Brisbane Streets and Techniqe Lesson

I loved the angles I was able to get in the first shot which was more dramatic than the full shot of the Victory Theatre Sign I took from the other side of the road. Having just the fixed lens though really benefited from the early hour and lack of traffic, I was standing half way across the second lane of the road when I took this, ah feet cropping. The second shot shows Edward Street heading for the Botanic Gardens right on 7am – So Quiet.

The other day Snow (My Cat) yelled out “Hey Ron – wanna learn a beaut Photography technique? it’s known as Out of Frame or OOF and lots of people like it, this is the easy method!” “oh and it would look even cooler if you added a drop shadow – Try it!”

Clever Cat that!

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Shock Horror – Daundin Posts B&W – The Sky is Falling!

It was a dull day the day of the WW Photowalk and what better way to display that than by breaking one of my hard held principals, and posting a B&W but I included the colour version for comparison!

A New Slant on Gradients

Nothing new for you old hand scrappers, but this Old Dog just learned a new trick! Thanks Karen!

After playing around with Alibony’s Layer Mask Action, and some personal advice I started playing around with gradients in PSE 7. So in trying to get something snazzy for a Lucky Seat Prize for our Trivia Event this weekend, I went crazy with Gradients and angles and got something we both liked to put under the lucky winners seat.

Being who I am I thought “What If”??

Well this is the result and you can do it too!

In PSE7 (could work in other versions) create a new blank file 400 x 400 resolution 220/

Select the Gradient Tool, Click on the gradient selector go into the Gradient Menu nd select default.

In the default  group select the first option (foreground to background) move over to the canvas drag diagonally left top corner to bottom right corner, release.

Back to the selector, select the second in the group (foreground to transparent) back to the canvas and again drag top L to Bottom R, release then continue to do this once for each of the selections in order, until you have completed the last one. Then go to the top Right Corner and drag down to Bottom left, release. You should have something close to what I have posted. I am blown away by the colours. I admit I got the best results by starting and finishing in different positions but that to me is not repeatable.

Nothing to most of you I understand but to a non-artist, this is painting with beautiful instan results. Love this! Yeah Alibony

Before the Photowalk

Notwithstanding that people are busy, and I can see that people are having a look, I get the feeling that the lack of comments means that the 50mm test was not the success that I thought it was1 (Thank you to those who have commented – Your loyalty and kindwords are really appreciated)

In any event I have been pondering why my attitude on the Photowalk was not as up-beat as it usually is and going through these wonderfull shots of Early Morning Deserted (almost) Brisbane, I remembered the alarm I felt when discovering this Single Ladies shoe laying in the gutter. It struck me as so out of place that I just had to try and capture the feeling. So I took about four shots in the dimly lit street, with the tall buildings blocking what light the ovecast sky was letting through, then gave up and used my flash. Lessened the effect but got the shot. As I stepped away with a queasy feeling a burly construction worker enquired in a most colloquial fashion as to what I was doing? So I told him of the one shoe, he went a little pale and replied “was it Black? with a chunky heel?” I said it was and he told me that he thought it’s mate had been found inside the confines of the construction site where he was working. He said he would call the Police to see what they wanted to do, but it left me in a sombre mood for a few days after. So if the sombreness has overpowered my photography too, I apologize, but like all tropical tubers – I Yam what I Yam!

Photowalk 50mm Lens Test results 4 of 4

Taken with 50mm Lens

Changed to 70-300mm Lens @ 100mm

What the 300mm Lens saw.

Admittedly only one of these shots was taken wit the 50mm Prime, but to my mind highlights just how good the lens handled the job I asked of it. If anything the first shot shows a much better feel of where I was. (Standing on the Goodwill Bridge – Over the Brisbane River)  I then changed to the 70-300mm lens to get closer as Tammy would not lend me a broom and remember I was cropping with my feet all day to that point. It amazed me that I only had to adjust to 100mm to get the second shot, so zoomed out to 300mm to see what was visible, at a range of between 500-800 metres.

I thought the ship had a close resemblance to the vessel “Erasmus” from the Shogun series starring Richard Chamberlain from a few years back, there was an ex-sailor in the photowalk who put me on the right track by telling me “It is a Junk” and when I reiterated that I thought it looked like the Erasmus, I was firmly informed ” But it’s Junk rigged – therefore it is a Junk” So I hope you enjoy my Junk photographs that end my 50mm experiment, which I deem a success.

Sunsequent posts will include shots I took while walking through Brisbane to the Botanic Gardens, and some shots from the Roma St. Parklands where I had promsed to go to see if I could snap some more Magnolia blooms, but it would seem I was too late as the one I got a few weeks ago was the last for the season, and I was told to come back in october. I shall be returning to my AF lenses from now on but trust me the 50mm Lens will be close at hand as it is a killer tool. Julie suggested buying an AF 50mm lens, but this one works so I will put that off and save my pennies to buy a F1: 1.2 35mm AF lens way off in the future.

Thanks for your interest and support!

Photowalk 50mm Lens Test results 3 of 4

Stairs Again - Sorry!

Time to make a point!

Exceeding the Limit!

Southbank Streetscene!

Photowalk 50mm Lens Test results 2 of 4

Circumstance conspired to make all of these three shots a mini disaster to a greater or lesser degree, I will go into the background of each one but for all that I still found them useable, as well as telling quite a story.

