Gallery Pick of the Week
Instead of just showing pretty pictures only, here we have space for contributors to discuss their images every week.
This is a great opportunity to get some insight from the original photographer and the content is entirely open. It could be anything from the personal feeling of the photographer about the image to any photographic techniques or location knowledge he/she would like to share with our visitors.
Gallery Pick of the Week > May 2010
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Alpine Victoria, 27/5/10, Barbara Bryan In late April, a few AUScenery photographers finally got together for a wonderful field trip to Victoria’s High Country, based from the Bright district. Our webmaster, Pele Leung efficiently organised a few mountain excursions. |
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The Four Stages of Photography, 20/5/10, Pele Leung Photography is a simple thing that makes us laugh. However, it is so complicated that we might be wondering where we are and what to do next. |
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The One Who First Discovered Panoramic Vision is a Genius, 13/5/10, Pele Leung Why do people like panoramic vision? Perhaps it suits the natural movement of our heads perfectly. Do you notice the number of times you say yes or no with your head every day? |
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The Victoria High Country, 6/5/10, Pele Leung After fighting against the gusty wind for an hour, we all retreated to the only shelter nearby, the Wallace's Hut - a famous mountain hut in the Victoria High Country. This precious hut has been providing a life-saving shelter for many people since the early explorer's days. |
Barbara Bryan - Alpine Victoria, 27/5/10, Barbara Bryan
In late April, a few AUScenery photographers finally got together for a wonderful field trip to Victoria’s High Country, based from the Bright district. Our webmaster, Pele Leung efficiently organised a few mountain excursions. From my extensive knowledge of this region I assisted with suggested locations.
On the first day we ventured up to Alpine National Park beyond Falls Creek ski village and encountered fierce, bitterly cold gale force winds and not the snow as forecast! Suitably clad, we ventured out to visit the historic Wallaces Hut which is classified by the National Trust of Australia as it was built in 1898.
Tha famous Wallace Hut
This classic timber cattlemen’s hut has stood the test of time and survived numerous bushfires and careless hut users who left the fire burning when they departed.The classic old snowgums around this hut are so full of character that they drew our attention to making many photographs despite the strong winds. Every tree has individual character formed by its different shapes, bark colour, wrinkles and size.
For many years I have accumulated a collection of snowgum photos and can identify where the individual trees are located many years later. They are much like humans with their wrinkles and shapes changing with age so hence take on a unique character.
We then took refuge in the hut for lunch, thereby appreciating the necessity of good shelter in adverse mountain weather. Many bushwalkers and Nordic skiers pass through this region and appreciate the existence of this hut in bad weather.
Next stop was a quick visit to Cope Hut, built in the 1920s for outdoor enthusiasts. More magnificent snowgums were spotted on our return across the Bogong High Plains, necessitating quick stops so I could capture their superb orange coloured bark textures.
The Cope Hut
Colourful Gum Tree
On our way down the mountain we stopped at the delightful Bogong Village in calm conditions, to capture the magnificent autumn splendour at the public gardens.
The Bogong Village
Before dawn the next day we again headed up to the Mt Buffalo Plateau but were soon shrouded in thick fog so had no chance to capture the sunrise. However some very atmospheric fog shrouded images were made, such as dead burnt tree trunks in the mist and the cloud shrouded cliffs near the old Chalet which is now sadly closed but worth viewing from the outside. Over to Lake Catani where the rain came down but this produced a bonus as we were able to photograph more colourful tree trunks whose colour is enhanced when wet.
We were lured back up to Mt Buffalo Plateau the next morning in bright sunny conditions. So this time we revisited Lake Catani for landscape images then headed over near The Cathedral with its prominent rocky outcrops.
Lake Catani
Finally onto The Horn area, which is the highest point on the plateau, for superb views across much of the Victorian Alpine region. I trekked up to the lookout with my gear for an even more spectacular views and photos from the top. A bit of exercise added to the satisfaction of this action packed morning shoot. We had a great time getting to know each other whilst sharing our passion for photography.
View from the Horn, the highest point of Mount Buffalo NP
Pele Leung - The Four Stages of Photography, 20/5/10, Pele Leung
Photography is a simple thing that makes us laugh. However, it is so complicated that we might be wondering where we are and what to do next. The first stage is the beginning stage and we learn things quickly and make progress easily. The second stage is the bogging stage and we make almost no progress at all and do not have any sense of direction. It is simple - we are stuck. The third stage is a happy stage as we have broken through all barriers and resumed our sense of direction. The last one? We will talk about this separately.
Ocean or Mountains? Is it all dependent on how we interpret it? Lake Eildon.
