These two photos are from Maria Island in Tasmania, Australia. The patters in the rock were caused by groundwater which seeped down through the sandstone thousands of years ago and left behind iron oxides which stained the rock.
Top photo — Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 100, f/18 at 1/4th, 1/15th, 1/8th, 1/2 and 1 seconds
Bottom photo — Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 100, f/18 at 1.6, .4, 1/10th, 1/5th and .8 seconds
A koala takes a good yawn in-between bites of eucalyptus leaves on Kangaroo Island in Southern Australia. Eucalyptus is, of course, all that a koala eats, making the species very vulnerable as eucalyptus forests get more and more fragmented across southern and eastern Australia.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 130mm) ISO 100, f/4.5 at 1/40th of a second
This will be me last post for about a week as I head to Panama early tomorrow morning for six nights. Hopefully I’ll be back next week with some great new shots, including some nocturnal creatures like this brushtail possum from Tasmania. One of the nice things about a lot of the animals in Tasmania is that they were very accepting of my presence and didn’t spook very easily. This gave me time to really get my lighting just the way I wanted. I usually use two flashes, but in this case, and for most of my night shots in Tasmania, I used one flash on a tripod which I was able to set down in one spot, and then take my camera to another spot to get the photo. In this case, I was probably twenty feet from the flash, and twenty feet from the possum — me the possum and the flash forming a bit of a triangle. I use remote controlled units on camera and flash to be able to separate the two without using cables.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/6.3 at 1/160th of a second, Nikon SB-900 flash
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my next big trip. I’ll be going back to Australia in early November. This time to Tasmania. It’s been almost ten years since my first visit to the country — my inaugural journey with a digital camera. At the time, I was shooting with a Nikon D200 and a manual-focus 600mm lens. It will be nice to have a second chance at kangaroos and all the other marsupials and monotremes with updated equipment and a more experienced eye. The above photo was taken on Kangaroo Island on that first visit — a young, aptly named, Kangaroo Island kangaroo, which is a subspecies of the western grey kangaroo. If anyone has been to Tasmania and has any advice, especially concerning wildlife, it would be good to hear from you. Thanks.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm manual focus lens, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/80th of a second
Here’s another one from Australia. This might have been one of the most amazing skies I’ve ever seen. It kind of looked like the clouds were on fire. You can see the silhouette of a kangaroo down below, going about its business as if this happens every night.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 400mm with TC-20 teleconverter) ISO 200, f/6.3 at 1/80th of a second
This is an old one from my trip to Australia back in November of 2006. In fact, it’s one of the first frogs that I photographed with my original macro set up — which at the time consisted of a Nikon 80-200mm lens with a Canon 500D close up filter and two Nikon SB-800 flash units. This was in the backyard of a lodge I was staying at in Daintree National Park in the tropical northeastern corner of the country. I realized that I could take photos in the middle of the night, but with a nice green background, could make it almost look like mid-day. The little green frog is called a dainty tree frog, also known as the graceful tree frog.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 200mm) with Canon 500D close up filter attached, ISO 200, f/22 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-800 flash units
This one goes out to my little sister Mo on her birthday today. Mo’s been a big fan of frogs since we were little kids. This particular specimen is a white-lipped tree frog. We had the pleasure of meeting in Daintree National Park in Queensland, Australia back in November of 2006. Hope you like it Mo. Very Kermit like. Happy Birthday.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 80mm) with Canon 500D close up filter, ISO 200, f/16 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-800 flash units
In honor of the return of Game of Thrones (and Khaleesi’s dragons) this weekend, I offer up this slightly less menacing beast — a Boyd’s forest dragon. These guys live in the rainforests of Queensland, Australia. They are sit-and-wait predators, preferring to remain motionless until an unsuspecting insect wanders by.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 175mm) ISO 100, f/5 at .7 of a second
This is a pademelon — the smallest of the macropods. Macropods, of course, are all the kangaroo-like mammals in Australia, including wallabies, tree kangaroos and the regular old kangaroo kangaroos. A full grown pademelon stands just about two feet tall.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm f/5.6 manual focus lens, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/40th of a second
I was on a boat, floating down a river at night, when I met this double-eyed fig parrot in Daintree National Park in Queensland, Australia. This is one of those birds that gets quite a few names. In addition to double-eyed fig parrot, they also go by blue-faced fig parrot, red-faced fig parrot, dwarf fig parrot, and two-eyed fig parrot. Unlike most other parrots which use existing tree-cavities to nest in, double-eyed fig parrots excavate their own, usually in rotting trees.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 200, f/2.8 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-800 flash units