David M. Byrne
Well-Known Member
Hello again,
Well it seems the more I wonder about the kind of pictures I’ll be taking week to week the more I end up surprising myself. I never expected this week’s entry to be dominated by random street photography and wildlife, but that’s exactly what’s has happened. Although I guess in a country like Australia, with its weird and wonderful fauna, that’s almost to be expected. The 5 pictures in this week’s 'Mave On The Move' instalment were captured over only 2 days, 2 days which reminded me how much I like taking pictures.
Picture 33, Day 39 – King George Square, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 13th 2012.
I spent day 39 of the trip with my camera & a few lenses taking a look around the Australian city of Brisbane, the capital and largest city in Queensland & the 3rd largest city in Oz. It’s not exactly prominent on the tourist trail so there isn’t a whole lot to see in the city. That said, I found it pretty photogenic. Starting as far back as 1824 the city was settled by the British as a penal colony so there are quite a few nice colonial buildings around. One of those buildings, Brisbane City Hall, can be seen in the distance. The Hall, dating from 1920, sits facing King George Square, where this picture was taken. The building was designed according to the Italian Renaissance style with its 91m clock tower, housing the largest clock faces in the country, based on the design of the St. Mark’s Campanile in Venice. My aim was to photograph the Hall itself but, & like all of the colonial buildings in the city, it was towered over by modern-day skyscrapers and/or construction cranes (this is something that I also found in recent weeks blighted the photographing of the colonial buildings in the Kuala Lumpur & Singapore). I took this picture from behind a bronze sculpture of kangaroos on the corner of the Square and I find it a much more interesting photograph than any of the pictures I captured of City Hall itself.
Note: You can see more of the pictures I took of Brisbane by checking out my 'Brisbane Walkabout' blog entry.
Picture 34, Day 39 – Corner of Queen & Edward Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 13th 2012.
My day of walking around Brisbane unintentionally turned into a street photography session. I was ok with that - I like street photography although I really don’t know too much about it. I’m certainly the inconspicuous type (unlike Thomas Leuthard who we were introduced to on RPF earlier this week) so I’m not too fond of using my SLR for this type of photography (I plan on upgrading my point-and-shoot later in the year specifically for this reason). This picture was taken on the corner of Queen & Edward Street right in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD. Queen Street is pedestrianized so it’s a great place for people watching. I sat there for a while taking pictures. This picture was taken with my wide-angle lens, not your typical street photography lens (insofar as anything is ‘typical’). Again if you want to see more of the street pictures I took on this day in Brisbane click here to visit the 'Brisbane – Street’ entry of my photography blog.
Picture 35, Day 41 – A Koala in Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 15th 2012.
Day 41 of the trip saw me visiting the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on the outskirts of Brisbane, the world's oldest & largest sanctuary of its kind. Obviously the uber-cute, furry, lethargic koalas are the main attraction but there's so much other Aussie-heavy wildlife on show - kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, wombats, echidnas, a cassowary, snakes, reptiles, and even a platypus which in a country full of strange creatures is the strangest of them all. The sanctuary has over 130 koalas, those sluggish tailless Australian arboreal marsupials (they are not, nor are they even remotely related to bears) with grey furry ears and coat. Their sole food source is eucalyptus, not a very good energy provider (it's actually toxic) which is why they spend 18-20 hours of the day sleeping. The other 4-6 hours are spent eating &, if you're a Lone Pine koala, having your picture taken hugging a tourist like me - the sanctuary is one of the very few places in the world where visitors are actually allowed, for now, to hold the koalas (it's a banned practice just over the border in New South Wales).
Picture 36, Day 41 – A Barking Own in Flight in Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 15th 2012.
All the aforementioned wildlife on display at the sanctuary means a trip there is good value for the $33 (€26) entrance fee. One of the other attractions was the Raptors/Birds of Prey demonstration where I captured this picture of the Barking Owl in flight in light rain. As part of the demonstration the birds flew low over the seated audience to and from perches on either side of the demonstration arena, one of which is seen here. I zoomed as far as I could go (75mm on my Tamron zoom), set the shutter speed to 1/1250sec, pre-focused on the perch to my left (the closest one to me) & waited for the owl to take flight. This image was captured just after it had launched itself into the air. As for the owl itself. It’s so-called because of its distinctive bark-like call, this gorgeous owl has large eyes that have a yellow iris, a dark tipped beak and, unlike the distinctive heart-shaped facial mask of the barn owl, have almost no facial mask.
Picture 37, Day 41 – A Cassowary in Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 15th 2012.
The above picture is that of the illusive Southern Cassowary. Native of Australia and New Guinea it is a large black flightless bird with a distinctive horny head crest which it can use to inflict serious damage on intruders (humans, dogs etc.). I was very lucky to get a fleeting glimpse of one of these in the wild in Northern Queensland 9 years ago and was also very lucky to get this picture - it took a while to find him in his heavily-wooded enclosure but once I did - & once I had, unknowns to myself, entered a restricted area - he stood some inches from my camera, on the other side of a protective fence, and held his pose while I snapped him (just one shot). I can safely say that you won't find too many up close & personal pictures of a cassowary like this one.
Note: You can see all of the pictures I captured at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary by visiting my photography blog entry here.
What’s Next?
We’re spending our final few days on the Sunshine Coast & we’ll be bidding it, & Queensland, adieu in a few days. We’ll then spend a week in Melbourne, the 2nd most populous city in Australia and the capital of the southern state of Victoria. Shortly after that (April 24th) I’m off to New Zealand. Don’t forget you can keep up to date with my present whereabouts by visiting the dedicated travel page of my photography blog.
Once again I hope you’re enjoying the entries and that you’re seeing (and reading) something you like.
Until next time. Regards from the Sunshine Coast (where it is almost time to move on).
