Opening the Portal

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Openign the Portal - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Openign the Portal – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/4 and Shutter Speed: 60s (each star trail frame) and around 300s for the lighting painting frames.
Iso 640 for the trails. and 100 for everything else
out front – Malabar bunker for munitions.
Lightpainting: Red and Blue EL wire around the base. Steel wool spin on top the building, LED torch selective applied..

time stands still as the universe parts
other dimensions, dark matter, particle mass, Large Hadron Collider (LHC), this stuff is soo cool, I remember learning about the theory of general and special relativity at uni at it was so intereesting yet was like turning your brain inside out to understand , needless to say I now remember nothing of it,… except it was damn cool and and that Einstein bloke was pretty clever 😉

Well, this session was a bit of a fail, however looking on the bright side, its certainly dark enough for a some trails!

15-20 minute bush bash to get to the location, in the dark of course and with the wind howling, followed by several setup shots and then another 2 hours of mind numbing boredom (oh I suppose you were not that bad Rodney Campbell 😉 ) whilst huddling in a corner of the rock and bunker to keep outta the wind.

The sand and wind reminded me of Anna Bay and stockton beach during which my camera and lens filled up with sand !

I opted for a different take, rather than a clean set of trails, I threw everything at it, its chaos!

So Rod, next time we will just go back to North Bondi eh? 20 metres from the car, pizza down the road, no sand, no wind…

The star trails are made up of 117 shots stacked together in +Adobe Photoshop using the statistics method, this image was then manually blended with a couple of foreground shots. The blend modes varied from lighten to screen and were selectively applied

Exif/setup data:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/4 and Shutter Speed: 60s (each star trail frame) and around 300s for the lighting painting frames.
Iso 640 for the trails. and 100 for everything else
out front – Malabar bunker for munitions.
Lightpainting: Red and Blue EL wire around the base. Steel wool spin on top the building, LED torch selective applied..

No wildlife harmed or fires started, however i sustained many little burns due to that wind blowing that wool spin all over me. Might wear jeans next time 😉

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

Kawaskai BK117-B2

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Kawaski BK117-B2 - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Kawaski BK117-B2 – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 300mm f4 and 1.7x TC @500mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/1000s
ISO: 100

Lotsa good stuff comes out Japan, helicopters, camera’s submarines 😉 sushi.. you name it there are plenty.
I like the BK117 helciopter, its a real work horse, its not as pretty and slick as the newer Bell 429 (although you probably should compare it with the BK117C3 / EC145) but its a proven reliable known quantity.
I really should take more shots of these since i see them just about every day 🙂 Now that the skycranes are back I will be sure to grab a few shots of those monsters – now if only someone would bring in a few of the new russian MIL-8TMV’s? that would be cool

Techie love:
D750 coupled with 300mm f4 and 1.7x TC @500mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/1000s
ISO: 100
out front – Kawasaki BK117-B2

The grass is always greener on the other side

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Grass Greener - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Grass Greener – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
4 shot Panorama (bracketed – 0ev and +3ev)
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 26mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 4s (normal frame) and 2s (dark frame)
ISO 100

unless its next to a septic pit 🙂
Welcome to the 5th hole of the Bondi Golf Course, if you have made it this far you will be punching for a 280 metre drive (yeah i can do that lol) up towards the poo factory. Don’t slice it.. at any point or your little golf ball is gonna get some serious airtime as it departs the course and becomes a whale gall stone 🙂 do whales even have a gallbladder?

So you can see the photobombing Rodney Campbell down on the right whilst working his tripod for a vertical pano that you can see in this shot (https://plus.google.com/102418874970398612673/posts/gTZ2zLzSuHQ).

