Some additional images from the previous set including a colour image that I like for the tones. Well some editing has taken place in the form of extra images added including coloured rock and breaking wave. In the process it occurred to me how significant the editing process can be in making a presentation. If you've ever had a curated exhibition, there is always the subject of the rhythm and flow of your work. This includes grouping and in some instances spacing. Images that 'go together' strengthen each other. The last three images in this set are a good example of this. All three have a strong horizontal component in the form of a dark 'line'. Whether sand or water it makes no difference. They are graphic elements that tie the images together. 'Unlike' compositions may be given extra space where available. This is particularly true of a project where there may be fewer stand alone or 'hero' shots. They arranged vertically here but nevertheless some flow is required.
Day/Night
Processing this shot reminded me of the old westerns that were filmed using a technique where the film would be underexposed to create the effect of nighttime. Its particularly useful and works well for b&w images. 'Correctly' exposed would show the scene blown out in the highlights. Form and lighting (including highlights and shadow) are more important in this instance. We don't really want to know what colour the sand is. B&W allows the imagination to work a little more.
The shot above is obviously posed but not for me. The girl was having a photoshoot with someone else and ended up in front of me.
Timing is everything
The 'decisive moment' in this case occurred about 5 minutes after this shot. You might notice the fairly long shoreline. I was preoccupied with these guys body surfing in the shorebreak. While sitting on the sand looking through the viewfinder (and so unaware of my immediate surroundings), a large wave nearly washed me off the beach. Completely soaked from the waist down I took a couple more shots since I was already wet. As I made my way back to the car, a few chuckles were heard in the background. Drove home in a towel. End of story.
Fibreglass tombstones. Bigger surf in preceding days.
Absence of scale
One of my favourite shots from a recent trip to the coast. I always enjoy looking at images which have no significant sense of scale. They engage the mind. This is the outflow from a storm water drain. Who knew they could be so subtle. The flow of water varied and every now and then found an obstacle in the ridges of sand.
A variation on the theme below. Converted to a toned image.
A walk in the wet
Just felt like a wander outside today. Weather has been pretty wintery of late but the wind has dropped and there's a light drizzle. Can't really identify this little fellow (Eastern Spinebill perhaps) who was focused on the insect population. He sat still long enough for me to take this shot.
Back burning scenery
I'd forgotten that some back there was a burn off to create a fire break in Leura. It was only on one side of the road. This rocky outcrop contains interesting rock formation/colouration on the open side. I've already posted photos of those. The burnt off area provides good b&w photo ops. One resulting feature off the burn off is the partially burnt trunks of trees which turn orange at the base. The fifth colour image in this group shows how it looked before the burn off.
A puzzle
There seems to be something a little Eschery about this image. It was taken in India some years ago. Its difficult for the eye to settle comfortably. Something seems not quite right. The image itself has not been 'altered' as such yet the perspectives seem wrong. Can you put your finger on it?
Spare time shots
I had the chance to visit one of my favourite places in Sydney - the coast. Down for the day from the mountains I didn't have enough time to go for a surf but had a camera and half an hour or so to fill in before attending an event. The light was subdued and significant rain was expected but didn't eventuate. The result is a small selection of the images from that outing. A couple are from a return visit later that afternoon at another location. As viewers of this blog would know I'm no stranger to rocks! A lot of detail and form in small areas. Gotta love nature's work.
Garden in the bush
This garden is less than a 5 minute drive from where I live, smack in the middle of Australian bushland. Its in the mountains where a winter look can be achieved in April thus giving it a very European feel. Due to weather conditions here a mist can develop and create a magical feel and soon we are back to sunny weather and clear skies.
Birds over delta
There are still a few images (perhaps more than a few) from Iceland that I haven't as yet published in any form. Compositionally, they may lack something but yet tell enough of a story to warrant further examination/appreciation. This image is from 2012 during a trip to Iceland and features a flock of birds flying low over a delta at the southern end of the island. It was taken through a side window of an old Cessna. It wasn't particularly cold on this occasion but I could imagine this excercise being quite painful as the weather turns. Holding a fairly heavy DSLR /lens combination steady with some buffeting from the window proved to be testing as well. You don't want to miss anything either so the creeping pain level has to be ignored to get the range of shots you want.
Part of the process of landscape photography is looking for patterns - repetitive lines that give an image strength and 'direction'. Sometimes the eye is drawn to to a portion of the landscape that has a lot of detail but you only make sense of it retrospectively. In this case, flying over the land at a rather fast speed, its best to capture as much as possible. This image is a crop albeit a fairly large one. Parallel, yet oppositely textured diagonal lines create interest.
Its not often you get to fool around with an image to this extent. It makes the creative process of photography that much more engaging and entertaining. The twin line effect has been removed in this crop and the image re-orientated. And finally, the uncropped image - equally satisfying. The dark lines now gaining more prominence, adding some extra life.
Business and pleasure
Its not that often you get to mix work with pleasure. So I was counting my blessings at a job I did a little while back (only processing the photos now). This particular job was a dusk shoot for a property. These types of jobs benefit from a rich evening sky and are especially impressive if the sunset combines with dramatic cloud formations - as it did on this evening.
Since my main camera was already in the business of taking exposures from a tripod I grabbed the Olympus (EM5) which was handy and took a few shots as the sky went through its transformations. Processing these cloud images always provides more options than 'regular' images in that shades and brightness are so variable and may be less accurately remembered especially if they are processed some months after they were taken.
