I love when there is a weird light and this was one of the weirdest.
The 28-135mm lens took a dive a few months back, and every now and then it vignettes quite heavily. It actually helps in this photo. There was a very weird light tonight after I walked the dogs, so I went down to the boat ramp for a better look and a photo. 1 out of 25 turned out. 🙂
Inspired by Admiral (at OCAU) and Mole2k (at RSC), I have tried my best to put together a bit of a dSLR journey, as done my norbs.
I got my very 1st dSLR camera in November 2005. It was a pre-loved Canon 300D. Add to that a couple of kit lenses and I was away. The very 1st photo I took with this camera is below.
All photos can be viewed in a larger size by clicking on them.
Shot using the Macro mode on the 300D, I was happy that it was a clear photo. I spent a good couple of hours out in the backyard snapping shots of all manner of things. Not knowing a damned thing about aperture or exposure, it was all done, Im ashamed to say, in Auto mode. At this point, I didn’t even realise the exposure meter in the view finder was just that. Over the next few weeks, I dabbled with manual mode, only to take a hell of alot of over and under exposed photos. Hmm, this was starting to feel like I had made a bad choice. I knew bugger all about photography and it showed in my photos. I dont know how many times I went for a walk and took a stack of photos only to get home and find that most of them were rubbish. The read LCD screen on the 300D was showing them as being ok, but on the big screen, they were a mess. I had a lot to learn.
In December, Andree and I went away for christmas to her brothers place at Wagga Wagga and then to Albury and Culburrra Beach. Lots and lots of portraits, nothing too flash, but I got a few pleasing photos and people liked what they saw. Whilst in Albury, we went out on Andree’s brothers speed boat for some wake boarding. Here is a challenge. Set the 300D to Tv (time priority) and away we went.
Seymour cuts a swathe.
And getting some air.
Wow, hey, look out, Im a sports photographer. Obviously, they aren’t all that good, but they were a damned side better than I expected. I was still struggling with the whole photography thing. I had read about exposure, aperture and shutter speed, but it hadn’t really sunk in. By the time the trip was over, I had a load of photos, but nothing that I really couldn’t have done with the old IXUS point and shoot.
Late in January, we went down to my mums place in Culburra Beach. I was a bit nervous about using my dSLR on the beach. Sand and salt water aren’t to kind to cameras apparently. Again, lots of experimenting, and again, lots of dud photos. But I did jag this one.
My foot.
It is still one of the most popular of my 1400 odd photos on Flickr. Nice and sharp and the colours aren’t to bad either. February and March were lean months, the photography bug really hadn’t bitten at this stage and I was fighting a bit of a nasty settlement case in court.
April, and the Royal Easter Show rolls around. Well, this has to be a good opportunity for a budding photographer. My girlfriend was overseas and I had heaps of time, so off I went. Movement, colour and lights. Wow! Snap, snap ……….snap. I had learned a little bit more by this stage, so I could almost figure out how to minimize depth of field.
Well I thought I had.
As you can see, I hadn’t quite got the affect I wanted. That lovely blurry look as the clowns moved further away from the lense. What the hell I was I doing wrong. All would be revealed a few weeks later. I did manage another photo that was, and still is one of my faves.
This pup looked up just as I had finished focussing.
The next real photo opportunity I got was at Mount panorama, Bathurst. The Bathurst Festival of Speed was on. A couple of hours drive out west to see a stack of cars zinging around Bathurst. As it turned out, it was a crap day. Hardly any racing on and lots of waiting. Again, alot of photos taken and quite a few keepers.
The Torana goes over the mountain.
It was here that I realised there is a whole lot more to motorsport photography than just pointing and clicking the button. Panning became something I wanted to be better at. The changing light made things difficult, and it was after the day at Bathurst that I decided that I have to learn more about photography if I wanted to take a good photo.
May came and it really was the month the penny dropped. It was prompted by 2 things in particular. The 1st one was when I finally got my head around how aperture affected depth of field. I can even remember the moment it happened.
Ahaaaaa……
I remember taking this photo and thinking.. “if this doesn’t work, I’ll give it away”. When I looked into the LCD after the shot I felt a rush. It had worked. So now, I realised what happened when I used a large aperture. And because of the bizzare way we talk about aperture, I had been messing it up every time. Small f stop, large aperture, small depth of field was how I remembered it from then on.
