Watch a ship burn at Vivid Sydney

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Vivid Sydney is the largest international music and light festival in the Southern Hemisphere (at least according to the press release they sent me). It starts May 26 and runs through June 14, so you still have time to book your tickets. If Jetstar fits into your travel plans, just make sure you fit into a Jetstar seat …

“The inaugural year of Vivid Sydney is an exciting milestone in the establishment of Sydney as the cultural epicenter of the Asia-Pacific,” says Jodi McKay, New South Wales Minister for Tourism. “Our city possesses a wealth of creative talent across a variety of industries and this unique event illuminates the city’s most vibrant citizens.”

Vivid Sydney consists of four events, artistic villages and performances in and near the Sydney Opera House, The Rocks, Circular Quay and the City Center. Luminous, a music festival at the opera house, has Brian Eno at the helm. I’ve never heard of him, but apparently he’s worked with the likes of David Bowie, U2 and … you better believe it … the Talking Heads!

Smart Light Sydney, part of the Vivid Sydney experience, offers sculptures in light art and is the brainchild of Sydney born lighting designer and composer Mary-Anne Kyriakou.

Fire Water is a free event that blends “flame, food and spectacle.” A publicist said it, so it must be true. It will showcase an interpretation of the burning of convict ship Three bees, which sank in Sydney Cove in 1814. I have to admit, that actually does sound pretty amazing.

“We have some of the city’s best creative minds working on this festival, and we are confident that in time Vivid Sydney will attract the same level of international attention as the City’s New Year’s Eve celebrations on Sydney Harbour,” says Geoff Parmenter, Chief Executive Officer, Events New South Wales.

Backpackers learn how to steal Australian travel

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s really pretty simple. Foreign backpackers go to Australia. For several weeks, they’ll wander the country, get drunk and … I don’t know … go to the opera. When the trip’s over, these visitors file fake income claims, which get them thousands of dollars in tax refunds – despite not having actually worked (and thus not having paid any taxes).

Through word of mouth, and probably a few blog posts, word has spread, and it’s really kicking Aussie authorities in the wallet. And, the government is powerless. By the time they catch up with fraudsters, there usually isn’t much money left. Off course, the amounts are known to be too small for the Australian Tax Office to pursue them overseas.

But, this is illegal. Of the hundreds of thousands of backpackers who visited Australia last year, 44 were prosecuted successfully. Knowing my luck, I would have been one of them.

Chimu Adventures revenue pops 300% for South America, Antarctica tours

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Chimu Adventures, which operates tours in South America and Antarctica, seems to have found a winning formula for these trying economic times. For the first quarter of 2009, revenue shot 310 percent higher relative to the same quarter last year.

These types of excursion aren’t cheap, so why are travelers still shelling out their hard-earned cash for such high-end experiences? Company directors Greg Carter and Chad Carey cite the value offered, “Travelers are looking to save money in these uncertain times yet still want a high quality tourism product. This is where the internet becomes a very important tool and we have seen a growing trend towards online sales. This confirms our belief that the days of high street traditional travel agents are numbered and innovation and specialization is the key to their future growth.”

Low-cost airfares from Australia (Chimu’s core market) to South America have sparked a lot of interest in these deals, as well, “We have regularly seen return airfares to Buenos Aires and Santiago for Aud$1400, Aud$1300 and even as low as $1100 which was just unthinkable a year ago.” And, it’s a shorter flight than Europe or the United States. “People will still always want to go travelling, even in these tough times but are looking for shorter and more affordable alternatives.”

Through the Gadling Lens: adding some oomph to your landscape shots

by Karen Walrond on

I was recently talking to a friend of mine, and he was lamenting the fact that his landscape photographs seemed a bit “boring.” “I look at all these other landscapes in the Gadling flickr pool,” he said, “and they’re so much more exciting than mine. What can I do to make my shots more compelling?”

To be honest, of all my photography, I struggle with making my landscapes interesting more than any other — shooting people is easy, I think. It’s really good scenery that’s difficult. And so I thought I’d go through some of the amazing landscape photographs in our Flickr pool, and point out some of their aspects that make them compelling. With some luck, some of the observations will help catapult us all into become the Ansel Adams-quality photographers we all can be.
1. Shoot with a relatively wide angle lens.

