National War Memorial - what not to do

Had a chance to go to the War Memorial on a sunny day (a change from the last 3 weeks in Canberra). Took this photo which was a learning/remembering exercise in what not to do.

1) Don't photomograph at midday - why do you forget these things?
2) Don't hesitate when photomographing unless it contravenes 3).
3) Don't photomograph people if you don't feel you should - especially children, as you will contravene 2) whilst trying to decide if you should/shouldn't have them in focus.
4) Don't photomograph from your boring eyelevel of 5'10", it's only really interesting for the wee people

So conceptually 5/10 for me, but perhaps a 3/10 for resulting excution.

Foriade 2009

Clearing a back log of photos, here are some from the nice days at Floriade 2009... should have gone in with a specific photo in mind rather than "I'd like some floral stuff for the walls"

Umbrella Jo - a new recruit.

It feels like I've been doing wedding photos forever, so I needed a quick assignment to keep me thinking creatively. Inspiration came from this, though it was very clear very quickly that I needed a big ass shade to diffuse the light as they have.

I got a moment with Umbrella Jo to try a bit of outdoor portraiture. I think I need to switch to shoot-thru brollies as I'm losing way too many light stops using bounce flash. Plus I think I need a bigger brollie to spread out the light and be able to get it further from the subject without it acting like a point light source. Also a reflector/shade wouldn't go astray in the midday conditions as was when we shot. In post, I opted for as different as possible rather than theme. I've been feeling and as Jo so rightly pointed out, I've been using post as a crutch for bad photography, so I'm on a mission to tighten my shot discipline.

I can see a limitation of the 80-200mm f2.8. At longer focal lengths and f-stops below 3.5, it's soft soft soft. But between 80-160mm at f3.5+ you could cut glass. Not too shabby for 20 year old tech.

A postscript to this entry is 3 days later Jo broke her nose at a game of full contact netball. In a conversation soon after the incident, she said what I was thinking "Thank god we got those photos before I broke my doze". Hey she said it! I was just thinking it!

One for the ladies... Poppies

Taking a break from wedding photo PP, thought I'd crack one out. Two flashes, one main, direct on the top flower with a tight beam focus on the SB900 and another secondary gridded snoot behind left of the two lower yellow flowers. Exposure care of Nikon CLS iTTL, 0.0 FEV on main and -0.3 FEV on secondary. would like a 3rd flash (maybe a ring) on front with -3.0 FEV for some slight fill, but didn't want to use onboard camera flash as working distance was too close and lens would cast a shadow.

FYI: 90mm macro, stop f32, note diffraction softening in exchange for DOF, brought back in post with sharpening to a limited degree. Black point raised to make sure background was black black and to add to contrast.

Claire and Richard - Shine Dome - ANU

Practise Practise Practise - 20 minute multiple flash setup and tear down coz it was sooo bloody cold. Thanks to Claire and Richard for being so game... hope it doesn't wear the big man down such that he succumbs to Claire hooping cough!








Look how cold the poor chickins are when they weren't posing

Kelly and Greg

Oh the nerves... important events coming up and having to shoot! Thanks guys for letting me practise.

The Running Man

Some ancillary shenanigans from the Wedding that could make it to Facebook so had to be published here