Weekend rock climbing trip to the Blue Mountains in Australia

           Before heading off to Australia I did a good amount of reach search about rock climbing in the Blue Mountains; I knew there was no way I would miss the opportunity of climbing in such a beautiful landscape.  In the reach search I did I found and joined a Blue Mountains Rock Climbing Facebook group.  There I posted the dates I wanted to climb and if there was any one that would be interested in getting together.  I got lucky and Damien replied to my post letting me know that his buddy Nick was visiting for those same dates on a weekend climbing trip and I could tag along with them.  So knowing I had some climbing partners I booked a hostel in Katoomba and headed off to meet up with them.
         

         After a two hour train ride from Sydney to Katoomba I went straight to my hostel where after I checked in and dropped off my bags headed out because I was to met with Damien and Nick at restaurant to get to know each others and have an idea what were the plans for the weekend.  We had a good meal and I headed back to my hostel to get some rest for the next day.
          While in the lobby of the hostel I noticed a girl was on her Mac using Lightroom.  Her images were really nice and the more I payed attention I could tell she knew what she was doing, so I decided to talk to her.  I found out her name was Melissandre, she was from France, worked as a graphic designer, was taking some time off to backpack around Australia, and her photography was beautiful (check out her work here: CelestialK).  I mentioned to Melissandre that earlier while checking in I saw a poster advertising a night time photo tour around The Three Sisters; one of the main attraction in the Blue Mountains.  The only thing the tour was the night before but we that was fine because we both had tripods and knew how to shoot at night, so we head off to The Three Sisters to play around with some night photography.

 

       At first we wanted to capture the Milk Way like the images on the poster I had seen, but it was too cloudy, so then we just started photographer anything.  Being a portrait guy I crated one of Melissandre using both our iPhones on the brightest setting as a key light to light her face.  

"Instagramming" my way up and down the East cost of Australia

       Through out my road trip up and down the East cost of Australia I did not to much shooting with my DSLR; I was in another state of mind and didn't want to worry about dealing with a heavy camera and other gear.  So I stuck with using my iPhone 4 and the Instagram app to document my experience.  This was very liberating because all I needed was my phone, that fit in my pocket, I didn't need to worry about all the settings on my big camera, and I got back to the basics: light, composition, and story telling.  Also using the Instagram app was perfect because it allows you to control your exposure, crate a fake depth of field, and the filters it offers makes the post-processing fast and instant.  Unlike with a DSLR where you have to download the files from a memory card, upload them to Lightroom, hours of messing around with the image, export them, and then finally upload to the web to share.    

       

       This posting over laps with my prior posting and then keeps going through the rest of my road trip; so to keep track of what was going on make sure you check out the other post.  Just click here.  

       Over all on this road trip I drove around 3180 miles in 9 days.  The amount of road I covered is equivalent of driving from Boston to Key West and back.    

           

Driving through the outback.

Big Sky Country, reminded me of Big Sky Country Montana, USA.

There was an overwhelming amount of kangaroo road kill every where.

Sunrise in the outback after sleeping in my rental in a super market parking lot.

How beautiful is this super market parking lot out in the middle of the outback?!

Got into the outback of the movies; dry, dusty, and 100 degrees.

After one of the best showers I have ever taken; mind you it was in a public shower  at a truck stop in the middle of the outback.

Sun setting behind palms in Townsville, while I waited for the ferry to go to Magnetic Island. 

My "mobile home" aka rental car.

View as I laid on the beach; mean while there was a blizzard back in Rhode Island, where I live.

Feeding the Wallabies.

The hidden Wallaman Falls; which is the highest free falling waterfall in Australia.

Saya and I stuck in traffic on our way to Cairns.

Suba diving and snorkeling the Grate Barer Reef. 

Quick dip in the Cairns Lagoon.

Camira, my sailing vesal to get from Airlie Beach to the Whitsundays.

When there's nice light you have to take a "selfie".

The sand in the Whitsundays is so amazing!!!

           After my trip to the Whitsundays and a night in Airlie Beach, I headed off to Byron Bay where I spent a night, and then went back to Sydney.  Over all I gave up on DSLR to shoot with my iPhone and I'm really happy with what I got.  None of the images are portfolio pieces but they are amazing snap shots what I will cherish for the rest of my life.  Something else that occurred by using Instagram over my real camera; was I appreciate the moment a lot more.  When I have my DSLR out I'm in work mood, I'm trying to crate commercial images to use in my portfolio.  Because of the freedom I had, I now realized that it shouldn't be like that, I can use my DSLR and record my experience even if it's just for me.  Which should be the important part.