Bruny Island - Tasmania - Stunning

I had a chance to go to Bruny Island a few weeks back. Having been to Tasmania more times than I can remember this was a great chance to see a part of the state I had never been to.

Bruny Island is only a short distance from Hobart but because it involves a ferry, boat or plane it (like many island communities) is less popular than the main island, which is also its appeal.

My trip was a quick (overnight) work related one, so it made sense to fly in from Hobart airport on an island hopper.

Bruny is separated into 2 by a narrow "neck" seen above. The airstrip is gravel but these planes are made for them.

Included in this trip was a boat ride around the southern part of the island. It's a rugged coastline and can be very rough. But we had perfect conditions including for dolphins and seals.

What struck me was the variety of scenery. From calm lagoons to crashing waves, sandy beaches to rocky cliffs, farmland to forests - Bruny has a lot to offer and well worth a visit.

Hand luggage needed to include the 1Dx but with weight limitation I only took the 24-70L f2.8 and 70-200L f2.8 and no tripod.

My best 4 shots are here.

This one is is a taster.

Just driving past

We recently did a trip to South Australia. It was one of those occasions where finally you get a chance to do something on your bucket list.

Robe South Australia was on the bucket list and with a spare day of annual leave together with a long weekend we had 4 days. Using our Camps 6 guide we found the bush camping site in Southend so booked ahead.

Nice spot near the beach.

Wanting to drive along the beach we headed off for Robe along the beach and then onto the main highway. Robe is a Noosa wannabe town. Nice but the standard of cafe and shops has a little bit to go.

I found a great spot for taking some pics so while mrs G went shopping I sat trying to capture the waves.

Here's the best one.



But the special pics was on the way back. (Well we went to Kingston SE first)

Ripping down the highway at 110kph we came across this old building marked "ruin" on my GPS map.

Made me feel a little bit like Ken Duncan.

Happy New Year - Melbourne Fireworks

Last night was New Years eve and, coincidentally, our friend's wedding anniversary. So we had a double celebration in Melbourne.

Our friends were married on the water near Victoria harbour so after dinner it seemed fitting to stay and watch the fireworks and to try to get some pics.

I knew a spot that I hoped wasn't well known enough that we should get a great view and be able to park nearby.

So with 10mins to spare before 12:00am we arrived and got setup.

The trick with fireworks is to get the shutter speed right. Too fast and all you get is dots in the sky, too slow and its just a mess. My best shots are between 1 and 5 secs. So a tripod is essential.

Melbourne fireworks are big so a wide angle was also also called for, so I fitted the Canon 16-35mm for the job.

Happy with the results.

Here's a link to the best 5.

... and here's my fav.

New Venture - At The Bay - Accommodation - Coles Bay - Tasmania

Yes I've been a bit quiet on the photo front.

We've been bust working on a new project on the east coast of Tasmania.

So for any readers interested in a Tassie holiday we have a house for holiday renting in Coles Bay.

Check out these links.

Website: www.atthebay.com.au
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AtTheBayColesBay/

We are offering a 20% discount for Feb 2014 (our opening month)
We are taking bookings now.
info@atthebay.com.au

Here's a pic of the local area. A photographer's paradise.

Thanks

Top 9 from Europe / US Trip

Its taken months to work through nearly 2,500 shots from our 6 week trip to Europe and the US. To select and post process them into 5 categories.

1. Memories

2. Showable

3. Mini Card Prints

4. Large Prints

5. Best Work

From a pure photographer's point of view it was not a great trip. Out of the 6 weeks we only had a few days where the lighting was great for landscapes.

But I came away with some very nice images.

The top 9 are here: http://www.vitamirus.me/Holidays/Europe-US

This one is my favourite. This guy was begging in Paris he let me take his photo in return for a contribution.

Handheld HDR with a Canon 1D-X in Europe

I had great anticipation before our recent holiday in Europe of getting some great photos. I did get some pretty good ones (stay tuned for another blog post on that) but often because the sky was overcast the lighting wasn't great for those iconic shots of of the European landscape.

Either the sky was over blow or the subjects would be way under exposed. So time to try HDR. For those new to HDR there is plenty on the web about the what and how of HDR, this blog post is just my first experience, the tools I used and the results.

Let me say from the outset that, as with most things photographic, I'm a newbie. This was really my first crack at HDR, certainly with this body. Constructive comments are welcome.

I have the Canon 1D-X set-up to bracket -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, and 3. So a bracket of 7 shots at 1 stop intervals.

First I import into Aperture and usually do not touch the images - simply export to full sized jpegs. I used Bracketeer to combine the images into a single HDR image. I have to say that there are a lot of knobs and buttons on this software and none of them are very clear. I mainly fiddle with the "Mu" and "Sigma" sliders which change the look of the combined image - a more user friendly interface would be helpful.

What Bracketeer seems to do very well is auto-align the images. I was careful to hold as still as possible taking the shots, and the 1D-X's high ISO performance lets you use higher ISO's so faster shutter speeds but  it is impossible to keep perfect alignment during a 7 shot burst no matter who you are or what gear you have. So Bracketeer get 5 stars for this feature.

Then I import the tiff files back into Aperture. Becuase the lighting was so flat to begin with the HDR images come out pretty flat using Bracketeer. Some HDR software boost saturation as part of the process but Bracketeer doesn't seem to. So on most of the images I bumped saturation, mid-contrast and definition.

The results are pretty good for a first go.

Here's my favorite. And below is a link to all the HDR shots from the trip.

Link to Album

Tasmanian Winter - Absolutely Stunning

We were back in Tassie last weekend. Not something people often think about as a winter getaway destination but Tassie can turn on some fantastic weather in the winter months.

We had less than 24 hours in Coles Bay - But couldn't have stayed for weeks.

I wasn't expecting great photography weather so I was light on gear. Canon 1D-X and a 24-70mm L Lens.

But I managed to snap some great pics.

Here's my favorite.

... and here's a gallery link to 9 of the best.

Gallery Link