My Togging Life

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Thursday, 19 April 2018

Follow your Gut!

Gonna be a short one tonight, my friends. Hell, if it wasn’t for today’s experience I didn’t think I’d be posting at all this week. So what happened?

As is our routine, myself and Miss Gypsy the Dog were out for our daily walk on Somerset Beach when inspiration struck; those steps leading down to the beach, half-buried in the sand, would make for fantastic black and white images! So, as we finished our walk, and while sitting at home afterwards, I thought about angles, gear, light, time and all the other things you think about when preparing for a shoot. About half an hour before sunset I loaded up the car with my gear and my dog and we headed back down to the beach.

And man, that was absolutely the right call!

Now, the shot I went down there for is here:

What do you think? I think I got the angle wrong. Shooting from slightly above the step, and a little closer, might have given me the effect I wanted. How would you have shot this? Let me know in the comments!

So I’m a little disappointed with the image I went for, but look at the images I got because I went out for a shoot tonight. It gave me a chance to really push the boat out, processing-wise!

I’m rather proud of what I got tonight, and I wouldn’t have gotten it if I hadn’t followed my gut! And that’s my point. If your gut tells you it’s time to get your gear out and go shoot, do it! Just consider what you might miss if you don’t...

Like I said, a short one tonight, but I still hope you enjoyed the read!

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And comment! I love the feedback I’m getting through social media, but I’d really love to see your comments and opinions down below!

Friday, 13 April 2018

The New Project

Map of Tasmania - Red Pins indicate 'Ghost Towns'

I’ve been heavy on the research for my new project, gang, which is why the new post is only coming now. I thought I might tell you about some challenges I’ve discovered with the project, and I think we should probably break it down by zones, so...

Northwest Tasmania

Of all the locations I’m considering for this project, I think Moina (right) is going to be the easiest to work with. You see, Moina (red pin) is not a huge great distance from where I live (yellow pin). That means I can just travel from home to the site for all my shoots. The scouting shoots will be easiest, because I will mostly be looking for features to serve as subjects for my project and learning about how and where the light comes into the location. For the final shoot I might have to get up unsociably early and get home uncommonly late in order to get the right light, but I think I can cope (I think...).

Northeast Tasmania

The three locations in the Northeast of Tasmania (left) offer more of a challenge. To start with, the area on the map is a good 260-odd km from my place, so it won’t be a quick jaunt like Moina. Instead, I think I’m going to have to go stay in the area, which offers its own challenges. You see, there are about 60-70 km between Boobyalla (top pin) and Mathinna (bottom pin) as the crow flies, and as you can see the roads don’t follow the crow (The middle pin is Lottah). So now I have to decide whether to pick a base central to all three locations and plan my days accordingly, or to approach each location separately and organise accommodation appropriately. I think I’ll have to visit the area and do a quick driving tour. Then I’ll have a better idea of what I’m dealing with. Maybe the scouting shoot could be from a central base, and then separate bases for the main shoots? I’ll let you know.

Central Tasmania

Location of Waddamana

This is another easy one; there are no real decisions to be made, accommodation-wise at least. Waddamana in central Tasmania is 200km from where I live, meaning I’ll be looking for a hotel or caravan park or similar to stay at. No, the big challenge with Waddamana, and with some other locations on my list, is something I’ll cover at the end of this post. It’s an important consideration for the project, so I think it deserves its own segment.

Adamsfield (left pin) and Tyenna (right pin)

Southern Tasmania

Tyenna and Adamsfield are in central southern Tasmania, not far from Hobart (comparatively), and I think they are going to give me a chance to indulge myself a little bit. You see, I’ve been wanting to get down to Hobart since the last time I lived in Tasmania back in 2008; I could just never justify it. But now, with Hobart being so close to two of my sites, I’m thinking I can stay in Hobart for my scouting trips. That way I get to scout my locations and I get to visit Hobart. Win! When it comes to the final shoots, there is a caravan park in the area with a good reputation that might just do for a spot to pitch my tent (keep tent-pitching in mind, I have an idea about that).

West Coast

It turns out that the universe loves me! See this line of pins (right)? See Queenstown in the middle there? Regular readers will know that Queenstown is where my super-secret contact lives, which means that half of the ghost towns on my list are a short trip from my super-secret contact’s house! Lucky or what? Yeah, I will again find myself having to get up unsociably early and get home uncommonly late and yeah, that might be inconvenient for my super-secret contact but... well... he should have thought of that before having a second kid, shouldn’t he? (And now I have nowhere to stay in Queenstown!)

