Wait, absorb, shoot

Wait, absorb, shoot

In my continuous quest for #learning    #photography  one of the key things I have found is once you've decided on a subject. Check it out from some different angles. Do some test shots. Wait and see what else happens. Don't be too quick to move on.

In this case the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel was putting on a grand light show early in the evening. Enough light in the sky to give a clean background and still be able to see all the colours of the wheel.

When doing #street or #sports #photography sharp isn't everything.

When doing #street  or #sports   #photography  sharp isn't everything. In this image of a jogger on the path down by the Yarra River in Cremorne (Richmond for those of you who don't know about Melbourne's smallest suburb) the blur conveys movement and scene. To me it's more important that I captured the expression, the expectoration (spit for those who don't like big words) and the flapping of the arms and singlet.

#learning

#learningphotography Post Procesing

#learningphotography  Post Procesing

We've all got shots that in our mind looked great but in reality are dull and boring. Here's what I did to adjust one of them today using Lightroom. The image on the left is the original boring one and the one on the right has some colour, form and pop with the glass insulators glowing with the light. I didn't have to do very much to this to make it happen.

I boosted the contrast + 38
shadows + 76 to bring up the pole detail and texture
clarity + 50 to reinforce the texture (I normally wouldn't go this high)
vibrance + 62 to reinforce the colour in that gray sky
I brought down all the reds and yellows and boosted the blues and aquas leaving the other colours alone
I sharpened very slightly to counter what I was about to do then did some noise reduction to counter what all the texture enhancing changes had done
Finally I popped on a bit of a vignette
Automatic changes (already applied to every image) are lens profile corrections and chromatic aberration removal.

When you're getting into light painting such as this simple butterfly,a couple of "disco wands" which are basically...

When you're getting into light painting such as this simple butterfly, a couple of "disco wands" which are basically flashing sword like things are just fantastic. Just wave them around with a long exposure after dark.

Learning Photography - Get Away From The Familiar

Learning Photography - Get Away From The Familiar

A few years ago I took my son Matthew Pavlinovich up to Bendigo to see a photo exhibition and while we were there we made our own images. Getting away from your own familiar stomping ground is a huge learning experience in your photography and opens new doors because you're not limited to the usual you will see things that you would ignore near home because they're new to you. You will use things in your compositions that you wouldn't even think of when near home because you see them every day.

Hey Joel Bramley this is the album I was hunting for of Bendigo from a few years ago.

When you're out and about look for things that make the ordinaryinteresting.

When you're out and about look for things that make the ordinary interesting. It's not often you get an ocean like glass, especially at St Kilda. On this day I enjoyed the textures and feel of the boat, but the reflection lifts the game into a still life.

Compositions leap to mind at the weirdest times - go with the flow.

Compositions leap to mind at the weirdest times - go with the flow. Pull over and do it. This one I spied while driving downhill on Ferntree Gully Road towards home one misty morning. I thought I really like the way that feels and pulled over to the side of the road, jumped and and got the shot. Too often I see something and think to myself, if only I had time. If the pressures of life allow, stop, relax, shoot.

Right lens for the job : Grand old man Kookaburra a close relative ofTyranosaurus Rex and a the ancestor of the...

Right lens for the job : Grand old man Kookaburra a close relative of Tyranosaurus Rex and a the ancestor of the Drop Bear Kookaburra will swoop down and steal your eyes before you know what has happened.

This shot is with my new toy the Tamron SP 150-600 F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011 - how's that for a mouthfull? Why are models so complex? This thing resembles a bazooka when fully extended and the stabilisation is so good that it let me hand hold this just after dawn dim light shot of the Kooka.  This is uncropped - he was up in a tree about 20m above me. Grand. I'm really going to enjoy the possibilities of 600mm. For too long I've had to crop the wildlife images later, now I can enjoy them at their full resolution.

A couple of weeks ago we had a almost complete eclipse and a resultantblood moon.

A couple of weeks ago we had a almost complete eclipse and a resultant blood moon. On that night I learned that my tripod head isn't heavy enough to hold the big 600mm lens steady enough for good sharp moon shots when a longer exposure is needed. A few days after the eclipse we had this magic full moon that I shot hand held with the same lens while stopped on the side of the road in Footscray. It just shows what a difference that some light can make. The moon itself is extremely bright and does not need a long exposure to capture it. This one is 1/1600th f/6.3 iso 3200. In hind sight I should have dropped the ISO for a cleaner image and easily could have given the shutter speed I was able to achieve. I had it up high for some other shots earlier in the evening and like a rookie didn't go back to reasonable default settings before putting the camera down. Always go back to reasonable defaults!

