On the 13th of May, I flew to the Gold Coast Queensland to start production of a Commercial for The Natural Confectionary Company via Production Company Chocolate Studios in Melbourne. While still overseas, I was contacted by EP Dave Ellis, about possibly directing a TV Commercial for them and, in only a few weeks, we developed a really nice treatment.

This job reconnected me with quite a few different people in Melbourne, including former Micronite Producer Barry Cail, who came onboard as a freelance Producer for this TVC. After having worked overseas for an extended period it was refreshing to be able to work locally again. Unfortunately we weren’t shooting in Melbourne but rather sunny Queensland, on the Gold Coast! When I say unfortunately I mean that in the nicest possible way, as I haven’t shot in my own home town for such a long time. Coincidentally, I used to live on the Gold Coast. I had worked at the Warner Movie World Studios for several years on such shows as “Mission Impossible” (the TV series), “Time Trax1&2″, and several “Movie of the week” projects. But that’s digressing!

Australian productions differ substantially from my OS work, in that they are always bound up in some sort of “Australianism” or colloquial detail that makes either the idea or the execution difficult for my overseas clients to understand. Typically a good understanding of both our slang and football is a prerequisite for good comprehension of the message to occur (generalisation but you get the idea). Mostly, I am in the belief that Australian advertising is meant for Australians only and is largely inaccessible to overseas markets which is a shame. I think even in Australia, many of the commercials are not aimed at new immigrants, tourists, business travellers or people who do not care for football, popular culture and trends. That’s a big sector of the community that is left out from targeted advertising. This commercial however was different. That’s why this project was fun to work on. Yes it does still involve some background history if you truly want to fully understand the TVC, however you could completely miss that and still enjoy the Ad!

Through advertising agency, The Ross Partnership in Melbourne, the Commercial was designed to be a parody of the “Action” style of TVC’s made in the early 1980′s, featuring legendary Australian Sportsmen and Woman. It was written by Meg Sorenson for TNCC in an ongoing campaign.I think the TVC is accessible to anyone because it pokes fun at a style that is ubiquitous across the planet in one form or another!

OK enough of the “thoughts behind the Ad”. This TVC was fun to make – pure and simple! We had a glorious sunny day to film the TVC on and a brilliant athlete to feature. Emma Snowsill is a remarkable person, with an amazing focus on her career. You can read more about her here to find out about her amazing achievements. I have never seen a person swim as fast as she could – Quite incredible! Emma is an Olympian gold medalist triathlete (Beijing 2008)! So I had my work cutout keeping up with her all day! The schedule was reasonably gruelling also with a huge list of shots to get in one day. This included shots of her swimming, running and cycling. We filmed the TVC at a popular Gold Coast beach at Currumbin heads. I’ve actually shot there on several occasions and it probably was used in many of those early “Action” sports TVC’s I spoke of earlier, which made it even more perfect! When I was asked by the production staff at Chocolate as to which crew I wanted for this job, I immediately wanted to regroup my usual crew from Queensland. Sadly my frequency is way down these days but mostly they are still all around. I had last worked with the majority of them on “Drop the Bomb” with Hammish & Andy (for a Carlton Draught stunt) which was only a year before I guess. Our Sound Recordist was Craig Walmsley, Camera Assistant was again David Cordell and Keygrip was Leigh Tait. Additionally we had Gaffer Glen Jones and his 2nd join us also. From Melbourne, EP Dave Ellis & Sara De Maria, Makeup Artist Selena Pertzel and Data Wrangler Kevin Wetdewich also joined the production. There were a few others and I’m sorry I haven’t mentioned your names here. Needless to say, it wasn’t a huge crew but a very effective one!

The commercial was shot using both the RED One camera and a combination of Canon DSLR (5DMK2) and GoPro HD cameras. This was really what I would call the secret recipe for this TVC as using traditional film camera gear would have been far too cumbersome and to heavy to deal with for these kinds of activities. In fact, even the RED was too big really. Leigh built a fantastic rig to dolly the RED camera easily across sand dunes as well as providing a nifty trailer (for a Quad bike) for the RED to film low angle, running shots. Mostly though, we used the 5DMK2 for some of the more spectacular shots, such as a really low angle shot of Emma swimming over the camera. That was actually filmed from the bottom of the ocean (about 20 feet down) looking straight up at the sun as Emma powered through the waves. I had Leigh (a licensed PADI diver) shoot that shot for me while I had Dave Cordell film from the beach using the RED camera, a 25-250mm Angenaux zoom lens with a doubler! My game plan for the day revolved around the quick change over from one camera system to the next. So all the land based shots that required sound or were relatively simple to get with our rigs were shot on the RED camera. The rest were shot either on the 5D or Go Pro cameras! This included most of the swimming shots and several of the biking angles.

