Mount Tomah – Bilpin, Blue Mountains

This is my second trip up to Mt. Tomah. Seems like every time I decided to come here it rains. Looking on the bright side there will lots of water drops on the flowers and plants.

I got some really cool macro shots. The majority of them were shot at 1:1, hand-held of course . I used my home-made macro flash rig which consists of 2 x SB-800s.

ISO 500 f/16 1/800 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/80 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/200 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/125 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/200 secs Flash            ISO 200 f/16 1/200 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/80 secs Flash

ISO 500 f/16 1/160 secs Flash

The macro rig, both Nikon SB-800s, the Nikon 105 macro lens and D700 was totally wet from the constant drizzle. Happily, I like to report that everything is still working.

Nikon D700 - Macro Photography

I visited the Mt. Tomah Botanical Gardens in the Blue Mountains yesterday with some photography buddies. The aim of this shoot was to improve our macro photography. This is the first time I have teamed the Nikon 105mm with the D700 and I have to say I am very impressed with the results.

The weather wasn't the best as it was raining intermittently for most of the day. I shot most of the afternoon in the drizzling rain after lunch. I was wet and cold and so was my camera equipment.

Two of the Canon buddies called it quits when the rain started and headed for shelter. Their excuse was that they didn't want the precious Canon 5D to get damaged. I reckon it was them that didn't want to get wet!

They reckon the 5D did not have weather sealing and didn't want water in their cameras. I always assumed that the Canon 5Ds

were water resistant. The other two Canon buddies didn't seem to let the wet weather bother them too much.

Anyway the Nikon D700, 105mm macro lens and SB-800 flash all survived the ordeal.

I am amazed with the sharpness of the Nikon 105mm macro lens. I bought this before the VR version was released.

Click here for more macro photography at High ISO.

Click here if you want to see more of my macro shots.

Govetts Leap, Blue Mountains

Here are some photos from my recent trip to Govetts Leap in the Blue Mountains on Good Friday. Not a great idea in hindsight since took us over 2.5 hours, hours to get there as there was a heap of traffic on the road. The trip normally only takes about 1.5 hours. It appears lot of people were trying to get out of Sydney during the Easter break.



We started off at Govetts Leap lookout and then went for a quick hike along the Cliff Top track. It was quite a challenging hike for a very unfit person like me.







It was very tough climbing back up those steps. Finally got back to Govetts Leap at around dusk. Just in time to get the shot below.



If you are interested you can checkout more of my shots here.

Wentworth Falls - Empress Falls Trek (Blue Mountains)

I did the Wentworth Falls - Empress Falls trek yesterday. The climb down to the bottom of Wentworth Falls was the easiest part as it was straight down. The trek from Wentworth Falls across to Empress Falls was not too bad. The waterfall here is definitely more impressive than the one back at Wentworth Falls.

The climb up from the bottom of Empress Falls to the top was a killer. It was toughest thing I have done to date. I guess being totally unfit didn't help. I honestly thought I wouldn't make it back up. I was gone, my legs were like logs I couldn't lift them at all and I was sucking in the big ones and my heart rate was somewhere up there in the stratosphere.

I was totally stuff and had to stop multiple times to regain my energy along the climb. It was embarrassing to see parents with babies strapped to backs effortlessly glide pass up the side of the mountain. Finally, I spotted the kiosk/diner and a feeling of relieve swept over me.

I finally made it after after 5 long hours. First thing I did was buy an ice cold bottle of coke, it was just what the doctor ordered. I also ate some biscuits and rested for about 20 minutes before trekking back to the Wentworth Falls car park, which took about 15-20 minutes.

Here are some photos from my trek. Please enjoy them.

Wentworth Falls (Top)

Path to the bottom of Wentworth Falls

Wentworth Falls (Bottom)

Path to Empress Falls

Path to Empress Falls

Empress Falls (Bottom)

Anyway, you can see more of my shots here.