Russell Falls

My trip to the Mt Field National park was very enjoyable. I met up with another photographer from the Photo forum, Tim. We had some fun taking shots and shared the gruelling task of a long day of walking.

It was a beautiful spring day and the Waterfalls were spectacular. I never realised how big the Russell Falls actually were until I witnessed them up close. The flow of water was down a little but there was still plenty to admire, especially on the top portion of the falls.

It's a gentle walk to the bottom of the Russell Falls from the visitors centre. The track then kicks up step to the top where the track continues to the Horse Shoe Falls. The sun was too harsh to get a good shot of the Horse Shoe Falls.

The Lady Barron Falls can be reached from here by following a long track. The reduced flow of water and harsh sunlight made these falls hard to photograph, but well worth the effort to see. The walk back to the Visitors centre was flat along side the river until the track suddenly stopped and headed up a huge set of stairs. Thankfully the builders provided some seats at different levels of the climb. It was a long way to the top!

Russell Falls - from the observation deck.


Russell Falls - from higher up the track in Infrared. (Well worth the walk!)


More images from the Mt Field area and the Russell Falls can be found here.

I've also been hooked by HDR (High Dynamic Range) over the weekend. (Thanks Jen!) I have been playing around with a program called Photomatix. This is one of the many creations I've come up with so far.

Strahan - HDR


More of my HDR images can be found here.

Getting Warmer

It's starting to warm up here in Tasmania! Yesterday it got to 29 degrees Celsius (approx 84 degrees Fahrenheit) and today it made it above 31 (approx 88). I can't imagine how hot it will be when summer actually gets here.

I haven't been out to take any photos of late but I'm looking forward to getting out this weekend. I have a trip planned to the Mt Field National Park, located in the south of Tasmania. The picturesque Russell Falls are located in the park as well as the Horseshoe Falls and Lady Barron Falls. Hopefully I can get some good shots while I'm there.

Sportsman Cup Finished!

Well, after a long night of processing I managed to finish my entire back-log of images from the go karts! I now have galleries for the Masport Cup, Sportsman Cup and the Tasmanian State Titles on my web site. You can follow the links to each of them.



Don't forget the new price list! Prices have been reduced on all print sizes! Photos make excellent gifts, so make sure you get your orders in soon to ensure they arrive before Christmas.

JD and Holden

While at golf yesterday we had the Jack Daniels racing team promotional truck in the car park. It was part of the promotion of the next round of the V8 super cars, being held next weekend at Symmons Plains.

I had the Junior club champion in my group and I offered to get his photo taken with the JD girl after we finished the round. Here are a couple of the photos.

Price Drop for Christmas!

With Christmas approaching fast I thought a price reduction would be in order!

For a current list of prices click here.

Place your orders soon to ensure delivery before the holidays.

Evercreech

We had a public holiday Monday and I used the time to photograph some landscapes. I headed to a place called Evercreech, situated in the Fingal forest. I had planned to visit the Mathinna Falls area, four separate falls in the chain. But there was a fallen tree across the road, so I ended up at Evercreech.

The area is very nice, A real slice of paradise! I played in the rivers taking photos and made the walk into the Evercreech waterfall. I got some nice images from the day! I also got a couple of leeches, the little buggers!



More images can be found here.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

As the title says, I've been busy these last couple of months. My day job has been flat out with work which has been taking up a lot of my time.

Three things have kept me busy. Work is the first thing. Photographing the Masport Cup, Sportsman Cup and the Tassie State Kart Titles is the second thing thats kept me busy. The third is processing all the images from those events, thats taken a lot of time!!

I finally finished all the images from the state titles and they can be found on my website. 2007 Tassie State Titles



Now that I've finished the State title images I can focus on the Sportsman Cup. I got some good shots from that day and hope to have them finished as soon as possible.

The week that was.

It's been a while since my last update so I'll try to get things up to date.

On the last weekend of August I went for a short holiday to the West Coast of Tasmania. In particular the area around Strahan. I don't have any images ready to show yet, but I't wasn't the greatest trip for photography anyway.

It's winter here at the moment and I hoped to get some shots of snow covered mountains and fields. I drove over Cradle Mountain on my way to Strahan. Normally the highland areas would be covered in beautiful snow at this time, but not this year. I was very disappointed in the lack of snow! The only snow I could see was at the very top of the highest peaks.

As I continued towards the coast the weather became worse. Not unusual for this area. Day one was overcast, cold and windy. Day two was overcast, raining and windy. On day three I was heading home and of course the sun came out.... Typical!

I did get some nice images at various times but they could have been better if the weather had co-operated a little. One of the biggest disappointments of the trip was the fact that most activities in the area were shut down for the winter. I would've liked to cruise the harbour and Gordon river, but they only had one boat in operation and it was fully booked. I was interested in taking a plane or a helicopter trip to take photos, but they were closed for the winter.

The first night in Strahan summed up the entire trip. I was returning from Ocean beach after the sunset, around 6.30 - 7pm. I was tried from all the travelling of the day so I stopped at a local take away shop to get dinner, I think it was called "Azza's take away". I was hoping for a burger and chips, I placed my order at the counter and was told "we're out of burgers"! Disappointed, I looked at the menu and asked for a steak sandwich and chips, the reply "we're out of bread"! I was amazed at this response. Sure it was getting late, it was the off peak season for tourists, but who runs out of these things when your business is to provide these things?

In the end I was too tired to argue so I had soggy chips for dinner.

Don't get me wrong, I would certainly go back there but it would be in the peak travel time. Maybe in the summer.

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The Lunar Eclipse on the 28th of August was spectacular! I had never witnessed such an event before (I've lived a sheltered life ;) ).

