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.

Canon Collective

The opportunity to do a studio shoot of animals doesn't come along often and then to use some great equipment as well was one I couldn't go past.

Some images from the night.

#canoncollective

Redbubble an Artwork Sales Site

I have a neglected Redbubble account which I might just be breathing some life into.

Much of the content on there will be images that I like and most have are more relevant for certain products, I could never see one of my landscapes on a doona (duvet/quilt) so I don't formet them or set them up.  Similarly there is the design below which I could visualise on a phone case (unfortunately others can't).

I discovered that I can link my images in this blog to my Redbubble account and so my very clumsy "contact me if you want a copy and we'll work something out" can now be changed to "some images are available to purchase click on an image and this will take you to my RedBubble page".  This however will not be retrospective (at this point) and no images of individual people will be available this way unless I have an image release in place.

So to kick that off a few images from the archive which are available, enjoy.

Surfs up

A couple of sunny shots to warm the soul.

Fairy Wrens

Two posts in one day, not sure I can keep this up...

After my sunrise trip there were a few fair wren flitting about in the bushes, my arrival didn't seem to move them on so I tried to get a shot or two of them.  Not award winning but I'm quite chuffed.

Female top, male bottom 24-105mm lens so I had to get quite close and crop these images, when I've got a couple of hours spare I may try to get closer.