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Behind The Lens
Location
This was a picture from the Tasman peninsula in southern Tasmania, in the hills above Marion Bay.Time
A "reluctant" dawn shoot (I'm not good at starts before sunrise). A somewhat persuasive and enthusiastic friend decided we were going to shoot the dawn together.Lighting
Because of its southern latitude both dawn and sunset in Tasmania can often be quite colorful. The golden few minutes of rapidly changing sunlight angle also provides something of a challenge to a photographer. Catching more than one landscape scene at its best before the light's lost requires fast legwork.Equipment
This shot was with a Canon 6D full frame camera using their reasonably versatile stock Canon 24-105mm kit lens.Inspiration
As a well visited tourist island, Tasmania provides breathtaking scenery around much of it's rugged coastline. As a resident of two years I find myself concentrating more now on the roads less travelled and the unexpected treasures they might turn up. In this instance a winding country back-road in the steep hills combined well with the golden morning light to provide a backdrop to silhouette the Australian gumtrees against.Editing
Because I shoot 20 meg RAW files to maximise the information gathered, the shots usually require some post processing. I use Lightroom to get the best from my shots. In this instance the colorful sky was useful and didn't need very much white balance shift to achieve the background color. Shadow detail needed to also be boosted. A HDR (high dynamic range) shot may have been useful in this instance but I've found the Canon 6D has a reasonably wide dynamic range already and was usually capable of this sort of capture in normal mode.In my camera bag
I tend to travel with my total camera kit, packed in two foam lined cases, so I can't miss the shots that I used to. It takes the "I wish I'd bought my..." out of the equation. One case for my 3 camera bodies and 3 Samyang wide-angle, low light lenses that are usually used for aurora shooting. The other case has my landscape and general purpose lenses, from a prime 50mm to a 100-400mm Canon and its tele extender. This case also has pockets for the other miscellany, radio shutter releases, due to my advancing years obligatory close-up glasses, (ain't age a b..ch?), spare cards, batteries, lens warmers and anything else I may want to cram in for a particular shoot. 2 ball-head Manfrotto (yes, they are worth the extra spend) tripods complete the picture. I also have a drone that travels in it's own case but it doesn't go on every trip.Feedback
If you want to shoot the dawn make sure your travel time is more than adequate and rug up if it's to be in Tasmania. The delay caused by insomniac milk cows steaming up the pre-dawn light as they were being herded across a back-road to their morning milking almost lost me this shot. It did provide another photo-op though. Another tip is not to have your car heater running at too high a temperature, taking a warm camera out of the car into a cold dawn and misting the lens can delay a quick response to changing light.