The Outback

We've been driving through the outback of Australia for the past few days, and will be driving in them for the next couple days! It's a HUGE area out here. Most people would say it's really boring, with nothing to see, and it's true to an extent. But if you pay attention to what is around you, and take your time, this place is full of life.

I've seen snakes, lizards, bugs, spiders, birds, crocodiles, emus, kangaroos, cows, frogs, fish and many many other amazing creatures out here. It's quite fun.

Unfortunately I haven't had time to edit through any of my photos from the past couple weeks (about 4,000 of them) so I can't post any now.

Ok, here is one fun shot. We hiked "Kings Canyon" yesterday morning which was fun. You hike around the rim of a huge canyon, with big cliffs everywhere. It's nice to be out of America, because there probably would have been big fences on the cliffs edge, but here there wasn't. So we sat on the edge and dangled our feet off. The wind up there was so refreshing!

Glowing mushrooms in Australia Rainforest!

No, I wasn't tripping on them!

I have never heard of glowing mushrooms, but last night I found some. We were walking back to the car from a waterfall (at night) and there were these sweet firefly's everywhere, but I also noticed that in the woods there were glowing things not moving at all. So I investigated by trampling into the trees.. sure enough... glow in the dark mushrooms! Who would have ever known?

My headlight on-

Headlight off-

I love this sign

A spider I found last night

She'd like to say hello on my blog.

Look closely... there is not one spider in this photo, but dozens, maybe even hundreds. Yes, her buttocks is swarming with little babies. They were crawling around all over the place. Bred to kill...

100% close up. Click on it! :)

The Chubby

This is the van (the Chubby) we rented here in Australia, our home for a month! :)
Its nice and cozy... love it. Matter of a fact, I'm laying in it right now. Bethany is laying beside me asleep and it's raining really hard, I love the sound of the rain on the roof! It's really warm and humid too, probably about 80 degrees. I'm in my boardshorts, with all the windows down (I don't mind the rain coming in!).

Were in Northern Australia, in a little town called Ingham. I think it's about 200km south of Cairns.

Anyway, I'm going to try and work on some photos to put on the blog. Bethany is a much better storyteller and consistent blogger than me, so be sure and check out her blog to see the latest! :)

Byron Bay

We were in Byron Bay a few days ago, it's a really fun little town. Definitely got a hippy/traveler theme going on. Bethany went for a run while I went out in the water and took photos of some waves.

Me getting worked by a wave! haha

G'day mate!

Sorry I haven't had any time (or internet) to post some of the stuff we've been doing and shooting. We just returned from 2 days on Frasier Island (worlds largest sand island), which was incredible! We rented a ghetto little 4x4 and drove around all over the place. Great fun. Here is a little pic for now-

The van we rented is a 5-speed manual shift and Bethany doesn't really know how to drive one (I gave her lessons... video coming later) but she definitely needs more practice before she heads out on the open road! The one time she was on the open road, she kept stalling at an intersection, so we had to switch seats really quick so the cars behind us stopped honking! Haha. Anyway with all that said, she has had time to work on her photos and write a bit. She started a blog of our adventures and also made a little website which explains where were going, what were doing, etc.

Click here for blog

Click here for website

First photos from Australia

It's beautiful here.

Australia!

We've made it to Australia and all is well! Spent the day in Sydney yesterday which was kinda crazy... but fun. We gotta go now but I hope to update soon with awesome photos (that I haven't shot yet!) :)

Second shot with my new tripod

Last night we went to Costco in Goleta, which is about a 45 min drive from Solvang. I brought my camera because I've always wanted to get a cool shot of this awesome bridge on highway 154. So we explored on the road down below the bridge and I found a spot to shoot from where I could leave the camera for the 45 minute exposure while we were at Costco. It was pretty stashed away in the bushes, so it was extremely unlikely that someone would see it, but that would be super random to come upon an camera like that out in the middle of nowhere.

This was the first 45 minute exposure I've done with my Canon 5d. I am amazed at the quality! Below is a view at 100% so you can check it out. Pretty cool. Only bummer is that the "noise reduction" takes just as long as the exposure, so 1.5 hours later, the battery was almost dead from one shot. I'm going to try a 1 hour exposure next, and see if it works!

I was looking at the image up close, and 7 airplanes flew through during the 45 min exposure. I always wonder who is in those planes, and where they're all going!?

New Tripod | Gitzo GT-1540T

Thanks to all who commented/emailed to help me with my tripod question last week! It was a great help for sure. Gitzo's website and their whole line of tripods is really confusing to understand, especially when there isn't a camera store near where you can see all the stuff in person.
The tripod I ended up going with is the Gitzo GT-1540T with a RRS BH-40 Pro II ballhead.

I really like the weight and size of the setup. It's small and light, but still pretty solid. It wasn't cheap though, about $1,100 all together for the legs, head, mounting plate, and an L plate. Insanely expensive but it's going to make a world of a difference!

The photo above is from last night, my first photo with it... 30 minute exposure, f/2.8, ISO 50, $1,000 tripod. The tripod is what counts. Kidding! Our photo friends make stupid tripod jokes all the time like "Soooo, what kind of tripod did you have for that shot?" Because it totally doesn't matter. Your tripod could be a bunched up sweatshirt with your camera laying on top... long as it's stable during the exposure, that's all that matters. Its not like a lens... where in that case the quality of the glass affects every photo you take.

Anyway here is a snap from last night of the setup (in Solvang at Natalie's sweet place!)

Santa Barbara!

We made it to Santa Barbara and so far everything has been going totally great! We shot the wedding today, which went really well, and we'll be in Santa Barbara hanging out with friends until Wednesday, when we fly to Sydney, Australia.

Today Bethany and I got a little lost trying to find the ceremony site. We parked our rental car and walked all around this park with our 50lbs of camera gear and didn't see any signs of the wedding. We asked a rollerblader guy (of course with really short, tight shorts) skating by and he pointed us in the right direction across the street. While we were walking around I found this woodpecker on a palm tree! Cool eh?

Takin off!

This is my last post at home in Oregon... Friday were taking off to Santa Barbara to shoot a wedding on Saturday. Then we're flying out of LAX on Wednesday to Australia to begin our crazy crazy adventure. I'm not sure if I'll keep on updating this blog, or if I'll start a new one for both of us. I've been thinking about trying out a Wordpress blog. Any suggestions?
Whatever I end up doing, I'll try and update often! I have a lot of catching up to do!

Here is a photo I took a few nights ago when the moon was full. The line going through is an airplane!