Light and Shadows

Lomo Fisheye 2 Camera - Is it wrong to buy a camera just coz it looks cute

2009-01-31T17:18:00.004+11:00

This is my new camera. Very low tech, 35mm film, fixed f8 100 sec, but more fun than you can imagine. I'll post some photos tomorrow.

Christmas Time

2008-12-21T10:11:00.002+11:00

A few photos from the Warrnambool Show

2008-10-27T23:55:00.003+11:00

This photo isn't one of mine, it's Joey. How fabulous is this shot. She came on a camera club outing on Thursday night to Flagstaff Hill. She only had my old point and shoot camera , but she did great.

These ones are a few of mine from the show on the weekend.

And the B& W version

2008-10-24T23:36:00.003+11:00

How did my girl turn out so beautiful?

12 more days

2008-10-18T23:37:00.004+11:00

until my girl turns 11.

Erica really loves to read

2008-10-05T23:55:00.002+11:00

Not all photos have to be masterpieces

2008-09-28T00:35:00.003+10:00

Some thing I have been thinking about recently is what makes a good photo. Is it one that is technically perfect, well composed, perfectly focused, interesting subject matter, or is it one that makes you remember the day. When I first got serious about taking photos I used to smugly think that my parents were hopeless at taking photos and my photos were so much better. But I was wrong. For two years I took beautiful portrait style photos of my kids and lovely landscape photos of the places we visited, but never anything connecting the two. My kids aren't going to remember that that lovely close up portrait was taken on a walk to Shelley Beach, that it was a beautiful summer afternoon. I have realised that these sort of photos definitely have there place and I do like to strive to take better photos, but the photos that my kids are going to love when they are older are the ones like this one. Yes its blurry and grainy, but I hope it reminds then of the day when they washed the car all by themselves just so that they could have a water fight afterwards.

Fabulous skies

2008-09-26T23:09:00.002+10:00

Today we had the most fabulous blue skies and amazing cloud formations, well for half the day anyway, then it clouded over completely.

Factories - Fonterra (Dennington) and Murray Goulburn(Koroit)

2008-09-21T00:09:00.003+10:00

I think I might of added a bit too much grain to these ones.

a bit of fun with photoshop

2008-09-14T23:25:00.002+10:00

This is the main street of town. I thought I would replace the T&G building with the Port fairy lighthouse. Now I'm thinking I might turn the street into sea. Humm, stay tuned.

Factories - Murray Goulburn

2008-09-06T22:52:00.002+10:00

I have decided to do a series of photos of the local factories. Why you might ask, well I find them really interesting. Apparently other people don't, but hey they are my photos so i don't care. Actually I'm just being pig headed and want to prove the point that boring subjects can make interesting photos. Anyway, this is the Murray Goulburn Milk Processing plant at Koroit. I took this photo at about 8:30 at night. I really wanted to capture the plumes of smoke. i think i might try it again earlier in the night when there is still some blue in the sky. I desaturated the photo, and added some a little noise.

Teenagers

2008-09-04T23:59:00.006+10:00

What happens to kids as they approach the teenage years? My girl is about to turn eleven and she has the most amazing mood swings. One minute she is happy and really loving, the next she is crying and then cranky. I love her dearly, but how are we going to get through 5 years of this. Please tell me it isn't too bad. Anyway tonight I made this image to represent all the emotions swirling around her. It did it really quickly, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. It is just a photo of her overlaid over a photo of a tubular park slide.

Warrnambool Camera Club Blog

2008-08-26T13:50:00.001+10:00

last week I set up a blog for the Warrnambool Camera Club - check it out www.warrnamboolcameraclub.blogspot.com

A few photos from my TAFE course

2008-08-15T00:17:00.005+10:00

I'm studying a diploma of Visual Arts at TAFE - I only started at the beginning of the year and I'm only doing 2 subjects per semester so it will probably take me 10 years to finish. One of the subjects I'm doing is digital photography. These ar a few photos I used for my first semester assessment.

This one was taken on Anzac day at the 11 am service. I went to the dawn service, but I didn't think it would be the appropriate time to pull out my camera and tripod. I did get to go and take some sunrise photos after it though. This next photo is one of them. Actually this is three exposures combined. I have tried to use HDR programs to do this, but I'v never had much success, so this for this I just used layers and masks etc to combine them.

Joey looking all rock chick. She was so good letting be take photos of her. I wanted to practise the high key kinda look. The focus is probably more on her hair than her eyes, but all in all I was pretty happy with it.

And this is Mike, my photography teacher.

Feeding the giraffes

2008-07-14T23:29:00.004+10:00

During the holidays we went to the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo. The best part (well my favourite) was feeding the giraffes. This is Erica being mugged by giant giraffe tongues.

Griffiths Island lighthouse

2008-06-09T21:56:00.003+10:00

These are some early morning shot I took at a local lighthouse. We went over there to get sunrise shows, but arrived a bit early. The jetty one is on the walk to the lighthouse - yep, it was really dark. The glow in the distance in the lighthouse shots are the lights from the town I live in

Cement works at dawn

2008-06-09T10:23:00.003+10:00

I took this yeasterday morning, just before dawn. Not sure if I like the warning sign at the bottom, might need a bit of cropping.

the 12 apostles - B & W

2008-04-20T23:29:00.002+10:00

Today we went down to the 12 Apostles - the coast line down there is just spectacular. Unfortunately the light wasn't great and it was really hazy, so I thought I would have a play with converting them to B&W. This is only about an hour from where I live. The original plan was to get some sunset shots, but we got sidetracked sight seeing.

