Photographic Art

The best laid plans of mice and men..... I was hoping to be a bit further along with my art on a commercial level by now but it seems that I will have to be content with much slower progress. In an effort to progress more quickly I pushed my body (health wise) just a little too hard and set myself back a bit. The pressure is off for a couple of months as far as my photography club competitions go having submitted our final EOY Prints and PDI last night.

I am really enjoying my art at present and there seems to be a growing appreciation of it by my peers and the public in general. I have been asked by quite a number of people how I create the dust in my Rodeo images. Some are flatteringly referring to my style as 'Western Fine Art'. I do think that I have my own unique style emerging but I'm not sure that I want to be labelled anything just yet.

One of the sections or  genre catered to by our club is called Altered Reality / Creative ("ARC") and happens to be my favourite section. Most camera clubs do not have a specific section to cater to this genre and due of a lack of support in the Print category our club has announced that it will be discontinued in the new year but entries will still be accepted in the PDI (Projected Digital Imagery) Open section. The news was quite devastating to those of us that do support this genre and when we expressed this to the club they offered one of the more experienced ARC photographers and myself the opportunity to provide a presentation (each) to the members (our styles are very different so too were our presentations).

For my part I put together two presentation images which were to become working examples, one basic; Huge moon behind skyline and the other a more advanced; dust and grit layers with provision for members to insert their own element. I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to get a real hands on feeling for what we do and perhaps they too would like to try a little ARC. I provided a step by step construction handout for the first image and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of questions relating to the various processes.

In a future blog I'll give a detailed account of the presentation and access to the images so that readers can share the experience. - I need to do a little research on how best to do this. In the meantime I'll leave you with the two images.

That is finished but without the main element and the following is with my "Spirited" element.

So until next time... which hopefully will be in the near future - take care.

Pete

Exposure Award

I have not blogged for a very long time, primarily due to health issues which I'll not boor you with here suffice to say that writing and blogging is very therapeutic and I'm encouraged to do more of it.

Anyway this is going to be very short as I'll include a copy of an official letter of recognition received this evening.  I feel that this letter of recognition is as much yours as it is mine. I will take this opportunity to say thank you to family, friends and followers who appreciate my art and especially to those who took the time and trouble to vote for a couple of photographic entries which I submitted to the Fifth Annual Exposure Awards - "Blue" and "Purple Chaps".

The image "Purple Chaps" was successfully accepted into the Documentary Collection as part of the Fifth Annual Exposure Award and displayed at the most esteemed museum in the world, the Louvre in France. The photograph is being prepared for print in the Documentary Collection Book. There are 111 pages of photographs representing 191 countries, seen and appreciated by over 5 million enthusiasts. The image is on page 73, I cannot even begin to tell you how blessed and honoured I feel.

Till next time, take care and God bless.

Pete.

More Bramping

I thought I would put triggertrap onto my Samsung 'Galaxy' tablet as it has far more life in it than my phone which has a faulty battery. I had to do a double-take as the app looks completely different and has different features. After checking that everything connected okay and was in working order I set off to capture the October Blood Moon from Mt Coot-tha. The photographers ephemeris indicated that the moon would rise above Brisbane botanical gardens and traverse the city so I was pretty excited. I wanted to be sure to get a good position and I knew that there would be photographers and astronomers by the score for such an event so I left early.

Sadly while in transit to claim my spot the weather closed in unexpectedly and although hopeful that the thick cloud cover would dissipate in time for the eclipse, it was not to be. However, I was not going to let that stop me from taking some photos and attempting another bramping. Cloud cover was very thick and verging on fog with the city in the distance difficult to see at times, so it would be good practice for me. About 150 shots gave me the following (same settings as the following clip - just cut short)

Trying to anticipate the lighting transition is for me the most difficult thing but I know that one must experiment and try different things in order to find the optimum settings. Using the Sony a99 with the G2 SSM 70-400 lens in Manual mode at ISO 100, 160mm, f/11, Bulb. Triggertrap was set at 365 images over 60 minutes with the first exposure at 1/15sec and the last exposure at 8sec. This is a photo every 10 seconds.

