Blowhole

Blowhole, Bicheno, Tasmania – Steve Rutherford Landscape Photography Art Gallery

This is an unframed, limited edition collection landscape photography print of only 25 units. It is printed on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl papers, structured to refract the highest values in colour and detail. It’s high-quality ink absorbing layer enables exceptional image quality with enormously detailed sharpness, and a very broad colour range, providing archival permanency of your artwork for over 100 years.

On tripod, Canon 5DMk2, cropped, 12mm, F10, 1/4 sec, ISO 100, no filter, processed in Lightroom.

The Blowhole presents as a wonderful spectacle of nature, but a pain in the butt for photographers. It romances the creative in us, with a very simple and very appealing composition, but don’t be fooled. It’s also dangerous. Most of the time there is no need to get too close, so I hung back because I just loved the balance of the giant boulder. Depending on the weather, the blowhole geyser can reach 5 metres high. I wanted to showcase the rush of the geyser at the point of explosion. A tiny bit of movement, along with the right height was my challenge. An hour of watching, timing and trying got me the shot. Only one, but that’s all you need, right?

Blowhole, Bicheno, Tasmania – Steve Rutherford Landscape Photography Art Gallery

When presented with the challenge of movement and scale or size, always remember subtle changes can make a massive difference. With such scenes as the blowhole, firstly think of your safety. Secondly, your gear. Thirdly your shot, in that order. Keep your backpack well away from the geyser and the possibility of wind spraying your gear. Try to include something in your composition to give you a sense of the size of the geyser or ocean spray – what’s known as scale. this is where the wow of your shot can shine with timing. Aim a for shutter speed of around 1/4 sec on larger geysers, and slightly faster each time, the smaller the geyser is. Oh and stay dry 😉