Czar’s holiday house

This is one of those images I photographed many times with the iPad. Mainly because I wanted to get just the right positioning in relation to the tree and horizon. I also had the DSL are and took some shots with that as well. Apparently this is the summer residence of the Czar (Peter) at Peterhof. Well, this is his verandah. The summer house which is not in view is a single story effort. Not that impressive but I’m sure it’s very comfortable inside.

Fit for purpose

If you had of told me a few years ago that I’ll be walking around using an iPad for photography I wouldn’t have believed you. In reality most photography if we are real about it doesn’t find its way onto the walls of a gallery. Most photography is done, intentionally or not for the web. And it makes sense because that’s where the biggest audiences are. I’m not completely won over by the use of the iPad as a walk around camera mainly because I end up with JPEGs that I can’t do very much with in terms of colour balance. But on balance taking photos with this tool makes its functionality and acceptable compromise in certain situations.

While I was travelling in India I never wanted to convert my images to black-and-white just because it has such richness of colour. However in other places where colour isn’t that much of an influential factor and where street photography is the main consideration then black-and-white makes perfect sense. So then it doesn’t matter so much how accurate your colours are as a JPEG.

Having said all that, just for the sake of having flexibility in the final output I still want to have raw files. I have intended for a year or two now to downsize my Quitman and equipment and I’m interested in the camera that has reasonable quality and IBIS and is compact. The new Olympus EM5 MKIII when it comes out may well be the ideal choice.

Blown highlights are not pretty

And I would never commit an image to print that had them. However, more important in this instance then my photography skills being demonstrated is the telling of the story to show the skills and the quality of art work. It’s a bit like spelling mistakes when you’re communicating an important idea – they don’t seem so significant or detract from the idea. The question arises though – later will I want to commit an image to print ie. will it be used in other media or have a standalone application. Meaning, will it have to tell it’s own story?

Sometimes simple is good

I have to say that so far on this trip I have valued the convenience of the iPad with which all these i photos were taken. At the time of taking the images I had a backpack with the 5D Mark II and three lenses but I found that due to shortage of time it was much easier to move around and take as many shots as needed with the iPad. I may yet regret this decision as in the past I’ve always wanted a larger hi-res image to use as required - in fact I left my little Olympus at home which probably could’ve done the job with a 24 to 70 lens equivalent. Yes I do make larger size images and canvases and prints but I also considered the subject matter. For me the main use will be web and I may publish a small book. I am interested to see how the images work in print. It’s just so convenient I’ll have to see the results and make a decision.

Imagine if…

You had to walk through an art gallery every day to get to work. Art Gallery actually describes the nature of Moscow underground Metro system. The variety is amazing Its reminiscent of some of the temples in India and some of the cathedrals in Europe combined with paintings and mosaics by great artists.

Moscow musings and photos

I’m hoping to put up a number of images while traveling. This is my last day in Moscow where I covered the underground train system (metro). Not exhaustively but with the time I had available. It was an eye opening experience. There are many ideas to express but I’m starting out with a sample image. A little more organisation is required before uploading more from the project.

Moscow metro station

Peacocks and monkeys...

the question could be - what animal looks as beautiful from behind as it does from the front? Well close to it anyway. Beautiful deep tones and feather formation from the peacocks wandering around near Cataract Gorge in Launceston. In the city itself, Macaque monkeys donated By Japan. you can see them in photographs of Japan sitting in hot spring baths in the snow. I’d rather see them in the wild myself. They kept themselves entertained but no substitute for a natural environment.

Cradle mountain in the snow

You don’t expect snow in the last month of spring. I’ve photographed at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania many times, even in winter but this is the first time it snowed here. Pretty lucky for a 3 week window at this time of year. There were 2 straight days but it didn’t settle on the first though the weather was dramatic - windy, rainy, sleety, snowy. From photography viewpoint I love the mixture of monochrome and colour in the same shot. This region also has beautiful, deep yellows and browns that stand out nicely against the snow. I haven’t uploaded and portrait oriented shots due to the software distorting them. Nevertheless, there’s a good selection for the moment.