In Hobart for the AIPP

I have just returned from the capital of Tasmania, our small but beautiful southern island. Hobart is such a lovely town and I have the pleasure of being there for the better part of three days so I could speak at a convention for...two hours.Yeah, I have to admit...really liked that idea.

I was simply forced to take some time out and travel around, photographing beautiful Richmond and the simultaneously haunting and picturesque ruins of the former penal colony of Port Arthur.

My presentation to the photographers at the AIPP convention was on the subject of Creative Flash Photography, which I love talking about. I am a serious fan of off camera flash and its ability to create images where less than acceptable opportunities abound. I was able to speak to fellow professionals and also a few neophytes to our wonderful art about the creative power of the most portable lighting a photographer could imagine. After cutting my normal presentation down from its usual two hours to only one, I had one hour left to take the photographers into Salamanca Place and run through a few techniques. Being short of a hired model, I chose Thomas, a humourous American photographer who happened to get himself 'volunteered'.

As I said, it was also a great chance to revisit Port Arthur, which appeared in the news about a dozen years ago when mass murderer, Martin Bryant, killed many tourists and locals on this site. Its history as a penal colony is devoid of human rights, and this event only makes this location all the more macabre. However, its ruins and its landscape are truly amazing and I enjoyed the chance to photograph this place digitally. The last time I was there the light was poor and I was using film. This time, everything was different.

Richmond is also a lovely little tourist town. Its famous and very beautiful bridge has been a Mecca for Australian photographers for many years. I took the opportunity to photograph it twice over this past weekend - once in the evening, and then again the following morning. The graves at the local church are also interesting for photography and even for a history lesson. All in all, it was a lovely weekend. Tasmania even turned on the sunshine for me. I left as it began to rain...