Coomera

Buttress tree in Lamington national park. January 7, 2012 | flickr

The best escape from the summer heat in Brisbane is a trip to a rainforest. One of my favorite places for such escape is Lamington National Park which is about 120 km / 2 hours drive from Brisbane. The park is located on Lamington plateau / McPearson range and because of elevation the temperature there is significantly lower. There are over 200 km of walking tracks, with beautiful scenarios and various vegetation. The park has two main entry points, Green Mountains and Binna Burra. This time we stayed in a tent at Binna Burra and walked 17+ km Coomera falls track (8+ hours). The weather was good, no direct sun, no wind which was really good for taking pictures (long exposure with polarizer). All pictures posted here were taken with Olympus E-30 and 14-54mm lens.

There were quite a few leaches, and I even got bitten a couple   times. We saw a couple snakes, a land mullet, a few skinks, and several Lamington Spiny Crayfish, very big and colorful crustaceans endemic to the park. During the wet season these animals are wandering around the forest near creeks. In defensive position crayfish lift its claws towards a threat. 

Lamington Spiny Crayfish, Euastacus sulcatus. January 7, 2012 | flickr

Lamington Spiny Crayfish, Euastacus sulcatus. January 7, 2012 | flickr

The track was relatively dry, the creaks were not swollen, and we finished the track in dry boots. I also spotted flowering Queensland Waratah tree, Alloxylon pinnatum.

Small creek on Coomera falls track, Lamington NP. January 7, 2012 | flickr

Shortly before our return to the Binna Burra a fog came down.

Rainforest on the Border track near Binna Burra. January 7, 2012 | flickr

Teahouse in Binna Burra. January 7, 2012 | flickr

New camera from Fuji

It is nearly official: new mirrorless camera from Fuji will be announced within next few days. The specs and price of the X-Pro1 is more or less known thanks to several leaks. While the quality is expected to be a really good, it does not look like a camera of my dream. I would prefer to have X10 on steroids: bigger sensor with similar spec lens plus second supermacro mode on long end of the zoom. Do not increase the pixel count. Add bigger battery/grip. Make a standard filter thread (49, 52 or 58mm) and cure the white discs problem.

In X10 I really like convenience of a compact camera, 4x zoom lens and supermacro mode that I use a lot. It has nice details and colors in well-lit areas (see cane toad photo above) but dark areas are very problematic.

Infrared with Fuji X10

Fuji X10 with Hoya R72 filter on 40mm-49mm step-up adapter ring. The photo above was shot as JPEG in standard color mode using Auto white balance and converted to black-and-white mode in GIMP using the Desaturate option. The levels were changed to increase contrast and make the image darker. Tech: iso 200, exposure 5.3 seconds, F4.0.

The image below was shot as black-and-white JPEG in red channel, and the levels were changed in GIMP. Tech: iso 200, exposure compensation -0.3, F3.6, exposure 2.5 sec. It seems that the camera can be used for infrared photography even without any modifications.The pictures were taken in Japanese Garden, Brisbane Botanic Garden on Mt.Coot-tha.

Photo: December 28, 2011 | flickr