The Stuttering Trail

Posted on by

don't stare into the vortex
Damn I hate equipment malfunctions, well it was probably a operator error, however it does feell better to blame it on the equipment…on the topic on things that crap me off, writing a post on gplus and to only have it disappear by pressing the backspace button a few times or something, very irritating, you would think that google in therr wisdom (like in gmail or docs) would have an auto save function when writing a 21 billion word post, cause it gets a bit annoying having to rewrite it… 😉 oh also while I am at it, how about a input box that your can resize ? its like typing on your mobile phone when your actually in front of a bazillion inch screen lol.
rant end.

Star Trails are actually pretty easy to create, simply find a nice dark spot out on a moonless night and plonk ya camera down on a tripod. Point it somewhere in the vicinity of south and take a few shots every now and then, best to leave it and come back a few hours later, or better still come back the next and hope your camera is still there and some clown has not pinched it 😉

Adobe PS CC makes it pretty easy to create the image from the 14.5 billion images you took while the camera was sitting out waiting to be stolen, CC now has the Statistics function built in, simply load your images up in file>scripts>statistics and using the maximum option zap them together for some trail fun.
Alternatively just use the load files into stack option and zap(blend) them together using the lighten mode, don't forget to whack in your nice foreground shot.

The foregound shot can simply be a shot taken at dusk to get the scene nicely illuminated or you can get you torch out for some funky light painting. But, and a big but, if you do light paint (and this is very important and error that many make) be sure to do it off the camera position (at least a dozen steps away) and get low, this will help create texture in the scene (see here https://plus.google.com/100975265940134223422/posts/d5z6TCzuzRj) and give your scene depth.

techie stuff
D7000 coupled with a pre sand filled Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ 11mm- Aperture: f/2.8 and Shutter Speed: 40 seconds
ISO: 1250
out front – absolutely nothing buts lots of wind and plenty of sand.
to the left – white coloured LED torch.

Lovely jubbly and thanks for looking – I welcome any suggestions, comments and improvements to my photography, they are always warmly welcomed and always appreciate the time people take to have a look, plus and/or comment.

Natural Death

Posted on by

After looking at the remains of many of the trees in this part of the Stockton Dunes, it did dawn on me that there was at some time human intervention on alot of the trees, most trees had been sawn off – maybe that's why they banned camping on the dunes? people cutting down the nearest tree for some firewood 🙂

4 frame (non-bracketed) panorama 🙂
D7000 with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ 13mm- Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/1.5s
out front – absolutely nothing but fresh air

I welcome any suggestions, comments and improvements to my photography, they are always warmly welcomed and always appreciate the time people take to have a look, plus and/or comment.

Climate Change

Posted on by

view large in great parliament panoramic glory 😉
Ya'all will be relieved to know that I have completely sussed out why the Australian Government is winding back all the renewable targets and ensuring some form of climate change happens, in the form of global warming 🙂
You see Canberra, which is where the larger chunks of… our political members spend a large portion of time is..well, lets say it bluntly f@$#ing cold.. like ball hugging, white finger tear inducing cold, hence with a little extra global warming in a few years Canberra with be a relatively pleasant place to visit (well on a climate point of view anyway).

Anyway enough giggles, hopefully it will also give the AFP something better to do than follow around photographers at Parliament house, like shit man.. yeah I am gonna photograph the parliament with a tripod, DSLR and filters at dawn when there is absolutely no one else around for some suspicious reason 😉 damn, i mean google have already street viewed the shit out the place, I wonder if the AFP followed the google van around.? 🙂 anyway rantage over, it was fun having my chaperone there to keep me company 🙂

4 shot panorama view.
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 45mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 3 seconds
out front – LEE 0.6 Graduated Filter

I welcome any suggestions, comments and improvements to my photography, they are always warmly welcomed and always appreciate the time people take to have a look, plus and/or comment.

Cygnets

Posted on by

the ugly duckling

I dunno how many times I have read the childrens fable about the ugly duckling that was found by a regular duck mum and raised but finally found his way home, but I do know its a lovely story and hence I could pass up the opportunity for a few shots of these beautiful birds – and also 'cause chaos insisted on several images, most of which were taken by her 🙂

The lighted Gerry Tree

Posted on by

After the storm

I would never of guessed that less than a hour after this shot was taken https://plus.google.com/100975265940134223422/posts/iNhPV4DsepV
that sky could turn up another display of colour and twilight brilliance.

