edeno de fotographie

Fishing Without Rod

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:00 +0800

A brief respite from my Australia photos. This was taken during the fourth run of my landscape course with Phocus Academy. I was framing this shot when the daughter of the man in the photo was right beside him. Just as I was about to release the shutter, the girl ran off!!! leaving the father alone in the picture. The imagery of him pointing to the pond with his daughter right next to him is still fresh in my mind. What a moment lost!

The Beautiful Beauchamp Falls II

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00 +0800

Since it is so "beautiful", I don't think there is any harm in posting two similar shots of the waterfall.

Dotted Sheep on the Plains of Victoria

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00 +0800

The sheep are everywhere, often spread across an entire plain grazing on the lovely greens. I stopped by the road side on one sunny afternoon and tried to get as many of them as I could. The sun was breaking through the partially cloudy sky, allowing me to capture some of the distant hills to add layers into the photo. Have fun counting them!

Dry Wood

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:00 +0800

I drove around barnsdale to find some place for a nice sunset shoot and ended up instead at Metung. This place is probably one of the quietest residential towns that I visited in South Australia. There was a bench right in front of this piece of driftwood and a lady, sitting on the ground, was using it as a table to do her work. Right behind her were a couple strolling down the shore with their fingers entwined. The light waves in the bay completed the perfect picture of a retirement town. Absolutely at ease! There wasn't much to take and naturally I was attracted to this stunning piece of driftwood. Given it's strong lines and heavy visual weightage (a new term I coined for my latest landscape course), I framed it right in the centre against a blue sky (with the conversion to B&W in mind, that would make a nice black background). I like the overall drama and tension that the subject throw into the frame, so much so that I actually increased the contrast way more than I usually do. In the end, the photo did not portray the scenery around, rather it painted neatly my feelings about the driftwood.

The Beautiful Beauchamp Falls

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00 +0800

When I first read that the Beauchamp Falls requires a "1.5km Medium-Difficult walk from the picnic area (beside carpark) through cool temperate forest", I did not even give the trek a second thought.; it just seemed, "ok". I was wrong to underestimate the tourist guide's warning - a medium/difficult walk is an arduous walk for amateurs like me. Top make things worse, the weather was uber cool and coupled with a light shower, the humidity in the air (within the forest) was extremely high. I threw on a sweater and then another layer of raincoat before embarking on the route, thinking they will keep me real nice and warm. Indeed, they did. The initial trek was a downhill, one that sends me a weak warning signal: how am i going to walk such a distance uphill later! Nevertheless, the adrenaline pump from the potentially stunning waterfall urged me on. To cut the long story short, I reached the base of the waterfall via the track and ended up at a viewing platform. I rejected that limited view (with experience from the previous treks) and went into the stream to get a nicer shot. The water was cold and stones slippery. I survived and this was one of the few shots that I could master. I am sure that I could have gathered alot more but the rain made it really difficult.

Big (Fallen) Tree of Melba Gully

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:00 +0800

Travel brochures were inundated with descriptions such as "lush rainforest and thundering waterfalls" and promises that these scenes of nature abound in Otways MelbaGully State Park, one more often known for its glow worms in after-dark trekking. One of the main attractions at the park was the "Big Tree" and by its name suggest the sheer gargantuan presence of its massive 27 metre girth. Excited at the prospects of meeting such a tree, I set off trekking into the park thinking of how I could best gather a shot of this phenomenal vegetation. To my most sadden dismay! The tree has fallen; as if King Kong and his arch rivals of T-Rex just had their weekly wrestling night the day before. I wished I could reach forth slightly more (to rid the frame of that distracting foreground vegetation) but as nice and polite tourists, I decided to stay behind the railings. I learnt that this is not the best way to photograph landscape scenes though.

Private Jetty at Barnsdale

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:00 +0800

This is probably my one of my favourite, if not the favourite, photo from my Australia trip. And it came rather unexpectedly. I set out in the morning way before the day broke and stayed in the car until I saw some first lights coming through. The sky was cloudy and the temperature freezingly cold (to me at least). I struggled against the thought of heading out of the car as the sky was really overcast. And I thought why stay in the car when I flew all the way to Australia and had already sacrificed hours of my beauty rest!? I wrapped myself up and headed out. For about half an hour, I scouted around the area with nothing to shoot. I tried a few shots, nothing worked with the plain grey sky. As the time passed, I knew the glorious sunrise was already over and totally hidden by the clouds but ALAS! Some of the golden rays began to weave in and out the low handing clouds! Awe-struck by the banding of colours in the sky, I hurriedly snapped everything that I came across within the last 40 minutes. I remembered this bunch of ropes on one of the private jetties and quickly ran over with my tripod in hand. Despite the pool of (hopefully dried) bird crap that I trampled upon, I was able to find a spot with the ropes anchoring the shot and the alternating yellow/blue sky framing the background. The shutter went once and again (not because I wasn't confident of the first shot, rather because I thought it was so beautiful to let the moment pass without clicking it the second time).

Sunset at Sherbrook' River

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00 +0800

This photo was also taken at the mouth of Sherbrook River. Blessed to be able to have the golden rays breaking through the horizon and illuminating the vegetation in the foreground. The contrast was naturally high from the low-angled lighting, bringing great drama to an otherwise dull scene.

Rough Sunset

Wed, 26 May 2010 00:00 +0800

I found this place while I was scouting around in the day. It is located right at the end of Loch Ard Gorge after the mouth of Sherbrook river. The trek is about 3km. It was quiet and out of the tourists radar. Throughout my wait for the sunset, I did not even see a single soul pass by. It was a really cloudy day but thankfully, the sun broke through the clouds at the horizon about 1 hour before it set. The gorgeous golden light upon the rocks was breathtakingly contrasty. I had to tone down much of it in this and others alike, still I feel that it's too much! Hope you like this. =)

Razorback

Wed, 19 May 2010 00:00 +0800

Razorback is one of the rock formation at the extreme left of Loch Ard Gorge (towards the 12 Apostles). Little has been written about it and I have nothing exciting to share either. My only memory from this lookout was that there were numerous bus-loads of tourists. I do not think this viewpoint is unique because many people were standing right beside where I was and having a tripod in hand actually limits my vintage point. I do think that the post processing can be better but I am so so lazy to sit in front of the computer and go through a 2-3 hours workflow. Nowadays, my patience has been reduce to less than 10 minutes. Hope you like the interplay between the shrub and the mesmorizing Razorback. If you feel that it will be nicer in monochrome (my original idea), please let me know.