September's done!

So here's my finest from September! A little premature I know, but I'm heading over to Perth for a week and a half, and I don't think I'm going to have much of an opportunity to sleep - let alone put photos up on my blog! No doubt I will have the opportunity to take some snaps around the west coast (looking forward to beach sunsets!) so I'm expecting my photos for October to include a change of scenery :)

Location: Avoca Beach, NSW
(f5.6, 1/3200, ISO 200, 55mm focal length)

One weekend the Macquarie Uni boys had a training camp up at Avoca to prepare for the Australian University Games (hence why I'm going to Perth - Coach Jones!!!). I had some time to burn, so I took my camera down to the beach. After trying a few things (longer shutter speeds with the rolling waves - something which DOESN'T work without a tripod for me!), I started making my way back to the car when I was presented with this! I think it was more fortunate timing than anything else :)








Location - Charles Sturt Uni, Bathurst
(f4.0, 1/60, ISO 400, 18mm focal length)


They say that every picture tells a story. I have NO idea what story this picture tells - but I guarantee that there's one behind it! I was out at Bathurst celebrating my friend Tristan's 21st birthday, and I took this on Sunday morning after crashing at his dorm. This photo is also the first that I have adjuested in photoshop - I reduced the vibrance and saturation just a little, to make everything seem a little more 'worn'. I like the way it turned out... Except for whatever that orange thing is. In retrospect, I should have kicked that out of the way!

Location - Kings Cross
(f4.5, 1/2, ISO 400, 21mm focal length)

It took me a fair few goes to get this photo right! Recently I have been trying to practise adjusting the zoom while the shutter is open, this time I thought I would try turning the camera around in a circle instead! Because the fountain is essentially a ball, you can't really see any blurring as the camera is turned. But because of the low light behind it, everything else seems to be turning... If there was a feeling that this photo would emote for me, it would easily be 'drunk'!



Location - Kings Cross (Porky's!)
(f10.0, 1/3, ISO 400, 18mm focal length)


The red light district - think Underbelly - The Golden Mile! I had to up the f-stop to allow for a longer exposure, so that you get the ghosting of the people walking in and out. I'm still learning stuff :) So I was taking photos for a good few minutes, with heaps of people walking past - funnily enough only one person approached me and said he didn't want to be in the photo I just took. He was cool when I showed him he was all blurry (he was actually the guy in front of the cop car). That's in contrast to the group of tourists who asked me to take their photo outside of Showgirls! And yes, they were all guys........



Location: Newtown
(f3.5, 1/3, ISO 800, 18mm focal length)

Taken in the back streets of Newtown, not far from the train station. Another photoshop project - once again I reduced the vibrance of the photo just to make the alley/street seem a bit colder. Some of the graffiti was quite artistic, some of it was just lame. Apparently someone felt compelled to tell the world (i.e., the back streets of Newtown) about their distaste for designer babies and PRAMS! Oh, the ethical dilemma faced by society when parents start using strollers! I thought global corporations and non-conforming to society would be more the hot topic in one of our more alternative suburbs.... Apparently I was wrong - it's prams....




Location: Newtown
(f4.0, 0.6sec, ISO 800, 18mm focal length)


And more graffiti in Newtown! While I was reducing the vibrance and saturation in photoshop for the last photo, for this one I definitely wanted to increase it to bring out the colours! This photo was pretty interesting to take, I didn't have my tripod on me, so I rested it up against the base of a wheelie bin... Late on a monday night, sitting in the gutter next to a wheelie bin, wearing my favourite hoodie, surrounded by graffiti.... Thankfully no-one came up to me and asked if I was dealing!








So, that's my 6 images for September. I'm also going to enter a couple of these in a photo competition, as well as some of my other photos - so once that's done I'll post some links to that as well. It's pretty much a popularity contest, so if you've read this far - make sure you vote and leave some comments for me!!!

