3rd Tickle

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I'll let ya'all into a parenting secret (besides the 'dont have kids one' 😉 )

When it comes to their birthday party get them to make the party food, it has several distinct advantages, like – keeps them occupied, they are gonna eat the food anyways, irrespective of what it looks like 🙂 they can't blame you for the food and also you have someone to blame if everyone gets crook 😉 (which did not happen btw:) ). Now we will brush over all the disadvantages, like, increased cleaning etc and finding child #2 licking chocolate icing off the door frame 😉 (I do have a photo but am not allowed to show it 🙁 )

So, happy birthday Tickles and thanks to big sis aka Chaos for all the help particularly the excellent direction in blowing out candles, snaffling extra lollies from the party cups and generally, lovingly living up to your nickname 🙂

I suppose Sarah Joy did pretty well too, helped the kids make the food 🙂

Sneaky development

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Ya gotta be careful in this day and age, developments will sneak up on you when you not watching… eating up that green space and invading that skyline.

My tribute to the westconnex program..

Have a read of this page for some great spin..

http://www.westconnex.com.au/library/did_you_know/index.html

if they used the phrase 'world’s best design standards' any more i think I would barf – can anyone educate me on what this actually means, is there a world best design standard ? does that mean the tunnel will be as good as the ones in Norway 😉 ?
'WestConnex will remove traffic from local roads'
really ? how do they figure that ?

Anyway the image is actually from the other side of the park where there is a bunch of new apartment development going on.. i guess they are all gonna have cars and drive on local roads 🙂

Solid Rock

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That there is a lonely old rock with some cool rock weed and a neat water flow. I have really missed taking pictures of the ocean, you can turn even the most boring old rock into something nice with a bit of water and colour.

D750 coupled with Nikkor 16-35 f/4@ 16mm Aperture: f16
Shutter Speed: 1.3s
ISO: 100
Out Front: Lee Graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

Planes

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I don't always take pictures of planes 🙂 but when the light is nice and you can see a whole bunch of nice planes like AA's 777 and United's 787 lining up for a departure from Sydney (gotta love flightradar24) I can be persuaded to sit out the back and take a few snaps..

exif love:
D750 coupled with Nikkor 300 f4 and 1.7TC @ 510mm Aperture: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/1600
ISO: 250

In Album 2016-10-04

Can't see the forest for the trees

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I walked past this standing of trees, stopped and walked back and forth about 5 times – such a awesome view with the super contrasting whites of the tree trunks with the greens and earths of the surrounds, a bit hard to portray the real view, but I think the panoramic option helps. I needed a pair of sunnies it was soo white, even tho it was overcast 🙂

D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70 @ 44mm Aperture: f9 and Shutter Speed: 1/30s
ISO: 400
out front: a Hoya CPL and a bunch of funny white trees 🙂

Escher falls

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(or more commonly known as wentworth falls:) )

A bit of a weird composition and processing on this one, its actually a panorama (5 vertical shots) stitched together at 16mm to create a wider field of view, its kinda gone a bit nuts and now looks like a Escher drawing, hence the title. 🙂

Unique

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After coming back from Norway, home of freaking awesome mountains, I did not think I would ever be able to look at the Blue Mountains the same way again, however whilst the blue mountains pale in terms of size when compared to say Dalsnibba (the hill that looks over Geiranger) there is a uniqueness to the Blue mountains which gives them a pretty big draw card. The sheer sandstone cliffs, the gums and the ancient history of the people that walked here before, all something which is not replicated anywhere else in teh world – after visiting just about anywhere in the mountains it leaves me thinking I am very lucky to live so close and be able to enjoy such neat scenery and it should not be under appreciated 🙂

This is a spot looking over the Jamison Valley from Narrowneck, I could basically walk 50 metres and view the Megalong Valley side (https://plus.google.com/+GerardBlacklock/posts/gDPVmCCg5dX) or this side.

Some pretty cool light on this evening too, really lit up the clouds which were honking across the valley..

D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f11 and Shutter Speed: 2s
ISO: 100
out front: Hoya CPL and Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x)

Narrowneck

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Another great naming effort by those before us 🙂 nothing like good literal name for a location, basically Narrowneck is a ridge of sandstone that divides Jamison Valley and Megalong Valley, its pretty cool can you can go all the way out along it (mostly by car too) and see really neat views onto the big valley and the sandstone cliffs on the edge of Katoomba.

