Venturing out …

Covid has certainly had a huge effect across the world. However I need to state at the outset that here in my home state in Queensland, Australia, the past few months have seen life to be close to normal apart from a 3 day lockdown of Greater Brisbane. Even this did not have a huge effect on us, as we live in the City of the Gold Coast which was unaffected. We have been very fortunate!!

However we have stayed in our home state as returning from the state south of us, New South Wales mean a 14 day hotel quarantine period. So we were very pleased once this restriction was removed. We were also excited to hear that the premier Portrait Prize Exhibition in Australia, the Archibald Prize, would be visiting the Tweed Regional Gallery, just south of the Queensland / New South Wales border.

The Archibald is usually controversial in choosing the winner as it was again this year. We enjoyed viewing this exhibition, as well as one on Arthur Boyd and a lesser known artist, Kenny Pittock – check out his blog. As usual I took my camera and made a few photos while at the gallery. The view from the gallery includes Mt Warning as seen from a photo taken from inside the gallery.

There was also a couple of sculptures outside, which competed with the scenic view.

It is certainly worth a visit if you live close by.

As usual all photos were processed using Silver Efex Pro2 and Photoshop. Check out my photos on ianmarksphotography.com

Until next time (which I hope will be sooner than last time)

Ian

Rangelands, Winton, Qld, Australia

Rangelands is an amazing location approximately 30kms north-west of Winton. We were fortunate to be shown around by a local and given the opportunity to make some photographs for a few hours. We also shared a wine and nibbles as we watched the sunset and the moonrise. It was delightful.

I was particularly intrigued by the trees and how they survive in such a rocky, desolate environment. Unfortunately the trees which make such a nice pattern in the sunset photos are South African prickly acacia, which is now a weed in Queensland. It is ironic that seeds were distributed to station owners so that the plant could supply shade and fodder. Now it is proving quite difficult to eradicate.

Rangelands is a “jump-up”. The Age of Dinosaurs (located also near Winton) website is built also on a Jump-Up. On their website they say (https://www.australianageofdinosaurs.com/page/55/australian-age-of-dinosaurs-the-jump-up) “Like much of the Winton Shire, The Jump-Up is part of the Winton Formation, which is dated around 95–98 million years old. As the cap-rock surface of The Jump-Up is solid rock it has resisted erosion throughout a period of deep weathering that has eroded the surrounding countryside.”

At Rangelands it is possible while standing on a Jump-Up, to observe another Jump-up to the east. The rock itself has eroded to form channels and outcrops which it was fun to explore. I’ll leave the photos at ianmarksphotography.com/rangelands to help you understand this wonderful part of the world.

Again I used my trusty Fuji X-Pro2 with the Fuji XF 60mm lens and processed the photos using Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro2.

Check out the moonrise on my previous blog!

Till next time

Ian

Black and White or Colour in Travel (and Landscape) Photography

I recently travelled to Winton in outback Queensland for an art trip with my wife Sue and some friends. We were lucky enough to meet up with a local lady, Sasha, who was able to take us to Rangelands Station, a few kms north of Winton on the Kennedy Developmental Road. It was an amazing landscape with many photo opportunities.

We were also fortunate to be able to visit the day after the Full Moon, so sunset and moon rise nearly occurred simultaneously. We enjoyed sunset with wine and nibbles, very nice, while taking photos of both the sunset and the moon rise.

Those people who know my photography would be aware that my photography has been exclusively black and white for over a year now. My Fuji X-Pro2 has been setup with the Fuji Acros Film Simulation so I see black and white through the viewfinder and also the back screen. I then process my photos mainly using Silver Efex Pro2 from Nik Software.

As this week started I had a preliminary look at the photos I made on the trip and started to process them. I processed this particular photo a couple of times before I was happy with it, but found the processing a bit ho-hum. I seemed to have settled into a routine with my processing, so then, after watching a few processing videos, changed my processing with the photo above being the finished product.

Usually I am satisfied with this but for the first time in quite a while I wondered what it would be like in colour. When I had a look I really liked the colour out of the camera and then used Color Efex Pro 2 (again Nik Software) to make a colour version which I was also happy with.

For those interested, I used the Fuji 60mm lens (90mm as a 35mm equivalent) to make the photo with settings f4.0 and 1/90th of a second.

I like them both as I think they tell slightly different stories. It has however, led to me to question whether I should process exclusively in black and white. For now I think I will treat each photo on its merit as either a black and white or a colour image, or maybe both! What do you think?

Check out more photos at ianmarksphotography.com .

Till next time

Ian