Great Barrier Reef Trip 3/13-3/15

I went diving on the Great Barrier Reef with the James Cook Dive Club. Here are a few of my best pictures. This is my first time taking underwater pictures. I am shooting with a Canon G10 with an underwater housing, no strobes. Check out my other blog for more details:

www.mandysnewyear.blogspot.com

sunset on the Pacific Ocean

blue spotted ray

White tipped shark

my first free dive-- aka w/o an instructor
Ryan and Georgia holding onto the boat chain

Castle Hill from the Katalina (sp?) on the way back to port

these birds just chilled on the boat and road with us back to mainland

Crystal Creek

Saturday Feb 28th--Crystal Creek
I am kind of rusty with my D80. Ever since I got my Canon G10 I kinda of used that everywhere I went. I am just getting settled in in Townsville, Australia, so once I figure out the best places to go I will put up a lot more pictures! Cheers! :)

Little Crystal Creek

I think this beer, XXX GOLD, is like Keystone back at home. I haven't tried it yet though. lol I just like photographing objects that look odd in the environment they're in.

My friend Cal jumping off the cliff. It is much deeper than I thought it was thank goodness!

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll bloooow your house down!

These are the puppies of a gorgeous white wolf and a black lab. Ben took me to Gregs farm again and I took some pictures. Greg wasn't there but we just walked around looking at the new additions to the farm.
This is Busi, hes gotten soooo big!

*Quack Quack * WHAMMMYYY

One chilly morning Ben decided to wake me up at 6am. He said "Lets go duck hunting." So we get all bundled up and head out across the street to Ben's neighbor's pond. It was a very pretty morning by the way! Ben got me a carhart jacket and a therma rest pro for Christmas! I was excited that I was able to use my carhart! So we set off on our journey to the pond with two of Bens buddies, Kurt and Kyle... they're identical twins. They are kinda hard to tell apart but I was able to tell a difference sometimes just by the things each one said. We saw a lot of flocks of geese/ducks but was not able to shoot at any. We had fun though! I had fun on my first trip out duck hunting! :)





bens house is basically across the street from the house shown in the picture.




the guys talkin


waiting for some prey!



It was about 10am and we were getting cold and bored. We decided to pack up.

Christmas Time

"Christmas, Christmas time is near,
Time for toys and time for cheer.
We've been good, but we can't last,
Hurry Christmas, Hurry fast.
Want a plane that loops the loop,
(Alvin:) Me, I want a Hula-Hoop.
(Chipmunks:)
We can hardly stand the wait,
Please Christmas don't be late."
--Alvin & the Chipmunks

Merry Christmas everyone! :)



Yup, doin it the old fasion way!




Ice skating at deep river water park with Ben (above), mom, Emma, Sarah, and Amanda




Emma and Amanda (not me, the other Amanda ;) )







Okay, so I know this doesn't have anything to do with Christmas, but this is in my uncles basement where we spent Christmas Eve. He has tooooooonnns of football and baseball helmets, bats, football jerseys all over the basement! Its like a sport museum! Its pretty neat. He has a ton of lights down there too which make it look even more awesome! He also has a pretty sweet bar set up! We all had fun over there!




My sexy "little" sister!



Emma, Mom, and Sarah at Gary's house for Christmas Eve.



Our stockings! Lets hope Santa leaves us all something awesome! :)

Panoramics

My attempt of Panoramics!




This is of my daddys house in Massachusetts


This is the granite rock quarry in Rockport, MA

Boston--Tday Weekend

For Thanksgiving Break I went and visited my dad for the first time in a year and a half! Thats a long time, something I'm not used to. It was a lot of fun. He lives in Massachusetts, about 45 mins away from Boston, with his girlfriend Adele and her three boys, Willium, Arie, and Keyees (probably totally wrong on the spelling).


Something I am used to... Back when I was younger we always had piggies too. Along she is named, Ms. Piggie, she will be bacon at some point sooner or later.. Hmmmm baccccooonnn! :)


awww! Ms. Piggie liked to be scratched... looks like someone is attached... uh oh!


I liked this picture a lot because it said something when I looked at it later that day. It makes me see the relationship between a pig and humans. The pig is in a fenced in area eating the left overs from Thanksgiving and the humans are free on the outside to go and do what every they pleased.



Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to Rockport, MA. This was a old granite quary. Its pretty sweet!







Silly me I didn't bring a tripod. So I used what God gave me. I used some rocks to prop the camera on and shot with a real low iso and shutter speed. Came out pretty cool. They waves were just amazing. Easily could have died if you were swept away in that stuff.


So this is Arie on the left and Willum on the right. They were being boys playing on the cool looking rocks. Notice the sky... very dark. The wind started picking up and eventually it started hailing! It was painful, but we all eventually ran our way to the car and continued on our journey in Rockport. Notice the next picture was taken a half hour after this picture... Crazy weather! (I can't figure out how to un-underline this)...



I really like this picture, it says something about nature and people. Its pretty bad that animals know to go to the trashcans for garbage... Notice the sweet lobster boats in the background.


Lobster boats!


Boston! No idea what the building is of, but the architecture is awesome there!


back alley!






The roads used to all look like this! Crazy! But the richy rich people wanted real roads to drive their fancy cars on.... grr rich people!








There were some pretty badass graveyards here. It was established I think in the 1600s. This is Ben Franklins mothers gravestone (I think). But his parents were both burried here.