Melbourne 2014 Trip – Part 2

So day two saw an early start with a walk down town to catch the bus for our day tour trip that we had booked. The tour was in thee parts, first stop was after an hour or so drive, a quick tea break and a short walk in the forest. They had a setup where you could feed the Sulfur Crested Cockatoos. (Noisy bloody birds that's for sure). Lot's and Lots and Lots of tourists, about 6 bus loads in fact, so we were happy to move on from there.

After that it was onto a train ride at the Puffing Billy. It was a small train ride of about half an hour I think,(lost track of time at that point) It was great to see the old trains all done up and the old boys having fun running them. There were lots of kids and a couple of young guys working the train as well, so I shot lots of people shots which is not my style at all. I'm quietly pleased with the outcome, especially once i converted several to b/w.

Colin our tour guide and driver had a great sense of humor.

From the train station we then went onto lunch at a vineyard. The food was awesome and they catered to my crazy food allergies.

Then onto the Healesville Sanctuary which was the real reason for taking the tour. The Cassowary was great to see, having seen them up really close in the wild (a whole other story) It was great to see this young one with bight vibrant colours. That says a lot about the Sanctuary and how well they run the place and look after the animals. I’ll be going back for sure.

Now of course I’m a reptile person, No idea why I love them, probably the whole dragon thing. Anyway they had a good selection of reptiles, and my flash really upset one of them, he was hissing at me (I’m sure of it) although you  couldn't hear it through the glass. Due to lack of time I didn't stay there long, I would have stayed there for hours. But I managed to shoot off a few good frames of them. This first shot is unusual, the normal red eye of flash that humans gets is grey in snakes as I found out.

Flash = One pissed-off snake

The pythons were awesome, this shot is actually a photo stack of different  focus points, worked out far better than I had expected. (Gotta love Photoshop tools)

 So that was the second day of our trip, the real fun begins with two days of air show. Lot's and Lots of photos to come.