There is a real simple reason why I have not posted anything recently – I have not been in the state, let alone the country. Instead I went on my first overseas adventure, travelling to Taiwan for nearly 3 weeks. There is a lot I can say about Taiwan, but instead I will interrupt he Tasmanian Photo blog with some of the more colourful photos taken while I was away.
Please stay tuned.
The photo above is of the Confucius Temple located on the banks of the Lotus Lake in Kaohsiung. One of the things that is really noticeable in Taiwan is the many ornate temples and shrines, many of which are in locations that would outrage most australians – e.g. high-rise buildings right up to the temple – Australians would demand native parkland around such areas.
I must say I am feeling rather pleased with myself. Yesterday was a visit to Mt Field National Park, and the Russell Falls. The Russell falls are deceptively difficult to photograph as when there are significant flows of water air turbulence from the waterfall throws mist forward onto the camera, leaving fine water drops on the lens.
Not today however. Armed with a cloth that I threw over the lens until I was ready, I cast away the cloth and took the photo. The end result a rather decent 1 second exposure of Russell Falls, which can no go with my photos of Lady Barren and Horse Shoe Falls.
The other day I had a short Twitter conversation with that amazing Tasmanian long exposure photographer Alex Wise. Alex was expressing his frustration at how someone had asked him about where he took his photos and then proceeded to visit the sites the make the same photo.
I responded by saying that you cannot copyright a location, otherwise all photographers should give up now for risk of copying another photographer. Alex countered by saying that people should at least bring their own creativity to the location instead of trying to make an exact copy. It’s true and I agree with that too.
Indeed, it was Alex’s photos of Cape DeSlacs that caused my visits to this location and recently another photographer I know recently took a photo in the exact same spot as my photo of Strickland Falls.
However, I hope as was the case for me, that seeing other people’s photos and going to the location is due to inspiration and not replication. I think it all comes down to the intention of the photo you are taking.
Is it unethical to rip off a location if you have asked the photographer where they took the photo and you attempt to repeat it in an attempt to sell it? Most definitely. But if you just want a happy snap, or some art for your wall I really cannot see the harm in it. You’ll never repeat the photo taken by the photographer, because you weren’t at that spot at the same time.
However by ripping off a photo you are only ripping off yourself. As Alex says, be creative with your photo. It’ll mean more to you knowing it is yours.
Meet Banjo. Banjo is a Koala living at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. Run by volunteers, Bonorong is a sanctuary for injured and an orphaned wildlife, established in 1981. I recently have had the opportunity to visit the sanctuary after realising one of my relatives runs the place! I haven’t been there since I was in primary school.
It would appear that the most of the animals there are Kangaroos, Tasmanian Devils and the endangered spotted quoll along with a selection of birds koalas and wombats.
Bonorong relies on donations to keep operating, so please take an opportunity to visit and donate to the sanctuary.
As you may remember, the other night I went out to the Hobart Airport and proceeded to waste my time taking bad photos. Well having sat down and worked out the night when the most flights would be occurring for the week, which to my surprise was the following night. No choice then, back again the next night.
I teamed up with photo buddy Nigel Honey and rode down to the airport in the one and only Kombi Cam, before meeting up with our other friend Iain Best, before arriving at our destination for the evening – the Hobart Airport Control Tower. I was apprehensive the first time I went there the night before – concerned about security, however I was pleased to find that in Hobart at least they are not so uptight about people taking aircraft photos as I thought they would be.
Last night I went out to do some photography with some friends. It was a style of long photography that I have been meaning to look into from some time, but have never had the time and tended to forget about. I am talking about taking photos of planes landing using long exposure techniques in the evening. An excellent example of this work may be found on Flickr.
For me, it was not a very successful night taking photos, and it reminded me that some basic preparation goes a long way.
1. Focus
Click to Enlarge
At night, planes are hard to miss when landing, they have a whopping big headlights on the front that can provide light up a field hundreds metres away. So it was rather annoying that even seeing the plane some 10 mins before it landed that this photo was taken out of focus.
This night I was using 2 lenses, this one was an Canon EF-S 18-135 f4-5.6, and like most “lower end” lenses, it was lacking a focus distance meter. AF does not work at night, there is not enough light for the camera to pick up an edge to focus on. Prior to the plane starting it’s final approach as it was so dark and I was lacking a torch, I could not see to focus manually so took a guess at where infinity was on the MF and shot. I was wrong.
Tip 1: Take a torch, even better a spotlight, that you can use to illuminate what you want to focus on in the photo. Ideally have a friend act as assistant in light coloured clothing, and get them to walk to the area you want to focus on and shine the light on themselves.
Tip 2: Torches are also very handy to find your way on uneven ground at night. I really missed having a torch.
It would seem another weekend, another festival in Tasmania. This weekend saw both the New Norfolk Autumn Festival and the Longford Revival, the previous weekend was the Focus on Franklin, 2 weeks before that was the Taste of the Huon, and I am sure that there will be a heap more festivals in the near future.
Today I was at the festival at New Norfolk to give myself some time to play with my brand spanking new EOS 60D Camera. Whilst I have aspirations of owning a full-frame sensor camera, the 60D is a good compromise given my limited use of camera recently and price.
The Festival itself has been much like many of the counterparts in regional areas – a cross between a limited carnival rides (3 jumping castles in a row? really? thats all sideshow alley rides these days?), special interest group stalls, the usual food vans and a few performance stages.
Despite living in Tasmania all my life, Sunday was the first ever time I visited Bruny Island. It has been something that has been working it’s way up my to-do list, but an opportunity arose for a day trip and so it happened.
Unfortunately the situation I was in did not give me very much time for photography, however I made very sure that I travelled the length of the island to visit the Cape Bruny Lighthouse. Built in 1838 and decommissioned in 1996, it was the oldest continually manned lighthouse in Australia.
Parks and Wildlife Service have some more information about the lighthouse here.
The wooden boat festival was tied in with the Royal Hobart Regatta. As is tradition, on the evening of the public holiday associated with the regatta, there is a fireworks display to mark the end of events.
Usually the best vantage points for the fireworks are by boat, anchored by the regatta grounds, or the surrounding shores opposite. This night while waiting for the fireworks to begin, I found that the iconic landmark of Hobart, Mt Wellington, was beautifully silhouetted against the fading light, so took a few snaps.
