I went up to the Gold Coast for work and the family tagged along at the weekend for a little change of scenery…

We were in Coolangatta and then drove down to Byron Bay. Byron was a cool looking place but absolutely rammed with people on a busy weekend so we ended up at a place called Brunswick Heads – a beautiful little town with a setup that’s pretty close to the ideal that I always had in my mind for bringing up a family.

About as close as I wanted to get to Surfers Paradise

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Our first team outing on a plane and getting around a new place with the little guy…

I have been to Melbourne a few times for work, but finally got the chance to have a good wander around the lanes and check out some of the street art.

All photos on an iPhone.

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Years ago when I first bought decent camera gear, I could only afford one lens so I bought a 50mm fixed 1.4 lens to go with my Eos 10 (film camera).

For a long time it was a permanent fixture on my camera because I could never find anything else that was as good in low light, or produced the Bokeh that it was capable of. I think my brov is still in the midst of that addiction and often reminds me of the strength of a low f stop fixed lens.

Obviously it produces a very specific style of image so is not always suitable, or even useful for much of what I shoot these days.

I like to dig it out from time to time though, to remind me that photography gear can be very simple and yet still powerful, and just moving your feet and getting creative with one lens is always a good reminder of where it all started.

Picnic in Balmoral and a dusk wander…

Inland to the Hinterland…

Long walks through some ancient rainforests…

Chilling and recharging, watching the ocean from the couch, crazy fast moving weather, not reading emails, long walks, and more chilling…

A short break for probably our last 2 person holiday for a long while in Noosa…

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Definitely one of the most gorgeous places we have visited yet in Australia…Jervis Bay is a massive natural harbour 2 and 1/2 times the size of Sydney harbour. There are about 80 resident dolphin in the Marine Park and tons of other creatures in the surrounding National Park, as well as some great beaches and cute little towns.

Good to be able to get the big camera out for something other than work for the first time in a while….

Exhale…

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I picked up an extender for my 70-200mm which ramps it up to a 157-448mm on the 7D.

In between rain showers I took it for a quick stroll down the beach to test it out.

So far there doesnt seem to be much drop off in the auto focus speed or image quality.

There are hundreds of crabs who live in the corner of Manly beach by the rocks, and they all come out at sundown.

All the seagulls here like to hang out on one leg…

This shot is not tweaked at all other than basic levels – the crabs are pretty multi coloured…

They move sooo fast its hard to frame a clean shot before they duck out of sight.

It’s been a moody few days with the first big southerly storm of the approaching winter coming in  – plenty of swell but ruined by heavy onshore winds and rain…

Long lazy sunday stroll…