With alittle helping hand from an additional light source to give the some depth and light we have quite a nice scene

D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ 11mm- Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 165 seconds
out front – absolutely nothing but fresh air and plenty of sand.
to the left and subsequently the right right – white coloured LED torch.

Spiral vs Spiral

Posted on by

The natural vs the unatural
The old steelwool is getting pretty cliche nowadays, however its still fun to bring it out to jazz up a landscape. It was only a afterthought to bring along the gear and pack a ciggy lighter, which by the way really should have gotten lost, that darn thing with the safety lock means you could not burn down a gas station, i think i wore off all my skin on my thumb just trying to get a freakin' spark.

Well there was no chance of burning nuttin' down out there, with the recent rain, like 1 hour before hand and teh well.. serious lack of fuel the only thing burning was my thumb.
Although, if +Rodney Campbell had his way i reckon he woulda burnt the tree down 😉
Anyway, enough whingeing, here ya have it, the spiraling galaxy vs the spiraling of three nutters out on a freezing winters night in the middle of some sandy sand dunes.

Single frame – +Gerard Blacklock on da wool, +Rodney Campbell on the colours and +Suren J on the white fill.
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with a sand filled Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/6.7 and Shutter Speed: 376.8s
out front – nada, yep nothing
to the left and right was Suren and in the tree was Rod.

btw +Rodney Campbell this would have been a perfect place for star trails – the centre of rootation is in the perfect spot in this frame..

oh well, have to go back now 🙂

The gerry tree

Posted on by

Finally after years of flying over this spot I found this tree perched on the side of sandy sand dune on Stockton Beach, thanks to +Rodney Campbell and +Suren J for the company, it would have been a miserable walk in and out by myself 🙂 and I hope ya's had fun.

I spotted a number of trees a few years back while flogging over the beach into Williamtown in the back of a Lear35 after a recent flight earlier this year in the front of a smash-8 i had a nice clear view of the dunes and spotted, what I have now dubbed, the "gerry tree". It did look quite different from up there, however it met my criteria for lonely and interesting, thus the quest for a photo of it started 🙂

+Rodney Campbell, +Suren J and myself spent quite sometime photographing the tree from various angles and using multiple techniques (see one of rods version here: https://plus.google.com/102418874970398612673/posts/7pZCMjNudd4)
one of the shots was a result of some funky light painting on the tree while at high isos to capture the sweet milkyway view and hence the first of a few images of the gerry tree

D7000 with a sand filled Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ 11mm- Aperture: f/2.8 and Shutter Speed: 20 seconds
out front – absolutely nothing but fresh air and plenty of sand.
to the right – blue coloured LED torch.

Death by a slow moving sand invasion

Posted on by

much like what is probably gonna happen to my camera and lens 🙂
Sand, not so glorious sand.. and camera stuff, just just don't mix very well. Nonetheless, out at Stockton there are some wonderful spots where you can venture into the dunes and find many interesting compositions and subject matter. +Suren J and +Rodney Campbell joined me in search of a long lost tree perched on the side of dune which I spotted several months ago whilst flying over the dunes. Whilst a 4wd would be handy and probably much quicker, it was good to walk in, sometimes limiting oneself can help achieve the best in a location and photography session.

This shot was taken only a few hundred metres from the tree, which is fairly distinct, (more images of this later), the rain was just setting in here and it was a mad dash for cover after it was completed.

Single frame- even at 3 seconds the clouds do have some motion blur which conveys the speed at which teh clouds were moving in.
D7000 with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ 11mm- Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 3 seconds
out front – absolutely nothing but fresh air and plenty of sand.

The frozen world below

Posted on by

Along the Zenith Line
Continuing a fine tradition of cloudless sunrise's with very little colour means one must work a bit harder to achieve that shot that gets a few star rating.
What I really liked about this spot was that at the time the rock behind me created a shadow across the gulley and it meant I could turn that foreground into some a bit more interesting – with a long exposure of course 🙂
I pulled the graduated filter all the way down to the shadow line to preserve the highlights in the bright sun drenched rock and also the hill beyond, I then exposed the frame during some of the rare swells which washed up over the finger rock creating some nice blue and surreal colours.
This was in the same train of thought as a recent image from kurnell (https://plus.google.com/100975265940134223422/posts/5GBrbgqpp2n)

Single frame – glad to say all the dust bunnies are gone sine the last long exposure at Kurnell.
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with a sand filled Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 184.8s
out front – LEE graduated filter 0.9, LEE bigstopper and screw in circular polariser

As always, I welcome any suggestions, comments and improvements to my photography, they are always warmly welcomed.

gerry vs storm

Posted on by

Storm 1, gerry 0

I don't mind the odd selfie here and there, to mix it up alittle I made this one a pano, this was quickly bashed while scurring over some dunes to the next spot and being chased by some very menacing clouds, which did eventually bring some rain. What made things pretty funky was the sunset glow which was peeking out from below the rain clouds creating a very eerie glow which can be seen in the centre of the frame.