The sunset was unremarkable, even without the clouds there was not much in the way of sweet pastel colours, nonetheless I like the lines the green and fairway made here and once again my main subject feature is smack in the middle and the horizon is also pretty well in the middle, rule of thirds lovers are gonna hate 😉

4 shot Panorama (bracketed – 0ev and +3ev)
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 26mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 4s (normal frame) and 2s (dark frame)
ISO 100
Out front: nothing from memory 🙂

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

Seascape to die for

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Seascape to die for - (c) Gerard Blacklock

Seascape to die for – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 105mm f2.5 @ 105mm Aperture: f/5.6 and Shutter Speed: 750s
ISO: Lo1

waiting for that perfect flow 😉

I ain’t gonna write anything about this – just use your imagination 😉

Techie love:
D750 coupled with 105mm f2.5 @ 105mm Aperture: f/5.6 and Shutter Speed: 750s
ISO: Lo1
Out front: some freaky skeleton

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

Riding into the pastel sunset

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Riding the Pastel Skies - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Riding the Pastel Skies – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 105mm f2.5 @ 105mm Aperture: f/4 and Shutter Speed: 250s
ISO: 400

man vs wind

So, i rock up to the beach just in time to hear over the loudspeakers, which by the were very, very loud that the beach was closed due to dangerous rips and surf (not uncommon at this particular beach) on;y to see this dude on his kite surfer flogging it around the bay. Now, it a was well after sunset and the pastels in the sky were just fading and I thought surely this dude is heading in soon, but no, he was out there until it was dark, like really dark! certainly much more gutsy than me 🙂

The wind was absolutely howling this evening and the kite surfer was covering the length of the beach in 30 odd seconds, not only would this have taken alot of stamina to hold on and control but to come off at that speed would really hurt 🙂 which he did a few times, face planted into a wave 🙂

This was taken with my all time favorite lens, the old school nikkor 105mm f2.5, its old, its beat up, the aperture ring is anything but snappy and its got quite a few dust specks in it but it still produces really sharp images and lovely contrast.

Techie love:
D750 coupled with 105mm f2.5 @ 105mm Aperture: f/4 and Shutter Speed: 250s
ISO: 400
Out front: nada

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

The Green Alley

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The Green Alley - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

The Green Alley – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/16 and Shutter Speed: 8s
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

welcome to slippery-ville, population..me

Nature is pretty damn amazing, I drove past here a few weeks back and there was not a sign of any moss or indication of a green explosion about happen.
After having a chat to a local on the beach it would appear that its not really that common either, however I have noticed in the last week or so many of the coastal areas in and around sydney have taken on a green tinge – possibly due to the change in weather and a slightly increased sea temperature. In any case, this stuff looks mad and I can never resist a good seascape scene with some complimentary green.

So here we have it, a scene full of green with a complimentary seascape 😉 I was standing ankle deep in sand with the waves flowing up the channel and with the tripod splayed across the rocks clinging to the green moss – and loving it.

Techie love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/16 and Shutter Speed: 8s
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

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

767

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Qantas 767, soon to be gone - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Qantas 767, soon to be gone – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 300mm f4 and 1.7x TC @500mm Aperture: f/9.5 and Shutter Speed: 1/1000s

the days are numbered
VH-OGU Qantas – Boeing 767-338

Soon to be phased out, late 2015 i believe with the A330’s from deathstar coming in to fill the gaps – Qantas. what were you thinking 🙂 jetstar aircraft to be pushed over to mainline big kangaroo.

oh, well still a while to get some more pictures of the faded paintwork 🙂

Techie love:
D750 coupled with 300mm f4 and 1.7x TC @500mm Aperture: f/9.5 and Shutter Speed: 1/1000s
out front – a classic aircraft

The Devil Within

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Devil Within - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Devil Within – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 481s
out front – Some fairly large bunker style munitions base.
Lightpainting: Red and Blue EL wire around the base. Blue LED from within the building, white LED torch selective applied.

