By today's standards, we have a pretty large back yard. While I'm not a very keen gardener, and often find it difficult to motivate myself to do the gardening. However, the kids love the large back yard, and are often out there, kicking a ball around on the lawn, on the swings, in the sandpit, or in the cubby house.

Earlier today, I followed the kids around in the back yard with my camera, as kids playing can often provide great opportunities for candid shots.
Here's some of the photos of my youngest daughter, Samantha (17 months old), enjoying the back yard.

Click each image for a larger version.

Taken from the Fossil Rock Lookout, near the Blowhole in Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania.
Unfortunately it was a wet and miserable day when we were here, but I love the dark brown tones of the rocks and cliff face.

Fossil Rock Lookoutt

Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania
Canon EOS 350D, 10-22mm @17mm, 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO200

My youngest daughter is fascinated with my camera. This makes it difficult to get photos of her, as she immediately heads towards the camera when she sees it in my hands.
She particularly likes to see the results on the rear screen after I've taken a photo. Maybe she's an aspiring photographer who can't wait to take her own photos ;-)

reach

home, Western Australia
Canon EOS 350D, 50mm f/1.8 @50mm, 1/60 sec, f/3.2, ISO200

However, on rare occasions, she'll pose for the camera. This typically occurs when she's found something that's more interesting than the camera - often something she's not supposed to be touching. In this particular case, she was experimenting with my wife's sudoku book and pen that was on the coffee table.

smile!

home, Western Australia
Canon EOS 350D, 50mm f/1.8 @50mm, 1/80 sec, f/1.8, ISO200

Mountains appear blue in the distance as the clouds roll in.

distant mountains

central Tasmania
Canon EOS 350D, 10-22mm @22mm, 1/125 sec, f/8, ISO100

I love the colours of autumn leaves.

autumn red

Cataract Gorge reserve, Launceston, Tasmania
Canon EOS 350D, 17-85mm IS @85mm, 1/60 sec, f/6.3, ISO200

The Tessellated Pavement is located just north of Eaglehawk Neck, in Tasmania. Nearby, a number of other geological attractions are located, including the Tasman Arch, Devil's Kitchen, and the Blowhole.
However, the Tessellated Pavement was the most intriguing for me, with the rock formation looking very much like it was man-made, due to the very straight and parallel lines in the rock formation.

There are two main types of formations in the Tessellated Pavement, with the pan formations (as shown in the two photos below) being concave (ie, pan-shaped), and the loaf formations (to be shown in a future blog post) being convex like a loaf.

pan formations at the Tessellated Pavement

Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania
Canon EOS 350D, 10-22mm @12mm, 1/40 sec, f/9, ISO200

While in Tasmania in May, we visited the Devils @ Cradle wildlife park. Devils @ Cradle have a captive-breeding program, with 20 Devils on-site. They also monitor wild Devils in the Cradle Mountain area. When we visited, they had several female Devils which were thought to be pregnant.

This particular Tasmanian Devil is a small female named Charlotte.
I like this photo because it shows the Devil in the classic screaming posture, with her mouth wide open.

Charlotte the Tasmanian Devil

Devils @ Cradle, Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
Canon EOS 350D, 70-200mm f/4L @200mm, 1/80 sec, f/4, ISO200

Tasmanian Devils have a reputation for making lots of noise, and the specimans at Devils @ Cradle were no exception. They screeched and screamed a great deal while we were there. Apparently the screaming is not really a show of agression - it is done to intimidate their enemies (including humans).

Here's an overview of all the photos I blogged during the month of June, with all the photos coming from my recent Tasmanian holiday.





Click any image to navigate directly to that blog post.

Some of the other posts from June include:

• Copyright Violation - what would you do? (posted 2008-06-16)
• Copyright Violation - follow up (posted 2008-06-30)
• Tasmania Holiday (posted 2008-06-02)