10/11/2009

Well I still have to process images from Saturday and Sunday night. No image last night or tonight as I have not been able to focus on taking any images. Also not focusing on completing the assessment tasks fro my uni course, simply not focusing on what is important right now. Will try to regain focus by the end of the week.
Anyway, a couple more images from Ripponlea until I can get myself organised.

6/11/2009

24/365 Well no image taken tonight so I have used an image from my trip to Brighton Baths last night and processed using Nik Effex Silver to transform to B&W then applied a film effect to heighten the contrast. Lazy I know, but this image really caught my eye while I was wandering around and this is the look I had in mind when I took the image.

Now I need to get to work on deciding on my image for tomorrow :)

5/11/2009

23/365 I met up with a group of friends from 5 minute photographer web site at the Brighton Baths tonight. This image was entirely accidental in nature and resulted from my going to take a photograph of the lights on the pier and moving the camera downwards during the resulting long exposure. I really like the effect and I guess some striking images are the result of pure serendipity. The only post processing on this image was to crop to a panorama format and to put the border on. I look forward to other "mistakes" in the future.

3/11?2009

21/365 Today I went to visit Ripponlea ( http://www.ripponleaestate.com.au/ )which is a beautiful old stately home built by Australia's first minister for defense, Sir Frederick Sargood and later left to the people of Victoria by Mrs Louisa Jones who was the last private owner of the property and who fought hard to maintain the grounds when the ABC sought a compulsory acquisition order for part of the grounds. The grounds are a delight to wander and I spent around 4 hours doing so. This image was taken with my cannon G9 set to macro and held under the flower (which faced downwards). It took several attempts to get the framing the way I wanted it but I ma very pleased with the delicate and slightly soft image that has resulted. The only PP is s light crop and levels adjustment.

I also purchased a Ripplea bear to serve as a victim for some off camera work until such time as I can recruit other vicitms.

2/11/2009

20/365 Tonight, after looking out the kitchen window I decided to try some macro images, unfortunately hubby has my battered Tamron 90mm macro with him in Mildura. SO resorted to my Canon G9 which doesn't do a bad job. Not convinced that this isn't a little too dark, will have another look in a couple of days to see how I feel about the toining beofre I decide.

1/11/2009

19/365

I recently watched video presented by Gavin Hoey on photographing smoke ( http://gavtrain.blogspot.com/2009/07/smoke-photography-made-simple-week-62.html) so tonight I set up with some sandlewood incense against my black velvet background. Focusing on the smoke was not an easy process, however I found that by focusing on a solid column of smoke and waiting for that column to split led to much more reliable focus.

31/10/2009

18/365
Tonight Nick was over for dinner, so I decided I would photograph him using some off camera lighting. Well he was none too co-operative, so I dug out one of Brit's toys yet again. Set the toy train on a black velvet background with one flash high on the right hand side set to 1/2 power. Second flash set low on the left of the camera set to very low output. Image then taken into photoshop with a contrast adjustment and NIK effex silver to convert to black and white with a sepia toning. The more I follow this project the more I realise that I am really drawn to B&W images.

Nick has promised that he will allow me to photograph him next Sunday when I go down to Geelong to photograph the horses he works with, so will make the most of the opportunity then.

30/10/2009 17/365

No image tonight as I decided to devote some time to creating a blog to document my progress in this project. My aim with this is to allow a little more descriptive commentary each day along with the images I choose to upload. I also want to reflect on what has led me to work on the image of choice, videos watched, books read, images sighted or discussions with people that have triggered an idea for an image.

29/10/2009 16/365

Well today there was no difficulty of inspiration. A former co-worker called by with her delightful five month old and together made a perfect subject for my image. Image processed to black and white and then taken into Nik colour efex and a glamour glow applied turning up the glow warmth slider till I got this coloring.

28/10/2009 15/365

Someone commented to me today that I need to be making my 365 pics more arty, so here goes. Off camera flash set at 1/32 with forks on a black velvet background.

27/10/2009 14/365

No image again tonight

26/10/2009 13/365

13/365 Hubby wanted a new 28 - 300 lens to replace his old and somewhat battered Tamron 28 - 300. Looking at the prices we decided to go with the much cheaper sigma version. This is my first pic with it.

25/10/2009 12/365

well tonight I tired some off camera flash with the capable assistance of Brit as my VALS. She then insisted on being able to take a pic of the chicken so I have set up a "pics by Brit" for her images.

24/10/2009 11/365

Today saw me photographing Brit playing T-Ball.

23/10/2009 10/365

Tonight, Brit snuggled on her 'greenbag' with DS and doona so I couldn't resist taking an image. Used pentax AF-549 in wireless mode held to the left of Brit. Image processed in NIK colour efex.

22/10/2009 9/365

No image today, simply no energy or inspiration to be found.

21/10/2009 8/365

Today's image was taken by my four year old grand daughter, Brit and then post processed by me. A little cropping and then taken into Nik colour effex and a soft focus effect applied.

20/10/2009 7/365

Tonight we met up with a group of photographers with a pretty young model and some off camera flash. This was taken with one flash behind Caroline with a red filter as well as a flash to the front. Image then converted to black and white in CS4 and then Nik colour effex, clasic filter effect.

19/10/2009 6/365

Today saw me out with my dandelion heads again. These will be gone at the weekend when hubby mows the jungle that is our backyard. I used an off camera flash nestled in the weeds of the garden to provide light from under the dandelion head.

18/10/2009 5/365

I headed off to Mordialloc Beach tonight with the view to photographing these pylons. Image was processed to B&W in NIK silver efex to produce a grainy look, then a blue filter applied.

17/10/2009 4/365

Today I chose to have a play with off camera flash. Pentax AF-540 flash triggered with Pentax wireless system. Flash on manual at 1/16 although I think it could possibly have gone a little lower strength.

16/10/2009 3/365

The kids were playing with this USB static globe which gave me the idea that it may come up well in an image. Processed the RAW image in ACR and changed the WB to Tungsten, then adjusted hue and saturation followed by curves adjustment to intensify the magenta and blue.

15/10/2009 2/365

Not the most inspired image. I was heading for the State Rose Garden when the light started to change, so headed for a favourite part of the Werribee River only to find that the nanny state has kicked in and fenced the cliffs off on the premise that they are unstable. Not being dressed suitably for climbing fences I had to settle for the vantage points available. This image almost straight out of camera with a little cropping.

14/10/2009 1/365

14/10/2009
Dandelion head over sharpened and then converted to B&W with Nik Sliver using pinhole preset and contrast further boosted.