Great Ocean Road (2)

Continued from here.

While the lightstation might make a great destination for historians; we didn't find it too appealing as we were not particularly interested in naval or telecommunication history.


So we just wandered about the site with our photography equipments. Yes that's camera backpacks and tripods you are seeing here. And a huge white lens, for those who know what it is.


After taking a few shots of some interesting stuffs,


we promptly moved on and headed to our next destination.


I am sure by now you should be able to recognise this place. Yup, that's the entrance to the Twelve Apostles, one of the major attraction of the Great Ocean Road. It started drizzling and the air was freezing when we reached there. I overheard some Chinese tourists cursing, "When we were young we endured hardship to earn more money; now that we are old, we earn money only to endure hardship here." I can't say I wasn't agreeing with them. :P



Twelve Apostles is probably one of the most misleading names among Australian tourist attractions. To begin with, the stony stacks are limestone structures formed by centuries of erosion, and they have nothing to do with the twelve apostles in Christian belief. Also, there are not even twelve structures remaining on the site - at last count there were only eight. One of them collapsed in July 2005, between my first and second visit. The bottom pic was from the first trip, and you can see how it looked much better before the first stack turned into a pile of rubble.


Here is just another view of the same thing. On the right hand side is the boardwalk we walked on while we revelled in the majestic scenery. I hope that they check the ground regularly. Because...


Remember Gibson's steps, a beach near the twelve apostles? This time, this place was closed down due to "safety concerns".

Around this time, the rain starting pelting down on us like a flow of torrent, and we couldn't withstand the chill anymore. Needless to say we were quite disappointed that we missed the opportunity to capture sunset pictures of the twelve apostles. The mood was a generalised low as we started heading towards our motel at Warrnambool.


But. A glint of golden ray appeared as we passed by the Lord Arch Gorge, another famous limestone stack site. After taking a few more snaps, we reluctantly called it a day.

And we have a secret plan for the second day...

[to be continued]

Travel Notes (2) - Great Ocean Road

I've been processing the pictures from the road trip, but I found it rather difficult to reproduce the whole journey on my blog if I were to do a stop-by-stop descriptions. So I guess I would start with a few pictures here.

Xuan Ni and I at Gibson's Steps, with the backdrop of Twelve Apostles.

The glory "apostles" at the Twelve Apostles. It's my third time there but it invigorates me all the same.

Yong Chin, Freda, Xuan Ni and I at Gibson's Steps.
Facial expression: "What's in stock for the future?"

Photography - A Journey

I have never been artistic. I have no idea how to colour properly, I do not appreciate art galleries, and I barely pass my arts exam in school every time. In fact I dreaded arts exams in secondary schools, because they tend to lower my average result by a significant amount. Not helping is seeing numbers like 60 on my result slip while others revel in scores like 80 or 95.

So, if you asked me six years ago whether I would pick up photography as a hobby, I would reply you with a loud guffaw, and "siao ah you?". Photography is an art, and art is never my cup of tea.

Kuala Kedah, taken with Xuan Ni's Sony DSC-P73.

As you can see, I am in love with photography today. Just how did that happen?

The story began when I got my first digital camera at the dawn of its popularity in Malaysia, back in 2003. Before the purchase, I did a thorough research on various cameras as it's a rather costly item. The amount of praises on Canon A70 greatly impressed me, so I ended up with one at the cost of about RM1500. (Today, similar but better cameras e.g. Powershot A560 cost about RM500) The main attraction of that camera was that while designed as a compact camera, it comes with various manual controls which paves the way for learning photography.

The articles I read during the research and the pictures I saw totally mesmerised me. I was intoxicated with such thoughts as "wow this is what I might be able to achieve!". It was so uplifting - the thoughts that I can also create art - it became the defining moment of my love for photography.


Near Cape Jervis, South Australia. Taken with Xuan Ni's Sony DSC-P73.

My Canon Powershot A70 served me well for two years in Shah Alam and one year in Melbourne, before giving way finally to wear and tear (and falls). Throughout the three years of its honourable life, it took thousands of shots for me. Although not all pictures are good, the experience imparted me lots of knowledge about the technical and artistic aspects of photography. I learned to use manual controls like ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance etc; and with the great guidance from the legendary Cheok Quen, I was acquainted to the basic operations of Photoshop. My interest in photography grew over time - I often end up in photography section whenever I visit a bookstore, and I engross myself in everything from Digital Photography for Dummies to Photoshop Bible.

