather is crap? Here’s one idea:           •Explore your area and shoot through the windscreen!           •These shots are all through the windscreen taken “au natural”            •The camera is positioned on the steering wheel trying to replicate the driver’s eye line, so the       composition is a challenge            •They are pretty much straight out of the camera            •The timing was interesting, trying to get enough rain on the windscreen without making it            an entire blur  That's one way to pass the weekend! Cheers Steve

Posted on: 6 June 2016 | 10:17 am

A Recent Trip to India and Egypt

I am lucky that I get to travel heaps with my job, sometimes to some of the most "bucket listed" places around. I recently did a two week trip to India and Egypt, both places that I have visited before. A business trip for me is pretty much a series of views out of windows. Airport windows, plane windows, taxi windows, hotel windows and so on. That doesn't necessarily make the trip dull and boring but it does pose some challenges when you want to spend some time photographing. This is a series of images that I submitted as part of my folio for a Uni assignment. I used what ever was available at the time: phone, iPad or my DSLR, whatever was to hand. The shots are not always composed well or 100% in focus, but they are interesting and show the cities I travelled in much as I saw them. Cheers Dadfap

Posted on: 2 June 2016 | 10:51 pm

“2P9A7105.jpg” was uploaded to Flickr

Posted on: 31 May 2016 | 10:01 pm

“2P9A7228.jpg” was uploaded to Flickr

Posted on: 31 May 2016 | 10:01 pm

“Through a Wet Window” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/Hu7E8g Through a Wet Window was taken on May 12, 2016 at 10:05AM

Posted on: 28 May 2016 | 1:24 am

“The Reflection” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/HAip9p The Reflection was taken on May 13, 2016 at 10:00AM

Posted on: 28 May 2016 | 1:24 am

“Bandra - Worli Sealink Bridge” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/Hu7DZR Bandra - Worli Sealink Bridge was taken on May 13, 2016 at 10:07AM

Posted on: 28 May 2016 | 1:24 am

“Rickshaw Close Call” was uploaded to Flickr

embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/HAioZM Rickshaw Close Call was taken on May 28, 2016 at 11:27PM

Posted on: 28 May 2016 | 1:24 am

All I want for Xmas is ...................................... A Decent Internet Speed

iinet recently upgraded my plan quota, doubled it actually, thanks iinet. I don't want to sound ungrateful after all, I move quite a fe photos around, use Google Drive and use Lynda for hints and tutorials on Lightroom. However, here's the reality of my internet. 1. I am in Clear Island Waters, so I am not exactly in the boonies! 2. I am on the iinet equipment at the local exchange, so there's supposedly no hardware issues. BUT here's the latest speed test: Australia ranks 30 from 55 countries in the latest Akamai rankings and I barely get half of the Australian average. Akamai 2014 rankings RankCountry/TerritoryAvg. connection speed (megabits per second)[5] -World average3.9 1 South Korea25.3 2 Hong Kong16.3 3 Japan15.0 4  Switzerland14.5 5 Sweden14.1 6 Netherlands14.0 7 Ireland13.9 8 Latvia13.0 9 Czech Republic12.3 10 Singapore12.2 11 Finland11.7 12 United States11.5 13 Belgium11.4 14 Israel11.4 15 Norway11.4 16 Romania11.3 17 Denmark11.2 18 United Kingdom10.7 19 Austria10.4 20 Canada10.3 21 Taiwan9.5 22 Russia9.1 23 Hungary8.8 24 Germany8.7 25 Poland8.6 26 Slovakia8.6 27 Portugal8.0 28 Spain7.8 29 New Zealand7.0 30 Australia6.9 31 France6.9 32 Thailand6.6 33 Italy5.5 34 Turkey5.5 35 Uruguay5.5 36 United Arab Emirates4.7 37 Argentina4.2 38 Mexico4.1 39 Malaysia4.1 40 Chile4.1 41 China3.8 42 Indonesia3.7 43 Ecuador3.6 44 Peru3.6 45 South Africa3.6 46 Colombia3.4 47 Brazil2.9 48 Panama2.9 49 Costa Rica2.7 50 Philippines2.5 51 Vietnam2.5 52 India2.0 53 Venezuela1.3 54 Paraguay1.3 55 Bolivia1.1 Cheers DADFAP

Posted on: 22 December 2015 | 11:20 pm

“My feelings about my skill level in Photoshop.” was uploaded to Flickr

So, I'm a dummy? embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/BsyyDm My feelings about my skill level in Photoshop. was taken on September 05, 2015 at 02:13AM

Posted on: 22 December 2015 | 1:50 am