World’s best fishing photo????

HERE is another Nat Geo wonder shot, Check back for a fishing shot if it has changed when you look at this. I think this shot has everything!

DFO Expedition

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Julie and a few others have queried revitalizing and the difficulty of finding suitable subjects to encourage us to get out there snapping! Well I would like to recount an example showing that suitable images are everywhere even in the most unexpected and boring of places.

Point in hand, the other day Sally had a friend up from Sydney to attend the U3A concert which I filmed and am trying to get clips of onto youtube for you to see, (Later), well before Jenny went back down South she demanded to go to the “DFO” (Direct Factory Outlet) Complex near the airport. I mean what could be more boring than that? There is nothing there, only about 100 Shoe shops, 50 Handbag shops, 75 Fashion Outlets etc. you know what I mean, nothing to even look at. There was nothing for it, take my camera and wander around the carpark, overgrown hard standing and see what I could see!

Mother Plover Distracting Me!

Mum & Dad discussing Tactics

Dad flys off squarking I follow

Mum turns off when spotted.

You may have heard me mention “Spurwing Plovers” before, they are grass nesting birds that are SUPER TERRITORIAL!

There was a disused paddock beside the DFO carpark and as I approached it this Mum Plover made a racket and drew me to the opposite side of a small stormwater drain where I got this nice close-up! Have a look at an enlarged shot of this bird, then direct your gaze to the wing just below her beak and you will see why she is called a “Spur Wing” (I highlighted the area slightly)

I know my Plovers though and thought, here might be a chance to get a shot of some chicks (Even if a tad early in the season) so I returned to the grass area, and started looking. Meanwhile as I said I know Plovers, I kept my wits about me, which was why I noticed the conference depicted in the second image. Which was ominous as they were dead silent, (A Real Danger Signal with Plovers). So I continued searching the tussocks for the nest, always difficult to find, SENSES at FULL ALERT!

After several minutes of looking, I heard an almighty squawking off to my left, which enabled me to get this shot of Dad jumping around in mid air about head high screaming Blue Murder about 40 feet away. Did I mention that I know Plovers”

Keeping the camera near eyelevel and Auto Focus on, I did a rapid 180 degree about turn and there was Mum aimed directly at the back of my head. I wasn’t quick enough to capture this as she turned off when I pointed the lens at her. Not a clear shot but you can see her just veering off.

With senses still turned to high I searched the grass area but found no nest. My assumption then is that this was just a dress rehearsal for when the breeding season Proper starts, I won’t visit that paddock then. In reality this time I probably would not have been hurt just flicked with the wing tip. However as a child I had suffered tens of strike, one ripping my scalp fom behind my ear to near my eyebrow that required 12 stitches, before I learned about Plover, Did I mention that I knew about SpurWing Plovers?

I also know about women so kept quiet on the way home when I was harangued about just how much money had been saved with all those bargains that they had snapped up, but I knew that I had snapped up a real bargain, in capturing a plover attack and returning home unscathed.  Photo opportunities are everywhere! So get out there start living but keep your camera with you!

{Karen (klsbear) taight me how to use slideshow} ain’t she clever, wish I knew it for the cludesdales I might go back!! Hmmm

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Clydesdale Tidy Up

Lasting Memory of the Farm

Farm Windvane - Synonymous

Photojournalism is something I have aleays aimed at achieving in my innimitable fashion and in spite of the number of images posted (72, I think) I feel that this little story has legs of  it’s owm. I hope Marlene and Harry are happy with my little tribute to their Endeavours. If you get out to Paradise contact me and we will see if we can get a party together to go back and visit again. Bring your camera, there must be something there I didn’t snap!

HorseStud Windvane - Stupendous

Highway Homeward Bound

Hey that's our Exit!

Good to be Back in Suburbia!

Clydesdale Flood Continues 3rd Demo Bag Lift

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These shots show the Bag Lift that Harry was good enough to run twice for those who missed the axtion the first time.

There was some concerne when it came to move the bag of wet sawdust, that he was using for the demo, but when I offered to help him, Sally spruiked up concerning my heart condition, and here and Marlene seemed to mutter a few words about the masculine Phsyche, which I don’t understand. The last three shots tidied up some of the unused shots prior to tomorrows wrap up and heading home shots. I love the way all these shots show the mechanics of not only the gizmo Harry used for the demo, but the Clydesdale as well.

Bonus Post Luna and Jupiter

When Sally and I returned from dining out last night, I noticed that the Moon and Jupiter seemed to be hanging around pretty close together, so braving the sleet and snow (well it was 9 degree celcius – It is Winter) to capture the above two photos! Both taken with my 70-300mm lens the first at 95mm Exp 1/60sec at f/5.6 ISO 200. The second at 300mm Exp 1/500sec at f/8 ISO 200 I then cropped the image to 20 x 20 cm in processing!

