This was the first time Lucas, our three year old, had seen the snow.  He really loved it. This is is first ever snowman, who he was very very sad to have to leave behind when we left…

This is another snowman I found, he was actually pretty tall, and was standing just off the side of the road near the observation deck.

Just a quick post today, of the grass seeds blowing around in the wind on the side of the road.

Love the natural vignette in this shot.

I took this shot this afternoon around the back of Brighton, the sun hitting the dry hill juxtaposed nicely with the dark storm clouds forming overhead .

Cremorne Beach, just out of Hobart

I love the soft dreamy, surreal look of the images from the crummy plastic lens on cameras like this and my Holga 120CFN.  The randomness of focus, composition and exposure -these cameras have no light meter and only basic exposure settings, though the Diana is somewhat more sophisticated than the Holga – the vignetting and the light leaks all add to the fun.

My little photography assistant, Lucas, at the West Hobart Train Park

I can run regular 35mm though the cameras but they are designed to use medium format film. If you use 35mm film,, you miss out on the wonderful vignetting and softness around the corners of the lens.

Bathurst St, Hobart

However the cost of this film and its associated developing and scanning mean using these cameras with this film can be a fairly expensive.  Each shot can work out to cost about $4 or $5, and you have to think twice about taking a shot, where as ideally you wouldn’t think about shooting with such a camera. Still, these cameras are great fun and a nice bit of relief from the seriousness of modern DSLR photography.

We got to the summit of Mt Wellington, admired the view and then concluded it was far too cold for our 30 something bones, so we were soon back in the car looking for a warmer location. We ended up at the eastern shore end of the Tasman Bridge.

Long hand held exposures, lots of lights and zoom lenses are good fun.

Finally, a shot looking down the Derwent River towards the Hobart CBD and Wrest Point Casino.

On a different note, I thought I might put up a few images from a trip into Tasmania’s south west I made a couple of months ago with good photographer friends Andrew Skegg and Alex Wise.

Bushy Park

Westerway Station had a very nostalgic feel about it.

An old railway signpost. I guess this means 49 miles to Hobart?

This old abandoned property is around the back of Maydeena.

And of course we stopped at Mt Field National Park. The shot of Russell Falls particularly hard to grab due to the wind spraying my lens with a fine mist which was visible in most of the shots I took of the falls.

The South West is only a short drive from Hobart and very very worth it. There is lots of ecotourism planned for the Maydeena area, not to mention the National Park, lakes, mountains, and little townships. Spend a day or a weekend and explore!

And this shot is around at Cosy Corner, further up the Bay of Fires. Something different to the norm here.

Such a lovely spot and well worth a visit or even better a stay for a few nights.

Just been having a big cleanout of my photo library, and came across this one from July 2008, when my mate and very talented landscape/seascape photographer Alex Wise and I visited Taroona Beach for some sunrise photos.

This shot of their camel was taken from the “Safari Bus” that runs you around the upper paddocks, through the Emu and Ostrich pens, farmyard animals and lastly the camels paddock.

Of course, big cats being big cats, they did not want to co-operate, and spent most of their time sleeping with their back to me, making getting photos a chore given the limited time frame I had to work with. I guess a few chooks over the fence may have bought them to life a bit more…

This shot was during the lion feeding, but they were only being thrown small bits of meat so there was no ripping of flesh off a carcass or anything like that.  All very civilised really.