Its never scary trekking down the side of cliff where its only metres from the edge of death to find some dodgy old bunked in the middle of the night.. you know why? cause its dark and you cant see the bottom to be scared 😉

Rodney had some hair brained idea to check out this bunker perched on the cliffs at North Head, my confidence in him was waning after the first navigation decision to head into some somewhat less dense scrub was a result of him with his phone planted on his face looking at ingress…
“really man.. its literally just metres over there” rod says.
easy for him wearing jeans and all 😉
anyway we did an about turn and followed the well defined path right to it 😉

Back to the bunker of death on the edge of the world – this was a bit hairy, luckily I had no hair left on my legs from the previous scrub bashing so the fear factor was low 😉
Without seeing more in daylight we did limit ourselves to the safety of the bunker surrounds and as a result came up with soime EL wire craziness coupled with a blue LED torch inside the bunker. The surrounds were lit (separate frame) with a white LED just to give some texture and detail to the cool rocks and grasses.

Cheers for a good night Rodney Campbell , next time I am navigating and your wearing the shorts 😉

Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 481s
out front – Some fairly large bunker style munitions base.
Lightpainting: Red and Blue EL wire around the base. Blue LED from within the building, white LED torch selective applied.

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

The Kite, plane and birds

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Kite - (c) Gerard Blacklock

Kite – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 38mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/350 seconds
out front – no filters

Some very hot weather resulting in the first few bushfires of the season meant the sky was lookign a bit hazy, I ducked off to the park on the way home just to see what the sunset would do.

Sunset behind the Sydney Park – St Peters Brickworks.

5 shot Panorama – don’t ask me how I got with the kite stings in there and aligned 😉

Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 38mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/350 seconds
out front – no filters

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

Park Life

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Park Life - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Park Life – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 24mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/60 seconds

and apartment living
One thing I do love about the Inner West of Sydney is the number of parks especially given that we all have to live in shoe boxes, well most of us 😉 Parks do feature pretty heavily for most people in the area, whether your a dog lover and taking your ball chasing guard dog for a run or getting some exercise or getting the kids out for while…

Sydney Park is one of my favorite parks, mainly since its such a great example of what councils/governments can do with a refuse site if they put their mind and money to it, its also pretty photogenic, with lots of nice spots for all kinds of stuff, lightpainting, landscape, airport, city views.. etc..

Its hard to believe that this park only come into existent in 1993, checkout these old photos!

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0011/154973/050926-380.jpg
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0003/136380/Sydney-Park.jpg

I really like the single lone highrise (well medium rise i suppose) apartment block adjacent to the park, it has featured in my pictures before and in this particular case I did set myself up in waiting for the perfect lot of people to walk on thru the frame!

3 shot Panorama
Timed to get the people in the centre frame only 🙂
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 24mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/60 seconds
out front – no filters

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

Zig Zag Coogee

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Zig Zag Coogee - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Zig Zag Coogee – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 55mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: lots of seconds
out front – +HoyaFilters CPL and Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x)

Probably the most typically composed shot you will find of this location at Coogee (Ross Jones Pool) The edges of the sea pool lend themselves to being composed with cool S curve, whether its down low, or up high I think it works pretty well.

This particular morning Rod and myself met up with the initial plan to shoot this pool and maybe check out the next couple of ones along, however we did just hang at this one, in hingsight, i think we could have avoided all those othe rphotographers and gone to Wiley Baths of something – especially avoided that dude who came in and set up right in front of us (which by the way was in this shot, bottom right, but got cloned out)

Nonetheless, here is to the world of cliche, S curves at Ross Jones Pool.

Single frame, cropped to a vertical pano
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 55mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: lots of seconds
out front – +HoyaFilters CPL and Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x)

Tickles @ 1

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Tickles @ 1 - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Tickles @ 1 – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 55mm – Aperture: f/3.3 and Shutter Speed: 1/1500 seconds
ISO 400
out front – mum and bubs, cake in the process of being destroyed.

proud mum and a happy baby with a fist full of cake

5th October 2014, little old tickles has clocked up a whole year, 12 months ago (and 20 hours) the sound of her cry as she came into the world (yeah i know that sounds corny) is still something that is as fresh in my ears as if it was yesterday. The feeling of relief and joy that followed that moment still washes over me whenever I think about it. Anyway, enough of that 😉 fast forward 12 months and we have gotten onto two legs, climbed ladders, climbed onto stools like a little elephant and sat there, successfully eye gouged dad several times, nearly booted dad’s teeth out with some serious ninja kicks and most importantly of all, given us lots of giggles, laughs, smiles and happy memories with many more to come.