July in retrospect

So while it is bending my own rules just a little, I thought I would retrospectively post 6 images from the month before I started blogging - for no reason other than the fact it was a good month for me for taking photos! These were taken while I was in Vietnam and Cambodia - so while they are a bit on the 'touristy' side, I have still chosen them based on my opinion of their photographic merit, and in some cases what the photo means to me. In terms of my own objectives (in particular being selective with what photos I display), narrowing down 2700 photos to these 6 was not an easy task!

Location: Wat Ta Prohm, Siem Reap - Cambodia
(F5.0, 1/125, ISO 400, 18mm focal length)

While this photo doesn't reflect any particular experience I had while I was away (other than temple-hopping around Angkor!), I chose it as one of my 6 because I find the expression on the face of the carved figure almost hypnotic! Kind of smiling-sad...

Location: Wat Ta Prohm, Siem Reap - Cambodia
(F3.5, 1/25, ISO 400, 22mm focal length)

I think I like this photo because even though it is a empty temple corridor, it's pretty visually dense. The light cutting through the smoke from the incense, the irregular shape of the spotlight on the floor, the wooden support beams and the fallen blocks at the end of the corridor... Incidentally, this was one of the last photos I took before my battery went flat - i was taking photos with my compact the rest of that day! Which reminds me - I still need to go out and buy myself a spare!!!

Location: The Bayon, Siem Reap - Cambodia
(F6.3, 1/800, ISO 400, 105mm focal length)

Two of the many faces around the Bayon. Each face had its own unique character, it's own look. And, they were massive! I think what I love about this photo is the detail of the carvings, and their literally weathered faces... Literally a portait of stones :)

Location - Temple name forgotten? Siem Reap - Cambodia
(F8.0, 1/125, ISO 800, 35mm focal length)

This is the other 'tree temple' around Angkor - the name however escapes me. There's just too many to keep track of, and after a full day of walking around in the heat taking photos, all of a sudden the names of temples are no longer important! As for the photo, it was spare of the moment that the monk walked into the frame, so my camera was still on the settings from the last location - hence the high ISO. At least I was using 'shutter priority' mode, so despite the added noise from the higher ISO at least it came out balanced! So the reason for this photo - firstly there's the contrast of the monk's orange robe. Secondly, I like the way the tree and the dark step kind of frame the temple in the top left hand side. Like a photo within a photo... Plus it's just a cool looking temple!

Location: The Killing Fields at Choeng Ek, Phnom Penh - Cambodia
(F4.0, 1/500, ISO 400, 18mm focal length)

Ok, so this photo is really quite dark, and not in terms of the lighting. When I left for Cambodia, I knew of the killing fields and of the Pol Pot regime. I had no idea of the extent of it though. This photo was taken at the memorial, which holds 8000 sculls that had been exhumed from a site which is probably the size of a few football fields. Approximately a quarter of the population were killed under the regime. I like this photo because there is so much meaning to it, on so many different levels. The feelings it emotes clearly aren't of happiness; I don't think I need to elaborate further.

Location: Sapa, Vietnam
(F5.6, 1/160, ISO 400, 55mm focal length)

So, this is obviously a much happier photo for me! I love how much detail there is, but I find myself always drawn back to the subject: the girl on the large rock. You can just make out the terraced rice field at the top of the photo as well. The story behind the photo - I had set off one afternoon to take photos down towards Lai Chou (I think?!), and ended up hitching a ride on a scooter with Tho - a Vietnamese girl from HCMC who was on holidays touring the country. We quickly became friends, and before I knew it we had walked through several rice fields (which were the backyards of several families), accompanied by the children who lived there! They sang songs and collected rocks as we walked through the river. All I could do was take photos :)

Ok, so those are my 6 images from July. individually, they are holiday photos, but they are by no means a summary of my holiday album! My friends on facebook may have seen the shortened album I posted on there, while my closer friends would have seen the extended version. I don't think anyone has the patience to see the entire uncut collection!!! So that's that - I'm still taking photos for this month, and learning more as I practise. I will start posting for September when I feel I have something worthwhile :)