In the subtropics of Australia we get quite a few thunderstorms each summer. The awesome power of nature is quite a spectacle, especially at night when the lightning illuminates the sky. Getting a great photograph of lightning requires some planning and a bit of luck. Getting a fairly ordinary photograph of lightning is not that hard, though. The photo shown below is in the latter category unfortunately, but it was still quite satisfying to capture the electric steaks. I was away on holiday when this photographic opportunity arose one evening.

A few weeks ago I was at Underwater World at the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. I wanted some fish photographs for the OzWildlife web site. Most of the shots I took were with the Pentax K100D and 18-55mm kit lens.

Shooting fish in the well lit reef fish tanks went ok - the main thing to watch is that you shoot at an angle to the glass/perspex when using flash otherwise you get horrible flash reflections.

Photographing stars with basic equipment can be fun. Ideally you should shoot at a dark site a long way from city lights, but even in the city suburbs you can get interesting shots. Of course one of the beauties of digital photography is that trial and error is easy - you can experiment with different exposures and get instant feedback. If you haven’t tried before, you can use the settings below to  get you in the right ballpark -  then just experiment from there.

While out gardening, I lopped off a branch and noticed it had a Preying Mantis egg case attached. I cut off the twig with the egg case and popped it in a container to see if any baby Mantis would hatch out.

Since I don’t have a “real” macro lens yet I’ve been making do with the lenses I have for close up photos. For very small insects I’m using an old 50mm Pentax M f1.7 lens - it does a fine job for small subjects that are not easily frightened away , but with a working distance of only a few centimetres from the lens to the subject it is hopeless for skittish insects like butterflies. This is where I’ve found my Samsung Schneider 50-200mm zoom comes in handy. (This is the same lens as the Pentax DA 50-200mm).

The aim of the OzWildlife site is to present photos and information covering a wide range of Australian Wildlife. There is now about 500 species of Aussie animals up on the site including many different kinds of mammals (including many marsupials, also marine mammals such as whales, numerous kinds of dolphins and seals), lots of birds, reptiles, frogs and spiders.

I was recently staying at the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. One evening I noticed a Bandicoot digging in the mulch down in the yard. It was a too far away for decent photo, and my flash didn’t have the oomph to light it properly, but had a crack at it anyway. By shining a torch on the animal I could get just enough light for the autofocus to lock in after it thrashed around for a while.