First things first: make sure that you’re using the right lens. As you probably remember, we discussed the various types of lens for various types of photography before — and the upshot is that if you’re shooting a landscape, you need a lens with a smaller focal length, rather than one with a larger focal length. For most landscape photography, I would choose a lens of, say 50mm or less. If you choose one much larger — say 100 mm — you’ll likely be disappointed how much of the scenery the lens crops out of the resulting image (although that type of lens is fabulous for portrait photography).

2. Consider focusing on the foreground.

Like many of you, I’m sure, when I’m taking a photograph of a landscape, I tend to focus on the horizon, figuring that it makes the most sense: “looking out there,” after all, tends to be what we do when we take in beautiful scenery.

However.

In looking through the Gadling photo pool, I’ve noticed that there are some photographers who, when taking their amazing shots, focus instead on the foreground, rather than the horizon. And as I think about it, this seems completely logical: after all, when we look out at a vista, our eyes naturally see all of the details closer to us, and what’s farther away isn’t as detailed. Why didn’t I think of this?

The following are some great examples of what I mean:

The two photographs, above, were shared by arex and shot in the San Francisco Bay area (as is likely obvious by the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in the background of the second image). Notice how, in addition to using a wide angle lens, arex focused on the details in the foreground: the foam of the advancing wave in the first picture, and the bubbles of the retreating wave in the second? By focusing in the foreground, arex added a wonderful depth to the image, which conveys how beautifully vast the vista was. If, instead, arex had focused on the horizon, I don’t think the image would’ve been nearly as impactful.

3. Add people to the foreground, to help emphasize scale.

Sometimes, when you take a shot of a beautiful vista, it can be difficult to really communicate how vast the scenery is, or how massive the mountain, or how expansive the ocean. One great way to express the impressive nature of your shot is to place someone in the foreground for the purpose of scale.

Here’s what I mean:

See how the figures in the foregrounds of each of the images shared by jlaceda and Buck Forester, above, show the scale of the scenery behind them? I love how huge the view looks behind the person in the first image, and I really love how the figure in the second image has his back to the camera, and indicates toward the view: this sort of stance helps direct your focus, rather than compete with your attention as it would have had he faced forward. Beautiful work, both.

4. Consider using a novelty lens.

Novelty lenses can be considered more of an extravagance than a necessity; however, they can add wonderful dimension to a landscape shop. I’m a fan of the Lensbaby, a series of lenses designed for SLR cameras that can help you “selectively focus” on certain aspects of your image, leaving the remaining images deliciously out-of-focus. Here’s are a couple of great examples:

Both of the above images were shot and shared by ashcrowe, using a Lensbaby lens. Notice how there is a portion of each image that is in sharp focus (known as the “sweet spot”), while the rest of the surrounding portions of the image increasingly blur? The result is a lovely nostalgic effect, which plays beautifully to the antique subjects of the photographs, and makes for a compelling landscape photograph. Great work.

4. And finally, don’t underestimate the power of Photoshop.

Or, for that matter, any post-camera processing software. I’ve discussed before how I believe that post-camera processing is a tool for conveying exactly what the photographer was experiencing at the time of the shot, and I really believe that this sentiment is never more true as in the realm of landscape photography. In fact, when it comes to landscapes, I’m far more likely to really go to town in using photoshop, because it helps convey exactly the type of mood I was in, or the emotions I was feeling at the time of the shot. And the following are wonderful examples of exactly what I’m talking about:

The really fabulous shot shared by crafterm in Tasmania, Australia is made only more stunning by his processing treatment post-camera. The boat sitting on the still water is quite old, and as crafterm says, “I’m sure it could tell quite a few stories judging its age and use.” He further makes his point by treating the photograph in a sepia tone — as a viewer, the image looks very vintage and classic, as well.

And finally, I really love the image above shared by B
ryn Tassell of the coastline on Vancouver Island. The photoshop treatment makes the entire scene other-worldly, not to mention conveys the absolute stillness of the water at the time of sunset. An absolutely amazing image.

Hopefully you find the handful of tips above useful in keeping at the back of your mind next time you’re out on your intrepid travels, and are capturing images of the stunning scenery. If you have any additional tips or images to share, please do so in the comments below. And as always, if you have any questions, feel free to send them directly to me at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom. I’m always happy to answer them here on Through the Gadling Lens.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more, click here.

