Thursday 17 December 2015

I love my Panasonic FZ200 - it is easy to use, it has f/2.8 available throughout the zoom range, and many other reasons.  It is also the first camera I have had that I ventured outside "everything auto".   But I found I was looking for a longer zoom; this one is 24x, which has been great for me as a beginner.   But when I started looking for more zoom, and found the extension zoom for the FZ200 was going to cost nearly as much as a new camera with a 60x zoom, I did my research and decided to get the Nikon Coolpix 610.  Only had it a few days but I'm finding it just as easy to use; there are diffferences of course - each has their own pluses and minuses, like anything in life - but the 60x zoom is giving me what I wanted, the fine detail on feathers on those too-far-away birds.
Crested pigeon - look at the colours, and then see how the texture of the feathers shows up too.

from a distance - look at the feather edges

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Experimenting with the white balance

Recently I was in the Mortlock Building on North Terrace, looking at the wonderful old books.  I took the same photo twice - once with the white balance on auto:
Mortlock Building, auto white balance
and then with the white balance changed to Daylight:
Mortlock Building, Daylight white balance
The auto white balance made it look quite cold with a blueish cast, whereas the Daylight setting made it look warm and inviting, which is how it always seems to me.  I don't know which one is strictly accurate, but I like the warm Daylight one to express its genuine feeling for me.

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Kakadu wildlife

Yellow River, Kakadu.  Though the left of the photo came out a bit fuzzy - possibly from another tourist - I like this photo because the Jabiru is eyeing the Saltwater Crocodile, who is eyeing the Jabiru.  It is like an action photo waiting to happen - and crocs often do take the wading birds.  The reflection is rather nice too, showing the movement in the water.  It follows the rule of thirds, though I don't always look for that.

These beautiful Plumed Whistling Ducks are just part of a large congregation of them along the river bank of the Yellow River in Kakadu.  I liked that there were three in this small group - an odd number - with a partial nod to the rule of thirds again.  Taking shots from the brilliant sunshine out on the water into the shade of the trees meant I lost some of the detail of the feathers but the experience of being there was wonderful.
Both of these photos were captures taken from video from my Panasonic FZ200.  Overall I was able to take some great photos and videos in Kakadu.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Shadows

Recently I entered Photomania 2, which is displayed at the Port Adelaide Civic Centre as part of the SALA.  My favourite photo that I took for this is a shadow of a mail box on the pavement, which looks like a witches head.

Sunday 19 July 2015

Rubbish in a new light

Out walking, on a block cleared for building, there was some dumped rubbish.  One item was a crushed wing mirror from a car.  The sun was reflecting off it, so I switched my camera to macro auto focus setting (1 area) and set it down next to the pieces.  Aperture Priority f/2.8, 100 ISO, white balance on daylight, and I had this interesting shot that looks like a blue glass mountain.

Thursday 16 July 2015

Port Adelaide

Several weeks ago I took a workshop by David Baker at Port Adelaide, to extend my photography skills, reinvigorate my photo practice and stimulate my style.  David Baker is an excellent tutor for all these things and after some time discussing technical aspects and approaches to camera work we took a group walk around the Port, discussing subjects that presented themselves.  After a lovely lunch at a pub we went off on our own to shoot what appealed to us individually, reassembling to discuss our results the next day.  One of the things I found intriguing was the sheer amount of rope used in the boats along the wharf – the volume, different types, the strength it must take to haul on that thick rope in cold wet conditions, and the textures of the rope itself.

Sunday 24 May 2015

Photo Editing

I am continuing to learn how to edit my photos with Picasa.  I am amazed at how much I can do with this free download.  The new version is here.  Today I learnt about watermarks and then looked at some more of the Tuning features.  One feature is using Fill Light.  This is used where the background e.g. the sky is bright, making the subject, in this case a koala, too much like a silhouette.  I know that if he had been closer, a flash would have lit him up, but looking at the photo retrospectively I decided to try the Fill Light - you can see how well it worked, bringing out colour in the tree and texture in the koala's fur.  Quite possibly I could have played with it for longer to get it better but was pleased with this.

The original photo

Cropped and Fill Light in Picasa


Saturday 23 May 2015

Multiple Exposures

One of the things I am looking at now is photo editing.  I don't have Photoshop or a similar program, just the free downloads of Irfanview and Picasa.  With these two programs, I have discovered how to work on multiple exposures.  First of all I tried to get complicated, putting four photos into this one of Rundle Mall.
Rundle Mall, with the bronze pig, the fountain, tree and the "Malls Balls", all layered together.  A bit too much.



So then I simplified for this, showing my cat overlaying the marine aquarium - just 2 photos.








Sunday 17 May 2015

More at the Port

The City of Adelaide has been brought back here by a dedicated group.  I haven't had time to go on the tour yet.  When I was reviewing these photos on my computer, I realised that a shot of this window opening, had something on it.  When I enlarged it, I found the plastic covering had reflected a house right across the bitumised area in front of the ship.  Because of the distortion in the plastic, the reflection is also distorted and looks like something from a Grimms Fairy Tale.

Look at the reflection in the plastic covering the window opening - you can see a house some distance away.

Photography at the Port

Recently I did a photography workshop at Port Adelaide, which gave fresh life to my photo shooting.  One of the sights that interested me most was all the rope - along the wharf where the City of Adelaide was moored, plus the working boats - they represent hard work, and strength.
So many different ropes, all with their own reason for being

I tried a black and white image here

Texture in the ropes