In my last blog I mentioned setting the drive mode to multi, I'll explain why. I have found setting my drive mode to multiple exposures allows the camera to process overlap, whereas single exposures as a rule of thumb require as much time to process as the exposure duration. I.e. a 10 second exposure requires 10 seconds of processing time and the shutter will not fire until this process is complete. This means bramping up to 8 seconds would require a minimum of 16 seconds as the interval add a couple more to be on the safe side and you are looking at 18 seconds. This interval would effectively halve the number of exposures and of course it would (in my opinion) be less than satisfactory time-lapse.

Earlier this week I decided to head into the city and try a few other settings so I went up to Wilson's Lookout for this bramping. Again I used the Sony a99 but changed the lens to the DT 18-250mm. I wanted to try a smaller ISO and aperture so setup ISO 50, 20mm, f/22, Bulb and set Triggertrap on my phone (Samsung Galaxy III) at 360 shots over 1 hour starting at 1/15sec (the fastest shutter speed by triggertrap bramping) and ending at 8.0sec. Not good, it took a lot of work in post to get anything anywhere near usable. BTW I always shoot in RAW when trying something a little different, just in case I need to recover data in post (Post processing I use Lightroom 5.4 and Gunther Wegner's LRTimelapse 3.4) I'm still learning both of these applications but having a ball.

While I was in the city I thought I would try and capture a short time lapse of the Story Bridge with it's traffic from one end and because I'm not as fit as I used to be, it was going to be the closest end. Now I wanted to capture increasing light trails as the time lapse went on, I had done this on the M1 and the result was fantastic but I had been bramping and I thought why not try that here so I located a sweet spot where I could get the bridge in frame and I was almost central as I looked down the length of the bridge. I used the same equipment and light limiting settings as the previous time-lapse however instead of setting the camera to bulb I set the camera's shutter speed to 1/10sec. This of course overrides the Triggertrap shutter settings. I used my Tablet as the phone was almost out of battery. In the process of getting setup I took a few images, one of which I'll share now.

The biggest issue is the fastest shutter speed allowed by Triggertrap's bramping app is only 1/15sec and there is no facility to alter the ISO settings which would really be something. Imagine ISO 100 and 1/250 sec or ISO 800 and 1/10sec either would freeze the traffic's lights and then we could increase gradually to say 8sec to give us the longer light trails ... but for now this is the result.

I went back to Wilson's Outlook last night to see if I could improve on on the previous Time-lapse and I am very pleased with the result. I used the Sony a99 with the DT 18-250mm lens. I wanted to try a larger ISO and aperture so setup ISO 100, 20mm, f/22, Bulb and set Triggertrap on the Samsung Galaxy Tab at 360 shots over 1 hour starting at 1/15sec and ending at 7.0sec.

Before I packed up to head home I thought I would have a little fun with the DT 1.8/50 Lens and a Star filter.

What do you think? Please leave comment's.

Till next time, take care and stay safe.

Bramping

I am particularly keen to learn a little about timelapse photography and have been studying this for about a month. Of course the best way to learn is hands on so I'm practising this at every opportunity.

"Bramping" - An interesting word, when I first heard it I thought "I like the sound of that, how appropriate." Of course it helps to know in what context the word is used and what it means. It is a term coined by the makers of 'Triggertrap', an 'app' (software application) for the control of a digital camera's shutter via ones mobile phone (Cell phone). 

My friend Gerry knows of my interest in photography and videography so brought the app, 'Triggertrap' to my attention recently. The app itself was free on purchase of the 'Triggertrap dongle' and connection cable specific to each make of camera. The cost was a little higher than expected but well worth the investment in any event.

Bramping is simply an acronym for Bulb Ramping which is a technique for capturing diminishing (or increasing) light, particularly during the magic hour(s) at dusk and dawn. The magic hour(s) are often referred to as the 'Holy Grail' by photographers because as light fades (or increases) so the shutter would need to be kept open for longer (or shorter) periods. Of course the shutter is not the only setting one needs to be concerned with but it is the easiest to control without tethering a tablet or laptop to the camera (something I have yet to learn but that's not too far off). 

