Karri Trees, Nornalup Inlet and the Hasselblad H4D-60
- Adam Monk
- Mar 27, 2013
- 3 min read
It took many years, but I have now gone completely digital, I bit the bullet (made my deal with the Devil) and bought a Hasselblad H4D-60… H for Hasselblad, 4 because its the 4th generation and D because its digital… 60 because its 60 Megapixels! Expensive?… Well lets just say that the wooden leg took a bit of getting used to and I’m sure that I don’t need both kidneys! Is it worth it? That will be revealed in the coming months, but so far… Yes.
Karri Trees in the rain on the H4D-60
65% Detail of above image
Nornalup Inlet and the South Coast
A few days after I got this new toy I went on a holiday (Do photographers take holidays?) to the South Coast to float around on a houseboat in the Nornalup Inlet at Walpole. Walpole and the South Coast of WA generally is an undiscovered gem of a region where relatively few people live and even fewer people go. It rains a lot on the South Coast, but you know, it really suits the region and the best time to see it is with beautiful cloudy skies and a bit of rain. When its like that the forest glows and the soft colours of the different colours of green really stand out. The South Coast of WA is also one of the most bio-diverse regions on earth with an absolutely mind bending variety of plants and animals, each filling a tiny biological niche and existing in perfect balance. It is one of the few places left on Earth where you can walk where there are no roads, and no way in or out except by boat and then your own 2 legs.
The Hasselblad H4D-60 handheld…
The shot above I took hand held, while standing up in a small dingy drifting slowly past (with me also steering), in the rain, well, not much rain. I can’t imagine doing that with my old FujiGX617 Panoramic camera, and especially not with my Linhof Technorama 617s III, which was nearly impossible to hand hold even on dry land! Don’t forget to click on the images to get a full sized view.
Detail of image below
So its a great place to have a holiday, especially on a house boat, and its a fantastic place to play around with a new Hasselblad H4D-60 camera. This camera has awesome resolution, it really is like a large format film camera, but unlike the usual large format film cameras its very easy to use hand held, in fact it feels like a big (and heavy) SLR, with all the controls in the right place, a big bright viewfinder with all the info you could ever want visible (including a digital spirit level) and a highly responsive and superbly accurate auto focus! I keep forgetting its actually not a 35mm camera and it takes enormous hi-res files.
The Frankland River view from the kitchen window
This next image is also taken hand held from the deck of the moored house boat parked in the Frankland River just up from the Nornalup Inlet, it was the view out of our kitchen window! Have a look at the detail to the right to see whats there. Don’t forget to click on the images, it gives a much better perspective. More from Walpole later…
The view from the Kitchen window
