David's Shutter Bug Club

[underdown]

Would like to share a few pics from my recent trip to a friend's vineyard in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney.
I did try experimenting with some manual settings, but found that 'auto' seemed to be best overall.
It seems digital cameras now have such good auto functions that manual setting is only useful for special effects.
... or am I wrong?

Kangaroos in the vineyard.

[underdown]

(Oh. That last shot was 24x zoom. Good thing I didn't have the DTs).

This one is the vineyard dam.

[underdown]

This is a beautiful garden in the Valley.

[underdown]

And the garden lake.
Believe it or not, the hills in the background are actually called 'The Brokenback Range'.
... A little piece of BBM in Australia.

[underdown]

The garden has some beautiful roses.

(It's not the Yellow Rose of Texas, though, Jess) 

[underdown]

And a Heron in the garden. Thought it was a statue, at first. They stand so still !
(also at 24x zoom .. lucky he WAS standing still).

[underdown]

The best way to see the countryside.

[underdown]

A more recent trip.
One of our beloved Kookaburras .. they love to eat snakes.
(another one at 24x zoom)

[David In Indy]

Those are really nice pictures Rob. I especially love the animal pictures. Those kangaroos are so cute, and so is the kookaburra. I've never heard of those before. He's very cute. And he eats SNAKES? Hopefully he eats the poisonous ones too. Jess, you should have had a kookaburra at your office the other day when the snake appeared at the front door!

Did you take a ride in the balloon, Rob? I've never taken a balloon ride before, although I can see many of them in the sky around here, especially during the summer. They have a balloon race each summer when the state fair begins. There are hundreds of them in the sky, in all different shapes and colors. I even saw one shaped like Snoopy up there last year!

Thanks for posting the pictures Rob. This thread was beginning to collect some dust. Now I should go outside with my camera and take some pictures too!

[underdown]

Thanks David. I really enjoy animal pics. Your dog Cody, and Jess's horses.... All cute.
The Kookaburra is the one that laughs. Quite unusual birds.
Didn't do the balloon ride. Too slow. It would be a great platform for photos, though, wouldn't it?
Hey, Dev has a new camera, so maybe she'd like to post some pics, and get some hints?
BTW. I'm moving to Melbourne in just over a week, so we'll have someone there to take pics as well.
It's very picturesque.