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.
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. :)
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.
