back from Tasmania Photo Tour Part 4
Continuing on with the story from my back from Tasmania photo tour part 3 post of a few weeks back… which I left in Corinna, the heart of the Tarkine wilderness. The next stop was a complete change of scene as we headed up into the cloud forests and open grasslands of the Cradle Mountain National Park, a very different landscape to the thick temperate rainforest and wild windswept coastline of the Tarkine.
Cradle Mountain National Park
We had two nights in Cradle Mountain National Park, and while we didn’t get the visibility we had planned for it is a truly stunning place to wander around with a camera, in any weather. We had low cloud and fog drifting across the landscape with periodic showers and spectacular skies. It sounds drab and dull when you tell it like that, but strangely it’s not. This landscape has evolved like this because of the weather and they fit beautifully together, so provided you have the right gear (wet weather gear) it’s no hardship and the light is beautiful. This combination makes for some pretty dramatic scenery with very eerie “Lord of the Rings” type moods.
Dove Lake Views with Cradle Mountain
We had planned a day walk up the first part of the Overland Track past Crater Lake and up to Marions Lookout and a little beyond hoping for the scene you see below (last Image). This is an image I shot last year from up there, and I now know that this sort of clarity is a rarity in Cradle Mountain National Park. But as with all Landscape photography, you take the weather as it comes and shoot accordingly, so this year we shot for the eerie landscape and the moody sky, who knows what we will get next year?
Versatile Tasmanian Weather
For me, I love the beautiful Tasmanian Weather, the variability produces a stunning variety of light which means you can come back to the same location time and time again and it will always be different and you will always get different shots. The key I think is to ensure you dress for the occasion, so you are able to adapt; carry a rain jacket, a beanie and your bathers… I will headed back there again next year in March for another Tasmania Photo Tour with Paul Hoelen, will you be coming?
The Gear for the shots
These images were shot with the Cambo WRS-400 technical camera and Phase One IQ3-100 digital back with Rodenstock and Schneider Kreuznach lenses. Except the wombat image, that’s shot on the Sony A7-r Mk II with the Sony 16-35mm f4 lens. The bottom image of the view from Marions Lookout was shot last year, also on the Cambo/Phase One listed above, but it’s a 10 image rotational stitch showing basically the 180 degree view from the ridge top of Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain. It’s a little hard to see the true clarity on the internet, but click on the images to see a bigger clearer versions, especially the last image.