A friend and I set-up in the driveway of the Roberts Stock Yard just past Symmons Plains raceway. While it wasn't a long way from the main road it was about 20 minutes from Launceston and very good place to view such an event.

My Panasonic FZ-30 took most of the eclipse images because it had the largest zoom (approximately 714mm with the tele-converter attached). I used my D80 for long exposures of the stars and an eclipse trail.





My friend had two cameras on the go as well but only had success with the smaller of the two. The other camera he was using was a old film SLR with a 500mm lens, unfortunately he didn't load the film correctly. While he remembered to wind the film on for each shot the film didn't actually move. He hasn't got the film developed yet but I would guess that the frame is a little over exposed. :)

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Tasmania was host to a round of the Shannon's Nationals this last weekend (Motor racing). I ventured out on the Saturday to take some shots and was very pleased with the results. This is the third time I've photographed a motor sport event and I think I'm slowly getting better. With the help of the D80's continuous focus I managed to capture some much sharper images than I had with the Panasonic. I still need to work on my panning technique but that will get better the more I do it.





I've been shooting in RAW ever since I got the D80 and I really like the options it gives me when processing. It is a bit slower than just using Jpeg's but the end result is much better.

Lilydale Falls

Took a drive to Lilydale, just north of Launceston, today. I wanted to have a look at the waterfalls there and get some photos of them. There are two falls, the Upper and the Lower Lilydale falls. The Lower falls has the largest drop but the Upper falls are just as beautiful.

Situated in the Lilydale falls reserve, about 1.5km's from the town centre. The falls are only a ten minute walk from the car park. The track is well maintained and easy to follow. After a short uphill walk you come to a fork in the track. Going left will take you to the Upper falls, the right goes down to the Lower falls.

Upper Falls


Lower Falls


More images can be seen on my website - Colblue Photography
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On the way back home I took the scenic route (had no real idea where I was going). I took a couple different roads and finally found myself on a dirt road. I was going fairly slow and as I came over the top of a rise I had to suddenly brake.

There in the middle of the road was a group of Turkeys (called a "rafter"). They slowly moved out of the way and no one was any worse for ware.

It's not something I see every day! :)

Life moves on!

I would like to introduce two of my cousins!

My 4th cousin Jessie turned 18 last friday, I took a couple photos for her. It's amazing how fast she grew up!

Here she is with her mother. (bit of a family resemblance)


I also got to meet the newest member of the family the other week. Technically he is my 1st cousin once removed, but I'm claiming him as my nephew!

Ryan (5 weeks old).


He's an adorable little baby (good looks run in the family!). :)

First post!

The first post of my new Blog!

A sad way to start, but its also a way to honour a great man. Today my family and I buried my Grandfather, Ira George Glenn Butterworth (May 23rd 1925 - August 3rd 2007).

He was more than just a Grandfather to me he was also my Father figure. He has helped shape my life and the way I was raised. Excluding my Mother he has had the most influence in my life. He introduced me to many sports, in particular Golf! He also got me interested in Photography which I now enjoy immensely.


The service was simple and wasn't religious (the way he would like it).

The family wrote the eulogy and was expanded on and delivered exceptionally well by the celebrant, Peter Berends.

Ira was born on May 23, 1925.
He grew up in Mowbray with his mother and grandparents.

He loved swimming and shooting with his cousin George and competition bike riding with his mates.

He worked for a short time at the Examiner Newspaper as a proof reader before commencing work at Australia Post (then known as the PMG) in 1940 as a telegraph messenger, progressing to supervisor of the mail room before retirement.

Ira enlisted in the Army in 1943 serving in New Guinea in the 24th Battalion 2nd A.I.F.

After the War he returned to the Post Office, met and fell in love with Gwendoline Carpenter who he married on 22nd January, 1949. Together Ira and Gwen built their home at Walkers Avenue where they happily lived for 58 years of marriage.
Their first child, Greg, was born in 1950 and Anita came along in 1951. Ira has 2 grandchildren, Colin and Jasmyn and a great grandson, Ryan.

He took up playing golf in late 1960 playing at the Mowbray Golf Club where he won many chooks. He encouraged Gwen to join in early 70’s and Colin in the 80’s.

After over 40 years he retired from the Post Office and he and Gwen travelled around Tasmania and the mainland playing on over 100 courses.

Whenever they were away the family wondered what mishaps would occur such as the time they caught the train in North Sydney to the end of the line, reboarded for the return trip only to find the train went backwards ending up at the shunting yard 5 kms away.

On another trip they stayed at a multi-storey complex. While Gwen was preparing tea Ira went to the local RSL Club to play the pokies. On return he found he couldn’t get in through the security door so he walked back to the RSL, 1km away and rang Anita in Launceston who rang her mum in Sydney to get her to go down 12 floors to let him in. As Gwen travelled down in 1 lift she heard Ira talking as he was going up in the other lift – someone else had let him into the building.

But the mishaps weren’t confined to their trips away like the time he was late for his game at the Mowbray Golf Club and he rushed down to the 10th Tee on his 3 wheeled golf bike, he hopped off and raced to the Tee forgetting to take the bike out of gear. Hearing his mates yell he turned to see his bike disappearing into the Dam. Ira stripped off into his undies and went in after it then wheeled it back to the clubhouse much to the amusement of all who saw him and many wolf whistles and jokes. It was also lucky it was one of the rare days he was wearing underpants.

Ira will be remembered as an easy going, happy bloke who loved his family dearly. He also loved his pet dogs. Once when Gwen, Greg and Anita were on holidays Anita’s pet pug Tiny helped himself to Ira’s beer which was sitting on the table near him becoming quiet legless. Over the years Ira often laughed and joked about our beer drinking pug.

Ira was a great man, wonderful husband, father and grandfather and friend to all. He will be sadly missed!