The second thing that happened was a meet up with 3 guys from the OCAU photography forums. All three had alot more experience than I did, so it was terrific for me to go out with them and learn a few things. Admiral, or Kris Dick to use his real name was more than generous with his time and patience. Amongst a few fantastic tips, he demystified the whole apeture mystery by saying something like, “Apeture just means hole!” It was like someone had turned a light on in my brain. Sure, it sounds simple, and I must sound like a tool for letting something so simple befuddle me, but I can’t explain the differance it made to my confidence.
Just one shot from that night.
June saw me out and about, taking photos of everything and anything. It was the 1st time I had tried anything approaching arty type shots. Im not a huge fan of the pretentious photo’s that you see hanging in gallerys around the place. But I thought I may as well try and see how it works.
Not exactly stunning, but it was high art for this little black duck.
The photography bug had bitten. And how. I was starting to understand alot more about it, purely by doing it over and over. But it did get me out there, and even, up early in the morning.
Sunrise, the 1st of many.
July was a big month. Thanks to the conclusion of a long running property settlement, I splurged and bought myself some new kit.
mmmmmm, good!
Yep, a brand new Canon 30D. Wow, what a differance. It felt solid. Its was heavy. It shot 5 frames per second. 8 megapixels. A groovy dial doodad on the back. It really was too good a piece of gear for this rank amatuer, but hey, you only get divorced once (I hope). With this baby in my grubby mitt, it was off on a roadtrip. Time to give this baby a work out. Canberra 1st stop.
An experiment with light painting.
The to Wagga Wagga, Wodonga, Castlemaine, Melbourne, Lakes Entrance, Eden, Naroooma and back home. What a blast. Plenty of early morning get ups and late nights. Lots of walking and talking to locals. I had a ball.
One of my faves from the trip.
August 2006 saw me out all over the place. Night time in the city. Down to the beach. Batemans Bay with work. All the time with the camera. It was beginning to be my main hobby. More and more, photos turned out the way I had hoped they would. I was actually getting the hang of it. I bought a macro lense and found out how much fun it is to photograph tiny things.
A little hoverfly.
September and back to Eastern Creek for some more car racing photos. This time I was alot more confident, and guess what? I stuffed most of the photos up. 🙂 I was trying to pan at 1/60th of a second. Nup, not good enough for that yet.
Cortina goodness.
Heaps of outings and lots more photos. Lots more learning as well. Photography is like getting older. The more you learn, the more you realise you dont know.
October was a busy month. 21 days I went out taking photos. Either after work, during work or weekends. Nights, early mornings and just arsing around at home. Again, another busy month of learning. It was the month I went to Lilyfield train yards and did some urban type shots. It was also the night I thought I was going to be killed by a train.
A long exposure.
November was a massive month. Sculptures by the sea was on along the coast. What a great opportunity for some photos. But the big one was my wedding and honeymoon. The wedding was a great day.
Bertie, Gerg and Macca try and calm my nerves.
The honeymoon in Vietnam was a photographers heaven. Click that link for more photos from Vietnam, but here is one of my faves.
See, I can pan.
After a month like that, and purchasing a house in December, it was time for a bit of a rest. Apart from the chrissy rush, not much was done in December.
January 2007 saw macros come back. Portraits and crash zooming. Lots of experimenting to be done and lots to learn.
Which brings us to February. Now. Present. No more rambling. I still have a long way to go, but judging by the reception this photo has got, I am getting better.
The Opera House.
Thanks for all those people I have hassled with stupid questions and have given their time to help me understand this terrific hobby that is photography.
I have never had a Flickr photo as popular as this. Over 500 views in 2 days and 30 odd faves.
It has had a bit of work in photoshop to try and clear up the mass of dust bunnies. Damn Eastern Creek is too dusty a place to be changing lenses.
There is a bit of a story to go with this photo.
