Where have all the Spiders' Webs gone?

September Rain, originally uploaded by Adriana Glackin.

I would love to boast and say the reason there are no spiders’ webs around my home is due to the fact I am fastidious and clean my eaves and gutters regularly. But that’s not the case. The photo I’ve included was taken over two years ago. The spider web was huge. I have iron verandah posts and plenty of shrubs and trees perfect for web making, and yet, not a decent spider’s web has been formed in such a long time. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of spiders. In fact last week I almost picked up what I thought was a dead huntsman spider – he wasn’t dead at all, and only moved at the last minute before I picked him up. Luckily spiders don’t frighten me, or I would have been in trouble. The flower pots on my verandah are riddled with red back spiders, but no webs. We used to have magnificent St Andrew’s cross spiders spin their webs amongst the rose bushes, but they’ve moved out as well. So, what’s going on? Where are they all? How can I invite them back? Where do I send the photo shoot invitations out to these unknown spiders who once resided in my garden? I really miss being able to take photos of their webs. I’m a much more patient person now with a few more skills under my belt and I would love nothing more than to take photos of their glorious homes. I will simply wait patiently until the spiders return. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions, then pop your feedback into my comments below.

If you would like to buy this image as a greeting card, wall art, canvas or print, it is available for sale at my gallery over at RedBubble.

Sunrise at Echo Point, Katoomba

Sunrise at Echo Point, Katoomba, originally uploaded by Adriana Glackin.

It's not very often that I find myself witnessing a sunrise with a camera in hand. Not very often, as in, ummm, never. So it was with a little apprehension that I tagged along to a sunrise shoot at Echo Point this past weekend.
Now, I'm not one to be anal or superstitious about things, but as soon as I put on my shoes and socks in the incorrect order, I knew this was going to be one of those days. Sure enough, I wasn’t 200m from my door when I realised that I had forgotten my jacket, beanie and gloves. Although it’s October, these items are essential for the upper mountains, especially since the sunrise shoot would be one of two locations that day. In the process of performing a U-turn, I managed to spill most of my espresso into my centre console (why don’t they make travel mugs to fit centre consoles I’ll never know...). So with jacket, gloves and beanie now in hand I hurried, as best as the speed limits allow, up the mountains before the sun rose over the horizon. Did I mention there are major road works being carried out in various locations up the mountains, which I hadn’t factored into the time required to get from one end of the mountains to the other?
I could see the sky was getting increasingly lighter with each passing kilometre and I was possibly not going to make it in time. Not only that, but there were no clouds or mist to be seen. I was also 10 minutes behind schedule, and I was meeting two other photographers, lets simply call them P1 and P2, and I certainly didn’t want to keep them waiting. Taking advantage of a red traffic light, I took the opportunity to call P1 and P2 to ascertain their whereabouts. Imagine my surprise (read horror, shock, astonishment) to find they were actually about 25 minutes behind me and would certainly not make it in time...P1 and P2 are dedicated and passionate photographers who think it quite normal to get up at stupid o’clock, drive countless kilometres simply to shoot a stunning sunrise – had they put their shoes and socks on incorrectly that morning as well?
Needless to say, it’s just as well P1 and P2 didn’t make it in time. The sunrise, while pink and pretty, was also very plain, very quick and very ordinary. This wasn’t going to be one of those Kodak moments. There was no cloud. There was no magical Katoomba mist rolling through the valley. And it was over in a matter of minutes.
Remind me again why Cosy Bed Syndrome as mentioned in a previous blog posting is a bad thing?

Feature Monday

Today - my feature images are taken from the RedBubble home page:

"_two sisters_" by Louise LeGresley"

"Stellar Sealions in the Mist" by underdoc

"Vague Horizon" by Silijo Selman

"A Walk through Paris #5" by Mike McGlothlen

and only because it seemed to fit the theme, "~ teacakes in the afternoon ~" by Adriana

To Delete or Not to Delete Digital Photographs

In part one, we talked about whether “To Print or not to Print” your images, or simply keep them on file. As we continue to embrace digital photography technology, we’re also increasing the number of images we take. So, what do you do with the less than perfect images? Do you keep or do you delete?

