This little critter is a Musk Duck. Princess' primary school have be involved with the breeding program at a nearby wildlife sanctuary. Actually, as far as ducks go, I think its pretty ugly.

Ciao!

This shot was with my 75-300mm lens with a fast shutter. We are lucky to be living near Serendip Sanctuary and each evening the water birds such as this pelican fly back from the sea. Normally there are many in a flock but this guy was on his own this particular time. I love the way you can see the definition in his feathers - you can in the high res version anyway.

Enjoy!

Here are a couple of experimental pics. The wine was shot with a fast shutter to freeze the liquid. The glasses was an exercise in framing and form. I'm learning more whenever I play with the camera, but I'm also reading lots about the different features and functions. I've just purchased a new telescope adaptor which will allow me to mount the camera on my 150cm Newtonian Reflector. Jupiter is a pretty good candidate right now and I may even be able to get a shot of the M31 galaxy, Andromeda. I'll see how I go. I should actually post a shot of the telescope itself because it is quite impressive. Interestingly, the very reason I wanted to update the camera was so I could do Astrophotography. Should be fun.

The first image is obviously the new camera. Its a Canon EOS 400D with a 18-55mm lens and a 70-300mm lens. Its an excellent entry level DSLR. The preset controls give great pictures but the manual overrides allow even more control. Of course its easier to stuff up, but the great thing about digital is its so easy to take another photo. I've taken over 2,000 and several of them were pretty good! It is a lot of fun. The larger lenses of DSLRs mean you get a much better image in comparison to a compact camera or a phone camera. DW and I have long enjoyed the benefits of an analogue SLR but the processing was expensive and I was less inclined to experiment because I had no idea what I was doing. I still don't really know, but I can see the results as I make changes and that means my trial-and-error process is actually working this time.

Ciao!

Most of the train trip home is pretty bland but the sun setting over the You Yangs can be very pretty.

This is obviously a BBQ.

The setting sun just outside my hometown. It nice to not be getting home in the dark all the time these days. I can't wait for daylight savings.