The front page gallery has been changed to showcase five images from the Venice trip.
Prints Available from Redbubble
500px
I have just created a portfolio at 500px. I will be using this site to highlight collections of my favourite images.
First up, several images of farm buildings in Iceland. I never cease to be fascinated by the feeling of emptiness and sometimes desolation that these places and buildings create.
A day with Joshua Holko
Like many photographers, I suffer from a tendency to GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). For a while now I have been aware that the quality of my prints and skills as a printer haven’t been improving and fall well short of what is expected of a fine art print. First solution is more megapixels, right? So I upgraded my camera. This resulted in bigger prints but didn’t do much for my ability to print, so new printer, more software, more plugins, still looking for that magic bullet.
Then I happened upon the website of Melbourne-based landscape photographer Joshua Holko. Joshua has won many awards and regularly leads photograph trips to places such as Iceland, the arctic and Antarctic.
After an exchange of emails, we arranged a day for me to take advantage of Joshua’s mentoring program. And what an eye-opener that day was.
Starting with shooting technique we discussed the entire workflow needed to produce a gallery quality print. Joshua critiqued some prints I had brought with me, then spent several hours taking me through a Photoshop workflow that produced much better results than I would have imagined.
And to prove that more gear isn’t the answer, Joshua then produced a beautiful, detailed print from a file from my old camera, not the fancy new one.
Spend a little time to go through Joshua’s website and his list of achievements, this man knows what he is doing.
Before you give in to the symptoms of GAS, try learning how to use and get the most out of the equipment you already have, that might solve the problem.
Posted in art, changed thinking, Iceland, influences, Photographers
The more things change…
“In those days a photographer ran his career upon the celebrities who came to him”
~ Mathew Brady, 1891
Posted in art, discussion, History, Photographers
Where There’s Smoke…
…there’s photography
Some years ago I saw some lovely images of smoke taken by Graham Jeffrey. Several times I have tried to do the same, but with limited success. The first problem I faced was not being able to get a true black background. This was quickly fixed by blocking the spill from the light so it didn’t fall on the background.
The other problems weren’t so easy to fix at the time, and included:
- An older DSLR with not a lot of megapixels and quite a lot of noise on higher ISO settings
- Being limited in where I placed the light by the length of the PC cord used to trigger it
- A lens that, while is was high-quality and sharp, didn’t focus close enough to give me images large enough to work with.
In recent years all of these issues have been fixed. I now have a new 22 MP camera with very good low light performance, several flash units with wireless triggers so I can place the light anywhere I want and a macro lens that will focus more than close enough to do the job.
I used a myrrh incense stick (it was Christmas after all) and set the light up so that it was behind the smoke to the left of the camera. A piece of cardboard blocked the light so it didn’t fall on the background and the flash was aimed so it wasn’t directly into the camera lens. The macro lens and the 22 MP meant I had plenty of leeway to crop closely to find the most interesting shapes in the smoke.
The Photofilter adjustment in Adobe Photoshop was used to add colour.
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Posted in opinion
Seagulls
I live beside a lake and very near a wetlands sanctuary of world importance (listed under the international convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat).
On an evening walk I regularly see ducks Australian black swans, pelicans, fairy terns, cormorants and herons.
And seagulls. Lots and lots of seagulls. They can be annoying, irritating, noisy, pushy and messy. But they can also be beautiful and a joy to photograph.
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Under the West Gate Bridge
The West Gate bridge connects the centre of Melbourne with the western suburbs and the highway to my home town of Geelong.
The West Gate, or lack of it has been a main feature of my life. Before it was open, the only way to get into Melbourne city, or through it to the suburbs in the east, was a long, slow trip through the western suburbs and inner city suburbs. After it was built in the 1970s, I spent quite a lot of my time driving over it; and sitting in stationary traffic on it.
In October 1970, during the construction phase, one of the spans fell, killing 35 workers. There is a memorial park under the western end of the bridge to commemorate this tragic loss of life.
Recently a lot of maintenance work has been undertaken on the bridge to repair cracks and put up higher safety railings.
The West Gate can be a beautiful sight; it has the form of a long, sinuous curve and presents different aspects in different weather conditions.
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Posted in art, exhibition, explanation
Suburbia
I live in one of the fastest growing areas in Victoria, in fact all of Australia. Although the area is fairly well-heeled and there are some people with serious money, the suburbs around me aren’t exactly full of cutting edge architecture.
In fact I regularly have to endure conversations that include the terms; cheap, thrown together, cookie-cutter, ugly, cut-price, design free, boxes made of ticky-tacky, little boxes all the same. Not many of the boxes are little though.
There is a lot of truth in these comments, this period in this area won’t be remembered as a classic example of modern architecture or building techniques.
However, I do enjoy photographing as I walk around the streets. Given the right time of day and the right light, there might not be great architecture, but there is design, and sometimes even art.
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Photographing Freeplay
I recently had some fun photographing the events at the Freeplay independent games festival held in Melbourne, Australia.
The events I photographed took place in an auditorium at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), a theatre at the State Library of Victoria, an exhibition space in the State Library and a dimly lit bar where the awards presentation was held.
The lighting conditions varied from marginal, lit by spotlights of various strengths and colours to almost pitch black lit by dull red spots (the bar).
The white balance was non-existent, depending on where the speakers were standing, what was being displayed on the screen behind them and whether or not they were using a tablet for reading notes.
This was an excellent chance to try out the low level response and focusing of the new 5D Mark 3 which had arrived a week or so earlier.
The first surprise was the focusing, much, much faster than the original 5D I had been using prior to this. It was grabbing focus as fast as I could press the shutter button, even in the dimly lit bar there was no lag or focus hunting.
The low level performance was brilliant, it can practically see in the dark and this came in very handy in the bar for the awards night. Sure the files have some noise, but this cleaned up to an acceptable level for the conditions. I’ve never shot an image at ISO 25600 before. This gave me 1/80 at f4.5 and combined with a monopod I was able to document the evening and capture not only the presenters and award recipients, but also the visuals on the screen behind them. See more of the images at the Freeplay galleries.
Posted in Canon, discussion, equipment
Sheep Roundup
In September 2011, we were travelling in the north of Iceland and had the privilege of watching a sheep round up. This was great community event with many families gathered around to take part and watch the sheep being brought in from the surrounding hills and sorted out ready to be brought in for the winter.
It was clear, cool day with lots of BBQs, drinks, fun for the children, who often took part in locating and retrieving the family’s sheep.
This year was just a little different, as this article from an Iceland newspaper shows.
Posted in Iceland
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