My Tent - Pitched!

Pitching my Tent

Remember the 'Tent-Pitching' thing from earlier? Well, when I think about going out to these ghost towns my instincts tell me that what I really need to do to get a feel for each location is camp in the ghost town. Think about it - spending days immersed in the environment you are photographing. Drinking in the atmosphere, living inside the history of the place. What better way can there be of coming to know how the place needs to be portrayed? The problem is that I just don’t know if it is allowed!

The first problem is that I’m kinda vague on the exact location of some of these ghost towns, and some of them might turn out to be in national parks. If they are I will need to abide by the rules of each park and I may have to seek special permission, which can get complicated fast!

But even if none of my locations are in national parks there may still be rules about camping in ghost towns. Are they heritage-listed? Are there special provisions for the preservation of these sites? I don’t know. Hopefully, though, I can camp at these ghost towns so I can get that experience I described up there ↑!

Potential Project Problem!

Here’s the thing; my project is called Abandoned Spaces, right? Well some of these ‘Ghost towns’ seem to be populated. Confused yet? Me too! Let me explain and let me use Waddamana as an example:

Waddamana is the location of one of Tasmania’s first hydro-electric power stations. According to the ‘Discover Tasmania’ website, the station is now a museum that tour groups can visit, with accommodations at the Waddamana Field Study Centre. And the Field Study Centre is apparently in the original village where the dam builders lived. Now, here’s my question:

If people are living in Waddamana to run the museum, and Waddamana is now basically a hotel (follow this link to see what I mean), how can it be a ghost town?

And I’m seeing similar problems with other locations that are supposed ‘ghost towns’; they would appear to be occupied. That does rather negate their ‘ghost town’ status, wouldn’t you agree? Even if you allow there ‘ghost town’ status to remain against all evidence, they still aren’t Abandoned Spaces, are they?

Final Thoughts

So there are my problems. Most of them are inconsequential; so long as I’m not sleeping naked in the rain I can cope with most types of accommodation, and I like driving, so it’s all good. But that last one? That’s a doozy! A photo story about Abandoned Spaces with no abandoned spaces is going to be incredibly empty. In fact, it might turn out to be the only Abandoned Space.

I hope you enjoyed the read! As always, I invite comments, compliments, concerns or criticism. And if you happen to have knowledge of Tasmania’s ‘ghost towns’, please get in touch!

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Sunday, 1 April 2018

Long Exposures, More on the New Photo Story, More on the Hiking Gear, Maybe Some Other Stuff (?)

It feels so good to get back to the photography, and I have been having some fun with it this week! I’m trying to learn the art of long exposure photography; I’ve had a bit of a rethink on my new photo story; I think I’ve figured out the whole ‘pack my pack’ conundrum... It’s been a good week. What say we start with...

Long Exposures

(I’ve spread examples of my first attempts across the blog – what do you think?)

The first thing I realised is that there are two different skill sets with long exposure photography. Skill set number one is what I’m thinking of as the Craft of long exposure photography. This involves selecting the right lens and the right filters and the right camera, making sure you know

D3200, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 - 16mm, 2.5 sec at f/8

how to use each of these effectively for the shoot and then applying those technical abilities to the production of the final image(s). Now, if you’re in any way serious about your photography you already have most of skill set number one down. You might need some advice on filters or you might need to brush up on certain settings in your camera, but you pretty much have the Craft of long exposure photography down.

Then there’s skill set number two, which I think of as the Art of long exposure photography. This one is trickier, even ignoring all that ‘art is subjective blah blah blah...’ crap... that I usually go on about. Let me use my experience so far to explain.

I’ve only gone out expressly for the purpose of getting long exposure shots twice, and that was yesterday and the day before. I have taken long(-ish) exposure shots before, but I’ve never thoughtabout them in those terms. They were just shots that needed long exposures, if you get what I mean. But for the last couple of days I have been going out with the intention of doing some long exposures and I’m slowly coming to realise that...

Epiphany! I’ve just realised that long exposure photography is no different to any other form of photography. You simply need to develop a different eye for it. By that I mean you have to learn how to look at a scene with long exposures in mind, and consider that scene in light of what you want to accomplish. Just like any other form of photography, right? So I guess the Art of long exposure is learning how to see for long exposure photography.

Hmm... Writing this little snippet really helped me figure that out... Groovy!

