I revisited the location of the Blast Furnace at Lithgow. Nearby was a newly established wetlands area. Several varieties of birdlife can be seen. Otherwise, its a mining town and on days like today looking a bit drab and ordinary. Lack of trees in the area doesn't help. Still, there is something to be seen everywhere if you look. One of the wetlands lakes threw up this image below. Due to water movement the reflection was quite 'musical'.
Beauty of rocks
Queenstown is one of the most desolate environments you might encounter driving around Tasmania. Not because of its isolation or lack of trees (well, not entirely). It has been a mining town for many years - being described sometimes as a cratered moonscape. Yet it has provided me with one of my favourite rock images. I used a fairly long telephoto to capture the detail of the quarry face against the green water which fills one of the craters. Colours and texture are superb.
Blast of cold
Cold weather has struck again this year spreading along the eastern part of Australia bringing with it a much awaited snowfall. Outside of the ski areas we don't get snow that often so when it does come we make the most of it. A day trip to Oberon provided some good photo ops. The land is transformed. Amazing what a little white added to the green can produce.
Blast furnace
The town of Lithgow near the Blue Mountains was well known in the early nineteen hundreds for the production of iron. Adjacent to the township is the Blast Furnace, once a big employer now ruins. This scrap of iron may have sat here for a century symbolic of the towns former glory.
3 cows
3 cows going somewhere - Cox's River Road. The site of a previous blog post with a single tree. I enjoy photographing in this area because of the variety in the landscape.
Cooling down
This afternoon I would have said if you take into account the wind chill factor, it must have been zero looking out into the valley. The wind was blowing a gale and it was a little difficult keeping the camera steady. It doesn't really show in this shot but the wind was coming in gusts and moving the waterfall around a bit. I like this image in b&w but have left it in colour here. Plenty of detail to be seen.
On a musical note
Last Friday as it turns out I ended up covering a 'concert' at Lizotte's in Dee Why. Some remarkable talent there including my good friend Sam McNally (keyboards). While taking shots from the floor, one of the audience leaned over towards me and said "I can believe they have given us so many good acts in one night". That pretty much reflected the views of everyone in what was a full house. Here are some shots from the night. There are plenty more on my FB page.
A standing ovation and rightly so for Diana Rouvas. See the vid. on my FB page.
Doug Williams - you legend!
Craig Calhoun - funkmeister
Dave Weir
Rick Robertson
Elephant in Mt Hay
Amazing what can turn up in front of you... at a certain angle this rock face manifested an elephant's head with what appears to be broken tusks and ear. Incredibly the ear has such a similar texture as you might find on a real elephant - veins etc. I saw the complete picture after noticing an eye structure in the rock. Serendipity or some such thing.
Rock formations
The combination of wind, water and rocks can make for interesting 'artworks' in nature. These are a couple of images from Mt Hay Rd. The first image strikes me as having a hint of graffiti tags and more ancient rock drawings.
In a creek
Here in the mountains we are currently inundated with rain and not insignificantly, wind gusts taking down trees loosened by all the water. Winter seems to have taken hold now with daytime temps around 6-7°c. But its autumn! Looks like there will be plenty of changes of season images to record. Before all this I started on a video for a friend who a Qigong teacher. The location was near a stream which runs through a large property in nearby Leura - a day or two before the rain.
Grand Canyon, Blue Mountains
Nothing like its namesake - all wet and green here. Plenty of steps for most of the way. There was more to travel but three hours was enough for this mini trek with camera and tripod. This shot was very reminiscent of Lord of the Rings territory - two old trees forming a gateway for a worn path through the forest.
Student on bike - Rome
This shot was taken in the morning with rather soft and pleasant lighting. This person was riding up the hill towards a cathedral. Maybe he was a student or member of the clergy since he was headed in that direction. The fairly strong but subtle colour of the wall in the morning light together with the obvious lack of traffic in the middle of the city gave this scene a memorable presence for me.
A break from landscape
A short stay in Rome around 2007 gave me a variety of images. Not so much landcsape understandably as I was in the city most of the time. Some details escape me now but this couple sat between stone columns of a church chatting. Who knows the topic but the old granite (if that's what they are) columns would have their own story. Inscriptions from the modern era are visible. The younger generation seem to want to leave their mark everywhere. More to come from Europe soon.
Arthur River
A recent conversion to black & white. The coastline around Arthur River remains for me one of the most interesting parts of Tasmania. A late evening long exposure (f4.0, 58mm, 6 sec, ISO 64) softened the water and provided the detail in the surrounding rocks. The rounded rocks in the mid distance are slightly rounded in appearance giving a momentary illusion of sea life.
Another example of exotic rock formations.
Mad Tree Disease
A return trip to New Norfolk, Tasmania made this image available. Fortunate placement of the cow. Note: To make a comment on any post, you will need to click on the title of individual posts.
Power station towers
These type of photos are often shown as b&w to accentuate their abstract nature. However, large objects in pastel colours also make interesting photographic subjects. Taken at Wallerawang just outside of Lithgow. Middle of the day in bright sunshine - not generally what is required but in this case adding to the result.
Crop it?
One of the considerations in presenting an image and this is part of the PP, is whether an image should be cropped or not. In this example, these flowers are clearly the subject of the shot. As such you might consider this image as having unnecessary background. However the background in this shot contributes to the overall appeal of the image in my opinion. It reminds meal of a meal served on a beautiful plate that adds to the visual appeal. Too much cropping and the image can't breathe. Too little and the image floats around.
More atmosphere
A continuation of the weather this afternoon ie, more clouds and interesting atmospheric conditions. Now you see it, now you don't - except if you catch it in between!
The dense air creates a 'thickness' in the scene. Even though clouds are prevalent, a low level mist colours the background skies. A little light throws highlights on the escarpment.
Sunlight pierces the cloud cover further towards the west.
Lion's head? Close up version of a photo from yesterday's blog under different lighting conditions.
Elsewhere on the mountainside, a rusted out car becomes visible after the bushland is 'cleared' by a fire.
Support pillar in shelter near Katoomba Falls.
Change of weather
A very warm day yesterday but predictably the clouds rolled in over the valley later in the afternoon. This shot was taken from Narrow Neck which was soon enveloped in cloud cover.
20 minutes before - taken from Cahills Lookout, scene of bushfires in November 2014. This angle could be shot thanks to fires burning away the undergrowth and foliage allowing access to lower areas.
Unremarkable
How often do we venture out as photographers to capture a beautiful scene? As it happened the day I shot this image was also the same day an earlier photo was taken with dramatic cloud formation and featuring another tree. Firey skies and black clouds are striking in their impact. This is not one of those photos. It is however a simple exercise in relationships and tones with a helpful diagonal element thrown in (cloud base). The dark tree form is rooted in the solid (also dark) base. The light cloud form above also benefits and is shown up by the darker sky. The tree is also slightly slanted away from the cloud at the top which is 'moving' from left to right of the frame. The tree may be catching a low flying darker cloud (what has this guy been smoking!). It is Friday afternoon....
One more thing on format. Some time ago a photo magazine publisher had a podcast on image format of a newer camera he was using. In particular he pointed out how he was quite taken by the 16 x 9 format it offered him (he could selected that crop factor in the camera menu). He concluded that since becoming used to that format, other crop factors seemed... not quite right. The crop factor of the above image is 4 x 3. The photo wasn't copped afterwards, it was taken like this. Neither are right or wrong. Both can be powerful. Some people never stray from the square.