Workshop Schedule 2010

Despite a recent advertisement in Better Photography showcasing our workshops for 2010, I have decided to take a year off teaching to concentrate on other projects and will therefore not be offering my workshops next year.

However, I will be running as a once off our ever-popular Autumn Colours Workshop at Cradle Mountain in April 2010 in junction with the Jetstar Photographic Competition that is currently running.

Thank you to all of you who have supported the workshops lately and I’m sorry that I won’t be seeing you again in 2010.  However, I trust that our paths will cross again soon.

Tom

APPA 2009 Done & Dusted

I’ve just stpped off the plane from APPA 2009 in Sydney and what a blast it was! Got to meet all my idols, mainly Christian Fletcher, his brother Michael, oh and did I mention Christian Fletcher?!!? 

Anyway, whilst Christian was being mobbed by all the gay men in Sydney, I was off judging at the AIPP Australian Professional Photographer of the Year Awards (APPA).  I was fortunate to judge the Landscape, Science & Nature and Environmental Portraiture categories.  Lots of good images across all categories and it was a big thrill to hand out a few GOLDS along the journey. 

To cap off the weekend, I was invited as one of only 11 judges to vote for the big one, the 2009 Canon AIPP Professional Photographer of the Year. Congratulations to Charmaine Heyer who was a most deserved winner annd along with her partner Peter, are a dynamic couple (and the two of the funniest and nicest people you’ll meet).

APPA 2009

Well todays the big day! I’m here in Sydney judging the 2009 AIPP Photographer of the Year Awards and today we judge the Landscape category. Traditionally a large and hotly contested category, I’m really looking forward to seeing some awesome images. Unlike last year where I was new to it all and perhaps a little shy with my scoring, I’m up for rewarding an image that deserves it. Let’s hope Fletcher has not entered any WA images, rather more interesting landscapes from the east coast so I can give them an award LOL. A waterfall perhaps?!!?

Mount Ossa

Following my night’s photography adventures, the following day presented one the most anticipated days for the walk – sunrise atop of Mount Ossa, Tasmanian’s highest mountain.  Inspired by other images I’d seen from the top, as well as visiting here once before (but with harsh midday light), I was keen to get up there early.  Thankfully a half moon on a clear night guided me for the walk for the best part of an hour as I left the tent at 5am, looking to make the summit by 6. 

Here is one of the many shots taken that morning.  This is a 6 shot pano stitch looking south.  The view was incredible.  I felt like I could see the whole of Tasmania. And being up there by myself for 3 hours was heaven sent.

Tent

Wandering back to the tnet after shooting the previous shot, Milky Way, dad was reading with his head lamp, so i banged off this image.

Milky Way

That night on Pelion Gap, the clouds cleared and I got the camera out for a few 30secs exposures. The stars were amazingly clear and dad and I lay on our backs watching the shooting stars before retiring for the night (where was the red wine when you needed it?!!?).

Shooting at ISO 3200, 30secs at F2.8 captures so much more than the eye can see. We could probably only see about 1/10th the number of stars as in this image. You could go longer on the exposure, but then you’d be looking at hours worth to get the star trails which I wasn’t up for. Instead at 30secs you get enough exposure to see the stars without too much movement that they look blurred.

 

Overland Track April 2009

Back in April, I stole a week before our Cradle Mountain Workshop to walk the Overland Track for the second time.  The first time was 12 years previously in 1997, my first serious landscape photography shoot. At that time, I carried two packs – one on my back with all the camping gear, and one of the front with my camera gear. But I couldn’t have been that serious as I didn’t even take a tripod!

This time round, everything came with me – three cameras, two lenses, a tripod, 40 rolls of film, etc etc.  All in one pack this time weighing 32 kgs. The next series of blog posts will feature some of the images from the trip.

The first is this one – photographically the highlight of the trip.  After walking through two days of rain, snow, sleet, fog, cloud, and everything else that Tasmanian weather can throw at you, on the third night we camped on Pelion Gap at the base of Mount Ossa. The plan being to climb Ossa, Tasmanian’s highest mountain, for sunrise the next morning. 

This was the sunset looking south towards the other 30 or so kms of the Overland ahead of us.  The cloud drifted in, the light went off, and I snapped off about 1GB of images – pano stitches galore.  And I even shot some film Fletch!  Tricked up for APPA, this didn’t make it in. Maybe next year!

Night Photography Workshop

We have just a few places left for our Night Photography Workshop Sunday 24th May. Join me as we spend the evening exploring the Docklands and City precinct. Learn all the tricks necessary to make your night photography images work. To book, go to the website at www.tomputt.com

Jetstar Photo Competition

If you fly with Jetstar in the next few months, you’ll see there running a fantastic photo competition where you can win some amazing prizes.  If you win the amateur section, you’ll win a spot on our Cradle Mountain Workshop next April  2010 valued at over $4,000!  

Check out the details and enter at http://www.jetstarphotocomp.com/ or see page 86 of the current in flight magazine.

TPPYs

While I’m on the subject of awards, I’ve just returned from Tasmania (again!) from judging at the Tasmania Photographer of the Year Awards (TPPYs).  The standard of imagery was high, with some stunning landscape and abstract images on offer.  Congratulations to my good friend Alan Moyle (a ka Wombat) who took out everything! Yes, the Portrait category, General, Wedding, Wedding Album and consequently Tasmania Photographer of the Year.  Wombat’s work has always been fantastic and his efforts have been rewarded with this title.

