and a dark side
Tag Archives: gerry
Transition
Ever since starting out in photography I have pretty well used the same program (Nikon's CNX2) to edit the majority of my images , i use Photoshop a fair bit now and Lightroom even more, but given the fact that Nikon CNX has gone the way of the dodo I have been trying to ween myself off it, sadly, the more I do, the more I realise the few simple functions that CNX (and the Nik Plugins) can simply not be replaced (with the same ease) in either lightroom of Photoshop, now photoshop smashes all over CNX2 but the key point here is the ease and speed of use, for which CNX kills them (for me anyways).
So, in another step towards removing myself from the addiction with CNX2 I am trying to edit a fewlandscape/seascape image solely in Lightrrom and achieve a result that I am happy with. Now I typically use Lightroom for most of my family shots but these typically only have global adjustments and a few control points so its all good, however my landscape stuff can often have a few more complex steps involved. This image is from LIttle Austinmer which I have solely edited in LR – i now note that this has a few benefits, one of which is the reduction overall noise in the final image, I guess going from one program to the next does increase noise…
Exif love:
D750 coupled with Nikkor 16-35mm f4 @ 24mm Aperture: f14 and Shutter Speed: 8s
ISO 100
Out front – Hoya CPL and LEE Graduated filter 0.9x
Ravaged
Somersby is always a great spot to stop along the freeway, so much more rewarding that the rest stop at Ourimbah 😉 I have seen lots of images from here over the last several months, particularly during some pretty heavy rainfall periods, this has all had an effect on the area with a few of the trees coming down and changing the face of this familiar and popular waterfall. I last stopped here about may last year and pretty well too the identical image – without realising it, that's the great thing about getting old, is that you simply forget the spots and compositions you take, hence it always feels new 😉 well thats my theory and I am sticking to it 😉
The image from last year is here, check out the canopy and also the growth on that little landing rock 🙂
https://plus.google.com/+GerardBlacklock/posts/H1LvkfDKCgE
#somersby #verticalpano
Exif love:
4 shot vertical panorama
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f16 and Shutter Speed: 4s
ISO 100
Out front – somersby falls with a Hoya CPL
Jetty
long
I learnt two things from a nice old bloke who I met at the very end of this jetty. 1) you can catch some awesome prawns here smile emoticon (but don't tell anyone else 🙂 ) 2) They shipped houses over on barges to get to the suburb of 'Long Jetty' – no prizes for the reason why they called it Long Jetty.
Its always great to meet a local, they can really give a insight into a place that can't be had from reading stuff online or in tourist literature. The other interesting point he made was regarding all the weeds in the water, which extended out past the end of this jetty, apparently these are only fairly recent (that could be 20 years given the age of this bloke 😉 ) and are a result of increased nutrients in the water from surrounding suburbs.
I gotta say, these jetty's (and this one is one of the shorter ones) are really really long and looking at them from someone who has never been there before they seem kinda strange, however given that they were typically built back in the 1940's era when there was no access road to area and there was no bridge to the north it makes sense since everything was barged/boated in. It's a cool legacy to have and I bet all the local hobby fishermen love these jettys to go out and fish on.
Now that I know where this spot is now, I'll be sure to visit again, its actually not far off the freeway and makes for a great spot to spot on the way back from up the coast.
Exif love:
5 landscape orientation frames frames stitched together
D750 coupled with Nikkor 16-35mm f4 @ 35mm Aperture: f11 and Shutter Speed: 3s
ISO 100
Out front – Hoya CPL and LEE Graduated filter 0.9x
It's funny how some distance
Makes everything seem small
I am one with the wind and sky
I am putting that out there for all those who don't instantly recognise the above lines, i think its my duty .. as one who has suffered (many times over), to share with the good people that I know the joy of the song 'let it go'.
Now if you still dunno what the hell I am banging on about, just plug 'let it go elsa song' into your favorite search engine, sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy (seriously 🙂 )
After climbing a few dunes, sliding down a few and getting my ass crack filled up with sand I decided enough was enough and this was gonna be the dune I took a photo of. So, the connection to the song, sadly, as I stood atop this not so inspirational dune, the only think that stuck in my head was … 'It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small' … ahh $%# … so instead walked further and took some cool pictures of frog tracks in the dunes instead 😉
(seriously, now go and put it into the search engine, trust me, money back guarantee)
Exif love:
2 frames blended in +Nik Collection by Google using – well done +Nik Collection by Google , the options to remove ghosting and movement worked perfectly here.
