Hobart & Mt Wellington
Hobart is a great city, it really is like the “Wilderness Capital of Australia”. It is situated on the Derwent River, which is a large enough port that dozens of giant Cruise Ships come by every summer, the Antarctic research boats make their home here, and even Sea Shepherd seem to have adopted Hobart as a kind of unofficial home port before tackling the Antarctic whaling fleet every summer. And speaking of Antarctica, the only International flight to depart from Hobart “International” Airport in recent memory was the world’s first ever flight to the frozen continent!
Mt Wellington is 1270 metres high, and manages to attract cloud, rain, snow, deep freezes as well as blazing sun (including a major bushfire in 1967) and monstrous wind gusts. It is basically undeveloped, apart from the carpark and shelter right at the pinnacle. There are views from the top to a lot of the major mountains of south west Tasmania, and can be a visitors first taste of the wilderness that Tasmania is so celebrated for. From Hobart itself you only need to drive 1~2 hours in any direction to be a long way away from anywhere.
In terms of photography, Hobart has everything you could want. The Derwent is a large body of water, but the lights of the city and the imposing silhouette of the mountain make for great opportunities not too far from home (see the “Sunset Studies” images below). Slightly further afield are places like South Arm, Clifton Beach, and Red Ochre Beach.
It is usually the natural colours that I look for – eg spectacular sunrise or sunset colours, enhanced by long exposure, which also means that the movement of cloud and water etc all becomes smooth and fluid, as opposed to frozen midday snapshots. Closer to town however long exposure also means that the movement of traffic, smoke and artificial lighting all play a role too. Here is a selection of long exposure shots taken around Hobart over the past little while.