Australian Camera – November-December 2021
English | 86 pages | pdf | 57.82 MB

Welcome at Australian Camera Magazine November-December 2021 issue

WRITING THIS AS – IN NSW – THE PROSPECT of a picnic at a local park is being anticipated with the same enthusiasm as was once reserved for visiting much more exotic destinations overseas. Said park is within walking distance of my home, but this hasn’t diminished the excitement of leaving home and getting together with a couple of other people who aren’t family.
This got me thinking about all the remarkable places that I’ve been privileged to visit as part of doing my job. There have been new camera or lens launches all around the Asia-Pacifi c region – Japan (I’ve now clocked up 25 visits), Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, China and New Zealand – and, of course, all around Australia including the Kimberleys, the Barossa Valley, Uluru, Tasmania, Fraser Island, Norfolk Island and all the state capitals. Since Australian Camera magazine joined TIPA back in 2011, I’ve been able to go even further afi eld to attend the annual General Assemblies and awards judging – South Africa, Canada, USA, Dubai (actually getting out of the airport rather than just transiting through the terminals), Portugal and, most memorably, Cuba.
As I recalled all these memorable experiences with their many individual highlights, I thought it might be a challenge to pick a favourite trip. As it happens, it wasn’t, as one stood out easily as the most remarkable on several levels.
We didn’t leave Australia, but we did leave the mainland – aboard an 11-seat Cessna 208B Grand Caravan – to fi nd a tiny speck of land roughly 80 kilometres north-east of Bundaberg called Lady Elliot Island. It’s a coral cay that represents the southernmost tip of the Great Barrier Reef, and is around 45 hectares in area (which equates to roughly 50 football fi elds). The airstrip’s grass runway runs the length of the island, which is very regularly buffeted by high crosswinds that can make both landings and take-offs… well, let’s say, interesting. There’s a small eco-resort on the island, but at any one time the few humans are vastly outnumbered by the birds; the population exceeding 100,000 during the nesting season.
That’s a lot of birds packed into a very small space,but it isn’t just about the sheer numbers, it’s also about diversity with around 50 species of seabirds and waders to be found on the island during the year. It’s also home to 1,200 species of marine life, and a major sanctuary for both green and loggerhead sea turtles as well as manta rays. Not surprisingly then, there’s plenty of photography opportunities both on land and under water, and you don’t have to walk (or swim) very far either.
We were there in February 2008 with Panasonic Australia, who was launching the DMC-L10, its second Four Thirds Standard DSLR and, as it would turn out, its last, but also the evolutionary step
between the original L1 and the mirrorless Lumix G1 announced later that same year. PanasonicAustralia obviously had a thing about islands because, subsequently, we went to Singapore in 2009 (for the TZ7), New Zealand’s South Island in 2011 (for the TZ20), Norfolk Island in 2012 (for the TZ30), and Fraser Island in 2013 (for the GX7). Nothing, however, quite matched Lady Elliot Island for a totally different and totally involving experience… every sense was given a thorough workout as were the L10swe used for the couple of days we were there.
The short-lived L10 is now largely forgotten, and Panasonic quickly moved onto its pioneering Lumix G mirrorless system (incidentally, launched locally on 30 October 2008 at the
Sculpture By The Sea exhibition at Bondi Beach) which, of course, has gone on to bring wholesale change to the interchangeable lens camera market.
For the last two years, new camera launches have taken place in my home office via online presentations which, although still informative, simply don’t cut the mustard experientially… you can’t even handle the product. Will on-location launch events ever come back (it is, after all, very much cheaper to do it on Zoom)? Dunno, but even if they do, and even if they’re bigger and better than ever, a little lump of coral not far off the coast of Queensland and overrun with boobies and noddies is still going to take a whole lot of beating

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