With only the moon to watch over you

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With only the Moon to watch over you - (c) Gerard Blacklock

With only the Moon to watch over you – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D7000 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 20mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/6s
lets see who notices that funky combo 😉
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x)

time to contemplate your position in the world
i’ll save you some time 🙂 …your one in about 7 billion odd people, be thankful for what you have and not what you don’t 🙂

My favorite park bench – for which one must be patient and wait for a moment of solidarity since its so damn popular with the dog walkers..runners… walkman junkies (yeah thats for you over 30 peeps)…and the rest of the park lovers 😉

This is Sydney Park, my often ‘go to’ location when I have little or no time, its always a wealth of compositions and the rolling hills give me a sense of being somewhere else than in the middle of the inner west of Sydney, which as great as it is…can be a drag some days ..

view this full size, viewing guaranteed 🙂

5 shot panorama, just as the sun was blazing down amongst the western suburbs
Techie exif data love..
D7000 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 20mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/6s
lets see who notices that funky combo 😉
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x)

Colony by the Sea

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Colony by the Sea - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Colony by the Sea – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 20mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 6s
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

Risking life and limb to capture the little sea creature huddled on the shore of the raging river 🙂 ok probably a little over exaggeration, but i did get my right toe a bit wet waiting for the right wave to flow over the rock shelf.

The sun had already set over the city skyline that is north Coogee and the subtle pastel colours were coming out to play. With one foot delicately balanced on the only somewhat not submerged rock and the other skating on slippery-ass moss I tried to capture the little shells (which by the way, my daughter loves to pick up, collect and relocate 😉 ) coupled with the S curve of the water flow and the lines of the rock to point the viewer to nice pastel serentity that is… nightfall over the clovelly rockshelf.

Techie love:
Single shot.
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 20mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 6s
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

Black and White or Colour

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Wattamola Falls - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Wattamola Falls – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 17mm – Aperture: f/19 and Shutter Speed: 4s (normal frame) 1s dark frame) and 15 s (bright frame)
ISO 100

Wattamola Falls - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Wattamola Falls – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 17mm – Aperture: f/19 and Shutter Speed: 4s (normal frame) 1s dark frame) and 15 s (bright frame) ISO 100

click thru for larger versions
Well polls seem to be all the rage, so lets have it BW or colour?

I am leaning towards the BW image, it seems to have more mood, which was in the forefront of my mind when processing this image.

3 shot Panorama (bracketed +2.0 – 0 – +2.0)
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 17mm – Aperture: f/19 and Shutter Speed: 4s (normal frame) 1s dark frame) and 15 s (bright frame)
ISO 100
Out front: sinking sand, some filters, probably the CPL and thats it 🙂

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

Temporary Residents

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Temporary Residents - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 20mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 1/2s Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

Temporary Residents – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 20mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 1/2s
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

or balls of steel

I could have sworn I was gonna see one of these peeps end up in the drink, but nope, for the entire time I was there, no dunkings, quite to the contrary they pulled out seveal fairly decent sized fish.

Techie love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 20mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 1/2s
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

Green and Blue

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Green and Yellow - (c) Gerard Blacklock

Green and Yellow – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/16 and Shutter Speed: 3s
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

and the silver tail…
Some very luminous greenery was present on this particular morning at Austinmer, so green in fact I had to dial it down 🙂

I think green moss is a close second favorite to lone trees for me at the moment 🙂

Techie love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/16 and Shutter Speed: 3s
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.

Nature vs the poo canon

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Tree vs Poo Cannon - (c) Gerard Blacklock

Tree vs Poo Cannon – (c) Gerard Blacklock
4 shot Panorama (non-bracketed, the light was nice and even
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 22mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/4s
ISO 100

emotion, light and airy and smelling a bit like…
North Bondi, Sydney Australia, showing the ironic dichotomy (check that phrase out.. 🙂 ) of a somewhat natural scape vs mans imposing structures.
The subtle colours, particularly the pink and purple really struggled to shine on this even, however this little tree standing proud and defiant against the man made version, I feel, give this mage something to offer. To me I see emotion here, yay 🙂

4 shot Panorama (non-bracketed, the light was nice and even
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 @ 22mm – Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1/4s
ISO 100
Out front:

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

Emotion

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Tree - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Tree – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
Panorama – 3 frames (non bracketed) stitched together in Adobe PS CC2014
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1.0s
ISO:100
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

