The following videos and photos are highlights from a whirlwind week long photo/video shoot of New Zealand’s lower South Island via Dunedin I was recently invited to join by Tourism New Zealand and Canon Australia.

Great Fun During Wairaurahiri Jetboat Trip photo credit: Jules Lund

Photos – New Zealand, Southern South Island Highlights (view Gallery)

Video – New Zealand, Southern South Island Highlights

Tourism NZ has released 5 video webisodes from the New Zealand lower South Island “Jules Lund” video/photoshoot I was invited to join during March in my role as a photographer/blogger/travel writer.

View Playlist of all 5 episodes on Youtube

DISCLAIMER: I am not being paid for this trip and have sole control over what I write and say about it. As usual I will be completely honest about whether I feel a particular location/experience is good quality and value for money.

All expenses for this trip were covered by Tourism New Zealand and regional subsidiaries. Camera gear was loaned by Canon (except for my own personally owned Canon S90 camera). Some clothing was sponsored by Goretex

The Sydney Harbour YHA rooftop balcony provided me with the best vantage point I’ve had for Sydney’s New Years Eve Fireworks shows at 9pm and Midnight including a panoramic view of Circular Quay, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge

A handful of my photos are displayed below, along with a bigger slideshow selection of some of the better fireworks photos. Read my Tips To Take Best Fireworks Photos: Location, Camera Equipment and Settings if you want to improve your photos.

The photos were taken by me with a Canon 500D digital SLR using a 15-85 EFS USM lense kept steady by a Velbon Sherpa 750R tripod.

Photo Slideshow – Sydney Fireworks Midnight New Years Eve 2009

Disclosure: The camera and tripod were on media loan to me so I could review them. YHA Sydney Harbour gave me accommodation for the night of NYE in exchange for being able to use my photos in their marketing materials.

Since this is a travel and photography blog I thought I’d highlight a few of my favourite 2009 photos rather than write about the year.Visit my Flickr profile to see more photos

Butterfly – Wingecarribee Dam

New Zealand Flag Against NZ Southern Alps

Lake Tekapo Aerial View

Rainbow Over Sydney City

Panorama – “Luminous” light projected onto Sydney Opera House

Colour, Light and Shadow (Cadmans Cottage, Sydney)

Pelican – Spit to Manly Bridge Walk

Snowman – Charlotte Pass

Raven With Beak Open Mid-Squawk (Closeup)

Neerav Bhatt standing in Isolated Part of Charlotte Pass After Snowstorm

Footprints and Journeys in Stockton Sand Dunes

Floriade Flower Festival (Canberra 2009)

Floriade Flower Festival (Canberra 2009)

Sunset over Western Sydney

Darling Harbour Pre-Xmas Fireworks

Darling Harbour Christmas Tree (Australian Flag in Background)

GUEST ARTICLE: Skype has gone from being a novelty when it launched 6 years ago to being really essential for me.

I’m now half-way round the planet from friends in the UK and want to catch up. I also need a visual connection with family and people who have questions about work.

And the things I still can’t quite believe:

• Skype is free – No phone bill. If I’d made these calls using a Telstra landline phone it would have cost lots of money
• It’s available from where ever I happen to log on to the internet
• It’s useful for chat, voice calls and conference calls

And I have the choice to put the “I’m busy, not answering” sign on so it’s not intrusive (all the while still being able to see who is online)

I use Skype in a variety of ways – if people have work/how to questions, I ask them to use Skype Chat instant messaging. It’s a very quick and efficient way to communicate without cluttering up my email

If they want a coaching/work session, I video skype and if they are not online, I leave a message, for when they do log on. Easy.

Even my folks (who view all things interweb and computerish with great suspicion) use Skype to call. The nice thing for me is that I know it’s not costing them a penny, and I can see them and how they are doing. Nice

This travel gear article has been written by Heidi Allen

Heidi has over 15 years experience in the publishing, health and education industries, working internationally in England and Australia. She presents on social media marketing and strategy and is also part of the team at HealthEngine.com.au, a medical search directory launched in Australia. She can be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Taking really good fireworks photos is not actually that hard but most people take terrible blurry fireworks photos because they don’t research how to take good fireworks photos, don’t have the right camera equipment and fail to plan ahead to find the best vantage point location to take the photos from.

Location, Location, Location for Fireworks Photos

The best photos will be from the best vantage points. Scout out possible vantage points a few days beforehand at the same time of night you’ll be taking fireworks photos to see what lighting conditions, viewing angles etc are like.

Once you’ve chosen a vantage point make sure you turn up several hours early with lots of time to spare (or in the case of New Years Eve, Independence Days etc turn up at the beginning of the day). The early photographer gets the best shots.

There are also other considerations in choosing a location. Find out which way the wind is blowing and get upwind, Fireworks create smoke and if the wind blows it towards your position it not only blocks the shot but makes it uncomfortable to shoot.

From the right position you can use the smoke to your advantage. As the fireworks program builds, the smoke reflects light and can help define the shot.