We did run out of light eventually. During the filming of the bike sequences the light did become a problem. That scene was again largely filmed on the RED One and a few shots from the GoPro camera. There is a low angle shot looking past Emma’s handlebar that was only possible to film using the GoPro as well as a shot of her head as she looks up while riding! Given the limited time we had, I honestly don’t know how else I would have filmed those shots?! After an incredibly successful fun day, we said goodbye to the crew and headed back to Melbourne the next day.

Post production took place at Chocolate Studios in Melbourne. It’s a very beautifully appointed Post Production centre with all the latest gear, including it’s own audio facility. On the 16th of May, we recorded a guide voice over track and then began sifting through a sizeable amount of rushes with my Offline/Online editor Marty. We actually decided that we would take the offline offshore so to speak and for a few days we cut the commercial on a private yacht in Williamstown Melbourne. This would have to be one of the more exotic locations I’ve conducted Post Production but was a lot of fun! The only thing we had to get used to was the unexpected wave action of passing boats in the harbour, which rocked us back and forth, but luckily I’m OK with boats! Any case, I tweeted about my experience and and got quite a strong reaction from many on Twitter! We actually did some pretty amazing work on that boat, despite all the distractions. For those that want to know about the tech side of things, we used Final Cut Pro on a laptop, some raid drives and made use of the onboard HDTV LCD screen!

The final leg of the TNCC journey involved audio Post Production with Paul McCosh at Chocolate, who created a fantastic track out of bits and pieces while the colour grading took place at By Deluxe Melbourne, with colourist Stanley Lopuszanski. We graded all formats from a single file in Scratch, giving each scene a distinctive look. Mostly again the “Looks” were heavily inspired by some of “those” TVC’s from the 80′s & 90′s and Stanley did a fantastic job recreating that experience. While I had the chance, I put the 5DMK2 material against the RED One footage and was amazed how good the 5D looked. It’s not the RED is bad, it’s just if you shoot carefully, using a narrow depth of field, the 5D is an amazing camera. However, Stanley was quick to point out it’s limitation with respect to dynamic range. The 5D does suffer from jagged edges on high contrast lines & detail. Still, it looks great in our TVC and most of the shots wouldn’t have been possible with any other camera system, without more money, time and effort! The Online was a relatively straight forward affair back in Chocolate Studios in Avid DS.

In closing, I have to say this was one of the most fun jobs I’ve shot in recent years. It was a pleasure to work on because the Agency was great, the Client was incredible and the Cast and Crew were absolutely amazing. Add sunshine and surf and you have yourself the perfect mix for a great job!

Here is the Commercial

On the 22nd of February I jumped ship from another project to resume work on a Canon TVC. This commercial was shot in Hong Kong right on New Years Eve December 2009. After production had concluded, I remained in Hong Kong for the New Years Eve celebrations and then traveled to Singapore for the Offline. Over the next few days, VHQ Singapore looked after the Offline edit through editor Corrine Yong, and One-Light/ Final Grade with Corey Spykerman. The Offline was then presented to Client via ECD Hiroshi Yoda (Dentsu Beijing)  back in Beijing.

A break in works commenced as I began work on a documentary project and for the next month, VHQ began to slowly Online the TVC in my absence.

On the 22nd of Feb, we re-grouped in Singapore to finnish the TVC. Swee Aik  Khor was my Online Compositor, who slowly replaced the Hong Kong skyline with mountains and a more appropriate vista! The 3D team headed by Eric Gambini, created a 3D EOS 5DMKII Camera and a Canon Legria HM31 Camcorder plus hundreds of photo frames that represent the high quality image sequence that the camcorder can produce using the same technology that’s found inside it’s professional EOS stills cameras. Over that week, VHQ worked pretty hard to meet our deadline, which meant delivering a Master by Sunday the 28th of Feb. On the 27th of February, we stepped into AMX Studios, off Bukit Paso Rd Singapore. and David Ong mixed and Engineered Jonathan Lim’s Score.