To see his winning images, go to his blog at http://www.photobat.net/batblog/

VPPYs

The AIPP Victorian Photographer of the Year Awards were held recently in Melbourne. I entered 4 landscapes, three of which were honoured with a Silver Award – see below. The first is a snow scene taken on our Buller Snow Shoe workshop last August. The next is light shining through the clouds on to Port Phillip Bay. The third is a shot I’ve already posted – burnt mountain ash on the way to Mt Hotham.

I’m yet to decide whether I’ll enter these in our national awards – APPA – in June or go with something else from more recent trips (Tassie for example).  

Congratulations to my good friends Daniel Berniard who cleaned up, winning the Landscape Category as well as being crowned Victorian Photographer of the Year.

Doesn’t it bug you when…

your friends ring to and tell you to update your blog when they have a life and yet don’t have a blog themselves!!!

So thanks Dave, I’ll be posting next week all the news, including my two week trip to Tassie walking the Overland Track and the workshop at Cradle Mountain, the results from VPPY 2009 as well as other information about our workshops for 2010.

I need your help please!

Hi,

As you may know, each year we release our workshop schedule for the next year around July 1. Each year we look at what locations have been popular in the past and which ones we haven’t been to yet.

Well the time has come to decide which Masterclass Workshops we will be running in 2010 – And I’d like YOU to decide the schedule!

We want to be running the workshops that you want to come on!  To help with some ideas, I’ve listed a few locations that past participants have nominated as their favourites to photograph in 2010:

• Great Ocean Road, VIC
• Cradle Mountain, TAS
• Karijini, WA
• Margaret River, WA
• Kangaroo Island, SA
• Flinders Ranges, SA
• Red Centre, NT
• Kakadu, NT
• Wilson’s Promontory, VIC
• Freycinet, TAS
• Daintree, QLD
• Lamington NP, QLD

What I’d like you to do is reply to this post telling me of your favourites. As with all our Masterclass Workshops, we’d be spending 4 to 5 days at each location to give us plenty of time to explore the area. I’ll tallying up the numbers and release the schedule onto the blog very soon (and onto the website by July 1 for bookings).

PLEASE LET ME KNOW BY MONDAY as I have an advertisement going into the next Better Photography Magazine which is due soon.

Thank you for your feedback and I look forward to seeing you on a workshop in 2010.

Cheers,
Tom

Kimberley Workshop – 2 places left

For the first time this June, we’re heading up to The Kimberley to run one of our Masterclass Workshops. We’re spending 5 days exploring the famous El Questro Station, photographing the gorges full of rain straight after the wet season. The dates are 11-15 June and the investment is $3995 ex Kununurra. This includes transfers, meals, tuition, national park fees, and a whole lot of laughs (and good photos of course). We have just 2 places still available so contact me on tom@tomputt.com if you’d like to come.

Autumn Light

I love this time down south. The mornings are cooler, the days are still, bright and sunny, and the light is beautiful. Autumn always reminds me of Tasmania. The light is softer, with longer shadows being cast by the trees over my back garden. Unlike summer, you can shoot almost all of the day without that harsh light during the middle of the day. It signals the time for our Autumn Colours Workshop at Cradle Mountain. Generally we have a few days like today – still, sunny and relatively mild (after below zero temperatures in the morning).

Get out and get shooting – take advantage of the light before winter arrives with cold and wet days. Here’s a shot I did last night at St Kilda. This afterglow lasted for about 45mins and was simply magical…

Wreck Beach, Great Ocean Road

As I was going through my files on the Great Ocean Road, I came across this file from last year’s workshop.  We usually find the time to get down the 350-odd steps to the beach to photograph the anchors.  One this particular occasion, the tide was out and all the sand that usually surrounds the anchors had been washed away.  It made the anchors seem so much bigger than in the past.  Rather than the typical shot with the sun shining on the anchor, I went for the reverse angle to add a little morbidity to the shot.

Rainstorm

Here’s another image from the Great Ocean Road Workshop. As we stood on the edge of the 30 metre high cliffs photographing the Apostles, this fantastic rainstorm passed to the south.

Great Ocean Road Part 2

On Saturday night we ventured to this little lookout where we watched the storm fronts come one after the other. Being sunset, the rain showers were backlit. Sometimes the rain was so heavy that you could see the sheets falling from the clouds like curtains.

I’m not a big fan of the wrap around effect with panos but this one lends itself well to this I think.

Great Ocean Road Part 1

I’ve barely caught up on my sleep after our very successful Great Ocean Road Workshop last weekend and I wish I was back there already. The workshop conditions were ones I have been dreaming of for quite some time. For years I’ve wanted to take a week off in winter, and with no one else around, and shoot for days through the rough and wild weather you tend to get that time of year.

Well no need for winter! We’ve two months of no rain and someone decided that enough was enough! The heavens opened, the wind blow us off our feet and the storm fronts came through faster than you could photograph them! I remember standing at the Cape Otway Lighthouse saying “How good is this?” It was nice to take a moment out and enjoy it rather than photographing every second of it! However I did plenty of that too! There’s pano stitches galore that I need to get on to (some up to 12 images) but for the moment I’ll post a smaller stitch from our last day at the 12 Apostles…keep checking the blog as I have a number of photographs to publish over the next week.

Melbourne Camera Club presentation TONIGHT! Thursday 5th March 2009

I’m speaking at the Melbourne Camera Club (Corner of Ferrars and Dorcas St, South Melbourne, Melway ref: 2K A3) as their headline speaker on a presentation titled “10 years of shooting panoramics landscapes in Australia.”

All welcome! Starts at 8pm.