Of course this Bulb Ramping can be done manually but the slightest movement to the camera would have disastrous results. With rule of thumb '10 sph' (10 seconds of time lapse video per hour of shooting) it is best to have a remote trigger and there are many that include an 'intervalometer' (a remote trigger on a meter that can be set at various intervals) I don't believe that any of these intervalometers have the ability to control exposure ramping (varying the length of time that the shutter is open) but I could be wrong.

I have been using a little device called 'Nero' which is a remote triggering device and it works like a charm (see my previous blogs for more info on the Nero) however, while it does control exposure it does not provide bulb ramping. This is where I am hoping that Triggertrap's Bramping will come into play and I have been experimenting with a variety of lighting, as you will see in the following two examples.

The first 'Bramping' is the Petrie Railway Station using the Sony a99 ISO 100, 18mm, f/22, Bulb on a sturdy tripod. The Triggertrap settings were - Bramping; Exposures=360, Interval=10sec, Start=1sec, End=8sec. This then gave me a duration of 1 hour of shooting. Please also note that Drive Mode must be set to 'Multi' and focus must be set to 'manual'. I used f/22 for depth of field, a low ISO for less noise and I knew that there would be plenty of artificial light so it was a good starting point.

I've included Youtube links below the images.

Petrie Railway Station Time-lapse

The second 'Bramping' is Moonrise over Shornecliffe Pier. This was far more challenging because I was not setting up for the magic hour in a well lit area but would actually be photographing the light source as it got brighter. For this I used the Sony a65 with the 70-400SSM lens, ISO 200, 330mm, f/13, Bulb on a sturdy tripod with a Gimbal head. Triggertap settings were - Exposures=360, Interval=2sec, Start=1sec, End=1/9sec. This gave me a duration of 12min shooting.  Obviously I see room for improvement but I'm quite pleased with the result for my first attempt at a moonrise with this device.

Shornecliffe Moonrise Time-lapse

In hindsight I should have allowed a lot more light in at the beginning and a little more at the end as well but one lives and learns. Please feel free to comment, post questions or offer advise as all will be most welcome. Till next time, take care out there and stay safe.

Brisbane winter storms time lapse

Well as you are probably aware, I am having an absolute ball with this time lapse photography. The more I get into it of course the more gear I want, I was going to say "need" but that would be untrue.

I have been using the 'Nero trigger' which I bought a few years ago for about $300.00 if memory serves. I must say that I am very impressed with the time lapse feature, not having used the other features yet I cannot give an opinion on them, however a great bit of kit for any photog. It weighs only a few grams and is not much bigger than an LCD screen. 

Before I go on I had better clarify something right off the bat... I am not sponsored by anyone for anything and the opinions I give are my own from my experience as a result of my choices just as any choice you make is your choice and we are each responsible for our own research and consequences.

Anyway back into it.... the last couple of blogs were about some of my silly mistakes and I shared the result of those so that you could see how much time could be lost. You need to be very mindful of the number of shots you are going to need because time lapse photography is a very time consuming exercise. I'm going to share my rule of thumb - 10seconds per hour. Shooting at 1 image per 10 second interval will give you 6 images a minute or 360 images an hour. Now if you are in Australia you would be using the PAL system where the best compression is H.264 to produce MP4 quality video and unless you are shooting strictly for TV you would most likely want to use the standard HD 1080p 25fps which equates to 14 seconds of video footage. To put this in perspective, the average working week is 38 hours (I think) but it would take me 42.85 hours to produce 10 minutes of video and that does not include post processing.

As you can see little errors can become costly blunders in the blink of an eye but it's all good as I'm making those mistakes for both of us and as long as you follow my blog I will steer you clear of the gopher holes I step in. When you get it right and you finish putting together even a few minutes of video footage, with sound effects and music score, the sense of self satisfaction is absolutely huge. For me the most important thing is satisfying my biggest critic and my biggest client - Me! If others like my stuff, even better but the bottom line is, if I'm not satisfied - no one else will ever see it.

Last week I said that I would post some 'good' work (I would be grateful for your opinion), but I'll only include a link here as the quality of the video's within these blogs, leave a lot to be desired as do you tube and other online services, only because the internet needs huge bandwidth for quality, a costly commodity.

Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/104994721

Youtube Link:  http://youtu.be/Tlfo-EvPeR0

I'm quite pleased with the end result, of course there were a number of issues during the shooting that I'll be improving on but at this point in time ... what do you think?

Now I've have just started to photograph the magic hour (that hour after sunset) when ramping is required for the transition from day to night. For this I'm using a little app on my Galaxy S III called 'Triggertrap' which has a "Bramping" (Bulb Ramping) feature. I've only used it once so far and for light trails but Oh-la-la the result is beautiful :) More of that next time.

Till next time, take care and stay safe.

PS. Please do comment below, the feedback (good or bad) is ever so encouraging.

Time Lapse and Auto Focus

My last post was all about being prepared for the unexpected and even with all my considered preparation things went horribly wrong. As embarrassing as it is to talk about, the bottom line is; no matter how well organised I am, I will still make mistakes from time to time and as long as I learn from them it's quite okay.

What was the mistake? Using the TPE I had it in my mind that yellow was the colour of the Moon's trajectory.... I know, I know .... what was I thinking? A complete mystery and it took almost 36 hours to realise where I had gone wrong. Fair go, I'm still learning (and if I ever stop.... well, just put me out to pasture, hehe!).

Okay needless to say I didn't get the shot so whilst on the topic of mistakes and my learning curve I thought I would throw in another. When my friend invited me to Point Cartwright for some sunrise shooting, he was intent on capturing the rushing water between the rocks during long exposures for a particular look. I on the other hand whilst keen to try the same, was more intent on the time lapse transition from dawn to daylight. I was pretty sure that dark to light in particular starlight to sunlight was going to be too difficult for me at this early stage but one needs to begin somewhere so this was it.

I was quite pleased with the result (with the exception of my focus issue) which I'm posting up here for you to enjoy as much as you can and also to demonstrate what can go wrong if you forget to lock your focus. Not only is about 50% of the clip out of focus which changed with the rising of the sun, it's reflection and the help of a few birds but the frame keeps jumping back and forth as a result of the focus hunt as well.

I moved the camera to a shaded spot with the sun rising around the corner of the cliff as I didn't have an ND filter strong enough to reduce the glare that I would get but still didn't lock the focus. Actually I thought I had but you know what they say about "Thought", hey!

Hhmmmm, I had better think about posting a success story before you all think I'm a total failure. There are a few actually but I want to compose a nice little clip ... with music even so it may be a few days yet.

Till next time, take care and stay safe.

Preparation

As you know I'm really getting into this time lapse photography at the moment and there is a super moon this evening which I'm hoping to capture. Preparation is everything, isn't it?

After studying The Photographers Ephemeris, (a must have application for any serious landscape photographer) I wanted to find the best locations around Brisbane without going into the CBD to ensure that I have an interesting foreground for this event.

Yesterday I had planned to visit at least two of these locations to determine which would present the best foreground options, which I eventually did however I did learn a valuable lesson. One should be prepared for the unexpected even when scouting locations in preparation for a planned shoot.

The two locations I had in mind were the Airport,  and Colmslie Recreation Reserve. The first placing me 5km (as the crow flies) from the Port of Brisbane making the the overhead container crane's an ideal foreground silhouette for a 400mm shot with the Sony a99 while I capture the time lapse images on the Sony a65 with a 20mm lens. The second would place me only 1.7km from the Gateway Bridge but on the upside, the moon will rise dead centre of the Bridge and providing the evening is cloudless I should be able to get some truly great captures.

On arrival at the airport location I had difficulty finding a parking as this is a popular location for plane watchers but the following is a quick snap with a 20mm lens for the time lapse.

Airport view with cranes dead centre on the horizon.

While 5km is fine for the 70-400mm lens it's not so interesting for the 20mm but it would probably come down to which shots I want to give priority so I set off to check the second location.

Gateway Bridge from Colmslie Recreation Reserve.

Definitely more interesting for both lenses and I shot this with my phone as I noticed a rather nice sunset opportunity developing in the opposite direction so I set-up for an impromptu time lapse shoot. I figured that I had about 30 minutes of good shooting (10 minutes to first colour and perhaps an additional 20 minutes to second colour) so I set-up for 3 second intervals.

