Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on October 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Today was spent doing things with Barry… We drove around and did some shopping and generally just hanging out. While setting up the BBQ area, some Rainbow Loriketts dropped by for some water. I grabbed my camera and quickly took a few frames. Images below…
Rainbow Loriketts drinking water... taken on my 200mm lens.
A quick frame by Barry of me writing these posts. Taken on his 85mm F1.2 lens.
Posted in Flash, General Ramblings, Outdoors on October 11, 2009| 1 Comment »
The sun rises and it is a beautiful day here in Melbourne! Barry suggested we drive out into the country side… Barry knows best and off we went. Wow!!! The country side is so awesome around here. We drove through small towns and the views from the mountains were quite stunning. We travelled through the areas where those huge fires were about 8 months ago. Very sad to see these huge trees in a densely populated forest that had been burnt, but amazing to see Nature fight back with new growth.
We stopped by a remote coffee shop and had tea with scones in the wilderness. Very relaxing and a very nice place. Barry and I decided to get our cameras out for a few shots. We played with the dogs and had good fun with our cameras.
This is where we had tea and scones. Lovely garden...
The front of the cafe...
Playing "throw the stick" with the dogs.
Me taking photos of the garden. Photo by Barry Johnston.
After tea… we headed off again through the country side. Some really nice views…
A house off the main road... Driving through the country side, there are many houses off the main road like this.
A dam on route...
These trees are huge!!!! You can see the size of the car in front...
These roads are popular with motorcyclists.
There are S shaped roads at nearly every corner.
The trees on the right side of the frame are burnt and are showing signs of life once again.
A close up of a burnt tree. It feels strange to be standing in a spot where there was a raging bush fire with flames 60 meters above the trees!
Now for the fun part! Photography is a hungry and thirsty business! So off we went to a Brewery for a fresh pint of beer and a ploughman’s lunch. I looked around and thought, man we could take some nice images in the place. I spoke with the barmaid and asked if was okay to take a few pictures? Well… Out came all the toys!! Stands, umbrella, multiple flash units, cameras, the works!!!
But before we get to the flash shots… here are some normal shots of the location.
Where the beer gets made...
The bottling of the beer...
The White Rabbit Brewery. Barry getting the kit out of the 4x4...
Then it was time to setup the venue for the shots we had in mind. We setup 2 flashes to illuminate the background. Flash off steel edges works really well. A flash to the right, and a flash to the left. We setup another flash about 10 feet away from from the subject of the frame (i.e. one of us). The barmaid had gone home unfortunately 😦 She would have made a good model! 😉
Me reading a magazine called "Beer" 😉 hehehe Photo by Barry Johnston.
Barry is the model... 😉
Then it was time to head off again and stopped by some vineyards where some Australian wine is made.
Fields of grapes. I used a 3 stop Neutral Density Gradient filter to balance the exposure of the sky and ground.
I placed the sun in the top left corner deliberately in this frame.
Then we stopped by a small picnic area for a short moment and there were some Rainbow Loriketts birds. Very colourful!
Eastern Rosella's flying off...
Very tall trees!! Probably 50 meters...
Finally the day ended with meeting up with family. Kyle met Barry and I in Melbourne city center. We had a beer and a meal and chatted all night. We had a lot to catch up on…
Barry, me and Kyle in the JP O'Brian pub...
Kyle standing next to the good stuff 😉 I've been told that beer has all sorts of good things, like vitamins and minerals. 😉 hehehe
Posted in Outdoors on October 8, 2009| 4 Comments »
Earlier this evening, Barry asked if I want to go and see some Kangaroos in the wild… Oh YES! So we grabbed all our gear real quick and packed it all in the 4×4. A few minutes later, we drove out and we were soon into the country side. We came across some Kangaroos and Barry put on the 400mm F2.8 lens on my camera! Wow!!! This is one hell of an amazing lens!! Some images below.
One of my first shots with a 400mm lens. I went for a silhouette style of image.
I think the Kangaroos were looking at Barry put on a 300mm lens on his camera.
There were fields where there were loads of Kangaroos… but they were a bit too far away to make a good picture.
The next plan was to get Melbourne in the distance… We stopped at a good vantage point and we had a great sunset to photograph! Some images below.
Some of the suburbs of Melbourne in the distance. Taken on the 400mm lens. On my camera body, this lens becomes a 640mm lens 🙂
The shot I was after with the 400mm lens... F2.8, 1/640 sec, ISO 200.
I had so many shots to chose from... I settled on this one because of the dramatic clouds.
Barry photographing the sunset.
My take of the sunset...
Can you see the aircraft flying into the sunset after having just taken off from the Melbourne airport.
Melbourne in the background at 105mm, F4, 1/640 sec, ISO 320.
