Early Sunrise at Mt. Wellington, Tasmania

A early morning drive to Mt. Wellington.

I was wide awake this morning at 4am and I decided that sunrise shots would be a good option. So I set off to Mt. Wellington which isn’t far from the city of Hobart, as I drove the sky began to change to amazing colours and I still had at least 15 minutes until I was at the top. It was a shame as I thought my time was going to be wasted but in the end I got a shot or two which came out ok.

The next two photogarphs were taken with a Canon 350D, Canon 10-22, Cokin ND grads and a tripod. I was specifically waiting for the sun to come out beneath the light layer of clouds to create the dynamic light which every landscape photographer chases. I sat patiently, firing off the occasional snap but in the end I knew that the light i was hoping for wasn’t going to come any time soon. Making the most of the colours which were still left in the sky was the next best option. I used my ND grads as I knew the scene would struggle to get much detail out of the rocks. This allowed me to under expose the sky to a degree whilst not darkening out the rocks too much. You would find that shooting the scene without grads would create an image which is darker overall and as a result detail is lost in the rocks.

This image was shot with the same setup above but instead of Cokin neutral density filters, a Hoya R72 filter was used instead. This creates a infra-red image which affects different aspects of the shot. I’m not going to pretend I know that much about infrared however what I do like is the way it affects flora in the shot. As you can see below, the filter has changed the colour of the flora to a white that almost resembles snow. Infrared isn’t for everyone but it’s a little bit of fun. I plan to elaborate further on infared in a later post so stay tuned.

It was now around 7am and the sunrise was definately over, time to move. I decided to stop at Strickland Avenue falls which are a small pretty fall along the way to the mountain. For these shots I used my Canon 350D and varied my lenses from the Canon 10-22 and the Canon 50 1.8 nifty fifty. I love the depth of field which can be captured with the 50. For a lens which only costs around $100 it’s cheap and fun, definately a must have for any kit.

That covers my morning, one thing I love about living in Tasmania is the ability to travel at ease and things aren’t located too far.

Questions or comments? Fire away.

 - Al