Month: March 2015

LAST NIGHT AT THE CAMERA CLUB./

~ creakingbones

G’day, last night I went to the monthly meeting of a camera club to which I belong. The competition for the night was ‘The Colour Yellow’. At the club, you have the option of exhibiting prints on the night for the judge to evaluate, or submit digital entries some time in advance for the judge to evaluate at his leisure before delivering the awards of either Distinction or Credit on the night.

Members are entitled to enter three prints and or three digital entries. I chose to enter three prints.

I entered the yellow chickens which I may have shown previously in a Photo101 blog together with the following two:

YELLOW 4 OK TO PRINT 1656 copy
                                  FIRE FIGHTING BEAR – NOT BARE OF COURSE
PRINT + 30 YELLOW _DSC1504 copy
I’VE GOT A LOVERLY BUNCH OF BANANAS GROWING IN THIS EUCALYPTUS TREE.

In his opening remarks, the judge reminded us that judging photographic images is a pretty subjective exercise as we all have our own prejudices, intrenched opinions and our likes and dislikes. Fair comment too. I’m a qualified camera club judge and I always say exactly the same thing to entrants.

Well, the judging continued apace with the judge awarding Distinctions and Credits to images that took his fancy. On some occasions when he felt an award was not merited, he made a brief comment on where, in his opinion, the image wasn’t worthy of an award. That was excellent because we attend camera club competitions to learn.  Unfortunately for some entrants, the remarks were cursory.

When the judge came to my image of the firefighting bear, he dismissed it with the sole comment, ‘The author of this image should have used the rule of thirds and if the photographer knows nothing about the rule, then I suggest he or she learns it’. Fair comment I guess, but the rules of photography are made to be broken.

Then, the chickens and the egg. Lighting in the wrong place, creating too much brightness in the yellows and the background should be strongly cropped, too much brown and out of focus detail. Again, fair comment.

Then, the bananas in the eucalyptus tree. I nearly burst out laughing when the judge commented that the light on the bananas and the use of too much contrast was making them too yellow, and then awarded the image a Credit on the basis that although it had no photographic merit, it made him laugh.

As I said earlier, we go into camera club competitions to learn. Did I learn anything from this experience?

I certainly did, I now know his likes and dislikes. If I present before him again, I’ll crop my images like mad, obey the rule of thirds to the letter, hold back on the brightness, restrict contrast and try to make him laugh.

Why am I writing this blog. Not to criticise the judge, that’s for sure.  He stuck to his principles and we can have no argument against that.

I just want to get the message across that none of us publish an image on our blog, exhibit in competitions or give our photographs away as presents unless we are happy with our work and like what we have produced.

In the end, that’s all that matters.

Hoo roo for now

BLACK & WHITE 5 DAY CHALLENGE – DAY 5

~ creakingbones

CREAKINGBONES

G’day, here we are, Day 5 of the challenge is already upon us. As I have already posted, Dale from imoverthehill.com has graciously accepted the challenge and the baton will change hands after this post.

As you may or may not know, Australia is rapidly becoming known as the place of ‘Big Things’. We have the Big Banana, The Big Trout, The Big Orange, The Big Pineapple, the Big Prawn and countless others. Some people love them and naturally, some loathe them.

Where I live in country New South Wales, the fortunes of my town once rode on the sheeps back as the saying used to be. And a Merino sheep’s back it certainly was. So it followed, as night follows day that the city fathers smiled at the proposal for us to have something BIG to recognise the value of sheep to us.

With our boring you with all…

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BLACK & WHITE 5 DAY CHALLENGE – DAY 5

~ creakingbones ~ 4 Comments

G’day, here we are, Day 5 of the challenge is already upon us. As I have already posted, Dale from imoverthehill.com has graciously accepted the challenge and the baton will change hands after this post.

As you may or may not know, Australia is rapidly becoming known as the place of ‘Big Things’. We have the Big Banana, The Big Trout, The Big Orange, The Big Pineapple, the Big Prawn and countless others. Some people love them and naturally, some loathe them.

Where I live in country New South Wales, the fortunes of my town once rode on the sheeps back as the saying used to be. And a Merino sheep’s back it certainly was. So it followed, as night follows day that the city fathers smiled at the proposal for us to have something BIG to recognise the value of sheep to us.

With our boring you with all of the tedious details, The Big Merino, or RamBo, as many now call it arrived on our town’s doorstep some years ago.

In 2013, our town, proudly known as the State’s First Inland City celebrated its 150th birthday. Quite an achievement by Australian standards.  To celebrate, the local Knitters Guild took the decision to knit a scarf for Rambo as the weather at the time of the birthday celebrations could be a little chilly.

Accordingly, the ladies of the Knitters Guild took to work knitting squares, not in merino wool, horror of horrors, but in acrylic. This decision was taken because of the weight of the finished scarf and the fact it would be exposed to the weather for some months. Many hundreds of colourful 10inch by 10inch squares were knitted and sewn together making a gigantic scarf for Rambo.

