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Hey guys. I just booked a holiday for a months time and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips, be it holiday or photography about where to go whilst over there.

Anyone care to comment on their experiences here?

Thanks guys,
Owen.

Hi Owen,
I was there for a week during the Easter holidays, very nice island!
1 place you must go is up to Passage Peak which is about a 1&1/2 to 2 hour walk from the base of the island to the highest point of the island.
You'll see the most stunning 360 degree views. This hike is not for the faint hearted but its worth it, take plenty of water and sports bars to replace the lost fluids. And don't forget the D70!
Whitehaven beach is absolutly beautiful, unfortunatly it can also be busy so be prepared to see a lot of boats dumping off tourists. You might be lucky at this time of year as it might be a bit quieter.
There is another vantage point you can easily access with the golf buggy, from memory I'm sure its about the 3rd highest point, just keep driving up hill on the sealed surface and you cant miss it, the position next to the palm tree gives excellant views of "Crocidile Island" you see what I mean when you see it.
There is also the main harbour/marina which has some expensive looking boats to take snaps off, plus the local wildlife will keep you busy as there is thousands of cockatoo's and parakeats which are always trying to steal food from you.
The beach on the other side has some great water sports, bring a long zoom lens to catch any "action" you see on the beach!
I took my tripod and got some great long exposures at night of the sun setting from the Yaght Harbour Towers where we were staying from, if you know anyone in there it's worth trying to get some shots as each level has 360 views all the way around the building.
Any more questions just ask.

I went up with my wife back in March this year and have to say it was one of the best holidays we have ever had. We spent 4 days as skipper of our own (chartered) cruiser - and then 3 days lazing on Long Island.

Chartering for 4 days was the best experience and if you get the chance to explore other islands like the top end of Hook and Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday Island I would definatley take the opportunity.

I put a couple of pics up in these threds

http://www.d70users.com/viewtopic.php?p=54381&highlight=#54381

http://www.d70users.com/viewtopic.php?p=54504&highlight=#54504

if you want to have a look.

Photgraphically I would highly recommend a polarising filter and a couple of the widest lenses you have that will take that filter.

You will have a great time.

Wow, thanks guys. We're doing it on the cheap so we won't be yachting around anywhere. We went to whitehaven 2 years ago when I wasn't into photography, however it would be nice to go back.

Thanks for the tips on where to go, I plan on taking my tripod and a polariser I guess would be a must to get the colour in the water and sky. The widest lens I have is the kit lens, which should be quite capable I'm sure.

This may be a good excuse for me to spend a bit of money on my camera

Thanks a lot guys [/u]

owen wrote:The widest lens I have is the kit lens, which should be quite capable I'm sure.

The kit will be fine - the 12-24 would be magic. Pauls suggestion for a longer zoom is a good one too if you want to catch some watersports action.

owen wrote:This may be a good excuse for me to spend a bit of money on my camera

Any excuse is a good excuse to spend money on your camera - just think of the beautiful memories you will have when you look back over the sensational images you captured (ehhehe )

I've sailed round the Whitsundays twice. Both at this time of year, (well in a month or two) and it's great. Both times were over a week on a decent boat. First time was a 35 foot cruiser, the second a 40 (or 44?) that happened to be a free upgrade from our booked 35 .

Amazing part of the world.

I went out to the reef (well worth it) but there is also an island near the top of the bunch called Butterly Island, that has a bay off the top (or that Butterfly Bay on an island?) that has some amazing reef and wildlife (huge angle fish).

Anyway, I'll stop rambling - great part of the world, especially for photography.

Make sure you take lots of storage.

What would you do, buy an extra 1GB memory card or one of those portable storage doohickeys?

Thanks mate, I appreciate your comments.

Depends on how long your staying for and how many pictures you'll be taking, I took 3.5GB worth of cards to spread out the images over 7 days thus ensuring if something did go wrong I had a back up and wouldn't lose too many pictures.
At the price of CF cards these days it's proberly the safest means to get your pictures home safe especially if your shooting in RAW which will eat your memory fast.
There is a internet cafe on the island so you can download your pictures to a safe site or send them into a gmail account, not sure if they allow disc burning, can't see why not.