Shooting Gallery Producers Freddie Kee & Leollyne Teng put together the shoot in Hong Kong in record time. Daniel Wu was only available for a certain amount of time before he began production of a major motion picture film in China with Kevin Spacey. That meant that the shoot had to occur with very little preproduction lead up. Amazingly, directly after Christmas, we shot the commercial. Daniel was fantatsic to work with again. I had previously worked with him on another Canon TVC shot almost a year earlier. That time I had suspended Daniel from wires, using a Hong Kong Wire stunt team. This time, we were asking him to ride a horse at high speed! Luckily for me, he’s a great guy and doesn’t mind mucking it out! Because the weather was a constant threat and it was the height of winter, the shoot had to be quick. That meant fast setups, lots of fast rigging and plenty of large scale movement across a large disused land fill site. We quickly changed from dolly shots, to hand held (using an easy rig) on a tracking vehicle chasing Daniel riding his horse. Then back to static camera shooting Green Screen shots. The day was action packed and we had to complete everything before the light fell or it started to rain! Adding to the complication were all the special effect requirements. The sequence of images that form on one particular shot involved a complicated locked off camera shot. Daniel and the Horse would then ride through at high speed. The Camera was then released from the lock-off and traveled on an arc through the line of imaginary images left behind Daniel. The ground was so rough here that it was almost impossible to get a smooth track with what we had and the given time. Still the idea is strong and I think it works.

The Hong Kong production team were really excellent again. Mostly they were the same team I had worked with a year a go, so I felt very comfortable working with them again. The combination of the locals and the small Shooting Gallery Team from Singapore were very efficient. In addition to the film crew, we also had horse wranglers, two horses, tracking vehicle department, and a large Agency team. Actually one of them, John, took it upon himself to act as the rain guardian and spent quite a bit of time directing the clouds with his arms! Luckily we completed the shoot and made it safely back to Singapore.

Back in Singapore, the filming continued. In the Shooting Gallery Studio, we completed the product shots on a purpose built S board. Raman is an in house set constructor and all round “fix it” guy who is just amazing to work with. His brain is wired to think logically and cleverly solve production problems, using anything available to him. On this job, his task was relatively easy but he did it with incredible speed and flare!

After a long day on the 28th, we “Mastered” the TVC and it was done! All in all, I’m happy with the outcome. There were many limitations placed on us while making this TVC. Firstly we had to film everything in Hong Kong – there aren’t too many places you can recreate the wild west in Hong Kong! Secondly, the weather was not in our favour! All things aside, I think we managed to produce an interesting spot for Canon.

The TVC can be viewed here. A making of video can be seen on Vimeo here . Enjoy!

While driving around country Victoria Australia, in early 2009, I stopped by an old Sawmill near Jubilee Lake in the township of Daylesford. Daylesford has an amazing history including playing a large role during the 1850′s – 1950′s Gold Rush era. Today it’s Melbourne’s weekend escape with many Spa & Massage Centres, thanks to the naturally occurring mineral springs, Restaurants and Art Galleries. However Daylesford has many hidden gems, including the subject of my mini documentary.

My family has a long history with the township of Daylesford, including my Grandmother who taught at the local High School. So I remember traveling to various peoples homes to get things like eggs, milk, bread and honey. For some reason, there are several families that make honey in the district. However I remembered one particular place that looked more like an industrial sawmill then a place to get honey. Having recently fallen in love with my Canon 5DMKII’s ability to record HD video, I thought to myself, why not go back to the mill and ask if I could walk around, take some videos and stills. So on a slightly wet and dreary day, I rocked up with nothing more then my camera.

Barry is the Beekeeper. He’s been working the property for ever, having built the place by hand from scrap. It’s difficult to find words that describe what exactly Barry has built other then I would like to describe it as a “Terry Gilliam” inspired work of art! In all fairness, Barry has built everything he needs to make Honey, including growing the Timber to make the Bee Boxes! Hence the Sawmill’s purpose. After logging the forrest, his small team then turn the raw timber into planks that make Bee Boxes. He makes the Wax inserts that will eventually house the honey, as well as obviously taking the Boxes out into the fields where the Bees do all their work. After the Bee Boxes are recovered, he produces Honey & Wax and sells it all over the world. There are people who travel from as far away as India to buy from him.