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f16 and Shutter Speed: 1/60s and 1/8s
ISO 100
Out front – me
Sans Souci
Sneaky Sunset Sessions
Exif love:
4 landscape orientation frames frames stitched together
D750 coupled with Nikkor 16-35mm f4 @ 24mm Aperture: f11 and Shutter Speed: 1/2.5s
ISO 100
Out front – Hoya CPL and LEE Graduated filter 0.9x
Its a long way to the beach
This image, for me, sums up how far camera technology has come, even in the recent years the advances in dynamic lighting and increased dynamic range still blows me away. Now, if only they could get rid of those flare spots 😉
Single image, pretty well straight outta the camera
Exif love:
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f16 and Shutter Speed: 1/80s
ISO 100
Out front – some poor animals plight to reach the ocean
Pudln
Pudln
Vera St – Tunnel Madness
ya gotta view this large at 11 vertical frames its a crime not to
This certainly a sweet little tunnel, I have been here 3 times over the years and it never disappoints, each time I have come away with something different – it even has glow worms.. well i hope it still does. I battled the crowds on this day, a lazy Sunday afternoon meant there were plenty of people stopping to take a look inside the tunnel nail a few selfies, I even meet a nice lad doing a photo project for his HSC.
I have previously been here in the dark to do some light painting (with glow worms) https://flic.kr/p/eh1rgq and when its pretty well flooded https://flic.kr/p/oTW41f , this time I only had limited time and I really did not want muddy feet, so I opted for the view from right back at the entrance to this part of the tunnel, it also meant I could get the, rather new, Helensburgh sign in the shot as well.
I am sure I will be back in a few years again and I do wonder how it will have changed and what composition will take my fancy 🙂
11 shot (vertical orientation) panorama, only mildly cropped, I did have two layers (normal exposure and under exposure) in it, but my poor computer complained and refused to save it 🙁
Exif love:
11 vertical frames taken on a pano head
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f10 and Shutter Speed: 1/3s
ISO 100
Out front – Hoya CPL and one cool tunnel
Reclaimed
The lesser loved tunnel
The tunnels at Helensburgh are quite the popular tourist spot now, I remember years ago trying get info on them and it was a little more challenging and also not so well known. The other thing I did not realise was how close to the current trainline a few of them are – i have always driven there so never actually saw the current train station..
So, I had to make a somewhat impromptu train ride from the south coast back to Sydney and thought, sure why not, I'll jump off and take a few photos at Helensburgh.
Now, firstly, its been years..like really more than I can remember (sheesh I feel old now) years.. since I have been on the train down this way and I gotta say its actually quite a picturesque trip, i was gonna bury the head in a few serious sessions of Zombie call or crossy but found myself burning away the minutes away staring out the window at all the cool locations.
The train line follows the coast and often you have the escarpment on one side and the sea and rockshelves on the other – from the green dairy style fields near Gerrigong, to the fantastic view of Bombo and Kiama thru the industrial world of wollongong and finally up into the narrow strip of land where Austinmer and the seacliff bridge is, its not boring by any measure. It does not end there either, its then a tranquil run into the Royal National park dotted with various short tunnels.
The other great thing is you could actually just jump off at places like Coalcliff and its a short walk to the Seacliff Bridge and nearby rock shelf and beaches, time it well with the trains and you could just spend a couple of hours and then hop back on for the next spot 🙂 now only if they ran in time for sunrise sessions 😉
Anyways, ya probably gathered I am a bit of a fan of it 🙂 I do recommend it, its so much nicer than driving 🙂
Anyways, onto the image, everyone goes and looks at the Vera St tunnel, its more picturesque and you can walk into it, hence its poor neighbor (this image), which is covered with bog, blocked off and not as good for selfies gets much less attention – this is one side of it, the other side is pretty cool, but with a large steel pole fence and lots more water. I would have just climb over it but I did not particularly wanna get stinky wet feet for the rest of my train ride home 🙂
So, here's to you little forgotten tunnel, someone should really open you up and put a cafe or something there 🙂
This one is about a 10 shot panorama (vertical frames), I really like the cool roots of the trees which are reclaiming back the scar in their land.
Exif love:
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f9 and Shutter Speed: 1s
ISO 100
Out front – Hoya CPL and one poor lonely tunnel.