This next one is just my crazy boy - I was trying to take a photo of my two girls and then this little head pops up into the view finder. I ran a lomo action on it just for fun.

Fireworks over the Speedway

2008-04-07T21:52:00.003+10:00

A few weeks ago I took some photos of the fireworks over the local speedway. All the parts of this image were taken on the same night, just not necessarily all in one shot. The speedway with the lights on is one shot. Each fireworks burst is a separate shot. The green one was pink, but I already had a pink so I changed the colour. The moon shot was taken looking in the opposite direction, but i thought it was a nice addition. There was a thunder storm in the distance behind the fireworks and I did manage to capture one lightening shot, but the pic looked a bit over the top (well more so) with it added.

Little toes

2008-04-06T22:17:00.003+10:00

Doing the Tara Whitney thing here.

seagulls

2008-04-05T19:40:00.002+11:00

Okay, so they are just seagulls, but I kinda like them. Shane hates them. I keep setting them up as our computer background just to annoy him. I might do a whole series just on seagulls.

Dancers

2008-04-04T21:47:00.004+11:00

These are a couple of photos I took a few weeks ago. The first one was taken at a local Highland Dancing competition. My daughter is the one in pink. The second one was taken at a Portuguese festival. I wanted to capture the colour and movement of the dancers. It was a really sunny day so I have to use a polariser to try and get a longer shutter speed. I really like this one.

I'm Back

2008-03-18T23:15:00.007+11:00

It's been a while, but here are some photos I took tonight. Nothing special, but they were fun to take.

Tomorrow I'll put up some photos of the house renovation.

Tiger

2008-01-24T22:42:00.000+11:00

Last weekend we went to the zoo with my sister and her family. I took about 200 photos and Shane took about 50. I haven't had a good look through them yet, but I thing this is my best one. Shane got some fabulous butterfly shots.

We have just started renovations on our house so my POTD are all shots of my house - interesting for me, but shots of house stumps and footings probably isn't going to be very thrilling for anyone else. I will try to get some other ones up soon though.

Narrawong Beach Before and After - CC please.

2008-01-15T23:10:00.001+11:00

SOOC

Adjusted levels, Krisztina's B&W action, sharpening and crop

I took this photo a few months back andit was one I was never really that happy with. I was using my old tripod, which wasn't really stable so it wasn't overly sharp. Because the exposure between top and bottom was quite different I bracketed the exposures (this is the middle one). I hadn't done anything with this image until tonight but all the talk of HDR inspired me to give it a go. Well the results of combining the 3 images using HDR in CS3 where less than impressive - really dull and muddy. So i thought I would just play around. I used the magic wand to select the sky and sea in separate layers and adjusted the levels in each and the erased the bits I didn't want. i really do need to lear how to use layer masks. Then when i was happy with it I ran Krisztina's B&W action. I sharpened the area around the branch, but not the sky so as not to increase the noise in the sky. than i cropped.

So do you think it worked??? CC always appreciated.

The pink wall

2008-01-09T22:12:00.000+11:00

We are about to start a major renovation / extension of our house. I can't wait coz our house is classic 1970's - uurrgh. And too small. Anyway, three bedrooms will stay the same, so we are trying to get these updated before the builders start. I told the kids they could all choose a colour for one wall in their bedrooms. the choices they came up with are bright pink, orange and turquoise. (lucky paint is easy to change). This is the pink wall I have just finished painting in my DD's room. How cool is that going to be for a backdrop. My DD's are away at the moment visiting their grandmother for 3 weeks, so I had to con DS to pose for a photo. He will only let me take a photo if I let him pull a funny face - typical boy. So the photo isn't great - but I really wanted to show you the wall.

A sunset one also

2008-01-07T00:15:00.001+11:00

iso 100, f 22, ss 1 sec, polarising filter and tripod

I took this at about 9pm tonigh (6th Jan). I cranked everything up as much as possible to slow down the shutter speed and get the misty water effect. I'm pretty happy with this one. but I would like the ss to be a bit slower still. The tide was coming in and it was getting dark so definitely time to go home. You may recognise this scene, it's one of my favourite places to take pics and featured heavily on my blog last year.

bottle in a tree

2008-01-06T23:56:00.001+11:00

Okay, so you are probably thinking "why do I have a photo of a tree with a circle around a few branches". Okay, here's the story. This is a Norfolk Pine tree - Warrnambool is full of these trees. A few weeks ago my boss at work was telling me about this tree, The small white dot in the circle is a bottle that has been stuck onto the branch. I have know idea how it could have got there. These trees are really big and really old. So today i finally got around to taking a photo of it - hummm, the result was less than stellar. So the question is how do you take a photo of this that shows the bottle at least relatively clearly, but also shows its position in the tree? or do I just need two photos :)

Butterflies

2008-01-05T23:25:00.001+11:00

I did some butterfly stalking in my garden today. I used my 70-200 lens and had to set the iso to 800 to get a fast ss, so they are a bit noisy.