David M
Well it seems the more I wonder about the kind of pictures I’ll be taking week to week the more I end up surprising myself. I never expected this week’s entry to be dominated by random street photography and wildlife, but that’s exactly what’s has happened. Although I guess in a country like Australia, with its weird and wonderful fauna, that’s almost to be expected. The 5 pictures in this week’s 'Mave On The Move' instalment were captured over only 2 days, 2 days which reminded me how much I like taking pictures.
Picture 33, Day 39 – King George Square, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 13th 2012.
I spent day 39 of the trip with my camera & a few lenses taking a look around the Australian city of Brisbane, the capital and largest city in Queensland & the 3rd largest city in Oz. It’s not exactly prominent on the tourist trail so there isn’t a whole lot to see in the city. That said, I found it pretty photogenic. Starting as far back as 1824 the city was settled by the British as a penal colony so there are quite a few nice colonial buildings around. One of those buildings, Brisbane City Hall, can be seen in the distance. The Hall, dating from 1920, sits facing King George Square, where this picture was taken. The building was designed according to the Italian Renaissance style with its 91m clock tower, housing the largest clock faces in the country, based on the design of the St. Mark’s Campanile in Venice. My aim was to photograph the Hall itself but, & like all of the colonial buildings in the city, it was towered over by modern-day skyscrapers and/or construction cranes (this is something that I also found in recent weeks blighted the photographing of the colonial buildings in the Kuala Lumpur & Singapore). I took this picture from behind a bronze sculpture of kangaroos on the corner of the Square and I find it a much more interesting photograph than any of the pictures I captured of City Hall itself.
Note: You can see more of the pictures I took of Brisbane by checking out my 'Brisbane Walkabout' blog entry.
Picture 34, Day 39 – Corner of Queen & Edward Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 13th 2012.
My day of walking around Brisbane unintentionally turned into a street photography session. I was ok with that - I like street photography although I really don’t know too much about it. I’m certainly the inconspicuous type (unlike Thomas Leuthard who we were introduced to on RPF earlier this week) so I’m not too fond of using my SLR for this type of photography (I plan on upgrading my point-and-shoot later in the year specifically for this reason). This picture was taken on the corner of Queen & Edward Street right in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD. Queen Street is pedestrianized so it’s a great place for people watching. I sat there for a while taking pictures. This picture was taken with my wide-angle lens, not your typical street photography lens (insofar as anything is ‘typical’). Again if you want to see more of the street pictures I took on this day in Brisbane click here to visit the 'Brisbane – Street’ entry of my photography blog.
Picture 35, Day 41 – A Koala in Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 15th 2012.
Day 41 of the trip saw me visiting the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on the outskirts of Brisbane, the world's oldest & largest sanctuary of its kind. Obviously the uber-cute, furry, lethargic koalas are the main attraction but there's so much other Aussie-heavy wildlife on show - kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, wombats, echidnas, a cassowary, snakes, reptiles, and even a platypus which in a country full of strange creatures is the strangest of them all. The sanctuary has over 130 koalas, those sluggish tailless Australian arboreal marsupials (they are not, nor are they even remotely related to bears) with grey furry ears and coat. Their sole food source is eucalyptus, not a very good energy provider (it's actually toxic) which is why they spend 18-20 hours of the day sleeping. The other 4-6 hours are spent eating &, if you're a Lone Pine koala, having your picture taken hugging a tourist like me - the sanctuary is one of the very few places in the world where visitors are actually allowed, for now, to hold the koalas (it's a banned practice just over the border in New South Wales).
Picture 36, Day 41 – A Barking Own in Flight in Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 15th 2012.
All the aforementioned wildlife on display at the sanctuary means a trip there is good value for the $33 (€26) entrance fee. One of the other attractions was the Raptors/Birds of Prey demonstration where I captured this picture of the Barking Owl in flight in light rain. As part of the demonstration the birds flew low over the seated audience to and from perches on either side of the demonstration arena, one of which is seen here. I zoomed as far as I could go (75mm on my Tamron zoom), set the shutter speed to 1/1250sec, pre-focused on the perch to my left (the closest one to me) & waited for the owl to take flight. This image was captured just after it had launched itself into the air. As for the owl itself. It’s so-called because of its distinctive bark-like call, this gorgeous owl has large eyes that have a yellow iris, a dark tipped beak and, unlike the distinctive heart-shaped facial mask of the barn owl, have almost no facial mask.
Picture 37, Day 41 – A Cassowary in Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. April 15th 2012.
The above picture is that of the illusive Southern Cassowary. Native of Australia and New Guinea it is a large black flightless bird with a distinctive horny head crest which it can use to inflict serious damage on intruders (humans, dogs etc.). I was very lucky to get a fleeting glimpse of one of these in the wild in Northern Queensland 9 years ago and was also very lucky to get this picture - it took a while to find him in his heavily-wooded enclosure but once I did - & once I had, unknowns to myself, entered a restricted area - he stood some inches from my camera, on the other side of a protective fence, and held his pose while I snapped him (just one shot). I can safely say that you won't find too many up close & personal pictures of a cassowary like this one.
Note: You can see all of the pictures I captured at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary by visiting my photography blog entry here.
What’s Next?
We’re spending our final few days on the Sunshine Coast & we’ll be bidding it, & Queensland, adieu in a few days. We’ll then spend a week in Melbourne, the 2nd most populous city in Australia and the capital of the southern state of Victoria. Shortly after that (April 24th) I’m off to New Zealand. Don’t forget you can keep up to date with my present whereabouts by visiting the dedicated travel page of my photography blog.
Once again I hope you’re enjoying the entries and that you’re seeing (and reading) something you like.
Until next time. Regards from the Sunshine Coast (where it is almost time to move on).
David M