The night before, Andree and I were sitting at the Can Cafe (70c 435ml bottles of beer) having a cool drink and a feed, when these 3 little kids came up and saw the camera. They asked me to take their photos. Fair enough. Click, click. 2 complete duds (it may have been the beer, but I am blaming the dark) As usual, they then put the grubby mitts out for some money. I gave them what was about the equivalent of AU$1. Well, they laughed and took off and we could still here them laughing a while later. I said to Andree, “I am going to give someone ten bucks, just to see the look on their faces”. Those who know me know, Im not usually the one to be splashing cash around, but hey, I wanted to see what happened, and they needed it more than me.
Next morning, I was up at 4am to go to the markets and see how the real people lived, with no tourists around. I headed off and had a ball.
I originally saw this old bloke walking across the bridge towards me when I was taking a shot of the bridge in the sunrise.
He then approached me and posed for a photo. Right, snapped a couple of quick shots and put the camera down. He nodded and walked off. I motioned for him to stop, then grabbed 100,000 Dong (very roughly, about 10 dollars) and put it in his hand as I shook it. He looked in his hand and his face lit up. He then grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off. I was trying to put my wallet away, secure the camera and not tread on the hordes of tiny Vietnamese minding their own business.
He dragged me through the markets and into an alleyway. There were about 6 old blokes playing Mahjong and eating breakfast. He spoke to jis friends and showed them the 100000 Dong. They all laughed and I thought it was going to cost me a fortune to get out of there. But no, they sat me down and all started chatting away and laughing and eating. They then handed me a plate of food (I still dont know what it was I ate, but it was very tasty) and some steaming tea and I ate breakfast with them. It was a highlight of the trip. They were all nattering away and I didnt have a clue what was being said, but they seemed happy enough and loved the fact that I ate with them. I was a bit apprehensive to begin with, but it was one of those rare occasions that only happen once in your life. And I am glad i met them all and had the experience.
So, to my unknown mate, thank you to you and all your friends. You made my day.
Footnote: I realise some people will frown on giving people money for a photo, but it created a fantastic opportunity and made me just as happy as them. So please, no more emails about how poor my morals are.
Yes, thats right, it is the under side of a flatbed train carriage. I have been driving past some railyards at Lilyfield in Sydney for years and years. When ever I drive past, I always have a quick look and think, “That would make some terrific photo opportunities in there”. So last night, I took a stoll through there.
I ended up wandering around for over 2 hours, trying to get good angles and exploring different areas. You can walk from Victoria Road at the Eastern end, all the way to Balmain Rd (about 1.6km), and maybe further. Access is very easy. But you do need some rather sturdy shoes. My feet were killing me by the time I got home.
At one point, I had just crawled underneath the carriage you see in the picture above, and was setting the tripod up. You have to realise, it is pretty cramped under there, and I am not a hobbit. I had a backpack on my back, camera on tripod and I was under a train carriage. I used the torch on my mobile phone to light the axle and wheels and did a longish exposure. I had just taken the photo, and was thinking about another from a slightly different angle, when the noise of carriages clunking and moving gave me a rather scary moment. I didn’t realise right away, but the line of carrigaes, next to where I was, had just been shunted by a loco further up the yard. I dived out, quickly reached around and grabbed the camera and tripod and then realised it wasn’t the train I was under. Oh boy, nothing like a bit of adrenalin coursing around your system to make you feel alive.
That little fright aside, I had a ball. It is pretty dark and have to say, I was a bit spooked a couple of times, but I hope the photos show it was a worthwhile trip.
More can be found on my Flickr site.
Ok, something that has been bothering me for a while now. Night time focussing. How the hell do people do it. I reckon 90% of my night time photos are all out of focus. Is there a secret to getting the focus pin sharp at night time?
BTW, this was one of the all too rare in focus night shots. (Yeah, yeah, there was plenty of light, but it was still dark 🙂 )
Well it isn’t often I get home and download my photos and see one that came out exactly how I had planned it. But today, I struck it.
Whilst wandering around the northen end of Pyrmont, I came across these weird, but terrific, sculptures. They are located in Pyrmont Point Park. You are probably wondering why I called them sculptures. Well, I am just going off a sign I saw that said “Don’t climb on sculptures”. They are actually moving structures that are powered by the waves/tide and wind. The black part you see holding the ladder is cantilevered off the wharf and has a large float at the other end. When the waves hit it, it move up and down. The ladders have 2 panels in them at the top. You can see them in the photo. The wind hits them and pushes them over. I would love to be there in a southerly buster with a huge sea.
