where the land rolls endlessly and the sunsets dream on.
WIndmills, these are staple item across the plains of outback Australia, in this case NSW and boy, do they make great photographic subjects 🙂
Exif love:
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 @ 48mm Aperture: f/7.1 and Shutter Speed: 30s
ISO 100
out front – couple of tanks and a windmill.
the silence of silence
the silence of silence
Communication when there is is silence can be more effective than spoken words. Its what is not said that is often what is the most important.
Sunsets in the country are quite a different beast, especially when the landscape is quite flat, one moment the world is bathed in golden light then the next its a pastel wonderland, followed by a inky blackness devoid of cultural lighting (thats not a bad thing either 🙂 ). In the summer months by the sea sunrise is quite prolonged, or at least it feels that way, giving one the opportunity to take in different compositions and savour the moment, in alot of way I prefer the fast setting sun, it forces one to really focus on the task at hand, a skill that should be used across the board in life 😉 (says he who just sat and procrastinated in from of the TV with a pizza;) )
Cheers to +David Brodrick for being my chauffeur the night before allowing me to scope out some of these locations.
I had pulled up here on the dirt road after spotting this lonely tree standing amongst the bean plants and it was just about the perfect tree, it could have grown on the top of the hill, however lets not complain too much 😉 As i got out of the car there was no movement save for several kangaroos off in the distance getting a free feed on the beans, the silence was pretty well deafening, except for the calls of a small birds it was like being in a empty music / radio studio.
So after a trek up into the field across some snake infested thigh high grass, i set up and watched the sun go down over horizon off to the right, out here, crouched in the bean plants…..
…. the world seemed to be a better place.
Not a bad place to end up I supposes, a head stone beneath a tree…providing the timing is right!
I have a number of shots from this spot hidden behind a little chapel in Mount Wilson but I really struggled to present what I saw on the day in the image – I did bracket all my shots since the dynamic range was too much for the camera, however in the case of this image, after using a automated HDR technique I came back to just a single exposure shot…I just could not get that HDR image to look the way I wanted – very frustrating.
So, I ended up with this, its a two shot panorama (there was meant to be another frame to make it wider but things did not work out for that 🙁 either ) using just a single neutral exposure. Its pretty amazing the level of detail/dynamic range you can get from the D750 and a single frame..
anyways, keen to hear your thoughts, love it, hate it, ambivalent? view large
Exif love:
D750 coupled with 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f/10 and Shutter Speed: 1/2s
ISO 100
out front – Hoya CPL
We have had some pretty bizarre storms in Sydney in the last week, from gale force winds and wet season style rainfall to hail, we have had it all.
Yesterday, about 30 minutes after this image was taken myself and the girls drove home through some streets covered in ankle deep hail stones to find our place had been turned into a winter wonderland (without any leaves or foliage left 🙁 ).
No need for that thredbo visit this year 😉 we got our snowman built in the backyard and ice slide (albeit only big enough for a kid) in the front yard.
As we climbed to the top of the hill at the park amongst growing darkness and increasing lightning, Chaos rightly stated that we should not hang around due to the lightning, luckily she mentioned it when she did, since we pulled the pin on our regular park bash and just as we got to the car it started raining.
I processed this image a few times and then realised, it looked best straight out of the camera. Thus the only PP on this image was the stitching of the frames into a panorama. This will make all ya lovers happy 😉
I hope ya'all survived the weather.
13 shot panorama (portrait orientation)
Exif/setup:
D750 coupled with 85mm f1.4 @ 85mm Aperture: f/2.8 and Shutter Speed: 1/4000s
EV:-0.3
ISO 200
This place gives me a tiny insight into what some of the eastern block countries have – I follow a number of photographers from over that way and some of the amazing places and abandoned buildings they have over there make or stunning photography. But, like the saying goes, you gotta make do with what you have, so here you have it Blast Park, the scene of the old smelter works. The bit on the right is the remains of the crucible, now thats a sight to see!
+Tom Testone recently posted a image from a few years back and it got me into the nostalgia side of things and I had a quick squiz at a few images from this time last year, this is one such image , which, like 80% of my images, sits patiently waiting to be given some love 😉 geez they are well behaved 🙂
4 Shot Panorama, stitched in +Adobe Photoshop and corrected with Adaptive Wide angle, since there was some freaky distortions happening here 🙂
Exif data, 'cause i now ya hanging for it 🙂
Nikon D7000 coupled with the 11-16mm f2.8 (damn i love that lens) @ 15mm, aperture f/8
Shutter speed 8s
ISO 100
EV: 0
Mount Wilson, NSW
I remember my mum saying, why would you want to visit there, there is barely native tree in sight 😉 or words to that effect anyway. My mum is a pretty staunch supporter of native trees etc.
So, queue Mount Wilson from the left, this place is like a colour explosion against the dull grey aussie bush backdrop – apparently as history has it.. the early settlers of the area were pretty wealthy people looking for a retreat location, they of course wanted a bit of home (England) and hence planted all the usual oaks and elms and stuff (thats my technical term ’cause i have no idea really:) ) and its pretty well stayed that way since then 😉 pretty wealthy people and lots of retreats :)…
But I suppose its now quite the tourist location and of course the much loved destination for many a photographer, from the smartphone wielding high heeled ladies to the tubby 200mm f2.8 bashing pros 🙂 that may be a little stereotypical but…
I am not overly convinced that this experience, for me, was worth the stupid oclock wake up and mind numbingly boring drive up and back (the apple pie and coffee at Bilpin was pretty nice though) but in the interest of actually producing a image, this is probably one of my favorites from the morning. The early start means you can stand on the road for quite some time snapping away before getting run over 🙂 In fairness though the colour has not fully developed here and the recent rain has smashed alot of the leaves from the tree and muted the colours a bit. I was just expecting to drive down and have my socks blown off by the wondrous colour 😉
So, you choose your path and go on, view it large 🙂
This is a 5 shot panorama, with each frame bracketed, to be honest the bracketing is a bit of a waste of time here, the extra effort required to process it outweighs the increased dynamic range for only a very small (insignificant part) of the image.
