LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY > MT. FIELD NATIONAL PARK > Sun Rays Over The Florentine Valley (Mt. Field National Park)
PURCHASE THIS PRINT – Print Code: MFNP10
Print Sizes: S, M, L, Oversize
Mt. Field National Park in southern Tasmania is about an hour northwest of Hobart and is much loved by locals and tourists alike. At the top of Mt. Field lies Lake Dobson and the alpine hiking tracks to the tarn shelf and Mt. Field West. The best views at Mt. Field (in my opinion) are obtained from the top of the Rodway Range and Mt. Field West, where successive layers of mountain ranges in Tasmania’s Southwest National Park World Heritage Area are visible in good weather. It was from this location that this shot was taken.
Photographer’s Reflection:
“And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:2-5)
If there are two indispensable qualities a wilderness landscape photographer must have, they are patience and endurance.
Weather—especially alpine weather—is moody and often a great hardship to endure.
Light–which is the vital essence of photography—rapidly changes in the alpine environment, and so it is difficult to capture.
Strangely, these are some of the welcome challenges that attract me to wilderness landscape photography.
I long wanted to capture the late light falling upon the mountain ranges to the west of Mt. Field. Although I chose a ‘good’ day, I have rarely been so cold as I was standing on top of the Rodway Range for several hours completely exposed in the 70 kph (45 mph) winds. However, the beautiful, patchy sun rays dancing over Tasmania’s Southwest National Park World Heritage Area gave me good reason to endure the harsh elements.
Sometimes people think I’m crazy to go through the effort and discomfort I do just to capture a photo, but I think ultimately it comes down to what one values and is focused upon.
I seek to capture the glory of the Creator evidenced through his Creation in the wilderness. For me this is a joy, and so I rarely find myself focused or even thinking about the discomforts I go through in order to shoot these remote places. My focus and my hopes are always set on my end goal.
This attitude goes beyond just capturing photos; it permeates my whole spiritual life. As a Christian, my eyes are set on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2, Colossians 3:1-4), and I look forward to the day when I will see him face to face. I have known him personally for over twenty years and daily enjoy his loving presence with me, but I yearn for the day when I will have him in his fullness. (To read about how I met God, please see “About The Artist and Photographer”. To learn how to enter into a personal relationship with God, please see “Message”).
I always try to look at the hardships within my life in the context of eternity and in the context of my relationship with God. As the Scripture says, “…we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us…” (Romans 5:3-5)
As a Christian, I know my eternal hope is firm and secure. Hardships do not cause my hope to perish, but rather, they do just the opposite. They work endurance and an even greater hope in me.
Whenever I look at this photo I cannot help but think of both hardship and also the reward for enduring.
It reminds me of the much greater reward that awaits me after the trials and sufferings of this life are over—a face-to-face relationship with Jesus in all its fullness.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)