So I didn’t really arrive at his door step with a great plan. I just wanted to record some of the visuals before time took it all away and have some fun with my camera. Barry is a very kind and generous man. Not only did he allow me to film him and ask questions, he took me on a detailed and frank journey about his life’s work. With my handheld 5DMKII camera with no external microphone or any lighting, I followed him around the property as he explained a few things to me. In my haste, I forgot to switch off the Image Stabiliser on the 24-105mm lens I was using and the sound has a nasty rattle running through everything I shot. I don’t think it matters because the industrial setting does allow for such mechanical noises but I did also reduce it in Post Production. I used Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro to edit “The Beekeeper”. Using the noise removal tools in Soundtrack Pro greatly helped the audibility of the dialogue.

At the time of filming, I was using the 1.0.4 firmware so everything was 30fps only. I converted all the footage to Sony’s XDCAM 35mb/sec format because mostly I was cutting on a laptop and I didn’t want the files size to bog me down. It’s actually a really great codec that looks nice without getting silly on the file sizes. Because Canon hadn’t released it’s FCP plugin, the conversion was done in Mpeg Streamclip. Back in Final Cut Pro I did add some colour adjustments here and there but not on everything. I loved mostly how it looked as it came off the camera. Because the day was quite gloomy and dark, I was shooting wide open and the resulting depth of field is very pleasing. The tones in the scene were largely monotone browns and blacks, which helped give the images an amazing look. So not much was needed to enhance the overall look and feel.

In less then two hours, I had shot an interview, a good amount of cutaways that I could add as overlay and said goodbye to Barry. I can tell you as practicing filmmaker, that is very fast. To add to it, I was completely by myself. In the professional world I can’t do that! So the power of my 5DMKII is not lost on my at all. Some would argue, “Well hang on, I could do that before with my camcorder!” That’s true, but we could never do the job with such film style and aesthetics. At best we could approach Television style news gathering quality but not a rich Cinema experience. Armed with my laptop, I was also able to do most things on battery power and in the field with no other resources such as tape decks, edit suit, or sound studio! Does that change the ability to tell a great story? – I certainly think it helps.

Several months later I went back to see Barry but this time I took along good friend Tibor Hegedis, who lives in Daylesford as well. He’s an experienced filmmaker in his own right and he was gracious enough to come along and help me re-shoot the doco but this time with more gear, more time etc. We shot for most of the day and I used a Dolly, Lights and Pro level Sound Gear to record interviews etc. However, a really strange thing occurred later. As I was cutting the new footage, I felt it looked manufactured and fake. It looked setup! I actually felt crestfallen by it because I had worked so hard to make better the situation. So for the next few months I kind of left it and moved on to other work. Recently I looked at the original raw edit and was surprised that it was actually quite watchable. The rawness of the interview and the unplanned nature of the questions even seemed to be more honest and believable then the revised version. So after much indecision I decided to post it on Vimeo.com so the world at least could pass comment. Barry’s story is worth watching and he really is an engaging individual. Hopefully, with so many DSLR’s now out in the world shooting video, the lives of individuals, Societies and their hard work can be better recorded for the future. It’s exciting to see technology advance but when it has such a profound impact on our own lives and the lives of the next generation, I can truly appreciate the importance of such a technological change.

Feel free to comment yourself. Enjoy!

Lately I have really fallen behind on the blog as we move quickly across the USA with the documentary project “Machete Maidens”. Arriving in New York, we were told of an impending snow storm that would arrive later that night. So on one of the only days we had to ourselves, Angelo Satore and myself headed out into the streets of New York with our cameras. We walked all over the Island of Manhattan, blasting away with our DSLR’s for fun. We even organised a rapid permit at Grand Central Station to take photos in the main hall legally! There I shot a few time lapse sequences using the 5DMKII & an intervelometer controller. Finally we ended up at B&H which has to be one of the best camera stores on the planet! I ended up buying a GoPro HD “Hero” video Camera with a mounting kit. It can be mounted to virtually anything like bikes, helmets, ski’s etc. Very cool!

That evening the entire crew went out to dinner with some of the members from Magnolia Films in New York. At dinner, the snow began to fall, gently and slowly blanketing Manhattan with 18″ of snow! By the morning, New York looked amazing. Apparently this was the first really descent fall for 6 years. Here are just a few shots of what became of New York. I will update these as I get time and Internet access! Enjoy!

While on a business trip to Jakarta Indonesia recently, I had a few hours to go and visit the old Dutch Port of Batavia again. This time I wanted to capture images on HD Video, using the 5DMKII. I find that when I concentrate on shooting Stills, my brain doesn’t allow me to switch easily to shooting Video. It’s a strange thing really and one I’m trying to fix. Last time I was here, I captured hundreds of amazing images but virtually no HD video. With only a couple of hours on a Sunday, I ran around like a madman filming the workers as they unloaded/ loaded the Tall ships birthed at the Port. It is still amazing to me that a place like this could exist! After all, it’s the beginning of yet another decade and the scene before me looked more like from Robert Louis Stevens era?! The image above is a link to the video (hosted by vimeo). Enjoy!

