Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Kangaroo Island's Coastal Conflict

Meeting With A Rogue Wave


Kangaroo Island's coastline has everything, from surf pounded cliffs to becalmed coves, famous sweeps of sand to secret rocky inlets.

Point Ellen, the western headland of Vivonne Bay, about 60km from Kingscote is my subject for today.
The day began with thoughts of adventure especially for our Border-collie pups keen for their morning's walk to one of Point Ellen's little coves. The cove Colin & I chose was perfect for all with only a short climb down a small cliff face, over some rugged gnarly rocks and finally onto a pure white sandy beach littered with drift wood, seaweed, broken shells, just all the right ingredients for a good fossick.
The stunning colours in the crystal clear waters of this lagoon reflected so bright that we were nearly blinded by the sheer dazzle of it all.
The cove was secure or so we thought as there was a reef some 150 metres out to sea from the cliff face which broke the huge pounding deadly waves that from time to time have taken unsuspecting lives.
Our pups swam in the cold crisp clear waters while Colin enjoyed poking under stones and looking into the small cliff face caves, just doing what one does while on a remote desolate beach.
I had my 500mm lens attached to my camera so off I trotted across the reef towards the open seas to get some great photography of these huge waves. Every eighth wave seemed to be the big one so I positioned myself in a fairly safe and secure spot and waited!
The 500mm lens reaches pretty far out to sea so this is one huge advantage when photographing waves, especially big ones!
The locals told us to always keep an eye out for the possibility of a rogue wave as there have been numerous victims to such encounters.
Trying to show the hugeness of these angry waves is not easy.
Finding a comparison also is not easy!
In this photo with only waves in it the aqua wave is my big wave, the black wave at the back was in this instance, my comparison!

You got it, A ROGUE WAVE!
It came at us fast, I yelled to Colin to get the pups out of the water and run to the cliffs while I had my running shoes on as well.
Our good fortune was the reef!
It broke the wave and a wall of water about a metre high simply came at us.
By the time it reached us it washed up around our feet, we had made it far enough away as not to get caught. What happened next was simply scary! The wave that had broken over the reef and washed up to the cliff face went back out to sea taking all the water out of the lagoon...!
We stood there in a state of disbelief realizing just how deadly these waves can be and how vulnerable we are to natures splendour!

This next photo with the sea washing over the rock was taken at Point Ellen and this is the rock where waves have claimed some victims.
On our trip when I took this photo, only three days after we had left to go home two more lives were taken from this very point!
Rogue waves, sometimes known as freak waves, monster waves, killer waves, extreme waves are an uncommon ocean phenomenon in which winds, currents, non-linear phenomena such as solitons (self-reinforcing solitary wave) and other circumstances cause a wave to briefly form that is larger than the "average" large occurring wave (the significant wave height of SWH) of that time and place.
Rogue waves seem not to have a single distinct cause, but occur where physical factors such as high winds and strong currents cause waves to merge to create a single exceptionally large wave.

Untamed Power: The Sea 
 
Canon EOS 50D
Sigma 50-500mm lens
     
Please come back and visit: www.wingsandwildlifephotograph.com.au

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

A Bird's Soul .........

Time To Reflect


On these wet and wintry days when photography is less active it gives me time to reflect and view my photos that I have acquired while looking through the camera lens into the private lives of my subjects.

The subject in this photo is of a female Australian White-backed Magpie  Gymnorhina tibicen (race: telonocua) photographed at American River - Kangaroo Island 2010 and if every picture tells a story, then this one certainly does!

'PENSIVE'
Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these?
Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught
The dialect they speak, where melodies
Alone are the interpreters of thought?
Whose household words are songs in many keys,
Sweeter than the instrument of man e'er caught!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Canon EOS 7D
Sigma 150-500mm lens

Please come back and visit: www.wingsandwildlifephotography.com.au

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Winter on the Fleurieu Peninsula

As The Rain Falls Ever So Gently


I am tucked away behind double glazed windows with the fire roaring in the background, watching the birdlife dash for cover amidst the bushes and shrubs while the rain falls ever so gently.

House Sparrow
In this photo a delightful Common House Sparrow looks to the sky and wonders ....
When will this rain ever stop.

Even the little common House Sparrows Passer domesticus are a wonderful subject for my camera lens.

Canon EOS 5D MK lll
Canon EF 500mm lens
Spoggies In The Rain!
Please come back and visit: www.wingsandwildlifephotography.com.au

Monday, June 17, 2013

Changing our Blog site


Since we established our new website just a few weeks ago, we've been experimenting with ways of keeping you informed of what we're up to and how you can see more of our photos as we add them.
Wings and Wildlife website
Our website!

Of course, our website will be our main 'showcase', offering a number of pages, information and images which provide an in-depth look at our photographs and ways you can access them.

We are very proud of our website, and from the comments we have received, our website visitors are impressed too! (We had over 30 comments of congratulations on the site's Blog within days of our website going 'live!)

Our website designer though wasn't satisfied with the look of our original Blog - and he felt it was too complicated to administer by us, which of course, we want to do so that we can update you frequently, from wherever our cameras take us.

Our new blog!
So to cut a long story short, our web designer has migrated our Blog to an easier system, much more visually interesting, and something we can handle ourselves (albiet with a bit of training!)

At left, this is what our new Blog looks like.

It integrates more efficiently with GooglePlus and has an overall better 'feel'.

It can be accessed as a 'free standing' blogsite here: http://wingsandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com.au

and we've integrated it into our website here, for those people who go to our website first: http://www.wingsandwildlifephotography.com.au/our-blog.html

We hope you like the look of our new Blog so check back here often to learn the latest about what we've been up to!

The Magic Of Winter...

As winter closes in, we're re-visiting some of our best photos


Winter is a magic time on Kangaroo Island and the Fluerieu Peninsula, but wet and windy conditions do restrict our opportunities to get out and about with our cameras - not to mention the 'wings and wildlife' we like to photograph stay out of the bad weather too!

So we're taking the opportunity to look back at what we believe to be our best photos - and each week we'll be posting one of our photos we're particularly proud of, here on our blog page.
Superb Fairy-wren (female)

To start off, we were very happy with this shot of this little female Superb Fairy-wren Malurus cyaneus, which we managed to photograph at Vivonne Bay on Kangaroo Island.....

Our book 'Vivonne Bay Blue' captures the personalities of these dear little birds and is available from selected outlets on Kangaroo Island and the Fleruieu Peninsula.

Canon EOS 50D
Sigma 150-500mm lens

Come back again next week for another photo - or visit our website www.wingsandwildlifephotography.com.au for more details!