Now before I show you what I did capture, beautiful as it is you will be left disappointed because I committed a cardinal sin, I failed to check my Battery or my SD card (Battery was at 19% and SD card had 40% capacity remaining) The card ran out first by the way and yes I had spares of both and I did the frantic changeover.... what's that expression "more speed less haste" ... you guessed it the opportunity was lost, a 30 second hole in a time lapse of 3 second intervals stands out.

So as you can see a beautiful unexpected opportunity was lost because I was not prepared for the unexpected. I should have checked my battery before leaving the house and I should have formatted the SD card the moment I placed it in the camera. Lesson learned.

Till next time, take care and stay safe.

Stars timelapse

Over the weekend I decided to experiment with time lapse a little more having received a little encouragement from friends and family.

On Friday evening we decided to pop down to Lake Samsonvale to try and capture a time lapse sunset. The sun was very exposed and bright so the question was; what are we trying to capture exactly? Not merely the setting of the sun but changing colours, reflections, flora and fauna. 

I wanted to capture about an hour's worth of images at 10 second intervals, about 360 with about half prior to sunset. I figured that I could take images for about half an hour after sunset before running into serious exposure issues so what settings would be best for the transition from full sunlight to full dark without having to touch the camera and risk wrecking the lot. I'm open to suggestion by the way!

I decided to go with Program mode and control ISO whilst leaving all other settings for the camera. One thing I did do was change the format to 16:9 since I wanted wide screen (this can be changed at processing since I'm shooting in RAW but I want to get into the habit of checking and changing all settings quickly and efficiently until they become second nature.)

I set the Sony a99 ISO to 100 in Program mode, using my 18/250 lens at 18mm, aperture to f/4.0 added the Nero and set it to time lapse 10 second intervals and this is the result (no processing other than removing a couple of spots from lens dust).

I am quite pleased with the way this has turned out, and I'll use it in a movie in the future. What do you think?

On Saturday evening I thought I would go down to Woody Point and try a similar shoot but with the weather very different (it was overcast with showers) I thought I might revert back to fully auto on the camera and on checking the shots afterward there was a huge fluctuation of ISO and this did require me to use Lightroom to adjust the luminance in order to reduce noise. To do this I used Lightroom's Metadata filter to select the ISO settings above 800 and gradually increased all the luminance settings playing the Sharpening and Noise reduction settings against one another. Now I know that a lot of photographers are going to think that my white balance is off but I can assure you I checked and rechecked and besides, this is a true representation of what I saw.

I don't think that I will use fully auto again, too much post processing required. This is the end result of this particular event and I'm very happy with it.... yes that is rain and yes I did get caught in it but I didn't have far to go to get to cover (always carry a plastic bag to quickly cover your gear - unless it's waterproof) whilst my camera is weatherproof, the lens is not. Again feedback on this clip would be much appreciated.

Okay so on Sunday I asked Bonnie Ronnie if she would care to join me for an evening shoot up at our (wishful thinking) block on Ocean View Road near Mt Mee, she agreed and so began a semi-successful shoot. Man it's cold up there - love it. The plan was to capture another time lapse but this time I wanted the transition from daylight afterglow to starlight. 

I was sure that there would be no way to capture this transition but I had to try and if I could limit any changes to shutter speed only, I may stand a chance. I set the Sony a99 ISO to 1600 f/4.0 18mm in Manual mode. Using live view I adjusted the shutter speed to 1500 and quickly discovered that I was not going to get enough of the milky way for my star trails (the other purpose of this shoot). As a 'by the by' I use an app on my phone, called 'Sky Safari Plus' (there are free versions available for the beginner) to help me pinpoint stars, constellations, and all manner of celestial movement in the past, present and future so that I know where to point my camera and at what time I can expect events to occur. If one is going to shoot the stars one needs to be as far from light pollution as possible and one should be fully aware of one's bearings so these apps are invaluable. Thank goodness for smart phones.

