Had to get one photo of a wreck and this one is mint. We got up with the kids at 5am to get this shot, just managed the sunrise but it was better a little later. This was shot with the ND filter and stylized in photoshop. A four image stitch with the camera on the horizontal. A couple of dingos were playing close by so I had one eye on the kids and the other on the light. Fraser Island was pretty cool but the 4WD tracks got a bit tiresome. Driving on the beach was great fun.
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Maheno Wreck
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Fingal Head
Brent Pearson told me about this spot so Mark Stothard and I went to check it out. There are some amazing rock formations there and I will post a pic of those later. Mark managed to soak his camera in salt water when a wave hit him on the top of a 50 ft cliff face. This a day or two after the big swells hit the coast. Just as well he has a mark III. A little wash in fresh water and he was right to go again. This is a neat little light house.
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Natural Bridge
I have always wanted to photograph this spot. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be due to the huge contrast. I think shooting this when it was darker outside that would have helped. Still it is pretty amazing and the water was thundering down that hole in the rock. Other shots I have seen of this place the water is just a trickle. Mark and I got lucky, or unlucky, not sure really.
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Golden Times on the Gold Coast
This is a pic of me roughing the wilds of the Gold Coast with my buddy Mark Stothard
It was a great sunrise and a wind down after the big day previous at Lamington National Park with all round good guy Nick Rains . Mark picked me up at 5.30am and as we drove down the road a km we noticed a knocking sound in the car. Sure enough a bloody flat tire. Just as well we weren’t going far. Got my feet wet so you could say it was an extreme shoot!! Yesterday Mark ended up having three leeches on his feet. I guess that happens when you walk for 12kms in a rainforest in bare feet!! Funny stuff. Nick looked a little shocked when Mark jumped out of the car in thongs!
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Gods Rays
Called in a favour from Kenny D for this pic, and yes for all you skeptics, these rays were actually there this time. REAL rays!! Makes my job too easy. This was on the Cameron Falls walk.
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Curtis Falls
This is a lovely spot, and the place where the leech tried to get some royal blood. Bagged it up and took it home to show the kids, set it free in my boys sleeping bag. Four image stitch. The National Parks at Tambourine Mountain are over fenced off and regulated. You get fined if you get off the boardwalk, I guess there are so many more people using these parks.
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Cameron Falls Walk
This was a fantastic walk through the rainforest to a nice waterfall. Unfortunately access was restricted again and couldn’t get a great view of the main falls. This was the creek that was feeding the falls. No leeches on this trip as we stuffed tobacco into our socks. Was like wearing a patch and felt yuck by mid day. Just absorbed a pack of smokes!!! ahhh!!!
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ASP Sales
Hi all ASP contributors. Just sold an image for Mark Stothard and Rod Thomas. Money for jam coming their way soon. Have you got your images in yet???
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Tambourine Mountain
We are currently staying in the Tambourine Mountains and trying to dodge the rain. The positive is that all the creeks and waterfalls are going off. Got some better shots than this one this morning on a great rainforest walk. The photographers here are spoilt. If you can’t get a nice forest pic you are either blind or off your nut! which in the case of Nimbin would be most likely. Today has been perfect for photography. Should get better as the week progresses. Had my first encounter with a Cane Toad yesterday, big ugly suckers they are. I did the right thing and belted it to death, wasn’t pretty though and you could hear my squeals for miles. I then had to pick the sucker up and put it in the bin. Didn’t think they were this far down.
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Like a Fish out of Water
Well here we are at the kids funarama in Byron Bay. What else can we do to keep sane! I have no images with me to work so I and posting this fish I drew in Corel Painter a whilst ago. With all the flooding here I wish I was a fish so I could get out and explore. Kids are having fun though so at least two people are enjoying their holiday. I’m sure there are some serious bugs flying around in this place, don’t worry though, I have the antibacterial gel to smother ourselves in when we leave. Ah, what was that photography thing I came here for???
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This could be my last post
We are sitting in our cabin on the edge of the Brunswick River, the wind is up to 100 km/h, the power has gone out twice and there is a flood warning out on that bloody river. The cabin is rocking in the wind, exciting stuff. If I don’t post anything tomorrow you will know…………………….. check the radar and see for yourself!!
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Dorrigo Freezing Cold Morning
Took this pic after the waterfall pic, Dangar Falls. There was frost on the ground, how I long for sunny WA!!!
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Leaving Coffs Harbour
These two yachts were heading out the other morning, one south and the other north. If they are still out there now there will be some pretty unhappy sailors!!! The weather has been absolute cr@p and hasn’t stopped raining for three days. The waterfall shots to come should be pretty good, albeit a little muddy. Drove to Nimbin today for a look, think I found a new home town. Too bad I’m not a drug taker or a hobo as I would fit right in! Still, it is an interesting place and worth a visit to see some pretty amazing looking people. The portraits there would be awesome as there were some real different looking dudes around. REAL different!! Oh and BTW these rays of light were real, it’s all about the light man………….see I’m even starting to talk like a Nimbin local!
