Make sure to check out part 1 (planes) and part 2 (fireworks).

I wanted to get another post done sooner, but I've had a busy few weekends and changed my photo editing workflow a bit (I might write about it someplace sometime) so only just got around to culling and editing the rest of the Riverfire photos.

Boats

There were naturally quite a few boats. Unfortunately being on the eastern bank in the afternoon it meant I was facing into the sun so the lighting isn't as nice as I would have liked, but they still came out ok. Perhaps if I go again I'll try the western bank.

These guys looked like they were having fun. I used the 70-200mm at 200mm at f/5.6, 1/500, ISO64.

These were at f/4.0 - I guess the first one looked to dark or something.

A bigger fella went past, thought it looked nice. Very blue because it's in shadow and if I fix that it just looks unnatural (as it's very obviously in shadow). Something still doesn't quite sit right with this edit for me.

I tried out a contrasty BW edit because then the colours don't matter (although I left a little something).

And a police boat. I had swapped over to the 200-500mm for this shot, so it's at f/5.6. Not quite framed how I would like - I clipped off the antenna and it would be nice if it was slightly off the centre of the frame anyway. The colours came out alright though.

Animals

I did some warmup shots (before the planes) on some birds. I didn't like most of them enough to warrant editing but this one is pretty good.

And a waterdragon came up very close and posed quite nicely. I went back to the 70-200mm for this so I had the shallower f/2.8 aperture.

If you're looking to try "wildlife" (not really that wild anymore) photography I would highly recommend waterdragons as they're quite ideal subjects.

They're

• very easy to find in Brisbane city.
• very chill, you don't need a big lens to get close. I've had cases where they've gotten too close for my lens. I took these at 200mm, but he kept shuffling closer.
• excellent at posing. They hold one position perfectly still, then after a while change to another pose and hold that etc., so you have plenty of time to take your shots. I had enough time to swap lenses before he changed pose.
• quite pretty in my opinion.

Anyway, here are some more.

Digital Downloads / Prints

As always, if you want full resolution (up to 8k) digital copies for personal or commerical use, contact me me and we can arrange something. Also if you know me in person I've got a printer now so you can purchase a print up to A3 if you want (currently I only have A4 paper on hand but I'd love an excuse to print a photo at A3).

How I did it

Location

Same place as Part 1.

Gear

• Nikon D850 + Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 G2 + AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR