Nikon D700

I am really keen to get my hands on one. I went to Camera House to check out the Nikon D700 when they were officially released to the public last Thursday. It felt very solid, slightly heavier than my D200. I am just waiting for the price to drop a bit to around $3000, perhaps when the Canon 5D Mk II is announced/released.

I thought that D-D Photographics (http://www.d-d-photographics.com.au/) would have been more competitive than the $3599 asking price. That's without an Australian warranty or an English manual. Its comes with Japanese warranty and manual as they have been sourced directly from Japan. So all warranty claims will have to be shipped back to Japan which means a long wait.

I read on the web that Joshin Denki, in Japan, are selling the Nikon D700 for USD 2500. If this is true than D-D are laughing all the way to the bank. Seems we always get ripped in Australia when it comes to camera equipment.

I rather buy it locally from European Cameras (http://cameras.net.au/) for $3575. Its cheaper and guess what? I get a 12 months Australian warranty and an English manual. Woo Hoo!

Come on Canon! Please release the 5D MK II.

Jervis Bay

Mark organised a weekend trip down to Jervis Bay for a shoot. We stayed at Eugene's parents holiday house down in Culburra Beach.

We started off at Murrays Beach, then across to Cape St.George and later on in the afternoon we walked down to Penguins Head for some dusk shots.

Eugene cooked dinner, it was pasta with a spicy chorizo sauce and a lovely salad with avocado, tomato, cucumber and lettuce. They pasta was very very tasty.

Eugene also brought along his Xbox 360 along for some after dinner entertainment. The boys enjoyed playing Halo 3 and especially geometry wars. Mark and Jeff kept trying to outdo one another all night, the eventual high score went to Mark at over 90,000. However, they couldn't touch Eugene at over 200,000 but I was rubbish at it.

Eugene took some fantastic shots of Mark's facial expressions whilst he was playing geometry wars. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the shots, they were hilarious.

Stayed up to watched Cadel Evans lose the Tour De France

The plan was to stop at any interesting photo op on the way back to Sydney. Unfortunately, the weather was awful and the light was really shit. We stopped off in Bowral for some pies at the Gumnut Patisserie. I had a steak mushroom and a chicken leek pie. They were very yummy indeed, especially on such a cold day. It helped that the store won best patisserie in NSW for 4 years running.

We also planned to stop off at the Mount Annan Botanical Gardens on the way home but it started raining down slushy ice just as we got there. Ah well, next time..

Anyway, check-out more of my shots here >>
http://www.lozzmann.com/index.php?cat=31

Toronga Park Zoo

It was an enjoyable day at the zoo (except for the school kids). Hadn't been here in 15-16 years and it has changed quite a bit. Had to crank up the ISO as most of the zoo was in the shade and the big cats were behind glass as well so therefore cannot use flash (damn) due to reflections. Although this didn't seem to stop most of the other zoo visitors.

Anyway, check-out more of my shots here >>
http://www.lozzmann.com/thumbnails.php?album=41

Balmoral Beach

Woke up at 04:15, showered and readied by 05:15am so that we could get there before sunrise. It was bloody freezing and my fingers became numb within minutes making it very difficult to get the cap off the connector on my D200 to plug my remote trigger for some pre-dawn shots of Balmoral Beach on a tripod.

I hadn't been feeling all that well for the past week and had been coughing all night so I had very little sleep. So I wasn't really in the mood to wander around and take lots of shots. In fact, I really wanted to go home but persevered and my mood lifted a little.

Anyway, check-out more of my shots here >>

http://www.lozzmann.com/thumbnails.php?album=40

Hornby Lighthouse

Again the weather prediction was for showers that day. Luckily, it turned out okay by the time we got there. This was a particulary windy and cold day. We had to trek about 500 meters according to the sign but it seemed longer. Perhaps it was because we were going uphill.

Wow! what a cool design, red stripes, wonder if it makes it go faster? Spent a couple of hours taking shots of the lighthouse, gun pits and lighthouse keeper's cottage until the wind picked up.

Anyway, check-out more of my shots here >>

http://www.lozzmann.com/thumbnails.php?album=39

Robertsons Point Lighthouse

It was a toss up whether to venture out into inclement weather for a shoot. The prediction was for showers that morning. We decided to brave it and luckily for us the weatherman got it wrong. We drove out to Cremone Point to checkout this lighthouse that we had found on Google Earth the previous week. There was still a light mist when we got there and it was quite tricky to get down the ladder (bolted into the side of the cliff), as it was still dewy and very slippery, carrying the tripod and the heavy camera backpack. It was definitely well worth the effort.

Check-out more of my shots here >> http://www.lozzmann.com/thumbnails.php?album=38

Warehouse Shoot

Mark and I discovered this abandonded warehouse in Meadowbank on the way home from Ikea the other day.

It looked interesting so we went back last Saturday afternoon to see if we could get in and get some nice shots.

There were no problems getting into the warehouse. The place was totally trashed. All the walls were covered in graffitti, just about all the windows had been smashed. Parts of the warehouse were also burnt.

Anyone reading this blog that knows of any abandoned buildings in Sydney please let me know.

Check-out more of my shots here >> www.lozzmann.com/thumbnails.php?album=35 . All the photos in this album except one are HDR shots. Please enjoy.