So thanks for lending me an ear, gang! It helped!

I guess we can move on to...

More on the New Photo Story

D3200, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 - 16mm, 30 sec at f/8

Do you remember what I said about my new project last week? How I was going to call it Heritage in Decline and it was going to be about old abandoned buildings and equipment? And how it was going to ask questions about history and such? Well, I’ve had a rethink. I kinda had to because what I described last week just isn’t the way I like to work. I don’t want to tell people what to think, I just want to encourage them to think. If someone tells me what to think the only thing I think is – well, I can’t tell you what I think, but it isn’t very nice and it’s about them! I also don’t want to interrogate people. I have never wanted my photos to act in service to a question; I want my photos to inspire questions. And if they don’t inspire the question I was thinking of when I took the shot, good, whatever. I don’t care what you think, so long as you are thinking.

But what does all that mean?

It means I’m changing it up a little. First I’m changing the title. Heritage in Decline is a little to accusatory for me. It suggests neglect, a negative concept that might turn people off and, if I’m honest, I kinda do care what people think. This is especially true when what they are thinking is “Who does this little git think he is, criticising me?” So I was thinking of changing it to Abandoned Spaces instead. It’s still open to interpretation, but it becomes wholly about the topic without any implied responsibility.

It also means I’m going back to my normal approach. I’m not going to ask questions, or suggest what the audience should experience. Rather, I’m going to let the audience tell me what it is they are experiencing, and what questions my photos raise, if any. I like it when people think, and tell me what they think (BIG Hint, Hint ;-)).

And then there’s the subject matter. My initial thought of roaming the back roads of Tasmania looking for abandoned stuff to shoot is, well... kinda daft. It would make the project more about fuel prices than photography! So instead I’m going to make it about specific areas. Those ghost towns I mentioned last week, to be precise. They should be really interesting subject matter. Take Pillinger, for example.

According to my super-secret contact Pillinger just doesn’t exist anymore. There’s nothing there so there’s nothing to shoot. Think about that for a second; there is nothing to shoot! What more powerful image can you conjure in your mind than a big old dollop of nothing where a port town used to be! Wow or what?!

Sorry. Geeked out a bit there.

Moving Awkwardly on...

More on the Hiking Gear

This ought to be a quick one. You may recall I was having trouble fitting all my hiking and

D3200, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 - 16mm, 110 sec at f/8

photography gear into the packs I’ve got, mostly on account of my teenage-stupidity-itis. The main problem being the inflatable mattress I’ll need if I want to actually sleep while I’m camping. Well, I had brainwave! I’m packing a tarpaulin in my tent bag with my tent, just in case I need a little extra weather shielding. It gets the tarp out of the pack but still keeps it neatly stored. It occurred to me that, if I buy or make a slightly bigger bag for my tent, I can probably stash the rolled up mattress and accessories in it with the tent and the tarp and everything. I’m thinking of making it myself so I can make it out of a robust weatherproof material to keep my gear dry. Does anyone have any recommendations on materials? Have you got another suggestion for a good bag or a good sleeping alternative? Your knowledge and wisdom are appreciated.

Now, I seem to recall suggesting...

Maybe Some Other Stuff

Thinking about the old vlogging gear some more and I found myself wondering about bridge cameras. Could I use one of them to get some decent footage for an entertaining vlog?

I’m thinking about things like the Canon Powershot SX60 HS (left) or the Panasonic FZ300 (right). Feature-wise they really aren’t all that different to the other options I mentioned last week, except the range of available lenses is a lot smaller, but I’m not considering them for their features, or lack thereof. No, I’m considering them because of the obvious price differences. The FZ300 offers 4k video at A$130 less than the G7 kit option (that’s without buying the preferred lens) while the Powershot SX60 is weighing in at nearly half the price of the EOS M50 kit option (again, without preferred lens). The deciding factors will be image stabilisation for both the bridge cameras and, with only 1080 compared to the Panasonic’s 4k, does the Canon have dual pixel AF? If anyone knows the answer to that question I’d be grateful, because I can’t find the answer anywhere (so far...).

So there it is - that’s my week in photography. What do you think?

Have I solved my hiking gear problem (theoretically)?

Which approach to my new project would you go with, the initial plan or the revised plan? Why?

Does anyone have any experience with either the Panasonic or Canon cameras mentioned above?

Talk to me, folks, give me your views, your advice!

And don’t forget to check out my portfolio at:

Or my other stuff at: