More fun!

All images posted on this blog are now available for viewing as a slide show.

Vacation :)

I will be back in June. Meanwhile keep browsing the older posts. There are some nice photos buried in the past. Have fun with the ultra-flexible and mega-cool label system.

Talk to you soon!

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200

Post #200. This photo has a magical feel and moody atmosphere, doesn't it?
After only six months of blogging it seems that Google rates this blog quite high. All searches with hi-res+bird name or hi-res photo+bird name resulted in this blog being displayed on the first page in Google, usually between first and ninth position. These are very common searches and I am glad to know that many people interested in wildlife see the photos published here.

Grey Currawong, Tasmania

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Updated labes

I spent some time today making the label system even more efficient and straight-forward.
The labels are now clearly separated in groups and the groups are easily distinguished by their framing characters. The bracketing (framing) characters don't mean anything, I just chose them according to their alphanumeric value so that the groups are arranged logically from top to bottom.

So how does the whole system work now?

A list of all the labels used in all the posts so far is available on the right side of this blog and is always accessible from every page for easy navigation.

On top of it all in (brackets) are some urgent issues, such as (need HELP to ID).

Below are some very general labels, such as :: action ::, :: cute ::, :: portrait :: which describe more the form or the genre of the photo, rather than the subjects photographed.

Next come very wide groups of creatures: [parrots], [small birds], [water birds], etc. Clicking on the label [small bird] for example will display all birds that I consider to be small - New Holland Honeyeaters, Grey Fantails, Silvereyes, Robins, etc.

Next comes a narrower list that will display all ]currawongs[, all ]rosellas[, all ]ducks[, etc. Most of these have several different species that will be included in the search. ]rosellas[ for example will display all Rosellas, including Green, Eastern, Crimson, etc.

Individual species are labeled like this: Rainbow Lorikeet, Grey Fantail, Black-faced Cormorant, etc.

Last comes a section with technical or other information in it such as |notes/updates| or |FinePixS5500|

All Pacific Gulls become Kelp

I was browsing my Field Guide to try once more to identify some of the birds that I have photos of when I noticed that all the images posted and labeled here as Pacific Gulls were actually Kelp Gulls.
Just finished correcting all this. Labels and texts are fixed! And I should watch out for some Pacific Gulls now.

How Nikon's advertising campaign made me buy a Canon

It's funny how we often do exactly the opposite of what we thought we would do, exactly the opposite of what we had carefully planned for a long time.

For about a year and a half I was dreaming to buy a Nikon DSLR. I like their design better, I like their logo better, I like how Nikon sounds and how cool it is to just have a Nikon. I had chosen my model - D80. Yes, D200 is The Camera, but it is way too expensive. I just couldn't afford to even think about it. And I was reading reviews and was frequently stopping to look at the Nikons behind the camera shop windows.

The day was getting closer and I was a bit hesitant to take the decision and go and grab one. Then they dropped a brochure in my mailbox. D80 on special! Get one for the price of two :) Offer ends at the end of September. I had to do it! It triggered my determination.

I started to check the prices at different camera stores and noticed that they were selling Canon 30D at the same price. So I decided to get to know more about it, just to convince myself that my Nikon will be much much better. Yes, but no. Everywhere they were comparing the D80 with 400D, and 30D with D200. D200 was the clear winner, but I realized that Canon 30D is a higher class camera than my dream D80. Faster, more solidly built and with better image quality. That's how the crisis of hesitation started. I suffered for about a week!

What made me take the final decision was the bigger variety of middle priced affordable lenses for Canon. After a lot of reading I said 'good bye' to Nikon and bought a camera from their worst competitors.

It's awesome! I've just started to learn how to use it. The image quality is stunning, and the performance just blew my mind. Absolutely incomparable with my old Fuji ultra zoom.

So that's how Nikon's promotion made me decide to buy a higher class Canon. Sometimes it's probably better to listen to your brain and not your heart. Well... at least in this case it was.

Above are two Mallards who live across the street from my place. I took these on the very first day. The superb image quality and per-pixel-detail of the CMOS sensor are clearly visible.

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First post - tribute to old FinePix S5500

Well... as I keep putting off and off the plans to fully redesign and rebuild my Portraits of Australian Animals site, I finally decided that it would be much easier and faster to start up a blog and post the new photos here frequently. It might be faster later, but it took me sooo much time to tweak the template layout and make it more suitable for my needs. Hope that this is done once and forever :)

I have a new camera now, but I would like to start with a picture taken with my old Fuji FinePix S5500. I'll keep posting old shots every now and then. Old photos bring memories and Rainbow Lorikeets back!

Rainbow Lorikeet at the window, Sydney

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