Dance to the edge punks

Posted on November 10, 2014 by gerry

Dance to the Edge Punks – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/10 and Shutter Speed: 180.2s
out front – no filters..just in need of some pole dancers…
Lightpainting: EL steps, chaos’s fairy wands, coloured LED torch and some very faint EL wire.

pick a podium and run with it
Probably not quite the original intention of the sculpture artist but hey…. I reckon it looks pretty mad 🙂

The full moon played some havoc with the Electroluminescent wire which meant I went for another look using some stronger lights and my classic footprints.

Techie love data
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/10 and Shutter Speed: 180.2s
out front – no filters..just in need of some pole dancers…
Lightpainting: EL steps, chaos’s fairy wands, coloured LED torch and some very faint EL wire.

Temporary Residents

Posted on November 10, 2014 by gerry

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.

Snot sucker alternative method

Posted on November 10, 2014 by gerry

Snot Sucker Alternative – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with Nikkor 85 f1.4 @85mm Aperture: f/2.8 and Shutter Speed: 1/00s
ISO 100
out front – tickles with a finger in her nose

Tickles finally got tired of having mum get snot out with the snot sucker and decided..”screw you guys i am gonna do it myself”.

fyi, the best snot sucker out there is the little fess (http://fesslittlenoses.com.au/index.php/how-to-use/) and yes.. for that promo plug they should send me something 😉

Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Nikkor 85 f1.4 @85mm Aperture: f/2.8 and Shutter Speed: 1/00s
ISO 100
out front – tickles with a finger in her nose

The Punisher

Posted on November 9, 2014 by gerry

The Punisher – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 17mm Aperture: f/9 and Shutter Speed: 74.9s
out front – no filters..just a burly looking dude 🙂
Lightpainting: selective light with a pencil torch on the man, coloured LED torch from various angels and the moon as the perfect rim light.

the dude you want on your side

The moonlight (full moonage) on the sculptures turned the landscape into a totally different scene, hence it was only appropriate to utilise natures light painting in a way to craft a moody scene surrounding this sculpture.
Another great sculpture let down by the positioning, whilst it makes a great silhouette from down below lookign up on the little hill, it unfortunately is very hard to get a nice clean shot with all the crud in the background. Now that I think o fit…this could have been a great candidate for the prime platform position where the bamboo wind chimes currently are.

Techie love data
Single frame
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 17mm Aperture: f/9 and Shutter Speed: 74.9s
out front – no filters..just a burly looking dude 🙂
Lightpainting: selective light with a pencil torch on the man, coloured LED torch from various angels and the moon as the perfect rim light.

+Sculptures By The Sea

Tranquility in a sea of mud

Posted on November 9, 2014 by gerry

Tranquility in a sea of mud – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/9 and Shutter Speed: 117.7s
out front – no filters..just a funny dude with a branch sculpture :

I love these kind of sculptures, relatively simple concept, ie a dude holding a branch with some birds in it and lots of realistic detail – it must take the artist quite some time and skill just to actually fabricate the sculpture, let alone conceive it.
This one is a direct opposite, for me anyway, of the babies crawling up the hill on the other side of Mark’s park they looked great from the back the whole missing face/square hole just left me confused.

I had wanted to get right down low and really get this sculpture against the sky, however after planting a few steps down on that very deceptive looking grass (and sinking into 6 inches of mud) I had to settle for this composition, which was basically sitting on the pavement above the sculpture. It was strange that the curators chose to place it here, i think it could have really benefited from a more elevated viewing position – note +Sculptures By The Sea if you need some advice just let me know 😉 😉 . Thanks to Mickyg for the use of the spin and the stencils, really cool light painting tools. I can only take credit for the light on the grass (i mean mud) and the sculpture.

Techie love data
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/9 and Shutter Speed: 117.7s
out front – no filters..just a funny dude with a branch sculpture 🙂

The Watchers

Posted on November 8, 2014 by gerry

The Watchers – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 32mm Aperture: f/9 and Shutter Speed: 23.3s
out front – bare bummed sculpture:)
Lightpainting: Pencil LED torch

pantless at that 😉
Sculptures by the Sea 2014
Ya gotta wonder what the artist has going through their head when they come up with various works like this – not in a bad way, just purely from a interest point of view.
By day and night the sculptures are plagued with photographers, the lighting painting aspect of the sculptures has seen a roaring increase in the last year of so and every time i have been out there have bee all manner of light painters from peeps with a single torch to pixel sticks and a trailer load of equipment!
On that note, as a lighting painting photographer I think we all have a responsibility to respect the art which we are photographing, I had a midnight chat with a few security guards who mentioned there has been some damage to various works from punters – including that cool bondi icebergs pool one which was smashed 🙁

This image is simply lit with a pencil torch and the moon, simply trying to highlight the sculpture.