The first shot was the second taken after my Bamboo shot, the first was blown out, coming from the dark into the open, thus blowing out the shot. In the time it took to adjust the shutter speed the bird also came into view. Thus turning disaster into success. The second shot wasn’ta success, it was failure but I got the shot, as I have learned snap it first figure out the niceties later. I saw two ducks, one preening it’s chest and the other asleep with it’s head tucked under his wing, snap the shot above. Thinking that with them so occupied I would be able to sneak up on them,  I started moving slowly, too slowly, some little brat came barreling past and they were gone.  Well it is against the law to grab the kid and toss him in the pond – It might scare the ducks! The mother however is a different kettle of fish!!! The third shot is also an okay shot but the problem arose out of the common law of probabilities. Hundreds of cycles zooming around the water front, so I thought panning on the bike with the rivercat in the background, Heaven. I guess heaven is for others though cause by the time I found the right spot there wasn’t even one bike – for over ten minutes and I was due at the Photowalk rendezvous point for post perambulation chat and a feed, so what you see is what you get – Ain’t it always the case.

“Sitting Bill” Artist, by a known Bull Sitter (artist???)

The first of two posts today and this one is a tribute to a mate’s talent.

First off a disclaimer:- I Don’t like Bill, I mean how could any bloke like him, he paints superbly, is a talented entertainer, always willing to help anyone with work around the house, he does everything his wife asks him to do. If I have heard it once I have heard it a million times “Why can’t you be more like Bill???” and I guess all of our male friends have had to suffer this litany too, who would like him?

That having been stated, Talent will out. Around retirement age, he was approached by his very young granddaughter, who wanted to take up painting. So Granddad got all the gear together and they set off on this new adventure.

As is the way with small children her interest soon turned to other things but Bill found that this new activity (for him) had something he liked so he persisted with it. The rest is history, I am in awe at what he is able to achieve and took it on myself to show a lot more people, the talent I have seen.

From a photographic point of view, this exercise posed some interesting challenges, the main one being that the paintings on display in a local library meant that I had to take the shots at strange angles and had to square them up in the oddest ways, but I think I did a good job.

The next challenge was how to include my “At Work” portraits in the presentation and it nearly drove me balmy. Then it was a case of Karen Brockney to the rescue, with her post on the layer actions that gave me just what I wanted.  HERE is the link to her layer masks action in PSE. (Thanks Karen!)   She has given me a better way to do what I wanted, but I am happy with the results I achieved with my first use of Layer Masks.

I suggest enlarging this so that you can inspect the art individually and if anyone is interested in purchasing Bill;s paintings just contact me and for a small commission I will put you in touch with him, if he is still talking to me that is!

Photowalk 50mm Lens Test results 1 of 4

Good Old Boomer mike asked how my little escaped with my Old 50mm Prime lens. Well this and three more posts will prove that it worked well.  Not everything was a success mind, there were overexposures about 8 in total and my attempts at Panning the fast moving cyclists were defeated by the lighting and a lack of practice with this lens, but that is no never mind. More on that as the results unfurle.

These four shots were taken around the same time as ny Bamboo shot (early) and were all subjrcys in low light. I was stoked that the Berries and the token smelly thing were all taken at very close range, which benefitted greatly from Julies help with understanding focus with this dinosaur lens. The curtain of stranglervine roots is self explanatory and beautiful in their own right, as does the buttress roots of the Moreton Bay Fig in photo 2. That being said I want you to look closely at the centre left of that image and tell me if you too see the likeness of the worlds greatest songwriter from his 1970 New Morning alnum, I’m damn sure it’s him.

World Wide Photowalk

Today, I unofficially took part in the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk. First off I would like to congratulate both Scott for his concept and Kerrie (The Brisbane Organizer) for her diligence and efforts in doing the organizing. The group that turned up were a decidedly diverse bunch with a whole heap of better equipment than I possess.  One individual however had taken note of my intention to use solely the 50mm lens you have become familiar with and decided to do likewise. This tickled me pink and I can’t wait to see his results. I don’t know what I expected from this endeavour but I think I expected a sort of spontaneous networking going on, but that didn’t happen.  The only card offered to me was by Kerrie herself and I only handed out four cards in case people wanted to keep contact. This could have been my fault as you know my sense of humour, and maybe people found it offputting. In any event, Networking not with standing, I had quite a number of interesting discussions with a bunch of folks I had never met before, but as for photos, I got a few on the walk but only the one attached,  had any effect on me, and alas, I think it is really a throwback to my early youth. We had about 8 or 9 acres of Bamboo growing in a paddock down the road and some of the best Cowboy and Indians games were played there over the years. The games only came to an end when, while having dinner one night My mate Chris’s Mum accompanied by two Policemen turned up asking if we had seen Chris, who hadn’t come home. It was only then that I remembered that me and my gang of outlaws, (I was the eldest at 8 years of age so the leader), well we had tied Chris (The Sherrif) up and promptly forgot him. So I told his Mum and the coppers not to worry as I new where he was. We drove down to the entry of the Bamboo Patch and I accompanied by a policeman who must have been scared of snakes cause he drew his gun as we got deeper into the patch, there we found Chris safe and sound and securely bound, so I liberated him but was he grateful – No He wasn’,t it was four whole days until he talked to me again and nearly 2weeks before we were best mates again – Mothers get so excited! Anyway, all the official WWPhotowalk participants are allowed to submit only One Photo and this is mine but just for your pleasure as Scott will never see it. Interesting at the least!