Tasmania: autumn landscape and nature photography trip planning

The autumn of 2020 will see me return to Tasmania for two weeks of Photography and bush camping. I've booked my spot on the Spirit of Tasmania and now the real work begins.

Reflections of boat shed, Cradle Mountain on Dove Lake

Tasmania in Autumn

Tasmania is one of my favourite photography locations and for the first time I'll be there in Autumn. I plan to witness the Nothofagus gunni also known as tanglefoot, deciduous beech, or fagus, as it changes from red to gold. My plan is to capture the native autumn colour from Cradle Mountain through central Tasmania and maybe finish up my trip with some hikes and bush camping on beautiful Bruny Island.

Along the way I'll take advantage of whatever photography opportunities the weather presents. The allure of a sunrise, sunset or clear starlit sky over cradle mountain will always be in the back of my mind. Mossy forests, fungus or the east coast beaches will be on the agenda if the weather forces me that way. There's always an option in Tasmania but for now I plan to stay central and only head east if the weather forces me that way. West is beautiful and I'd like to dedicate a couple of trips to that region because I've never really had the time to properly explore the area.

I want to get into the habit of going on three photography trips each year; autumn, winter and spring. Summer will normally be spent planning for the other seasons. This year summer was spent preparing this website, working out what camping and photography equipment I needed and setting up my 4WD as my home base for self-contained bush camping. The website, camping and photography gear are sorted and the 4WD is a work in progress but it will be ready when I set off in mid April.

Mossy branch bathed in light and falling ice rain at Cradle Mountain

Autumn to me

I started to chase autumn colour while I worked and travelled in Asia. I visited South Korea three times and got some travel images I was happy with. In 2019 I spent two weeks in autumn, in and around Bright and Victorias' alpine region chasing landscape images. The 2019 autumn images will eventually pop up on this site but I want something native to Australia and better representing the natural world. Research led me to the Nothofagus gunni as our only temperate native deciduous tree. There are also a small number of tropical and subtropical trees; red cedar, white cedar and boab, that lose their leave in preparation for summer but I wanted the possibility of snow as well. From what I've read Fagus are a slow growing high altitude, high rainfall native Tasmanian tree that is sensitive to changes in conditions and does not recover well from fire. Only a small area remains. With that in mind leaving no trace or impact on this sensitive tree will be a priority on my trip.