Alaskan Impressions of NSW (and a bit of VIC)

[NorthernFocus]

A few weeks back I was inquiring for advice for a trip down under. Well my wife and I completed our three week holiday and returned home a couple of weeks ago. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We returned with over a thousand photos and heads filled with plans to return for future trips. Our original plans were to stay five days in Sydney and then drive the coast all the way around from Sydney to the Great Ocean Road, then back through Melbourne and across to the Blue Mountains as our final stop. But once we saw how beautiful the beaches were and experienced a couple of days of wildlife ect. in the Coota, we decided to bag our plan in favor of less driving and more beach walking. So we slowly worked out way back up the coast staying a couple of days at a time at each stop in order to see things in a bit more detail and exploring as many beaches as possible. We finished up with three nights at the Blue Mountains in Katoomba.

From a photographic standpoint, hopefully I was able to come away with images that at least approach a display of the beauty we observed in our travels. Of course the ultimate test of that will be the opinions of folks who know the subject matter well. So I'll put up a series of posts in the appropriate forums. In the mean time, for those who don't mind clicking and would rather not wait the posts, you can check out the following links.

NortherFocus' Australia Gallery (http://www.northernfocusphotography.com/oz2013)

Impressions of NSW Slideshow with didgeridoo (http://www.northernfocusphotography.com/p581196580)

My kit for the trip consisted of:

Nikon D7100
Nikkor 16-85mm DX, 70-200mm f4 VR, 300mm f4
Sirui T-025X tripod w/C-10X ball head, CPL, Cokin P filter set

[ameerat42]

Wow, Dan! That's quite a tribute you paid, esp in your slideshow.
Yep, post some up, for sure.

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip.
Am.

[Darey]

Dan,
+1 for what ameerat42 has said. You have created a wonderful series of images and slideshow from your trip and viewing them made me again appreciate what we have here in Australia.
Your work is excellent and thanks for posting it. :th3:

[NorthernFocus]

Glad you folks liked the images. We really loved your homeland and will definitely be back. Likely multiple times in order to do it justice. Next trip will likely be to Melbourne and the south coast to finish what we started this trip.

[Glenda]

I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to our beautiful country and captured so many great images of it. That's the beauty of DIY holidays you were able to change your mind and see one area well. Hope you get to return and see more.

[Mary Anne]

Good to read that you enjoyed your holiday here, that's great that you are planning to come again and see more..
Loved that slideshow and Thanks for Sharing :2encou:

[pjs2]

Really, really well done.
I would like to see Austrailian Tourism use that slide show. It's 100% better than anything they have ever used. You have really learnt to play the didg well in such a short visit.

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, folks. Well I'm relieved to know that the images represent the place well. They do a better job showing friends than I could convey verbally.

...You have really learnt to play the didg well in such a short visit.
Yeah, right :rolleyes:. I pulled the music from a song by Kristian Didgeridoo's Ensemble. The original version of the video has credits at the end. Half of the king parrot's time and the last slide with the credits get clipped when I convert it to upload to the site. My video editing knowledge nor energy level were up to sorting out what's doing that :(

[mudman]

hey Dan, where did you get the Lyrebird shot? i have only seen a female. they are very secretive birds

[NorthernFocus]

hey Dan, where did you get the Lyrebird shot? i have only seen a female. they are very secretive birds
That was shot on Mt.Agony Rd. in Murramarang NP just up the hill from Pebbly Beach. We also saw a pair of them on the roadside about 10km from Mallacoota and another along the Federal Pass track in Blue Mtns NP. They don't hang around long to be sure.

The lyre bird isn't the best shot of the trip from a technical standpoint but it ranks high among my favorites due to the difficulty factor.

[Jakbob]

I'm living in Canada and these pictures almost make me homesick.