I make no claim of myself being a good photographer; but I am confident to say that after years of practice and theories, I am starting to take above-average pictures. In year 2006 I was attracted by the newly established "Fotoholics" which was a new photography club in Melbourne University. Eager to improve my photography skills and know more people, I joined the club. The experience turned out to be eye-opening. I witnessed how ordinary people like you and I are able to produce stunning pictures we see in magazines. Equally memorable is the amount of money some people can spend on the equipments. :P


Gibson's steps overlooking the Twelve Apostles, one of the greatest attractions along Great Ocean Road, Australia.

Over the last year, I became increasingly involved in Fotoholics activity. I helped organising a "photography workshop" where I actually gave one of the lectures about the basics of photography i.e. shutter speed, aperture and ISO. I am also currently responsible for the Fotoholics website. Besides, I participated in various outings and activities in the club.

After almost two years of going without my own camera, I decided to get a decent digital SLR. For the uninitiated, a digital SLR is a category of camera which you would usually refer to as the "pro" or "big" camera. I know that it costs quite a bit, so I started saving up for it through tutoring in Melbourne. After almost one year of sporadic tutoring sessions, I finally earned enough to pay for a decent "starter's package", and that's how I ended up with my EOS 400D.

A digital SLR doesn't automatically transform a bad photographer to a seasoned photojournalist. The photographer matters more than the camera - the most expensive DSLR in an inexperienced hand will produce a picture worst than a cheap compact in a good photographer. However, this is not to undermine the capability of DSLRs (why would I have bought it if it doesn't matter at all). A DSLR enables control over every single aspect of photography. When you master the control of a DSLR, you pretty much tell the camera to produce the picture as you have in mind; instead of clicking the shutter and wishing that the camera somehow gets the brightness, sharpness, colour etc right.

One of the aspects I liked about DSLR is bokeh, the "out of focus blur" effect. Consider these two pictures of Kangaroo in Tasmania (click to view larger version):

The first picture is by myself using compact, second picture by a fellow Fotoholics with SLR.

The first thing you notice is probably the colour, but that isn't really related to the camera as colours can be easily manipulated with Photoshop. But look at the larger version, and notice the background - the compact version has a sharp, distracting background; the SLR version has a blurred, smooth, aesthetically pleasing background. That kind of bokeh is not achievable with a compact - and when I took the picture, I was like, "if only I have an SLR". There are also other aspects like the sharpness which would have been more controllable and hence better if I took it with SLR.

Enough with grandmother stories. So yeah, now with my new camera, I look forward to more exciting journey in photography in the future. If you are interested, do take a peek at my photos at my Flickr album. Comments and criticism are much appreciated.

Great Ocean Road (Again!)

I have been to the Great Ocean Road three times.


Mar 2005: Back in my first year, I joined some coursemates for a trip to Great Ocean Road. I was a pure tourist and was not involved in any sort of planning. Needless to say, I was awestruck by the breathtaking scenery that spanned the whole length of the limestone coast. As the first-time tourist, I took picture with the sign at the entrance of the Twelve Apostles. I never did that again in my subsequent visits.


Sep 2005: My parents and two of my sisters came to visit me in Melbourne, and I obligingly brought them to Great Ocean Road. This time we hired a car and I planned all our journeys. Since Great Ocean Road is just one hell of a long seaside winding road (more than 200km in total), there actually wasn't much to plan. :P


Jul 2007: Yong Chin, Freda, Xuan Ni and I organised a road trip to Adelaide, and since Yong Chin and Freda have never been to the Great Ocean Road, we decided to take the route although it's slightly longer. It's funny that while yours truly was again (for the third time) exhilarated by the seascape; Yong Chin and Freda slept almost throughout the whole drive. :P


Jul 2008: Another trip to Great Ocean Road in six hours. This time I am going with nine other Fotoholics. I hope that the two days are going to be a blast! :)