Good Quality Relaxing in Long Bay

It is quite fantastic to have a "secret" spot only 5 minutes drive away from where you live, with albatrosses, whales and nature galore ... even producing a surprise tick once and a while ;-) All of this happening in a crowded city of 4.5M people and still you can sit alone recharging the capacitors with a million dollar view and not a soul around! :-)

It was all happening, a Nankeen Kestrel eating while on the wing - I have spared you for the pictures where it was getting bloody - and an Eastern Reef Egret performing on one of the rock platforms, great bird - and a new one for me!

The slightly more ocean going wildlife was in place as well, a few whales were heading North approximately a kilometer from the coast, at least 2 species of albatrosses were seen and I was lucky to get decent BIFs of some feathered wildlife flying close to shore.


Walking back after a couple of high quality hours I guess the mood got the better of me and turned a bit "arty" - sorry about that :-)

With a bit of help from the Nikon I even produced the HDR below, 5 raw images taken with one stop between combined and tone mapped trying to capture the sun setting behind Long Bay - in real life it was even better :-)

Long Bay, revisited

Whales and Albatrosses Galore

After having gone through a couple of scary saltwater incidents with my camera at my usual albatross spotting site. I was very pleased when I received a tip about another site a little further South that apparently was much more camera friendly. Combined with the presence of hundreds of whales making their way North in the waters just of the Sydney coast, I reasoned that being at an elevated position overlooking the ocean, on a sunny crispy clear winter day, just the Bigma and I alone, would be an excellent way of recharging the capacitors.

It was action-packed! Before I had found a good seat on the rocks the first two whales had already started performing approximately 700 meters from the coast - when something has whale size, 700 meters is no problem for the Bigma and I got a picture or two ;-)

Starting to scan the water I realized there was an albatross sitting feeding on something "floaty" not that far from the coast, great having floaty stuff around, the entire time I used down there this spot was constantly being visited by seabirds flying in, eating and eventually leaving again, giving great bird in flight/landing/takeoff pictures (BIF, BIL and BIT).

I realized after my first two attempts that it is impossible to show pictures of albatrosses taken with a telelens and make the viewer realize how big these birds actually are ... except if you get something else into the frame. The attraction of the floaty stuff gave me the shot I wanted :-)

A seagull had been having a little go, but wisely decided to move when an albatross landed, luckily I managed to catch the situation while they were both there and the albatross still had its wings out.
All fired up about my luck with the birds I started focusing on the whales again and managed to get a pictures with a little (compared to the whale) boat close to the surfacing whale - some people just cannot get close enough.

All in all an absolute top spot! With birds flying so close that the 3 meter focusing distance of the Bigma (@500mm) nearly became a problem :-D

Another Swarm of Alabatrosses

You all know the drill by now - strong Easterly winds during winter gives Sydneysiders the possibility of seeing some of the most impressive seabirds on the planet. The only thing you have to do is to get your lazy ass out of bed and make it to a good positioned headland. Normally you are quite lucky if you get action happening within binocular range and it is recommended to bring a scope - my lens and camera combo gives me probably something in between, which means I can get the shot and it can be used for identification (if I am lucky), but it is not something you print in poster size and give your potential sweetheart for Christmas :-) This morning looked slightly less impressive than the morning of my previous pelagic excursion, windy alright but nowhere near as strong as last time, however it had been blowing for nearly 2 weeks - wonder if those birds were still there(?)

It was absolutely swarming with good seabirds and they were flying closer than I have ever seen before; Gannets hanging more or less above my head and terns actually choosing to fly behind(!) me instead of sticking to the water.

1100 pictures, 3 types of Albatrosses, a Giant Petrel cruising by, a White-bellied Sea Eagle! Crested and White-fronted terns galore and much more.

Birds were amazing, but hard work with the camera! Light was difficult shifting from being nearly dark during heavy rain to blistering sunshine when the sun broke through. Because of the amount of pictures I had to shoot a lot of jpg ... raw would have been better, but would also have given much more time editing in front of the computer :-)

Hopefully this will be enough to convince the rest of the gang to come along next time there is a bit of pelagic action - I am nearly getting afraid that some of the BWs are not taking their "sport" that seriously :-)

Pelagic, Long Bay 2