Anyway getting back on topic, I decided to change camera orientation to portrait and all seemed to be progressing relatively well but this transition from Dusk to Starlight was just too huge a light difference for this process and I wound up with two short salvageable clips. This is the first:

As you can see the orientation is a major issue, also the changes in shutter speed required much editing in post processing in Lightroom and in my opinion whilst this shoot was a complete failure, the exercise was a huge success since I know what not to do. 

The final attempt managed to capture the stars nicely but the orientation just left me feeling flat so I'll try this again but with a wide angle lens (I don't like the one I have as it's a little too soft and distorted (Light's stars etc.) but it may do well for this type of photography- just won't know till I give it a go.

The flashes of light on the old dead tree are from passing vehicles, which I thought were quite cool as it added to the effect. you can see the star trails composition here.

Stay tuned for bigger and better things. Till next time take care and stay safe.

Photography

Now that the majority of my studies have been completed and life is returning to normality I can get back to what I love, blogging about my passion. I have always been a lover of photography but have not always had the time or the means to explore it as I am today. My interest was started by my Uncle Danie (pronounced 'Daa-nie') when I was about 10 years old as he gave me a "Box Brownie Camera" for my birthday, ....no I no longer have the camera as I have three younger brothers and I was never able to say no to my family.

I was just getting into film (16mm, 8mm and Super-8mm) when it became necessary to leave our homeland in trying circumstances. I was able to pack and send one of my camera's to myself but unfortunately it was damaged in transit so that was the end of that for some time. In 2011 after some serious health issues I was advised that I had passed my 'use by' date and that I should get away, de-stress and enjoy what was left. Well I bought a few camera's and booked a world tour with my (wife) Bonnie Ronnie, determined to experience and record as much as possible. I didn't expect to actually complete the seven month tour, which had become a quest to reconnect with as many family members as possible and this was a determining factor when deciding where to visit.

Between us we shot 30,000 short video's (most badly as it was memories not quality I was after for my family, especially Bonnie Ronnie) and 35,000 photographs, a good 50% of which were of no interest to anyone but us. We put up a travel blog and made many (about 90) entries while sharing our experience and images of interest thus reigniting my passion for photography and videography. Along the way we decided that, should we reach Singapore we would invest in some equipment for our hobby and this we did.

It has now been over two years since our return and only yesterday did I open the last package that I purchased in January 2012. What did we purchase? - Enough equipment to set up our own studio (not a professional studio but a very nice hobbyist studio). We have been learning how to use each piece of equipment and only moving to the next when proficient with the currently open equipment, a slow process. By the way the last package contained a completely manual Samyang 85mm F1.4 Aspherical IF Lens. I had a fear that it would not fit my Sony a99 as this was purchased here in Australia, after our trip. I am pleased to say that not only does it fit but it works like a charm. Now I just have to become familiar with it.

When we first got back from our holiday I spent a little time starting to get back into video and movie making, I produced a couple of very amateurish clips ( New Zealand and Hawaii) before deciding that I needed a few lessons on photography and videography. Well the 'few' lessons have turned into a 2 year study of photography and I'm only just starting the videography stage.

Last night I entered my very first 4 prints into club competition and I'm very nervous, but excited at the same time. I've included a copy of one of the images here - I'd love to get a little feedback from you.

I absolutely love what I'm doing and love the fact that people are interested enough to join me on this journey, it's about to get a lot more interesting I assure you.

Altered Reality-Creative Print called "A Blast from the past"

Till next time, take care and stay safe.

PCC - club outings

Phew life has been very hectic of late and time seems to fly. In my last blog I was about to go on my second PCC club outing, which I did. We went to the Redcliffe Airport where Ron Byrne our "Outings Officer" had arranged for access to the tarmac and to the mound surrounding the landing strip.

We met at 09h00 and were to make a day of it, with shots around the airport in the morning, lunch on the peninsular opposite the Scarborough Yacht Club with afternoon shooting of parachutists on advice of the drop zone. The drop zone for parachutists changes depending on the weather and wind direction and so the drop zone (beach) is not known until shortly before the jump.

