Mount Tibrogargan Summit

This morning with Ben and my sister Hannah, I climbed the mountain that I've driven past since I was a child, yet never thought I would end up climbing. Mount Tibrogargan is a dangerous mountain, even at only 364m high. It's been home to helicopter rescues, injuries and even deaths since people began scaling it.

But there is a route that can be climbed with great care and with a decent bit of scrambling skill involved. I'm so glad I can finally say I've done this one.

The Best Thing I Ever Did In Photography

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There are two things that have made more of an impact on my photography than anything else and that is the gear I now use and the processing styles I have chosen.

35mm

For the last two years I have almost exclusively been shooting in landscape orientation with a 35mm equivalent lens and a single, lightweight and compact camera, and this has given me an enormous appreciation for consistency in the photographs I make. My photographs finally feel like they are truly "mine".

Before 2013, it's like I had no vision whatsoever. It was a free-for-all of focal lengths, orientations and post processing styles. Other than my portrait work, the DSLR and zoom lens was the ultimate consistency killer in my pictures.

Fast forward to now and no matter what I take, if it's a good photograph it feels like it fits perfectly alongside entirely different photographs because the perspective is the same and my style of framing is consistent.

VSCO Film

Discovering VSCO also had a profound impact on the way my photographs feel. Before this, I would change all kinds of settings in Lightroom and as a result each photograph felt different, not a part of a whole body of work.

For a while I was using Kodak Portra 400 colour and Ilford HP5+ B&W emulations but have since swapped to Fuji 800Z and Kodak Tri-X. As a result of using VSCO, my colour and tonal range is consistent.

The added benefit is that I know what I'm going to get when I'm out in the world ready to make a photograph. It's like using film because the film decides the colours and black and white tone for the most part. You have to make sure the subject matter works, and you let the processing set the mood, and you only tweak one or two things like exposure.

Conclusion

There's nothing more disorienting than looking through a body of work and finding that it doesn't actually feel like a body of work. While it may not become your whole way of shooting, I strongly encourage anyone struggling to find their way to reduce all gear options to a single focal length and camera and shoot that way for a good many months.

You may hate it or it, if you're like me, it may transform your photographic journey entirely.

Weekend Adventure Hikers

Springbrook Warrie Circuit

As I get older, it's becoming more and more of a joy to meet people who embrace the early hours of the morning, whether it's meeting for breakfast at 8am on a Sunday, or heading out onto the road to climb a mountain at sunrise.

The "morning person" persuasion seems to invoke a sense of adventure and enthusiasm for spontaneity in life, starting with an early rise into the world. These people seem to have an intangible thirst to get up and do things.

This has become an all too important aspect of life in the last few years as I discover what I'm truly passionate about doing each and every day. 

South East Queensland from Mount Greville (facing generally south)

I work four days a week in an office, and while I enjoy the work, I cherish each weekend that I can get outside in the sun. Hiking and climbing the mountains in South East Queensland has become a huge part of that, and I want to extend that to overseas.

So I created a Facebook group exactly for the purpose of pushing this lifestyle of weekend adventures, incorporating fitness and photography into the hiking.

If you are an enthusiastic hiker or photographer who loves sunrise mountain climbs, photography and/or fitness based hiking in the South East Queensland area, don't hesitate to join my Facebook group to see photos, discuss hikes and join events.

Weekend Adventure Hikers on Facebook

Spontaneous solo climb up Mount Mitchell.

Springbrook Warrie Circuit

I was out in the forest again today with Dash, hiking the 17km Warrie Circuit down in Springbrook National Park. Legs are tired, but it's great to be out away from the city.

As I get more and more into hiking, I'm treating each hike as training towards bigger hikes. I'd love to get into overnight and multi-day hikes with camping eventually, especially in mountainous locations I'm inspired to visit from other photographers I follow.

Mount Cordeaux (North Peak)

This morning I left home at 4am with the intent of climbing Mount Cordeaux to the main lookout, about 1,100 metres above sea level. To my surprise I met another photographer named Fred McKie, who does anything from commercial photography to architecture, lifestyle and landscapes.

We both ended up walking the extra 30 minutes to Bare Rock north along the ridge from Mount Cordeaux lookout.