A four hour forest walk

I’ve really enjoyed coming here over the years. Although its only 10 minutes off the main road that goes through the Blue Mountains, you can, as I did only come across one other person the whole day. I don’t live here anymore so the trip isn’t as predictable as it used to be. Weather forecasts can’t be relied on…

A lot can change over time and this area was strewn with fallen trees and likely subject to some flooding. Nevertheless there were cool little spots for testing a Zeiss 18mm f3.5 lens (on a Sony A7RIII). Some superwide lenses with leave you with stretched corners which I find particularly unpleasant and distracting in a landscape scene. Not to mention very difficult to correct in post. Most photographers don’t seem to even bother. The photo below as with others in this blog were edited with the ‘auto’ selection and ‘Adobe landscape’ profile in Camera Raw. I found I had to reduce the saturation a little though. For the most part they were shot at f11. Although I focus stacked many of them I can’t see the necessity of using the other exposures.

It was overcast for most of the day so exposures were upto a couple of seconds. For these a tripod was used of course. I’ve gotten used to working with manual lenses and not having much info at my disposal. I don’t find it matters much although I don’t always remember which lens was used. On this day though - was the Zeiss 18mm and another piece of Zeiss glass which doubles as an excellent close up lens - 35mm f 2.4 Flektogon. The reason I like traveling to this location is that all these features were within a 500metre radius.

BTW, I would have moved this log resting on the tree root if it wasn’t so heavyand quite long.

This one is quite bizzare…

Black & white coastal

I would usually swim here but a combination yesterday’s weather and timing made it a little impractical. What’s only partially visible but not obvious is the wind that was blowing. It was moving the sand over the surface of the beach and created a wavy effect just in front of the shoreline. Combined with the stormy clouds above and two sand mounds in the foreground it provided quite a good multi toned b&w image.

A longer view of the beach with sand drift lines drawing the vision into the frame. An ND filter would have been useful for these two images to slightly blur the breaking waves but a long exposure wasn’t really possible under these conditions - even if I had a tripod handy.

Below, a colour shot for context.

Second bite at the cherry...

Returning to Cradle Mountain in Tasmania during a sudden snow dump was a welcome break from some pretty hard physical labour on a farm. Sliding around on the road enroute to the National Park due to ice on the road combined with shortness of available time heightened the senses. I’d been there about a week earlier in bright sunshine. Seeing it now transformed in white was a real treat.

Lugging around a big camera bag with all available lens options was not an appealing one. So, it was one lens in the pocket and one on the camera. I even thought I would leave the tripod in the car and make the most of high ISOs. Not a great option if you’re looking for near and far focus matching sharp images at small apertures or even considering a portfolio effort. Anyway, here are some of those images with more from others destinations.

All these images were taken just outside the entry to the NP. There are a few good walks and these are within 20mins of the car park. Of course a 20 minute walk quickly turns into 2 hours if your stopping frequently, changing lenses (and cleaning of moisture) and setting up a tripod. Most of these shots were done holding an umbrella (rain variety). River shots were from Pencil Pine walk and others from King Billy Pines walk.

The below image is my ‘could’ve been’ shot which I ended up taking with an iPhone. The blown highlight my punishment for not packing a 50mm or 85mm lens.

So, have I learnt my lesson? Yes. I recently acquired a smaller camera bag - a Lowepro Backpack Lightweight Sporty Lowepro Tahoe BP 150. Lightweight alright. Some might say flimsy. You don’t get much for $80. Still it’ll do the job for now. An extra 3-4 lenses with relatively easy access. I’m not really complaining.

The above shot is of one of those places you drive past and notice out of the corner of your eye. But there’s no place to stop and there is a line of cars behind you. I’ve been there before. Not this time. Turn around after stopping and head back. Wandered around for an hour. Even got access via a gate. It was a wetland area.

Early morning shot from a bridge somewhere near Campbell Town. Probably the South Esk River. All things considered I think Tasmania is Australia’s most beautiful state. Plenty of these beautiful scenes all within reach of a day’s travel.

Can’t say I know what’s going on here. This is an iPad shot taken quickly from a bridge on the way to St Helens.

A black and white conversion that works for me. Another ‘stop down the road, turn around and come back’ shot.

Not much interesting lighting but still a great experience. If I’m not mistaken - the Meander River on the way to Liffey Falls.

Tree roots, Liffey rainforest. I haven’t mentioned thus far that this was my first real outing with the CZ 20mm F4.

I’m pretty satisfied with its performance along with the rest of the CZ lenses. They’re all manual lenses - for the most part its not a big deal especially with landscape photography. Being f4 hardly matters either. Nearly all shots are f8 and above. Sadly my prize 50mm Pancolar has developed some sticky aperture blades and so stayed at home for this trip. Relegated for the moment to portrait shots at around f2.8.