Rambo's new scarf P +7_0179 copy 3
THE BIG MERINO @ RAMBO AND HIS SCARF WITH MEMBERS OF THE GOULBURN BRANCH OF THE KNITTERS GUILD.

It took a crew of workers with a cherry picker quite some time to place the scarf around RamBo’s neck. The scarf became quite a tourist attraction and was the subject of TV documentaries and newspaper articles for quite a while.

Eventually, when the scarf was taken down, it was divided up, commercially cleaned and donated to various institutions around our city.

As my wife observed me preparing ths blog she became quite agitated as the image is in monochrome and doesn’t display the scarf in all of it colourful glory. As a peace preserving action, I’ve promised to place a coloured image on a future blog.

For the technically minded, I made the original of this image using my lens set at 24mm, aperture at f5.6, shutter speed at 1/500th second, ISO 100, tripod mounted. The image was converted from colour to monochrome using Nik software’s Silver Efex Pro2.

Well, that’s it from me, I’ve enjoyed the 5 day challenge, thanks for looking and I know Dale’s images will be absolute rippers.

Hoo roo for now.

BLACK AND WHITE 5 DAY CHALLENGE- DAY 4

~ creakingbones

Last Sunday, the  29th March, I went with a number of friends to the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, ACT, Australia to view their current works. The N.P.G stands near Australia’s National Gallery, the High Court of Australia and other significant buildings that are situate in our Nations Capital.

photo L1010117 copy
THE AUSTRALIAN HIGH COURT BUILDING, CANBERRA, A.C.T. AUSTRALIA

The High Court building is an interesting structure with it’s glass facade, sloping forecourt and water feature. At the time of making this image, the light was quite harsh with strong reflection from the concrete forecourt and the massive amount of glass. I made several images before getting the exposure right. I hope you like the result.

I made this image using my little Leica D Lux 6 , a very handy piece of kit to use on outings like this. I’d used it the evening before and had set the ISO at 400 as I was shooting indoors without flash. It wasn’t until I downloaded Sunday’s images and noted the noise that I realised I hadn’t taken the ISO back to 100 for the daylight shots. No excuses, just stupidity on my part.

For the technically minded, for this image I set the aperture  at f8 to give adequate depth of field, shutter speed 1/1000th second and of course, that ridiculously high ISO of 400. The image was converted from colour to monochrome using NIK’s effective Silver Efex Pro 2.

Well, for me, only one more day to go before the 5 day challenge ends. There are so many great photographers out there it’s hard to choose one to take up the challenge. I’m working on it!

Hoo roo for now.

B LACK AND WHITE 5 DAY CHALLENGE – DAY 3

~ creakingbones

This image is a good example of how using infra red capability for landscape photography can provide an interesting image. On this occasion in 2012, conditions were perfect for IR. Interesting cloud cover, good shadows, bright sunlight light in some areas and plenty of greenery to emphasise the IR’s magic in turning greens white.

DAY 3
THE WOLLONDILLY RIVER OVERFLOWING THE MARSDEN WEIR NEAR GOULBURN, NSW, AUSTRALIA.

For the technically minded, my lens was set at 18mm, aperture f 11 giving a shutter speed of 1/200th second at ISO 200. As the camera only records in infra red, there was no need for post processing. What a time saver.

Hoo roo till tomorrow. Only two images to go. Who’s going to be next?

BLACK AND WHITE 5 DAY CHALLENGE – DAY 2

~ creakingbones

Challenge is quite an appropriate word to describe this photo a day exercise. Do I have any suitable buildings in town that merit monochrome treatment today I asked myself.  Buildings, sure, weather, not today, light all wrong. So, back to the files and suddenly, the thought light switched on! The moon from a few nights back. On that particular night we had a brilliant sky, plenty of stars, just a smidgeon of cloud and a partial moon just hanging there saying, ‘here I am, catch me if you can’.

I grabbed the camera, whacked on the lens, forgot the tripod in my haste, and grabbed the following shot, I hope you like it.

DAY 2
THREE QUARTER MOON OVER GOULBURN , NSW AUSTRALIA.

For the technically minded, although the light was adequate, I extended my zoom  lens to 600mmm its longest and set the aperture at f 6.3, the lens’s widest. I jacked the IDSO up to 500  and these settings gave me a shutter speed of 1/2500th second. This was ideal as I needed a high shutter speed to ensure no camera shake because I’d not used a tripod and it’s difficult for me to hand hold the lens and camera steady because of its combined weight. That’s my excuse, the tremor of old age has nothing to do with it.

The image was recorded in colour and converted to monochrome using the presets in Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2.

Hoo roo till tomorrow.

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO 5 DAY CHALLENGE- DAY 1

~ creakingbones ~ 4 Comments

It was with some trepidation that I took up the Black and White Photo 5 Day Challenge baton from Chilly Bella Photo Art. Chilly Bella Photo Art has been first class in producing a great image for each of the past five days and I hope that I can rise to the occasion.