A little bit of sea mist and a little bit of fill flash

2008-01-04T23:41:00.000+11:00

Today was stinking hot again, so after I dinner we went to the beach, We were still swimming past 8 o'clock. On the way home we moticed one of the beaches was covered in a sea mist. By the time we got the camera and got out there it was almost gone. I though I would use the opportunity to try a bit of fill flash. I used the on board flash (forgot i had my speedlite with me). This is my DH, Shane. I was fairly pleased with how it turned out - would have been better with a more specacular sunset.

Recycle

2008-01-03T23:30:00.000+11:00

This is one of those photos that didn't turn out as good as it scene looked at the time. I was driving home tonight and I was struck by all the recycle bins (the yellow lids) out for collection, Unfortunately the photo doesn't do it justice. I'm really disappointed with the lack of sharp focus in the distance - should have used a smaller aperture. I think from memory I used about f 10. Live and learn.

Learning Flash

2008-01-02T23:59:00.000+11:00

#1. no exposure compensation / no Flash exposure compensation

#2. no exposure compensation / positive Flash exposure compensation

#3. No exposure compensation / negative flash exposure compensation

I have had my flash for 12 months now and I am still clueless. Lucky for me the wonderful Krisztina has set up this group http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&thread_id=2423233 (can you tell I have no idea how to do links). So here are a few of my shots from tonight. They aren't very good, in fact they are pretty bad, but it helped me get a bit of a grip on flash exposure compensation. I think I was too close to the subject and the background to get the best effect. But who knows, by next year I may actually know what I am doing. No CC necessary - I know they are crap.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T23:56:00.000+11:00

The last day of the POTD challenge for 2007. Well I didn't get to 365 posts. I started well, but after a few months I really dropped the bundle. So, do I try to do it again in 2008??? not sure yet, I'd like to keep this blog going and try to at least up date once a week. My New Year's resolution is to commit to following through on things more, so who knows. I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who visited my blog and thank you for also sharing your photos with me.

Take Care

My boy the sheep and a sunset

2007-12-28T23:43:00.000+11:00

Sunset on Christmas night. DH bought me a new tripod so I had to try it out. I love it.

A quick snap from the Kinder Christmas play. Chris made a very cute sheep.

Lavender

2007-12-12T22:05:00.000+11:00

A shot from my garden tonight. It's not real sharp coz of the wind, but I really like the purple against the green.

Dave Surfing

2007-12-09T22:28:00.000+11:00

This weekend we went camping with the people from my husband's work. I was too slack to get up at dawn to take photos of the sunrise over the beach, but I did get some photos of one of the guys surfing. It really was too far away for my 70-200 lens, but I wasn't going to wade out into the surf and they weren't coming in any closer. As you can see by the wet suits, even though it's summer down here, the water is still cold.

Mainly Pelicans

2007-12-05T23:15:00.000+11:00

These are some photos I took a few days ago. The colour is pretty bad, especially in the first one. Getting the exposure right on the pelicans was trisky - I think some of the white feathers are a bit blown out. The last one is a mother swamp hen (or a Pukeko - a my Kiwi DH would call it) feeding her chick. I deleted the first two coz the colour was just toooooo bad, I'll repost them after I re-edit.

dots, chalk, celophane and a red balloon

2007-11-23T23:30:00.000+11:00

I took these for a Canon competition recently. You were sent these four hings in little boxes an you had to take a photo that in some way used each thing (including the boxes, but I couldn't think of one for that). So here are my entries. I didn't even make the finals or anything, but I was pretty happy with them. You can check out the finalists on www.canon.com.au/photo5/

How can something this pretty be a weed?

2007-11-14T23:56:00.000+11:00

Down by the river these Pelargoniums are growing wild. I know they are a weed and should probably be removed, but they sure do look pretty.

Changes

2007-11-11T21:44:00.001+11:00

Well as you can see I have made a few changes. Now I just have to fix my header photo. I have been so slack up-dating this blog. I have been taking photos, I just haven't had a chance to edit them and up load them. Here's a photo from yesterday. Now daylight saving has started here, it doesn't get dark til after 8:30 pm so we have been going out for walks after dinner. The kids love it and it gives me a chance to take sunset photos, now I just need some spectacular sunsets (and a new tripod and some graduated ND filters).

Portraits

2007-10-23T22:35:00.000+10:00

Portraits really aren't my thing, but I have been trying to get better. There are some from last week. In the first two i was trying for the character portrait look. I used my wide angle lens to give the distortion (usually this is the bane of my life, but I thought I would run with it on these shots). The last one is my DD- I was trying to work on catch lights and getting her eyes sharp. All CC welcome and appreciated.

