Para Wirra with Kath Matthews

Para Wirra was a really pleasant experience. This was the first time I went on an outing with the Blackwood photographic club. Luckily for us, we live in Woodside, so we reached the destination within an hour.

It was a pleasant morning with warm sunshine. On arrival we met around 15 members all well equipped with their cameras and tripods. One of the gentlemen even had a book on wild plants.

Kath Matthews was a gem of a person, she had abundant knowledge on all different plants and flowers. She kept us motivated and pointed out all the orchids. She also showed us her collection of photos on orchids which was just par excellence.

I was carrying two cameras, Nikon D800 and Fujifilm XT-1. I also carried 3 lenses 105mm nikkor f2.8 (for macro shots), 70-200mm VRII nikkor F2.8 (for bokeh shots) and 18-55mm f2.8 fujinon lens (for wide shots). I didn’t use the monopod at all. Every shot was handheld. The reflector helped in isolating the subject and producing more light.

The best thing I liked about this outing was the learning experience. While trying out the Macro lens, I had forgotten that increasing the aperture would create less light to fall on the sensor and have more depth of field to play with. Also the dedication the members showed, trying to get that perfect picture by getting on the ground level was inspiring.

Best regards,

Tariq