A guest at dinner time

We decided to have dinner on the back verandah tonight. The first time in a long time. It's been so hot for days and the evening air was starting to cool - more pleasant outside than in.

A couple of our cats came out to join us and immediately their attention was drawn to the bottom of a tree by the side. I looked but only could see a large rock and bushes so went back to my dinner. That is, until Graham noticed a possum scurrying up the tree. I quickly grabbed the cats and put them inside again and then grabbed my camera to get a shot.

This is a ringtailed possum who look scared. He probably came for a drink of water out of the bowl I keep filled up for him - the weather has been scorching and he probably couldn't wait till dark.

Does this qualify for failblog?

If you're familiar with failblog you'll know there are photos posted there that don't quite have something right in the picture.

Well, I think this photo qualifies too - although I had to put a circle around the bit that tells you why.

What bit didn't they understand? Or don't they read pictures?

Echidna in Lysterfield Park

I was nearly ready to give up my walk after having trodden a path and back again and not seen anything that grabbed my interest... until I saw something waddling up ahead. I moved quickly to get closer and look what I found!

I had to stand still for awhile so he would not hide from me but continue about his business.

I thought he was running away from me but no.....

He was just going for dinner. Yum, yum, lots of ants!

Now he's had his fill there he's off to look around elsewhere. He hid from me not long after that.

Recover lost photos from a memory card

I thought I'd share a recent event in my family that may assist others.

Recently one of our daughters went overseas and she bought a new memory card for her camera during that time. We got an anxious phone call from her one night, in tears, because her camera couldn't read the card and she was worried she'd lost her photos - over 200 of them. Her father suggested she put it away safely and we'll look at it on her return. Later we discussed this event and thought perhaps the extreme change in temperatures (she'd gone from Egypt to Amsterdam over the Christmas/New Year period) may have affected the card but we weren't sure.

Anyway, putting the card into my computer confirmed our fears - the card was corrupted and unreadable. What should we do?

Well, we elected to go to a camera shop to see if they could help and the very helpful guy there told us they could send the card away and it would cost $59.95 but perhaps we should Google 'data recovery' and see what we come up with first. Which is what I did - lots of programs, which one should I choose and is it safe to download? And then I got the idea to search on the card brand name, along with 'data recovery' and then I found a program that the manufacturers recommend for data recovery of corrupted cards or deleted photos. Great!

I was still a bit dubious but did what I needed to, to download the program, install it and then start the process. I made sure I read every single word on each window presented to me as I didn't want to make a mistake. I had to enter in the brand of camera (Pentax) to ensure it selected the correct file types to look for.

I watched it count the number of image files it was finding and held my breath. Success! Out of 226 photos, 206 were recovered. The others were partly visible in Microsoft Photo Editor and not visible in another program. I viewed them on my computer and then burnt them to CD for her.

We are now able to see our daughter perched on the back of a camel, the pyramids she and her friend saw in Egypt, the work they were doing in Kenya and other photos they took.

I thought sharing our story here might help others who fear they have lost photos because a memory card has become corrupted. There is hope!

Lysterfield Lake Park, Victoria - beautiful!

I love the Australian countryside and the gum trees have such character. Here's a small selection from this weekend's visit to Lysterfield Park.

Birdsland Reserve Belgrave

Some of the beautiful scenery around the birdsland reserve in Belgrave.

Tawny Frog Mouth - lovely bird

I spent the day driving around the Belgrave (Victoria, Australia) area on Saturday. I have a real yearning to move back to the country and having my new camera would mean taking lots and lots of photos. I went to the birdsland sanctuary with my daughter and spent some time there and when I took her back to her home she showed me 3 Tawny Frogmouths that had set up residence in a tree in her driveway. Aren't they gorgeous?

Addendum to this post. It's now November 2009 and my husband and I shifted to a neighbouring town to Belgrave almost 3 weeks ago. We're loving it.

Using two different lenses

I have my 'regular' lens which does 18-55mm and the zoom one that does 55-200mm. Thought I'd share with you what that means when taking a photo.

Below is a picture of a lily in flower in our pond. The first one was zoomed as far in as I could with the smaller lens and then the other from the same spot with the larger lens. Cool, hey?

A place of solitude

At our recent visit to Timandra Garden in South Australia we found several places where you could just sit and enjoy the garden. It was beautifully done - over 2 acres of garden. We just enjoyed walking around and drinking in the sights, the sounds (birds, the wind in the trees) and the colours. Really lovely.

Timandra Gardens

We visited the Timandra Gardens in Mintaro, South Australia and I had fun taking lots of snaps of the garden beauties.

Galahs in the evening

This was taken in the evening as it was getting close to sunset. I zoomed in on some galahs settling for the evening. As it got later and I took photos my flash would go and unsettle the galahs. But in these you can see them on their perches.

Kangaroos watching

These kangaroos were in another yard at the back of my sister-in-laws and they were watching us warily. This was as far as I could zoom in but at least you can see them.

Galah in flight

Galah in flight - now I can zoom in and take birds in the air without too much blurring.

Zooming In

With the zoom lense I can stand a distance away and zoom in close to items. And it has the ability to detect vibration and erase that - which is good! I get excited sometimes and press the button and accidentally move the camera at the same time. This vibration exclusion will save me lots of blurred pics. I do have a tripod as well but didn't take it with me on this trip.

Photos in quick succession

One of the things I love is that I can take photos in quick succession - up to 100 will buffer to the memory card. When I go out with my husband to his mountain bike races I get frustrated that I can't get my other camera ready in time for continued action shots so this one will certainly fulfil that need! I took these shots on our drive over to South Australia during our holiday break.

I haven't included all the shots in this series below but it will give you an idea of what can be done. I find this exciting!

Black & White and Sepia Images

One of the things I love about my new camera is that I can change them to B&W images or sepia as you'll see below. The first one is of my lovely husband, relaxing with a glass of wine and the other one is of our nephew's wife also relaxing.

We had a lovely time staying in the Clare district in South Australia - peaceful countryside and peace and quiet. Just the birds to wake up to. Kangaroos in the yard down the back and fresh clean air. Can you tell I miss living in the country? :-)

Shutterbug!

I got a new Nikon digital SLR for Christmas, compliments of my husband, so you can expect to see more photos here for a while.

Over the Christmas/New Year period I took 390 photos of almost anything! The camera will do a lot of photos in quick succession - up to 100 and saves it to a buffer before being put on the memory card. So now I don't have to wait for a digital camera to catch up with me and I can take lots of action shots.

This shot is of a 'spooky tree' near my sister-in-law's place in South Australia. She tells me members of her family named this tree - I think it looks great, don't you?