Exif love:
5 shot panorama,
D750 coupled with 24-70mm f2.8 @ 31mm Aperture: f/10 and Shutter Speed: 1.6s (normal exposure), 1/5s (highlights) and 13s (shadows)
ISO 100
out front – Hoya CPL
I would call it a waterfall, but its more like a trickle.
Waterfall Reserve at the end of Waterfall rd on the Waterfall loop walk, i suppose I better take a picture of the waterfall.
3 frames stitched together in +Adobe Photoshop
Exif love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 29mm Aperture: f/14 and Shutter Speed: 25s
ISO 100
out front – Hoya CPL and lots of mud.
Kellys Falls, number 2
The misty spray was just enough to be painful on keeping the filter clean but not enough give that misty look in the scene… 🙁
I love panoramic shots of waterfalls, they can add such a different perspective to a scene and to be honest, composition wise they are much easy than a single 6×4 frame 🙂
3 frames stitched together in +Adobe Photoshop
Exif love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 24mm Aperture: f/14 and Shutter Speed: 5s
ISO 100
out front – Hoya CPL and lots of darn water drops
underneath the radar
Sneaky Sunday session on the way home from sunrise 🙂 I have driven through this place called Oxford Falls a few times and never seen any creeks or falls, however I figured there must be some kind of falls for the place to get its name. I took a punt and went along a road with the same name thinking that would be the best bet and came across a satellite comm centre with some serious dishes out in the paddocks :), not to be deterred i kept going ..
Not much further down the road there was a creek, which I assume is Oxford creek, however the lack of any signage, or it was maybe my ability to actually notice said signage, and it was a matter of getting out and walking – after a little walk and I came across this gem of a falls, which is surely on my todo list after some substantial rain, the wide rocks and the watermarks indicates it could be really spectacular in the right conditions.
For now, I am happy with a few quite reconnaissance shots.
4 sets of bracketed images stitched together.
The bracketed set consisted of a normal exposure and a underexposure just to counteract the very bright high lights from the sun, particularly on the top right of the image.
Exif love:
D750 coupled with 24-70mm f2.8 @ 16mm Aperture: f/14 and Shutter Speed: 6s (normal exposure), 1.6s (highlights)
ISO 100
out front – Hoya CPL and Hoya ND (just to get a some extra shutter speed)
8 Landscape orientation images manually stitched
D750 coupled with 70-200mm f2.8 @ 170mm Aperture: f/11 and Shutter Speed: 1/400s
ISO 100
watch out that farmer is coming with his chainsaw 🙂
I have often been accused of having ulterior motives for visiting various locations, mostly to do with the desire to take a few piccies 🙂 sometimes its true others not 🙂 However myself and chaos went out to Lake Lyell for a bit of timeout and to get out of the house, admittingly I did want to see what the place was like from a photographic point of view so it was a convienent coincidence i say 🙂
During the drive out I noticed a few trees and thought they look pretty cool but it was not until we actually drove back the way we came that the scene presented itself like this, four lonely trees on a ridge. Its funny how perspective and position make all the difference in a scene, there was basically only one spot from the road where the slope had a nice roll to it and the trees appear right on the horizon, probably be a cool scene from the other side too.. if you could access it.
Chaos and I had checked out the lake, found a good stash of blackberries and it had just started to pour with rain as we drove back. I saw the scene and the conditions looked really sweet but we had to get back and there was some crazy lightning around.
I had contemplated a sunrise session here, but that was kinda outta the question, however as luck would have it, later in the morning another blackberry collecting session was needed so chaos was very accommodating at the suggestion of lots of blackberries even agreed to be patient whilst I stopped and took a few photo’s 🙂
‘but dad, remember you can only take a 5 pictures, you promised to be quick’
so..5 pictures (or maybe it was 8) later we were off to the blackberries :). Thanks to +Cameron Fong for the loan of the lens which got me in the right range for this one.
Blackberries were awesome too, came back with a nice bucket load of them 🙂 all in all everyone got what they wanted
This is 8 images stitched together as a panorama, probably only 6 were needed since i chopped a big bit off the left side..The light was not optimal, but it was either this or nothing, it would have looked great at sunrise..especially with all those pinks 🙂
Exif/setup love:
8 Landscape orientation images manually stitched
D750 coupled with 70-200mm f2.8 @ 170mm Aperture: f/11 and Shutter Speed: 1/400s
ISO 100
out front – trees and some ridge near Lake Lyell
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.
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.
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.
Count the cranes
So, they reckon the buildings have apparently doubled in size since the original design proposal – well, the proof will be in the pudding I suppose, not long now before this skyline is changed forever. Get in while you can for your non-developed Barangaroo Pano or planetoid 😉
7 Frame landscape orientation panorama. Each frame was bracketed -2, 0 & +2 stops.
Pano stitched as 3 layers, blended automatically, flipped, polar coordinates applied then resized back to a square format.
Techie data:
D7000 with Nikkor 17-55 mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f/8 Shutter 6, 1.5 & 20 seconds
Out front: sweet nothing 🙂
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.
I only had to dodge one bull to get there 🙂
Taken with the trusty and very reliable 105mm f2.5 nikkor – one of my favourite (and cheapest) lens
If you know of someone wanting to offload f1.8 version let me know 🙂