Wild weather

2007-09-29T21:31:00.000+10:00

Just a couple of quick pics I took yesterday. The weather here was so bad - gale force winds, rain, hail, thunder. The sea was incredibly rough. I was nearly getting blown over taking these. Thankfully it has been better today - we are off camping on Monday, so fingers crossed for fine weather.

somedays the light is just perfect

2007-09-24T23:45:00.000+10:00

iso 100, f 16, ss 1/50

A couple from this weekend

2007-09-23T23:34:00.001+10:00

iso 100, f 22, ss 1/2 sec

I took this one tonight with my 17-85 lens. I was aiming for a long shutter speed (misty water), but I don't think it really works as the water is too far away. I think it is probably a bit over processed looking - hummm. I was hoping for a nice sunset, but this is the only colour we got.

iso 100, f 2.8, ss 1/3200

This one was taken yesterday with my new Canon 100mm f2.8 macro. It is interesting using it for portraits - so far i really like it but so different from my 50mm - you have to be so far away. This is my DD - I have know idea where she got those beautiful full lips from - certainly wasn't my side of the family.

iso 100, f 16, ss 1/60

Another one with the macro - I was out stalking bees yesterday. Not sure if I have the patience for this kinda stuff though.

Sticking with what I know best

2007-09-17T23:55:00.000+10:00

It seems like so long since I have taken any landscape photos and I have to admit it is nice to get back to it. I have been wanting to take this shot all winter, since the trees turned yellow, but I could never get the timing right. The weather has been lousy here (typical Warrnambool weather, wet and windy), but Saturday was just glorious - warm and sunny. This is the Merri River (I take so many photos of this river) just on the outskirts of town. The yellow trees are Poplars (I think) and the green ones on the river bank are Willows. In the second photo there is a shadow from a light pole on the bridge down the bottom of the photo, kinda in the middle. Do you think it is distracting? I cloned it out of the top one, should I clone it out of the second one also?

Thanks for the comments on my last post. I'm loving the new lens, it certainly is a learning curve though. I'll post some more photos when I get some good ones. Shane is really into bug photos so I think he will use the macro more than I do.

New lens

2007-09-12T22:13:00.000+10:00

iso 400, f 18, ss 1.3 sec

Today i got a new lens (it's actually for my DH, but I'm going to steal it sometimes) - Canon 100mm 2.8 macro. Unfortunately I didn't get home from work until late so i only had a chance to play with it inside tonight. This was probably my best photo. Its very noisy and not really sharp, but it certainly is close up. I can't wait til tomorrow afternoon and I can have a play outside. The shallow DOF takes some getting used to. I used my tripod and flash with this. The flower is the centre of a mini Gerbera.

Some flower shots from the weekend

2007-09-05T23:33:00.000+10:00

These are some more shots from the garden we went to last weekend. They aren't
great, but it gives you an idea of what the garden was like. It was a macro
photgraphers dream. Now I just need a macro lens. The Canon 100mm 2.8 macro is
the next on my wish list.

And these last two are taken in my garden - these are about the only flowers I have out at the moment

A perfect Day

2007-09-03T00:11:00.000+10:00

Today was a really great day.

It is Father's Day here today, so Happy Father's Day to my DH. Yes, that is me reflected in his sunglasses.

This morning we went to watch DD play soccer - she is the one in red.

In the park next to the soccer is the dog obedience school, so we watched the cute dogs (this one was my favourite)

Then we went to an open garden at this place. It is a really eclectic garden, lots of succulents and artwork. It really inspired me to do something with my poor sad overgrown garden and the owner gave the kids a plant each so they were happy.

And I took lots of photos.

Perfect Day (and the weather was nice, but a bit cold still).

I would like to say huge thank you to the people that look at my blog yesterday ( and other days) and took the time to leave my some comments and CC. I agree they are a bit dark and too contrasty. Sometimes it's hard to know when to stop :)

A few B&W's. HHCC Please

2007-08-31T11:22:00.001+10:00

These certainly aren't technical perfect (or even that good), but i'm kinda going more for atmosphere and feeling rather than technical excellence. They are pretty grainy and the burning is less than subtle. But please let me know what you think. ALL HHCC WELCOME AND APPRECIATED. Thanks. The first one is my kids and second one is my DD's soccer team and the coach.

I love this time of night

2007-08-29T22:23:00.001+10:00

I love this time of night when the sky is really dark blue, just before it goes black. I went down to the beach tonight to take some photos of the town lights reflecting on the bay, but I was too early and the sky was just pale bluey grey. This is the last photo I took, facing the other way (out to sea). I should have been more patient and stayed and took some more facing town - oh well next time.

iso 400, f 11, 13 sec

Lunar eclipse

2007-08-28T23:06:00.000+10:00

The lunar eclipse was at about 7-9 pm here so I thought I'd have a go at photographing it. They turned out okay, but not great. I really need a more stable tripod. I used my 70-200 f4L lens.

iso 400, f 5.6, ss 1/800

iso 400, f 4, ss 1.3 sec

iso 800, f 4, ss 2 sec

White faced Heron

2007-08-13T22:45:00.001+10:00

Sometimes it just works. I wish my focus was always this sharp.

Soccer practice

2007-08-12T22:02:00.000+10:00

So this isn't a very good photo - the focus is all over the place, but i love it anyway. It says so much about my little girl. She really likes playing soccer, even though she isn't very good. She has a ball and gives it 100%. Wherever she is on the field you can hear her laughing and talking.

A couple for Nana and Grandad

2007-08-07T22:40:00.000+10:00

I keep getting into coz i don't put enough photos of the kids on here. Well Nana and Grandad here are some just for you. Yes I am such a bad mummy that I made the kids wash the car just so I could take photos of them ( I needed a photo about using water in the home), but hey they really enjoyed it and I got some nice photos and a clean car. Unfortunately Erica was at dancing so maybe I will have to get them to do it again next week.

