Murramarang National Park

[emydura]

Canberra is about 1.5 hours from the coast and like most Canberran’s I love nothing more than to head down to the beach on a long weekend during the summer. When you hit Batemans Bay, you either go north or south depending on your favourite location. We always go a little bit north to the Murramarang National Park where there are some great places to camp close to the beach. It has some great wild coastal scenery and you can find plenty of places where there are hardly any people. There are numerous beaches all along the coast, many you can have to yourself. Here are a few photos I have taken of the area.

David

The first few are from the Pretty Beach area. This place lives up to its name as it is one of the prettiest beaches I have seen.











Here are some of the animals you can see in the park. The first couple are of the goanna which can get pretty big (more than 2 metres). You need to keep your food locked away during the day as they will walk through the campsite devouring anything they can find.





The wild kangaroos have got so tame you can walk up and pat them. Here is my daughter patting a young kangaroo at Pebbly Beach.

 

[emydura]

The Red-necked Wallaby tends to be found more in forests while Kangaroos prefer grasslands. Wallabies are generally much shyer creatures but this one wasn’t that scared of us.



The Brush-tail possums are pretty tame as well and love running round your feet at night looking for food. You have to make sure you lock up your tent as they will be in as quick as a flash looking for food. Possums are almost considered pests in this country but how couldn’t you love them.



Emily Miller Beach



Some more photos from the North Head area where we generally camp.



Here you can get a feel for the wild coastal scenery of the area.

 

[emydura]

 

[Marc]

Ok I'm very impressed by the photo's you are sharing here. A lot of them are so good that if they would have been my own some of them would addorn the walls of the living room. I really love how you captured the waves in time, some pictures have a very spooky feel to them.

Could you please tell us what kit you used to take these pictures, if you used a tripod. Did you do a lot of processing on the photo's with Photoshop or a similar piece of software?

I also enjoyed watching the wildlife shots and you have a nice daughter.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[emydura]

Ok I'm very impressed by the photo's you are sharing here. A lot of them are so good that if they would have been my own some of them would addorn the walls of the living room. I really love how you captured the waves in time, some pictures have a very spooky feel to them.

Could you please tell us what kit you used to take these pictures, if you used a tripod. Did you do a lot of processing on the photo's with Photoshop or a similar piece of software?

I also enjoyed watching the wildlife shots and you have a nice daughter.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Marc

I pretty much always use a tripod as some of these exposures are as long 30 seconds. The animal shots and the daytime photos were handheld though. My camera is a Nikon D200 which was a great camera at its release although is starting to get a bit old. I'm expecting the Nikon D400 to be released shortly so I think I will bypass the D300 and upgrade then. The lens I used for most of these landscapes is the wide-angled Sigma 10-20 mm which is an excellent lens, especially given the price.

For most of these sunrise/sunset photos I use graduated neutral density filters (often a 2 stop and 3 stop combined). These filters are used where you have a lot of contrast in your scene - so you have a bright coloured sky but a dark shaded foreground. Without the graduated filters you would find that the foreground would be very dark or the sky would be way over exposed. A lot of people feel that graduated filters are a bit redundant these days as you can do the same thing in Photoshop but I find I can never get it to look as good on the computer. If anyone wants a more throrough explanation of graduated filters, let me know.

Yes, I always use Photoshop but not intensely so. Just mainly to polish up the photos - crop, add contrast, clean up, sharpen etc. The point of the graduated filters is to get the exposure as close to perfect as you can so you don't need to do a lot of work in PS. Sometimes there maybe a problem with the photo that needs a bit of salvaging in PS, but not often. One thing I need to work on is my PS skills.

Happy to answers any more questions if you have them.

David

 

[John Boy]

The best pictures I've seen! I feel better now....

That is so impressive. Thanks for showing.

 

[quietaustralian]

Absolutely stunning photos.

Mick

 

[Marc]

A more thorough explanation would be greatly apreciated. Might consider making another topic for it though.

I've heard of nd filters before and seen them in various forums. Some of them are screw on filters but others are square or rectangular pieces of glass that are mounted in a special adapter.

 

[emydura]

A more thorough explanation would be greatly apreciated. Might consider making another topic for it though.

I've heard of nd filters before and seen them in various forums. Some of them are screw on filters but others are square or rectangular pieces of glass that are mounted in a special adapter.

OK. Might take me a day or so but I will post something comprehensive.

David

 

[Hera]

Wonderful photos. I think its some of the best you've posted here. You daughter is still the most adorable child. Thanks for posting.

 

[Wendelin]

Most impressive Pictures!!
Thank you for posting!

 

[Rick]

:clap::clap::clap::clap:

Are you a professional photographer David!?

Seriously this is publishable, art hanging on the wall quality material.

 

[paphioboy]

WOW. That is some stunning scenery... Just awesome... I'm so gonna use them for my desktop wallpaper.. Hope you don't mind..

 

[Ernie]

WOW WOW WOW! National Geographic quality photos there!!! Looks like paradise.

 

[goldenrose]

WOW WOW WOW! National Geographic quality photos there!!! Looks like paradise.

FOR SURE!!! :drool::drool::drool:
If I lived that close to areas like that, I'd be there at every opportunity!
Congrats! Your daughter will have special childhood memories to have & hold & share with her kids!

 

[Lanmark]

Wonderful! You live in a very special part of the world to be nearby such beauty.

 

[Heather]

We have some very talented folks on this forum and you're certainly one of them! What gorgeous sunsets! Thank you so much for sharing that beauty with us!

 

[Marc]

OK. Might take me a day or so but I will post something comprehensive.

David

That would be greatly apreciated! :clap:

 

[JeanLux]

Bravo!!!!! I am interested too about the use of the filters!!! Jean

(You know that I appreciate your long time exposures with water a LOT )

 

[GuRu]

Great and stunning images David - especially that ones which were taken with long exposure at sunrise or sunset time.
They are a kind of mystic - gorgeous!!