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.
Day 5 bush fire shots
Its been a couple of weeks since my first visit to this area. There are several tracks around this area that you can walk. Progressively, the green will return especially since there will be significant rain over the next week at least. Nevertheless, black and white images remain of interest to me. In this burnt environment however colours provide an interesting mix. In particular, the blackboys look a little like roman candles against the black of the surrounding bushland.
Some bird life from the bush fire zone. Neither the Kookaburra nor the Black Parrot seemed to be turned off by their surroundings. There are still food sources for both of them. Although I have other images of black parrots, none of them show the beautiful detail in their tail feathers.
Beautiful and strange
Bush fire scenes naturally supply graphic black & white images with leaves curling and turning pale. Quite a bit of colour remains though with these objects standing out among all the black and providing some beautiful and at times strange images. This was from a third day trip to the fire zone. As it is now spring we can look forward top some new growth and more green in the landscape. The final photo here appears as though it might be the final moments of the bush fire. However its mist and not smoke over the land.
We heard some muffled calls, then we came across this....
Post fire
Another opportunity to explore some of the burnt out areas in the Blue Mountains. I was hoping for some light rain or mist (as I always do). I t didn't eventuate. Nevertheless, some interesting shots were had. A few B & Ws here including one of a a log that drank too much.
Hello possums
New Zealanders look away now. I saw a friend off this evening and found a family of ringtail possums on their way out. We had some torches with us and a quick dash inside produced the 5D MKII with my favourite 135mm f2 lens. These are very sweet animals and like others will keep fairly still when the lights are on them.