Posts

Posted on

Week 3 | Triptych

Week3

Had a few ideas for this one (ironically, three) but this is the best I feel. I love street photography (though have never been happy with much of my own) and really enjoyed the Triptychs of Strangers series by Adde Adesokan so here is my homage to the style (head, body and feet shot to take three personality-matching body shots and make them one). Initially I was looking for the guy who’s been busking with bagpipes around Sydney CBD for the last few weeks, I thought the effort in the face would make a great portrait (plus I could tell him where to stick the bagpipes afterwards as there catawailing pierces even our office on the 26th floor) but alas he was nowhere to be found, that’s where I came across Joe Moore busking on Pitt Street outside Westfield and thought it’d make a great composition, especially with his feet tapping away.

Shot using aperture priority:
Nikon D5100
55mm-300mm DX Telephoto @ 300mm
ISO100
f/5.6
SS 1/160 – Head
SS 1/60 – Body
SS 1/100 – Feet

PP includes colour and exposure correction in Photoshop (lots of shadow recovery to get facial detail) along with cropping in for effect.

Week 3 - Idea 2

 

This was the second idea, I really liked the idea, moreso than the one I went with, but that’s mostly because I didn’t realise it very well in the three pictures.

When I was wandering around looking for the bagpiper I saw these two homeless guys sat by the Westfield David Jones, one with a sign and the other sprawled out in what looked like a pool of his own urine (thankfully, didn’t get that in shot). I then took a wider shot of David Jones and the Westfield Tower above, I had the idea of the towering elite looking over the oppressed below as some sort of allegory running through my head but once I pieced together the shots it just wasn’t springing out at me.

Admittedly I rushed the pictures as I was on my lunch break and had already wasted half of it cramming down two whoppers (gotta love “two’s-days”) and looking for an errant Scotsman. Maybe with some better composition this might’ve worked – I may scout for some better locations tomorrow (and bring a packed lunch to save time!).

Similar settings to the above for these, aperture priority so the shutter speed will be adjusted slightly for each.

Link to the original Facebook thread here.

[edit]

I found the bagpipier! I also think it’s highly unfair he gets earplugs and the rest of us don’t….

Week 3 - Idea 3

Posted on

January Bonus Challenge | Macro

Jan

Hmm, each month there’s a bonus challenge, the submission with the most likes gets to be the Facebook forum banner for the next month, I voted against the idea as I felt competition may bring out the nasty side in people – now, do I feel a little bit of a hypocrite saying I wasn’t interested in competition but still taking part in the monthly challenge? Yes, a bit, though Macro is something I wanted to “have a go” at and I was interested in the monthly challenges before that! (my excuses sticking with ’em :p )
I’ve actually got some magnification filters on order from Amazon but not sure if they’ll make it from the US to Aus in time so tried my hand at reverse free-lensing. Benny was kind enough to step in and model for me as it’s about three am and everyone else is asleep, I also figured such a precarious set-up didn’t lend itself to nature photography, especially the wee critters staying still long enough as I got so close to them!

Nikon D5100
35mm Prime Lens
ISO100
f/1.8 (manually held open all the way)
SS 1/80 sec

I lit him with my ring flash set-up off camera as a permanent light so I could get the depth of field right, it’s very small, only enough to cover his left eye and not even reach all the way to the right – which is incredible when you contemplate how large a Lego head is!

So this was fun, looking forward to doing it more ‘properly’ when my filters get here and I can shoot something a little more interesting! #Spaceship

Jan Behind the scenesSo set-up on the kitchen counter with Benny and the ring flash, plus me balancing the prime lens the wrong road around single-handedly whilst holding the aperture switch open with my index finger.


I found the camera would only shoot in manual mode as it wasn’t getting the aperture information through, both Shutter priority and Aperture priority refused to fire (I guess the latter being fairly obvious why)

Link to the original Facebook thread here.

[edit]

Actually, it’s just occurred to me I never thought about the focusing ring whilst doing all this, it will’ve been in the position I last shot in, not sure if I’d’ve got a greater depth of field if it’d been focused all out/all in – maybe something to play around with later.

Posted on

Week 2 | Sparkle/Shine

Week2

Darling Harbour Christmas tree – it Sparkles whilst its reflection Shines 😉

Nikon D5100
55mm-300mm DX Telephoto @ 180mm
ISO100
f/20
SS 30 sec

The tree loses a little detail due to the scintillation from across the bay (you could see the live view ‘wobble’ through the haze) but I think the reflection more than makes up for it, I love how the trees bracket it too.