The first - The Beginning Stage
If you still can remember how you first discovered photography in the old days, you probably enjoyed the experiences of this stage. At this stage, all things are new to us, from composition, camera operations, to what a good picture is and what is not. We move on so quickly that we feel great and almost want to be a professional photographer because we think we can!
After mastering a lot of technical skills, we get great shots in almost every trip. In simple words, you capture mountains like mountains, that is, record the scene like the real thing. People around you start to give you good comments such as "nice photograph, you must have a good camera". Thank you very much!
If you work hard, you might now come up with a quality portfolio - in your own opinion! What is next? You have done most subjects like mountains, sunset, sunrise, waterfalls, deserts, coastal scenes or whatever your photographic area of interests are. You start to realise that at some stage your photos appear to be repeating themselves. All sort of combinations have been tried. To you, creative engineering does not work anymore. Guess what? You have just entered the second stage, the Bogging Stage.
The second - The Bogging Stage
I can imagine and feel your pain if you are here now. It is such a boring stage that you are so disappointed because photography is now mainly for recording. What is the challenge? No more satisfaction. Many people get stuck here for quite a long time and sometimes stay forever.
With the same mountain analogy, the captured mountains do not like mountains. Of course, we are talking about a conceptual thing here. What I really mean is that you have failed to capture the thing you want to capture. To be exact, the shot does not come up as what you want it to be. You are really bogged. Your physical view and technical knowledge just can not bring you forward to enter the artistic world. This is the hardest part in photography and some ordinary people would probably give up and depart because they realise that this is no longer their game.
To those who would like to stay, they might finally get through if they could really re-learn the whole thing by getting rid of the traditional concept of photography. Yes you need imagination, an artistic mind and all sorts of things that could help you to re-learn until that day comes... one day when you wake up and you see things differently. In the same mountain analogy, you make water look like mountains if you like. You have just entered the next stage, the Heaven Stage.
The third - The Heaven Stage
You have gone to paradise and also dived deep into hell. Finally you are now in "heaven". To you, every scene is a picture. Your mind has been re-opened once again. Almost no boundary, your creative mind lit up your fire again. You really feel you have moved up to another level. Congratulations if you are here. Finally if you are really (and truly) a super master photographer (artist), these stages are no longer meaningful because there is no more stage. Therefore the next stage is called "No-Stage".
Simple is the best. Even true-view-be-realistic landscape photography should not be bounded by any rules. Blue Mountains.
The fourth - The No-Stage
It is really hard to imagine what this stage is because you are no longer bounded by anything. Just use your imagination. Finally you might realise that the destination is actually the starting point.
If you are still reading this, thank you. I hope I have drawn your attention to what photography really is. In simple words, the whole concept above only means one thing to us - we never finish learning. Every day is new to us and we will succeed if we are determined.
Pele Leung - The One Who First Discovered Panoramic Vision is a Genius, 13/5/10, Pele Leung
The Whale Rock, Wilsons Promontory National Park
Who first discovered panoramic vision? There is not any concrete answer. If you notice the typical presentation of Chinese calligraphy you might realise that vertical panorama is a common visual orientation Chinese people use since the old days. Perhaps panoramic vision was first discovered by Chinese a few thousand years ago! You tell me.
According to the official record, the first panoramic patent was registered in 1843 but there was a long wait before the release of the first commercial panoramic camera Al-Vista in 1898. Panoramic cameras are generally divided into four categories based on the approach they use to capture images. The categories are wide view, segmented, swing lens and rotational. The first two categories are relatively more common and I personally use both of them - XPan for wide view and digital stitching for the segmented approach.
Why do people like panoramic vision? Perhaps it suits the natural movement of our heads perfectly. Do you notice the number of times you say yes or no with your head every day? There is no difficulty to understand that nodding and shaking your head imply vertical and horizontal panoramic vision respectively. Apart from the factor of human engineering, panoramic vision also creates difference. With the popularity of 3:2 (and recently fourth third) camera format, most people get used to use this format to take photos. Naturally panoramic vision breaks the norm and creates impact to viewers.
Wildflowers by the Hume Highway (left), Victoria State Rose Gardens (middle) and MacKenzie Falls Grampians (right)
Does panoramic format suit every scene and everybody? The simple answer is "No" even though panoramic format would suit many situations like group portraiture, grand scenic vistas etc. The relatively narrow foreground space of horizontal panorama is sometimes difficult to manage. By the same token, the limited width of vertical panorama is equally hard to be mastered. On the financial side, panoramic equipment is not cheap. Although apparently digital stitching has created a whole new world for us, a proper setup for shooting perfect panoramas still requires considerable investment and techniques.
Some of you may suggest that panoramic images can be created easily by cropping. Agreed. However, this also implies a loss of 40-45% of pixels, that is, your 10M digital camera would become a 6M one.
