21st November 2009, Salamanca market

There isn’t much good about this photo, I just like it

21st November 2009, Sullivans Cove

Sea gulls are one of the lucky animals that coexist  reasonably well with people, sometimes profitably. Although I’m guessing the quality of their diet isn’t too good especially in these fast food areas.

In the busy streets of Hobart you can see them flying along just above the traffic. If you stop and watch them, they are pretty amazing. Sea gulls and sparrows seem to go unnoticed by most of us, so they get more comfortable in our presence. I have seen the same with cows, willy wag tails sitting on their backs, sometimes even trying to pluck out hair for their nests. Or standing attentively by the cow’s nose while it eats in the hope that some insects might get stirred up in the process.

21st November 2009, Salamanca market

21st November 2009, Sullivan’s Cove

These were taken a while ago, but today is Christmas day.

Wiebke took the one of me above, I took the one of her below.

I think I was shooting a seagull poking it’s head over the top of the wall.

Wiebke is huddled up on the ground to look through the view finder for a low shot of me taking a low shot of her. One of the advantages of my camera is it has flip out screen

I hope you all enjoy your day.

Top: 4th December 2009, Boat Harbour Beach

Middle: Stanley

Bottom: The Nut

Stanley is an interesting place. It reminds me of Wyndham on the Kimberly coast which is squeezed between the Bastion range and the sea. Stanley is the same, it is squeezed between the Nut and the sea.

The Nut protects Stanley from the Westerlies; the prevailing strong winds. Views from the top of the Nut are pretty good. There’s also a track around the top with look out points so that you can see the coast to the East and West and 180 degrees of sea when you look North.

There’s a steep concrete path up to the top and a chairlift; I took both.

In the middle of town is a seafood cafe with lots of interesting photos plastered around the walls. They look like snapshots from one family and their friends mostly from the 70’s and earlier. Snapshots of them working on fishing boats or in the Cafe. From them you get a great idea of life in Stanley and what it would be like to live there. In most of them the sky looks overcast and grey. You also get an understanding that people have to work at several occupations to make an income – like the inhabitants of Lord Howe Island.

Fishing is still a significant industry – for a little town there are a lot of fishing boats. You can still see some of the infrastructure left over from when they used Stanley as the port to ship out iron ore from the Savage River mine.

5th December 2009, Boat Harbour

For Tasmania, the days probably don’t get much better than this. Although I still haven’t seen anyone swim without a wetsuit.

5th December 2009, Boat Harbour

This fellow lives in Boat Harbour. We saw him about often, doing the rounds. He was happy to spend time with any of the beach patrons for a while, then wander off to someone else. His owner would start walking home, and he’d immediately be at her side without a word from her.

3rd December 2009, Boat Harbour

I’ve often tried to take photos of birds in flight. At full zoom (400mm at 35mm slr equivalent) it is hard to even track a bird if it is flying and reasonably close. This is the first camera I’ve owned that can lock focus quickly enough on a moving object – I still shot a lot of photos to get a few good ones. It also took me a while to begin to figure out how to do it best with this relatively new camera – the Panasonic G1.

Rather than read and research the camera, I’ve just been using it, then trying to find out how I can do what I want with it. I have discovered a few things:

• The hood! I’ve never used one before and didn’t think I would start; now I try to use it all the time. An obvious reason is sun glare, although I find it really useful around water. It keeps spray, splashes and rain drops off the lens. Water on the lens seems to happen frequently with me, and it ruins the shot.
• High speed shooting. This is something that I’ve never used much before. Action shots aren’t really the forte of compact digitals – my previous cameras. Although the G1 isn’t an SLR, it is a big improvement on what I’ve had. There is also a switch to change to high speed, or single or timer release – this makes it quick and easy to change.
• Focus tracking is good for slow moving things – walking speed only. Great for trying to photograph a walking bird or person.
• Focus lock – I often use this for stationary subjects. I leave the focus point in the middle of the view finder, lock focus with the AF/AE button (set to focus lock only in the setup menu), then take my time shooting while playing with things like composition and depth of field.

Tue 1st December 2009, Freycinet Peninsula

I’m sitting on a beach somewhere on the Freycinet peninsula eating breakfast with a spork No, it isn’t a porky stork sitting next to me. It’s an eating implement made out of tough nylon. It has a spoon one end and a fork the other. The fork has a serrated edge for cutting. I suppose they couldn’t fit knife in the descriptive name somewhere.

I got here late afternoon, set up camp, and then thought I’d see if I could get to the top of Mt Amos and back before night. I was advised against doing this by the caring ranger back at the parks building. She said it is wet, and you might slip. I immediately thought that she is used to dealing with denizens of concrete jungles from around the world who only see trees in pictures.

I soon understood her warning. To get to the top of Mt Amos you have to traverse, or climb straight up, great slabs of rock. There is pinkish rock and dark rock. The pinkisk rock is worn from running water. This is the slippery stuff when wet. And the angle is steep, even on dry rock I was on all fours at time looking for holds.

I got to the top at about quarter past seven. i took some photos of sunlight shining through a hole in the clouds to spotlight the sea in the distance.

There are water restrictions on Freycinet. An effective way to save water is to have no hot water – cold showers . I had a very quick shower, then went to my tent to eat and read. With my head near the wall of the tent something from outside the tent was pushing against my ear and sniffing. It could smell the bananas. I asked what it was up to, and it wandered off. I think it was a wallaby; wombats, from experience, are more persistent.

21st November 2009, Hobart

This picture has nothing to do with the following blurb. It was taken on Davey Street as we were leaving the Salamanca market.

Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th November 2009, Eagle Hawk Neck.

Well, the rain doesn’t ‘fall’ up.

I stayed Saturday night at Eagle Hawk Neck with a friend. It rained non stop all of Saturday. From my kayaking days I knew it was the sort of rain to bring up the rivers.

On Sunday morning we headed off, in the rain, from Devil’s kitchen to Waterfall bay. It’s graded family, meaning easy enough to do it with a class 4 hangover (class 5 being comatose) or a broken leg

It is a spectacular piece of coast which is mostly sheer cliff. Water was pouring off the rock; this mixed with the rain and was picked up by wind driving up the rock face and blowing the big drops in our faces. We could see curtains of water suspended in mid air, folding and floating like the Aurora Borealis, then rising upwards over the cliff edge.

I don’t have any pictures. It was too wet for my regular camera, and the batteries for my waterproof one have just died of old age – at the same time!

This was the start of my holiday – I’m off to Boat Harbour, slowly.