Jurien Bay

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I was fortunate enough to be up at Jurien Bay early morning on Sunday, the day after the big storm.  Missed the sunrise but only just.  The old jetty is a great subject for photos.  I happen to leave some gear in the car by accident so instead of going back to get it I thought no, how can I make this work without the ND grad filters which I wanted to use.  Lucky for me in my bag I had a 6 stop Neutral Density filter to give me the slow shutter speed of 2 and 4 seconds and also a circular polariser which reduced a bit of the bright sky for me.  A bit more of a touch up in Lightroom and all’s good.  The 3rd image is of the colourful change rooms which they have just set back off the beach.

Jurien Bay Beach Change Rooms

Jurien Bay Old Jetty 2

Early morning light on old jetty

York Art Society Photographic Awards

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For the last 5 years or so I’ve been entering local Agricultural Show photographic competition/exhibitions with a good success rate.  This year I’ve decided that it’s time to lift the bar and enter a different “class” of competition, I guess you could say.  Starting off with The York Society at the Sandalwood Gallery.  This competition required images to be framed and by looking at the judges comments, the frame has a big impact on the judging.  They have 4 categories – Open Colour, Creative, Monochrome and York subject.  I’m very pleased to say that I took out 1st place Mono category for this image and also a Highly Commended in the Open Colour.

York Art Society 1st Place Mono

The Story Behind the Image

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Bunbury back beach

The Story Behind the Image is not my usual type of post but I hope you enjoy reading it and maybe with some encouragement I’ll do another similar post sometime soon.  I was asked by the guys at Light if I’d be interested in blogging about one of my favourite images which would then be posted on  their Pinterest Vantage Point Project site. Please head on over and take a look.

Although not everyones favourite image this is one of mine, I’m not sure if it’s because of the colours or the light or just the fact that it’s different to the usual “Bunbury Back Beach” images which I see regularly.  I headed to the coast (approx 25 mins away) before sunrise on World Photo Day 2014 hoping for a colourful sunrise.  A cloudless, colourless morning broke in front of me.  Oh dear, I was hoping for a masterpiece this morning.  Using my Canon 5D mkiii and 24-105mm lens I set up in the area of the black basalt rocks and took a couple of snaps of the water flowing thru the rocks creating little waterfalls.  They were nice but I wanted more than nice.  A little disheartened I packed up my gear and started to head to my car.  I had not gone very far when the sun peaked it’s head over the hill by the beach and shone it’s light on these little waterfalls pictured.

Using an ND filter to slow my shutter speed to 8″ and with the following settings I created this image.  ISO 100, F11 and shooting in RAW as I always do.  In the original shot was the horizon and one of the usual ships that are sitting off the coast but I decided that I wanted the close up look only.

Let me quickly explain about Light.  They have created a small camera that combines 16 cameras into one and the it’s about the size of a smartphone. I’ll not try an explain the technical side of it, head on over to their site and watch their videos.  Sounds like an awesome travel/everyday camera to me.

 

Buying 2nd hand photography equipment?

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I’m blogging today about something different to my usual style.  I’ve purchased a number of 2nd hand lenses over the years and it’s always a bit of a gamble.  Is there something wrong with it so worse still is it stolen property?

I signed up with Lenstag.com a number of months ago.  You enter all of your equipment including serial number and upload your proof of purchase if available, it is then checked against the stolen items list and is verified when ok.  The site has a list of stolen gear and the serial numbers so allows you some piece of mind when looking at purchasing 2nd hand gear.  The more people that we can get registered on this site the harder it’s going to become for the thieves to resell the gear.

Another handy feature is the Copyright Alert, here’s an excerpt from the Lenstag Website to help with the explaination

“We’ve also added the ability for users to set copyright alerts. Upload an image into your Lenstag account with your copyright written into the EXIF data and we’ll use that to help track down images with even more nuance than just serial number alone. You will find this in the Settings page of your account.”

 

Todays picture is of the Wanaka Tree in New Zealand (processed using Topaz Simplify)

Chris de Blank Wanaka Tree

Development Potential East Vic Park

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Real Estate Photography in East Vic Park.

I was given the opportunity to photograph this house in Perth.  It’s listed with Ray White Victoria Park and is going to auction on 2nd April if not sold beforehand.

Zoned R40 and a 1054sqm block with a 1980’s era house.

Real Estate Photography East Vic Park

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Abstract Trees after the Fire

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About 5 weeks after the devastating bushfires that flattened the historical town of Yarloop I headed up the highway to see what inspiration Mother Nature could shed.  She didn’t let me down.  The native trees and shrubs were making a comeback with green shoots appearing everywhere you looked.  Some trees were covered in them and others just had one or two new shoots starting to break their way through the charred bark.  The colours were amazing.  There is one particular stand of trees which caught my eye, they are so straight and a light colour but black around the ground.  This is where I started my “Abstract Trees” series.  A small collection of images of trees where I have used blur to add interest.  I have stopped down (or decreased the size of my aperture) to help reduce my shutter speed to show blur when I drop my lens whilst pressing the shutter. As it was a particularly bright morning I had to use a CPL filter also, to get the effect I was after.  All of these images were taken at f22 with a shutter speed between 1/10 sec and 1/15 sec.  Here’s just a couple of my favourites. Click Here to see the ABC’s before and after aerial images of Yarloop.

After the fire abstract

After the fire abstract

After the fire abstract

After the fire abstract

After the fire abstract

WA Country Builders Treendale

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had the opportunity to shoot this WA Country Builders Treendale display home during the week and it reminded me of the challenges of interior RE photography.  There’s the big difference between the bright outdoors (often you can’t choose your time of day to shoot) and the darker interior.  I chose to use bracketing for these images.  So, 3 images at different exposures approx 2.5 stops between each.  I then did a HDR merge in Lightroom.

My next challenge is getting that camera level to avoid those converging verticals which are a big no no.  I have a little bubble level which slots into my hotshoe and is a must for me.  There’s more images over in my Real Estate Interiors gallery if you’re interested.

Country Builders Real Estate Treendale-5

Country Builders Real Estate Treendale-9

Country Builders Real Estate Treendale-10

Red-tailed Black-cockatoo, KT is the name

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Red-tailed Black-cockatoo’s – such a beautiful bird.

I had the pleasure of photographing this female during the week. She’s not the best with strangers but I was able to get reasonably close without causing her any distress. I think she liked the makeshift perch that I rigged up for her and she enjoyed christening my new black backdrop.  For the past 3 months we’ve had the pleasure of watching and listening to these squawking birds as they love the red gums on our property and beyond.  This girl is a family pet that has been hand raised.

Female Red-tailed Black-cockatoo

Female Red-tailed Black-cockatoo

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1st Birthday Cake Smash

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1st Birthday Cake Smash

Bubbles

My very first cake smash

Attending a 1st Birthday Cake Smash was not something that I’d ever imagine I’d be doing, especially at my age.  But it happened over the weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed it, although photographically it was a challenge.

I’m mentoring a new member to our photography club and she invited me to her place to help her photograph her 1 year old grandson’s cake smash. I’m used to working with my studio lights for this type of indoors shoot.  Alas they were at home and I was using the lights that Tania had set up.

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