The Brodie brothers

2007-08-07T22:28:00.000+10:00

Last weekend I went out to the Brodie brothers farm with the local camera club. This men are 82 and 89, they have lived their whole life on this farm and they still milk a few cows. The car was there father's before he died about 60 years ago. They have so many old vehicles in various states of disrepair, some they still use (like old cars cut down into trucks and tractors) and some is just junk. It really was a photographers dream.

I hav been thinking about trying to challenge myself to take more photojournalistic shots - kinda like people in their environment. This isn't something I have really done before and the thought of taking pics of strangers is a bit daunting, so this was a nice easy way to start. All CC appreciated.

You say barrel distortion like its a bad thing.

2007-08-07T22:23:00.000+10:00

I'm finally back. I have been very slack updating my blog, so I have a few photos to add tonight. This is one I took a few weeks ago of the local bay. I really liked how the curve of the boardwalk matches the curve of the bay. Oh yeah, and the barrel distortion of my lens helps add to the effect - who knew it could be a good thing.

Compassion

2007-07-24T23:35:00.000+10:00

This week I have been doing a photgraphy course with a local photgrapher. His work is fabulous, really gritty B & W's. Anyway, this is may attempt at that sort of thing.

Jancourt (and why I need a wider lens)

2007-07-14T23:38:00.001+10:00

I went for a drive this afternoon while my DH was watching the football and I found this lovely place called Jancourt. There isn't a town or anything, it's just a rural district. Most of the country side around here is very, very flat, but this area is really hilly. It was so green and the light on the willow trees was lovely, but then to make things perfect this huge rainbow came out. It was actually still raining when I took these so i had to edit out a few rain spots on the lens. I probably missed some too. Sorry there are so many (kinda all the same) but I couldn't decide which I liked the best. As you can see, my 17-85 lens just isn't quite wide enough to get the whole rainbow. I wanted to use the second one as my blog banner, but I have stuffed something up, so no banner til i get my DH to fix it. Have a nice weekend everyone.

a few more from Sunday

2007-07-10T23:25:00.000+10:00

Sunday was the first sunny day we have had for weeks, so i made the most of it.

This first one is one of my favourite views here. i love the different shades of colour. The nest two are just some random stuff. The last one I was fooling around with DOF. Do you think it works in an abstract kinda way? I like the blurry colours in the background (sky, grass covered dunes, beach and sea), but I'm not sure if the foreground is a bit cluttered.

Hands

2007-07-09T22:14:00.000+10:00

I'm a bit late up-loading these. I took them yesterday, but it was so late by the time I got around to sorting them out. This is our local war memorial.

People Photos -aarrgghh

2007-06-24T23:43:00.000+10:00

As you all know people photo just isn't my thing. Basically i'm just not very good at it, but in the spirit of extending myself, i went out with my DD and gave it a go. I found some great locations and I have lots of fun post processing, but the photos, well, they just aren't very good. My focus was really off today. I was using my 50mm 1.8 lens, aperture priority with the aperture around f4. All advice and HHCC welcome. I am determined to get better at this. The first one is urban acid (yeah i know it's abit old now, but I kinda like it), the third one I used Cristina's B&W conversion.

Same sunset, two views

2007-06-19T23:48:00.001+10:00

The sunset this evening was really pretty. I was trying to capture the silhouette of the lighthouse and the Norfolk Pines. The angle isn't right though and there isn't enough separation between them. I'll have to scout for a better location. The second one is basically looking in the reverse direction. Again more pines - they are everywhere here. The sky was a really pretty soft pink.

you can't scrapbook without photos

2007-06-17T20:32:00.000+10:00

Erica had a friend over for a sleepover and today they wanted to scrapbook, so I had to take some pics for them them use. The pages they made where gorgeous , nothing much lined up and there was plenty of trapped white space, but what the hell, they had fun. At least someone is using my scrap booking stash. There is a pink reflection from the shirt on her chin - any sufggestions on how to get rid of it would be greatly appreciated, or is it okay how it is. She has very fair skin naturally and anything I did to adjust her skin tone made it way to yellow.

iso 400, f 8, ss 1/250

Killarney Windmill

2007-06-16T23:07:00.000+10:00

This is the windmill that I took pics of way back at the beginning of the year. I finally got back to reshoot it with better light. These were taken just before sunset tonight.

Random stuff

2007-06-15T00:03:00.001+10:00

Just some random shots from this afternoon.

After the storm

2007-06-11T23:02:00.000+10:00

Lots of pics today. On Friday we went up to Newcastle for my nephew's wedding. Newcastle is a port city north of Sydney, so it should have been a lot warmer than down here. BUT on Thursday a huge storm it. When we arrived on Friday it was cold and windy and very, very wet. This huge cargo ship ran aground on the beach just near the harbour entrance. It was an amazing sight. I took these pics on Sunday - by then the sea had calmed down a bit, but as you can see by the wave it was still pretty rough. We were staying on the other side of the river so we took a ferry over to have a look. The rainbow pics were taken from on the ferry. I love the second one how the rainbow was coming down in front of the buildings. i have still a 1gig card of pics to PP yet so you may see a few more of these.

