Sydney Sunset

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… from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair

There is some really beautiful detail in this image, you can see the projections onto the Opera House sails (LHS), the Harbour bridge climbers, the lights of North sydney.
It can be quite tricky to capture sunset scenes when shooting directly into the sunset or light source, the large dynamic range in the light means you need ot bracket your images, even when the light does become more subtle and soft as when this shot was taken.

This image is a panorama of 3 frames, with each frame bracketed, you can see the result in this by looking at the shadow detail on the opera house and the full rich orange of the sunset underneath the bridge. There are quite a few ways to do images like this, in this case I have automatically blended the individual pano frames in Lightroom resulting in 3 DNG format files, these are then sent to Photoshop to be stitched together, there is then a bit of wrangling to ensure the perspective is correct and just some usual adjustments to accentuate the scene.

Rescued

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you don’t buy Italian designed/made things just to serve the purpose, its about the experience of getting there, that is why you buy them 🙂 Take for example Italian cars, its not about getting from A to B, its about doing it in a particular style and stopping at A(a) A(b) and A(c) before hitting B 🙂

Italian coffee machines are no different, its about the experience, not saying the taste is bad, it just takes a bit more to get there, the La Pavoni lever handle machines are a prime example, these are absolutely awesome little machines, really they are just a glorified kettle (pressurised) however when used in the right way can make coffee second to none, conversely, get it wrong and you will wonder what Italian god you cursed 🙂 If you want a coffee with no thought and no experience you do not buy one of these, these are for the tweakers, the ones who love a challenge and love the full unadulterated control over their coffee making process. For some like me we go even further, roasting the beans as well 🙂

I have owned a second hand La Pavoni for a long time now, its an old (well really quite young given they started making them in the 60’s) Europiccola (98 model) which I bought off a lady who received it as a gift but could never get a decent coffee out of it, I got it for a few hundred bucks, it was hardly used and has subsequently (and will continue to) served me well for over ten years. Another thing I love about these is the fact they have a parts catalogue which is better than some aircraft I have worked on… and.. this is the important bit, every part in the machine can be purchased, at a reasonable cost too.. every year or so i replace the seals in it and it just keeps chugging on.

Now as noted before, they are tweaky, with so many variables involved the potential to get something not quite right is very high, however with the basics (fresh beans and correct grind) covered you will just about always get something drinkable and when you get it all right simply awesome coffee.. once you have it setup, ie the right grind, regular fresh beans you will wonder how anyone can get it wrong 😉

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Happy Birthday Big girl

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Amoungst a very busy July for us Chaos also had her birthday, this year (8 years) was quite a milestone with the delivery of one fairly key promise, ear piercing and ear rings 🙂 gotta pace these things out since shes expecting a car for her 14th :-/ She was very stoic whilst getting it done and there was no tears, although it does not hurt that much right 🙂 ?

As part of her birthday which fell on a skool day we agreed to bring her brand spanking new little sister to school to show her class and teacher, it was also an excuse for sharing cupcakes with her classmates 🙂 who does not love a good cupcake right…

Happy birthday big girl 🙂 .

In Album 07/08/2017

Plantation Floor

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I think I almost forgot what a landscape shot was and at sunrise as well – I have only done a few sunrise sessions this year and recently a shot without a kid or newborn in it is certainly out of place 🙂
I have decided there is a positive to newborn feeding when it comes sunrise photo shoots, it makes getting up at 4am a breeze, the only downer is the fact that you really only have a few hours sleep 🙂
There is another benefit, it sharpens the night ninja skillz, gotta sneak outta the house without waking anyone:)

Its been quite a few years since i have been to this spot, the last time was for some crazy light painting gravedigger style shots. This image was a 3 shot (bracketed) panorama at 15mm.

I am also pleased to say that there was no spiders here this time, last time was like walking into a minefield of webs and spiders, alittle disconcerting when its dark 🙂

Au revoir VH-OJM QF73 – B747-438

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My family thinks I am a bit strange – so I say I need to be home to watch a bit of aviation history fly overhead, my eldest daughter, looks at me with a strange tilt to her head like I have 3 green horns coming outta my head ! Tickles is like.. "what are you talking about dad.."?! then they are back to like making up some story with a toosi or something….. but you know what, little E understands completely, she dutifully listened to my ramblings about how this aircraft has 120,000 hours and is 26 years old…and its on its last flight to SF before going to the mojave graveyard, she even gave the appropriate gurgle and splutter as she sucked on my arm 🙂

anyways.. here ya'all have it, VH-OJM, last flight from Sydney to San Francisco departing YSSY.

As a interesting point, this aircraft also had quite an interesting event during a flight to Bangkok where the forward galley leaked water which spilled over into a decompression vent (a vent between the main deck and subfloor cargo or equipment bay – basically in the case of a decompression they allow the various decks to equalize rather than explode spectacularly 🙂 ) whilst a leaking galley is not new, being the forward galley this one is located close to the E/E (electrical equipment) rack below the floor which has a whole bunch of kinda important boxes and wires so you can imagine what water and electronics does 🙂 apparently they lost 3 of the 4 generator control units (yeah they are prolly fairly important) multiple nav and comm systems….I reckon the pilots on that day earnt their beer for the day

In Album 31/07/2017

A bloke lost his life (has not been found yet) doing what he loves (taking photos) out on Little Bay on the weekend. This is a place which I love very much, its the closest ocean point for where I currently live and it has some really nice patches of rocky outcroppings and is not too busy, its also probably the place where I have taken the most number of seascape images over the years.. it is however a fairly infamous place now with quite a few people dying here. I am sure no one, including the chap on the weekend go out thinking that it could happen to them, hence its a timely reminder to take care, irrespective of whether your a fisherman, tog, or a early morning dog walker :)

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Rest in peace mate.

(note this picture is a bit further south from little bay).