This image is taken from one of the spots near a walk which you can take down into the Jamison Valley (thats for another day), whilst some of the narrowneck is quite narrow (see what i did there 🙂 ), there is still quite a bit of vegetation which means alot of scouting around to get a clear view, in this case I stood on the side of the road atop the armco guard rail, gave me that extra 3 feet I needed 🙂

The sun was just about to disappear under the clouds out on the horizon in the Megalong valley and consequently there was some nice light for several minutes which conveniently lit up the hillside.

D750 coupled with Nikkor 300mm f4 @ 300mm Aperture: f6.3 and Shutter Speed: 1/640s
ISO: 250
out front: nada, bunch of hills and some nice light

Terrace Falls and Salote Pool

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Salote Pool - (c) Gerard Blacklock

Salote Pool – (c) Gerard Blacklock

Its been a few years since I have done this walk down to Terrace Falls, its a great little spot and quite accessible (especially when you have busted foot) without too many people, unlike some spots further up towards wennie falls and katoomba. Not much water running, however all the pools down to Picnic point have absolutely crystal clear water and lots of freshwater crayfish.

I would say view this large and zoom in, however google in their infinite wisdom have removed the ability to zoom in the newer version of google plus. So, at the very least, view it full screen 🙂

This image is an absolute bundle of shots, 21 shot panorama, its basically a 7 frame (portrait orientation) image with each frame bracketed (under, normal and over)
Now, one might wonder, why not just take a shot at 16mm and get it all in one frame ? yes you can do that, however one significant disadvantage (ignoring the resolution thing) is that when in wide angle things in distance look really small, hence in this case the small falls would have been represented as tiny tiny falls 🙂 Thats a big thing for panos, it does change the perspective alot (and for the better).
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 62mm Aperture: f13 and Shutter Speed: 10s for normal exp, 1.3s for the underexposed one and 30 sec for the over exposed, this is the one that gets the detail in those dark rock cavities 🙂
ISO: 100
out front: Hoya CPL

Predator

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I just worked out where the chaps who made the Predator series of films got their inspiration from 🙂

These little guys, well our ones are certainly not little anymore they are getting quite large, look absolutely freakish when you get up close and have a proper look 🙂 The other really neat thing about them is that whilst they have a standard insect compound eye, they have what looks like a eye ball on it.. and it moves, follows you around 🙂

Imagine being the size of a ant and coming across one of these in the bushes !

Taken with a clapped out 55mm f2.8 micro lens and the PK-13 extension tube
D750 coupled with Nikkor 55mm f2.8 @ 34mm Aperture: f16 and Shutter Speed: 1/60s
ISO: 1600
External Flash thru a diffuser

Boats r us

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and why they are better than shopping trolleys

Where ever you drive in Norway there is always some form of water course and sure as another tunnel will come up in the drive there is always a boat moored in teh middle of nowhere. They seem to float about waiting for some to jump in and go somewhere, maybe here, across the fjord to the village…

So what does this have to do with trolleys? well these boats are everywhere, like trolleys at my local shopping centre – caution rant ahead – but unlike these nice little boats which seem to be moored anywhere, trolleys left anywhere (except in the designated trolley bay) at the shopping centre are a pita and those who can't be arsed pushing their trolley the 4 metres to the trolley bay deserved to have a thousand trolleys rain down in their front yard 🙂 I do my shopping late on a week night, best time ever, no crowds, no queues and always specials on perishables 🙂 the other night I noticed a couple push their trolley to their car, unload it, leave the trolley immediately behind the car and drive off – it was literally 5 metres to the trolley bay :-/ anyways, sure enough, 30 seconds after they drive off, it was like a magically trolley devil intervention, the trolley rolls back into the car on the other side of the carpark road :-/

So, if you go to a shopping centre, be sure to put your trolley in the bay and don't hesitate to put some other clowns incorrectly left trolley in the bay..even better take your kids for a spin in it on the way to the trolley bay (I can't confirm or deny doing circle work in a woolies trolley on the top level 😉 )

Rant finished – onto the image – heres a nice picture of a fjord with one of the many little boats waiting for someone to go an explore the snowcapped hills. 5 shot panorama.