Sometimes simple is good

I have to say that so far on this trip I have valued the convenience of the iPad with which all these i photos were taken. At the time of taking the images I had a backpack with the 5D Mark II and three lenses but I found that due to shortage of time it was much easier to move around and take as many shots as needed with the iPad. I may yet regret this decision as in the past I’ve always wanted a larger hi-res image to use as required - in fact I left my little Olympus at home which probably could’ve done the job with a 24 to 70 lens equivalent. Yes I do make larger size images and canvases and prints but I also considered the subject matter. For me the main use will be web and I may publish a small book. I am interested to see how the images work in print. It’s just so convenient I’ll have to see the results and make a decision.

Imagine if…

You had to walk through an art gallery every day to get to work. Art Gallery actually describes the nature of Moscow underground Metro system. The variety is amazing Its reminiscent of some of the temples in India and some of the cathedrals in Europe combined with paintings and mosaics by great artists.

Moscow musings and photos

I’m hoping to put up a number of images while traveling. This is my last day in Moscow where I covered the underground train system (metro). Not exhaustively but with the time I had available. It was an eye opening experience. There are many ideas to express but I’m starting out with a sample image. A little more organisation is required before uploading more from the project.

Moscow metro station

Peacocks and monkeys...

the question could be - what animal looks as beautiful from behind as it does from the front? Well close to it anyway. Beautiful deep tones and feather formation from the peacocks wandering around near Cataract Gorge in Launceston. In the city itself, Macaque monkeys donated By Japan. you can see them in photographs of Japan sitting in hot spring baths in the snow. I’d rather see them in the wild myself. They kept themselves entertained but no substitute for a natural environment.

Cradle mountain in the snow

You don’t expect snow in the last month of spring. I’ve photographed at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania many times, even in winter but this is the first time it snowed here. Pretty lucky for a 3 week window at this time of year. There were 2 straight days but it didn’t settle on the first though the weather was dramatic - windy, rainy, sleety, snowy. From photography viewpoint I love the mixture of monochrome and colour in the same shot. This region also has beautiful, deep yellows and browns that stand out nicely against the snow. I haven’t uploaded and portrait oriented shots due to the software distorting them. Nevertheless, there’s a good selection for the moment. 

Around the coast of Tasmania

I’ve been lucky enough over the past few years to travel around Tasmania. The coast has been a source of many productive photo ops. A geologist’s dream  you could say. When viewed in passing from the roadside it doesn’t look like much ad so a lot of places can easily remain unvisited by photographers unless you know what to look for. Anyway, here’s another batch of images from the north and west coast taken this year.

 

View from ‘home’

Well, home away from home anyway. About 5 kms from Mt Roland as the crow flies. From here you can observe a multitude of moods as the weather changes, which it does here a lot. A few days back we were treated to a decent snow fall at Cradle Mountain, about 40 kms from here. A circuit of Dove lake there took 5 hours. If we weren’t so absorbed in photography it would be close to 2 hours. Snow in November is not usual, so it was quite a treat witnessing the transformation of the landscape. Tasmania has plenty of places worth visiting and with relatively easy accessibility given the small size of the island. Mountainous regions, rainforests, lakes and a beautiful coastline packed with features.

 

Late afternoon - Mt Roland

I should mention something about the camera’s performance in the wet. I only brought one camera on this trip - the Olympus em5 MKII. For most of the shots I used the 12-40mm f2.8 lens. Longer shots were taken with the 40-150mm f2.8 with a 1.4x extender. I had the camera out the whiole time for the 5 hr walk. For the first day ( we went twice for approx the same time each day), it snowed and rained of and on. I shot hundreds of images in these conditions without much concern. Only on the last part of the walk on day two did I start to worry about the effects of the weather. The small lens began to fog up. I tried drying it with the car a/c with seemed to work but through the viewfinder the image was not clear. After an overnight session by the fire, the next day it was back to normal and no problems since then. Given the amount of moisture it had to endure I’m pretty happy with its performance and I kind of expect it from any half decent camera these days. The images also are first class and I expect to print several 1 metre canvases on return.