Tarkine Rainforest

Panoramic photograph of photographers:
Rob at the left, Jonathan left of center, and Nick in the distance at the far right.

We roused ourselves before the target of 0530 for breakfast at 0600. As mentioned before, the bright sunshine makes photography a challenge on the forest floor, so Rob targeted the west facing slopes around the camp for our attentions this morning. We spent about 2 1/2 hours working our way around the shade of the ridge taking numerous photos. When the sun got too high and made photography virtually impossible, we returned to the longhouse and after a break, Rob demonstrated focus stacking and stitching (both in the X and Y dimensions).

Rob and Nick went out on a walk in the early afternoon while Jonathan took a nap while Ira and I stayed at the longhouse. I started processing photos from this trip. At about 1600 Rob led us down the trail into the steep ravine below the longhouse to photograph vegetation around the area. While down there, Ira got a superb shot of a female pink robin (Petroica rodinogaster) while borrowing one of Rob’s lenses. Having climbed back out of the ravine (I forgot my walking stick), we adjourned to the long house for entrée and wine before dinner.

Because this tour was a photography workshop, our hiking patterns were different from previous experiences. We would walk to an area (in this case dictated by a minimum of sun/maximize shade) and spend about 90 to 150 minutes taking photographs. This was in contrast to continually moving along a path where I would take snaps of plants, people, and landscapes as they tickled my imagination. Thus there isn't a lot of flora/fauna identification compared with previous excursions.

Click on the images for a larger view.

Cluster of fiddleheads.

Focus stack
looking down the length of a fallen giant.

Focus stack
side view.

Focus stack
looks like a floating brain to me; I think I've read too much science fiction.

Focus stack
side view; I used a crop across the top as the banner at the bottom of the page.

Focus stack
fallen tree fern with growth.

Lichen.

Jo got into the photography also.

The yellow green little fernlet will put down roots when the parent frond reaches the ground.

Capturing the light on a fern frond in the dim understorey.

Jonathan taking a snap. I caught his Canon EOS infrared focusing sensor in action.

Focus stack
I think this is nothofagus leaves with moss in the background.

Taken to capture a different moss' texture.

Ramen for lunch.

Fungus and mushrooms were taking advantage of all that rotting cellulose.

A shelf fungus looking a bit like a platypus bill.

A side view of a fiddlehead.

Fiddlehead.

I liked the structure of the fronds in the crown of this Dicksonia antarctica tree fern.

Fiddlehead - I seem to have a fascination for them.

The map at the longhouse showed our location with a dot, just a bit below and left of image center.

Google Maps, using the geotag from the ramen noodle image, shown at approximately the same scale.

Zooming out on the map to show the northwest corner of Tasmania.

2018.11.19.1715 Tiger Ridge Longhouse, Tarkine Rainforest, Tasmania

After dinner we reconvened with Rob to go over composition. Using his big screen iMac, he displayed a series of photographs - all Tarkine and Tasmania related - that he had “pinched” from the internet while we commented on the we liked the composition or not, what worked or didn’t, and other commentary.

A variety of ferns across a surface