I’ve already written a small backstory on how I ended up at Festivale in Launceston, Tasmania and related the story on how I turned winning 2nd and 3rd prize in their photo contest into a larger opportunity.
Part 1: Love from Tassie
It was early when we found ourselves to be quite thirsty from all of the great food we were sampling. Too early to jump into the wine (is it ever too early?) we got a bottle of water. But this wasn’t just any bottle of water – this was Love from Tassie. This was beautifully clean water sourced by Hope Springs from the untouched waters of Tasmania.
The thing that attracted me to it was the design and colour of the bottle. Water bottles usually use a blue colour theme. I thought the red was quite striking and would make a great accessory to some of the shots I was trying to get for the Festivale Photo Contest. I thought it would be great to have entries that actually had something that said “Tassie” (what Tasmanian’s call their beautiful island).
I took a few photo of the amazing food with the water bottle in the background. Little did I know that I’d end up submitting two photos of entertainment.
Part 2: Getting the Card
As we walked around the festival ground, we came across the booth for this interesting water bottle. I struck up a conversation with the man behind the counter and he ended up being the owner: Gary Hopes.
I asked the Gary if I could take some photos – at this point I was thinking about that Photo Contest. He gave me his business card and asked me if I could email him any shots with his product in them. I said I would.
At this point, something inside me clicked. This was an opportunity. If I really show him what I can do, perhaps this will translate into a business opportunity.
I’d have something to add to my portfolio at the very least.
Part 3: Let your Creativity run WILD
So now I had two goals in my mind. One was to get photos for the Contest, and the other was to get some creative shots using the one water bottle I had. I was instantly inspired by the beautiful design of the bottle and allowed myself to try various styles and techniques.
I went earthy.
I went airy.
I went high-key.
I even used my strobe to light up the bottle from inside out!
People must have thought I was crazy because for about half an hour I was tossing the bottle into the air trying to get a cool shot that was in focus.
Once we had our fill of great food and entertainment, we decided to head over to Cataract Gorge. Here I tested out an idea I was starting to visualize in my head. One where I’d used a long exposure to make a waterfall silky smooth while having a tack-sharp Love from Tassie bottle in the scene. Here’s what I was able to do at the Gorge:
Part 4: Going that Extra Mile
I was pretty happy with the images that I had taken at Festivale and at the Gorge using the bottle, but I knew I could do more.
The plan for the next day was to go check out Liffey Falls before heading towards Devonport to take the ferry back to the mainland.
Tassie waterfalls are beautiful and I already had a number of great photos for my landscape portfolio. So instead of spending my time on just the landscape, I used the bottle as part of the landscape to create the shots I had begun to conceive the day before.
I spend the day taking shots of the bottle from various angles in various parts of the waterfall. I tried long exposure, short exposure, close-ups, wide shots, different lenses and I even did a composite photo using 3 different exposures. In the afternoon, I decided that it was time to leave, as we had to catch our ferry the next day.
I spent the entire 10-11 hour ferry ride going through and editing the Love from Tassie photos. I was very excited with my results and wanted to share. When I got back to the mainland, I emailed Gary.
Part 5: What the Extra Mile can get you
He loved the photos.
The extra mile came with two great outcomes:
1. Gary was very excited by the results and asked to be able to use them on his website. He already has all his photos for other uses and therefore there is limited potential for the images beyond the internet at this time. Still, licensing for the web will give me a bit of extra money for my travels.
2. He has also expressed interest in getting me out to the Love from Tassie Factory to take photos.That would be a lot of fun!
Of course one never knows how things like this will pan out, but the lesson for me was that making the extra effort when you see an opportunity can lead to greater things.
Opportunity + Effort = More Opportunities
Story 3
The last post in the series deals with an opportunity that I didn’t act on at the time and now is lost for all time. Check back in the next few days and find out what it was.
