Phase One's apparent determination to destroy my world!

[Keith]

Probabaly a slight exaggeration ... but that's how I felt when I opened my emails this morning!

I appear to be on their mailing list for some reason and get regular 'offers' for things that I neither desire nor can afford so there's no problem with that ... you can't blame them for trying because everyone needs to make a dollar right?

This latest effort really made me cringe though because it's about a deal they're offering to 'educate' landscape photgraphers down under and if the examples of what they're showing me at the top of the page represent what they're teaching ... then I make them this offer:

I will happily get anyone associated with this company that sets foot in my country (if I can find them) and tie them to the back of my ute (Aussie pickup) and drag them several kilometers at high speed until they've had enough and make the wise decision to go back from whence they came and take their cartoon imaging techniques with them!

Rant over ... and I do actually feel a little better after that outburst which proves we do need to let our anger go occasionally! 😀

LINK

 

[FPjohn]

HDR?

yours
FPJ

 

[antiquark]

LINK

What, you mean Australia isn't actually a land of vivid neon technicolor vistas? Extremely disappointed! 😉

 

[Spleenrippa]

What drugs would I need to take for the world to look like that?

 

[antiquark]

What drugs would I need to take for the world to look like that?

You have to drink the Phase One kool-aid... 🙂

 

[tlitody]

I think you guys missed the point or maybe I did. The reference to "My World" means I think, that Ayres Rock is THE most important Aboriginal cultural (I don't know the full meaning) place in all of Australia. It is being increasingly invaded by tourists from the World over. The Aborignies own the rock. People are crawling all over it and destroying it. I think they have tried to stop them from climbing on the rock which is covered in ancient drawings and carvings but take a tourist to a place like that and they will try to climb it.
It is the equivalent of the most holy of all holy places in any other culture and the aboriginies don't want it to be a tourist destination but are powerless to stop it.
No doubt we will get a better explanation from Keith.

 

[Keith]

It's just occured to me that the dragging behind the ute method may not be so effective ... they could just flip over and slide along on their digital backs.

I may have to re-think this! 😛

 

[Prest_400]

I remember KR mentioning these guys, how ridiculous it was to shoot portraits at sunset without proper lighting. He mentioned how pricy and fancy was everything yet they couldn't bring some strobes.

Seems like one of those wonderful tour packages for tourists, Boring! "We bring you here, then we bring you there and you see all those wonderful and exotic stuff they have there."

I went on a one day tour of that type and ended seeing more tourists than the real country. I agree with tlitody, sometimes too much tourist is just harmful. Annoying as well, big crowds and they just always pop in the frame and don't go away.

What I would do instead: Better just kick the bus and sit on one of those utes the Australians use and discover Australia as the locals do. Also, I would save a big load of money.

 

[Keith]

I think you guys missed the point or maybe I did. The reference to "My World" means I think, that Ayres Rock is THE most important Aboriginal cultural (I don't know the full meaning) place in all of Australia. It is being increasingly invaded by tourists from the World over. The Aborignies own the rock. People are crawling all over it and destroying it. I think they have tried to stop them from climbing on the rock which is covered in ancient drawings and carvings but take a tourist to a place like that and they will try to climb it.
It is the equivalent of the most holy of all holy places in any other culture and the aboriginies don't want it to be a tourist destination but are powerless to stop it.
No doubt we will get a better explanation from Keith.

That's very true ... the Aboriginal people are the traditional owners of this land and Ayer's Rock has a huge significance to them and that is one very important part of what offends me and as you say the tourists generally treat it like a ride at some theme park.

The rest of my disgust is created by the obvious fact that Australia (the outback in particular) is a land of beautiful but muted colours and not the vivid trashy reperesentations we see here.

 

[Soothsayerman]

All those pictures look way overcooked to me, but that's the thing these days, primarily because the medium for most photo viewing is a computer monitor with a resolution of 72 dpi.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Well, Peter Eastway and Ken Duncan are eminent photographers here and both produce some quite stunning images but as people have noted they do tend to get "the full treatment" in post processing. That's what tourists buy. Both photographers are also official ambassadors for Panasonic cameras in Australia.
I was mildly surprised to see them making several references to to "Ayers Rock". I think that most people here have now adopted the indigenous name of Uluru out of respect for the traditional owners. Maybe I'm more politically correct than some of my countrymen. That could be due in part to being the rather proud father of a daughter who is deeply involved in indigenous education in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

For those who might like a more 'natural' view of some of the country there, here's a link to some I took on a visit to her school and the area. <http://gallery.me.com/lmyoudale#100051>
There's a certain amount of colour there - the images were taken on either a Leica IIIf using an Elmar 3.5/50 collapsible or a Bessa R3A with a number of CV focal lengths. The film was consumer grade Fuji Sensia 200 and the colours are as seen. They're not in any particular order.