North Queensland wildlife and the environment
Updated July 3
The last couple of days have been tidy-up days chez Green Path, both online and offline – finishing stalled projects, adding extra information to older posts and fixing broken links. Continue reading “Lots of small additions to the blog”
The moon was nearly full when I camped at Wallaman Falls (previous post) and plenty bright enough for a moonlight ramble so I wondered if it might be bright enough for a moody photo of the falls. I knew it would be a technical challenge for a photographer with an entry-level DSLR and no tripod or remote shutter release, but I don’t mind a challenge and it was a good-enough excuse (if I needed one) for visiting the falls at night.
The shot above, straight from the camera except for a size reduction for online use (click on it for a larger version), was one of the better results. For the technically inclined, it was taken on a Canon EOS 600D, with a Canon 15-85mm zoom lens wide open at 15mm and f3.5, ISO 800 (higher ISO’s with this camera lead to unbearably noisy images) and an exposure time of 13 seconds. And no, it wasn’t really hand-held – I rested the camera on the lookout railing and held it very firmly as I pressed the button.
Friends and family have alerted recently me to two photography competitions which they thought I might like to enter. They were right, and the photo above is one of two that I’ve submitted to The Wild Beauty of Weather, the competition sponsored by ABC Science (the other is from the series of misty Magnetic Island views I took during the Wildlife Queensland walk around Many Peaks in May).
The other competition is more local: the Museum of Tropical Queensland’s Backyard Safari Photography Competition. It opened in June and doesn’t close until the end of October so there’s still plenty of time for everyone to enter. Entry is free (at is it for the ABC competition) and you don’t even have to win a prize to get a little kudos, since entries nominated by the judges will be exhibited during December 2014 and January 2015.
And I do encourage everyone to enter (although by doing so I must be reducing my chances of winning) because looking critically at our photographs to choose the best of them is valuable in developing our photographic skills. It can also be an excuse for an enjoyable ramble through the archives; most of the shots on my shortlist for the Backyard Safari have already appeared, as you might expect, on this blog, e.g. Percival, or on my Flickr photostream and looking through them has brought back many pleasant memories.
Oh, and the competition can be an excuse for a day-trip somewhere special to get that photo we’ve always dreamed of … too bad about weeding the lawn.
My spies alert me to some fascinating science and tech stuff on the web (thanks, guys!) and it’s time to share again.
If you put lots of metronomes on a table and start them at different times, they look for all the world as though they notice each other and gradually agree to line up so that their ticking is synchronised. Continue reading “Geeky fun: metronomes and extreme video”
As we get older, we forget what’s new and what’s not. In 1988, Amazing Inventions and Concoctions by Howard Elson (Octopus, UK) introduced ten-year-olds to quirky facts about old inventions and to the newest technology of the time. It makes thought-provoking reading today.
The default audio technology was gramophone records. Walkman cassette-tape players were cutting edge, replacing (according to the jokey illustration, at least) open-reel tape recorders. Continue reading “Amazing Inventions and Concoctions”