First up the run down on where last week’s blog post was viewed, a clear winner this week again with Russia again the coming out on top followed by Australia then a tie for third between the USA and China. German coming in at number five then seven countries coming in next these being Belgium, Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, Poland and Portugal. So again a good section of countries having a look at last week’s blog post.  Thanks to all who had a look last week. 

On with this week’s blog. I've just returned for two weeks of Photography in Tasmania, the first week was part of an organised tour with Steve Parish (https://www.steveparish-natureconnect.com.au) in conjunction with Spirit Safaris (http://www.spiritsafaris.com). The second week was a couple of us from the tour and Steve spending an extra week photographing together. So a good solid two weeks of photography. Tasmania certainly is a great place to photograph and one I think I'll be returning to quite often to shoot, I doubt you could ever capture it all, so much to see and such spectacular sights to see. 

The tour was to start in the afternoon allowing everyone time to fly in to Launceston, but as it happens every one flew in the day before so we all meet up and had a meal together that night and agreed to meet up in the morning and start an unofficial photo walk around Launceston. 

The first series of shots are taken from a walk around the town and out to the Launceston gorge.

These first three shot are a series of old terrace house that are now businesses in the city centre. This was the first real try of my newish Canon 5DMk4

A Detailed shot of the wrought iron work around the balconies and the concrete form work.

From the city streets we started to walk along the river up towards the Gorge, through the trees I say the old sailing boat, I tried to frame the boat with the reeds in the bottom and the tree at the top, didn't really work out and not that happy with this shot.

The old bridge over the river to the gorge with the old building in the background makes for a better shot. 

As the sun came out it lit up the silios on the other side of the river and this shows it always pays to look behind you as well as in front, you never know what shot is behind you. As this shot shows. 

Walking back along the streets the old buildings of Launceston have some fine details on the buildings and the light posts are certainly of a unique style compared to the modern ones of today. 

After lunch we meet the Spirit Safari team and our mini bus and started the official part of the tour with a trip out to Liffey Falls. This was our first tastes of Tasmania's forests and the lush greens the go with them. 

The whole area around the falls was covered with tall tree ferns and lush green mosses. This shot shows Steve Parish lining up a shot. 

With all the Mosture around from the falls and the dark enviroment I felt sure to find mushrooms on the trip and I wasn't dissapointed.

This shot was taken with the mushroom growing on a log and the camera mounted on a tripod upside down (The image had to be flipped once processed. ) lit with two speedlites one on the ground the other hand held in this case. 

This shots of me taking the shot above, Taken by Lynn. 

This first shot is of the falls them self. Again showing just how green the bush is around the falls. 

This shot shows the way the water has been carving its way thought the rocks for many years now winding its way thought the weaker areas of the rock, with the tree ferns taking hold where they can. 

Again like so much of the Tasmanian forests I visited in the two weeks everything was so green and lush. 

More of the giant tree ferns that were growing in the area.

On the way back for the falls again I found some Mushrooms to shoot, these were all hand held shots, so not the normal set up all with natural light no flash used on these ones, but the lighting was just nice so still came out OK.  

This last one was some Coral Fungi growing on the ground, I've not came across this sort before the gardens have one area that have some fine white ones but nothing like these chunky ones.  

I'll leave this post here for now and pick up next time with day two of the trip around Tasmania. 

Hope you enjoyed the start of this two week trip. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog this week. 

Glenn

Welcome back to my weekly blog, though I've been missing in action the last few weeks, more to come one that one in a minute. But first a quite round up of who's viewed the blog these last few weeks, A clear winner the last few weeks easily out doing everyone else combined by a multiple of 2 plus times is Russia, so a big viewing these last few weeks from over there. Net up the local Australian contingent, followed but he united states then the United Kingdom and then Germany, Hong Kong and Taiwan next equal and then comes Finland, Indonesia, Italy, India, Jordan, Netherlands and Vietnam. So, a good collection of countries the last few weeks viewing the blog. Thanks to all. 

Well the blogs been sadly lacking these last few weeks, I've been on the road for a few weeks in Tasmania the southernmost state of Australia, the Island at the bottom of the east coast for those not that familiar with Australia. A photographer’s paradise. Plenty of stunning scenery and wild life, though surprisingly this time around not so many birds. In the coming weeks once I've gone thought all my images I'll put up a series of blog posts on this trip. But Since I'm still working my way thought the images, this week’s blog will be on last Saturdays walk in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. 

Before I left for Tasmania we were having a heat wave up this way, with high 40 deg C temperatures (116 Deg F) on a few days, but when I came back seems I bought the cooler weather with me, plus the wetter weather. Several days of good rain over the last week. The gardens were well watered after that all the small streams were flowing and of cause an abundance of mushrooms this week, after some many weeks not much, this week everywhere I looked I found them. 

First up is a shot of an old fallen tree and the patterns caved out by the various insets that have been working the timber when it was still covered in bark. This, I used as my entry for this week’s Google plus Australian and New Zealand weekly photo prompts entry. This week’s theme is textures. Been missing in action from that, these last few weeks as well. (no Wi-Fi in most of the locations I was staying in.) This one was taken on the opposite side of the road for the stolen generation walk.

From there I crossed the road and headed off towards the stolen generation memorial area. Good to see the gardens nice and wet, the little streams were flowing around the area, of late they had dried up, normally on a good day they are still but with water in pools, but of late nothing but dry creek beds. I found a few birds in the area, this first one's of a Willie Wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys) earring out a bit of feather maintenance. 

