EricScott

I’ve reached the end of the trail with the images from my trip to New Zealand and Oz.  There may be odds and ends that I edit from time to time, but these pictures of Bink represent  the last of the best.  It makes me a little sad to wrap up this creative journey that started a year ago starting to plan the trip and ending now editing the last pictures.  In between was a lot of hard work planning a New Zealand trip for 4 fun companions to eventually join more than 20 talented creative souls from OZ, Scotland, England, and the USA in Mission Beach, Australia.  And though the sights were incredible, the unforgettable thing for me is the bounds of old friendships strengthened and the  new friendships made, the unselfish sharing of talent by some amazing photographers and the intrepid spirit of the models as they climbed rocks and trees, waded in muddy pools, greeted the dawn in warm tropical breezes, balanced on logs, fought off swarms of jungle flies and wild killer birds.  Of course all of this made smoother with the local lubricants of Toohey’s and Murder Point. I’ve never seen a 30 pack of beer before.

And in the end, I am blown away by all the incredible images I’ve created from the trip with the help of such talented, creative people.  I felt like I was able to experiment with new technical aspects of photography – becoming a better photographer as well as new directions in editing that have expanded my creative abilities.

Well, Back to the final images.  As you may notice, you don’t see Bink’s feet in any of these shots.  As told before, the poor lass had cute her foot on some rocks and then had a crab bite her other foot and she could barely walk and needed to keep her shoes on.  So we shot around her boots.  In spite of all that she kept going as we hiked and limped up the Mt Kataloo trail on Dunk Island with me worrying if we should stop.  We made it half way up the mountain not seeing many shooting sites until we came upon this massive tree,  which I believe is a Banyan Tree.  It was so huge it must have been 100’s of years old.  Bink expertly used her famous green shawl to create some classic images complimenting the dark brown bark and green moss on the tree.

If you’ve read my previous posts on my adventures with Madame Bink on Dunk Island, Australia, the poor English lass had to overcome some injuries and attacks of nature on our shoot.  But she triumphed with some classic images.  When we arrived on Dunk Island, we hiked over to Muggee Beach.  First she cut her foot on some rocks off shore and we had to wait while we tended to the wound and stop the bleeding, then we had to wait as a tropical down pour hit us.  Many of these pictures we took under the canopy of the trees as the rain feel around us.  I like the casual, editorial feel to them.  Then the next misadventure hit us.  The picture of her reclining on the rock – shortly after the picture was taken a crab bit her on her other foot!

The sun rises really early at Mission Beach Australia. 5 AM.  That’s when Bink and I met to start a day long adventure that included a trip to Dunk Island.  See the other posts for details of us fighting off the bitey things of Australia. For now, just enjoy the peace of the rising sun on a tropical morning with a talented English model.  Some of these I think rank as the best fine art images I’ve ever created.  Additional images coming from our tour of the Dunk Island Jungles in a future posting.

Some creative fashion work by Joceline that we did as part of our shooting around the jungles of Mission Beach, Australia. The one of her on the log overhanging the beach was actually an out take.  She was testing out the log for balance and  I was doing an exposure test.  However,  I love the high key look of it and colors.

A log, a beach and a sunset…..what more do you need for a great image? Well, a talented model willing to do one armed hand stands on the log suspended 5 feet above the ground would be nice. Joceline disappointed me in not being able to do that pose, but what she did accomplish was almost as good. Sorry, trying my turn at English sarcasm.  We were shooting at sunset on Mission Beach, Australia with this old palm tree log suspended above the beach. The pictures speak for themselves of the great light and her grace and talent in balancing on the log, the difficulty of the poses and our use of the light.  In fact the way the light hits her it appears like  I used a golden reflector.  However, it was actually the light just filtering through the palm leaves high above us.  In looking at these poses, I think they ought to start a new Olympic event for Model Posing and rate them on degree of difficulty and conditions.  For these shots, I give Joc a  score of 10!

….Joceline, Vassanta and Soph. 

More from my Australian adventures with three very talented models who braved Cassowaries, biting flies, and snakes while balancing on logs over streams, swinging on vines and posing in places most of us would fear to tread in the jungles of Mission Beach and Dunk Island.  After being chased out of the stream by a giant flightless bird called a Cassowary (OK, we were not chased, but discretion had us retreat up stream while the bird strolled in the jungle near by), Joceline resumed her graceful balance beam posing on a log over the stream in the jungle. Her sophistication really stands out from the wildness that surrounds her.  I love how not only does Soph use the vine and her pose with it to accentuate the curves of her body, but to also provide symmetry to the composition of the image (while swatting away swarms of biting flies).  The pictures of Vassanta were taken along a 10 KM hiking trail around Mt. Kataloo on Dunk Island.  I always respect her instinct for spotting shooting locations and light. We hiked for miles (ok, KM’s) and each turn in the path seemed to look like the last . We were not doing a lot of shooting because I just didn’t see anything interesting – well for a shooting location, I mean.  Suddenly, she  jumps into the ferns by the trail and says shoot me here. On another occasion she sees a pool of light  filtering through the trees that I had missed and curls up in the pool of light among the leaves.  As usual, her instincts were right.  To which, I know she’d say, “Eric, I’m always right!”    As I have said in previous posts, it never ceases to amaze me what these pros will do to get a shot and I express my appreciation whenever possible for their grace, creativity and spirit. 

