Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania, sits at the feet of Mount Wellington. At 1270m, or 4166 feet it certainly has a presence. When the frequent rain or storm clouds gathering round its summit it has a brooding almost menacing presence, yet when the sun’s setting rays are reflected off the face then it appears gold, magnificent and verging on benevolent. It is quite something to behold.

 

 

During our recent visit to Tassie we spent a while in Hobart and our digs gave us magnificent views of the mountain. It was what we woke up to in the morning, and what we went to bed with at night. I never tired of the infinite variations on the view as the clouds and the sun interplayed with the surface. Tasmania also has a lot of deciduous trees and so we were also treated to a golden autumnal display. It was a challenge to try to capture the majesty of the mountain, the glorious colours, and the ever-changing cloudscape, especially with limited equipment, I had no tripod nor neutral density graduated filters, and the m4/3 Olympus Pen EP-2 has a limited dynamic range. So it was a case of bracketing exposures and shooting like crazy. It also meant that I had no real feed back on how my images were on the rear LCD screen as they weren’t  representative of the final image.

 

 

The mountain is criss crossed with walking tracks, but we took the easy option and drove to the summit, or the Pinnacle as it is officially known. There is a viewing deck that gives magnificent panoramic views out over the city and further, but, and there is always a but, the weather has to be good for this with no cloud cover. We were lucky and were rewarded with stunning vistas. Be warned it is also a lot colder on top of the mountain than in the city, according to the weather bureau 8℃ cooler, so on a winter’s day like we had it can be bitterly cold. The white patches in the shot below is ice and it was around midday.

 

 

Also near where we were staying was the Cascade Brewery, a magnificent piece of Tasmania Gothic architecture, and it seemed perfectly placed – a majestic building under a majestic mountain.

 

 

I’ve now finished all the photo processing so blog posts won’t be so few and far between now. Having said that I haven’t even looked at the video footage yet.