We’re just back from nearly a month Down Under. Friendly people, beautiful scenery, good food. Australia is about as un-foreign as a foreign country can get for an American tourist. Except for the endearing accents and their penchant for driving the wrong way down the road, it felt like we could have been rambling through the States sometime in the mid-70s. Don’t get me wrong. We loved it. We had a great time exploring a small corner of the country: Tasmania, Sydney, Melbourne and the Whitsundays. Tasmania, in particular, will draw me back one day.
This was not a trip designed for photography … just me and Denise traipsing about places we’d never seen before. But I was pleased that I found time here and there to create some images, rather than just taking pictures of what we were seeing as we moved past. On a trip like this, I’ve learned to take spontaneous moments to photograph when they arise, and be content to leave other opportunities behind.
I spent a morning wandering around the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Botanic Garden with my camera in hand. I woke up early to shoot the sunrise and rising tide in the Whitsundays. I found time for photowalks in Hobart and Melbourne, meandering the streets with wide eyes to see what I saw. I grabbed half an hour shooting street candids while waiting to meet up with Denise after she was done shopping (I found her in a café chatting with a newfound friend and enjoying a glass of wine.) I slowed my step to find a bit more time to shoot ferns while hiking through a rainforest as she forged on ahead.
Other times I was content to simply photograph what moved me as I walked past, making do with whatever light was available and working the scene as best as I could in whatever time I had there. And now here I am, jet lag fading away, thousands of images downloaded to my computer. Waiting to be looked at, culled, edited. Silently mocking me. You created this. What are you ever going to do with it?
Time will tell. Stay tuned.
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I traveled fairly light (for me). Just a Fujifilm XPro-3 with a handful of primes (12, 16, 23, 35 and a 60 macro) and a bulkier 70-300 zoom that frequently stayed behind in the hotel room safe. I tried to go out with just one or two lenses at a time, but frequently gave in to my FOMO and threw a few more in the bag. The Fuji 16 f/2 and 23 f/1.4 were my most used lenses by far, with the Zeiss 12/2.8 close behind. (I’ve always loved the 24mm focal length that the 16 provides on a crop sensor, and the compact, lightweight lens fits perfectly on the X-Pro 3, feels great in the hand, and is unobtrusive on the street.)
Fujifilm X-Pro 3,, 70-300 @ 72mm, f/16, 3.2 sec, ISO 160
I had some ideas for long exposures I wanted to make, so I made some room for my Peak Design travel tripod, and picked up a compact set of Kase drop-in ND filters to bring along. The drop-ins are postage-stamp-sized filters that are mounted in a thin plastic frame that goes into the camera behind the lens and in front of the sensor. Easy to carry, no bulky 100mm filters and frames to drag around. It sounded like a great idea, but in practice they were a disaster. Putting a plastic fitting over your sensor in the field with dust (and sand!) blowing around was no fun. When the ND10 broke free from its frame and landed on my sensor as I was shooting the early morning swimmers in Bondi’s Icebergs Pool, I’d had enough. Fortunately, I was able to pick up a set of Nisi screw-in NDs and a few step rings at a camera shop in Sydney -- an expense that allowed me to continue shooting the long exposures I wanted to make … and helped motivate me to make time to do it!
Fujifilm X-Pro 3,, 23mm, f/14, 4 min., ISO 400
While we were spending a few days soaking up the sun in the Whitsundays, I made several early morning trips to a small rocky beach near where we were staying on Hamilton Island. Just offshore were several groupings of rocks that were exposed at low tide early in the morning, but rapidly sunk under water as the tide rose. The whole area would be submerged within a few hours of sunrise, leaving just a thin band of rocks between the water and the edge of the forest. It was a quiet, peaceful place. Soft water lapping, birds chirping, a warm breeze rustling the leaves. I had time to just sit and look, and I was able to find several compositions I quite like. You might recognize this image from a similar one I posted on Instagram. This frame was captured a bit earlier, when more of the rocks showed above the tide. I used a 4-minute exposure to accentuate the movement of the clouds, while providing an ethereal glow to the waters quietly rising around the rocks. For me, the image captures the serenity and the magic of early mornings at that spot.
I made the image at the top of this post from an overlook on the Great Ocean Road (in Victoria, outside Melbourne) on the last full day of our trip. We had joined a small group overnight tour that was making frequent quick stops at various overlooks and points of interest along the road, but rarely with enough time or good light to make an interesting photograph. The Twelve Apostles overlook, where the image was made, is a very well-known and photographed site along the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria. I knew we would be hitting it early in the day when the light was still on the stacks, so I planned to take a bit more time there whether the guide wanted me to or not (it ended up being fine). I walked quickly down the path and managed to get set up while the sun was still creating shadows of the cliffs on the sand, and quickly hit upon a 2-minute exposure as providing the right balance of sharpness and softness to capture the awe and mystery I felt as I looked out over the scene. My image may not be that unique taken as it was from a well-traveled vantage point, but I was glad to have been able to make it. (Next time I think I’ll drive myself and show up at night!)
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If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw some of the pictures I posted during the trip. In the past, I’ve never found much time to look at images while I travel. I’ve always admired the bloggers and vloggers who find the time each day while traveling to post something about their trip as it happens. An image or two. A few words reflecting on how they are feeling or what they’re doing, and why. Where do they find the time? Do they ever sleep? I could never do that. Or could I?
So on this trip I tried to download images to my laptop every day or two and see if I could find a few to quickly edit and share. While I can’t say I spent enough time selecting or editing the images I posted, at least it was a start. Some of the images I posted I quite like, others were simply just good enough (or not). That I found time to post a picture a day on this trip motivates me to make more time on the next trip to do the same, to do it better, and perhaps to add a few words along the way. Baby steps. First you gotta crawl.
