30 Days of Leap - trying to get some inspiration

During September Canon run a creative inspiration challenge so why not...

No competition no prizes, just for the heck of it.

https://www.canon.com.au/explore/challenges/leap/how-it-works

Day 1 Play with Lines

and it worked I took some other images.

Add a model to the smoke and you get...

Wander through the garden and you see (we'll see the magnolia again there's' a fantastic yellow wattle in the background when viewed from a different angle)...

Happy New Year

2017 could be the year of the Bokeh....

Sunsets and Silhouettes

Recent little trip to Wilsons Prom gave me an opportunity to catch a couple of sunset pictures with a bit of a human content...

Remember to look at where the subject is (don't have the land merge with them) and whilst I asked this couple to get closer I hadn't foreseen the fact that if their arms go around their necks it makes for some funky silhouettes...

My breakthrough here was actually getting complete strangers to pose for me, my heart was in my mouth when I asked and I'm surprised I could hold the camera still.

Next night (you don't get much time to take these shots before the light disappears) I was a bit more aware of the subject.  Fortunately I didn't need to ask them to pose, that came naturally.  

I spoke to both couples to get email addresses and sent them copies.  Again a big deal for me, my normal subjects don't normally need direction...

Look out for me stalking on a beach somewhere near you....

Lens Roulette

Three hours of Saturday turned into frantic search for images in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar equipment (well the lens at least). 3 briefs, 12 shots no reviewing on camera, minimum post processing (camera jpeg and crop)

First set (50mm f1.2) I tried to take advantage of the shallow depth of field, the first thing I notice was how much I rely on the zoom capability of my normal lens, with this lens I had to move to get the image I wanted. There is minimal cropping on this fist set (but there isn't 12 images).

B&W set (16-35mm f4.0), there's not as much contrast in these as I had thought but not a bad set of images (and there are 12) the 3rd image in this set had high dynamic range and I exposed for sky I will process the jpeg further to see if the foreground detail can be rescued.

Coffee in Melbourne this was never going to be a classic set of shots and I didn't get 12 (so apparently I'm sacked) the 24-70mm f2.8 didn't cope as well with the dark conditions as I'd hoped and even bumping up the iso I couldn't get a hand held shot (and you couldn't alter iso this much with film).

This was a challenge and was fun thanks to Jay Collier and Canon Collective for putting on this event

  

 

  

Winter Fireworks 2

Another chance to get into Melbourne for the winter fireworks so off I went (with a couple of my photo club friends).  Did a little more research and decided that using my Trigger Trap and some standard settings would be a good approach, there's 6 more weeks of fireworks so if I get it completely wrong there's always another night.

Plan:
Find different vantage point from last session
Adjust aperture to get ambient exposure right with a 2.5 to 3 second exposure.
Set up TT to take exposures of 2.8 seconds with a 0.5 second gap between exposures.
Frame shot before display begins.
Set camera to bulb and manual focus
get ready for display to start
press start button when display starts
stand back and ooh and aah at the display like a 5 year old

it worked:

Looking forward to going again as I started to play with some other effects, "Beam me up Scotty"...

Searching for Winter 1

Winter - what does it mean, how do you take an image that conveys the feeling of winter.  Ask different people and you get different answers.

This is my challenge for the next 2 months to capture an image that portrays winter "My Winter".

View of a misty valley but the rich colour in the sunrise gives me a feeling of hope for the day, I want desolation and hopelessness...

Mist and sun streaming through the trees, the shadows generating a feeling of foreboding, Just needed a suggestion of frost...

Cold Yarra Valley morning, leafless trees in the distance, leafless vines in the mid ground and in the foreground a parents nightmare, memories of a young girl ripped from the world.  Cold, desolate and chilling.  There was a heavy feeling when I took this shot, not wanting to trespass on the emotion but wanting to use the emotion and give it the respect it deserved.  I don't know how to feel about this image I like it, it captures the feelings I wanted to portray but maybe too many feelings....

Winter Fireworks

I love fireworks but I don't always get a chance to view or see them so I got myself organised when this seasons fireworks were organised.  Melbourne city puts on a display every Friday night at 7.30pm during July and August and it's FREE.

There were a number of camera wielding freaks out on a cold winters evening.

I might have one other Friday free and weather allowing I will try to capture more, this is where my cropped sensor camera struggles with the narrow field of view.  These were taken at the wide end of my 24-105 and I really needed a wider view to get more light on the water.