Not too many people around yesterday

Martin Place in Sydney

Wet in Sydney

yesterday was pretty wet in sydney ...though a welcome change from the previous day's 41% ... today we're back with the heat!

Engrossed

the joys of a handeld PSP

Too much of a good thing

Spent the afternoon at Max Brenner ......... yum!

Sunset at Silverwater

Silverwater in Sydney is not particularly known for its scenic views (industrial/comercial real estate, and prison comes to mind when) . there is one spot though thats quite nice at sunset (oh the wonders that light can do :) .

These were shot off the Silverwater bridge.

2 Nil

Guess who lost...

Goodbye dear friend

Said goodbye to a friend today , a loving dad and husband, a gentle and kind man, a good friend... you will be missed...

Nielsen Park

My favorite park in Sydney, walk up the hill and you have a view of the harbour

theres something about that rock, I keep shooting it everytime we visit :)

Weird dreams

I dreamt I was lost in the woods today, the trees just went on forever, I walked and walked and it just never stopped , the deeper into the woods I got the weirder it got , the colors kept changing on me.....weird dream indeed....

A study in contrast

Nikon SB 900 off camera

Somebody asked me recently how to do a basic setup of the Nikon SB-900
off camera with the D300. So here goes..

First the camera

Click on the menu button and go to CUSTOM SETTING MENU
Select option e: Bracketing/Flash.

Next Select option e3 Flash cntrl for built-in flash

Next Select the Commander mode option

Next have a look at the Built-in flash setting, by default this is set to TTL - cycle through it till you see

the "--" (you have a choice of Manual, TTL or "--") this minimises the amount of flash coming out of your pop-up flash.  You can pretty much leave the Group A and B settings as is (in TTL) or dial in + or - compensation depending on your need (in this particular instance we only have one flash so we are only actually using one or the other (A or B). Next Select a Channel (1 to 4) I happen to like the number 3 so thats what I've selected

Now the flash

Switch the Flash to remote using that little button/switch on the bottom right hand corner.

Next we need to set the flash to match the settings we did on the Camera (Group A, Channel 3)

the current group/channel are displayed at the top of the LCD screen.

To select a group press on the small button on the left most side (there is a set of 3 just below the LCD screen, its the one with the green dot beside it) and it will cycle you through the available groups(A,B,C).

To select a Channel (we want channel 3)use the second button from the left

And thats it good to go........

Theres a whole lot more you can do with it from both the flash and the camera , everything from controlling it manually to using TTL, dialing in +/- compensation and so on .... , for more advanced stuff you can do check out Strobist , probably the best resource anywhere for off camera flashing .

Anybody else know of other flash resources out there? please share :)

Imagination

"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein

A curtain rod, a sports bandage , and a head scarf with a red sun and some japanese writing and he is suddenly a Ninja in ancient Japan. I just love how kids can let their imaginations run wild... its a pity we seem to lose some of that as we grow older. hmmmm must start chanelling my inner child :)

The blogs I read today

I love reading other peoples blogs, great place to learn, interact, be inspired and just enjoy other peoples work.....

today I looked at:
The Selby
Monday Artday
Flak Photo
A Painting Today
feature shoot
The Picture Show

.... so I've got a lot of time on my hands !

Red Dust Storm in Sydney

OK, so I was too chicken to bring my camera out in the middle of a dust storm ... looks like I missed out on some pretty spectacular shots  ... oh well time to clean up ....

Earthquake in Melbourne , dust storms in Sydney, bush fire season round the corner.....  this is getting scary...

Finally stepped out when it settled down a bit

All the technique in the world...

 "All the technique in the world doesn’t compensate for the inability to notice." - Elliott Erwitt

Whats the best camera?

The one you've got in your hands !... can't remember who said that - I think it was Joe McNally
(Having said that.... there is a nice little guide on choosing a dslr over in digital photography school)

My 14 year old daughter took this one with her Sony DCW 150. She's been asking about my old D70 .... I think I'll lend it to her and see what she comes up with!

On seeing the light

Taking the time to understand how light affects your subject goes a long way in how your photographs come out.

Our eyes are wonderfull instruments that adjust and compensate automatically for any variations of light. Unfortunately what we see with our eyes does not automatically translate to what the camera sees. Todays cameras are extraordinarily sophisticated machines with all the functions and abilities to make any compensation or adjustment you might need, but it is still just a tool , a dumb machine that needs to be told what to do.

When I first started in photography I just shot every which way without thought about the light, shooting in the mddle of the day in the harsh sunlight, in the shade, with my on-board flash and so on, just eager to shoot as many pictures I can.

Over the years I've learned (from other photographers and books and all sorts of ther sources on the web)to try to take a moment to ask myself a few questions -

• Where is the light coming from - in front of your subject, behind, from the side , from the  top ,through a window or door, outside ....
• What is the quality of the light - harsh or hard, soft , or somewhere in between...
• What am I trying to achieve - a dark moody portrait , a bright happy scene, a quiet moment?
• Is there enough light for what I want to achieve...