Well, I think you fall into one of two categories – the minimalists and the hoarders. Now me, I’m a hoarder. I simply can’t bear to delete an image, no matter how cruddy. There is nothing more calamitous than – gasp – deleting in-camera! Argh! How can you do that?! I recently spent some time with a sports photographer who was happily deleting images in-camera while showing me the images – what if there was a lapse in concentration and he deleted the wrong image? Argh! Obviously, he’s a minimalist as he felt more than comfortable deleting any image that wasn’t up to scratch.

Being the image hoarder that I am, I very rarely delete images, and certainly none in-camera. Rather, I categorise them in various files. As I also like to create image with multiple textured layers, this is where having a collection of images to use as a stock library, comes in handy.





In fact, take this image as an example.

Stock Image by Adriana Glackin

It’s less than crisp, fairly mundane and certainly not the type of fine art photography you hang on your wall. Now, my minimalist friend would have deleted it in-camera (mind you, he probably wouldn’t have shot it to begin with). But with some clever and creative alterations using editing programs such as Photoshop, this mundane image has been transformed quite dramatically into a piece that can be used as wall art and even a greeting card. Why buy someone else’s stock images when you can create your own stock images by simply keeping the less than perfect images on file.

Take a look at the examples to see some clever variations. For even more variations, visit the Grunge Art Photographic Gallery and A Photographer’s Craft and see for yourself why you too should be an image hoarder and not a minimalist!

Ode to Banksy by Adrian Rachele

A Semblance of Yearning by Karri Klawiter

afraid of the light by andreasphoto



A Year of Novembers by Dana DiPasquale


~ autumn collage ~ by Adriana Glackin

Digital Photographs - To Print or not to Print...

We have well and truly embraced digital camera technology. It’s a technology that is not only affordable but also accessible to so many. We are in an age where it doesn’t feel right to leave home each day without some form of digital camera, whether it’s our cell phone or a small compact camera in our pocket. And it’s this portability that means that we’re taking more photos than ever before. And this is where it gets interesting – one of several common themes begins to emerge.

"Fae Whispers" by Jules Campbell

The first one is that many of us no longer bother printing off the photos we take. We store them in our hard drives, buy external drives to back up copies of these images and make yet more copies on cd’s and dvd’s. But we never actually print the images and place them in family photo albums. So does this mean that the humble family photo album is no longer needed? Remember cringing when the old family albums were pulled out and scrutinised whenever relatives and friends visited? Ducking for cover so that our dear old aunt couldn’t squeeze the life out of us and telling us how much we’d grown? Flipping the pages over ever so quickly, so that you didn’t have to see yourself in those awful purple velour bootleg trousers you wore to your best friend’s birthday party? Surely, we shouldn’t let the current generation miss out on this fun?! So – what should you do?

"Just for today I will not be afraid" by Dana DiPasquale

1. Choose a selection of images from the ever increasing digital image album on your computer. It helps if you work in themes, or events, or family members, or even months.
2. Images selected can either be printed on a home printer (and yes, we all have one of those these days, too) or taken to one of many instant print booths located in major retail shopping centres. These printing centres have become very inexpensive even offering discounts on quantities and sizes on different days of the week (so that photo of your Uncle Jim pulling faces at the camera can be printed into the largest of sizes for a very small price indeed).
3. Select photo albums that are acid-free, as this will extend the life of the photo – but heck, as long as you have kept copies on your hard drive, external drive, cd and dvd, this shouldn’t really matter too much.

"Self Portrait" by Peter Hill



4. Most importantly, record in the album the vital information of who, what, where and when. There really is nothing more frustrating than looking at old photos in family albums from long ago where these details weren’t recorded, and now those details forever remain unknown. It’s amazing what a few words accompanying a photo can do to jog the memory and transport you back to that place in time.



"Central Park" by Danielle Kelly



So don’t forget to bring out the family photo album whenever relatives and friends are over, so another generation can really enjoy that part of growing up!


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