In the same area is usually found the Eastern Yellow Robin (Eospsaltria australis) and this week was no exception. 

With all the rain over the last week the gardens were alive with Mushrooms. So I spent a far time getting a good collection of shots this week to make up for the lack of them the last few weeks. These first few were around the plant bank. Which is now open not eh Weekends thought Autumn from 10:00am till 2:00 pm with a scientist on duty each day of the weekend over the time. including Fungi - Dr Brett Summerell on the 25th March, which is also the day I'm running a Bird Photography workshop in the gardens, for bookings contact the Australian Botanical Gardens. So I'll be there to see whats on show there after the workshop finishes up. 

These shots are the usual set up of two off camera lights and the images focus stacked from several images to give the details.

Last Saturday the gardens had a Seaweed display in the plant bank so heres a shot I managed to get same set up I use for the Mushrooms two lights and focus stacked, which gives the depth of field and sharpness highlighting all the details. So something different this week. 

There was no shortage of mushrooms about this week, So I made the most of them this week. 

This next shot shows a behind the scenes shot, this shows the actual lighting conditions the shot was taken in and the positions of the lights. Again the 60D with the Articulated Screen is in use, which shows you don't need the latest camera to get these results.   This one is now Three generations behind the current model available. 

All the While a White Faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) watched on. 

Again more mushroom shots this next one the mushrooms were so tiny only about 4 to 6mm in diameter so fine and small not to mention bright red. The colour was what I noticed first, funny that. 

With all the Rain of late the ground was soft and squelch underfoot the Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis moluccan) were having a picnic on the lawn besides the main lakes. 

In the lake was a solitary Royal Spoonbill Platalea regia) today there's usually a small group of these but today I only spotted the one. 

So that wraps up this weeks shots in the Australian Botanical Garden, in the coming weeks I'll start the blogs for the shots from Tasmania from the last few weeks. So stay tuned for those coming up. still processing the images from the trip. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog this week, back next week with more. 

Glenn. 

Welcome back to my weekly blog. 

This week’s blog will be a review of the shots taken last weekend in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan.

First a quick review of where last week’s blog was viewed, this week we had a tie for first place with Australian and the United Kingdom on equal numbers then the USA and then a tie with Canada, India and Japan. So again, coverage of the globe for last week’s blog. Thanks.

Again, another hot week here in South west Sydney So not too much about this week I was also a bit later than usual so right in the heat of the day, so not so much activity to shoot this week. I thought since there wasn't so much in the way of wildlife about I'd try a few tree shots, getting a bit of practice in for the next few weeks (More on that later).

This first shot is of the woodland area where I spend a bit of time shooting the woodland birds. This is typical Cumberland plan woodland, not too much of that left and this has all regrown in the last few years, before the gardens took over the site this use to be a cleared dairy farm, so gives an idea of the power of the bush to regenerate. There's a sign at the start of this path showing a shot of the area cleared compared to the view there now. 

This next shot bit of an experiment Think this ones still work in progress shot an intention camera shack at slow shutter speed, but i think I need a bit of lens corrections to take out the reverse barrelling effect, I tried several shutter speed surprisingly it needed a faster speed than I thought, this was one of the faster ones I tried, but another stop or so might have been better, this one was at 1/40th of a second. One to try again later, or maybe not. 

This next shot is of the Stolen Generation memorial, this one with the afternoon light hitting it to give the shadows and detail from the side lighting. This is the area for Superb wrens, Variegated Fairy-wrens, Scrub Wrens, Grey fantails, eastern Yellow Robins, Fan-tail cuckoos, Bell Miners, Scarlet Honeyeaters, Misteltoebirds and Grey Shrike-Thrushs plus a few others. so plenty to be found around here if you just sit and wait. Not so much this weekend in the heat though. 

Another shot of the woodland showing the number of tall thin trees starting to fill the space. 

Next up a more detailed shot of one of the gum trees and the colours and textures as the bark starts to shed. 

Followed by the same shot but this time after a bit of processing in Topaz.

And again the same shot but a little wider this time. 

This shot is showing a branch with the bark ready to fall its already shredded and ready to come off in stings of bark. So like a loose netting over the branch now.  

It was while taking these shots that a small group of Weebills (Smicrornis brevirostris) appeared high up in the canopy, these were really too high to get a good shot and this shots pretty heavily cropped in which is why the image quality isn't the best, but I was starting to think this might be the only wild life I find this week.  

But the Bell Miners (Manorina melanophrys) never let you down they are always around this area. These are usually not long in one area so you need to be a  bit quick to get one of these in a decent shot. 

From there I tried the main lakes and found a small group of Australian Wood Ducks (Chenonetta jubata) making their way from the water onto the grass for the afternoon feed. this one was in mid-march when I captured this before the second foot hit the ground. 

Last up a pair of Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca) Standing on the path drying off after bathing in the lake. 

Not a great week for shots this weekend, wasn't the best time to head out with the heat and all, but it was then or not go out at all sometimes you never know what you'll find out there so worth a try. Though the results this week not the best. 

Over the next few weeks I'll be traveling and photographing in Tasmania for a few weeks so depending on availability of internet access if I can get a blog post out of not in the next week or so, if not there will be plenty of shots to share later, I'm sure if last year’s Central Australian trip was anything to go by. So, keep an eye out of the next blog post hopefully in the coming week with the first half of my Tasmanian trip. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog this week, back next week with luck with more, something different.

Glenn.