Atherton Tablelands - FNQ mini-meet 25 Oct

[cyanide]

Took a jaunt around to some waterfalls and other sites last weekend, along with hrpremier. It was a good day, mainly because it got me out and taking photos after a long time. I may have been a member here for years, but I really haven't done as much photography in that period as I might have planned, so I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be.

Looking over the photos after the event, I had a lot less keepers than I might have hoped. As always, as soon as it's on my screen, I can see a million things wrong with it. Heh.

Some things that became clear to me:

- I obviously don't know how to handle high contrast situations, so waterfalls with lots of white water, set in deep green rainforests, with a very bright sky - yep, not so good.

- I need to slow down and not worry so much about "missing something", and just focus on taking a few, better shots rather than capturing everything I see. (I think this is a key fault of mine.)

- Possibly picking just one lens, and seeing everything from that one perspective the whole time, might help me to improve my appalling composition.

- I need to be more careful about keeping the camera level, especially when the horizon isn't actually in the picture.

- I definitely need to work on my handheld technique.

Anyway, hopefully some of this will sink in eventually.

Here are a couple of photos from the day. Please note I can't do much in the way of post-processing at the moment as I only have access to a computer with (*shudder*) that Microsoft Picture Manager thing. So I am basically limited to cropping, and minor contrast/brightness/saturation tweaks.

(click through for larger versions)

In the fountain/pond at Paronella Park:



Millaa Millaa Falls:



Malanda Falls, late afternoon:



Lake Eacham on sundown:



And, in case anyone would like to see a few more pics of where we went that day...

Josephine Falls

Paronella Park 1 - Mena Creek Falls

Paronella Park 2

Millaa Millaa Falls 2 <-- I really wanted this one to work better, but I didn't nail the exposure OR, I think, the focus. Ah, well.

Millaa Millaa Falls overview

Dinner Falls - very difficult time of day, with the afternoon sun right behind the falls

Atherton Tablelands - road signs

[hrpremier]

Rae

Some really nice images in you post and I think you are to hard and critical on yourself.

I love the crop and crispness to the pink flower. A nice shot and great colour.

I also like the Josephine Falls Shot of the waterfall and the suspension bridge. Its hard to capture teh beauty of that scene and I think you've done a good job. Would be a magical place if the water was more inviting. hehe

My favourite (and Im jealous I did not manage to capture it) was the over view of Milla Milla Falls. All the greenery surrounds and borders the falls nicely. See its worth waiting for average joe to step out of your frame to get an image (as frustrating as waiting for them can be) lol

Had a great time and look forward to more mini meets

hrpremier

4869

[cyanide]

Thanks, Jason. The water lily was my definite favourite shot from the day; I probably should have taken more throughout the day with that lens (the old 60mm micro). Someone else pointed out the stuff in the lower right-hand corner, so of course now that's the first thing I notice, hehe. I'll clone that out sometime, when I am reunited with Photoshop.

I had *so* many shots of MM Falls... Not all that many without people in them, though, in the end. The overview shot isn't too bad, but certainly isn't as nice as some I've seen. But all in all, a good day. I'm definitely looking around at (non-graduated) ND filters for next time I try waterfalls...

I have a question about your HDR attempts but I will ask them over in that thread.

Cheers and thanks again for the company - and encouragement - on the day.

[biggerry]

The first picture is great one, very good composition imho. I like how you have chosen to not fill the frame with the flower and the use the lily / blue sky reflection - this really does it for me!

Given the weather up there it is not a surprise it was hard to get a picture of millaa falls

I have only been up there once and i would recommend either early or late in the day. if you interested, I took this picture when I was up there a few months ago. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3019/2762808994_2dfc447baa_o.jpg

Millaa is a great spot for taking pictures, so easy to get to and a nice platform to setup on!

The Josephine Falls is a beautiful spot, however I found it very difficult to get a good shot! I think your one has potential, the falls seem to lead the eye nicely thru the picture!

I need to slow down and not worry so much about "missing something"

thats when you give the missus her own camera and you can worry about getting the one and only 'golden' shot best of both worlds

[cyanide]

Thanks for your comments, biggerry. Your Millaa photo is gorgeous - much more along the lines of what I was hoping for. Will definitely have to get back up there in the early morning sometime; the midday sun did us no favours.

I need to slow down and not worry so much about "missing something"

thats when you give the missus her own camera and you can worry about getting the one and only 'golden' shot best of both worlds

Haha... nice tactic, and something else to work on!!

Cheers