Canon 60D + 50mm, 1/60 sec at f/2.2, ISO 640
I took this one at a dinner party. I know I’m not supposed to take any more food photos but there was something nice about the depth of the shot and the fairy lights in the background. Given a bit more care I’d clean up the glasses in the foreground and really get them sparkling but I don’t mind it as a shot for the day.
VERDICT: Average to slightly okay
Canon 60D + 10-22mm @ 10mm, 1/40 sec at f/4, ISO 320
Exhibit #652 of ‘Things that looked really cool in real life but I couldn’t manage to translate to a still’. I stumbled across this at the tail end of my daily long walk home. It was right on dusk, approaching twilight. Some council workers were spraying down the sidewalk with a high pressure hose. At the same time a bus was pulled up, catching an impatient car behind it. The cars headlights illuminated the spray from the workers hose in the most remarkable way. I was a fraction too slow with the shot, and the UWA lens didn’t get me close enough. Try as I may I can’t make it into anything but a muddy near miss.
VERDICT: Missed it by that much..
Canon 60D + 18-135mm @ 126mm, 1/160 sec at f/5.6, ISO 6400
After a lengthy hiatus (and a long holiday) I’ve resolved to get back on the daily photo horse. It’s good practice and good discipline for me. So I’ll be filling in the period between my last post in August and now with what I can find from the drives, and hopefully updating this near-daily from here on again!
This snap is from a magic show at Darling Harbour. I went there with my little relatives. Shooting a dimly lit stage at the zoomey end of my 18-135mm was always going to be a bit tricky. I like this grab the most from the days’ shots. There’s a nice contrast between the ‘snow’ and the inky black stage background.
Canon 60D + 10-22 mm @ 10 mm, 30 sec at f/6.3, ISO 400
The first of my holiday photos – by order of upload anyway. In full honesty this is a composite of two plates – the first is basically the bottom two thirds of the shot, then I added the extra aurora to the top right to spice things up a bit. I took both photos but felt there was a lot of dead space in the original shot.
The photo was taken in the Icelandic countryside. It was about 10pm in Autumn and blowing a reasonable wind. I was rugged up pretty well with four layers on but needed my hands free to operate the camera. Them and my face were utterly chilled after crouching out in the field for the better part of two hours.
I was really fortunate to catch the lights. I flew into Keflavik Airport that morning and chanced on a sign mentioning Northern Lights tours were running that evening. I’d read up on the lights before leaving Australia and heard they wouldn’t be out till November, so I wasn’t expecting to see them at all on the trip. As jetlagged as I was I’m very glad I took the tour to see the lights – the following eight nights were clouded over!
The lights themselves were quite subtle to the eye at first.. basically a very faint dull green whispy cloud travelling slowly across the sky. By exposing a full 30 seconds they took on the much stronger colour and presence we’re used to seeing.
The heart was courtesy of a Canadian woman from the tour, who was light tracing it out for her partner shooting beside me. (On the extremely unlikely chance you’re reading this, nice Canadian couple, please get in touch with a comment and I’ll forward you the RAWs of the shot).
VERDICT: Very happy with the result, I did indeed love Iceland
I really love street photography. There’s a feeling probably akin to big game hunting (safari photography of course) in photographing people candidly. A lot of people find the idea of having their photo taken in public without their knowledge threatening or invasive. I don’t really want to weigh in on that debate – it’s legal, get over it – beyond saying try being on the other end of the camera! I’m still very new to the concept of street photography and I find it terrifying. To take a photo of a stranger, with or without their explicit consent, requires a lot of courage and nerve. Most days I mean to take some street shots and whimp out because I tell myself ‘I’m not in the mood’ (code for I find it too confronting to attempt on that particular day). However, I find the results really rewarding and the photographs street photography produces unpredictable and lively, two characteristics very hard to cheat in a more considered shoot.
Some of my other daily streets photos are here, here and here. The first is candid, the other two I approached the individuals for permission to take the photos. After all three photos I felt a real sense of invigoration, accomplishment and that I don’t often photographing. There’s a great set of tips here by Eric Kim that explain the mindset and techniques of street shooting. Check out his main blog while you’re there, there’s some brilliant photos on it.
VERDICT: Happy
Bikes, outside UTS this evening. I love my little 50mm 1.8 lens. In the photography world it is pretty much the cheapest lens you can buy, costing not a lot over $100. It is a prime lens, meaning it doesn’t zoom, and the 1.8 designates that the iris can open wide up, which allows a lot of light to hit the sensor. Exactly what you want at night. It comes at the expense of depth of field (the amount of the shot in focus), but the overall effect isn’t an unpleasant one. I actually really love the lack of a zoom. Aside from the technical benefits of a prime lens (generally crisper images and better low light performance) it is oddly liberating to have to frame a shot by physically moving. Old school-like.
VERDICT: Average
I’ll attend to the missing past few days shortly, but this is a photo from another long expedition home. Carrying a really heavy tripod. It is City West Link road just coming off the Anzac Bridge. I went out hoping to take some photos of the bridge, magnificent and brutally stark structure that it is, but all the streetlights along the path flared the shots out to buggery. I don’t mind the look of this shot but I may have overcooked the blue tone to the top a little.
VERDICT: Okay