To read my article on taking photos at the old Dutch Port of Batavia see here

To read my blog entry on this business trip see here

On the 22nd of January, I flew to Jakarta via Denpasar Bali! My Garuda flight from Melbourne terminated there and from there in, I had to clear customs and collect my luggage. Next a one and a half hour wait ensued, before my domestic flight to Jakarta. Slightly bored by this stage I jumped onto Twitter & asked the Community what I should do! A quick Bintang beer later and five minutes later, some one tweeted that I should take a cab ride to Kuta Beach! So I did!

Finally I arrived in Jakarta & caught up with Producer David Hewitt from Kemistry. It’s always a pleasure catching up with both David & his wife, Producer Rini Susanti. After a few drinks and an awesome Indonesian meal at a restaurant in Kemang called Payon, I finally hit the sack!

Next day was a huge day spent at the Office at Kemistry, performing hair and make-up tests on our Cast. They are all “real” people who have won a competition through our Client, a beauty product manufacturer! My make-up artist is a Malaysian named Fendi, and he’s really good! He was able to design several looks for each winner. I shot over 22Gig of photos which is not normal for me. However the girls looked amazing, transformed into models, and I took advantage of the moment to breakdown their apprehension towards the camera! By doing this we got to know each other, and I think that when I come back in March to shoot the commercial, we will be in a great shape.

Sunday was spent with good friend & Driver at Kemistry, Fais. He drove me out to the “Old Dutch Port” in Jakarta again. I wanted to shoot video this time, and the weather was sunny! I can’t express strongly enough how incredible this place is for any photographer. We then drove to Mangga Dua, an electronics mega centre in Jakarta’s CBD.

After some shopping, I asked Fais to drive me to see the Railway Station. It’s old and rundown which I’ve already photographed once before. This time I was more interested in the rear, closed off section. We finally found a way in, and I think both of us were amazed at the size of the community that lived along the tracks! We played with kids on a home made trolley that ran on bearings along the tracks! A marvel of invention, it was so smooth that I used it as a Camera Dolly for a shot along the tracks!

Note the bent over nails holding the bearings onto the timber axle!

I’m going to post a video of the days adventures when I get the opportunity to edit the footage. To see images I shot of the Old Dutch Port in Jakarta from my last trip, here is the link.

Today is my last full day in Jakarta and for the most part it will be filled with meetings & presentations for both Agency and Client. I’m sitting here in the Kemistry Office drawing storyboards with an Artist, finalising everything with our team, so they can work on their own for the next few weeks.

For now though, this will be it, until I return in March. More preparations will take pace between then and now but I will be jumping to another project for 22 days straight in the mean time. More to come on that soon!

Here is a photo Gallery of yesterdays pics! Enjoy

]]> http://www.karlvonmoller.com/blog/2010/01/26/a-quick-trip-to-jakarta-indonesia/feed/ 0 http://www.karlvonmoller.com/blog/2009/11/11/indonesia/ http://www.karlvonmoller.com/blog/2009/11/11/indonesia/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:27:16 +0000 Karl von Moller http://www.karlvonmoller.com/blog/?p=2504

Over the years that I have been working throughout Asia, for some reason there are places I seem to skirt or overfly, not because I don’t want to go there, just simply because the opportunities had never eventuated. Recently, I had an occasion to work in Indonesia. Amazingly, Indonesia was one of those places that somehow stayed off my radar. So I was pretty keen to go visit.

I arrived in Jakarta, after a flight from Melbourne, through Singapore, late on the 20th of October 2009. The job (which is incomplete at this stage so I won’t mention it just yet) started straight away with preproduction meetings in the foyer of the hotel the same evening.

The next day, we hit the ground running by firstly checking out equipment at the local Camera Rental Facility CineRed. There I met an expat from Australia, creative consultant Peter Aquilina, who took us through a guided tour of his facility, which included the Camera Rental department, Post Production Facilities including Offline, Online and Grading using Scratch. Several days of Casting, Props and Wardrobe tests etc followed and my days were spent mostly on my laptop ensuring that all our post requirements were met. After about a week of hard work, we were ready to shoot in a small studio in Jakarta. I will write a full article later when the job has been cleared, about the process, which I think will be interesting to people. Overall, the Indonesian crews were excellent and the result of our efforts look awesome.

