National Parks

 Where do I begin? This is the second time I came to Fruit Bat Falls, Cape York Peninsula as we had a hard drive failure after our first visit! I kept the same composure as last time and luckily had a beautiful Cape York night to show off this beauty and its colours.

After a gravel road to enter Byfield National Park, and then a short walk from the park, we wandered up the river to encounter this beautiful site known as Upper Stoney Creek. With deadly Stonefish living in the river, it's not the best place to swim, however its beauty shines through here as the green leaves highlight the massive paperbarks flowing over the river.

After debating whether or not to attempt the infamous Ngkala Rocks pass on Fraser Island, we discovered that our truck was a few cm too big! So on to plan B, I decided to capture a landscape photo of the rocks here, moss covered with the waves frothing about them.

See the capture here - https://youtu.be/GR3Xp8bB27M

 What a stunning sunset. We were having drinks and nibbles with some new friends in our campsite when the light started to shine onto the bottom of the cloud layer. I raced out of my chair, grabbed the camera and ran down to the beach as quickly as I could, to get in a position for this beautiful peach sunset at the beach.
See the capture here - https://youtu.be/GR3Xp8bB27M

Captured at Wanggalooba Creek on Fraser Island, this crystal clear fresh water creek amazed me.  A 20 minute walk from Central Station leads you along and down to Wangalooba creek, one of the most amazing spots we have ever had the pleasure of visiting.

The sand is white on the creek bed, and with just a few inches of water flowing over the top it looks dry, until you see the glistening water surface. I ducked down the creek banks and made my way down the creek, scoping out compositions on the way, before I found this.  

Watch my capture video here - https://youtu.be/03p82ufYI8Q 

The famous blue waters at the edge of Lake McKenzie, on Fraser Island are stunning when you see them, especially next to the bright white sand on a sunny day. On our first visit here we had overcast weather, so despite trying to get a photo, I wasn't happy with the result. We headed back 2 days later on a bright sunny day and captured this beauty.
The 2 paperbarks resting on the edge of the bright blue water give a different perspective of life by the lake.

Watch my capture video here - https://youtu.be/03p82ufYI8Q 

Crystal Shower Falls in full flow, cascade over the cliff edge through the lush rainforest in the Dorrigo National Park. This unusual aspect of the falls requires careful foot placement as you navigate off the path. These falls are unique in that there is an amazing cave you can walk behind the falls to. 

Capture Video Here - https://youtu.be/pxYnLHNiWLE?t=610

This small unnamed creek in the Dorrigo National Park crosses the path as you walk down to the Crystal Shower Falls. I wasn't satisfied with the image from the pathway, so scrambled very carefully down to this spot. I captured a very very different image looking downstream, and turned around to leave when I spotted this composition up stream, back towards the path. The stream cuts down through the forest.

View the capture video here - https://youtu.be/pxYnLHNiWLE?t=610

 We were walking through the high altitude forest up in WIld Cattle Creek State Forest when the weather started closing in. Amanda raced back to get our truck and bring it to the road near where we would finish the walk, and I was walking with Aria, our daughter. We crossed a small creek and reached this spot on the Mobong River. I spent about 10 minutes capturing different compositions when I started to feel raindrops on my shoulders. 

Cursing the weather, I packed up quickly and headed off through the rainforest to the road to meet up with Amanda, all of us totally soaked as she drove up to pick us up. 

Capture video here - https://youtu.be/pxYnLHNiWLE?t=1176

This is one of the prettiest rainforest spots we have seen to date. The river Allyn flows down with it's clear water rushing over the rocks, carving this small gorge. It was a difficult spot to get to, very slippery!  Check out how we captured this image on Youtube - https://youtu.be/Sh4VSiqkHzs

I spent about 45 minutes capturing this amazing spot and ended up with two amazing images, a vertical composition and this one, a landscape panorama image that shows the meandering creek flowing under the bridge of the track. My eyes are drawn to the beautiful mossy rocks and the large tree with roots stretching down to the water. The warm summer light filtering through the trees above gives vibrance and a delicate touch to the green ferns in this image.

Curtis Falls at Tamborine Mt in the Gold Coast Hinterland is a really special pocket of National Park Rainforest in the midst of roads and other tourism developments. A quick 15 minute walk from the Carpark leads you down to the falls themselves. Seriously calming, this place is full of wildlife and tranquility. This is my first released image taken on my new Sony A7RIV Camera.  It took me a good 20 minutes of experimentation to get this shot just right.