The Lock Up

When your told you'll be in a lockup for a few hours, you naturally think dark room, dripping water and a concrete bed..??

But actually it was the opposite, I was lucky to be sent down to Hobart for the Tasmanian Budget, where journalists and photographers are 'locked up' from 9:30 - 3pm - phone and internet devices confiscated, no leaving the top floor while you read and start to write stories about the budget papers..

Lucky for me I shot the budget rally outside Parliament before entering the dungeon, nice food actually and a serious mood, as 60 odd journalists from many media organisations absorb the numbers and well scripted words. 

The Treasurer and State Premier's press conference begins.. my responsibility, the emotion, hands, nervousness and sweat, up close and moody - oh and the two of them side by side spreading cheer and hope, 

Questions are yelled as they stroll out - press conference done the rush to return to the tables, before I knew it it was time to leave and dash for Parliament - the Treasurer to now deliver his speech to both sides of power - my mission to get reactions and body language from the room. 

Now to file madly on an old laptop that's battery life is close to death... 

I sat in Parliament for half and hour, kicked out, sat in a coffee shop, closed at 5:40, dashed back to the car park found a power point, security moved me on, went to McDonalds, no power point (WHAT!?), drove 20min to the next one and bam! One power point near the toilets - quickly filed 70 images, now the drive back to Launceston.

What a big day! To be an observer all day waiting for that right gesture and those reactions..  

Flinders Island

I left the newsroom at 6pm but I couldn’t stop thinking about the early start tomorrow where I was boarding a light plane to an island I never knew existed. 

Was it going to be like.. those crazy political visits where I need to be in front all the time.. shooting everything and anything that happens… being strictly focused on any expressions or hand movements that might offer a different photo… 

Was I over thinking it again?

Actually it was not this at all, well it was great, except the fact that I had lost sleep thinking about this light plane. I had never done the light plane transport thing and didn’t really like big ones! Did I mention that I was in a space probably no larger than half my bedroom with a pilot, a pollie, a journo, a nice media advisor and a guy in a suit.

We arrived on Flinders Island, a place with only a couple of towns, you can have a beach to yourself and a population of approx 800 people.  (I'm happy to be corrected) There it was.. our hire car and the reality we all had to cram into this old sedan.

God I loved it, driving around with Labour Health Minister Michelle O’Byrne and her people, at the start it was intimidating.. why because I was a young news photographer in Tassie for only a few days, I didn’t know them or there policies and promises .. these people were all dressed and ready for business.

But I knew I had to relax get to know them, talk, be human and have fun! 

After all the official visits to the hospital, school and the local butcher who sells wallaby burgers we had a quick look at the beaches before jumping back on the plane, a placeworth exploring again for sure.  Im so lucky to sent to an island, to photograph the health minister, have lunch on the beach and experiencing something others wouldn’t for work.