Here We Go Again...

Perhaps the full moon can explain the strange goings-on around me this week. Goings-on that have made me raise my eyebrows a few times, smirk just a little in amazement and slightly nod at the oddities. Whatever has caused the out-of-character behaviours, I will now be adding to them by posting on this blog once more - where I was so certain this blog would be in indefinite hiatus for reasons too boring to mention, I've changed my mind. When I spoke out loud to a couple of people about blogging, I realised that I missed rambling on about nothing and that not posting was more stressful to me than posting. Work that one out.

The pathway leading to the creekbed was littered with what seemed to be blueberries.
Lots of them. I wondered who would misplace so many blueberries.

So let me share here my photography project for 2014 --- 52 themed self portraits. I resisted for the first few weeks* until I realised that the photos fitting the themes had been taken by default and using my iPhone **. We are now in Week 12 and have to admit that I am actively participating in this project, and no longer reluctantly. The theme for Week 12 was "The Great Outdoors". Living in the Blue Mountains and surrounded by endless bushland gorges made this week's shot a no-brainer. Time was my only issue so I used the small window of time I had to seek out this quiet creek bed, set up the iPhone on the teensy little tripod I bought online, set the camera app to self timer and get into position without slipping on the mossy rocks. I discovered the interval timer on the app which meant I didn't have to run back and forth to the iPhone - what a win! To edit the shot, I used the Snapseed app and the Camerabag app - both pretty flexible editing tools.

In the midst of this week's chaos, disorder and busyness, "The Great Outdoors" theme was perfectly timed, much needed and much appreciated. Ahhh, feel the serenity!

* Aren't I getting a bit long in the tooth to be taking selfies? Yes, yes I am, and what of it?

** That's really the challenge here I feel, can I take 52 self portraits that won't look like quick grabs you would normally take when out with your girlfriends? Can I make them look "arty"?

New Beginnings

There's something in the air at the moment, as everywhere I turn, there's change of some sort going on. Some of the changes are minor, others not. Some are game changes, others not. Some are simply part of life and living and some are even exciting and squeal worthy.

This morning, Red Bubble, the website where I sell my photographic prints,  had a major site change. My day, being what it was, I didn't get to spend much time browsing there, but my initial thinking is that I quite like the new look. I've just noticed that my avatar makes me look as though I'm peering out of a porthole, and you can just see that Nutella jar I'm about to tuck into - so that is quite cool! I like the serif and slightly larger font - but that may be an age thing. Or maybe my computer suddenly has larger font...

I've also recently upgraded my camera, and this is one of the images from my first session out with it. More changes; getting used to where features are located; learning the new features.  The steep learning curve begins again. The first and last images from my beloved 50D, were of flowers. I was determined to change that pattern, and start with something a little more adventurous than flowers! (See what I did there - I forced a change upon my comfortable routine...nothing like jumping right out of the comfort zone.) Moody, misty landscape shots in the Blue Mountains National Park seemed a little more adventurous.

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
T.S. Eliot

So now, if you'll excuse me, what I need is a good night's sleep so that I can awaken tomorrow and embrace the changes that simply keep coming my way.

Week 9 ~ A Childhood Memory

I struggled in the lead up to this theme. What childhood memory to portray and how to portray it? As always, I like to try something new to really push my own creative boundaries. I started by looking through some old family photos, the discoloured 70's variety. Can I suggest, if you have old family photos in those 'magnetic' albums - the slightly sticky backed pages with plastic over-sheet type - to remove your photos before they discolour and become completely stuck to the pages. This is particularly important if there are details written on the backs of the photos; you won't be able to cleanly remove the photos, and not only will you risk not being able to read the notes on the back of the photos, you also risk damaging the photos themselves. The worst thing for your old photos is to leave them in the magnetic albums that were so fashionable during that time, instead here are some suggestions for storing your older photographs.

Back to the photo. I have seen the photo held within another photo around the web and I've always liked the concept but never really had an opportunity to try it. So while I was looking through old family photos and looking for inspiration, I came across this photo of my dad swimming in Cattai Creek at Mitchell Park. It had been an age since I'd visited Mitchell Park, so last weekend I headed out there to try and find the spot where this would have been taken. I was a little shocked at the condition of the park. It's terribly overgrown and certainly not the place to go and have a family picnic the way we once did all those years ago. I'm hoping that it's because we've had a ridiculous amount of rain and not because the National Park and Wildlife Services have decided to stop maintaining it altogether.

Back in the 70's, Mitchell Park was a great place to spend the day with family and friends. There were BBQs, trail rides, the creek to swim in, an in-ground pool (my preferred choice), a kiosk, open parkland to kick a ball, and bushwalks. Today, well, there's lots of very tall grass, no pool, no kiosk, and I only saw one picnic shelter. There was only one other couple and they were packing up their kayaks and heading off. I remember Mitchell Park as being a vibrant noisy place, with lots of families enjoying the great outdoors. Last week, was a very different experience. Of course with all the rain experienced in the Hawkesbury region this week, I would imagine that a lot of Mitchell Park would be totally waterlogged.

Re-visiting old memories don't always yield the results you expect. And that of course can be both good and bad.
 

Other images from the day. The effect was achieved in-camera.

Week 6 ~ From a Low Angle

There is so much scope possible with a theme such as this week's 'low angle'. For me it all comes down to the safe option or the out of comfort zone option. The safe option was to stick around the house and look at life as it is from a low angle; both indoors and outdoors. 