Posted in General Ramblings, Outdoors on October 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Today my photos are from my 3 mile walk into the town near where my cousin Barry lives. Let go…
Lovely dappled light covering the path I was walking on. The houses on the side of the street give you an idea of how the streets and houses are laid out.
Continuing my walk from the above shot...
The plants and flowers in the various gardens make a very pretty scene.
A playground area in the open spaces amongst the trees. Perhaps not visible in this shot, but there are homes within the trees also...
Dappled light on a small flower...
The steep inclines on my walk into the town.
A small water fountain in Eltham.
Where I had coffee...
Posted in Outdoors on October 6, 2009| 4 Comments »
I consider myself mostly as a portrait photographer. I love people. I got into photography because of people, so taking nice portrait images of people is where I feel most comfortable. That being said, when there’s an opportunity to shoot a landscape, I give it a go. Below are some of my landscape images I’ve taken over the last 2 years.
Taken in early November 2007 in Hertfordshire near Hitchin/Stevenage.
Taken in Southern France looking towards Mount Canigou from my friends home. This is a HDR photo processed from 2 images.
Taken on the Isle of Wight in August 2009. We had just mored up at the Folly Inn after a nice day's sailing.
Another photo from the Isle of Wight taken (July 2008) at the Folly Inn looking over the boats mored up.
Photo of lake Tal-y-Llyn near Tywyn on the coast of Wales. Taken in July 2008.
Okay not quite a landscape... taken in Uxbridge (in the London area) during April 2008.
The pathways in the middle of Black Park near Slough. Taken in May 2008.
Taken in December 2008 on a hill top near where I live in mid Wales.
Taken at the same time as the above photograph.
The bridge over the Clun River in a village called Clun near where I live in Wales. Taken in May 2008.
Clun Castle. Taken at the same time as the above photograph.
Taken in Cornwall in May 2008 in a forest that contained the lodges we were staying at. Taken at ISO 1250, 1/30 sec, F6.3.
Taken at the same time as the above shot in Deer Forest.
Taken on a windmill farm near where I live in Wales in January 2009.
Another photograph of the windmills close up...
HDR image of Clywedog dam which is not far from where I live in Wales.
Taken in July 2009 on a road trip to North Wales.
Posted in Flash, General Ramblings, Outdoors on October 4, 2009| 6 Comments »
Day 5 started off with waking up very early! Just what I needed!! Not!
Barry suggested we head into Melbourne and go to a community festival. As it turned out, this was a big deal because a famous Australian cricketer, Merv Hughes (link) would be there. We got there with our cameras and Barry had brought the big guns! His 400mm F2.8 Canon lens. This lens is huge!!! Trust me when I tell you that everybody gets out of the way when this massive lens walks with you! So cool…
There was some Bollywood Indian dancing, food, bag pipes, dance music, etc… around the festival.
Here are some images from the festival…
Merv Hughes before he played a fun game of cricket with the community.
Shooting action shots is quite challenging. This was the best of the bunch. Merv Hughes about to catch the ball...
Hmm.. is this a confused Merv Hughes? Nah... 😉
Barry with his 400mm F2.8 Canon lens!
I love this frame because in the UK, it is now troublesome to photograph police officers. When I saw this view, I very quickly took the photo as it has police officers and a very big lens!! Obviously, its fine to photograph police officers in Australia as I wasn't arrested! ;-),
Indian Bollywood dancing...
Indian Bollywood dancing...
Indian Bollywood dancing...
Indian Bollywood dancing... Photo by Barry Johnston. Taken on a Canon EOS 1D Mark II N with a 400mm F2.8 lens.
Bag pipe band practicing.
Bag pipe band practicing.
After a very active shooting session, we headed back into down town Melbourne for something to eat (with a well deserved beer).
Barry and I having lunch...
After the pasta lunch, we headed over to 2 locations to shoot with flash. First up was a car park right opposite some of the large sky scrapers of Melbourne. We set up our gear and took a few frames.
Barry with the Melbourne sky scrapers.
Yes.. its a photo of me... 🙂 Photo by Barry Johnston.
Another more colourful photo of Barry.
All the above city shots were taken with Barry’s camera with a wide angle lens (16-35mm F2.8 L). Oh man… I really need one of these!!! My widest focal length is 24mm on a 1.6x cropped sensor which makes it around 38mm. 38mm is simply not wide enough for shots like this. Dam I need one!!!
We then headed over to some graffiti and only had time for a single setup. I’m sure we’ll go back there as there’s loads of other shots to be had. Barry asked a lady if she would pose for us and she happily accepted. Excellent as it makes much more interesting pictures than just Barry or I. Actually, there were about 3 or 4 wedding shoots at the same location.