Storm watching

2007-06-03T22:46:00.000+10:00

The last week or so has been really stormy. I guess that's good coz we were in drought, but I have to admit I'm a bit over the rain now. I took these yesterday evening out at the Whale watching platform. The whales will start arriving any day now so there were a few people out looking for them, but alas, no whales, just lots of storm clouds.

iso 200, f 16, tripod

Best Friends

2007-05-31T23:43:00.000+10:00

This is my DD Erica and her best friend. the two of them are so funny. They are so alike, both absolutely crazy.

I can't live without the sea

2007-05-29T23:08:00.000+10:00

I have lived in 5 different states of Australian, but for almost all my life I have lived near the sea. Something like 80% of Australians live within 50km of the coast. Where I live now I can hear the sea from my backyard, I can see the dunes and I can smell the salty air. I love it. It is too cold to swim in the sea down here much, but I love watching the changing colours, sometimes it is the most amazing pretty greens and blues and other day it is grey and wild. When the surf is up it sound like a freight train going past. I took this pic tonight, at about 5:30pm, it was starting to get dark, I was hoping for some colour in the sky, but just gray clouds. The pic make the beach look much more hospitable than it was feeling, it was really windy and cold.

iso 100, f 18, ss 15 sec, tripod, neat image

And now for something completely different

2007-05-27T23:18:00.001+10:00

These are some pics I took yesterday. I clambered down under a bridge to get pics of the river - well the river shots were pretty ordinary, but I found this really cool graffiti. I'm usually very anti graffiti, but the colours of this were fabulous. I really hate mindless, talentless tagging of other peoples property. I had fun PP'ing these - way over sharpened them to give the edgy feel. I didn't adjust the colours or saturation though, it really was this bright. i might even run them through some actions to see how they look. Today i took a really nice pic of my DD and her friend, but I have to check with her Mum before I post it here.

Kites

2007-05-26T23:10:00.000+10:00

This afternoon I drove passed the wetland near here and noticed these two birds. I took these with my 70-200 f4 L, hand held. They are a bit noisy and not really sharp, but okay. It was pretty cool just watching them hunt.

Lookout

2007-05-22T23:53:00.000+10:00

This is the lookout that the surf life savers patrol the beach from. I'm not thrilled with the composition, but I really like the sunlight on the tower. Thanks for looking.

Flinders Street

2007-05-21T23:36:00.000+10:00

On Sunday I went to Melbourne (our state capital, pop about 3 million) for a work conference. Like most work conferences it was really boring, but I did get to catch up with a very dear friend whom I haven't seen for years. The building in this pic is Flinder's Street train station. I really like how it kinda glows so warm against the dull gray of the street and sky. Melbourne is a lovely city, but very gray.

Twilight skies

2007-05-14T23:21:00.000+10:00

For the last few weeks I have been trying to get out and capture the twilight sky, when it is that fabulous dark blue. Unfortunately it only lasts for about 30 minutes and I always seem to be busy at that time. But tonight i finally got it. I am so pleased with these. I ran them through Neat image to decrease the noise, cropped the second one and cloned out a few weird pixels, but otherwise they are SOOC. The settings were iso 200, f 7.1, ss 20 secs. You can see some chromatic aberration (the purple) around some of the lights, but I'm still happy. I used my 50mm lens - it was on the camera and I was too lazy to change.

Dry Lake

2007-05-13T22:51:00.000+10:00

These are pics of a lake near here. We have had some rain recently, but as you can see it is still really dry. The first pic I tried the Orton Technique on - mainly coz the sky was so lousy. The second one has better sky. The thing in the foreground of the second one is a boat ramp. Don't think it's been used in a while.

Hazy Days

2007-05-12T22:30:00.000+10:00

TBA

Today was really hazy and overcast until about 2 pm. Then the sun came out and the fog cleared for about 2 hours and then it was back again. You can see how hazy the background is in the second pic. I took these just out of town. The first one is a place that's for sale. About 4 acres with this old run down house. Behind the house the land goes down to the river. I'm a real sucker for looking at real estate. Not that we are planning to buy anything (couldn't afford it even if we wanted too), but it's always fun to look. The last place I was looking at, 31 acres, sea and river views etc, sold for 2.5 million - OMG. The second pic is taken looking basically 180 degrees from the first one.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO EVERYONE FOR TOMORROW

Windy

2007-05-08T22:01:00.000+10:00

Warrnambool is famous for being windy. Today was a just a bit breezy though, not like the gales we get sometimes.

iso 400, f 10, ss 1/125

Shop lights

2007-05-07T23:39:00.000+10:00

It was raining tonight and the reflections of the shop lights on the wet road were really pretty. This is the main street of town.
I took this handheld, standing in the middle of the road (the rain had stopped by then).

Scrapping buddies

2007-05-05T23:44:00.000+10:00

Today I spent the afternoon scrapbooking with my two friends Ebony and Michelle. Well, they scrapped and I talked to them. I used to be full on into scrapping, but photography has kinda taken over a bit. I do want to get back into it though coz i have enough stuff to last about 5 years. After today I am feeling really inspired. The DOF is a bit shallow - oops.