It wasn’t all hard work though. The local production Company, Kemistry, run by expat Aussie David Hewitt and his partner Rinni, sent me on a journey through West Java, with the help of their driver. I took my 5DMKII Canon stills camera and went berserk shooting the amazing landscape and people. Here are some of the images from that trip. The slide show below has many more.

I also visited some of the historical places within Jakarta itself. A former Dutch Colony, Jakarta still has many building around the old Port area, which mark their rule many years ago. They lie mostly as wrecked shells of their former glory but still possess some amazing beauty. The old dutch port area is still in use today. I travelled down to the Port and was amazed at the large, tall ships being loaded with cargo, as if from a scene from a Robert Louis Stevenson book! They were real tall ships, built with Masts, and planks of timber!! You have to see and feel this place to believe the image below. Simply amazing!

I can’t speak more highly about my experience in Indonesia. It baffles me why I haven’t been there before, even as a tourist. I think Australians in general have been conditioned to think “not favourably” about Indonesia as a holiday destination. That’s a huge shame but at the same time, Indonesia is one of Asia’s best kept secrets as a result. It’s still cheap, unspoilt from foreign development and hugely diverse. On the negative side, it’s infrastructure is quite poor in some cases. Many sidewalks for instance have huge holes in them, and you generally share the pavement with other Cars and Motorbikes. Speaking of Cars and Bikes, the crush of traffic in Jakarta was quite possibly the worst I have ever seen! So if you are disadvantaged physically or need to push a Pram, then maybe think differently when moving around Indonesia. The internet was dreadfully slow everywhere I went, with the best speeds approaching dialup rates. So yes there are a few things to consider, however generally I have to say, Indonesians are amazingly friendly, willing to welcome you where ever you go and help you at a drop of a hat. The visual spectacle of Indonesia is also unbelievable exciting. I visited so many interesting places in a short time, including the Pulaubuhan Ratu area of West Java, where I walked on amazing volcanic beaches, Hot Springs with Geysers, Markets in small towns and villages plus drove through countryside that was nothing short of spectacular – Rubber, Cocoanut Oil and Tea plantations lined the steep mountain roads for miles.

In summing up, I loved my experience in Indonesia. I hope I have inspired you to go and experience it for yourself. Enjoy!

After 7 months of rest, recuperation and some heavy rainfalls, the Wombat State Forest near Daylesford Australia is slowly recovering from the effects of the recent bush fires. When ever I get the chance, I like to take trips into the forest and see how nature tries to rebuild what was lost. It’s pretty clear to me though, there are still sections that burnt so fiercely that nothing is left alive. The ground has beens so severely heat treated that not even weeds have sprouted. It’s as if all vegetation has been cleansed from the area! Yet other areas show promising signs of regrowth. The odd shape of trees, heavily blackened by the fire, sprouting small shoots in all directions immediately takes your attention. Yes they look green and alive but in a strange mutant looking way! One strange occurrence I came across was an area severely damaged by the fire. It’s near the entrance to the Wombat State Forest off Wombat Dam Road.  A huge pile of Sawdust, the former site of a Sawmill, had been left where it had been laid many years ago. During the fire, this Sawdust heap was set on fire and burnt for weeks later. In fact, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) had to blast high pressure water canons into the pile to put it out. Surrounding this burnt out heap is an area of bush that only now appears to be showing signs of returning to normal. However the regrowth is very unusual. Instead of the natural grasses and shrubs, the ground beneath the trees is growing almost exclusively a coating of Moss! While I stood there, I couldn’t help but marvel at the surreal beauty of the blackened trees, contrasted by the green carpet of moss below.

Another interesting side note is the sound of the forest. It’s very quite but you can now hear the sounds of birds calling. Something I didn’t hear the last time I was here. In a location not far from this spot, I came across a Koala having a snack from a young eucalyptus tree. It had entered the farmhouse which I was visiting, giving the family and kids a close up view of nature. Completely docile and at ease from the presence of so many, I think it was just happy to be eating healthy eucalyptus leaves, something it obviously was struggling with in the near by forrest. I suspect the charcoal covered trees, prone to branches snapping in the wind, are not fun to climb, so venturing onto farmland with healthy trees seems to be a big temptation?!

Here are a few shots from my recent trip into the forest during September 2009. Enjoy!