Back to cool
After some more late summery weather, the all too familiar but not unwelcome cool and misty weather has made a sudden appearance. So that means a trip back to Mt Wilson where they celebrated the arrival of autumn with the opening of the local gardens to visitors (for a small maintenance fee). The region was well attended by visitors who obviously saw the change of climate as a plus. I revisited the Wynnes Rocks area nearby and photographed a previous subject with a different lens.
Taken with Nikon D800E/14-24mm
Lifestyle
No, I haven't become a food photographer. However, the image itself says a lot anyway. Those stretched gluten strands through the 'burst' section of the crust are a characteristic of a tasty sourdough offering. This shot was taken with an EM5 but otherwise I haven't done much photographically recently. Several years ago, I imported an array of sourdough starter cultures with the aim of producing breads with a variety of tastes and textures. I wasn't so successful in that endeavor and finally after a month or two decided to throw out the six or so bottles I had accumulating in the fridge. For some reason, I decided to give it another crack - this time armed with more research. I had made bread previously for quite a few years (yeasted variety) with good results so my foray into the world of sourdough was somewhat disappointing.
So what does all this amount to? Persistence and discipline including attention to detail returned a very satisfying result ( that I could eat! )
Vista Vs...
A discussion about what 'type' of photographer are you made me think about why I like or choose the subject matter for my photos. I've always been an outdoor kind of person. Having spent many years by the sea and coastal areas made that environment a natural subject for my photography. In the early years I looked, as many photographers have done, at the work of others who were prominent in the field. Its natural enough to want to emulate the work of those and even try to see some similarity in your own efforts. Then you hear stories of how they spent days under trying conditions waiting for the right light before making an exposure. But I had enjoyed the experience of nature too much to go through any kind of penance to get those shots. I rather developed an interest in the detail and smaller scenes that presented themselves. Seven months in Tasmania allowed me the luxury of walking around coastal areas and observing the intricate forms and colours that were served up. The imagination was stimulated to a higher degree. As with any genre of photography the results are open to interpretation and I often see people glossing over images which I find engaging and vice versa. However I still find more meaning or perhaps relevance in an 'intimate landscape' rather than a richly coloured sunrise or sunset.
Revisiting
Occasionally I'll go through old folders from trips and find images I didn't notice much the first time around. The reason I missed those being they didn't conform at the time to some preconceived notion I had. I was looking for a certain 'type' of image. Maybe colour or texture even subtle things like exposure might guide me to an image that will process into a final result I had envisaged. The choice could also be influenced by previous choices and had to conform to those parameters. Whatever the reason, some images are always overlooked and so its always worth going back to rediscover them. This shot was taken at Coutta Rocks, Tasmania. My previous blog posts reflect a small obsession with rocks. These were by the shore and in the original colour RAW file the rocks almost merge with the water. I kept the low contrast look till the final jpg which is here. In this version the rock features become more noticeable.
*Edit: Another image from the same area. Something resembling a T-Rex skull emerging from the sand. A black & white treatment would be appropriate and perhaps even more effective but I also like the colour version.
50 kms from Alice
This is a photo from 2006 taken at Standley Chasm about 50 kms from Alice Springs. Not a lot of water in these areas but the huge rocks provide ample shade. This was in June. Daytime temps still tolerable.
Ormiston Gorge. Would have been nice to have this shot without footprints in the sand but.. black & white conversion shows a lot more detail than the colour image for these rocks. Especially for this shot which has had a yellow filter applied. If you shoot in jpg as I had too for this trip due to not having adequate card storage, underexposure is a must.
Rock face(s)
The black & white image
I thought to post some further thoughts on my experiences with the Olympus OM-D EM5 now that I have been using it for a year. But I find that after working on an image (below) taken with that camera I became absorbed in elements of the image making the technical qualities of the camera much less significant. In other words, I might have take this photo with just about any recent version of a 4/3 or APS-C or full frame camera. I also could have just post-processed the image in colour paying attention to exposure, sharpness, contrast etc. Even converting to black and white with a standard process through PS or other software and left it at that. However that would not have satisfied my 'artistic' vision at least for this image. Of real significance for me was that as a black & white image, the blacks were not as black as I wanted the in the places I wanted them. Adding black in the same way that you might add eye-liner (not that I have ever done that myself) created definition increasing the 'dimensionality' of the image. A little like selective contrast. The final image has far more impact for me than the straight conversion to b&w. I'm not really a documentary photographer nor strictly a landscape photographer. I rarely do big vistas and in this case this image reflects more of what interests me artistically - personal expression through the medium of photography.
Did someone say rocks?
I don't know where my obsession with rocks came from. You'd have to agree though, the patterns and colours that combine with shapes and in various sizes are pretty spectacular sometimes. Add some interesting lighting and they can be very ambiguous. I've always maintained that due to detail and the fact that they are often in low lighting situations, a tripod ought to be used. How ever on this occasion (and there will be more) time didn't allow that luxury. The downside being you can't really incorporate focus stacking into your routine. I've known about this place for most of my life but never attempted to do any photography here. Tidal movements make it awkward to access as well. Nevertheless, I'm posting a few shots here. When I have another opportunity I'll return with tripod.
Naturally reflective (mostly)
I'm not a big fan of the digital images that have no organic origin or at least have been altered so much that none is visible. That's not to say there is no market for them but they don't hold much attraction for me. Overly saturated nature scenes fall into this category as well especially where very little else is featured except for say, a sunset.
Having said that, I was photographing by a stream today and one image in particular, admittedly subject to post processing, reminded me of a stained glass window in a church. Other shots of the moving water were more abstract and contained some beautiful colours. The original palette was modified somewhat but for my eye resulted in a pleasing effect. The third image (shown here) is a subtle out of focus effort with water in the background.