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Workshop with Scott Kelby
Check this out guys and gals, Mark has asked Scott Kelby to run a workshop on True North, now that would be an must do cruise. Will let you know if it comes off. I hope it does. See Marks email to him below.
Hi Scott,
I put a post on your blog, but after cruising through your website I found that you had a direct contact address, so I though a direct and more detailed approach would be more appropriate.
I am both a passionate photographer and a Director of North Star Cruises Australia. See: www.northstarconsultants.com.au for some background on me.
My partner and I own one of the largest adventure cruise vessels in Australia and we are certainly the most awarded. We have 3 National Tourism Awards under our belt and 5 State Awards and boast the most awards of any Cruise company in Australia.
The cruise vessel is called the True North and is a 50m (165 ft) vessel designed to be able to getting into shallow areas with 36 guests and 18 crew and we carry 6 x 6m tenders with a full time Bell 407 on board. See www.northstarcruises.com.au
We cruise all around Australia and up to Papua New Guinea. The North West of Western Australia is the main area we cruise and the area is called the Kimberley. It is truly the last frontier!!
I have been working with Christian Fletcher for the last 6 months who is one of Australia’s best photographers and a great guy to boot! He is coming on board the Kimberley trip 13 in August departing on the 29th of August and the theme of the cruise will be ‘immerse yourself in photography’ for 2 weeks!! Christian is a big fan of yours…as I am. Through his workshops he sells heaps of your books. See www.christianfletcher.com.au
Now to the idea!! How would you and your wife like a 2 week cruise on the True North to join up with Christian on a photo tutorial cruise? Probably this year’s will be too short notice for you, but we will be running one next year as well. Christian’s cruise has been very popular and we feel that we will theme up more cruises from here on. Probably next years will be either West Papua, or PNG proper.
Mind you if August is of interest to you yell out and we could lead off with that and maybe another one next year…your call!!
I don’t know if you have ever been to Aus, but I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed!!
We could start off by staying a few days at True North Ashore down near where Christian lives: see www.truenorthashore.com
I won’t go into any more detail with this first email, but I guess that if you read the email and want to know more, you will come back to me and ask some questions and we can develop things out from there. I am a very lateral thinker and we can do anything really…thinking outside the box is my specialty…hence this email I guess!!!
Cheers,
Mark Stothard
Director
North Star Cruises
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Coffs Harbour
This is the view from Coff Harbour. Not too shabby. Raining here now so trying to catch up on work.
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Repertoire Wines
Forgot to mention the support of Richard from Repertoire Wines for my last Dunsborough Workshop. He provided the wine on the night and a bloody good drop it was too. Thanks mate. If you want more info on Richard and his wine have a look here. The Repertoire collection
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True North Video by Michael
This is an awesome video by Michael on his recent trip on True North cruising through the Kimberleys. If you ever thought about getting on for a cruise make sure it is when I am running my FREE photographic workshop for guests. This snippet of the action should get the adrenaline going! Make sure you watch this in Hi Def in Vimeo. All shot with the 5D2. Hopefully a company who wants to promote the RED cameras will throw one Michaels way for a bit of a review, not that the Canon gear isn’t any good!! :-0)
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Dangar Falls
Took this one this morning on a trip to Dorrigo. There is a very small platform that is so high you have to extend the legs of the tripod fully to clear the railing. Lucky for live view! Nice falls shame about the temperature, it was freezing. Dorrigo is at 780m above sea level. There was frost on the ground. See I am doing it tough!
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One from this morning
It has been pretty cold over here. The days have been great but the nights, bbrrrr. Not to mention the mornings. I think we will have to head north pretty soon. I forgot to pack my tripod so had a mates little slik thing. What a piece of Sh1T………. thanks for letting me use it though Graham!!! I didn’t feel comfortable until I got my tripod yesterday in the mail. As soon as it arrived so did the good light. There are some great places over here just wish the water was the same colour as what we have in the west. Can’t have everything I suppose! The trees, rivers and mountains are unbelievable though so I’m happy with that compromise! I could live here, maybe give a few of the East coast photogs a run for their money, hehehe, nah my home town is still home and the best place in Australia. This was going to be a pano but didn’t stitch enough images together.
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Sawtell Beach
I have had a few things to sort out to get up and running, business as usual so to speak! This is an image of the rock pool at Sawtell. The first time I actually had a nice sunset. Going to Bellingen tomorrow morning to shoot the deciduous trees and the various waterfalls. Having fun but being off line for a week has put me way behind. Hope to have more images to post this week.
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