Ronnie was looking after a friend with a medical condition so I went off on BBB (Big Blue Beauty) my Kawasaki Nomad 1600VN but I wasn't sure what to expect so packed only the Sony a99 and my 18-250 zoom lens into the panniers. About 20 club members attended and it was marvellous having not only the opportunity to photograph a variety of aircraft from many varying angles but also the opportunity to learn from the most experienced club members.

I managed to take a number of wonderful shots, one of which would go on to score a Merit in PDI B grade open contest. I also received some valuable advice from Glenn Rossiter the club Vice President who noticed that my zoom lens opened unaided when my camera was hanging at my side. It seems that this is a fault unique to this particular lens but can be corrected with a little tape being applied just right - this has worked a treat.

Just before lunch Ronnie called and asked me to come back to her as she needed a little muscle to help with her friends needs so  I apologised to Ron and took my leave, promising to return in the afternoon if circumstance would allow it.

I did return in the afternoon but the event had been cancelled due to a fatal aircraft accident at Caboolture which claimed the lives of five people, the pilot and four skydivers.

I decided to collect my big 70-400G SSMII lens and put it through it's paces properly. I have used it several times with mixed results and I was determined to get the hang of this big lens, it weighs a ton (figuratively speaking of course - but heavy non the less).

After collecting the lens and a mono-pod I rode over to Pelican Park as there is usually quite a bit of activity on the water with Jet-skies, Kite Surfers and the like. As it happened there were a number of Jet-skie tube rides which were ideal for panning, object tracking and quick focus. The lens has three preset focus buttons which I'm still struggling with, I tend to press them accidentally a lot while using the zoom.

More practice needed. Till next time I'll leave you with my merit winning image - so proud :)

Camera Club

I apologise for being rather quiet for so long - a number of our family members and a couple of close friends have been going through some rough health issues and this has taken it's toll on our time and our spirits. We feel as though we have crossed the hump with most of these issues and although far from over we do need to take a little time to put life back in perspective.

Several months ago I joined a local camera club so that I could socialise with like minded people and to learn the fine art of photography from those who have been practising this form of art for a time. I have to say that this is definitely one of my smarter choices. The club meets once a week on a Friday evening generally there are two competition nights per month, one for Prints and one for PDI (Projected Digital Imagery). There is also a beginners night and a program night each month both excellent and I have to say that whilst I have been an amateur photographer for 50 years I have learned from some exceptionally useful beginners tips, particularly in relation to lens care.

Once a month the club organises outings which allow access at affordable prices to area's that would be considered off limits or too costly for the average amateur photog. I have only been on one of these outings to date but it was wonderful to spend time with my peers, everyone looking out for each other, comparing notes and assisting the general public who took an interest in our antics.

We have a few up and coming young photographers who have particularly outstanding imagery and it was such a pleasure to be invited to take a particular photograph with specific settings for an upcoming competition. The young lady's camera had an AP-C sensor while mine is full frame allowing me to use shutter speeds well in excess of hers but still she shared her exquisite find with me. I mention this not because this is exceptional behaviour for a young photographer but rather because this is the norm within the photographic and art community in general and exceptional behaviour for today's youth in general.

There are four sections of competition into which one may enter images; Monochrome Prints MP, Colour Prints CP, Mono or Colour Creative-Altered Reality Prints ARC,  Projected Digital Images PDI. I have decided to hold off on the prints for the time being primarily due to the cost (not that they are excessively expensive) until such time that I feel I'm ready to enter images on this medium. I have however entered the maximum quota for all the other sections of what I consider to be my best imagery for the second time (None were accepted on my first attempt as my set topic was incorrect, how embarrassing was that. On the bright side the non-acceptance was not recorded :). So now that I have decided to go with "Open" topic rather than "Set" I should have no embarrassing issues but hey this is me we are talking about, so watch this space.

All the joking aside, I would recommend joining a club to anyone who has an interest, regardless of of the activity because you will meet great folk who have a similar interest and we all learn from one another no matter age, culture or political persuasion. Life is short, find your passion and pursue it to your hearts content.

Tomorrow is my second outing with the club and I'll be sure to blog about that soon. Till next time, take care out there and stay safe.

