QLD via Lightning Ridge

Travelling to Mt Tamborine Qld for Christmas we decided to take a small detour from the usual direct route from Victoria up the Newell Highway and turn North West at Gilgandra up through Coonamble and Walgett to Lightning Ridge. We camped in the Lightning Ridge Tourist Park and witnessed a large electrical storm where we saw lots of lightning but no rain. The next day we went the back dirt road way to Collarenebri to join the Gwydir Highway and on to Moree and found that lots of rain had fallen East of our camp. From Moree we continued on the Newell Highway to Goondawindi, Warwick and Beaudesert to the Gold Coast and Mt Tamborine.

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f8, 1/500 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f8, 1/100 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f16, 1/125 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f16, 1/125 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f8, 1/50 sec

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

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Project Maccullochella Phase III

Now that I have officially caught a Murray Cod (Maccullochella peelii) in my boat (released and undersized) I decided to add a flourish to it. This also follows on from the older posts Project Maccullochella Phase I and Project Maccullochella Phase II. Maybe this will bring me luck. See process below.

Finished Design

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 12mm f10, 1/80 sec

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Inspiration

Not my image :-)

Original side panel

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11.5mm f8, 1/5 sec

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Building the Effect

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 12mm f8, 1/100 sec

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 Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 12mm f10, 1/100 sec

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Lake Mulwala & Murray Cod Season Opening

Murray Cod season opened on Saturday 1 December 2012 after the annual three month breeding closure. I made camp at Kyffins Reserve on the NSW side of Lake Mulwala early Friday evening. I had camped near this spot last February (see post). I had some dinner and a couple of beers while watching the sunset, got a couple of hours sleep in the warm open air with a star filled sky for a roof before waking at midnight (opening time!) to go out on the lake. Murray Cod are a prized catch for freshwater anglers and are one of Australia's largest freshwater fish that can grow up to 1.8 metres in length and weigh more than 100 kilo's. The minimum legal length to keep a Murray Cod is 60 cm and you can only have one over 100 cm in your possession. The sky was cloudy by now but it was a full moon so visibility was OK. Trolling lures and spinner baits never got a hit so I tried freshwater Long Armed Shrimp, that I had trapped earlier. Then whack I got a 20 cm Murray Cod which I of course released. I later got one about the same size that broke me off at the boat. Around 4:30 am a large storm was approaching and with lots of fork lightning and I knew being in a metal boat in the middle of a lake was a bad idea, so I packed it in.

Sunset Lake Mulwala

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 3200, 12mm f2.8, 1/5 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 12mm f8, 1/10 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 12mm f2.8, 1/60 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 12mm f2.8, 1/40 sec

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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 3200, 12mm f2.8, 1/15 sec

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Almost Summer

Late spring in the garden.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm Macro f2.8 @ ISO 200, 105mm f5.6, 1/20 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200  2.8 @ ISO 200, 200mm f5.6, 1/20 sec

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Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200  2.8 @ ISO 200, 95mm f5.6, 1/125 sec

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The Otway's

Last weekend I did a drive across the Otway Ranges to Apollo Bay, along the Great Ocean Road to Cape Otway and Johanna Beach. Many of the tracks in the Otway Ranges were closed due to flood damage or not due to open till the end of November. A spectacular drive and very busy with campers, grey nomads, day trippers and tourists from all over.

Looking to Johanna Beach from Johanna Red Road

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Smyth's Creek Great Ocean Road

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Aire Valley

 Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f16, 1/100 sec

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Great Ocean Road

 Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f16, 1/100 sec

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Reflections Creswick

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 11mm f16, 1/5 sec

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Today is Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day and it marks the anniversary of the armistice which ended the First World War (1914–18). At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years continuous warfare. Each year we observe one minute silence at 11 am on 11 November, in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts. The red remembrance poppy has become an emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem "In Flanders Fields". These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4D @ ISO 200, 50mm f1.4, 1/500 sec

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