The Larapinta Trail, NT

It’s about this time each year that I feel the need to get away up to the Red Centre. A week walking through the bush, photographing the landscape through the East & West McDonnell Ranges, alone. That would be ideal.

A few years I did just that. I left my job, caught a plane, and spent a week on the Larapinta Trail (it was still under construction at that stage). I remember carrying a far-too-heavy pack, carrying litres of water that ran out at the top of ridges by midday, and camping at this point where the view was simply stunning.

There’s something to be said about being alone. I spent a whole day not seeing or talking to anyone. It was the most surreal experience.

Must do it again soon…

(this image is from a soon-to-be released book on the Larapinta Trail).

NEW BOOK! Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair National Park

I’m very excited to announce the release of my first landscape book. Featuring the stunning Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair National Park, this 80 page hardcover book has taken over 12 years to put together. From my first serious landscape shoot walking the Overland Track, up to my most recent trip there in September (which incidentally provided the cover image!), this book is filled with my favourite landscape images.

Due in a few short months (January 2010), you can now go online and securely order your copy now. Go to www.cradlemountainbook.com

On that website you can also look inside the book and read testimonials from other landscape photographers who have seen the proof book (including the great man himself, C Fletcher).

For those who order before Xmas, I’ll even sign your copy to devalue it even more!

The International Photographic Pano Awards

There’s an exciting new competition just been announced that I encourage all panoramic photographers to enter. It’s the International Photographic Pano Awards, open to both professional and amateur photographers. There is over US$10,000 in cash and prizes, from Lonely Planet, Apollo, Epson, PT Gui, and 360 Precision.

Here’s an explanation from their website:

“The inaugural 2010 International Pano Awards is dedicated to the art of panoramic photography. Advances in digital photography and software such as PTGui and Adobe Photoshop has resulted in an explosion in image stitching, especially in the panoramic format. Panoramic film photography also remains alive and well. The Pano Awards aims to showcase the work of panoramic photographers worldwide and be the largest and most important competition for panoramic photography.”

The judging panel includes some of the world’s top panoramic photographers, including Christian Fletcher, David Hugh Evans, Nick Rains, Jaspal Jandu, Peter Eastway, Christian Fleury, Glenn Beanland and yours truly.

Entries are open now and close 30th April 2010.  Visit http://www.thepanoawards.com/

Melbourne Storm

For those of you in Melbourne tonight (Friday night), you would have experienced this. Literally shot less than 30 mins ago, i saw this squall line coming on the radar and ducked down the beach to capture a few frames. With it pissing down with rain outside now, it’s quite pleasant to be sitting here knowing I got one shot in the bag!

Apologises for those not from Victoria. We don’t get many storms here (say 6 a year average), so it’s exciting for us to see lightning (and rain for that matter!).

TECHS: Canon 5D Mark II (who cares!), 30 secs, F2.8, focus set to infinity, tripod, RAW image converted using ACR, vignette, clarity, customised action, lucky shot.

Ian Wallace

Is this not the sexiest man alive?

Ok well maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but Ian is a legend.  Based in Hobart (or somewhere near there), he is a Tasmanian Living Treasure (whatever that means), and photographer extraordinaire. Ian knows all about printing (he’s printed two books on his work) and is a SEO guru. Check him out at www.ianwallace.com.au

Ian helped me out on the most recent Cradle Mountain Workshop, when this photo was taken. This was the most serious shot of Ian – I had to tell him to stop laughing. Anyone who knows Ian will know he doesn’t do serious very well (except in this instance).  He’s a laugh a minute and a ripping bloke.

Cradle Mountain reflection, Tasmania

Here is the shot from that perfect Wednesday morning we had at Cradle. We stood for what seem liked hours taking pano stitch after pano stitch until the clouds came over again.

Cradle Mountain Summit

Well after Ian and I had been playing around for a few days out the back of Cradle, the workshop started proper.  7 participants came from all over the country (and NZL) and we entertained for 5 days of fun and photography. Whilst the weather was ok, we woke to a cloudy day on Wednesday which cleared into a perfect morning with the most amazing image of Cradle I’ve witnessed (post to come).

It was decided that we would do our big walk that day (after the perfect start), however the weather soon closed in and the day turned to (insert rude word here). Phil, Craig and I walked up to Marion’s (via the goat track, or escape route as I like to call it), beyond to Kitchner’s Hut, then decided we had plenty of time to risk our lives and climb to the Cradle Summit, hoping the cloud would clear (wishful thinking Tom).

This was the shot from the top. Pano stitch, barely executed given the wind, rain and condensation…

Cradle Mountain

On our last day we walked out via the Cradle Mountain face track. Lots of snow around so there were some pretty hairy moments crossing steep snow drifts below the mountain itself (Ian you loved it!!!).  This was the view looking up at Cradle before we realised a walk to the summit was futile.

Waterfall Valley

On our second day out the back of Cradle, Ian and I took a very long walk (3 hours away) to Waterfall Valley where I had this spot in mind from visiting there 12 months ago. We spent a few hours here before returning in the rain (again!).

Snow Gum

Snow gums are my favourites and this very impressive tree was standing close to Artist’s Pool.

However it hadn’t been raining (YET!!!) so I grabbed my water bottle and pour it over the tree to bring out the colours.

Artist’s Pool, Cradle Mountain

So here’s the story. I’ve been working on a massive book (320 pages, 30cms wide by 30cms high, 3.3kgs, 6 months in the making, over 250 hours of photography, another 500 hours of editing, etc etc, blah blah blah) and I flew down to Hobart to meet with my good friend Ian Wallace who did the pre-press.  After burning the midnight candle, we left his place mid-morning and headed straight for Cradle. He was afraid we wouldn’t make it in time, however I was determined to get there in order to walk the 2-3 hours to the Scott Kilvert hut out the back of Cradle.

