For several years the James Craig sat across the bay in Rozelle getting refurbished or whatever the word is when old ships get a facelift. A few of us enjoyed an afternoon aboard in its new Sydney home of Darling Harbour with a view of some famous city landmarks including Sydney Tower.
A quiet stroll...
A couple having a walk by one of the big waterfalls in Iceland - Detifoss perhaps. One thing that strikes you as a visitor to this and many other scenic spots in this country is that there is a conspicuous absence of railings and warnings of obvious dangers. The second thing is an absence of people taking material advantage of visiting 'crowds' by setting up kiosks flogging trinkets and other worthless memorabilia. Just seeing places like this is unforgettable isn't it??
Spring
Too bright and sunny for most types of photography. So, here's a shot of of an Eastern Spinebill just off the back verandah enjoying spring nectar.
Mythical Sea Wolf
This shot was part of the recent coastal photo shoot. I wouldn't print this image since I played around with it in PS. Well not the main subject but peripheral parts which were edited out or touched up in some way eg, removal of intruding plant on left. If I wanted to print such an image I would reshoot it to make sure I could isolate the subject sufficiently. I'm not really a PS afficionado so I don't want to have to create an image using tools. But I also think minor retouches are acceptable. To me, for an image like this, there's not much difference between moving a plant by hand or editing it out in software later. If it were covering the subject itself however, you wouldn't have even 'seen' this shot.
Below: Dinosaur & mole
Dissolution
Thought I would squeeze in a biblical reference. I thought of it when I was processing the first image. Always adds a little gravitas. Couldn't see any biblical characters among the 'smoke and clouds' but the flow of light and dark bought to mind creation, destruction, flowing robes, end of days and the like. I kept the warm tone in the processing even though no flames are visible. Amazing what you can see in a picture. I tend to let my imagination go with these abstracts. One day I'll have a shot at painting something like this.
Portrait format
I have to say, I don't really like the portrait orientation of 35mm format. It seems way to long. Current photo on display is one of the exceptions. Most of the time I'm finding I want to crop the image as a first step. This post was instigated by the fact that portrait format photos don't display on my site when mixed with landscape format images. Well they do show but get cropped arbitrarily. As a result I have left out many good shots. Even those I have cropped somewhat are further cropped by the template (which I happen to like). You don't know that till you start trying to load all your images and come up with this glitch. This image happens to be a favourite of mine taken in Udaipur, India c2005. The water reflecting the building is Lake Pichola which many years is dry. Even here its not so deep as you can see patches of grass on the surface. Anyway, I don't use this orientation much at all but given that this image has been very successful for me I suppose I'm going to have to live with the format and find a workaround.