Location photo 1. Photo by Barry Johnston.
Location photo 2. Photo by Barry Johnston.
Yip... its me again... Photo by Barry Johnston.
We got home and I was very tired! I had been up since 2:30am and by 8pm, I was finished. Time for sleep…
Posted in Flash, Lightroom, Outdoors on September 26, 2009| 2 Comments »
One of the problems I’ve encountered in post-production with my images is imagining how they can look unique? I want some of them to be different, but give a familiarity and look that provides an alternative to the actual scene in real life. My earlier attempts in post-production were pretty basic and it remained so for a long time. Slight adjustments to exposure, brightness, contrast, colour, etc… My main problem was that I couldn’t imagine how the photograph could even look different? I guess I was conditioned by the scene when taking the photo, then further conditioned when chimping on the image on the back of the camera, and again conditioned when I saw the image on the computer. I had seen the scene and image so many times, I couldn’t possibly imagine how else the image could look?
So as a tool to help me imagine things differently, I used Lightroom presets. Lightroom comes with a few presets, but I needed much more serious help in looking at these images differently. Initially I used a whole bunch of presets by Matt Kloskowski (link). This helped a lot until I found the Wonderland Presets (link).
I have been using the Wonderland presets as a tool to help me gain a new perspective. I don’t always use these presets in the final image, but from time to time, I stick with a look that I think works. If I do use a preset, I use the preset as a basis to build on and I make further adjustments to get to the image I want.
However, after being on Damien Lovegrove’s session with his picture editor, Marko (link), I’ve gained a whole new perspective on post-production and I’ll be using the Wonderland presets less and less. Amongst the many things I gained from Marko, colour accuracy (or at least believable colour) in skin tones is highly important. This may seem obvious… but seeing the way that Marko works was a technique I’d not come across before. Using presets like the Wonderland series does mess with the colours of skin tones which is why I will be adopting Marko’s approach more and more…
Okay… lets go through the images…
Wonderland: Creative Catalyst 08, ISO 200, 32mm, 1/250 sec, F7.1.
Wonderland: Creative Catalyst 19, ISO 200, 28mm, 1/200 sec, F18.
Matt Kloskowski’s Sin City - Light Red Preset: ISO 200, 35mm, 1/200 sec, F18.
Wonderland: Creative Catalyst 09, ISO 200, 45mm, 1/200 sec, F18.
Matt Kloskowski’s 300 Look - Strong: ISO 400, 67mm, 1/125 sec, F8.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 11, ISO 400, 24mm, 1/100 sec, F11.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 14, ISO 400, 24mm, 1/125 sec, F11.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 58, ISO 400, 32mm, 1/125 sec, F8.
Matt Kloskowski’s 'Sin City - Light Red' preset, ISO 400, 58mm, 1/125 sec, F16.
There's no wacky preset used for this. I guess I just like this frame 🙂 ISO 400, 24mm, 1/125 sec, F16.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 15, ISO 640, 200mm, 1/200 sec, F2.8.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 19, ISO 200, 50mm, 1/160 sec, F18.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 30, ISO 200, 70mm, 1/1600 sec, F2.8.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 19, ISO 200, 195mm, 1/200 sec, F5.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 29, ISO 200, 50mm, 1/1000 sec, F4.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 26, ISO 200, 1650mm, 1/250 sec, F2.8.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 29, ISO 200, 24mm, 1/1600 sec, F4.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 32, ISO 200, 35mm, 1/1600 sec, F4. Added a blue gradient in Lightroom.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 51, ISO 1250, 105mm, 1/30 sec, F16.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 51, ISO 800, 24mm, 1/125 sec, F8.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 51, ISO 200, 24mm, 1/125 sec, F8.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 19, ISO 200, 24mm, 1/1000 sec, F4.
Wonderland : Creative Catalyst 19, ISO 200, 105mm, 1/500 sec, F4.
Posted in Outdoors on September 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Last week Graham, Julie and I headed out to Montgomery Castle to shoot and generally mess around with our cameras. Here are a few frames from the shoot…
Photo by Graham Law.
Posted in Outdoors on September 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »
My buddy Graham suggested we go out shooting at Dolforwyn castle which is near by. The castle is on a hill and is quite a mission to climb. The castle itself is just the remains of what was… there isn’t really anything very identifiable to use for the foreground unfortunately.
The first frame of the shoot. Graham wondering what we're shooting next...
Graham shooting the sunset...
Sunset at Dolforwyn castle. This is the shot taken from where Graham was shooting from in the previous image.
This shot was taken earlier by about 10 min
Graham shooting the sunset. I should take more silhouette images.
Another silhouette of Graham with his camera.
Photo Rebel 