Here's another example of a rainforest in the Sydney area. As mentioned before there's only a small number of these little rainforest pockets in Sydney. Mostly because of the poor soils and frequent fires. Great to see many orchids today. Some in flower. That's a surprise as I thought orchids tend to flower in August and September rather than May. Flowering in full shade, hanging off the sandstone rocks over the creek which flows to Pittwater. This is a sea side rainforest, growing next to Pittwater in Sydney's north. The rainfall here is 1300 mm per year. The rainforest exists as it is in a fire free gully facing east. Soils are derived from Hawkesbury Sandstone and the Narrabeen group of sedimentary rocks. Narrabeen group is a series of sandstones, shales, claystone, siltstones, mudstones and others. It's somewhat more fertile than the more often seen Hawkesbury sandstone which is the grey coloured cap rock seen in various parts of Sydney. Also nearby is a volcanic dyke, which may have added extra nutrients to the soil. From the point of view of a classifier one could say this is a Littoral Rainforest, as it grows by the sea. (Great sounds of the waves on the beach too). However, there appears little sea wind effect here. And it's more likely to be classified as Warm Temperate Rainforest. The rainforest canopy here is low, less than 15 metres tall as the soils are shallow. Perhaps the sea winds don't have a shearing effect here. Dominant tree species here are Water Gum, Lilly Pilly, Blue Cherry, Coachwood and Cabbage Tree Palm. Other less common (but interesting) rainforest tree species indigenous to this part of the world are Snowwood, Southern Ebony, Scentless Rosewood, Red Olive Plum, Murrogun (Cryptocarya microneura), Corkwood Laurel, Sandpaper Fig, Rusty Fig and the Native Crabapple. Good to see the tallest Wilkiea I've ever encountered this morning. At least 6 metres tall. And a Blue Cherry with a thick trunk, 45 cm across. Only 12 metres tall though. And from a personal point of view it was great to return to this spot, as I'd had so many good times with friends at the beach in the recent past. When with those girls, they didn't want to see me disappear into the rainforest. So, today I returned by myself this time.

Freehand - NO Flash Sun lighting up the tree through the forest. I'm walking along, gazing up through the trees, looking for leaves with colors enhanced by the sun... looking for a gap in the dense forest trail to get a good solid "fall leaf" type shot, when this jumped out at me. This is Not only an incredibly beautiful shot of brightly colored fall leaves, but notice the surroundings and sides? I DID NOT USE A FLASH (or reflector - or anything else) to create this light! That is all natural lighting! It was like God's spot light, "OK, HERE YOU GO, BUT NOW YOU HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO CAPTURE THIS, because no one is going to believe a focused ray of light coming DIRECTLY from the sun through a dense forest, and only highlighting those leaves near you." Well, it did. At first I walked by, thinking it was too close... thinking it would disappear or that I was seeing things. So I slowly backed up and just stared. It was so beautiful, so obvious... and ever so BRIGHT in this dense forest on the side of the Biltmore Estate! When I first pulled my camera to change the settings and take the shot, I got a massive amount of sun flare through the eye piece. The big rainbow circle, the dots, the shear brightness of a direct shot INTO the setting sun was a major challenge. So I stopped for a moment and thought... just how do I capture this, without all the flares and spots? Note the EXIF settings: Camera: Canon EOS 50D Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250) Aperture: f/4 Focal Length: 35 mm ISO Speed: 200 Exposure Bias: 0 EV Flash: Flash did not fire I took two shots - two different settings - this is the best of the two. The DoF on the other was far too shallow. I hope you enjoy it. It prints out beautifully. I was going to put some saying or caption on the frame... but I still haven't figured out the right words. Any suggestions?