Springbrook National Park

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi all,

We headed off late on Friday afternoon for a couple of days camping at Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland. We did a couple of half-day walks on Saturday and Sunday morning, visiting in a few of the waterfalls in the area. Not a huge amount of water going over the falls, but still a nice spot!

Here are a few waterfall images. In the 4th image you can see my kids having a shower under the falls!

[StephenM (Stephen)]

And here are some of the surrounding forest and creeks. That's the Gold Coast in the background of the last image.

Cheers,
Stephen

[iceman (Mike)]

Beautiful spot! Lovely photos.

[hotspur (Chris)]

These are really outstanding Stephen-very well done!

In your second post images 4 and 6 really look so wonderful,are these using the 15-85? what settings,I'd like to try and use my 17-55 F 2.8 for this type of shot one day.

As a post script-I see on the news,there is interest in mining this Scenic Rim border area for underground gas-This is the worst possible thing that could happen to this area-The mining companies came to Kingaroy area and did this and totally stuffed some areas forever.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by iceman

Beautiful spot! Lovely photos.

Thanks Mike! Yes, it is a beautiful spot. There is a relatively new little camping area up there, which was quite nice. (This was the first time I've camped there.)

Originally Posted by hotspur

These are really outstanding Stephen-very well done!

In your second post images 4 and 6 really look so wonderful,are these using the 15-85? what settings,I'd like to try and use my 17-55 F 2.8 for this type of shot one day.

Thanks Chris! Yes, these were all shot with the 15-85. Re settings, I was actually lazy for image #6 in second post, and just hand-held the camera using the image stabiliser instead of setting up the tripod. The exposure was 1/5 sec @ f/4 and 800 iso. I should have used the tripod and shut the aperture down to at least f/8 really. I have to say that the 4-stop IS is one of the best features of this lens!

I did use the tripod for the image #4 (1/3 sec @ f/8 and 200 iso) and the waterfall images though.

Cheers,
Stephen

[bloodhound31]

The rainbow shot is my pick! Beautiful area Stephen!

Baz.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by bloodhound31

The rainbow shot is my pick! Beautiful area Stephen!

Baz.

Thanks Baz. I was quite pleased with the rainbow shot as well. My 6 year old daughter spotted the rainbow (she's into colourful rainbows at the moment), so I took that photo for her!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Very nice Stephen. I particularly like the 3rd one in the first set and the pool reflections in the 2nd lot.

[naskies (Dave)]

Great work, Stephen!

Originally Posted by StephenM

Thanks Chris! Yes, these were all shot with the 15-85. Re settings, I was actually lazy for image #6 in second post, and just hand-held the camera using the image stabiliser instead of setting up the tripod. The exposure was 1/5 sec @ f/4 and 800 iso. I should have used the tripod and shut the aperture down to at least f/8 really. I have to say that the 4-stop IS is one of the best features of this lens!

I did use the tripod for the image #4 (1/3 sec @ f/8 and 200 iso) and the waterfall images though.

The appealing aesthetics also come from good composition - the use of a wide field of view, which exaggerates the apparent distance between the foreground rocks and background trees, giving a dramatic feeling of open space.