At the time of writing, 16:9 digital cameras are already available but there is not any production news for digital panoramic camera with 3:1 aspect ratio. If I were a DSLR camera designer, I would consider a dynamic sensor design. Let us imagine dividing a 3:2 rectangular sensor into 24 (6x4) sub-sensor square units. i.e. 6 columns by 4 rows. A panoramic sensor can be configured by moving the top row of 6 sub-sensor units (3 to left and 3 to right) to extend the length of the sensor. It is obvious that the newly formed sensor would become 8x3 in dimension, that is, in 2.66:1 aspect ratio.
Perhaps I would call it digital XPan (the aspect ratio of the film based XPan is 2.7:1)! If it is too hard to swing sensor strips to the sides, there is another alternative design. We can simply concatenate two 3:2 sensors into a single one with 6:2 (i.e. 3:1) aspect ratio panoramic sensor.
Alfred Nicholas Gardens. Cropped from a 8-image stitched panorama.
You might argue why we cannot just simply produce a 3:1 sensor to do the job. In fact, this is not a bad idea although I do not know the complexity of producing sensors with 3:1 aspect ratio. But there is one thing I know, be prepared to bring another 3:2 DSLR with you as panoramic vision may not work for every scene.
Let me congratulate you now if you are excited by the power of panoramic vision. Moreover, I would also like to advise you that it will take you some time to adapt your current vision to this extreme format. Practice makes perfect and I am sure you will get there eventually.
Pele Leung - The Victoria High Country, 6/5/10, Pele Leung
Bird's-eye view from the Mount Buffalo NP
After fighting against the gusty wind for an hour, we all retreated to the only shelter nearby, the Wallace's Hut - a famous mountain hut in the Victoria High Country. This precious hut has been providing a life-saving shelter for many people since the early explorer's days. It wasn't a large hut but was enough for us to take a breath.
Wallace's Hut Panorama. Click image to see the larger version.
This happened on the first day of our photographic trip with a couple of AUScenery contributors Barbara Bryan and Monica O'Connor. Barbara's friend June Stone and my wife Kelly have also come along. Although I have been communicating with Barbara and Monica by email for a long time, we have never met each other in person until this trip. All parties seemed to be curious to find out how other people look like. I hope I was presentable like a young and energetic master photographer!
Apart from Kelly, we all take photographs but are in slightly different photographic style. The diversified interests of subjects and visions among us created a unique set of photos even we have shot many scenes together from more or less the same view points.
After photographing the Wallace's Hut in a gusty condition, we drove passed an autumn colour paradise, the Bogong Village. On the contrary, in the village we found ourselves in a calm and cool surrounding with colourful trees aligned along the edge of a lake. At the centre of the lake, a small island full of autumn colours popped up from nowhere. It was quite a peaceful but fascinating scene.
The Bogong Village, a ski resort in the Victoria High Country. Photo by Monica O'Connor
On the next day, we decided to bet for a better sunrise from the top of the Mount Buffalo National Park so we were all ready to depart at six o'clock in the morning. Unfortunately our luck seemed to be not at our side and the whole mountain was basically covered by mist and rain. Most of the landmarks such as the Cathedral and the Horn were basically hidden in the mist. The Lake Catani was also half immersed in the mist and rain. While most of us have put our cameras down for a break Barbara and June were still working hard for their gum tree close up shots.
Snow Gum. Photo by Barbara Bryan
Although the weather on the mountain was quite disappointing, the condition in Bright was quite acceptable. By following the advice from Monica, I managed to grab an ultra panorama of the Bright township from the Huggin Lookout. From the lookout, I could almost locate all street details in Bright.
The Bright Township from the Huggin Lookout. Click image to see the larger version.
On the final day, our enthusiasm has started to deteriorate slightly but we were all still eager to re-shoot the spots we missed in the previous day. We pushed along by following a tight but achievable shooting schedule to cover the missing targets from the Bent's Lookout, the Mount Buffalo Chalet, the Lake Catani, the Cathedral to the highest point in Mount Buffalo - the Horn. Everybody intended to ignore the lunchtime until we got back to our base camp in Porepunkah at two o' clock.
Lake Catani, Mount Buffalo NP. Click image to see the larger version.
During these few days in the Victoria High Country, we experienced gusty, misty, rainy and sunny weathers. Although the trip wasn't completed with an atmospheric sunrise or a once-in-a-lifetime weather condition, our experiences were definitely unique and memorable. Please stay tuned to Barbara and Monica's articles in the coming weeks as well as our slideshow/video clip when all photos have been sorted out. Meanwhile please enjoy my shortlisted photo selection.