Single shot
Exif/setup data:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 32mm Aperture: f/9 and Shutter Speed: 23.3s
out front – bare bummed sculpture:)
Lightpainting: Pencil LED torch

Crayon Evolution

Posted on November 5, 2014 by gerry

Crayon Evolution – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
5 frames
D7000 coupled with Nikkor 85 f1.4 @85mm Aperture: f/2 and Shutter Speed: 1/250s
ISO 200
out front – mayhem eating crayons and occasionally drawing

mmm tasty crayons….
Tickles has taken a partial interest in drawing, however the fun seems to be more focused on reaction she gets from us when she attempts to.. well lets be honest here.. takes a full chomp of the crayon! I am glad these things are toxic free 🙂 and hopefully come out the other end with the sultanas 🙂

5 frames, all edited in +Adobe Photoshop Lightroom ( i love the way you can select multiple images and do global adjustments across all the selected images.. nice.)
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Nikkor 85 f1.4 @85mm Aperture: f/2 and Shutter Speed: 1/250s
ISO 200
out front – mayhem eating crayons and occasionally drawing

Green and Blue

Posted on November 5, 2014 by gerry

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

Posted on November 3, 2014 by gerry

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

Posted on November 3, 2014 by gerry

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.

Portal-licious

Posted on October 30, 2014 by gerry

Portal-licious – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
143 frames (startrails) (2 frames for the foreground exposures)
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/5 and Shutter Speed: 60s (each star trail frame) and around 300s for the lighting painting frames.
ISO 800 for the trails. and 100 for everything else
out front – some funky windchime.
Lightpainting: lots of Blue EL wire around the base and EL footprints

super sized windchime
So I had a few hours to burn between jobs midweek so I ducked out for a quick squizzy at the Sclupture by the sea (http://www.sculpturebythesea.com/)
Things were pretty quiet and I had free reign of the place and only had to share this glorified wind chime with a few togs, including some dude doing some timelapse on a dolly, it would be very interested to see how they turn out, so if your the dude there msg me 😉
The lights on the sculpture are a bit of a pain and I did consider turning them off, but it would have been pretty obvious 😉 the red colour makes this tricky since this is the colour that burns out first, i really need to do some more research on blending the dark shots to the startrails, anyone got any good tips?

Exif/setup data:
143 frames (startrails) (2 frames for the foreground exposures)
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/5 and Shutter Speed: 60s (each star trail frame) and around 300s for the lighting painting frames.
ISO 800 for the trails. and 100 for everything else
out front – some funky windchime.
Lightpainting: lots of Blue EL wire around the base and EL footprints

Why

Posted on October 29, 2014 by gerry

Why – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
Single shot
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/6.7 and Shutter Speed: 294.7s
out front – funky ass sculpture
Lightpainting: Coloured LED torch beaming up, Blue (x 2) and red EL

because you can – the chaos has begun

Chaos: “dad?”
me: “yeah..”
Chaos: “whats that funny blue wire?”
me: ” thats EL wire sweetie”
Chaos: “oh…… what do you do with that dad?”
me: “well..I wave it around in front of a camera while i take a picture”
Chaos: “that sounds like fun, can I do that with you?”
me: “isn’t it past your bedtime?”
🙂

Single shot
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @11mm Aperture: f/6.7 and Shutter Speed: 294.7s
out front – funky ass sculpture
Lightpainting: Coloured LED torch beaming up, Blue (x 2) and red EL

Nothing lasts forever

Posted on October 28, 2014 by gerry

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.

Rocking Horse Evolution

Posted on October 27, 2014 by gerry

Rocking Hporse Evolution – (c) 2014 Gerard Blacklock
frames, all edited in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (which is now forming a crucial part of my workflow with the D750)
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Nikkor 85 f1.4 @85mm Aperture: f/2.5 and Shutter Speed: 1/500s
ISO 400
out front – mayhem on a rocking horse

i am riding a white mare across a green plain with the hooves thundering on the ground as the wind catches my cape and sweeps back my hair
well.. that’s what she probably reckons it looks like 😉
far from being satisfied with walking and climbing, the ability of being able to mount, ride and dismount the trusty steed (worn in and dutifully demonstrated by her sister chaos) was high on the priority list. After several close calls, i think we can safely say, tickles, you have nailed the rocking horse. nicely done 🙂

check out those grandpa pants too 😉

4 frames, all edited in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (which is now forming a crucial part of my workflow with the D750)
Exif/setup data:
D7000 coupled with Nikkor 85 f1.4 @85mm Aperture: f/2.5 and Shutter Speed: 1/500s
ISO 400
out front – mayhem on a rocking horse

Gone

Posted on October 25, 2014 by gerry

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