May Racing Carnival

2007-05-03T23:29:00.000+10:00

Today was Warrnambool Race day. I'm not much into horse racing, but it is a big event on the local calendar (we even get a day off work). The last one is a landscape I took today -you knew I'd sneak one in. :)

Night lights

2007-04-30T23:00:00.000+10:00

I'm kinda going through a faze at the moment of trying to catch the late afternoon (early evening) dark blue/purple sky. Unfortunately i didn't actually succeed with these pics, but you can kinda see what i was trying to do. I was a bit too late tonight so it was a bit too dark and black. The first pic is looking over the soccer field where my DD plays. You can just see the outline of the trees against the sky. These are Norfolk Pines and Warrnambool has rows of them down all the main streets. The second one is my car - notice how the bumper is now fixed after DS's little accident.

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Road to nowhere

2007-04-29T23:51:00.000+10:00

Well actually it is a road to a place called Mailor's Flat, but trust me, there isn't much at Mailor's Flat. It certainly is flat though. Over the last few days we have had rain on and off and the clouds have been fabulous. I couldn't resist taking yet more pics of them.

iso 400, f 18, ss 1/200

Rain

2007-04-28T22:07:00.000+10:00

Last night it finally rained. It was lovely. Unfortunately today the rain moved to the south and most of it fell over the sea.

This is an old pic of my agapanthus when they were in flower. Don't you see these much in the US? They are very, very common here. They come in either white or purple. Have a nice weekend.

Old flowers

2007-04-27T23:05:00.000+10:00

This is the remains of my Agapanthus flowers. i usually chop them off, but I want to collect some seeds.

iso 100, f 5, ss 1/80

This is one from a few days ago. It was taken after sunset, with just the last remaining light in the sky. You should all give this a try, it was heaps of fun. I had no idea how it would turn out, but I'm thrilled with the result. The light on the island was from cars driving down the road behind where I was set up.

iso 200, f 5, ss 30 sec, tripod, noiseware

Yesterday was the first day i have missed since the POTD started - kinda a bit sad, but I had to get my BAS (tax) done. I'm sure it won't be the last day i miss. Thanks for the comments about the car pics. It was one cool car - and in such good condition - I wish my body looked that good.

MGB MKII

2007-04-25T23:19:00.000+10:00

As luck would have it, this car parked next to me when I was in town today. I just googled and found out that these cars were first made in 1967 - OMG it's as old as I am. I only had my 70-200 lens, so i had to stand out on the road just to get this much in. The cloud reflections looked kinda cool IRL, but I'm not sure if they work in the photo.

Thanks for the comments about yesterdays pics. The tree with the roots is a Morton Bay Fig. They have the most incredible root system. I'll try and take a pic of the whole tree to show you.

Trees

2007-04-24T23:46:00.000+10:00

This afternoon I went to the botanic gardens to take some pics. It's really more like an arboretum, than a botanic gardens, coz its mainly just lawn and lots of big old trees. Fabulous place to take the kids when you need to run some energy out of them.

The Old Woollen Mill

2007-04-23T23:32:00.000+10:00

This is part of the old Woollen mill - it used to be quite a big industry here, but this one closed down years ago and it is now being pulled down and turned into housing. I wish I could get close to it to take some pics, but it has a thumping big fence around it. I had to use my 70-200 lens to get this shot.

iso 400, f 9, ss 1/400

Sicky girl

2007-04-22T23:00:00.000+10:00

Well the camping went well last night. The girls loved it and I managed to last out until about 4am. Then i tag teamed with DH and he went out there for the rest of the night. Unfortunately Erica andd Chris both came down with a bug this afternoon. They were all feverish and sleepy. Joey had the same thing last week and it only lasted a day, so hopefully they will be better tomorrow. I couldn't resist taking this pic of Erica sleep cuddling her teddy bear. Kids always look so gorgeous when they are asleep. I just used the on-board flash so the pic is a bit washed out.

Camping

2007-04-21T21:44:00.000+10:00

This afternoon i suggested to the kids that we go camping in the backyard. Chris wasn't keen, but the girls decided that they were old enough to sleep out by themselves. That plan lastest until about dark, and then it was, "mum we're scared, come sleep with us'. It's not that I mind, I just like to be prepared, with a very soft mattress. They are asleep now, so I have snuck away for a while. Maybe I can convince DH to go sleep with them.

If the tiara fit...

2007-04-20T23:22:00.000+10:00

...wear it. Tonight Erica decided she was a princess, a fairy princess apparently, complete with wand and tiara. The pic isn't great - I really need to learn how to use my flash, but I thought she looked cute. Have a great weekend everyone.

Reflections

2007-04-19T23:57:00.000+10:00

No emotions, but plenty of reflections.

If portable storage devices had emotions...

2007-04-18T22:30:00.001+10:00

Do you think his one is happy. It's kinda hard to interpret his feelings, with the fixed stare and straight mouth and all. Okay i know, It's late and i think I'm going a little crazy. but you guys can see it too, can't you...

