First, let me review my experience with the 24-120 VR lens. As I wrote in "my bag" page prior to the trip I bought the VR so I will be able to travel without a tripod. Well, the idea worked good enough. Of course, if you need large prints, VR certainly is no substitute for a good tripod . However, for web publishing and 8x10 prints it is fine. Here is a night shot hand held. Good hand holding technique and waiting the fraction of a second to allow VR to kick in is important. Tip: compared to USA prices, I found in Australia everything photographic is expensive, so don't plan to need to purchase stuff there.

After returning from diving in Papua New Guinea, the trip began in Cairns. A lovely and picturesque sea side town. Water birds thrive along the beautiful Cairns esplanade and can be photographed throughout the day as bird behavior and conditions change. Great photo ops for Pelicans, Egrets and other water foul. I used my 80-400. Cairns is surrounded by photo worthy farm country and to north, gorgeous beaches. The ancient Daintree rainforest is a couple of hours north of Cairns where it meets the beach. To get there you travel north on Captain Cook's highway, on the way, ocean and beach photography is the compelling subject along with interesting features in several of the small towns along the way. I found photography in the rainforest challenging. I did not know how to capture the sense of place, the thick growth the overwhelming diversity of plant life and it's competition for light, few opening in the right spaces with light... I wish I had more time. My photos of the rainforest in the Cairns gallery leave much to be desired. Anyway, the widest angle lens you own would be the best, make sure to use a polarizer and carefully evaluate the light range. This photo with blown highlights shows the problem I had. I was not careful enough, despite looking at the histogram and taking readings of high and low lights, I did not accomplish the shot. Lots to learn....

The next destination was Fraser Island, about a five hour drive north of Brisbane. The Bruce Highway leads north through small towns and farm land. The Sunshine Coast's beaches and quaint towns are several miles off the highway. Platapus Bay, between Fraser Island and Hervey Bay, the gateway to Fraser Island, is one of the best Humpback whale watching places in the world. July to October the migrating whales swim in the bay and are very active mating and birthing, providing a superb opportunity for whale photography. My 80-400 VR was perfect for the job.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and is covered by a rainforest . Four wheeling, camping and fishing is what you do there. There are no paved roads on the island, deep sand tracks inland and the 50 mile long beach are the only thoroughfares. Surprisingly, sand dunes are hard to find on the island, ocean and beach, along with beautiful inland lakes offer landscape photo ops., and the changing colors of the ocean sunrise are splendid. A wide angle lens is the lens of choice here.

Sydney, the final destination and a fabulous city as everyone knows, offered among many other subjects interesting architecture photo ops of the old and the new. Of course the famous land mark, although a cliche' photo, is always fun to try to find new ways of presenting the subject.