So we made the car park by Dove Lake about three and headed up over Hanson’s Peak (you loved it Ian) and came by Artist’s Pool late afternoon. The original looks nothing like this – there’s no colour and the highlights are blown out. I was telling Ian to wait for the shot later on were the sun dipped further down to produce a stunning pink sky and lower contrast shot. However it never came – the clouds rolled in and sunk over the mountain, effectively blocking out the sun.

So i processed this image in camera RAW and came up with something more that I imagined…

Ok it’s been a while…

So i’m going to get off my arse and blog a bit.

Lots been going on (hence no time to share) however I’ll kick it off my a YouTube video from our latest workshop at Cradle Mountain a few weeks back. Thanks to Ian Wallace for arranging the video…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12P9LZ4qqgk&feature=player_embedded

Beverly Hills Cop

While I was sitting here laying out my next book and watching one of my all time favourite films, I thought of you Merv as this scene came on.

ENJOY!

An interview with ME!

If you’d like a bit of a laugh, my good friend Christian Fletcher taped me last week at the studio and posted it on his blog – ENJOY!

http://christianfletcher.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/an-interview-with-tommy-p/

Cape Otway Lighthouse

The wild weather we’ve had over the past few days here in Melbourne, it reminded me of the wild weather we had down at Cape Otway on our Great Ocean Road workshop last March. The cloud formations were amazing and I remember at one point just stopping and saying, “This is incredible!” It was every landscape photographers dream!

This shot was taken on a Canon 5D, shot RAW with very little post-processing work done except for a vignette added.

WARNING – Things are not as they seem…

WARNING – over the next few days, a post may appear on Christian Fletcher’s blog whereby a certain person appears, claiming to be me.  Please note that this is NOT me. I am in the process of taking legal action against the author of this post to stop this appearing, however that may not be enough.

The post contains video of a person wearing a pink shirt and vest (as if I’d wear a pink shirt), speaking with a gay accent and claiming to know something about me and my photography.  

I would ask you to ignore such a post and insist that Christian remove it from his blog.

Buying a Domain

I love buying domain names. That’s the URL that you type into your web browser to visit people’s websites. I literally have dozens registered and pay as little as $10 a year for each of them.  

The two companies I use are domainsinseconds.com and cheapdomains.com.au.  I use the US website for .com registrations for about US$9 per year, and the Australian one for .com.au and .co.nz domains – about $24 per year.

Looking to buy a Mac – here’s how to get one easily and affordably

This is by no means a secret, but I LOVE it and I tell everyone about it. 

If you want to buy a Mac, just go into David Jones, get one their DJ cards with as much credit as possible, then buy a Mac. Now Macs are the same price everywhere, so you’re not saving any money by shopping around. The best thing about buying it from DJs is that you can buy it interest-free with only a 1/3 deposit. The balance is generally due over a 12, 18 or 30 month period (which goes onto your DJ card), and so long as you pay the required amount each month, it costs you no more! (excluding the $35 set up fee and the $1.95 per month admin fee). I’ve bought my last 4 Macs this way (I now have 5 – a Mac Tower, two iMacs, a 13in Mac laptop and a mini mac). 

The best thing is that you don’t have to outlay the full amount straight away. That’s great for those strapped for cash or business owners wanting to manage their cash flow. In fact, the last Mac I bought i didn’t have to pay any deposit! Got to love that!

MOST ADMIRED Article #1

I’ve decided to write a series of articles based on my most admired landscape photographers. The great man Christian Fletcher recently interviewed me for his blog and asked me who I admired most (besides him!).  I have a few photographers that I follow who I’ll focus on in the next few weeks. The series will cover a variety of topics, based on the photographer, or the work they’ve produced.

COPYRIGHT MICHAEL SCOTT LEES

My first post is on Michael Scott Lees. I’m posting on him for one particular image of his that i love. Now some of you may not have heard of him. He’s based in alpine NSW with a gallery in Jindabyne.  I first saw his work about 5 years ago and fell in love with his print “Entangled in the Mist”, a stunning shot of a snow gum at Dead Horse Gap, NSW.  I walked into his gallery, saw this image and simply had to have it. It hangs in my living room as a large 120cms wide print and this time of year with it cold and wet outside, I always look at it and yearn to get up to the snow.  I love the composition, with the tree branches extending towards the frame. The colour of the trunks is simply incredible, and the cloud drifting through the trees in the background adds that extra element to this image to make me feel as though I’m really there.

Check out his work at http://www.michaelscottlees.com.au/index.php

Cape Woolamai with Fletcher

Yes you read it right. I fulfilled yet another lifelong dream this week by heading out and shooting landscapes with my idol, Christian Fletcher.  For those who don’t know Christian (or been lucky enough to meet him), he is one of the nicest guys you’ll meet.  He’s one of those guys who has it all – the rock star looks, the rock star lifestyle, the rock star home in the plush town of Dunsborough on the SW coast of WA, three galleries selling all his fantastic landscapes…Ahhh I could go on and on and on.  

Anyway, Christian invited me out for a little one-on-one session down at Cape Woolamai, one of my favourite spots to shoot.  We dagged around for a couple of hours, getting wet (hold on, that was just me…soft cock wouldn’t go near the water), and shooting some pretty nice landscapes under overcast skies.  Thanks Christian for an amazing afternoon.