After getting frustrated with a slow memory card reader for a number of years, I recently bought a SanDisk Extreme FireWire compact flash memory card reader, which is rated at 40 MB/s read and write performance.

I've always been happy with the SanDisk memory cards I've used in various cameras, and decided that a genuine SanDisk memory card reader would be a good option.



The SanDisk card reader comes well packaged, and with a clean design showing just a SanDisk logo on the top of the actual card reader, it looks very business-like.

Build quality is just what I would expect from SanDisk - the card reader is well-built, robust, with good quality cables, and clean styling.

While walking around Dove Lake, near Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, we came across this wombat. He wasn't too concerned about all the people crowding around with their cameras, but just slowly continued on his way.

wombat

Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
Canon EOS 350D, 17-85mm IS @44mm, 1/125 sec, f/5, ISO200

When I saw the graffiti on this bamboo at the Perth Zoo, I had to stop and take a photo of it.

bamboo graffiti

Perth Zoo, Western Australia
Canon EOS 350D, 70-200mm f/4L @70mm, 1/25 sec, f/4, ISO200

If you ever visit Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, it's worth doing the walk around the lake.

There is some fantastic scenery as the track makes its way around the lake, and in some places, it's a wooden walkway bolted to the rock cliff, as shown in the photo below (with Cradle Mountain in the background).

walkway around Dove Lake

Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
Canon EOS 350D, 10-22mm @10mm, 1/25 sec, f/8, ISO200

Other sections of the track will take you through a temperate rainforest called the Ballroom Forest.

The walk is 6km, and takes approximately 2 hours (depending on how fit you are, how fast you walk, how frequently you stop to take photos, etc). It's a relatively easy walk, and is mostly flat.

Here are some photos from Michael and Kathryn's wedding, shot in December. It was a very hot day, but we had a lot of fun, despite the heat, and the two flower girls performed very well all day!

While in Sydney recently, some colleagues took me for a lunchtime walk through the national park that is located right behind our office.
It's part of Lane Cove National Park, and we walked through an area called Fairyland Park, which used to be an amusement park of sorts that closed in the 1970s.

Here's a few photos taken during that lunchtime walk.

leaves

Fairyland Park, North Ryde, NSW
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @15mm, 1/30 sec, f/4, ISO200

Last night, I returned home after two weeks in Sydney. It was a work-related trip, but I was hoping to get out with my camera, as I have done on previous trips to Sydney.
However, it was pretty wet, with a lot of rain during the time I was in Sydney, including rain for most of the weekend I was there.

wet roads ... and a bridge!

Sydney, NSW
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 1/50 sec, f/6.3, ISO200

Despite the rain, I still spent some time wandering around the city on the weekend, and managed to get some photos.

The photo above shows a wet Sydney road, with the very recognisable structure of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the distance.

There is a saying which states that the eyes are the window to a person's soul. It is important to know how to handle people's eyes in portrait photography, as the way the eyes are represented in a photo can make or break the photo.

For example, Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl photo, which appeared on the cover of the June 1984 National Geographic Magazine, was named "the most recognised photograph" in the history of the magazine. This was primarily due to her piercing sea-green eyes, staring straight at the camera, resulting in a very striking and appealing portrait.



With portrait photography, it is important to ensure the eyes are in focus. This is particularly important if shooting with a large aperture, when the depth-of-focus is small.
A portrait with the eyes in focus will have more impact, will be more appealing, and the eyes will help draw the viewer into the image.

Samantha

Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @70mm, 1/640 sec, f/4, ISO200

To ensure your camera focuses on the eyes, configure it to use only one focus point, and compose the shot with this focus point on the eyes, half-press the shutter button to focus, and then re-compose and take the photo.

I recently purchased a Yongnuo OC-E3a Canon TTL flash cable from Deal Extreme (an online store based in Hong Kong) for just USD$24.86, with free shipping.
The Yongnuo OC-E3a cable is less than one third of the cost of a genuine Canon OC-E3 cable, which retails for USD$69.95.



A TTL flash cable allows you to get your flash off your camera's hot shoe, while still maintaining full ETTL communications with the flash. This can be useful when using a flash bracket or light-stand to hold the flash, or even when using one hand to hold the flash away from the camera body.

It's not limited for use with flashes - you can use a TTL cable for mounting a Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter remotely from the camera. This can be handy if you are using the ST-E2 to control one or more remote flashes wirelessly, but where the flashes are outside the forward-pointing optical transmission of the ST-E2 (ie, the flashes might be to the side, or even behind the camera, and without sufficient reflective surfaces to bounce the infrared signal from the ST-E2 to the remote flashes).



The Yongnuo cable is a clone of the genuine Canon OC-E3 TTL flash cable, but is significantly cheaper than the genuine article from Canon.

Yongnuo OC-E3a TTL flash cable

The old oil tanks at Albany's Whale World, which have been converted into mini movie theatres. Each of the movie theatres has a different short movie about the whaling station.

Whale World tanks

Whale World, Albany, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @10mm, 1/4000 sec, f/4, ISO250