Photographing from a hot air balloon at Lake Eyre

Just returned from a road trip to Lake Eyre in the northern part of South Australia. We were there at the invitation of Balloonist and adventurer, Kiff Saunders. Kiff was involved in an horrific road accident earlier this year and celebrated his first balloon flight by flying over Lake Eyre.
The outback photographer got to ride along with Kiff. You can view some of the images captured here at excitations stock archive.

What an amazing flight, lifting of just as the sun peeped above the horizon and over Australia's largest salt lake in minutes. Amazingly, even though we were drifting slowly over the lake, the whole flight seemed to flash by. So many things to photograph and so little time to do it.

Pied Currawong

Canon 1Ds III with 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS USM lens @275mm f5.6

The above shot was created recently while I sat in our "Troopy" having lunch. I'd like to spin you a yarn about how difficult it was to capture this image of the Pied Currawong, or Strepera graculina to his friends. I'd be fibbing if I did that because this guy and in fact most of his extended family were anything but camera shy.

At one stage he even ventured into the troopy and sat on the steering wheel with me seated right behind it. I'm pretty sure it was my lunch, rather than my company that he really desired, but it matters not. To get this shot the only technical problem was getting it into his head to sit on a nearby fence so that he was outside my minimum focus range.

If your wanting to check out some real nature photography may I suggest Laurie Excells blog, to see some images created in Alaska over the psast week.

Keep your eyes peeled for Joe Blakes

Heading out into the Ozzie bush in the next few days, keep an eye out for Joe Blakes (snakes), the first couple of slightly warmer days and our wiggly little friends or out and about. I had my first encounter for the year yesterday, when two of us tried to inhabit the same piece of our back yard. If your not comfortable around snakes, just keep away from them. They are generally not aggressive, most times electing to slip away to somewhere safe.
However, like us if you wake them up while they're dozing in the sun, catching a few rays, they sometimes spring into action and defend themselves as best they can. Standing on them, or kicking them as you drag your feet along the ground is also guaranteed to get you some unwanted attention.

So be safe, keep your eyes on the ground when walking through grass and bushland. Don't for one second think that the grass has to be long, you will be surprised at how little grass cover it takes to hide young "joey" as he makes his daily rounds.

The onlookers...

Canon 1D IIN, 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 USM IS lens.

Photographers often attract a group of onlookers when they're shooting. Last night we had lots of people checking out the three beautiful young women we were photographing in the streets of a local outback city. This morning the outback photographer was shooting a small commercial job from a boat on the Murray River. While drifting downstream to get the shot, I noticed another group of onlookers. One seemed to be really interested in what I was doing, while the rest may have had a hard Saturday night out, as they seemed more inclined to just doze while I fiddled around in a boat below.

For those of you not familiar with our Australian bird life these guys go by a common name of Little Corella. They flock in large numbers together, spend the day foraging for seed on the ground, or high up in the tree canopy, doing their level best to rip every leaf from the tree.

Destructive little buggers, and did I mention noisy. Continuous high pitched screeching and chatter while they feed and play which rises to an almost deafening crescendo when they take flight on mass. Forming swirling and twisting clouds of white and soft yellow as they demonstrate their amazing aptitude for aerobatics and obstacle avoidance, while flying wing tip to wing tip continually changing direction in total harmony.

If you find yourself camping anywhere in the Australian outback it would be wise to check that your camp site isn't to close to a flock of these guys. Let's just say you won't get a good nights uninterrupted sleep.

For those of you who care the Little Corella has the rather grand scientific name of Cacatua sanguinea

Noisy neighbours

Nikon D2x, 80-200mm 2.8 lens

These two "Little Corellas" along with about 100 of their mates have been keeping me company for the best part of an hour. Feeding on an acacia tree just outside my office window, sliding down the corrugated iron roof of the studio and generally making sure that I don't feel lonely. Common throughout outback Australia, Little Corellas are a very social bird, rarely traveling alone. They eat,drink and sleep together and I should mention play together in small to large flocks.
There ability to remain quite for any period of time is non existent, with the mob consistently screeching in a harsh, sometime irritating manner. Try sleeping in the bush anywhere near where these guys camp and you'll soon know what I mean, even in the dead of night they need to squawk and chatter amongst themselves.
Anyway it good to have them around as we prepare for a full days shooting and a generally big weekend, having already shot a couple of small commercial jobs this morning, starting at 6am, back in the office by 8:30 to down load an process files, then short out the gear before heading off to a wedding followed by a family portrait session, and then back to the wedding reception until midnight.

Bushmans cure...

Here is an old trick that I was reminded of just the other day.

Ever cut yourself shaving and the nick just keeps on bleeding? Try a little bit of spiders web. Just collect a bit of spiders web on your finger, roll it into a loose ball and place on the wound.
Seems to work really well. I've heard numerous reason why it works, none of which sounded to scientific, but its results that count.
I'd be a bit cautious that the owner of the web wasn't home, while I was collecting the web. And if your in Australia, and the web is very strong, I would seriously consider getting my finger out as quickly as possible. The Red Backed Spider spins a very strong web, and the female of the species has a bite that can be deadly to even the strongest human. How do you know which one is female? Well, basically if you see a Black spider with a bright red stripe on its abdomen then its a female Red Back. I guess the other method is to let it bite you... if you die it was a female.
As with all posts of this nature, I'm not a doctor nor a scientist, and I'm in no way qualified to give medical advice. I'm just passing on an old bush remedy.

Todays a no shooting day... yes the worst kind. Instead I face 12 hours in front of the old MacPro catching up on a whole lot of post production.