The Safe Shot - 100mm IS f2.8 @f4.5 ISO160, 1/60

It's been raining  - still - and there are plenty of spider webs that could have been shot from a low angle, and dew drops on clover is certainly within my comfort zone. When you're starting a project, if your aim is to improve your skills and have fun along the way, it always pays to avoid the safe option and to go, instead, with the one that you always put off for another time. Not this week. 

That's how I found myself at the Blue Mountains National Park, in the rain and with very limited access due to flooding in the area. I had in my mind a particular image and the weather conditions - low mist and heavy cloud cover - was what I was after. The problem was the road closure to the area I needed to get to, and so I changed plans and made the best of it. It would have been easier to get back to the car and drive home - after all, I already had my safe shot done and edited. Instead, I headed over to Blue Pool hoping there would be some access and from the rushing of water, I could tell there was certainly a decent amount flowing. The problem was the lack of safe access to the rushing water. There is a difference between stupidity and pushing your boundaries...and I didn't feel like a helicopter ride out of the National Park. Reluctantly walking on, I did come to a safer location that afforded me with a more open view to the water. I had my  tripod with me and two lenses - 100mm and 70-210mm and the images I've included were shot using the latter of the lenses. Of course, they're not the sort of lenses you would normally use for landscapes, but I wasn't after a wide expanse sort of shot. I was after a narrow and low slice of nature. 

I had the tripod and camera set to perhaps 40cm from ground level and I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful reflections in the water. The thick cloud cover meant the reflections were richly coloured and created an impressionist feel to the slowly moving water. The first one is actually a 3 shot panorama which I purposely framed with more water than greenery - firstly it suited my purposes and due to the litter still caught in the trees, I didn't want to have to spend time editing out the litter.

3 shot panorama stitched in PS; 70-210mm @ 210mm f4 @ f13 ISO100 0.8sec

The second two images I really couldn't decide which I preferred - the vertical or horizontal - the reeds and their reflection were something that really caught my eye.  Something that I've learned that is a huge advantage with digital imaging, is you can shoot both then decide which has the stronger composition when you get home. After you've showered. And changed into clean and dry clothes. And had a much needed cup of coffee. And perhaps a biscuit. Ahem...

The vertical shot - 70-210mm @210mm f4 @ f13 ISO100 0.8sec

The horizontal shot - 70-210mm @210mm f4 @f13 ISO100 0.8sec

So, how did you go this week?

Laghi Serru' and Agnel in Landscape or Panorama print?

I'm refreshing the art hanging on the walls at home at the moment and I have an offer for a hugely discounted canvas print over at the Canvas Factory. The wall space is approximately 1 metre wide and I've decided on one of my own landscapes to get printed up. I'm having a dilemma however, as I have two images to choose from. Actually, two images that I've narrowed it down to. Of the same location - the two lakes at Nivolet called, Agnel and Serru', the scenery is absolutely magical and one I'd love to see hanging on my wall as a reminder of the great times we had whilst in Italy in 2010. 

To view larger, as for some reason I can't get the linking to work with this image, please click here.

* * * 

So, do I choose the landscape orientation or the 5 image panorama of the same location? Which would you choose? And why? I would love to hear your theories on what would work best in the space I have allowed.

What lens do you use when photographing waterfalls?

I tagged long with photographers Tatiana and Peter this past weekend and I thought I’d share some photographs I took of some waterfalls located in the Leura area.  I’m not certain of their name, but they are below the Bridal Veil Falls. Please feel free to leave me a comment if you happen to know the names of the waterfalls below.

I used three very different lenses: Sigma 10-20mm, the Lensbaby Composer (with Soft Focus Option) and 24mm Tilt-Shift Lens, borrowed from Peter who has a wonderful tutorial on tilt-shift lenses just a click away. You can see by the examples, that some very different results were obtained. I have included the camera and lens settings for you.

So, what lens do you like to use when you shoot landscapes such as waterfalls?

Canon 50D, Sigma 10-20mm @14mm, f11, ISO100, 30 seconds, Cokin ND filters x 2

Canon 50D, Sigma 10-20mm @ 11mm, f14, ISO100, 15 seconds, Cokin ND Filters x 2

Canon 50D, Lensbaby Composer, Soft Focus Optic, ISO100, 1 second,  Cokin ND Filters x 2, own textures added in PS

Canon 50D, Lensbaby Composer Soft Focus Optic, ISO100, 0.6 seconds, Cokin ND Filters x 2

Canon 50D, Lensbaby Composer Soft Focus Optic, ISO100, 1/13 seconds, Cokin ND Filters x 2,

Canon 50D, 24mm tilt-Shift Lens, f11, 1.3 seconds, no filters

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?

Yasashi Buri

"Long time, no see" as Melanie McQuoid has so aptly named this landscape photograph.  With Mt fuji seen ever so fainly in the background, the eye meanders through all the layers of the photograph before resting finally on Mt Fuji.

End of the Trail

A wonderful example of how adding atmosphere to an image can be as simple as applying a sepia treatment with a little vignetting. The sepia tones in this landscape work well in enhancing the barren, dry feel of the terrain and the vignetting helps draw the eye toward the centre of the image.

We Break and We Bend...

We Break and We Bend and We Turn Ourselves Inside Out by Dana DiPasquale

...and We Turn Ourselves Inside Out" is the name of this piece created by Dana DiPasquale. It captures the nature of life and how even though we may be fragile, when we dig deep we are strong and resilient. At times, however, we may not think so - often it's when we look back that we realise just how much we did bend and break and turn ourselves inside out. Proceeds of the sale of this work of art will be donated to the National Cancer institute.