Thunderstruck!

Jumped off the bus after work and turned around to a spectacular lightning show. I ran to the house to get my gear and exposed a few frames, managing to get this shot.

Quick and Dirty Floriade 2008

Had a quick lunch in Canberra last week with the Gorgeous (it was part of a trip, I'm not that rich as to be able to "nip" down from Brisbane just for a feed). She packed a delicious picnic and took me to Floriade from the airport. Canberra can be lovely, let's hope it doesn't get too miserable in Winter... though there is always snow to look forward to.





And the prettiest flower of them all.. (Geez I make myself nauseous sometimes)

Brisbane Eye(sore)

(Boring)

Well everyone else has done it and many better, but I thought I'd flex those photography neurons after a long couple of weeks at the grindstone.



(Better)





Ah well...

Studio course

Briefly, went and did a studio course with some of the boys from OCAU, got to use studio strobes and work with a model. Amongst the banter we actually got some photos in.

Note to self: need to find a new repetoire of compositions, we've done the one eye thing to death.





We also had to practice on each other so here's a sample of "The boys..." I think these were all our "Money" faces.




I'm a freek! (courtesy of Munkiboy)

Storms under the moon

Just quickly, since I should actually be working (on ANZAC Weekend Saturday no less! Damn this Ph.D!)



The storm was brewing over the bay and I initially thought it was a flickering street light till I opened the frosted window. It was a hard long exposure because of the moon being in the frame as well (not to mention the sporadic nature of lightning at the best of times). This is the best framing out of 12 exposures... sigh... getting rusty with lack of camera use.

note to self: If PPing on a laptop screen, make sure it's colour cal'ed to the brightest backlight setting and not lower so that you have maximum contrast, oops!

Adelaide Photo Night - Randoms

"No time for love Dr. Jones!", I've got a Ph.D fish to fry so posts will be sporadic for the next few months arriving in spurts.



FLARE?! and Northern Lights - State Library



Dang Frinks was right about the polariser!

Improptu Portaits: Leney W

I'm finding out how hard it is to conjure a good portrait out of thin air. All the Umbrella Girls (in no way affiliated with Umbrella Girls USA, though I think my girls are just as pretty) were preplanned with much thought going into what I wanted to try/reproduce. However, with just my small collection of lenses and a single flash, I had to please Leney W's Ma since she had gone to a great deal of trouble to thaw me out a tasty lamington and find some cocalish ambrosia.



Continuing from lessons learned from Umbrella Claire, the hotel room windows yielded some high key stuff, though no umbrella to help the front lighting, just my tupperware. Tried the whole "close-your-eyes-then-open-them-when-I-tell-you" glarey sun trick, but I've obviously got to work on my timing or Leney's got to start reading my mind. That's okay I like the squint, I think it's more natural.



Thanks to Ben J for showing me some of the more picturesque places in Victor the last time so I got a good location, though it was hard light.



Thanks to Leney for horsing (can you tell I'm a missin' Claire) around for the photos and I hope ya Ma likes them!

Umbrella Claire

So after a long hiatus, many broken promises and much gnashing of teeth from Claire (when I had absconded so many times) I got around to some portraits of Claire - the last of the Umbrella (ella ella) girls.

All shot in the comfortable confines of AGHQ with no dramatic (read cheating) sunrises or sunsets to help lighting. I tried for high key stuff with just a white sheet, the flashes and brolly. Firstly with some girl next door type o'photos.



Had a crack at some alternative settings but ended back at the white sheet, B&W again was not my forte, so post processed with sepia to make things a little more interesting. I like the way B&W can smooth skin but it's hard to add depth to an image.







When I called for props, Kat kat turned up a GH III axe and this is what Claire came up with... :-P



Thanks to Kat and Claire for their creative input in PP and lighting, helped with the learning on what other people see in a photo.