OUTBACK PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE - BROKEN HILL

I made the trek to Broken Hill to do an astrophotography course with Adam Edwards. I learnt a lot but I'm not sure I'll ever be an astro photographer. But who cares - it was a great trip and I got to spend time "out there"...

I'd been following Adam Edwards for a while and I enjoyed his posts, so I took the plunge and headed out of the Melbourne cold and up towards the Broken Hill cold. Turns out winter is winter, and the outback can be chilly!

I loved the chance to spend a few days in Broken Hill, a city I have read so much about but had not visited until now. It's full of history - and mining. One thing that made me sad (and often does in country towns) is that the beautiful historic town centre was barely breathing - with a few brave shops on life support. Probably because the big supermarkets had moved into town and built their premises a kilometre away, and that's where the crowds had followed, leaving the centre of town gasping for foot traffic. I found the shopping centre ghastly, and the Main Street absolutely charming, even though it could do with some help.

THE COURSE

We were a small but enthusiastic group, and my three companions were all more experienced in astronomy and landscape photography than I was, not that that bothered me. I was blotting paper and enjoyed learning.

On the first evening Adam drove us out to Silverton which was terrific because I had wanted to go there forever. We spent some time in the last daylight hours trying out night photography (I wasn't much chop at this) before the fun part of the night: dinner at the iconic Silverton Pub. I can't remember what I ate (except it was fine) but this great old girl (the pub) exuded character from every beam and joist.

The next day was inclement, to say the least. Broken Hill really turned on the rain and cold, so we stayed in and had a day in the classroom which I found extremely helpful - I needed some theory behind me before been thrown into the field, so to speak,

THREE HIGHLIGHTS

1. The first highlight for me was that day in the classroom - I really needed to understand the basics, and Adam is clearly an expert with years of experience. His gallery with conference facilities is an excellent and very comfortable resource, and we were kept snug and well-fed until the storm passed over.

2. The second and third highlights were out in the field, literally. We had a clear evening photographing the outback at sunset. The light was magic and with a day's theory under my belt, I felt much more confident to have a go at landscape photography.

3. And then we did the astrophotography out near Lake Menindee, somewhere I have long wanted to visit and will go again, I hope. Dinner at the pub was great =- always love a country pub - and then out into the cold we went to tackle the shores of Lake Menindee in the sunset light - with filters.

As the sun left us and the cold gripped us with an iron fist, there were on the shores of Lake Menindee trying to quieten our chattering teeth and aiming for the stars, literally. I was pleased with my first proper go at photographing the Milky Way.

THE VERDICT

Adam is a generous teacher and I would recommend his workshops. He is a en excellent communicator and teaching, and generous with his knowledge. In addition to everything he promised in the workshop, Adam shared his knowledge and expertise with printing photos - a subject there seems to be not much clarity on, from my browsing online. I know Adam offers online classes in printing and I'll be signing up for one of them soon. In the meantime, one of the extras from the course was that we all walked away with a print of one of our favourite pics. Another bonus!

The drive home was enjoyable, particularly as I found a few birds. I enjoyed my foray into landscape and astronomy photography, but the buzz of bird photography just grabs me every time, especially when the colours of the outback are the backdrop!