South and west of Melbourne is a drive along the southern coast of Australia. We drove the Great Ocean Road and all one can say is: wow. The coastline is eroding into the Southern Ocean and leaving columns of limestone standing separate from the mainland. A well know group of these columns is known as the 12 Apostles. However, those are just a few of many over 50 kilometres of coast. We spent most of the day walking and taking pictures.

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We are staying with my son in Melbourne. We walked the city several times and enjoyed the diversity of architecture, people, and good food. It is really strange to see Christmas in the southern hemisphere. People in Melbourne love their coffee and baristas are everywhere. If you are thinking of visiting the city, do it!!

I’ve enclosed a short slideshow of a couple of shots in the city and several south of the city in wine country. We enjoyed wine tasting at three great wineries. The trip was organized by my son’s girlfriends parents and they did a great job as tour guides. Lots of fun. One of the shots shows a closeup of a “Morton Bay Bug”, a lobster type animal that is tasty. Other shots show some wine tasting with family and friends. Jill could not resist running around the winery while video Skyping her sister; a beautiful place.

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We are off to Australia to visit family and tour around the country. Our focus will be photography and plan to visit as many places as possible. The trip started in Vancouver and we flew a direct flight to Sydney and onto Melbourne.  The slideshow is a few iPhone pictures along the way. The Sydney Opera House is everything we thought it might be. We attended a matinee concert that was world class and a lot of fun; think Boston Pops.

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Some time passed since my last post yet at lot of change is happening with my photography. A updated website with new images is about to be turned on. Behind the scenes the website will improve the speed which images appear on the screen and in general a lot more responsive.

Fall colours are upon us on the west coast. This shot taken on Mt. Washington, Vancouver Island captures a little colour just before snow flies.

For those that are not familiar with Symplocarpus take a stroll along a west coast trail this time of year and experience the plant for yourself. This picture was shot in a carpet of blooms. We walked and drove all around Quadra Island, north of Vancouver last weekend and found this spot. I’ve named the shot Symlocarpus Max on the advise of my wife Jill who seems to think the common name would take away some of the beauty.

I’ve almost converted to medium format photography. For those that say: “what is that”, it is a way to use physically large photographic equipment in ways to achieve the finest image quality in photography. Medium format equipment is in a way using camera relics of the past with the most state of the art digital recording media.

However the “relics” are hardly relics as they are now manufactured to very high standards, are precision instruments, and use the finest optics available. The medium format digital media is like taking digital camera media we know today and adding more recording power. So much so that if used optimally, the equipment capability is almost the equivalent of recording the detail of what the human eye is able to produce.

My conversion to medium format is both a challenge artistically and technically. It is clear to me that fine art is in many ways attention to fine detail. I like the two part essay of Mark Dubovoy made on a popular website (Luminous-Landscape.com): “Everything Matters”

Here is an image of the camera equipment I am using now: (Alpha STC camera with a PhaseOne IQ180 digital media back)

Here is a snap of myself in a workshop in San Miguel Mexico using the medium format equipment with other participants and instructors:

The humorous part of my conversion to this new equipment is that the pace of technological change will probably make the iPhone of the near future do everything medium format is capable of today! Exciting times in Photography.

PODAS is a exceptional workshop hosted by Phase One, a high end medium format photography company. The workshops are offered throughout the year and are held in special locations worldwide. The first event of the year was offered in San Miguel de Allende, a small colonial city in Mexico rich with history and more recently art.

The workshop is full immersion into the world of improving image quality by using awesome equipment with some of the best instructors in the photography scene. We were treated to day trips into historic Spanish silver mining areas and side trips behind the walls of San Miguel street fronts. In a word about the workshop: “awesome”.  Check out the Phase One workshop website: http://www.phaseone.com/en/Workshops/PODAS.aspx

The workshop consumed most of a week and we elected to stay over and continue to enjoy the location for a second week. That gave us the opportunity to take shots in and around the city and take in more of the great restaurants. It was a pleasure living in a city that welcomes tourists and provides a great venue for photography. We will be back!

 I just hung this image in our dining room. The one that I’m shipping to my customer looks great and the surface is smooth and durable. The quality of photographic images on canvas is superb. After years of evolving my skills with the best materials and methods of the time, the results now are of very high quality.

This image was shot in the Palouse region of Washington State with a medium format camera and a high quality lens. This resulted in a clear image that enlarges very well. In this case the dimensions are 40″ X 60″. The canvas was stretched around a wooden frame and the canvas sides are a mirror of the main image so the picture wraps around the frame giving a continuous look.

All materials used are archival grade, meaning the image and materials used for framing will last a very long time. The image surface is protected with a special coating that is applied using professional spray equipment in my spray booth. For those that are interested, an Epson 9900 was used for printing which uses 11 pigment inks and saturates the canvas to enrich colour and longitivtiy.

I think this image captures the expanse, colour, and patterns of the Palouse farming region. This image can be purchase in several sizes: www.robertgoodlad.com

Every year some friends gather in the Fall to see how late in the season they dare to wake board and water ski on Okanagan Lake. This is a special year. John Horton celebrated his 60th birthday and part of the celebration took place on the lake. Harley, Floyd, Jenny, and myself witnessed John boldly ripping across the water in his hot green suit and toque. Checkout the boys waterskiing and wakeboarding: Harley is first up waterskiing, “Never Fall John” keeps his toque on and dry, “Crash Test Floyd” fearlessly streaks across the water.

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Cooler nights and warm days make for good long walks around Victoria. The cool nights are encouraging trees to change to Fall colours. Warm days are a pleasure this time of year for walking. This shot was taken walking the area in Victoria known as James Bay.