Tasmania: Roadkill capital of the world

by Mike Barish on

Several weeks ago I was exploring Tasmania with my best friend, Sarah. We had a loose itinerary consisting of hikes at Cradle Mountain, exploring Freycinet National Park and a look at the prison in Port Arthur. Before we departed Sydney for Hobart, everyone warned us about two things that we’d encounter in Tasmania: dismal weather and more roadkill than we’d ever seen. Now, the weather prognostications didn’t shock me. Tasmania is known to be damp and significantly colder than mainland Australia. But roadkill? That seemed like an odd thing to mention. Little did we know that we would soon learn all too well that Tasmania truly is the roadkill capital of the world.

We arrived in Hobart and rented a car to head north to Cradle Mountain. It wasn’t long before we noticed that the roads were littered with dead rabbits, possums, and perhaps saddest of all, wallabies. Not 50 yards would go by without seeing the corpse of another animal who was just a bit too bold or a step too slow. At first, it didn’t register in our minds just how many dead animals we were seeing. In a few days time, however, we’d understand more clearly than we’d like.
Literally every road, highway and path in Tasmania has the remnants of the indigenous marsupials that are active between dusk and dawn. Their lifestyle is their downfall. These animals are active at night and the roads in Tasmania are curvy, hilly and not well lit. As such, every night becomes a bloodbath in the smallest Australian state. According to Roadkill in Tasmania, approximately 293,000 animals become roadkill in Tasmania annually. The roadkill is so dense that a dead animal on the road can be seen every three kilometers.

We learned this lesson with a close call during our first night on the island. We were leaving our backpackers site to get dinner down the road. The sun was rapidly setting and dusk was upon us. I slowly drove down the gravel road, not because I was wary of animals but because I wasn’t sure that our cheap rental could survive a gravel road. We hadn’t traveled more than 20 yards before the wallabies made themselves known. There were three foraging right alongside of the road. We crawled past them safely and laughed about how amazing it was that we had such a close encounter with a unique animal.

The days flew by in Tasmania as we hiked around Dove Lake and explored Wineglass Bay. All the while we began to become cognizant of the amount of roadkill that we had witnessed. But our personal understanding was still to come.

We left the Tasman Peninsula on our third day on the island and headed back towards the east coast to make our way to Bicheno. Having no agenda, we meandered our way there, stopping to see platypus, echidna and seahorses at various wildlife parks. Eventually, day turned into night and my friend Sarah found herself on one of the curviest stretches of the Tasman Highway. It was time for us to understand Tasmanian roadkill firsthand.

We were the only car in sight around 8:00PM on that early March evening. It was pitch black outside with the exception of our car’s high beams. Seemingly out of nowhere, a rabbit darted into the road in front of us. Remarkably, Sarah was able to avoid the tiny critter without incident. We joked about the near miss and quickly turned our attention back to finding any radio station that would work in this random part of Tasmania. Not two minutes later, it happened. Sarah gasped, there was a blur in front of us and then a thud that echoed both in feel and sound. The possum never had a chance.

To say that it ran into the road a mere foot in front of the car would be an understatement. If the it had been any closer to us, it would have ran into the side of the car. Sarah couldn’t have avoided it. A possum was dead and we had added to the public cemetery of animals on Tasmania. Not surprisingly, Sarah was startled and shaken. She slowed the car down to about 30 km/h and focused all of her attention straight ahead. About three minutes later, no more than ten feet ahead of us, was a wallaby. It was standing in the road. Staring at us. Was it suicidal? Hitchhiking? We didn’t know why it was standing in the most dangerous place possible, but Sarah slowed down even more and safely navigated around it.

We avoided night driving over the next two days. We had one encounter with a pademelon who ran in front of our car on a dirt road but he literally kept running ahead of us while we slowly traversed the uneven surface. Otherwise, we drove cautiously, without incident and by the light of the sun. During the day, the creatures of Tasmania are safely tucked away in trees and burrows.

We returned to Sydney with plenty of stories of Tasmania. The weather, remarkably, had been gorgeous. So, in that respect, our friends’ warnings were incorrect. But the tales of roadkill were all too true. However, there was one thing that no one had warned us about. You can’t exactly describe it as roadkill, but it still involves some of Tasmania’s smallest creatures. You see, there are a lot of bugs in Tasmania. And they, too, are active at night. And they don’t fair well against cars either.