Decemberlicious

Greetings and salutations! I'm getting in early this month, for no other reason than the fact I am heading off road tripping for a couple of weeks! I have added to my arsenal of lenses: a manual 8mm fisheye lens (which is incredibly fun), and a new 17-70mm Sigma F2.8, which is replacing my really old 18-55mm kit lens. So while my bank account is now as bare as my fridge, my camera bag is now as full as Santa's sack on Christmas Eve. On that note, Merry Christmas! :)



Location: The Strand Arcade
(F3.5, 1.25, ISO 400, 8mm focal length)


Fisheye fun number one! I took this while venturing around the city, trying to figure out exactly how my new lens works (i.e., discovering what works well with it, how to make things warp and bend, etc). The Strand arcade was looking very Christmassy! Come to think of it, a lot of places were looking Christmassy, but they didn't necessarily work well with my new lens.... That was a fun evening - I'm pretty sure I spend most of the time looking straight up at skyscrapers through my camera - that's one way to look like a tourist in your own city!









Location: Wahroonga
(F4.0, 1/125, ISO 400, 54mm focal length)

This was taken while I was working with my brother Jason - there were two adorable shaggy dogs where we were; the kind of dogs where if you give them 30 seconds of affection you are automatically friends for life! After he had settled down (a couple of hours) and began to rest on his dog-futon-bed-thing, I got my camera from my car with the intention of taking his photo in black and white. He is just as cute in real life btw....




Location: South Head
(F5.6, 1/320, ISO 100, 120mm focal length)


This is the first of three photos taken around South Head. Just putting it out there - it is an incredible spot for weekend photograhy! This photo happened rather quickly - I was taking photos of the pylon, then i was taking photos of the boat, they came together for a brief moment, and then they were gone. So I'm pretty happy with the composition of this one :)

Location: South Head
(F3.5, 1/320, ISO 100, 8mm focal length)

Fisheye fun number two! I didn't know much about the lighthouse at South Head, but when I discovered it was striped like a candy-cane I was pretty intent on warping it as much as I could! I've come to conclusion that if you 'bend' a red-and-white striped building, it will give the illusion that it is actually edible... It's not though....

Location: South Head
(F3.5, 1/320, ISO 100, 8mm focal length)

The third fisheye fun photo, and the third from the South Head series... The fact that this location has dominated my six images for december speaks volumes as to how photogenic the scenery is! There's a lot that I like about this photo; for the most part it is that there is a definitive, physical line where the weather is wonderful, followed by the dark overtones of the impending storm...

Location: North Sydney
(F4.0, 1/25, ISO 800, 63mm focal length)

A cat after the storm... I thought I'd try and make a new furry friend while I was walking past what was quite clearly the cat's window. It sniffed my hand, and subsequently decided it had no interest in me. I'm pretty sure it was looking at me and my camera just to make sure that I kept on walking...


So once again, that brings my month of photography to a close. I am very, very excited about the opportunities I'm going to have in January, especially while I'm on the road. Canberra/Melbourne/Great Ocean Road, here I come....

November - in the books...

Another month, another 6 images!

While opportunities were a little more limited compared to last month, November has definitely been a fun month. For starters, I can now claim to have taken photos professionally - I helped my friend Frances shoot a 21st birthday party! Not exactly a big job, but I have to admit it was kind of cool knowing that photos I have taken will end up in an album which someone has commissioned :-)

In terms of what I've learned about photography, a few of the photos from this month (the Opera House, and the photos of old rusty doors around La Perouse) were taken with post-production techniques in mind. I found myself crossing a few things off my equipment shopping list, and just as quickly adding a few more things. Neutral Density filters are defiitely high up on my list, a little further down would be an Infrared filter. Either way the holiday season should make for some great photo opportunities! But enough talk of the future, here's my best 6 images from the previous month:




Location: La Perouse
(F3.5, 8 sec, ISO 200, 18mm)

 
While it doesn't look it, this photo was taken after the sun had set with a slightly extended exposure, and the darkness of the evening had just about set in. In this photo, and the next, I wanted to 'fade' the photos without losing too much of the rustic colours. The small building that is roughly in the centre of the photo is where the next photo was taken!


 Location: La Perouse (again)
(F3.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 400, 18mm focal length)


Another set of old rusted doors - as with the previous photo I wanted the post-production to come across as weathered, but without diminishing the strong colouring of the rust. I tried to frame it so that the graffiti on the back wall created some interest - giving just enough letters and leaving enough blanks. A photographical crossword! "'conquest', 'famine', 'war' and 'death' all fail to finish with a place at Caulfield"...





Location: La Perouse (and again)
(F9.0, 0.6 sec, Iso 200, 18mm focal length)


This is the part of my excurion to La Perouse where I learned the most... Firstly, I need to get a set of ND filters. Secondly, a Circular Polariser helps. Thirdly, exposures over about a second lose too much detail in moving water. This was taken around the corner from the shipwreck - which I have to admit wasn't as photogenic as I had anticipated. The water swelling through the rocks as the tide came in however, that was definitely photogenic!



Location: Silverwater
(f5.6, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200, 290mm focal length)


Another photo taken out of opportunity, virtually the same time and location as my very first '6 image' when I started this blog back in August! Overlooking the industrial area from Silverwater Bridge, however rather than capturing the whole landscape I used my telephoto lens to get the sun setting over one of the factories. I know it is a bit of an artistic cliche, the burnt red sun, the sillhouette of the factory, but hey - it works for me!




Location: Quayside, The Rocks
(F13, 1/4000, ISO 400, 155mm focal length)


Ok, with this photo I have to admit that the artistic license isn't mine - I really can't remember where I came across a similar photo, but the technique is something I wanted to emulate. Before I took the photo, I was trying to picture how it would look in black and white, and trying to find strong an angle where the contrast would be at its strongest. From there, Photoshop is fantastic at B&W conversions, I completely blackened the blue tones to make the sky black, and adjusting the yellow tones before the conversion allowed me to keep the detail of the tiles... This photo was a lot of fun :-)



Location: Strathfield Station
(F10, 30 sec, ISO 200, 18mm focal length)


I tihnk the best thing about this photo was that it was close to home (literally a minute walk down the road), and required very little post-production work. Taken from the footbridge on Wentworth Rd looking back towards Strathfield station, it was a good opportunity for me to practice my timing - watching the tracks towards Burwood, waiting for a train to start coming, then timing it so the train passed through the frame during the 30 seconds of exposure time. I was lucky enough in this photo to get two trains passing...

So that brings a photographical close to the month of November for me. I think December is going to be promising - the holidays mean plenty of time to go out and experiment at locations I've been scouting, and over the New Year I'm road tripping to Melbourne and along the Great Ocean Road. Opportunities for photograhy: endless. Opportunities to recharge my camera batteries: not endless.