For the third shot I dragged out my old 203mm Telescope Couldn’t get a clear shot of Jupiter, but got a clear shot of the Moon so rushed back inside swapped the lens for my trusty old 50mm Prime lens, attached the camera to my tripod arranged things so that I was looking through the camera viewfinder into the telescope eyepiece. The Exp was 1/6sec F 1.8 (on the lens), tried to get the focus as crisp as I could and here is the result. I had to do a bit of processing on this as there was alot of detritus on the eyepiece of the telescope which needed to be cloned out, and as I had taken the shot through the telescope I had to rotate the image 180 degrees. I then cropped the image to 20 x 20 cm as I had for the other one (to show perspective) and I like the result. For the last shot I replaced the 70-300mm Lens set the dial for night portrait (Using Flash) to have the trees give perspective.

Clydesdale Flood Continues 2nd Demo Log Pull

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These shots show Misty harnessed to the Wiffle Tree (or Swingle Bar), which is attached to the splitter bar, for really heavy loads, multiple Wiffle Trees can be attached to accommodate the number of horses needed for the job. Harry informed us that he could move the log on his own, which seemed to get Marlene’s hackels up so he added that following a little heart scare recently he had been ordered not to lift anything over 7 kilograms. When I queried the weight of the harness he had fitted to Misty he seemed to ignore me at first, but when Marlene said “It weighs 42 pounds!” Harry retorted “It had to be done”! and that was that! Notice the onlookers to Misty’s right, learning the trade!

Harry’s Farm Shots

Rest interval

Sticky Beaking

I knew this one was asleep

Did I miss Something

Swarming Ibis

Great Outlook on Life

Just some more Nice photos around Harry’s Home Paddock and Stable.

The bird shot shows one of two or three swarms of Ibis that were about the same size as this.

Clydesdale Flood Continues 1st Demo Harnessing

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Totally in awe of these wonderful horses, just click the thumbnails to see enlarged images. My favourite is the last!

Clydesdales Have Stamina – So do I!

Notwithstanding that it appears likely that I have overstepped the mark with my Clydesdale Trip shots, I will persist as Harry and Marlene went out of their way to be hospitable, so I can be no less LOL.

The first shot showsMisty staked into position to allow Harry to illucidate on the majesty of his powerful charges. The Fowl depicted is the Cock of the Walk Rocky, who at points throughout Harry’s dissertation would vent his displeasure, much to Harry’s apparent chargrin, about the fifth time harry started to use words like Baste, and Fricse etc but Rocky wasn’t deterred and eventually we all left the barn where we were able to look more closely at the Clydesdales and the Shetlands. In case you had wondered on that, as I had, the reason we were given was that both Clydesdales and Shetlands are Scotish although from different regions of scot land, and why Shetlands – Simple People who attend the tour in wheelchairs (and apparently there are many, can’t pet the clydesdales. I think Harry wanted us to believe that he was kind, I just think he is Canny!

All that being given, we got real value for money on this trip and even at the risk of boring my readers, I intend persisting with my report as there is still the shots of the Harnassing of Misty, Misty proving her prowess at loading logs onto a wagon or storage bay until the wagon could return, or even loading sacks either onto a dray, up to a loft or into a silo, Misty does it all, and just incase you think the horse is overworked, she isn’t, while Harry was talking and imparting wisdom?? She was kicking the living daylights out of her stall agte, and it was sheer impatience, her audience had arrived and she needed to perform

Fun things around the Farm

Calendar Posters

Horseless Carriage

Tribute to the Tallest

Pièce de résistance

Someone mentioned the fun aspect of some of my Clydesdale shots. So I thought more were needed.

Harry’s wife Marlene was deemed responsible for the small “Big Horse Museum” crammed into a shed on the property. There was so much stuff I took lots of photos but only the first and third photos here are useable through the singularity of subject depicted. Photo one  is a collage of six calendar pages grouped for their beauty. The Third shows  apparently the tallest Horse record holder from Clydeshire in Scotland. The second photo shows a gig/surry or carriage that I have named the Horseless carriage as when one of our group queried putting a Clydesdale  between those shafts, Marlene laughed and replied, “No Harry is a bit of a purist and won’t have a normal sized horse on the property” then quickly added “Yet!” so it remains horseless. The last I have called Pièce de résistance for obvious reasons this shows what living in a rural setting really means – being one with nature, this young fellow (and at least two of his mates – Up inder the lip) were not moving for any City Slickers! Became quite a talking point!