Every month or so I visit this site, a favourite of mine shared withgood mate Ananda Sim

Every month or so I visit this site, a favourite of mine shared with good mate Ananda Sim

Going back to the same sites over and over again allows you to capture it in many different circumstances growing your knowledge and understanding of the different light.

#thatshed

Take the opportunity when it presents itself.

Take the opportunity when it presents itself. For years I drove past this truck that has lived on the side of Belgrave-Gembrook Rd for a very long time. Last week for whatever reason I decided to stop and shoot it. I'm glad I did because I noticed today that it's gone. Had I not had the fortune of stopping on my journey for a few minutes I would have lost this shot forever. I'm sad the truck is gone, it's like when an old friend leaves your life. The guy who owns the property is a collector of some kind so hopefully soon some new junker will appear.

Just perusing some really old low resolution early digital days imagesof mine.

Just perusing some really old low resolution early digital days images of mine... I quite enjoy the tones of the backlit mists in this valley despite the seriously noisy low resolution image. The learning here is to not write off your old stuff - keep it, you'll find it again and it will resume its place in your collection. This image is only 320 pixels wide!

Composition... sometimes the least is best.

Composition... sometimes the least is best.

Composition - shapes, colours, reflections, angles. Fun.

Composition - shapes, colours, reflections, angles. Fun.

Composition - find interest in the every day. Lines and patterns.

Composition - find interest in the every day. Lines and patterns.

Composition: Shapes that draw the eye... to where?

Composition: Shapes that draw the eye... to where?

MPU-105 L bracket review - they're crap - don't

MPU-105 L bracket review - they're crap - don't

Sometimes in our learning journey we're tempted to cut corners and go cheap. I wanted an L bracket and thought these ones on ebay are ok, it's just metal and ARCA is a standard. Well it's worth every cent... Good thing I didn't pay much. It fits an ARCA mount on its short face but the long face is too narrow to be gripped properly. Sooner or later your camera would end up in the dirt. It's a nice book end anyway. These are listed as MPU-105 on ebay and they're total junk so don't.

Depth, or lack of it In this image or dark and shallow depths of abamboo forest at Melbourne's Royal Botanic...

Depth, or lack of it In this image or dark and shallow depths of a bamboo forest at Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens near the city I used my 150-600 zoom with it's lowest dof of 5.3 and got as close as I could and still focus (about 3 metres away!). It conveys the closeness, the darkness and the feeling of tight deep jungle. What you can't see is that the forest is only about two metres deep and is actually widely spaced. Our craft is often about tricking the eye into seeing what we want it to see.

A great ND example from Ana Andres explains the concept in 2 secondsflat.

A great ND example from Ana Andres explains the concept in 2 seconds flat.

Originally shared by Ana Andres

Daytime long exposure at Baker Beach

High neutral density filters allow for very very very long exposure times, even in broad daylight!! The filter I used here, an ND 3 (10 stops) lets through only about one thousandth of the light, that is 0.1%!! Hence I was able to shoot the San Francisco Golden Gate from Baker Beach at 3pm in the afternoon and get a 25 second exposure!

Check out my latest Physics & Photography post to read about what type of photographs I like to take using neutral density filters and the physics behind the large colour cast of very opaque high ND filters.

http://physicsandphotography.com/2015/05/09/neutral-density-filters/

#physics   #physicsandphotography   #scienceeveryday   #NDfilters   #longexposure

Never shoot into the sun one lesson I've learnt consistently inphotography is don't believe the rules.

Never shoot into the sun one lesson I've learnt consistently in photography is don't believe the rules. Understand the rule. Understand the light. Then break the rule and use the light. Why do people think lens flare is so bad?

Two horses shortly after dawn at Echuca.

Don't be afraid to process mono even on vibrant colours

Don't be afraid to process mono even on vibrant colours

This image before the mono treatment was a bit meh - now I love all the darks and contrasts scattered around the image. The eye can rove around and find detail everywhere but is always drawn back to the little boat house framed by the feature tree ferns.