Shock and Indignation

2007-04-17T22:47:00.000+10:00

This is Joey's reaction then I told her that we had none of her favourite biscuits left and that she would have to have a different type. Do you think she might be a bit of a drama queen?

iso 400, f 2, ss 1/640, 50mm lens

Frustration

2007-04-16T22:53:00.000+10:00

This afternoon my kids were playing the restruant game. Erica was the waiter and she was collecting everyone's order. Apparently I wasn't playing the game properly because all I wanted to do was take a photo of her. In the end we both won. She got my order and I got the photo. the pic isn't real sharp and a bit grainy - but I kinda like it like that. I desaturated the second one using the technique posted on the message board afew months back. I must apologise to the poster, but i can't rember who it was. Thank you anyway.

iso 400, f 2, ss 1/800, 50mm lens

Runaway Cat

2007-04-15T21:49:00.000+10:00

No sun here today, grey skies all day, so I thought I would try something completely different. This little cat belongs to our next-door-neighbours, but she spends alot of time at our house. The kids named her Runaway, because that's what she would do when they tried to catch her. She is getting much more friendly now and she even lets then carry her around. She is a gorgeous little thing. I wasn't sure how to crop the photos, the ears kinda get in the way of putting the eyes on a third line. Thanks for looking.

iso 800, f 1.8, ss 1/250, 50mm lens

Childers Cove

2007-04-14T22:48:00.000+10:00

This afternoon I took a drive to the coast about 30 minutes east of here. The coastline around there is really spectacular. it is even better a bit further east of here. The first two are at a place called Childers Cove. I really like how the late afternoon sun makes the cliffs glow. I took the third one on the way there. It is dairy farming country around here and we are in the middle of a drought so the only green paddocks are the ones with irrigators. I used Krisztina's B&W conversion. The sky looks a bit blah due to the grey skies.

iso 200, f 16, ss 1/80

iso 800, f 16, ss 1/200

iso 200, f 13, ss 1/200

Thank you for all the comments on yesterdays shots. I am lucky to live in such a beautiful place, but I have to admit that its only since I started take landscape pics of it that i have appreciated how lovely it is. The area around my hometown is in a lot of ways much more scenic, all the beaches look like the Levy's, there are rolling green hills and mountains (only little ones though) and lush forests. But now I can see the beauty in the landscape here, even if it is flat and brown.

Post processing, okay I'll fess up and tell you what I do. I kinda feel like a bit of a fraud, coz i'm sure I do lots more PP than most people. Most pics get curves adjust, soft light layer, saturation adjustment and sharpening. But I often also do a multiple layer and or a screen layer, sometimes i adjust the colour balance and levels. Because alot of my shots have a large difference in exposure from the sky to the foreground (and I don't have a grad ND filter - yet), I usually have to adjust them separately, either using Roman's dynamic range or the magnetic lasso tool and feather the edges. So after all that when i'm happy with them i then spend about 10 minutes removing all the dust spots - my sensors are so dirty and when you use a small aperture, the spots just jump out. Basically I play around with them alot so I'm really pleased that you thought they don't look too overdone.

Levy's beach

2007-04-13T22:51:00.000+10:00

Today was another beautiful sunny day and I didn't have to work this morning so i went to the beach (as you do). I have never actually been to this beach before, it is really close to where I live - you can see the dunes from my backyard, but it is quite isolated and definitely not safe for swimming. I was amazed how beautiful it was, no seaweed, golden sand - much nicer than the main beach in town. I've been trying to improve my foreground interest, not sure if I have succeeded or not. Also as a spin-off from the poll on the message board, do you think the PPing is too much? Sometimes I'm not sure if I go over the top. All CC welcome and appreciated.

The ss is a bit slow - I forgot that I had my polarising filter on - aarrgghh. One day I'm going to remember everything. Setting for #1, #2, #4 are iso 200, f 18, ss 1/60., #3 iso 200, f 22, ss 1/40.

Thank you for the comments about yesterday's photos. the setting for the sun spot one were iso 100, f 9, ss 1/320. I might try and re shoot this one with a longer ss (and a tripod) to get a larger sun burst.

Sun spot

2007-04-12T23:18:00.000+10:00

I took this pic at the beach this afternoon. There is a small hole in the rock,
I lined it up so the sun was coming through the hole. not a great pic, but I
think it is a kinda cool effect.

I just added this one to show you what a beautiful day it was here today. Clear blue skies all day. Hope you guys see some sunshine soon.

Kite surfing

2007-04-11T23:44:00.000+10:00

Some more sunset pics at the beach. Kite surfing is pretty popular here, probably coz it is so windy. There was a big difference in the exposure for the sky and the water, so I had to lighten the water to bring out the detail., you can see the white shadow from the feather line (especially in the middle one). I have decided my next equipment purchase is going to be a set of grad ND filters.

Windmill at sunset

2007-04-10T22:14:00.000+10:00

iso 800, f 5.6, ss 1/500

ios 800, f 5.6, ss 1/800

Same windmill, taken from two slightly different angles and taken about 10 minutes apart. I am really missing the long twilights we have here in summer. The sun is setting so quickly now. On the first one I used the USM set at about 20/25/0, you can see the white flare above the horizon and around the windmill. The second one I didn't use USM at all. I used neat image to decrease the noise on both. Looking back I could have decreased my iso, I had plenty of ss to play with. The file size is pretty small, so I apologize if they pixelate when enlarged.