East MacDonnell Ranges – travel guide

June 5, 2018Alice Springs, Australia, desert, Landscape, Northern Territory, NT, river/creeks, sand dunes, The Red Centre, Uncategorisedadmin

The Doc has written as travel and photo guide for the East MacDonnell Ranges using Alice Springs as your starting point. Guide can be viewed here.

Patrol update

April 3, 2018Artesian Range, Australia, AWC, Bowra, Charnley River, Mornington, Newhaven, Nissan Patrol, North Head, Paruna, Pungalina-Seven Emu, Scotiaadmin

The Doc has changed the Patrol recently. Due to a safety issue identified on the Northern Territory trip, The Doc installed a second UHF radio. The head unit is a GME XRS-330c matched to a RFI CD63 6dBi UHF antenna. All the controls are on the mic, which has a great OLED screen.

The XRS-330c is programable, allowing The Doc to customise frequencies (receive only), including police and emergency services. You can Bluetooth to the head unit making changes easy, by using the iPhone or Android app.

The combination is potent and outperforms my other UHF which is excellent. The new combination is excellent plus more. It has only been tested around Sydney and one short drive to Forster.

Next The Doc fitted Kut Snake flares to replace the OEM ones. These are a little wider and are attached with stainless screws, giving more side protection and a more aggressive look. The Doc painted the rear bumper matt black to match, using Peel Coat. The front LED bar was also painted with Peel Coat.

The last change was Australia flag number plates. To come are matching Australian flag side mirrors after The Doc visits Apex Decals. A picture of the new look, click to see full size. Remember to donate to Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

Lorella Springs Station, Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory

February 9, 2018Australia, bark, clouds, coastal, Landscape, landscape, Northern Territory, NT, river/creeks, Texturesadmin

A few photos from Lorella Spring Station, from places like Snapping Handbag Billabong, Gateway Gorge and Teardrop Gorge. Photos taken in the dry season. At the end of the wet these places are accessible by helicopter only.

mghother@internode.on.net

The Gulf has very unusual cloud formations, on occasions, The Doc got a few images of where two airstreams met creating an unusual pattern (with some other textures from Lorella). Click to see full size image.

mghother@internode.on.net

mghother@internode.on.net

Textures of the Australian Bush: Northern Territory

December 27, 2017Alice Springs, Arnnhem Land, Australia, bark, desert, Gregory National Park, Landscape, landscape, Northern Territory, NT, other, Plant, rock, sand, States, Textures, The Red Centre, treesadmin

New report of the textures of the Northern Territory has been posted, here.

mghother@internode.on.net

mghother@internode.on.net

mghother@internode.on.net

Gloria in excelsis Deo

December 25, 2017Uncategorisedadmin

Blessings of the Christ-child to all on this holy Christmas Day.

Happy and Holy Christmas to all

December 20, 2017Australia, AWC, Ballina, flowers, macro, NSW, Plantadmin

May the peace of the Christ child be with you and your family this Christmas.

Not much travel after the recent death on my father. The Doc did manage to visit another AWC Sanctuary, this time Curramore. He will post a few photos in the near future.

He is also thinking of Tasmania next year, a nice change from the red dust.

In the meantime, another flower following a recent theme. This time with a white background. Instead of using the inverse square law giving a black background, here The Doc used translucent Perspex as the background. He fired the second flash through the Perspex to overexpose the background, making it white. The Doc used the main flash to expose the front of the flower. It is a focus stack of 6 images.

6 images tacked

Grevilleas

October 1, 2017Uncategorisedadmin

The Docs’s father recently passed away and he was in Ballina. He had a little spare time to photograph native flowers planted by his father.

They are all from the Grevillea family, cut from the plant and lit under flash. The background is black because The Doc was using the inverse square law! Enjoy.

Flowers

July 15, 2017Australia, Ballina, coastal, flowers, Landscape, macro, NSW, Plant, Wildflowersadmin

Some flowers from my Mother’s 80th birthday party and the coastal banksia heath near Lennox Head. Enjoy.

Learning off-camera flash

July 4, 2017Australia, flowers, Landscape, landscape, macro, NSW, Plant, Uncategorisedadmin

As part of the his macro work The Doc is learning how to better use his flash, both on and off the camera. He did a little bit of macro on the Northern Territory trip, but the wind did not help. So more needs to be learned about off camera flash (which copes with wind much better and gives better results).

While at Ballina The Doc is also buying a basic off-camera kit like lightstands, triggers, adapters and flash cold shoes. He has spent several days reading, rereading and watching videos, when he is not painting his parents balcony. Up to coat 5 so far!Lets not forget about washing cars as well.

As part of his research he needed to learn about lightstand adapters and cold shoes. Here is the background research on the adapters and cold shoes.

Gregory National Park, the Northern Territory

June 16, 2017Australia, Gregory National Park, Landscape, landscape, mountains, NT, Uncategorisedadmin

When The Doc drove to the Kimberley in 2015, he noticed the red escarpments of Gregory National Park. A note was made to return on the NT trip.

While on the road I heard of someone who said there is nothing at Gregory National Park. It seems the red escarpments and the wild crocodile infested Victoria River was boring. I will let the reader reach their own view, after looking at the photos. The Doc thinks that person was either asleep or had a bag over his head.

Most of these shots were taken close to the Victoria River Roadhouse.

Sorry The Doc can only do basic processing on the images.