I spent an afternoon at Mission Beach, Australia shooting the London fashion and art model, Joceline in the jungles and beaches in the area.  We started out shooting in the jungles and moved to the rock seawall and beaches as the sun was setting.  The set here was shot among the rocks of the seawall as the sun cast a golden glow on Joceline’s English porceline complexion and hair.  Joceline is trained as a ballerina and she showed off her grace posing among the rocks and expertly using the light to accentuate her form.  Future blogs will show our other fine art and fashion sets in the jungle and beach.  Lovely work, Joceline!!

One day, Vassanta and I wandered around our hotel complex in Mission Beach looking for places to shoot. We found a grove of palm trees, another area that the hotel was using to discard palm fronds providing a bed of leaves, and a discarded branch that looked like bizarre antlers. The ever creative V  also came up with the idea of using parts of the webbing around the palm trunk as a headdress. We got some lovely shots using the amber color of the palm fronds to accentuate her tan. I also used some new editing to get a gorgeous platinum hued split tone result.  Then we got a shot of the antlers….it reminded me of last year at Joshua Tree, CA when she created  a “Russian hat” from discarded sage brush.  We were also fortunate to benefit from one of  those rare occasions where you are at the right place at the right time.  She was posing on top of this tree that had grown around a rock when a  natural sun burst started filtering through the trees behind her.  This also provided a spot of light on her as well.  I timed the shot to coincide as the burst came through the trees. Ahhh….another day in paradise!

While shooting around our hotel at Mission Beach, Australia, the ever creative Vassanta put together some different looks using the husks off the side of palm trees as a headdress, discarded palm fronds to frame her face and some discarded branches to create some “antlers”.  This reminded me of our shooting at Joshua Tree, CA last year where she created a headdress from some sage brush, creating a Russian Hat look. With my experiments in Adobe Lightroom, I’m also creating multiple versions of the images as well ranging from black and white and  split toning to different color variations. So I thought it would be interesting to share some of the different versions. Creating these different versions is slowing down my development time.  However, I think it is worth the effort because the results are so gorgeous and different, as well as expanding my expertise using Lightroom. More photos to come from the sessions around Mission Beach and the palms.

As part of my trip to Australia in 2009, I made two excursions to Babinda Boulders.  It’s located in a park in the jungle midway between Cairns and Mission Beach, Australia.  Rapids run through beautiful curvy rock formations carved by the river as well as rain erosion.  The first visit was upon arrival in Australia. Claudine and I were anxious to shoot and stopped by there on the way to Mission Beach after flying into Cairns from Auckland, NZ.  There is about a mile of paved paths running high above the river bank to give you several lookout points over the beautiful rocks.  We reached the end of the trail overlooking a vast stretch of boulders with rapids running through them and cascading in small waterfalls.  Kids were everywhere jumping from boulder to boulder and over the stream as well.  Danger signs were everywhere – “Extremely Slippery, People have died here !”   With all the kids jumping from boulder to boulder, how dangerous could it be?  So we ventured out.  Of course, I find a wet patch and proceed to fall on my ass. It was like walking on ice! The signs were not joking.  So we gingerly wandered among the boulders trying to find private places to shoot.  In most cases, we had just a few minutes opportunity to shoot before onlookers materialized.  However, even with those limitations, I love the images we got – especially the ones of her curled up in these gorgeous womb like carvings in the rock.

The next day I went on a scouting trip of some locations for shooting later in the week and Rebecca came along for the adventure and also some shooting if we found some places.  Josephine Falls was gorgeous, but too crowded.  We were near Babinda Boulders and thought Rebecca might enjoy seeing it. Plus, there was a whole section I had not seen the day before, and it might not be as crowded to shoot in the areas I had been. We went back to the area Claudine and I had shot in.  It was not as crowded as the day before and we wandered around looking for shooting locations.  I warned Becca about the slippery rocks.  She thought it would be cool to shoot by the water by jumping down about 4 feet  into this cubby hole by the water. I was nervous, but off she jumped…..annnnd slipped right off the little rock ledge and into the rapids.  She was caught in a shoot of water barely clutching the rock walls before being swept down stream. I jumped down in the same cubby hole, slipping myself and it took all my strength to steady myself on the slippery rock and pull her out against the current. Miraculously, the sarong she had on didn’t get ripped off her by the current.  So now we are holding on to each other stuck in this cubby hole, just big enough for the both of us, with the rock ledge we need to get out 4 feet up.  So, I steadied myself and pushed her up the ledge and she was out.  But now I was stuck. It was too slippery for me to get any kind of footing to get out. Luckily two Aussie teenagers came the rescue. One holding on to me to pull me out and the other holding on to his mate to prevent him from slipping down into the hole with me.  Without them, it would have been a loooonggg wait because nobody was around.  So we were both bruised and banged up, but nothing major.  We had lost the confidence in remaining safe in the area, so we departed for the upper part of the river.  Here, the water pools into a small lake before being channeled into the rapids below. Rebecca went swimming in the pool with me shooting at a distance with a 300mm lens.  I couldn’t get closer due to the danger of slipping on the rocks to get to the pool and going swimming with my camera gear.  I think Rebecca enjoyed her skinny dipping and swimming except for one time putting her hand on a rock and finding a spider larger than her hand in a cubby hole. I love the ones we got with the light highlighting her form while swimming.  Later in the week, we visited a crocodile farm and learned that crocs are known to habitat bodies of water like the one Becca was swimming in.  hmm. That’s one bitey thing I’m glad we didn’t meet in the wild!