Luke O’Brien Photography

Part 3 of my guide to Tasmania’s Best 5 Photography Locations: The Tasman Peninsula, south east of Hobart.

The Tasman Peninsula is approximately an hours drive from Hobart, and immediately upon reaching the Peninsula you find yourself at one of the most iconic locations in the area – the Tessellated Pavements at Eaglehawk Neck. This area is much loved by landscape photographers due to the dramatic and strong lines that have formed in the rock and the east facing aspect of the landscape – ie great for pre-dawn long exposures.

Sunrise, Tessellated Pavement at Eaglehawk Neck

Further into the Peninsula and you come to some classic walking tracks. Two are easy day walks (Cape Hauy and Cape Raoul) and the third, Cape Pillar needs at least one night away. The cliffs of the region are made of dolerite, meaning they are very smooth, straight and sheer columns of rock, and in some spots 100s of metre in height.

Morning, Cape Raoul, Tasman Peninsula

You can make your way quite close to the edge of some of these columns and the views along the coast are spectacular. Offshore islands such as the Hippolyte Rocks and Tasman Island add for some interest on the horizon, and lichen and the bleached white branches of some of the low lying shrubs provide some subject matter for more abstract or macro photography.

Cape Hauy, Tasman Peninsula

Another beautiful part of the peninsula is the isolated beach at Crescent Bay. Brown Mountain is at one end of the beach, and a rocky headland at the other, and nice sand dunes run along the back end of the beach. Well worth a visit.

These Australian nature photos perfectly capture the great contrasts of our land. From the tropical north which experiences wet monsoon rains each summer and a prolonged dry season through winter; to the arid and dry inland which makes up most of the continent; and the green forest fringe of the coastlines. Tasmania is an island, and due to its location at the southernmost part of Australia also has a wide variety of landscapes, and I am presenting these images as a summary of the variety of landscapes that can be experienced here.

East Coast: The eastern half of Tasmania is known for long sandy beaches and gentler, lower mountains, typified by The Hazards, a granite range at the centre of the Freycinet National Park.

Wineglass Bay, Freycinet Peninsula - View from the Hazards

The south east corner is home to very tall and sheer sea cliffs, which are made of dolerite, and drop vertically for 200+ metres in some places. The Tasman Peninsula and Bruny Island are great locations to view this coastline, either by a tourist-friendly sea cruise, or on foot.

Cape Hauy, Tasman Peninsula. Night Scene.

Moving inland from the east coast is a corridor of green. Dry and tall eucalypt forest, as well as grasslands and more shrubby eucalypt forest, and further inland is the tall wet forest that Tasmania is renowned for. Eucalypts in excess of 90 metres stand above ancient Gondwanic rainforest. Mt Field National Park and the Styx Valley of the Giants are great locations to photograph for any visitor to Tasmania.

Tasmanian Rainforest Scene, South West Tasmania

The rainforest and tall trees soon give way to the mountains of the Centre and West Coast which are a popular subject for nature photos. The most famous walk in this region is the Overland Track, which stretches from Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake in the north, to Lake St Clair in the south.

Mirror like reflections of Cradle Mountain on Dove Lake - NB - it doesn't look like this everyday!

Lake St Clair and Mt Ida, from Echo Point

The north west is home to the Tarkine, which is home to Australia’s largest rainforest. The region includes a wild, untouched coastline, and vast buttongrass plains, and has become a major tourism location in Tasmania. Most of the rainforest is inaccessible, other than by days on foot, but great walks to introduce yourself to the region include Philosopher’s Falls, and Mt Donaldson.

Tasmania's Tarkine, dawn from Mt Donaldson

And, moving further north we have a remarkable natural formation called The Nut, at Stanley. This rocky mound is all that is left of an ancient volcano, and can be climbed (or you can ride the chair lift) in only a few minutes. There is a walking trail around the top of The Nut which takes 30 minutes or so.

The Southern Cross swirls above The Nut, in Tasmania's Stanley

There was a time, before DSLR’s, when a Photo Shop was a brick and mortar business on the main streets of towns just like yours. When chemical processing and dark rooms turned film negatives into our cherished images, and no previews on bright LCD screens illuminated our photo taking. Most of photographic history was spent in such a time, and debates about current technologic advances and the pros and cons of such are best left to other forums, but a couple of years ago, when I was sans-DSLR for a time I had need to load some film into my 1st ever SLR, the trusty ol’ Pentax MZ-50, and shoot without the safety nets of an LCD screen for previewing, and the vastly increased storage space of 8&16 GB memory cards. Instead I loaded a roll of Fuji Reala Ace (24 shots – remember those days!!), left over from some forgotten age, and had a night on Crescent Bay.  Here are some of the results, “From the Vault…”

Sunrise from Crescent Bay, with Tasman Island on the horizon.

Crescent Bay, view from Brown Mountain

Sand Dunes on Crescent Bay

Cape Hauy is another classic day walk on the Tasman Peninsula, on the way to Port Arthur. The walk leaves from Fortescue Bay, and is a little less than 2 hours one way. The views up and down the coast, from Pirates Bay in the north all the way down south towards Cape Pillar and Tasman Island are fantastic. Not to mention the close up views of the Lanterns, with the smaller stack of dolerite columns (known as the Candlestick) and the even more slender Totem Pole (visible in the image below); and the Hippolyte Rocks, a granite outcrop, just a short distance off the coast.

Dusk colours over Cape Hauy

The columns of the region are all dolerite – the very same type of rock present on Hobart’s Mt Wellington, and Cradle Mt and the Overland Track. Looking at the drop of 100+ metres literally straight down requires quite a steady head! The weather was very calm and clear – one of the best days we’ve had in a while actually. The evening threw up a lovely pink through the eastern sky (above) and stayed clear with a very close to full moon providing enough light for a nice long exposure of the Lanterns (below).

A 3/4 full moon lights up the lanterns and the sea off Cape Hauy, Tasmania

The trip came with a downside though - my polariser made a sudden dash for freedom while I was removing it for the morning shoot, dropping out of my hand and rolling smoothly right off the edge of the columns, 100+ metres straight down - the plastic $5 lens cap needless to say wedged itself snugly between a couple of rocks and stayed put… I would have preferred to lose the lens cap if I had to lose something…

Dawn, Tasman Peninsula - view towards Cape Pillar

The other day we spent a night out at Cape Raoul, approx 5 hour return walk, which is most often done as a return day walk. There is however a fantastic grassed area only about 1 km from the Cape itself which offers great camping. For photography it really isn’t rewarding taking beach & coast scenes during the midday hours when the sun is bright and the shadows are harsh - its dawn and dusk or its nothing! 

Cape Raoul

I have a few more images from the trip on the walls at 46 Melville St, come in and have a look! Monday to Friday 10:00 ~ 6:00; Saturday 10:00 ~ 3:00.

Luke