Taking a moment to consider these questions you can get a pretty good idea of how your photograph may come out... even a small adustment such as where your subject is facing or where you are shooting from can make the difference between a snapshot and a beautiful portrait.

Invariably, asking myself these questions before shooting have resulted in better photographs then when I have just shot without thinking...

Major yuminess

If you ever get a chance to go to Katomba in the Blue mountains, check out the Swiss Cottage . The food is absolutely yummy...

Solitary Blooms

Simplifying works with flowers too...

Simplifying the Photograph

"What's really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer" - William Albert Allard

Patterns on the wall

The Rocks in Sydney, just love the repeating patterns on this building.

Photographic IT-ness

What are we aiming for in our photographic journey? over the years scouring the photo forums, I've seen the same question in vaious forms pop up "How do I know when I've got IT".... heck, I've asked it myself?

aummmmmmmmmm... you must reach the 6th level of IT-ness my child before you can trully call yourself a "Photographer" . Nothing wrong with striving to better your art, but sometime I think the goal of attaining IT-ness overwhelms the joy of the actual journey.

I'm a regular reader of the blogs and twitter posts of the likes of Chase Jarvis, Joe McNally and Mr. Strobist (people who I would say are way past the 6th level of IT-ness) and one of the things I see in common is that they're all enjoying their individual journeys, there's this sense of exuberance with the whole process of creating more than the end result (though their end results are usually pretty spectacular) and they are more than happy to share that experience with us noobs.

and then there's Lee a Junior in High school who uses a point and shoot (though I hear he's recently upgraded to an SLR) , he's got the same exuberance and joy of discovery as our photographers of great IT-ness. and is thoroughly enjoying his own journey...

ok, so what was I talking about again, I forget my point..... oh yeah...

it doesn't matter what stage you are in your photographic journey , if you're absolutlely loving what your're doing (irrespective of the results) then you my friend have achieved great IT-ness!!!

Spent the afternoon with my son at the Archery range .... that was great fun , but could not for the life of me capture the arrow flying out to the target!

Cottage in the woods

One of the things I like about digital photography is being able to easily redo old photos in many different ways. This was taken somewhere in Queensland a couple of years ago.

Waiting

Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung;
The grass has ris.
I wonder where
The birdie is?

There he is
In the sky.
He dropped some
Whitewash in my eye!

I am no sissy;
I won't cry.
I'm just glad
The cows can't fly!

-Anonymous?

officially 1st day of spring here in Oz...

"Don't know why"

"theres no sun up in the sky, stormy weather", Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler 1933

The suns out today, not a cloud in the sky .... so what am I doing posting pictures of storm clouds and feeling sorry for myself.....   outa here... see y'all later....

How quickly they grow

    

The wife and I brought my daughter to the airport this morning... off to Melbourne for for all of 2 weeks on a school exchange program... first time away from the family.... am resisting the urge to call every thirty minutes to see if she is ok.... hmmmmm maybe a txt instead :)

Sax player

taking in the sights around Circular quay. tried a different treatment to the post processing , this is a brownish tint applied with Nik softwares Color Stylizer through Capture NX2

Flower Power

getting pretty close to spring (here in Sydney :) )

Low key portraits

if you've been following this blog you've probably noticed my penchant for low key everything... so how low is too low?... hard to put any kind of limits to something as subjective as this... what do you think?

Wedding Photography

Shot my first (paid) wedding last April. was lucky enough to have an absolutely lovely couple to work with. I enjoyed the entire process from doing an engagement shoot before hand and getting to know the couple, scouting out the locations and the actual wedding and reception itself. Its amazing the amount of work one needs to put in to make it work well. I sure gained a whole new appreciation for what Wedding Photogs do. (nothing like first hand experience!)

An afternoon at Darling harbour

Spent the afternoon at Darling harbour ...Lindt Cafe for desert then dinner at Hurricane ribs (in that order :) .....

got tired of photographing the same old harbour scenes so walked around a bit and found some interesting patterns and lighting effects I lie.... still photographed a lot of the usual harbour scenes...

Forget The Big Picture

Try getting in closer, closer , closer

sons school project.... 11 September 1297 ... William Wallace giving the English army "what for" on the Sterling bridge

Haven't really done much macro photography, lots of posibilities here though... hmmmm

Rough neighborhood

Went to do the grocery the other day... hostile place the supermarket... I had the trolley a bit towards the middle of the ailse and this guy banged his trolley against mine and gave me a glare... a few minutes later at the cheese section, this woman behind us started huffing and making snorting noises like "get out of my way!".

Lighten up people! a simple "excuse me" will get me out of the way real quick...
having a bad day ?.... effect of the GFC ? or people just becoming plain rude.
I wonder.....

Film Noir

"this was going to be a bad night, I could feel it in my gut..... you know the feelin, like somebody just walked over your grave..."

I think I need a new script writer!