Happy birthday tickles. enjoy your cake.

Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 55mm – Aperture: f/3.3 and Shutter Speed: 1/1500 seconds
ISO 400
out front – mum and bubs, cake in the process of being destroyed.

Softness is.. North Bondi

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Softness is .. North Bondi - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Softness is .. North Bondi – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/5.6 and Shutter Speed: 248.4 seconds
ISO 400
out front – Lee Graduated Filter 0.9x, a very tall cliff and lots of rocks.

It was well past sunset and there was nothing but a warm glow from where the sun had disappeared over the city skyline, with almost no moon it was a perfect time for some long exposures without the need for filters.

I did however have a graduated filter on the sky to enable more light from the lower part of the scene to be captured, additionally with the use of a super powered torch I lit the scene from an adjacent rock several steps from to right. The rocks down in the ocean are artificially lit along with that part of the cliff face on the right. The warm tip on the cliff is from the argon street lights a hundred metres of so away.

Whilst the composition was not quite what I wanted, i do like the smooth water and punchy rocks, hence it made it off the cull list 😉 I also think a star trail view from this very spot could really make it sing, you can see a few of the star trails from the 250 seconds long exposure

Techie Love

Unhealthy Obsession

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Unhealthy Obsession - Lone Trees - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Unhealthy Obsession – Lone Trees – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 17mm – Aperture: f/9.5 and Shutter Speed: 2 seconds
out front – nothing, no filters, nothing but smelly fresh air, a golf course and a tree.

of lone trees on hills
I do have quite the fascination with lonely trees, whether they be on a beach, in some dunes, in the country side or in the bay, and now on the headland, they never seem to lose the appeal.
So during a further investigation of this location (with Rod) via google street view this little old tree popped up while tracking that big smelling poo cannon.

Its a pretty photogenic tree, it could however have a bit more of a lean and possibly be repositioned alittle but hey, all in all pretty sweet. I did take quite a few images of this tree including some obligatory panoramas 😉 , the first one that caught my eye was the one with the tree over looking the green, I had wanted to capture it with the golf green and hole/flag in place, but it was well past closing time and all the green hole flags had been removed.

Simple black and white vertical panorama style image.

Single image
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 17mm – Aperture: f/9.5 and Shutter Speed: 2 seconds
out front – nothing, no filters, nothing but smelly fresh air, a golf course and a tree.

Step in Line

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Step in Line - Coogee Sunrise - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Step in Line – Coogee Sunrise – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

and watch the slippery stuff

So after rocking up here at Ross Jones Pool at Coogee my first thoughts were, ‘ho hum’…this increased to more ‘so ho ho hum’ at the sight of more photographers peppering the pool, who woulda thunk that this little old pool at Coogee would be so popular, even the punters passing by some time after sunrise made the observation it was a like a photography club 🙂

I do like some space and some freedom when out photographing, to be shoulder to shoulder with half a dozen other togs in quite a small area makes it a little less enjoyable. Nonetheless, one must suffer in life 😉

Its a pretty cliche scene, ie use the edge of the pool as a leading line, however on this particular morning it really just fell into place with the position of the sun peaking through the clouds, I simply put the concrete pool edge so it ran the eye right up into that sky goodness, there was even a few god rays to boot. I have a few other compositions similar to this, one with a mad looking S curve, however this one jumped out at me for having a more balanced feel and such here it is.

Techie Love
Bracketed shot (3 frames -3, 0, +3) however really only used the 0 and -3 exposures)
The -3 frame was simply used (manually blended) to retain that detail in the bright part of the sky.

D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/16 and Shutter Speed: 1 second for neutral frame and 1/4s for darker frame (bits of sky)
out front – green slippery ass mossy stuff and a pool…also wedding cake island and god rays.