Photo memories – South Australia

Today, I have started the mammoth task of slowly working through my catalogue of nearly 20,000 image files from the road-trip, in an attempt to feature a few memories each week, as well as find a few of my favourite images.  I took quite a bit of kit with me in the end including my Canon 5DM3 and 5 lenses, my new Olympus OMD10 with 2 lenses as well as an old infrared camera and of course my IPhone.  It would be fair to say that they didn’t all get used as frequently as each other.  The Olympus, mainly due to weight was my camera of choice on walks or when we were mobile and travelling.  It was a fantastic travel camera and the kit lenses were pretty good for coverage.  I will be planning some upgrades in the future now doubt.  My main camera, the Canon I used for all the low light shoots, sunsets and sunrises and I also tried out my last lens purchase, just prior to the trip, which is a 100-400.  It was mainly purchased for wildlife, for opportunities on the trip but also beyond.  Needless to say it was perfect for that but I also discovered it to be an excellent wave lense when the location was right.  I will always remember standing atop the cliffs on the Nullarbor  or on the beaches, trying to capture that perfect curl in the wave.

But back to the wildlife, this image was the very first trial of the lense at Seal Bay in Kangaroo Island.  It was a lovely spot, where in guided groups we could go down on to the beach and actually get pretty close to some of the seals basking, but the longer lens meant I could try and focus on a few of the ones a bit further away and witness some of their natural behaviours just a little closer.  I have wanted to process one of my images from Seal Bay right from the start, but decided to keep all the processing until I returned.  I have a few favourites, but this one reflects the sense of family as we saw lots of mothers and cubs together on the beach, chilling out and watching the waves.

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What…when…where

I’ve blinked, and its over!  How did that happen.  Last I knew I was on the Great Ocean Road, today I am sitting in my Stayz apartment in Sydney, on the hunt for jobs and getting ready to move into a new apartment lease next week!  That’s just the crazy, quick way that this journey ended last week.

On the Great Ocean Road we saw some great scenery, but were a little thwarted by school holidays, so had to stay about a 45min drive away from the coast and also rain…rain and more rain.  It made it hard to get around and due to some road closures there was a small part of the road we didn’t even get to see.  I don’t think the GOR was the highlight for any of us really, but it was rather lovely watching the coast unfold and also seeing some more of the inland landscapes/rainforests. I also had a lovely birthday enjoying cake and chocolate with a bit of coastal scenery thrown in.

From Victoria, we decided to head towards Jindabyne and the snowy mountains.  We joked about how amazing it would be to see a bit of snow on the mountains, just to finish off the trip in a special way, and add to the variety of weather conditions we had experienced.  Well, fate took its path and we ended up driving through the snowy mountains, while it was snowing, quite hard as well as getting to do a trip to the Thredbo snowfields and take the chairlift up to the highest spot where there had been recent snowfalls.  It is actually the first time I have seen snow in Australia.  My very first time ever was NZ and from there a number of amazing experiences overseas, so it was a rather special event in my home country.

We then headed to Canberra, with the main focus being the Floriade exhibition, and to celebrate Kath’s birthday.  We stayed a bit out of Canberra, actually in NSW so kept crossing borders.  Enjoyed the flower displays, before we headed back to Sydney and Kathy’s flight home last Tuesday.  Its taken me a while to get my head around it as it has been a whirlwind of househunting and also starting to try and find work.  There are lots of memories and photos to process so I am thinking of giving myself a ‘project’ to try and work on them before it all becomes a faded memory.

It has been, one of the most amazing trips of my life, not doubt about it and I have, as per usual no plans to stop travelling and exploring the landscapes of this amazing planet.  Stay tuned, if you dare, for the next adventure 🙂