On the March long weekend eight of us booked into the Blackheath caravan park. The cabins were spartan but comfy and anyway, as I said to everyone, if you're going to get into landscape photography you'll have to get used to sleeping under rocks, in caves and just about anywhere else. No caravan park could be less comfortable. Saturday saw us all at the Jembi Rinjah lodge for a day of theory. The lodge has a very nice conference room...

We settle in for a day of discussion about such things as the Zone system, use of large format cameras, bushwalking. It's worth noting that, although I mainly use a large format camera and unashamedly push them as an appropriate tools for landscape photography, you do not need to have one or even intend buying one to learn at this workshop. Of the seven attendees this course only one person is considering moving to large format. We had morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea at the lodge then took a break to freshen up and allow those who arrived on Saturday to book into the caravan park. On returning to the lodge we spent a couple of hours reviewing student's portfolios. I must say the standard was very high with several shots standing out as drop-down winners. I found myself saying many times that a shot should have been much tighter and I think all agreed that there is a real place for telephoto lenses in landscape photography. At eight we adjourned for dinner at the Ivanhoe pub in Blackheath. The Ivanhoe has simple pub-style meals with a restaurant atmosphere. The best of both worlds for my money with ample time to discuss various aspects of photography. Because it was Saturday night there was entertainment in the form of a piano player. How should I describe the piano player?...let's be kind and say that he was "enthusiastic". I've never seen anyone get stuck into a keyboard with quite so much gusto. Eventually we could stand it no more and returned to our cabins. Sunday saw us in The Grand Canyon. It's an easy walk down to a beautiful place. The canyon is only a couple of hundred yards long but is just bursting with interesting waterfalls, ferns, rock formations etc. We spent most of the day in the canyon, then returned at our individual paces to the car park. I was the last up, huffing and puffing like a bagpipe player. After a quick heart massage I was ready for the pub. We drove back to the Ivanhoe for a well earned drink in the beer garden. Returning to the caravan park we cleaned up the drove back to the pub for dinner. We ordered and sat at our table. The piano was mercifully quiet and is was easy to chat about, well everything really, but largely photography. Things were starting to wind done when the piano burst into life under the control of someone who made last night's entertainer sound like Beethoven. Our new torturer was a sad old man who has lost his wife, he just wanted to have a purpose in life and decided that entertaining the Ivanhoe guests would be that purpose. Poor old bugger. He told Fiona she was beautiful, she didn't know what to say so asked him to play us a tune. We listened for as long as we could bear it then, towards the end, took our leave. On Monday we made an early start, arrived at the Conservation hut at Wentworth Falls and set off along the "Valley of the Waters" track. Before long we encountered the Empress Falls.

What a great spot. We were early enough to have a hour or so photography in the diffuse light before the sun crept into the canyon. Zheng lined his Fuji 690 up on some interesting textures near the top of the falls...

while most of us photographed at the bottom. As the sun reached into the canyon we left and made our way along the track. We found several interesting places but it wasn't until we came across a really neat grotto that everyone decided to break out the camera gear. The grotto had a small waterfall at the rear that emptied into a pool. Here we see Zheng and Ali photographing the waterfall and pool while Alan and Don appear to have found something interesting on the moss-covered wall.

Meanwhile Jennifer was practicing a new camera stabilisation method...

"Hmmm... this is harder than I figured"

"Ahh...that's better" By this time both Alan and Don were convinced that spot meters were the way to go. Here we see Alan taking a reading through the entrance of the grotto.

We continued along the track without seeing any more shots and arrived back at the Conservation Hut for lunch. The hut is a very pleasant place, it's set amongst the trees with tables on a wide veranda and views over the valley. We spent an hour or so eating and chatting then said our goodbyes. All-in-all everyone enjoyed the weekend and learned enough to justify attending the workshop.