photo tours — Blog — Wanda Craswell Photography

I know everyone is so time-poor with work and family and ….life…..but honestly, make the time!! I just spent 29 hours, that’s just over ONE whole day and overnight in the Southern Downs, an area south of Toowoomba in Queensland. Rich with farms, crops, old buildings and the odd cowboy, I highly recommend it, especially if you are a city girl (well, a coast girl) like me. We left the Sunny Coast and travelled inland and then south (note: it’s a 3.5 hour drive non-stop), where we stopped at the gorgeous Back Plains church, a privately owned historic Catholic church. We respected the owner and the fence and did not enter the area but took some photos from the fenceline. It’s a gorgeous old timber church with so much character! We were on a bit of a mission to find sunflowers but ultimately we didn’t even care in the end because we found so much more!

Now, of course, a good road trip requires SNACKS and good company. Nicky was in charge of both, AND she did all the driving, which is very awesome for me as I would always prefer being a passenger/navigator. We ended up at Duchess Farm Stay, a really sweet cabin on a farm near Nobby with oh my goodness. GOATS of all things, they were just adorable. And not just goats but Misty the dog, and some small cows and sheep and even chickens right outside our door. We did, in fact, find sunflowers and the timing could not have been better to get Nicky into a dress and put her ribboned hat on and we had a hilarious time taking photos outside of the crop (again….we did not enter the crop at all….we respect farmers here, and private property, and the associated bio-hazards. PLEASE always show the same consideration).

We also saw the most incredible sorghum crops, fiery red in the afternoon light, and silhouettes of horses and trees, and and and the beauty of the rural area really shone through. And of course….silos…windmills and things we find interesting….it never stopped! When we finally went to bed around 10pm Nicky noticed the sky exploding with a bajillion stars and so we had to get up and go outside and take more photos. It really was fantastic, with the dark country skies showing the most amazing sight. In the morning we went back to the sunflowers and the sorghum and then slowly made our way home, stopping in Kilcoy for lunch. What a fun trip! What do you think….worth the trip or not? Please comment below!

Tasmania, a small island state at the bottom of Australia, who knew it was so full of natural beauty, friendly locals and crazy weather? I was just there in April, doing a whirlwind road trip around a big circle (not nearly big enough) of Tassy, enjoying rainy moody weather (east coast), snow and sideways driving rain (Cradle Mountain), sunny days and cold mornings, and beautiful sunset skies. Here’s the thing - on PAPER, Tassy looks like a tiny place, but once you start driving the winding, curving roads, and stopping every five minutes because OH A JETTY! and OH RED ROCKS! and OH REFLECTIONS! and highland cows and lone trees and ………….you get the picture. Leave a lot of time to drive from A to B, okay?

As a photographer, I love to explore places, and get away from the cities and the buildings, and it’s easy to do that in Tassy. The environment is so different - you’ve got the west coast around Strahan with still water and timber jetties, and then in the mountains with curving roads and a mining-devastated landscape (although beautiful in its own way), there’s sea stacks and big rocks and crashing ocean waves, and who could ever go past the stunning Bay of Fires, with turquoise waters, white sand and orangey-red rocks.

I feel like Tasmania is like a mini-New Zealand in a way, so much to photograph, and so much to do: hiking, walking, camping, all of the things i love to experience with nature as a backdrop. In fact I love it so much, i’m now sharing it with photographers - running photography workshops down there (check out info on my next trip under Workshops). xx