Look for a unique position. It’s not always easy to get approval to shoot from an unusual location, but the results can be worth the effort
- Fireworks Photo Tips From Smithsonian Photographers

Best Camera Equipment for Fireworks Photos

• You have to use a tripod to make sure your camera is perfectly still so photos which take several seconds to record the light don’t get blurred. If you don’t have the space to carry along a big tripod or can’t afford one consider using a Gorillapod.
• If you own or can borrow an SLR camera which has manual settings use that. Compact cameras are mostly automatic and not good at taking photos at night for several seconds or more.
• If you can get a remote release for your SLR use it to trigger taking photos rather than pressing the camera shutter which can cause the camera to vibrate and blur photos

Best Camera Settings for Fireworks Photos

• For gods sake turn your camera’s flash off! Leaving the camera on auto-flash will ruin your fireworks photos and the extra light could spoil the shots of photographers next to you.
• Manually focus to the farthest point in photo background eg: big bridge, building. Or better yet just set the focus to infinity (farthest away).
• If you only have a compact camera use Night/Fireworks/Starry Sky mode to force it to take longer exposures. If it doesn’t have these modes use Landscape mode.
• If possible force your camera to use a low ISO setting eg: ISO 100 to try and make sure the resulting photos are high quality with a proper black background and coloured fireworks not washed out white streaks with a grey sky.
• Which White Balance is best? Definitely not Auto setting! Daylight will make fireworks photos warmer, emphasizing reds while Tungsten setting will make photos cooler emphasizing blues.
• Shutter speed: probably between 1 and 10 seconds but by all means try longer exposures and see if you can get good results. If you have an SLR, Bulb setting is best so you can open the shutter and close it at the exact instant the fireworks start/stop
• Consider using Long Exposure Noise Reduction for exposures of more than 30 seconds

Creative Options for Fireworks Photos

Trying really long exposure eg: 30 seconds or more with a wide angle lense. On bulb setting take a photo of one fireworks burst, cover the lense with a piece of black cardboard, take away the cardboard for another fireworks burst in a different part of the sky, repeat.

Photos of just fireworks against a black sky get boring after a while. Try framing your photos so silhouettes of people are in the foreground and fireworks in the background or famous buildings are in the background or other more imaginative techniques.

If you’ve got a tripod setup that can securely hold your camera in a vertical position try that because fireworks go off vertically but most people photograph them in landscape horizontal mode.

When I Was Learning How To Take Fireworks Photos

Photo Slideshow – Sydney Fireworks Midnight New Years Eve 2009

Download a free desktop wallpaper photo of a World War I cemetery in Flanders (Vlaanderen), Belgium taken by Featured Guest Photographer Fushmush.

A Soldier of the Great War & Stone of Rememberance credit: fushmush

The battlefields of Flanders (Vlaanderen), in Belgium, were part of the Western front during World War I. The front ran from the North Sea to Switzerland. It was a line of battle between the Allies and the Germans. The Germans would attack and the Allies would defend. The Allies would attack and the Germans would defend. This line remained virtually unchanged for most of the war.

Driving through Flanders, it’s hard to reconcile the present-day scenery with images from World War I. Pictures from the war show a landscape of trenches, mud and craters. Today it’s farmland; green fields, tractors and sheep. It’s hard to believe that it was the setting for such carnage, death and destruction. Well, it’s hard to believe until you start to notice the cemeteries.
- quote from Fushmush blog post: In Flanders Fields the poppies grow

I was looking at the Flickr photostream of my well travelled friend Fushmush when I noticed some photos of war graves in a Flanders WW1 cemetery.

It struck me that although many countries around the world mark the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to commemorate the end of hostilities for World War I (the Great War) on 11 November 1918, most people are probably too busy with their day to day work to contemplate the real significance.

11th November was chosen by the Allies as a way of remembering those who died, especially soldiers with ‘no known grave’.

The Flanders poppy became accepted throughout the allied nations as the flower of remembrance to be worn on 11th November. The red poppies were among the first plants that sprouted from the devastation of the battlefields of northern France and Belgium and ‘Soldiers’ folklore had it that the poppies were vivid red from having been nurtured in ground drenched with the blood of their comrades’ – Remembrance Day

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
- excerpt from “The Fallen” by Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Learn More About World War I (The Great War)

• The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century (American PBS TV Network)
• Experiencing War (World War I: The Great War): Stories from the Veterans History Project (American Library of Congress)
• The Western Front: a World War One Summary (The War Times Journal)
• First World War 1914–18 (Australian War Memorial)
• World War I Information (The Great War Society)
• Australian commemoration of Remembrance Day (Australian Government Culture website)
• Remembrance Day / Poppy Day / Armistice Day / Veterans Day as commemorated around the World
• ANZAC Day (Australian Government Culture website)

Visit Tyne Cot World War 1 Cemetery

Tyne Cot Cemetery is located 9 kilometres north east of Ieper town centre, on the Tynecotstraat, a road leading from the Zonnebeekseweg (N332).

There is a reasonable amount of parking space near the entrance but beware of the numerous coaches that bring visitors to the cemetery. More information at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website

Download Instructions

1. Click on the preview photo
2. When the full size photo is displayed in Flickr – click on the “All sizes” button above the photo to see the full 1024×768 resolution JPG

Every month I’ll publish a new Free Desktop Wallpaper for your computer by a Guest Photographer or from the archives of photos I’ve taken, subscribe to my RSS feed to make sure you get the next one.

Other photos I’ve taken can be viewed at my Google Picasa Web Photo Album

Other photos by Fushmush can be seen at her Flickr Profile.