A camera, a plan & a Mercedes van

Isn't it great when a plan comes together. Prior preparation & planning prevents poor performance, the 6 P principle from my old Army days (it used to be 7, but we won't go there!)

This week I put in a bit of effort to enable me to take the Canon 400D with me on my travels

around Newcastle. I checked out the sunrise times, the area & the weather, before heading out, which as luck would have it, turned out to be a picture perfect late Autumn day.

I decided to photograph the beaches of Newcastle, but due to time constraints I was restricted to Merewether, Dixon Park & Bar

beaches. Still not a bad effort, considering I was was still at work at the time & was working to a tightish time schedule. So there it was,

around 7.30am, I was able to capture the best of Newcastle's beaches in the early morning light. If I do say so myself, some of those pics are absolutely stunning, capturing the essence of Newcastle in late Autumn.

With that I would've been happy with my day's effort,however I found myself on overtime & thus with prior knowledge I was able to return home & grab my camera to make use of

the late afternoon on Lake Macquarie (see my previous post 'Working with the tools you got').

I was able to capture some of the magic, but to be honest I wasn't 100% happy with the overall result. This was because I was playing around with the UV filter on the 75 -300mm lens & some of the distance shots came out a bit blurry. But that is photography, always learning something new. However, here's a tip, if you are looking to capture some of the beauty of Lake Macquarie, Toronto & all the way down to Wangi Wangi is a must for any photographer, especially between 4pm - 5pm when the late afternoon sunsets will take take your breath away.

If you can wrangle it on overtime, well that would be even better!

Working With The Tools You Got

Although this blog is primarily for pictures taken with my good friend, my Canon 400D, there has been occasions when I've been caught out without my trusty offsider to capture the photographic opportunities that present themselves. On these occasions I've always got my Nokia 6210 Classic with its 2 megapixel in-built camera, hardly a comparison, but it is still able to capture those unexpected moments.

These moments usually happen whilst I'm out on the road at work (the Westpac Rescue helicopter at Redhead bluff for instance) & where it is usually impracticable to have my 400D sitting in the van or truck. So last Wednesday afternoon was one of those 'you shoulda had ya camera' moments.

At the last moment I was taken of my rostered shift & asked to cover another one that basically covered the western side of Lake Macquarie. I had a bit of time before I commenced the run, so I wandered down to the lake, just to get out, stretch the legs & take in the views.

Well what I saw was stunning!

There was Wednesday afternoon yacht racing, kids playing in the park, people sitting on the jetty 'wetting a line' & the most gorgeous late afternoon reflections coming off the lake.

Yep, sometimes you just can't plan photographic opportunities & it is these times that you just have to work with the tools you got.