Edwin Kwan

Photo Shoot of Bella

edwin — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:50:52 +0000

Did a photo shoot two weeks ago for my good friend, Mel’s daughters, Bella and Lily. Below are the photos.

24hr MS Mega Swim in Wollongong 2013

edwin — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 11:29:55 +0000

Below are some of the photos for the 2013 MS Mega Swim in Wollongong.

Canyoning at Macquaries Pass

edwin — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 03:49:33 +0000

Canyoning Macquarie Pass with Wulf and his friends.

Had a full day of canyoning last Sunday with Wulf and his friends. Met Wulf from Water Polo and also at Hangdog, so thats how I know he’s into rock climbing and canyoning.

Woke up at 5:45am in the morning and left the house at 6:45am as we were meeting at the car park at the bottom of Macquarie Pass at 7:30am. I’ve done Macquarie Pass twice before but this time we’re dong it from the top, the very start of the canyon. There were 5 people in our group. There was Wulf, Richard, Wulf’s sister Anna, Anna’s boyfriend Andrew and myself. It was Anna and Andrew’s first time canyoning. We parked the vehicle at the top and walked downhill a bit before heading toward the river. It took a while before we got into the river as we got a little lost and had to bash through some really thick plants. Had scratches on my forearms, hands and neck as a result of that. Also there were lots of leeches!!! We kept walking instead of trying to pull the leeches off as there were too many of them and they were jumping on to us faster than we could pull them off.

Once we got into the river, we followed it down stream for a while before hitting the first abseil. There were 3 abseils and a mini jump before getting to the abseil where we would normally get to if we started on Clover Hill Road. The second of the 3 abseils was 35m long!!!! Good thing Wulf and his mate Richard had a 70m and a 100m rope between the two of them! The views of the waterfall were amazing!

We started at around 8:30am and it was around 12:30pm when we got to the start of the first abseil if we had parked at Clover Hill Road.

The rest of the canyon from there was familiar. There were three areas where the slings were removed!?#! Luckily Wulf brought extra slings so we were able to attach new slings. Got to the final slide at around 4:30pm and was back at the car park at 5pm.

There was an accident along the main road we took to get to the parking lot and we could hear Ambulance and a helicopter when we were walking out of the canyon (towards the car park). As a result of the accident, we couldn’t drive back to Albion Park on that road and had to drive up the pass and do a big loop to Jamberoo and around to Albion Park. That took more time and by the time I got home, it was 6:30pm. It also started raining when I was driving so we were very lucky with the weather.

Great canyoning day!

Power Nap on Top of Cradle Mountain

edwin — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:17:39 +0000

Did the Overland Track Over Christmas/New Years. We had a group of 10 people and it took us 8 days as we did most of the side trips.

This photo was taken at the top of the overland track.

There is a bit of scrambling to get to the top of Crater Mountain but the view from up there was amazing!

Here Lis is taking a power nap right at the edge of the mountain!

Tawny Frogmouth Owls

edwin — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:01:08 +0000

Tawny Frogmouth Owls (click on the image to see a larger size)

Learnt about them from a neighbor (Robyn) when she pointed 4 of them out to me when I got home after work.

There’s three of them in this photo if you look really closely. The owl on the far left has its back facing the camera.

The owl on the right is the parent and the other two are just babies. The other parent is on a branch on the tree above them. (I reckon that would have to be the dad).

I like the owl in the middle as it has it has really bright round eyes and is looking directly at the camera!

That little piece of meat in front of the owl is actually tuna sashimi. Another neighbor, Frank (who part owns a sushi store), figured they must be hungry and left it there. However Tawny Frogmouths are exclusively insectivorous, so it is a shame to see sashimi go to waste.

These owls have excellent camouflage and they stay very still too. I wouldn’t have noticed them if Robyn didn’t point them out to me. Good to learn about another type if owl this evening.

[Video] My Graduate Experience

edwin — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:10:49 +0000

Two months ago the University of Wollongong Alumni office contacted me wanting to do a video of my graduate experience.

The idea was for the video to be shown at the 2012 December graduation ceremonies. Previously they used to show videos of Graduating students, talking about their university experience, but this year they decided to do a video of a few select UOW Alumni instead; the video was to have 6 Alumni members in there and it was to cover where we all are now, what we are currently doing and how our experience at UOW had helped us get there.

The video was shot at my work place and the interview was done just outside of the building (where we had good natural light). They shot the video handheld, using a DSLR, Canon 5D Mk II and because of the occasional traffic noise, we had to constantly re-shoot some of the interview questions.

In the end, they decided to create a few videos instead just one; and determined that three of the Alumni members (myself inclusive) had enough content to have their own video.

Below is the video of My UOW Graduate Experience

It was a great opportunity to help give back to the University and also quite a fun experience shooting the video.

Road Trip Around New Zealand’s North Island

edwin — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:03:44 +0000

Last week I did a road trip around New Zealand’s North Island. Few in to Auckland, spent 3 nights in the city, visiting nearby attractions like Mount Zion, Cathedral Cove and Hot Water beach at Coromandel. Then drove to Russel, Bay of Islands, spent a night there, then visited Ahipara to do a Sand Safari along the 90 mile beach, spent a night at the Tree House Lodge in Hokianga before heading to Aukland; but not before stopping by at the Labyrinth, Funky Fish and Waiwera Pools. Below are some of the photos taken on the trip.

Video of Giant Cuttlefish

edwin — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 06:49:35 +0000

A week ago, I scuba dived at the Gravel Loader to photograph some Giant Cuttlefish. The photos are available here.

I felt that photos itself would not do the cuttlefish justice as the way they move underwater is quite spectacular. So I took some video footage too and it’s now available on YouTube.

Giant Cuttlefish Photography – Scuba Diving at Gravel Loader

edwin — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:01:09 +0000

The water was flat and the weather was great so it was a great opportunity to get some photographs of the Giant Cuttlefish at The Gravel Loader @ Bass Point.

The Gravel loader is one of my favorite dive site as it is an easy dive and you can usually spot a few giant cuttlefish here, and this dive was no exception.

There are two entry points for this dive, one of either side of the loader. Once in the water, take a compass bearing to the loader and start swimming to it underwater. When at the loader, swim beneath the pylons until you get to the end. The pylons on the main part of the loader is different from those at the end, they are shaped like an inverted V (take a look at the picture). so it’s easy to tell when you are at the end. There’s not much to see until you get to the end and it’s quite shallow, with the end being at around 10m deep.

[Video] 2012 MS 24hr Mega Swim in Wollongong

edwin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:23:45 +0000

The Video is now out for the 2012 MS 24hr Mega Swim in Wollongong.

You can find the photos here.