Tim Kingston's Photo Blog

Closer Up

Tim — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:30:20 +0000

Hanging off the end of a macro lens, I wish I have the power to cry out to the breeze “cease, be still”! I took these a while ago, at various times, and have been a long time coming! The spiders (Coastal Golden Orb Weaver) were at Ballina – a chance event – in which I handheld a 300mm lens. Their web was forever concertining with the breeze. The other shots were taken from around my home on dewy cool mornings, employing mostly a 105 micro and tube. I love the water droplets on the grass heads that appear as small diamonds in the morning light. Most of the grasses are the windmill (chloris truncata). The droplet dangling off the end of a spiders web was a chance discovery last winter (2010). And of course, the blue fly on the agapanthus and the dreaded locust of summer time!

Currawah below Bourke – II

Tim — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:26:55 +0000

What gets me, a spoilt 21st century ‘Western’ man, is how you can live in a house such as that which is featured here – with a family? Times have indeed changed. Unfortunately, not necessarily for the better for those on the rubbish heaps of Calcutta. Multinationals is not my thing. Anyway, I love the colour of rust in the edges of daylight, as shown in the two machinery shots – decay can have its beauty! And of course there is the obligatory sunset and sunrise pics. I don’t know what the name of the ant is, but there it was cleaning the edges of its ant hole. So, a variety of shots are submitted here for your parousal. I used mostly the 17-35mm 2.8 Nikon, as well as the 105 micro, and just a little bending in p/shop. I hope you enjoy them. Feedback is always welcome.

Currawah below Bourke, NSW

Tim — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:52:50 +0000

Nearly two weeks ago I had the privilege of spending a couple of days at a small property (3,000 acres!) called Currawa, just south of Bourke, NSW. An Aboriginal education centre is in the process of being established there by the church I am with. I had the opportunity of taking a few pics – these are the first of them. There are more to follow. The country is totally different to where I live at the moment. Wide open, sticky black soil and dry (though hemmed in by the Coolabah and other trees) compared to hilly, red volcanic soil and rain; the clouds, the fencing, the river, it all speaks to you. The Bogan River (about 590 km long before flowing into the Darling) bends around the edge of Currawa and provides the needed water to man, beast and the promise of crops. The Kamilaroi Highway (feature photo) offers the most direct route from the Great Divide near Tamworth to Bourke on the edge of the Outback. Currawa is south of Brewarrina, just before you get to Bourke. The highway is named after the Kamilaroi Indigenous Australian people who live in the area. Again, I hope you enjoy these few captured shots, feeble though they be, and, as per usual, your feedback is valued.

Border Ranges National Park II

Tim — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:17:59 +0000

The weekend of May 22 gave me another opportunity to explore this delightful wilderness park – this time with a group of kids and adults. It was drizzling on the Friday evening, and again Sunday. But Saturday, the finale of the week, dawned beautiful for me. I was at The Pinnacle, overlooking Wollumbin, or Mt Warning, and the caldera (ancient volcano lip) which surrounds it – with me being on the western side of it. The view was awe inspiring – clouds caressing the ancient scars of some cataclysmic catastrophe. The shrubbery at the end of the lookout was a little annoying, as it impeded the view to the east. However, the fact that it was there was somewhat amazing. And close by were some grass-trees, the xanthorrhoea australis. These take years to grow – about a centimetre per year when young! The early morning light even on such small things as the greenery growing between the boardwalk planks, as well as on the handrail highlighting the cut of the saw and the moss asked to be captured. And then the view! Returning to the Forest Tops Camping area I was rewarded with rays of sunlight pouring through the treetops onto the track ahead of me. Can you imagine a ballerina dancing, or Adam and Eve appearing dressed in light. I would have loved to return to catch the setting sun upon the caldera, but next time! Sunday sunrise found me at another lookout – with mist and drizzle!

Forresters Beach – again

Tim — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:17:31 +0000

Hmm. I haven’t posted a blog for a while! Anyway, the light is just magic at this time of morning, whether on the water or on the rocks and cliffs. I went there a couple of times. One morning I went a little further and came across one of those windswept trees which I happily used. One of the pics is of a sea-grape??? These photos were taken at the same time as the previous ones – at sunrise on the southern headland of Forresters Beach on the central coast north of Sydney, NSW – can you spot the coal ships? I hope you enjoy the pics. Again – feel free to comment and offer advice.

Catherine Hill Bay, NSW

Tim — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:32:19 +0000

Catherine Hill Bay, according to the website of the same name, is the longest continuous settlement in the city of Lake Macquarie. It is situated on the coast between Newcastle and Sydney, east of Lake Macquarie, and was so named after the schoonar “Catherine hill” ran aground there in June 1867. The coal loading jetty was completed and first used in 1893 by the New Wallsend Company with coal from the nearby Wallarah Mine. The jetty has not been used for years now. Plans are afoot to turn this lovely pristine oasis into a major development – oh no! The weekend before Christmas I found myself here early in the morning, enjoying yet another water and light experience. Moody, yet with hope. Feed back, as always, is welcome.