I was pleased with this shot, as I took quiet a bit of time setting it up. I wanted to get exactly in the middle of the ladder. I wanted it to be in a position where it looked like you could climb into the clouds. And the thing that took the longest, was waiting for the clouds to give me a gradual light to dark look in the background. It took some time, but I reckon it was worth the wait.
Last night, I had to pick my girlfriend up from the airport, so I ventured out about 15 minutes early to see what I could find. As part of my “Learn a lense” trips, I only had the 70-200mm f4L lense with me. I have tried this a few times, forcing me to learn how best to use my gear.
So, there I am, driving around the back of the airport, when a find a terrific spot, near the control tower, where you can get reasonably close to the domestic planes taxiing out. Out of the car and try as I might, it was just too damned dark to get any good clear photos. It seems with shutter speeds longer than about 1/20th second, I just don’t have steady enough hands. Whilst I was there, a car with Protective Services stops, and I see him looking towards me. I was done, so I wandered over to see if I was being a naughty photographer. The bloke was great. He told me my car was bit bit close to an access lane and would I please move it. No problems, I am off any way.
I drive over to the domestic terminal and wait for my girlfriend. Hmm, she is taking a while. Might just jump out and grab a few snaps around the terminal. I noticed the luggage trolleys all lined up, so fired of a couple of shots of them, one whilst laying flat on the ground. Then I noticed the lights and the line on the road across from where I had stopped. Check for traffic, nothing. Wander across the road to get the shots. Just as I finished, I notice a woman with traffic control on her vest signalling me to get off the road. I crossed the road to tell her I was just getting aphoto and she launched into me. “You are not allowed to take photos!” “This is private property!” “Delete the photos!” “Why are you taking photos?” She had lost me at delete the photos, so I told her in a not so courteous manner to piss off. I then walked back to my car.
I was having a look at the photos when bugger me, not 2 mins later, 3 Protective services cars appear and approach me. It seems miss bossy boots has been on the blower. Luckily for me, the same guy that asked me to move my car was there and he handled the whole thing. Basically telling me that I should stay off the road, and in the current climate, wandering around late at night with a rather large camera and lense might not be the best hobby in the world. He took some details and gave me a few places that I could take photos in peace. Overall, a top bloke, just doing his job.
Now, the point of this rather long winded rambling is this. The real guys looking after security, that is, a branch of the federal police, were great to deal with. Why is it that a traffic control person and last weekend, some security monkeys are the ones with the attitudes? I say good on the Protective services fellows, they were professional and explained the situation. The other knuckle heads need to wake up and realise there are better ways to deal with situations than to heavy people.
Well, the last couple of days I have spent with my mate Macca, taking photos all around Sydney Harbour. I must say, it is so much more enjoyable taking photos with other people. You get to chat about setting up a shot, watch what they are doing and learn along the way. Its amazing seeing someone else frame a shot you completely missed or thought looked rubbish. Macca , like me is still learning about this dSLR malarky, but it was great fun chatting and bouncing ideas around. Check out some of his ripper photos here.
……. and digital art begin?
I ask this question mainly to start a bit of discussion. The picture to the right has had a fair bit of contrast enhancement done on it, but it is pretty true to the original as far as composition, colour and sharpness. But, I would say this may have over stepped that rather blurry line between what I consider a photograph, and what I consider digital art.
I have looked at many photos on Flickr, and 12 months ago I would have marvelled at how rich the colours were, or how amazingly sharp the image was. But now, I know better. Alot of ordinary photos, can be turned into extraordinary images by some digital shenanigans. Thus the (PSD) on some of my photos. That is a sign that I have given it a bit more than an Auto-Levels and Auto-Colours treatment.
I have heard the arguement regarding people not doing anything that you couldn’t have done in the photo lab, but really, how many of the people could have?
Now I know I am sounding like your typical luddite, but I do have some concerns about this, mainly because alot of people don’t know this is happening.
Is it right or wrong, I suggest most people don’t care, but it certainly matters to me. I don’t know where that blurry line is, but I would love to hear other peoples reactions.
norbs
© 2013-2024 Todd Norbury Photography All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright
