The Chinese Garden in Darling Harbour

The Chinese Garden in Darling Harbour Sydney was designed and built by Chinese landscape architects and gardeners and the local Chinese community to share their rich cultural heritage and celebrate Australia's 1988 Bicentenary, the Chinese Garden is the result of a close bond of friendship and cooperation between the sister cities of Sydney and Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, China.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, 200mm f2.8, 1/60 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/13 sec

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The garden scenes are all constructed to be best viewed from a pavilion but on paths windows are used to frame garden views which provide multiple layers of scenery and create a sense of the infinite in the finite, artfully distant views are incorporated into the whole scene. Screen walls often have moon shaped (round) doorways and small windows in the shapes of vases and apples.

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/60 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 16mm f2.8, 1/80 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/20 sec

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Chinese Classical Gardens are a place for the contemplation of nature and the design should provide a place for to connect with nature. Chinese gardens are built not planted. The essential elements in a Chinese garden are a wall surrounding a pavilion, a pool, and a mountain with a tree.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, 70mm f8, 1/10 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, 82mm f8, 0.4 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f22, 1/10 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 16mm f2.8, 1/400 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 16mm f2.8, 1/50 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f3.5, 1/60 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/50 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f3.5, 1/200 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f3.5, 1/200 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f3.5, 1/500 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 13mm f2.8, 1/500 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f8, 1/250 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/125 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f22, 1/10 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f2.8, 1/1000 sec

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Whale Beach

Whale Beach, a northern beachside suburb of Sydney New South Wales is located 40 kilometres north of the Sydney CBD, in the Northern Beaches region.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, 70mm f8, 1/25 sec

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At the northern end just off the rocks you will find the surf break called, the Wedge.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 250, 200mm f2.8, 1/320 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 720, 35mm f2, 1/8000 sec

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Sunrise at the northern end a couple of fishermen take advantage of the low tide to venture out onto the rock platform.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 250, 200mm f2.8, 1/4000 sec

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Sunrise from the rock platform. This is a HDR of some of the wide angle shots.

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 13mm f8, HDR

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 13mm f5.6, HDR

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Manly and the Wormhole

Manly is just 20 minutes from Sydney’s CBD and sits on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean and Sydney Harbour. Manly was so named after the confidence and ‘manly behaviour’ displayed by a group of local Aborigines in Manly Cove by Australia’s first Governor, Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788. Freshwater Beach is the first beach North of Manly on the Peninsular. Harbord was renamed Freshwater in January 2008. There is a tunnel linking Manly and Freshwater beaches which was built and blasted out by some of the Freshwater locals and fishermen. Manly and Freshwater are now connected though the sandstone headland by the cave and a rough walkway. The pathway requires a bit of mild climbing ability but if you are steady on your feet its an easy journey. Source.

From the Queenscliff Headland looking back to Manly

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f2.8, 11mm, 1/800 sec

The houses blend in with the environment

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f8, 11mm, 1/2000 sec

Approaching the 'wormhole' you can see the entrance near the centre of the image.

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f2.8, 11mm, Photomatix Pro HDR

Looking in towards Freshwater Beach

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f2.8, 11mm, 1 image Photomatix Pro HDR

Inside the Wormhole looking North

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f2.8, 11mm, 9 images, Photomatix Pro HDR

Looking behind back to Manly

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f2.8, 11mm, 9 images, Photomatix Pro HDR

The Freshwater end bathed in the morning sunrise

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f8, 11mm, Photomatix Pro HDR

Sunrise

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f8, 11mm, 1/200 sec

Some of the locals were quite 'Crabby'!

Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f8, 200mm, 1/80 sec

Early morning swim

Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 @ ISO 200, f8, 70mm, 1/640 sec

I just got a new lens for my D300 :-)

The AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor ED 70-200mm f/2.8

This is the standard lens for news, sports and action and environment portrait shooters. It's light weight mechanically and optically precision built and the 70-200mm VR shines for fast action in low light. Its rated as one of Nikon's sharpest lenses ever and its sharp at every aperture. It is famous for its beautiful bokeh (that gorgeous out of focus background look) The 2.8 aperture makes this a 'fast' lens.

I also have:

Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G ED IF AF-S VR

Macro lens for insects, food and tiny stuff. Also one of the best portrait lenses you can get. Again beautiful bokeh.

AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF DX VR

Good optics and considering the low price and the long focal range, very good all rounder in performance.

Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X

The wide angle lens if you're on a budget and the the sharpest ultra wide lens for a DX Nikon camera. It's rated better than the more expensive Nikkor 12-24mm.

Great for landscapes, architecture and anything inside or close range and low light.

Why 2.8 ?

The maximum aperture of the lens can have a significant impact on the types of photos you can take.

Smaller Aperture number (2.8) = Wider Aperture (the hole) = More Light

Larger Aperture number (22) = Narrower Aperture (smaller hole) = Less Light

If you want to take photos indoors without a flash, on overcast days, for sport or anything you need to use fast shutter speeds to freeze motion you need a fast lens (2.8 or better)

You can also get a shallower Depth of Field (DOF) DOF is that amount of your shot that will be in focus. With a large aperture you get a large depth of field, that is most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away. With a small aperture you get a small (or shallow) depth of field and only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy (bokeh) but this separates the subject from the background (as long as IT is in sharp focus) and give a 3D effect to images and smoothes out busy backgrounds. - see RedBubble Flickr