Forresters Beach / Bateau Bay, NSW

Tim — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:06:19 +0000

Associations. What associations to you have with sunrises on a beach? Late August 2009 found me with one of my sons at my eldest’s place on the central coast north of Sydney. Jethro was recuperating from a week long intensive with chemo. Me? I was just being a dad. I hadn’t had my camera for long, and I had to do something – so I went to Forresters Beach (south headland) and Bateau Bay. This is a little of what happened. Have you found that there is something that beckons in a sunrise on a beach when life is fragile and things threaten? And there are still memories of taking these back to Jethro to show him! Would have loved for him to have been beside me – check out his worthy efforts earlier at Bateau Bay without a tripod etc on his website (click on his link, left hand side on my blog page). Ah, well, there’s a Sonrise a-comin, and we’ll be there taking it in – I wonder how many others will be there too?

The long exposure is just that – 8 secs at f22 – just starting on these, still a lot to learn, using ND solids. ND grads would have been used for the sunrise shots, and many of the pics would have been cropped. I hope you can get just a little of what I received.

Border Ranges National Park, NSW

Tim — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:44:15 +0000

As the name suggests, these magnificent ranges reach up to the sate boundary between NSW and Queensland. The story of surveying the border in these ranges is a great read. The timber people came in the mid 1800’s, chasing the ceder and hoop pine, and after them the farmers – at least in the valleys. The ranges became a national park in 1982, and then 4 years later it was listed as a World Heritage. The day my nephew and I came here was cloudy and threatening rain – not bad for new year’s day! One of the things that fascinated me, and proved difficult to photograph, was the extremely old Antarctic Beech – said to be seeded when Julius was a lad in ancient Rome. The original tree grew for a few centuries, then fell over. However by that time a sapling had sprung from the root bole, and that in turn grew into an old tree, and the cycle continued. So, the claim is that the tree – and in many cases there would be two or three fully grown trees – is as old as Jesus! We came across these trees on the Falcorostrum Loop. I would have loved to photograph the hanging moss, but the conditions were not right for me. And we didn’t see any of the orchids of which the loop was named. However, we came across this tree (a beech) which had split – but not quite. A rainforest skink was re-energizing in the brief sunlight, so we obliged. We then continued northwards and admired the abundance of ferns on the Helmholtsia Loop (named after the lily) which is on either side of the Brindle Creek. And the different varieties of fungi! When we started home, we came across an Illawarra Flame tree – sometimes called a Kurrajong. It is not a very good photo, I’d admit, but they do grow in the area.

I will be returning when the light is better, perhaps to try out a couple of pano overlooking eastwards to Mount Warning, standing on the lip of the ancient volcano.

Nightcap National Park, far north coast, NSW

Tim — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:26:41 +0000

This park is located on the southern edge of the caldera of the Mount Warning shield volcano north of Lismore, with Mt Warning being behind Murwillumbah. The walking paths were apparently cut during the great depression!. I had the pleasure of taking my nephew to the base of Minyon Falls via Minyon Grass the end of December. His excellent photos will soon be seen on the link provided. We had already visited Victoria Park, near Alstonville that day. But this was different, and this time there had been recent rain. We both had fun with leeches – but a dash of salt and a reminder to anoint the feet beforehand with good repellent all helped. We came across a lace monitor on the way in who obligingly allowed us to capture him – in our cameras. And at the base of the falls we saw amongst the rocks we were scrambling across a blue crayfish, called the Lamington Plateau Crayfish, which was a challenge to photograph due to the precariousness of the situation. Of course there is the stream below the falls, and the usual falls pic. I came here with some of my kids last summer, and they did the ritual bathe in the pool below the falls, including sitting under the actual fall of 104m of water! I am glad no logs fell over! I might see if I can dig a pic of that up and add it. Found that my 17-35mm and the 105 micro were the most useful.

Enjoy.

Sunset at The Entrance, NSW

Tim — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:18:28 +0000

These photos have great poignancy for me, in that this would be the last time that my 18 year old son Jethro would be with his camera, and the memory was of he being on one side of the jetty, and me being on the other side. Frankly, I reckon his photos speak better to me than mine. See for yourself on his website (see the link). The three shots I have here are virtually facing the same way, with one of the long jetties on the north side (right hand side). The place is actually called Long Jetty, just near The Entrance, north of Sydney and on the central coast of NSW. So basically I captured the light as it changed. I used my 35-70 lens, which is renown for its tendency to flare when pointed to the sun – tricky stuff. I was helped by a ND grad. And what you see is what I took, apart from some cropping. The time – September 2009, just before we headed home after Jethro’s treatment and recuperation. The centeredness for me is that even though this sunset ironically typified where my son was in his life, it is not forever, as Another smashed through the chains of death after His own sunset, thus allowing us to face with confidence an eternal sunrise when He returns to finally end all things. Feel free to subscribe!