On my Tasmania tours, I don’t just shoot landscapes but I encourage you to photograph ‘the little things’ like flora: wildflowers, weeds, tiny branches….we make time!……it’s easy to get lost in macro photography, (although it’s harder when you’re old with knee issues (like me). Cradle Mountain is …..the clean crisp air, the flowers and trees, the wombats and the wallabies…..the rainforest….the alpine wildness…it’s all there for you! There’s a reason it’s on the UNESCO World Heritage Register . Pristine wilderness, protected areas, I’m so excited to share this location with my guests on my NEW West Coast and Cradle Mountain photo tour in Tasmania in November. Message me to book.
Melshells Oyster Shack
On my recent Tasmania photography workshop, I added something a little different to the week, because as much as I love landscapes, that is not all there is to shoot! Sunrises and sunsets of beautiful locations are really amazing, but I also like behind-the-scenes or documentary style photography too.
Tasmania is known for its delicious oysters, so I approached Cassie at Melshell Oyster Shack (a family business) with my idea some months back, and she was totally on board. I picked up some hi-vis vests for my group to wear, and we wandered around the oyster place (safely!) with Cassie explaining all about the oyster production from beginning to end. We photographed the men coming back with their boat and a haul of oysters and saw what happens to them from there, right up to sorting, bagging, and even shucking some too. We were inside, outside, and around the vintage caravan that sells oysters straight to the hungry tourists who seem to drop by in droves to taste them. What a fun morning!
Sometimes it’s nice to concentrate on the little details as opposed to a wide all-encompassing image. The property is full of gorgeous and quirky things like…pink flamingos, heaps and heaps of empty oyster shells made into fences, tables and chairs by the river, a tiny jetty, and so much more!
The Melrose family has been farming Pacific Oysters successfully since 1984 and they are well worth a visit. To find out more about Melshells, or visit them next time you’re in Tassie, check them out on https://melshelloysters.com.au/melshell-story/ 😊
Tasmania
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