My Digital Art

Ok it is time to start producing some art. I have learned enough to make the all important start, but more importantly I have the confidence to trust my creative instinct. Does this mean that I have arrived? .... hardly but it does mean that I am ready to start putting myself or rather my new digital art out there. I have been longing to try this for a very long time.

This is where I try to take excellent photographic images (still working on this part) and combine them with what some may call surreal art. This is not merely the blending of images but rather the creation of elements within an image to provide a blended effect and tell a story.

These images are displayed on 500px and can be viewed at a decent size without the watermark and logo blemishes. I will quickly step through my illustration "Molten Man".

A good friend is the model for the image and the concept for the image happens to be similarities in our lives. We all have our demons and we are frequently doing battle with the darker side of life, whether this be physical, physiological, moral or otherwise. We have both had some success to a degree in fairly recent times and whilst we may not be home and free we have certainly made progress along this long and often lonely road rather defiantly. We both derive a great deal of pleasure from riding our motorcycles and I speak for myself when I say that this gives my spirit a chance to gather strength through exhilaration without distraction. 

So the aim with this image is to visually convey this defiance, depicting the long road, the opposing sides and the small window of change along the way. This then is the image I see in my minds eye. 

 I have included the following description of the image:-

"In this image the man is defiantly returning from the darkness which tried to consume him and failed. I have created a 3D whorl hole as a portal between the light and dark sides to give the illusion of a man and machine half molten lava and half metal, flesh and blood the viewers eye is drawn to the gesture of the left hand."

These illustrations will take on different dimensions depending on the individual whose life I am attempting to capture and visualise or depict, in this instance a hard man living and working in a tough environment and so I have called the set of illustrations "Grit" as this is what I am illustrating, the man's grit and determination.

The images were all created from my own photography and I used Adobe's Lr5 to extract the best from the RAW photograph, Ps where I needed to create some custom brushes to achieve the lava look, Ai to create 3D objects which were then imported back into Ps to compile the various elements into the finished illustration.

I would love to receive some comments and welcome constructive criticism - tis the only way to improve.

Till next time - Take Care.

Photography and Panning

For quite some time I have been wanting to do a little sports photography and started by photographing Kite Surfers a little while ago. My images weren't the greatest but I did manage to get some really good shot's more my good fortune than by good planning.

Anyway I wanted to look at my panning technique and improve on it and was looking for an opportunity to do just that without going to any great expense when a friend started chatting to me about RC Helo's (Radio Controlled Helicopters). Well being a guy fascinated by anything remote controlled (Yeah I'm just a big kid and no it's not a mid-life crisis) ever since they came on the scene.

I had to do a little investigating as I wouldn't mind having a go at this but can just imagine spending a fair amount of money only to obliterate the machine within minutes. I did a little research online and found that there is a local club with a field just up the road from my home where the members meet every Sunday morning. I was invited to join them as an observer to learn a little more about the sport. Yes it is a sport.

Well I trundled down last Sunday with my camera gear as I saw this as an opportunity for a few images. A most enjoyable day and the guys were all very friendly, didn't mind my zillion questions and the few photo's I took. It turns out that this is great practice for panning and sports photography as these helicopters are amazing, super quick and unpredictable for me which meant keeping the machine in frame was a major effort let alone keeping it in focus. I will include a number of unedited shots at the end of this blog (apart from adding my logo, downsizing and converting from RAW to JPG).

The sport is a lot more involved than I first thought with starter machines priced at around $500.00 and Radio's (Controllers priced anywhere from $200-$1000) then there is the requirement of membership to the clubs which carry the benefit of huge savings to Public Liability Insurance. Of course at the mention of Insurance the ears pricked up. Is the sport dangerous? - oh yes! rarely, but none the less there have been fatalities, not many casualties but one needs to remember that the blades of even the smaller Helicopters pictured below, can be deadly.

Some clubs require a level of proficiency before one is allowed to join and just as with life size aviation one may be required to obtain their bronze wings before membership is finalised. There are of course instructors and assessors to take care of the novices such as myself. Well the big kid in me is not satisfied yet so I'll return to take more pictures and of course ask another zillion questions (slight exaggeration) that I have floating around in my head.

Till next time, Take Care and Stay Safe.