Sunrise at Lake Burley Griffin

 Today I got up early to photography the balloon festival at Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.  Unfortunately the launch got cancelled, but as I was already dressed and ready to go I decided to head down there anyway.

There weren't any balloons, so I had to be content with some pictures of the sunrise.  The big decision was whether I should show the slight wave action or blur it with a long exposure.   I think the long exposure ones looked a bit better.

It was interesting to see how the colours changed as the sun peeked over the horizon.

 

 I took both my OM Systems OM-5 and my Canon 70D thinking that I would use both and compare the results.  However, after using the OM-5 for the past year, the Canon felt so large and bulky I found I wasn't enjoying using it.  I've also got used to composing the image using the rear screen on the OM-5 whereas with the Canon I almost always used the eyepiece, so this felt rather strange.

 

 

 

 

Southern NSW - Dalmeny

 Southern NSW - Dalmeny

Last weekend I went to Dalmeny on the NSW southern coast, about 1 hour south of Bateman's Bay.

It's a mid-sized town as far as coastal towns go, with the major industry seeming to be holiday homes for people who want to spend their time at the beach.

The sandy beaches in this part of Australia seem endless, with towns randomly placed along them.  You can see from the following photo that the beach extends several kilometers to the next headland.  The town is to the left and behind the direction of the camera.  I didn't take any pictures of the town itself because it consists of lots of holiday homes and a few shops.

 

Here is a pedestrian bridge over the river that takes you to the beach.   When I was there the river was dammed by the sand and blocked from reaching the ocean.

The water was very clear and I could see the fish below.  I attached a polarising filter to remove the glare from the water.

Not a lot of wave activity

Not many people there as the school holidays have finished.

Looking over towards the pedestrian bridge

As I was driving past here on the way to Dalmeny I saw some interesting trees to my left.  So I stopped on my way back to see if I could get any good photos.  There was only a narrow strip of ground to the side of the road to get there.

Climbing Mt Majura

 This is a small mountain in Canberra - the equivalent of a 44 story building from the carpark to the summit.  On the top is the major approach radar for the Canberra region.

It takes about an hour to climb to the top and it's a pleasant and not dangerous climb.  There are no cliffs to fall off.  You'll need water and good shoes as the trail can be quite steep in parts.

Today I took my OM-5 with a 40-150mm telephoto lens as its one of my lighter lenses.  The downside was that I often had to move back quite a lot to get the image I wanted into the frame.

At the bottom

View half way up

The gradient you are climbing

View from the top

Trig station at the very top

Heading back down

Little Mullligans

 This is a nature reserve close to the Mulligans Flat nature reserve. While not as large as Mulligans Flat, it seems to offer a wider variety of scenery to photograph.

I particularly like the fact that there aren't any prepared trails through the reserve, so you have to find your own path through the reserve.  This means that when climbing the ridge, you have to plan your path to avoid the more dangerous ground.  According to my smartwatch the climb to the top of the ridge is the equivalent of about 20 stories.

We hadn't had any rain for a while

There isn't a lot of scrub to fight through

Some of the dams still held water for the wildlife

Tree sap illuminated by the sun

The view from the ridge line

The border with NSW - the state to our north.

Heading down from the ridgeline

Tong's Hole

This is a new trail that has been opened up that takes you down from West Belconnen to the Molonglo River.

I had a quick trip there to explore its possibilities, so I just took my OM-5 and a 12-100mm f4 pro lens.

The trail starts off with a slow descent but then becomes steeper as you approach the river.  The trail takes you to a swimming hole that seems quite protected.   There isn't a lot of beach space, but it looks like it would be good on a hot day.

Next time I will take my tripod to take a panorama.  Because of the steep cliffs opposite, you'd need to take the panorama in portrait orientation with a wide angle lens.

Looking up-river

Hand-held panorama

  

Looking down-river

Molonglo River Park

 Time to restart this blog!  It's only been 10 years since I last posted.

Today I went for a walk in the Molonglo River Park.   I wanted to see it in Autumn on a nice cloudy day because it's hard to capture a nice forest when there's bright dappled sunlight around.   For the first half of the walk, it was nicely overcast but then the sun came out and made it more difficult to take photos.

Photos were taken using an OM System OM-5 with a 12-100 f4 pro zoom.

Next time I'll explore the riverbank rather than the forest.