We continue to hike through some interesting forests, such as this:
We also went through a type of Australian “heather”, which features small bushes and trees:
Finally, the sun has arrived, to complement the gorgeous ocean views:
We arrived too early for our ride, so we headed down to the beautiful beach. We sat around, ran on the beach and walked in the water (cold on the tootsies!) It was wonderful, minus the biting flies. 🙁
On our second day of hiking, we noticed large groves of dead eucalyptus trees, such as this:
We wondered what had happened to the trees. Our lovely hosts at the Great Ocean Ecolodge said these cute critters were to blame:
This area of Victoria has a problem with too many koalas – they eat so many leaves that the trees die. At one point, there were as many as 4 koalas hanging out in each tree – far too many to be sustainable. They’ve done some culling and the numbers are finally coming down.
The Ecolodge specializes in rescuing marsupials and trying to save nearly-extinct species. We had the treat of seeing a small carnivorous marsupial called a Tiger Quoll (pronounced Koll), now quite rare in the wild. The quolls compete with feral cats, which have come to dominate Australia (more cats than humans over here, we’re told).
They also had its smaller, Tasmanian counterpart:
Finally, we saw the most common marsupial of them all, the kangaroo. They are fun to watch, and not bad to eat either (yup, Australians eat kangaroos).
We had a lovely first day hiking. You can see our 23km path, although if you look closely, you’ll notice some squirreling around at the beginning. Yes, that’s right – we couldn’t find the path. David was ready to throw something (or someone). Finally, we found it and had a great time.
The eucalyptus trees were tall and the forest was full of strange bushes, large ferns and a variety of animals. David saw a wallaby, and we also saw some King parrots and koalas high up in the trees.
We shared a shot with Federer, now it’s time to see Nadal in action during his 4th round match at the Australian Open 2015.
Nadal chases down a ball at the Australian Open 2015
We camped out in Rod Laver arena all day. It was hot, but absolutely worth it.
It’s already after midnight, so for now, here’s the shot of the day:
Here’s our first-ever day at a Grand Slam. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of tennis players leaping through the air. I think might do some more tomorrow. Here’s a short sampling, plus a bonus one of us at the end.
It’s our first day in Sydney! We started in the large and lovely botanical gardens. So many interesting plants and birds. It’s also one of Monty Don’s profiled gardens in “80 Gardens around the world”.
It’s right near the heart of Sydney – here’s a view from the gardens:
David was quick to notice this spider. It’s difficult to see from this photo, but we guess it was about the size of the palm of your hand (including its legs).
We then took a break in the shade. It was a hot day today, about 32 degrees.
We finished the day with a walking tour of Sydney that ended near the harbour.
Here’s a view of the famous Sydney bridge:
There’s far too much to do in a single day, so it’s good we get to come back at the end of our trip.
Weird winter weather to start January 2015! I decided to step outside my front door to see what an Ottawa ice storm really brings. You usually don’t see this much ice in Edmonton. I would have taken more photos, but my fingers were way too cold!
No reflections? Too many reflections?
Photographing glass presents interesting challenges. A striking photo will define the edges (otherwise, how can you see the glass?) but avoid nasty reflections or highlights.
For this shot, I wanted 3 glasses on a white background, which means making the edges of the glass black. For extra challenge (read, headaches), I decided to throw in a reflection, then a liquid.
If you’d like to try this, here’s 3 tips to help you get started:
After some serious struggle, I finally learned that the paper had to be a foot behind the table. I first tried using a single sheet of white paper under the glass, flowing upwards to the back, but it was impossible to light evenly from the side and not get hotspots on the background or unwanted reflections on the glass.
Avoid putting any direct light on the glass. In this shot, the flash is underneath the horizon, between the table the glass is sitting on and the white paper background.
When I added more glasses, suddenly more black appeared and it was inconsistent in each glass. I put a much larger white paper as a background to make sure that it filled each glass, no matter where it was in the shot.
We’re not big fans of winter.
So when we looked out at the cold, windy day, we really thought twice about bundling in 85 layers and driving into the bush.
Yet, somehow, we dragged ourselves out and discovered that (maybe, just maybe) winter isn’t so bad after all.
We soon wandered off the trail, right into the heart of the forest.
And right down into the creek…
which we’ve renamed in honour of this little wasp’s nest, far above our heads.
But this was no trek for mere mortals. Proof?
All in all, a glorious day! For more pictures, visit our photo website.