I’m a fan of infra red photography so for my Day 1 contribution here is my IR  image of St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, the spiritual home of Catholics in our State of New South Wales. The image was made from Hyde Park which stretches for a number of city blocks and effectively screens the Cathedral from the city’s main hustle and bustle.I hope you like it the image..

DSC_0005
ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA.

For the technically minded, this image was made using my old Nikon D100 converted to capture only images within the infra red spectrum. At the time of the camera conversion, my Nikkor 18-70mm DX lens was recalibrate to ensure that both auto and manual focus remained accurate after the camera’s conversion.

For this image, the lens was set at 44mm, aperture at f11 with shutter speed 1/80 second and ISO at 200, white balance on Auto. As you see the image it is as it came off the sensor with only a small contrast tweak in Silver Effex Pro 2.

Please let me know if you would like my technical comments discontinued for the next four images.

The conversions were made by Life Pixel of Mukileto, WA 98275, USA.  I should point out that I’m only a satisfied customer and apart from that I’ve no connection whatsoever with Life Pixel.

PHOTO101 DAY 20: TRIUMPH AND CONTRAST

~ creakingbones ~ 4 Comments

I was scratching my head, wondering how to attack today’s interesting challenge when I recalled driving from my home into Sydney and triumphing over a highly contrasting and dangerous weather phenomenon. The driving was dangerous as visibility was severely restricted and the danger was compounded by many drivers, myself included, taking their eye off the road to take photographs whilst still driving.

The date was 23rd September 2009. Conditions that day had never been seen in the history of Sydney’s weather records and have not been seen since.  Much of inland Australia had been experiencing drought for a considerable time and strong winds from the interior picked up red dust and carried it towards Sydney, situate on the eastern coast.

On September 23rd, when I left home about 6.AM for the 200 km drive into Sydney City, the sky had a  reddish tinge but I thought nothing about it, having not heard the severe weather warning.

After about 30 minutes driving I grabbed my point and shoot camera and made the following image through the windscreen of the Landrover:

PHOTO DAY 20 N06_23Sep2009_0008 copy
                  VISIBILITY DOWN TO ABOUT 100 METRES AND VERY STRONG WINDS.

As I had an unbreakable appointment in the City I continued on, refraining from taking more photos and mistakenly thinking the red dust would clear. Big mistake.

Finally reaching a few kilometres from my city destination, the red dust was a little heavier and the traffic was at a standstill. For some reason all I could think about was the Landrover’s air cleaner, a natural reaction by a typical bloke.

This next image was taken near by to where I left the Landy at a mate’s place, sometime after 8.30am and I continued into the city on foot and by train.

pongo
PRINCES HIGHWAY, TEMPE. VISIBILITY LIMITED, TRAFFIC NOT MOVING.

Updrafts in the Central Business District of Sydney seemed to keep the dust considerably higher and although visibility was still crook it was no where as bad as elsewhere. I made the following images as I made my way to my meeting, quite late too:

PHOTO DAY 20 No.4 23Sep2009_0018 copy
AUSTRALIA SQUARE TOWER PARTLY OBSCURED BY RED DUST.
No 2
LOOKING SOUTH ALONG GEORGE STREET, SYDNEY, NEAR THE HISTORIC QUEEN VICTORIA BUILDING ON THE RIGHT.

My meeting over,I excused myself from post meeting drinks and made my way down to Circular Quay where I made the following images:

No 3
LOOKING SOUTH TOWARDS CIRCULAR QUAY, LUCKY COMMUTERS’ CITY MARITIME GATEWAY TO THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT.
No 5
ANOTHER VIEW OF CIRCULAR QUAY AND SOME CITY BUILDINGS.

Finally, although photographs of the Sydney Harbour Bridge are considered by many to be a cliche I couldn’t resist joining the throng and making the following image as the like of same will probably, and hopefully, never be seen again:

No 7
SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE, PARTIALLY OBSCURED BY RED DUST, TAKEN FROM THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE FORECOURT.

The winds abated towards the afternoon, the dust settled and the massive clean up began.

A sad epilogue to this unusual and rare weather event was many people suffered severe breathing difficulties because of the dust, particularly the elderly and those suffering from asthma. Vehicle collisions were legion. Retail sales plummeted but on a positive note, air conditioning technicians and window cleaners together with their company owners, rubbed their hands in glee at the prospect of the workload to come.

I retrieved my Landrover and returned home without incident.  On arrival home I immediately  serviced the air cleaner and am pleased to report it kept all dust out of the Landrover’s engine and no damage was incurred.

Just goes to show that every cloud has a silver lining.

For the technically minded, all the above images were made using a Nikon Coolpix 5500. In post processing there was no need to boost contrast, nature had done that for me. All that was required was a little cropping here and there and blocking out number plates on some of the vehicles in the photos.

And guess what, six years later the little Nikon it’s still making great trouble free images.

Hoo roo for now