Photo Review September - November 2016

Imagine two talented photographers who both decide to capture a particularly spectacular waterfall somewhere in the Tasmanian wilderness. The first is a devotee of large format film photography and to get the picture, he and his assistant have to hike for days to reach the location. Then he has to climb up a treacherous hillside with his big camera, film holders, light meter and tripod in order to get the angle he wants for his picture. His friend, the second photographer, is a quadriplegic confined to her home in Sydney. However, despite her significant incapacity, she has become a superb drone operator and on this occasion has persuaded her friend and his assistant to carry her latest machine with them. Thanks to some technical wizardry (hey, it’s a thought experiment!),…

A drone – quite literally – allows a camera to go where it has never gone before, and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has announced it will ‘cut the red tape’ for commercial drone operators. As a photographer’s tool the standard consumer drone can capture artistic aerial footage, shoot commercial photos, and assist industrial operations and scientific research. But the current regulation, set to be overhauled from 29 September, prevents anyone without a CASA Operator’s Certificate profiting from these unseen aerial angles. Soon any commercial operator flying a drone weighing less than 2kg will need only to give CASA a heads-up of their plans, and follow carefully the mandatory operating conditions. This includes flying only during the day in visual line of sight and below 120 metres; keeping more…

‘If you try to manipulate behaviour or a situation, you’ll never capture what’s happening naturally in the moment.’ It’s hard keeping up with Sydney-based wildlife and underwater photographer Scott Portelli – even on the phone. ‘Right now I’m in Rapid Bay in South Australia, scuba diving among leafy seadragons,’ he says. ‘I’ve also been to the Australian giant cuttlefish breeding aggregation and diving with great white sharks, and I’ll be going to sinkholes over Mt Gambier way where you can dive.’ Portelli was on a two-week trip to witness seasonal wildlife events and ‘reccy’ places in Australia he hadn’t been to before in preparation for extending his range of on-location workshops and guided tours. He also takes groups of photographers and filmmakers to remote destinations in many other parts of…

‘I really needed a challenge and didn’t think studying something that I wasn’t passionate about was going to work.’ When Belgium-born Chris Eyre-Walker was a kid, his parents were frequent travellers. ‘Every year we’d do a big trip somewhere – Africa, Central America, Asia... a lot of places,’ he said. ‘We always had a camera with us, so I got in touch with photography that way. Always having interesting new subjects like that, you get fascinated about capturing those moments and the travels.’ While photography has been a part of his life for a long time, Chris didn’t start to think of himself as a photographer until he was in his twenties. ‘I ended up after high school not knowing what to study, so I went into the army at…

Why visit While most visitors to Alice Springs concentrate upon the ranges to the west of the city, the less-popular East MacDonnell Ranges can be just as good for photographers and you’re less likely to have shots compromised by intrusive visitors. Many areas have creek beds that attract birds and a wide range of scrub birds can be found when conditions are suitable. The area is also rich in Aboriginal history, with sites containing interesting rock art, which are important spiritual sites to the Aboriginal people of the region. Many sites are easily reached by walking tracks that can be negotiated by anyone with normal fitness, although most can’t be accessed by wheelchairs. The trip we suggest can be accomplished within a day and is based upon having accommodation in…

This Insider is a follow-up to the one in Issue 67, where we looked at which camera could be considered ‘the best’ in different situations. Since the camera you have with you is most likely to fill that role in the widest range of situations, naturally we included smartphones, which have become so ubiquitous they have decimated the lower end of the compact digicam market in recent years. Since Issue 67, a few developments have taken place. Smartphones are starting to offer features that appeal to serious photographers, particularly P, A, S and M shooting modes and the ability to capture raw files. In addition, serious reviewers have begun to subject them to some degree of technical testing. These developments have prompted us to acquire the top-rated smartphone for imaging…