Cocky v Crow Part 1

It’s been two years to the day that I shot this bizarre but highly entertaining series of pictures. So I thought I’d add a little to the story and include some lessons well.

Whilst carrying out my normal photographic duties for the newspaper, I found myself in Sans Souci in Sydney’s south.
After parking my car around the corner from my designated shoot I had about a 100 meter walk to the job.
As I walked through the leafy suburbia I saw a congregation of various types of our wildlife namely birds. And they were making a hell of a noise. So I decided to leave them be and simply walk around them.

At that point the volume of squabbling went through the roof, so I turned back around have a closer look at the now chaos that was unfolding.

There seemed to be a classic Sydney turf war happening. Between a rather large and pretty intimidating Crow and a slightly smaller but game Cockatoo. The battle for who owns the Australian red brick wall was underway. What started as a group had now turned to a one on one battle as the others fled the scene.

So with a few minutes to spare before my job, I aimed my 70-200mm lens at two and fired away just in hope of something interesting happening.

Things now started to heat up now with the Crow leaping up towards the gutsy Cocky with feet looking like daggers aimed straight at the underdogs pretty face!

Our new hero wasn’t going to cop that at all, and without hesitation launched head first WWE style off the ropes and head first towards the heavily backed favourite. It had all the hallmarks of Rocky v Apollo part one. No defence or regard for his own safety.
Just all heart.

The ounce brave Crow had now met his match and thought f… that, this guy is crazy.
With his self esteem a little worse for ware he took the loss and fled the scene.

Our Cocky now named Rocky won the battle and took back his wall.

The lesson being it pays to be ready to fire the trigger, some of the best pictures you’ll ever take are on the way to a shoot or on the way back home. And when it comes time to a scrap you never know who the favorite is until it’s over. Australia at its best. Luckily neither was hurt, just a damaged ego.

Til next time
Chris

New York City and Falling in Love Again

It’s hard not to mention my photography and New York as they are somewhat intertwined.

Back in 2009 after 12 years in the industry, I was going through a period where I was simply burned out and was questioning whether or not I would continue in my career or move on to something else.

At the same time I also had a trip planned with childhood friends to America, taking in New York, LA, Vegas and Dallas.
With the before mentioned questions, I decided to not take my real camera and simply put a super low res digital camera in my bag just in case. With no real intention of taking pictures but just enjoying a holiday.
I was also hoping for life to give me some answers too.

It was the American Winter of 2009 and first stop was LA and also my first time on American soil. And in the first 24 hours there we were hustled by someone at the Airport after they wanted money after we asked which way to the taxi rank, then back at our hotel and almost ended up in some gang fight at the hotel bar. If you want more I’ll tell you when I see you.

After a couple of interesting days there it was off to New York.

After a flight then a bus trip to the City, we caught a cab to our hotel. It seemed a lot of driving by our new friend with a $50 fair, but we eventually made it to our hotel late at night.
Up early the next day to see the sights of the Big Apple we noticed that our hotel was about 100m from where our taxi picked us up from the night before. I guess he wanted us to see the sights.
So many a lessened learned so far!

Anyway back to the story, it was hard to not be amazed by the City Skyline, the beautiful Statue of Liberty, Central Park and the buzz of the city was just remarkable. A pretty far cry for a couple of suburban kids from Sydney.


But it was in those wanderings I was really kicking myself for not bringing my main camera. Whilst aiming my 1 meg compact camera at the Statue of Liberty sunset, I then realized how much I love taking pictures and also how much those early digital cameras sucked!

I vowed to return again and have a crack at this amazing city, this time with a camera that will do it justice.
Sometimes in life, you don’t lose the love you just need to find a new perspective.
My love of photography was restored as I entered the next phase of my career. My journey was back on track.

Here are the pictures from the return trip in 2012. I’ll share more about this one another time:)

Til next time!

Chris

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Audley Reflections

Audley reflections


If you are up for a bit of a hike, one of my favourite shorter distance ones is the Honeymoon track in the Royal National Park Sydney NSW, that leads to the river at Audley.


To get there you can park at the football fields at Lofus then head through the bush where you’ll find a dirt trail along side the train tracks. After 3km you’ll hit a steep set of stairs around 750m worth and at the bottom you will hit one of the best sights in the National Park.
From the car park it’s about a 1 hour return trip, approx 7km.

For today’s session I decided to get in before sunrise to get some early light and to beat the heat but also to try to get some nice reflections.

The key for a great reflection photo is for stillness in the water, giving it almost a look of glass. Ideally a lack of wind or people in it causing any disturbance is the ultimate goal. Which is made more possible by the early start.

To make sure your exposure is spot on you’ll need to expose for the highlight in the picture, if you were to expose for the lowlight it will blow out your chance of a pretty picture. And that is just disheartening. So aim for the highlights.

If you’re not up for the hike you can easily Just drive to Audley which is about a 5 minute drive from the Princess Highway entry at Loftus. There is paid parking in the National Park so be prepared for that too.

Shot on my IPhone 7 for a easier hike and some more mobility.

Til next time

Chris

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