Blogspot Time Machine

Wow, what a year it has been! I hope you've all enjoyed the photos I've been posting, it's been great getting feedback from you all. Shame about those posts going missing!

So, this week's post is one I took a few months back while on a weekend away in Tallangatta, in country Victoria. I think it was filmguru's idea to walk into the sunset, and it capped off an awesome image of scenery.

The hardest part about this shot was shooting into the sun. Normally this is a bit of a no-no, what with lens flare and all. With filmguru standing in front of the sun at just the right spot, this was mostly alleviated, although there is a slight bit of flare on the left arm. Also, my makeshift model has terrible balance, which didn't help!

In other news, I've worked out how to link up redbubble content, so if you want a larger pic, you can just head there. I'm also studying again, so updates may be a little thin, as opposed to my normal regular updates. :)

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Moonlight Sonata (Week Four)

So, in keeping with my late night musings, I have come up with yet another pic using my guitar. Usually I have more stuff floating around my room to use as "props" of sorts, but for once it's actually clean, so the guitar was just convenient.

The photo is basically a long exposure shot taken from the floor, with a little bit of light painting on the guitar and amp. I did originally try to use a flash to light them up, but it was too hard to get the white balance right and to focus the light.

If I was doing it again, I'd probably move the guitar out from the wall a bit, and use a weaker torch. At the moment, I think the light on the floor is a little lost, but that could be just me. I guess I could crop, but I think that would take something away from it...

In other unrelated news, and for those who love new gadget toys, I have finally bought myself a NAS! I now have 1TB of network storage for time machine backups and streaming media to my TV, including photos.

Enjoy!

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Light Painting - Guitar (Week Three)

So, in the last minute rush to do this weeks post, I was stuck shooting late at night with nothing but an energy saver bedroom light and a flashgun. While this worked, it really was rather boring, until I decided to have a shot at light painting.

So, what is light painting? Basically, you set the camera for a long exposure, the you take a torch and point it at what you want lit up. Sure, there may be a few complexities in there, but that is basically how it works - torch, camera, dark room. Very easy, and a lot of fun!

This was both easier than I thought, and harder than I thought at the same time. How can this be possible, you ask? Quite simply, it was easier than I thought for the lit up areas to show on the photo, yet harder to target the light than I thought. Having said that, the torch I was using had a rather large spread of light. This problem may have been solved using either a small Maglight or LED light, but I didn't have those handy...

So, how did I go? In short, it came out rather well. I probably would have preferred the guitar to be the other way round in hindsight, so that the model name wasn't upside down. And maybe work from a different angle so that there isn't as much shadow behind the control knobs.

Oh, and probably should have made an effort at some point to dust the thing, but that's just a side note that's not just photography related.

Anyway, feel free to either to be as critical or complimentary as you like. Just try to keep it clean!

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Training Exercise (Week Two)

So, I've managed to make it to week two without failing to post something on time! Huzzah!

This week I decided to do something I haven't done before... play with toy soldiers and an RC Helicopter in the name of photography!

It was during the stupidly hot last weekend that I decided to give it a go. Usually I just take photos of what's already set up and ready to go (ie landscape), but I wanted to try something with a little more creative control. To be honest, it was a little harder then I thought, especially getting the depth of field and lighting right. I did think about setting up a lightbox, but didn't have the materials on hand at the time. It was also surprisingly difficult to get the little soldiers in the right places to get the best effect.

So, this is what came out. I'm reasonably happy with it, but something about it is a little... plain? I don't know, maybe I should have tried a different angle or something. I did pull of the effect I was after, though, which I'm quite pleased with. Due to lighting constraints I had to get the propellers moving so they didn't cast a shadow on the cardboard. I also got to play around with my relatively new flash gun (Canon 580ExII), which was quite fun! Oh, and I guess the attack chopper and toy solders were fun too :p

I think the cropping is a little too tight, but couldn't be helped as I didn't want a shot of my bedroom (didn't have enough cardboard). Although, I did learn a bit about bouncing the flash off the roof, which will be hugely helpful in the future.

If you want to see more of my photos, I've started adding more of them to flickr and redbubble. Links are at the top of the page, in the red banner.

Thanks.

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Introduction (Week One)

So, as seems to be common at this time of year, I have made a number of new year resolutions. Usually I believe this to be lame and underwhelming, but there have been a few that I have seen floating around these interwebz of ours that I think warrants consideration. While there is the less exciting "start exercising" stuff in there (which I've failed at already after one week), one of the better ideas/resolutions is a 2010 365 project.

Basically the idea is to set yourself the challenge of taking a photo every single day of the year, along the lines of a theme/topic/person/etc. The reason is to challenge yourself and to grow in both photographic ability, and to obtain new experiences that otherwise would not have been experienced.

As a relatively new (amateur) photographer myself, this seemed like a pretty awesome idea. So, as only I could, I decided that I would take the easy route and to take one photo a week, with whatever topic I feel like doing at the time. And attempt to blog something about it at the same time. Weekly. I know what y'all thinking, this may not last long. But I figure I've got nothing to loose, right?

So, kicking things of is the one below. I'm already cheating because it was taken a day or two before new years, but I love it so much I just had to post it. While I was on holiday with friends down near Sorrento, Victoria I went for an early morning walk. Except for an unusually high number of flies buzzing around, and the creepy old guy on the beach wearing nothing but budgie smugglers (I guess it could have been worse?), the place was deserted. It was the ideal time to reflect on the year that was, and what going to happen in the next.

This path lead all the way down to the beach front. Considering the low light conditions, and the use of the very slow kit lens on the DSLR, this shot came out almost exactly as I wanted it to.

I'll probably post these with a week's delay to allow processing time, so I'll probably try to upload something around the same time every week. If you have any questions, just post a comment.

Also, I know the watermark is awful. I'm in the process of trying to find a good one...

EDIT: Watermark has been improved a bit...

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