I’ve been aiming to keep the photoshopping to a minimum for this but had to flip it so the 2015 was showing the right way around (also took the liberty to straighten it a little too as the tripod’s only so good at holding in place).

Similar to last weeks challenge I used Helicon Remote on the tablet to help focus with a large live view (manually setting the focus was a case of slight touches either direction to get it just right) and then fire the shutter without introducing any wobble to the camera (though I could have used a corded/wireless remote I guess).

Another handy feature is the bracketing macro it has, I set up a bunch of instructions 30 secs / 100 and then adjusted the aperture down a step for about fifteen pictures until I found the best f stop for the early evening light.

Week 2 - Behind The Scenes

To give a sense of scale, here’s a set-up picture of the cam on the ‘pod, live view streamed to the pad and the tree somewhere over there in the distance!

Link to the original Facebook thread here.

Posted on

Week 1 | Self Portrait

Week1

I get that this is a great way to introduce everyone to the photography challenge, it still doesn’t mean I’m happy this side of the camera! 😉

Nikon D5100
35mm DX Prime Lens
ISO100
f/1.8
SS 1/4000
DoF ~ 4.5cm

Given this is supposed to be a challenge each week to improve yourself (so the only one you’re cheating using an old pic or straight off your phone is yourself) I wanted to get the most out of it and tried to get the best image I could without any photoshopping (apart from raw conversion and resize for the internet).

With that in mind I Googled the infamous “Golden Hour” I’ve heard much about, found myself a location nearby where I’d be in direct sunlight and sat looking like the ultimate narcissist snapping away at myself with my camera being remotely activated from an app on my tablet giving me a live view to check focus.

Was fun, made me think about the challenge with the light (had maybe ten minutes before it dipped behind some housing and was gone), looking forward to next week! (where hopefully I’ll be on the right side of the camera :p )

Week 1 - Behind The Scenes

This is a bit of a ‘behind the scenes’ on how the photo was taken, I was using my tablet along with Helicon Remote control software, this is a handy little app that allows you to have a large ‘live view’ on the pads screen and zoom in to set the focus just right along with some other fancy features (it’s  bracketing system is brilliant).

Link to the original Facebook thread here.

Posted on

EB Games Expo | Sydney | 2014

Not as much fun as last year, think we’ve been spoiled by the Oz Comic-Con – though it could be just the odd half day split aswell, last year was a whole day format and having two half days seemed a little odd – definitely affected the atmosphere which just didn’t have the same fun vibe as the year before!
[flickr_set id=”72157648341441796″]

Posted on

Oz Comic Con | Sydney | 2014

What fun we’ve had, the amount of people who turned up in cosplay was as astonishing as much as the quality of a lot of the outfits, there weren’t many who didn’t look like they’d made some serious effort.
Met some really nice, kind people over the weekend too; so many who were more than happy enough to acquiesce to what must’ve been number five hundred of “can I take your photograph pwease”..

And I got to be about ten feet away from William Shatner as he told tails of his life and tried to impart the wisdom he’s accumulated over the years. “You’re all going to die; soon”….

Day two saw a great panel with two stars from Stargate SG-1 hilariously invaded by Slenderman who chased Christopher Judge around the auditorium! Corin Nemec played it cool though and tried to bring things back together.

Mark Sheppard’s panel was brilliant too, guy’s hilariously quick witted and had great fun berating the crowd in a very convivial way.

All in a top weekend, can’t wait for the next (hopefully with more than a weeks forewarning so we can get in on the dressing up!).

[flickr_set id=”72157647259949890”]

Posted on

EB Games Expo | Sydney | 2013

EB Expo with Greg & LOTS of cosplayers…I think I might have actually played a game too! Had lots of fun at this, my first real convention (the Eurogamer one I went to back in Leeds doesn’t count, as it was nothing like this, no where near as much fun)!
[flickr_set id=”72157646825974827″]

Posted on

Esper Scout, One Man Glass Factory & Narcs at the Packhorse

My last gig before emigrating and it went with a bang, One Man Glass Factory were awesome (even if they didn’t last all that long) and Esper Scout were as brilliant as always – grabbed a few video’s this time around, even if shooting from the far end of the Packhorse with my telephoto was getting to be the standard way of capturing these gigs!

[flickr_set id=”72157672897725484″]

 

Posted on

Azika & No Second Chances at The Golden Lion

Difficult gig to shoot due to all the red (‘togs out there will know the difficult of red light in low light conditions) but some of these came out rather well, good fun shooting my friends Azika at my old local!

[flickr_set id=”72157632999668812″]