500mm lens

Some shots from the 500mm f8 (for ebay)

The Kookaburra was about 12 meters away, first image has no corrections at all, 2nd image is a 100% crop, 3rd is with some levels adjustments and unsharp mask at 100 with 1px. A good lens.

Finally Shot the owl :)

It's about time but I finally got a good shot of the owl, I didn't take my camera but after spotting it I walked back down the driveway with the 300mm lens and a head torch which worked well. Alittle bit of redeye but I think it's a good shot.





And a possum that ran away when I tried to move closer.


Really illustrates the difference between a camera phone and a real camera, 2mp vs 10mp and $400 vs $2000

An Owl in Tazi

You know when you leave the house and think "nah - I won't bother with the camera, it's dark and i'm doing something mundane..."

And then on your way home... Tawny Frogmouth





All this while my K10D and 8 lenses sit less than 50 meters away but if I move much more it would fly away, and it did after I took these, these were taken with my K750i phone and are 100% crops. Another good reason why phones aren't substitutes for cameras - Even my LX2 - which would have easily fitted in the pocket of the gigantic winter coat I was wearing would have been prefect...

I was a pretty brave owl, I drove up right next to it and put the window down to get the last shot, which is with the LED torch on the phone (talk about noise after a levels adjustment).

I'm never leaving home without a camera again (decent one because phones don't count)

Home

Well after about 9 weeks overseas we're comming home, mainly having to do with me being pretty much constantly sick for 5 weeks, a test at a Hospital in Kunming then not being able to hold down much food in Tibet (not holding down water was the deciding factor yesterday morning). So after what turned into about a 12 hour trip from Lhasa, we're back in smelly smoggy Chengdu and should be home soon - from where we are planning a road trip either north or south (or maybe west) of Sydney - even east to New Zealand might not be out of the question (jetstar are you reading this???? time for another sale???).

Our time in Tibet was well worth it even though we didn't leave Lhasa and I was sick the whole time. the Potala Place is quite amazing - so is the stupid ticketing system where you line up at 6am so you can buy a ticket at noon for entry the next day... so we didn't get to go inside. The debating monks at the Sera(?) monastery was definately a highlight and we only caught the last 10min or so - I'd love to post some pictures but once again... no USB.

See you soon

Tibet

We Arrived in Tibet today after sitting on the tarmac at Chengdu Airport (At least we were breathing Plane air and not Chengdu air - that has to be the smoggiest city I've ever been to - and I've been to LA... I don't know how the Pandas survie but they are quite cute - we missed out on patting on by a whisker (they dress you up in plastic anyway).

So what else do you do in a dirty smoggy city with no internet cafes - buy a DVD player of course (and maybe a spoon to dig the tar out of your lungs) - I'll post a picture if I can be bothered taking one - it's not that exciting - just looks like a CD player - we should have bought one ages ago when it was bucketing with rain in Kunming rather than try and watch movies in chinese on TV. I took a shot of the rain in Kunming, you could only see about a block or two - it was worse in Chengdu - but it wasn't raining.

Tibet so far is much better than anywhere else in China so far, although the poverty is probably slightly worse, the traffic, air and scenery is so far much better, we haven't ventured far yet but could be here until next friday - thats the only flight to Xi'an we could find online.

The Giant Buddha in Leshan

Pandas are very cute

Temple in Chengdu

Turtles in Chengdu

Street cleaner in the rain - Kunming

Another rainy day in Kunming

I got 8 DVD's for $8 - not bad - might even get a DVD player ($30) and watch them, it's bucketing with rain and from our hotel room on the 14th floor you can only see about 4 blocks down the street (previously the entire city)...

Another thing i've realised is that I can't read anyones comments as they are all in chinese, so if anyone has left any - thanks and sorry I can't respond to them.

Hotel names

When we first arrived in Kunming we were going to stay at the "Jin Tai hotel", it sounded nice but no cab drivers seem to know where it is. Last night we booked into the "Hydro Majestic" - previously known as the "Jin Tai" (still on the stationary and lift), the "Ma Jia Shi" (internet)? or "King Town" like it says on the towels in the bathroom?

No wonder nobody knows where it is...