After being fortunate enough to get to the Focus Awards (http://goo.gl/hBQtGQ) on the weekend (Thanks Ray for the tix), there was a very interesting talk by David Oliver (http://www.davidoliver.com.au/) regarding the idea of creating emotion in a image, this was quite insightful but also quite confusing since as a concept, emotion in landscapes is one tricky concept. For landscape images that have a person or human connection this idea of emotion can be more easily achieved, but a landscape with no human elements and true in the sense of a landscape this idea just about escapes me. Looking at the winning images, which are all quite stunning I feel the term mood could be used in place of emotion for a landscape, particularly where there there is no person or human connection.
I also think the mood is something a bit different to the ‘wow factor, for me a image that makes me go wow is often a result a of the initial impact, often generated by distinct processing or colour, the mood however is something which is more on the lasting side then initial impact, for me the wow factor/initial impact often wears off as I analyse a image and dissect it. The mood, however is something that develops and improves with the age of viewing the image, a bit like a good wine 😉 take this example,

Hence, I have promised myself, at the very least for the next few weeks while I remember 🙂 I am going to try and look at a landscape with the specific purpose of capturing and conveying this idea of ‘a mood’ – now exactly how I am gonna do this is, I am unsure of, but it would seem the use of light and selective application of light and often not what you can see but what you can’t is something that can go a long way to getting this mood…. So, here’s a image which i think has no mood in it 🙂 I like it, but I am not happy with it, for me it rates a little better than a snap. It has my favourite element, a single tree but is missing something.. here is a image that I think has mood, but, its created by peeps 🙂 https://blog.avernus.com.au/park-life-2/

How would you generate mood in a frame like this? long exposure it? BW conversion? selfie? I did try a BW conversion, but I can’t bring myself to destroy the colour….

Techie love:
Panorama – 3 frames (non bracketed) stitched together in Adobe PS CC2014
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 1.0s
ISO:100
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.

Nothing lasts forever

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Nothign Lasts forever - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Nothign Lasts forever – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/14 and Shutter Speed: 1.3s
ISO:100
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

time is nigh
I do like bold and punchy landscapes, however from time to time I come across a scene where saturation, even as it may well be in reality, does not quite match the scene and also the mood.
This scene of the mangrove appearing to be on the final straight I think needed a saturation level that matched the mood, whilst the pre-sunset colours were shaping up nicely and there was some very tidy warm colours in the upper part of the sky I chose to desaturate the image so that the colour did not detract from the composition, particularly the roots in the foreground.

I found the punchy bold coloured version left me as a viewer missing some of the finer detail, like the texture in the roots and left me in a confused state (not hard on a good day) about the intent.

Techie love:
I actually bracketed this shot and merged the frames, but in revisiting it, i found the single neutral frame was all goo, in terms of dynamic range, the sensor in this camera (D750) is certainly a improvement to that of my older camera (D7000)
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/14 and Shutter Speed: 1.3s
ISO:100
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.

Bold

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Bold - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Bold – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
Techie love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 1/13s
ISO 640
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

yet shedding
Sneaky Wednesday Sessions at Beachmere, I had a hour to smash before hopping on a burner to come home, I wish I had more time to explore other areas, like Bribie Island and a bit further north but alas not this time.
There is something relaxing about doing a seascape shoot and i find it quite therapeutic after a long day, the sensation of mud, shells and water under foot (excluding that fing sharp oyster shell – needs another session in the washing machine) washed all the worries away (except for that one that i better not be late to grab the plane)

Its a popular tree and I had wanted to visit another tree nearby , however upon closer inspection it would appears its fallen on its bum…so that one was out ( you can see it here
https://blog.avernus.com.au/solitude/)

For this shot I needed a quick shutter to freeze some of that water, rather than a blurry mess, which, btw looks alright, hence i need to bump the iso abit to keep things at f13 since i now know that the 16-35 is crap at f4 😉

I timed it to get that dinky little leaf, but was a bit too slow, I really wanted it further up in he frame oh well..the CPL was key here to get some clarity thru the water.

Techie love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 1/13s
ISO 640
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

man that tilt screen is worth every cent… 🙂

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

Pastel, Maroubra and fuzziness

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Pastel, maroubra and Fuzziness - (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock

Pastel, maroubra and Fuzziness – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 15s
Out front: Lee graduated filter (0.9x) and Hoya Circular Polariser.

there are two ways to achieve a nice softness/diffusion in a image – well the way I see it anyway 😉

1) you can use some funky filter in Adobe Photoshop during your post processing, or 2) you can do like I did here, simply place one’s tripod in some sand near a beach, start a long exposure and wait for the sea to come and wash over everything resulting in the tripod slowly sinking
– softness achieved, job done, in camera, purist reunite! 😉

I love the pastel colours in the sky, maybe because its I see them so much more that the blazing sunset or sunrise (which are fairly rare – for me anyway), maybe it’s the challenge in conveying that often very subtle colour which is always in the opposite direction to where most are point their cameras.

Maybe in this case, its because the pastel pink an blue in the sky compliments the fuzzy green rocks down below, in any case it was fun, except for the howling wind and spray, a prelude to https://blog.avernus.com.au/opening-the-portal/

Techie love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 15s
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.

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.

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.