Nine Days Across the Outback: Day Six

Darwin is a city of the tropics, located on the northern edge of Australia. The energy reminded me just a bit of Miami, but smaller and even more multicultural. The evening of my sixth day in Australia, I found myself dumped off in front of the Holiday Inn. I'd spent the last hour trying to find a hotel room in the city, which were showing up as completely full. Rather than staying at a hostel (my friend Tim & I), we stayed at the Holiday Inn.

After all that time on the road, I can assure you that Holiday Inn is the best Holiday Inn in the entire world.

That afternoon seemed like the most exhausting of my trip -- a long day at Katherine Gorges and then more time on the road -- felt like I'd been trampled by one of those outback camels we kept seeing everywhere. And as I collapsed on my hotel bed, I was almost ready to sleep the entire night...

but there was a photo opportunity, and I couldn't bring myself to miss it.

Darwin has a street market on a place called Mindil Beach. Hundreds (maybe thousands?) of people show up on the beach to watch sunset, then they hit the market to buy food at the market, listen to some amazing music (I witnessed a trance/didgeridoo mashup myself), or just wander around and experience it.

After slurping down some oysters and miscellaneous meat skewers, I ditched my traveling companions and just lost myself in the market, alone with my 135mm lens.

"The Man from Maningrida"

Finally! After six days of shooting primarily landscapes, an opportunity to shoot people was like mana from heaven. I stopped being tired, and started being excited. The sun had already set, but there was still just enough light that I could eke out some very nice shots.

The shot for today was an aboriginal artist, who I found playing his didgeridoo next to a display of his art. It was tricky -- this shot metered outside of 'stable' for this focal length (about 1/60 s) for the iso which I found was looking good in this light (4000). So, I was walking around in manual mode, forcing it to 1/125s, and trying to make do with the aperture at /4, /3.2, or /2.8.

I love my 135mm f/2 -- almost certainly my favorite lens. It's very sharp, but more importantly, it has a 'look' that makes it special. Only the 85mm seems to have such a similar feel, and even technically sharper or superior lenses do not have 'the look'. But it's not a perfect lens. At f/2, it's just a smidge less sharp. Aberrations (particularly chromatic aberration) can be noticeable. And on an FX sensor, the depth of field at f/2 is .. thin. Try < style="font-style: italic;">total depth of field. The distance in front of the subject is one inch. At ten feet!

This can be tough if you're shooting a person, where you focus on an eye, and hope you really got the focal plane flat, and not at some angle. And that's what I was trying at first with this shot, but got a little frustrated. So, I thought, "What about just accepting that it's going to be off kilter, and exacerbate this?" And that's what I did, after I went for a diagonal composition. Worked for me, and one of my favorite portraits I've taken in challenging conditions.

Here are there of my photos from day 6:

Camp at Katherine Gorge
Katherine Gorge
Last Leg of the Trip to Darwin
Mindil Beach Market