Just a little house with a view
ya gotta view this large.. its a crime not too
Its got this cool patch of grass in the front, which given the right cold conditions and a fresh layer of frost would make one very awesome ride 🙂
There quite a number of angles on this building in the Canberra National Aboretum, one of which is across the highway which means you need a pretty long lens to get the shot, even down the bottom of the hill in the actual Aboretum you still need at least 200mm i reckon.
This is with the 300mm lens and is a panorama of 6 landscape orientation shots.
Exif love:
D750 coupled with Nikkor 300mm f4 @ 300mm Aperture: f6.3 and Shutter Speed: 1/80s
ISO 100
Out front – bigass hill, some cool building and hill worth sliding down!
Hey dear, I got some new furniture and painted the lounge room, whaddy ya think …
Hey dear, I got some new furniture and painted the lounge room, whaddy ya think ?
The Golden Path
Its always a pleasure to check out this spot (Goanna Head), you are pretty well guaranteed to have the whole headland to yourself, I am talking about humans here, you do have to share with the spiders snakes, wallabies and all the other characters about at the crack of dawn, its also a nice 20 minute walk thru the bush to the beaches which is always a bit more interesting when its pitch black and no moon.
I had done sunrise and was scoping out a few other spots further around on the headland when I stopped to take a shot of the track (I like track shots smile emoticon ), which as you can see is pretty cool with the trail leading the scene. Anyways, I setup the shot only to notice I was standing awfully f'ing close to a rather large fire-ant infestation, I thought, sure I wrap this one up now and move on.. but no, these little clowns had other ideas, within in seconds i got simultaneous nailed (thru teh sock) by three of these little f'ers which then consequently made me squeal like a 6 year old – and I then realised why they are called fire ants…
so here's to you not so little fire ants… you can keep your patch of path..
Exif love
4 shot panorama (vertical)
D750 coupled with Nikkor 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f18 and Shutter Speed: 1s
ISO 100
Two Worlds
collide
There is a song about that 😉
This was the last shot of the day (well for sunrise anyways 🙂 ) The rain had momentarily stopped and the sun was making another grab for freedom from the clouds.
I stumbled about the rocks looking for that cool foreground as the rays of light shone down like some biblical scene, i suppose i did pray for some something decent but all it threw me was a bunch seaweed and some neptune necklaces 🙁 coulda been worse I suppose…
Here is a cool example of the polariser working, whilst its pretty well straight into the sun (polarisation is strongest at 90 degrees to the direction of the sun) the polariser let me get a clear glimpse into the world that lay at my toes..
Exif love ('cause I know your just hanging for it 🙂 )
2 shots, one for the sky and one for the foreground, really easy blend with the straight horizon.
D750 coupled with Nikkor 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f18 and Shutter Speed: 1.6s (for the sky) and 3 s for the foreground
ISO 100
Madden Falls – Darkes Forest
Madder version
I have been meaning to return to this lesser known set of falls down south towards Wollongong since way back in 2014 when I first bush-bashed my way in. The falls are located at Darkes Forest near Madden Plains and are actually a quite accessible, there is even a board walk to the falls – however and its a big one, the trek to the base of falls is not so easy – although i reckon third time round I will have the better track sussed out 😉
There are lots of slippery-ass rocks and trees to thwart the passage in so care must be had.
On this particular day I had joined the mad southies from the Focus group for sunrise at Little Austimner which was enjoyable, yet rather wet 🙂 i had a bit of time to burn on the way back so I thought it a very opportune time to check out the falls. It was great to have some company from some keen Focus shooters (Grant and +Mike Hankey ) and I am sure they had doubts about actually getting to the base of the falls 😉
This particular shot is from the first platform of the falls where Mike ended up first – I initially lost Mike in the trees enroute to the base of the falls only to see him perched up there with a prime view of the falls, it is a great view point on the falls and lets you get out of the way of the spray and capture the wide view of the scene with water some down onto the platform and also into the pool below, which by the way was pretty full, to give you a idea, the water flow on the very left into the pool was where I was standing last time i was here (see this https://flic.kr/p/nwZ2sF)
This image is blended panorama using two exposures for each frame (12 vertical sets), its the first time I have properly used a panorama head (thanks Rod and Lorena) and I can really see the benefits when at close range – it makes stitching a absolute breeze.