Large format photography at Griffith – Peter McDonald
On the Anzac Day long weekend, a group of like-minded landscape photographers got together at Griffith in NSW to enjoy Italian food and wine, experience a new environment for most, and to attempt to get some interesting images on film. Nearly all were using large format cameras, and a few had brought pinhole cameras to celebrate World Pinhole Day on the Sunday. Two were from the ACT, the others from Victoria.
Griffith is an interesting city, and wealthy, if one can read from the neatness and cleanliness, newish buildings, and a very vibrant nightlife. Accommodation was in plentiful supply. There are a couple of very large wineries, and numerous smaller wineries and vineyards. There is also a lot of cotton and rice farming in the district as well. The Griffith Cemetery is marked by the significant number of highly ornate graves and family mausoleums, invariably those of Italian extraction.
We were fortunate that one of the group had a client in the city, who very kindly allowed us access to her studio for socialising and a viewing of prints from previous trips. Dinners were all Italian, the pizzas were excellent, and at least one of us can speak knowledgeably about the quality of the icecreams.
The countryside is generally flat, with few hills. However, there were plenty of places that generated good images. Some of us travelled up to an hour from the city to get to specific locations that held something of interest. There are a number of small towns in the vicinity which had something to offer, Yenda, for example, had an an old McWilliams factory, some grain silos with some intriguing shapes and shadows, and a couple of churches which had interesting architecture.
One of the places we visited was the Cocoparra National Park, Jacks Creek Picnic area, which has a short walking trail that meandered up into a gorge. It had some quite striking rock walls, and trees with fascinating peeling bark.
A couple of people visited some of the cotton farms to photograph the baled cotton, some locations on the Murrumbidgee river, and found some nice clouds on the trip home. Another was pursuing images of peppercorn trees. There was the odd bogged vehicle, some of the participants camped and rode out a minor wet weather event.
It was a pleasant weekend, thoroughly enjoyed by all, especially the company, as most of us can only get together two or three times a year. We hope to meet in mid-October, the location could be either Western Victoria, or Gippsland – yet to be decided.
