Revisiting The Island Of Tasmania

In the year 2000, just after finishing primary school, my mum drove my brother and I down to Tasmania to live for a year. Fifteen years later, mum asked me to join her on a twelve day road trip around the island state. Knowing me, I was riddled with a cold within two days, sneezing my brains out, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

While a beautiful place, I found it quite isolating at times, especially when we drove out to Gordon Dam and back. There was probably less than five cars on that road for over an hour of driving, along with the gloomy weather.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Breakfast, Guards Of May, More Breakfast

This morning I caught up with Hannah and we both decided to start saving and planning for a New Zealand adventure late next year, including a multi-day hike such as the well known Routeburn track. It's great to finally have that amazing beautiful country in the calendar.

My good mate and hiking buddy Dash and I have been venturing into the realm of camping and backpacking, with the aim of eventually doing these multi-day treks through the wilderness. The next steps are to look for a suitable hiking tent and backpack and dive right in with some local overnighters. It's exciting realising something you've always thought of doing.

Then with the launch of their debut album, I went to The Zoo to see Guards Of May play. I love these guys, not because I used to be in the band but because they have done such an amazing job with the album and their recent growth in the local music industry. I'm proud of the level of musicianship they adhere to and the quality of their productions.

Tom and Jimmy (bass player)

The added benefit of being a former player with the band is sneaking in through the back door and hanging out with everyone. After the show we all went out for more drinks. Needless to say I'm feeling jet lagged this afternoon.

Richie (singer) and I

I was actually blown away with their performance. It had been a while since I'd seen them and even with Richie having a cold, they absolutely nailed it and I was laughing with joy at how professional and impressive their performance is becoming.

The next morning after about two hours sleep, I went off for breakfast with Simon, Stevee, Hannah and the little bundle of joy which is Ocean, Simon's son.

He is the most adorable, happy little guy I've ever seen.

Mount Tibrogargan Summit

This morning with Ben and my sister Hannah, I climbed the mountain that I've driven past since I was a child, yet never thought I would end up climbing. Mount Tibrogargan is a dangerous mountain, even at only 364m high. It's been home to helicopter rescues, injuries and even deaths since people began scaling it.

But there is a route that can be climbed with great care and with a decent bit of scrambling skill involved. I'm so glad I can finally say I've done this one.

The Best Thing I Ever Did In Photography

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There are two things that have made more of an impact on my photography than anything else and that is the gear I now use and the processing styles I have chosen.

35mm

For the last two years I have almost exclusively been shooting in landscape orientation with a 35mm equivalent lens and a single, lightweight and compact camera, and this has given me an enormous appreciation for consistency in the photographs I make. My photographs finally feel like they are truly "mine".

Before 2013, it's like I had no vision whatsoever. It was a free-for-all of focal lengths, orientations and post processing styles. Other than my portrait work, the DSLR and zoom lens was the ultimate consistency killer in my pictures.

Fast forward to now and no matter what I take, if it's a good photograph it feels like it fits perfectly alongside entirely different photographs because the perspective is the same and my style of framing is consistent.

VSCO Film

Discovering VSCO also had a profound impact on the way my photographs feel. Before this, I would change all kinds of settings in Lightroom and as a result each photograph felt different, not a part of a whole body of work.

For a while I was using Kodak Portra 400 colour and Ilford HP5+ B&W emulations but have since swapped to Fuji 800Z and Kodak Tri-X. As a result of using VSCO, my colour and tonal range is consistent.

The added benefit is that I know what I'm going to get when I'm out in the world ready to make a photograph. It's like using film because the film decides the colours and black and white tone for the most part. You have to make sure the subject matter works, and you let the processing set the mood, and you only tweak one or two things like exposure.

Conclusion

There's nothing more disorienting than looking through a body of work and finding that it doesn't actually feel like a body of work. While it may not become your whole way of shooting, I strongly encourage anyone struggling to find their way to reduce all gear options to a single focal length and camera and shoot that way for a good many months.

You may hate it or it, if you're like me, it may transform your photographic journey entirely.