A Set of Sixteen

On Monday around 2pm I was running around Lake Wendouree when I came across a great sight....a new brood of Australian Wood Ducks, and the biggest batch I think I've ever seen. I had to stop to count them there were so many - sixteen! So I knew what my photo trip would be for the day. I waited til around 6pm to head out planning that the light would be nicer and warmer than it had been earlier. I shot of many, many frames, these little guys and their parents move around very quickly, and this is a selection of some of my favourites.

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Getting In Close

Here's another image from last weeks visit to Granite Falls that I felt was worth sharing......I got right down close to the base of the falls in this one. 

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Sunday Evening On The Shores

I made it out to Lake Burrumbeet on Sunday evening, and though there were no clouds to work with, I still came home with a couple of nice images. I was using my wide angle lens again, which creates a very nice star burst when stopped down to f18. It was very windy all day which created some nice water movement amongst the rocks, and the skeleton tree always makes a nice silhouette against the setting sun.

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The Epic Sunrise at Wrangell - St Elias National Park and Preserve

OK, its time to get some of the recent Alaska images posted....I have so many amazing pics to go through its a bit daunting to know where to start, though this sunrise  from our first park, Wrangell - St Elias National Park and Preserve,  we visited on this trip is a good start. We stayed at a small place called Gakona and there was an epic view looking into the park from up high, overlooking the Copper River across to Capital Mountain on the left (7,731 feet) and Mt Sanford on the right at  a massive 16,237 feet. And probably the best sunrise we had in Alaska unfolded in front of me. This one is really worth clicking on for a bigger look.

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Chasing Fireworks

After a lot of visits to Lake Wendouree this week, on Saturday I was keen to head out of town. However, after a generally fine and very warm day it started to cloud up and by sunset it was looking very flat. I did have one ace up my sleeve - the Ballarat Show is on this weekend and there were fireworks scheduled for 9pm so I thought I could get a view of them across the View Point at Lake Wendouree. The only thing I didn't plan on was the low lying, misty clouds that covered the higher blasts...at best all we could see was the clouds changing colours a bit, though the long exposures here across the water still created some nice images. 
I've added in an image from earlier in the day...when the weather started to change we had some great mammatus clouds overhead, I grabbed 2 frames and didn't realise I'd caught this bird til I looked at them later......

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Sunrise Fly Bys

This is the sunrise at Lake Wendouree after the moonset in the previous post, looking east from Fairyland across to Mt Buninyong. Always plenty of birds around in the early morning. I especially like the cranes that are constantly flying by.

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Chasing The Moon

After the great time I had on Thursday morning with the setting moon, I realised I would have another chance to get the moon setting at Lake Wendouree on Friday morning. A similar position to the day before, though it was about half an hour later and much lighter. The official full moon was Friday night so once again I positioned myself to catch the moon rising above the Fly Fishers Club. This was one of the best moon rises I have seen...it was a deep orange colour and there was the perfect amount of light cloud to add some texture around the moon, which also helps in taking away some of its overwhelming brightness. The big zoom lens really brings this one in close, whereas in the earlier moon shots I had been using a wider lens to give a more overall view.
After the morning moonset here there was a pretty good sunrise I captured around in Fairyland...I'll post a couple of those later on.

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