About 7 minutes after this shot it rained 🙁

7 frame (non-bracketed) panorama 🙂
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 20mm- Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/2 seconds
out front – absolutely nothing but fresh air and plenty of sand.
It was a bit out of focus, the focus point was on the foreground very close to the camera (from the last shot) this coupled with the fact the clouds moved very fast meant it all, except for the rock solid model 😉 was a bit soft.

Cheers for the company +Rodney Campbell and +Suren J

Pink vs Blue vs the Lichen

Posted on by

living on the edge
View large in full res goodness.
This was as close as I dared to get to the edge – its bizarre, i fly in large, small and weird aircraft, and never have a issue, but put me 20 metres on up on a cliff and something makes me lean the other way with a vengeance 🙂

This was taken during the height of the pastel display in the sky, these tones are often found on those cloudless morning when you look in the opposite direction to where the sun rises.

Two frames stitched together, mainly to get just a fraction more height – this is a good example where not to use a CPL, since it resulted in some discontinuity in the colour in the sky.
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/16 and Shutter Speed: 15s
out front – LEE graduated filter 0.9 and screw in circular polariser

Rod on the edge

Posted on by

sneaky sunrise shots
+Rodney Campbell working the edge at Kurnell and this was what he was looking at:
https://plus.google.com/102418874970398612673/posts/BnjQ5rbnuXA
Thanks for the company +Rodney Campbell and we will have to head back and do that potter point area with all those nice rock – remember low tide is a must there.

Single frame shot
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1.5s
out front – LEE graduated filter 0.9 and screw in circular polariser

Chef with Style

Posted on by

Whilst cooking with kids does result in lots of mess, excessive intake of sugar from over licking the spoon and bowl it is still a great activity and usually out the end pops a tasty cake 🙂

We have recently taken to improving the style of our chef outfit which is no linger complete without 1) a nice hair clip and 2) a grin to match.

Way to go Chaos 🙂 great pose and sweet smile, I can never stay cranky at you for long (for sticking your finger in the mixture and taste testing every 30 seconds).

Life on the Edge

Posted on by

a pastel window into the world below and the world up on the cliffs
View large or go home 😉
The pod of whales (and the elusive seals which I only heard but never saw) did not hang around to complete the panoramic scene 😉

Just about every time I have visited Kurnell and and walked along these cliffs I have spotted a whale or two, maybe its just that I only come here in the winter months 🙂 nonetheless, if you are in sydney, Kurnell is a great spot to whale watch, not only is the actual clifftop scenery awesome the whales typically come quite close to the cliffs, as they did this morning, close enough that I could hear there blow holes going, rest assured its along way down too.

Still in the forefront of my mind was the French guy (Fabien Ardoin)
who fell to his death a few weeks back whilst taking a photo in the Royal National Park (south of here), always a timely reminder to take care near heights, particularly the very crumbly sandstone that Sydney is built on. RIP buddy.

3 frame (non-bracketed) panorama 🙂
D7000 with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ 17mm- Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 6 seconds
out front – LEE 0.9 Graduated filter and Screw in HOYA circular polariser

I welcome any suggestions, comments and improvements to my photography, they are always warmly welcomed and always appreciate the time people take to have a look, plus and/or comment.

The horn of Kurnell

Posted on by

the faces of the cliffs
Apparently, according to chaos, if you tilt your head the right way there is a chicken in there 😉 I can see a eagle with a beard, but it is late 😉

The cliffs that adorn the sydney coastline are always full of surprises and unique subjects for a photographer and it is this that draws me back every time. The pools of water are always a great subject and when coupled with predawn light can really come alive.

One would never guess that only a few kilometres away are some serious industrial plants, the Sydney Desalination plant (aka we need a nuke plant to run it 😉 ) and of course the Kurnell refinery. I am not sure whether its absolutely amazing that these two environments co-exist or just down right depressing.

2 frame Manual Blend.
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ 11.5 mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 152.1s (foreground) and 22.3 seconds (mid-sky)
out front – LEE 0.9 Graduated filter and Screw in HOYA circular polariser

As always, I welcome any suggestions, comments and improvements to my photography, they are always warmly welcomed.