April 2008 Archives

As a team member in Tasmania, trying to follow the activities of 24 photographers shooting over ten days could make one downright mad. One was likely to just get the crazy stories in bits and pieces - or hope to see an image or two. But of all of the photographers, what Bruce Dale was up to each day was the most mysterious to me. Bruce, long time national Geographic staff photographer (30 plus years I understand!), would dissolve each day into the Tasmanian landscape, to return at night with an impressive breadth of subjects. Not only did Bruce have stunning landscape images, but also intimate and rich visual stories of the people of Tasmania: A pirate wedding Bruce was invited to for example, or the slaughter of a pig - subjects only obtainable to photographers with the master key to all of the proverbial doors a photojournalist might want to enter! Bruce has put together a Lightroom gallery showing a bit of what he was up to in Tasmania, and it is stunning to say the least. The gallery shows off a bit of the photographic and journalistic skills a rich and full career at National Geographic can cultivate. You need to check it out! After seeing the gallery, I even more sorely regret not trying to tag along with Bruce like young grasshopper on one of his deep Tasmania day missions to learn what I could!

Tasmania is blessed with some of the cleanest air in the world, manic weather, and rugged topography - all nice ingredients for photographing wonderful sunrises and sunsets. And everyone loves a beautiful sunrise and sunset!

Is it possible to be homesick for a place that isn't home? As I sat on a plane returning to San Francisco from the island of Tasmania, I realized that I was experiencing the Frank Sinatra song in reverse. I'd left my heart in this land of magical forests, exotic wildlife and - more importantly - extraordinary people. In all my travels, I have never felt so safe, welcome, comforted and embraced. The Tasmanian people accepted me without....

Here's a nice piece on Angela that appears on Photoshop TV. She talks about the first Adventure. Visit Photoshop TV to see the piece!...

Philip Andrews managed to wrangle all photographers who visited Marakoopa cave in Mole Creek Karst National Park together and created this great image (click to enlarge). Photo: Philip Andrews The enormous crystals and stalactites are breathtaking; bring a wide lens....

I'm sitting in the Qantas lounge in Sydney, waiting for my flight back to the States. Peter Krogh, Bruce Dale and I spent an extra few days here doing workshops on Lightroom, Digital Asset Management, and Panoramas for the...

Last night Ian Wallace was awarded the prestigious 'Epson AIPP Tasmanian Professional Photographer of the Year Award'. Congratulations Ian! Two of the images were created on the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Adventure....

Last night, at the Henry Jones Art Hotel here in Hobart, hundreds of people showed up and we raised over $7,000 for the Save the Tasmanian Devil fund by selling the beautifully printed Epson prints we made on the trip....

Today we've been frantic getting our prints ready for the auction tomorrow evening in Hobart, My "birdcage' series is still a work in progress as I'm about to add more extra bits to it, and I've attached an image here...

Up early to capture THAT sunrise, the one with the fantastic colours and vibrancy and awe and amazement - rain and mist met us and it wasn't quite the colour sensation I had hoped for but I still enjoyed the...

Lightroom Adventure Gallery 1 Lightroom Adventure Gallery 2 Team Photographers at Work Mikkel Aaland: Romantic Tasmania Mikkel_Aaland: Site Inspection Trip Melissa Gaul: Hobart Area Melissa Gaul: Tombstones Marcus Bell Jeff Pflueger Catherine Hall Robert Edwards Charlie Cramer Winston Hendrickson Bruce Dale

Here's a production still from yesterday. We found this beautiful place in some old growth rain forrest, and Maki did an installment in her Makirama series. I was running camera for her - pushing the button when she was ready....

Philosophical discussions often arise when you lock a bunch of photographers in the same space. The debate on where digital is manipulating the truth or simply artistic expression, or both, came up with Winston, Leo, Charlie and Peter Krogh. Based...

Lightroom is capable of much more than just organizing and developing a whole slew of images. It's really easy to create and post beautifully designed web galleries. We are presenting our images from the adventure in a variety of ways, including posting them to Digital Railroad. Click here to go to a page web gallery links and web galleries created using the Lightroom Web module.

Here are some galleries created by Melissa Gaul (Lightroom engineer). Pictures I like from our days in the Hobart area. - This is a collection of tombstones from the Isle of the Dead in Port Arthur. Taken using a Lensbaby...

I've been experimenting with the Lensbaby 3G, I've never used one before and have managed to turn Tasmania into a Toy Town!!! Not intentionally I have to say and my trials and experiments continue..........

Years ago, when I was illustrating a book on Shinto, the Japanese religion, I came up with a photographic style I called Sumi-e after the black ink, gestural art painting technique. This was long before Photoshop, and I used a...

I'm posting this for Charlie: I've spend several days now at Mt. Field National Park. The trail to Russell Falls is an attraction in itself, lined with tree ferns, which are found only in Australia. These are like short trees...with...

I made a little movie before I left showing what's in the camera bag. Enjoy....

I've made a quick video tutorial of how I adjusted this image. Enjoy...

Finally I'm up and running with the blog and buzzing!!! We've just got back from an early morning sunrise shoot at Mt Wellington, (of course the Sydney boys brought the rain with them and our plans were some what scuppered!!!)...

I had a great drive around Bruny Island yesterday with Bruce Dale, Leo Laporte and Winston Hendrickson. We ran across this vineyard, (GPS) and I loved the graphic quality of the nets covering the grapes. While Winston looks lilliputian in...

Tassie offers some amazing scenery and diverse environments to photograph. Charlie Cramer made many great images today including some ferns. Hopefully you'll get to see it on the blog! Here fellow Adventurers are admiring his work. I've made a Lightroom...

At the top of the page here it says that we are down here "Overcoming The Challenges of Technology" Back when I was shooting film, “overcoming challenges in technology” was actually pretty unpleasant; One challenge, for example, was how do...

Hello all... After working in over 75 countries, on the very first day of April, I arrived in Australia for the very first time (I save the best countries for last)... and I am writing my very first BLOG. What...

I got out on a little drive today, and saw some of the beauty that Hobart has to offer. In about a half an hour, you can be at the top of Mt. Wellington, where you can channel your...

Here's a photo of a beautiful little church in Hobart. I've tagged the image with GPS coordinates, so that you can se exactly where it is. If you click on the link below, you'll see where the photo was taken....

Leo Laporte put together an awesome video from day one of the adventure featuring the photography and first day antics of Bruce Dale, Peter Krogh, Jackie King, and me. Check it out. Nice work Leo!...