I stuffed quite a bit of photography into my brief time in Geelong – both during the conference and after it! A lot of what I’ve been doing this year is seabird photography from a boat – so it was a nice change of pace to sit in one spot and wait to see what wandered up to me, or to go for a quiet walk in the bush and see what I could find. Here are a few of my favourite images – all portraits, which is a bit different for me. The last three form a nice little series together, and I contemplated just posting them, but I love the first shot of the Chestnut teal! Such a startling red eye.

All photos taken with the Nikon D500 and 80-400mm lens. My winning combo. The lens I have on a very long-term ‘lease’ from Dad (sorry Dad), and it has replaced the 70-300mm that was my workhorse for a long time. The 80-400mm not only has greater reach, it’s a hell of a lot sharper – although not as sharp as the new 300mm f/4 that I would really like to get my hands on when I can afford it! That said, it’s the versatility of a zoom lens like the 80-400mm that I love, and I don’t think I could give that up quite yet.