I downloaded the new ios7 for the iPhone & iPad.

Quite enjoying the panorama facility on the camera.

Clicking on them should enlarge these two early shots;

My view at work -

And the view over Brisbane from the top of Bardon Hill

New Toy. GoPro Hero 2 HD video

Picked this up in the New Year sales and gave it it's first try out today.


Bear in mind this is for mountains, skydiving, surfing etc. - All I could do today was run down the road..... Spectacular nevertheless.

New Toy! - camera this time

My trusty Canon video camera is giving up the ghost so I did some homework and invested in this little number.

It's a Sanyo Xacti waterproof - so good for skiing and trekking. It can go underwater to 3 metres so good for snorkelling too.

Stormy Weather!

A week of many storms here in SE Queensland. Yesterday we were up at Maleny and a storm came over in the afternoon.
Out I went with tripod and the new Canon Eos 450D to get the view over the Glasshouse Mountains.
It was still daylight so the exposure was a bit tricky. Put it onto ISO 100 and an aperture of 20 - gave exposure times of just over half a second. I went snap-happy with the camera on 'continuous' and took many pictures to get a handful with actual lightning bolts.
These were the best of the bunch;

13th June. The Dalai Lama at Australia Zoo

A beautiful but cold morning and I drove the 8 minutes down the hill from our house to 'Australia Zoo'.
The Dalai Lama was to give a talk at 9.30.
He was introduced by Terri Irwin - who spoke very well - and who was accompanied by Bindi & Bob.
The man himself came into the auditorium - the open air 'Crocoseum' and captivated his audience for the next hour.
He was enigmatic, charming, witty and profound. An incredible presence. His words were mesmerising.
I was impressed to simply be seeing this individual of truly historic importance. I knew his story so well - from his books and from the film-biography 'Kundun'. I'd seen his rooms in Lhasa at both the Potala and the Norbulingka and could imagine the upheaval of leaving there to become a refugee. Yet this man bears no malice and carries no bitterness. What an example.
I managed to get some great photos - the new zoom lens for the Canon Eos performing well.



Terri, Bob & Bindi, plus koala, came to say goodbye and were presented with ceremonial khatas.

There were only 3000 people allowed at the Aus. Zoo talk (The auditorium there takes 5000). In the afternoon His Holiness spoke in Brisbane to an audience of 15,000!
Apparently he meets the Prime Minister, John Howard, in the next couple of days, and the Chinese are most unimpressed.

24th May - New Toy!

So my old Canon compact digital is getting a bit dated - 4 megapixels, 3x zoom, bits are getting wobbly and all the writing washed off in the rain when we did the Milford Track in New Zealand last year.
Time for an upgrade!


This little beauty is on it's way. The Canon TX1. It's 7.1 megapixels, 10x optical zoom, AND it does up to an hour of HD video directly onto the card! Goodbye tapes and hard drives. AND it can take high quality stills while you're videoing!

It's due to arrive within 5 days so I'll give it a workout when I go to see the Dalai Lama and when I climb Mt. Barney in the next couple of weeks. It will, of course, get a full workout in Vietnam next month - all as a prelude to what will be a sensational video of the ascent of Lhakpa Ri in September.

Better pictures!

I've just learned that by 'double-clicking' on any of the blog photographs they will open up as large original size pictures. This means that all the blemishes & wrinkles on this old man can be viewed with indecent clarity! Happy viewing.