Summer Break - back on track
Not that I can believe it's February (or 2012) for that matter. I've been busy and had a lovely time over the Summer holidays being busily doing not much.
Over the summer break I had a 3-week period in January where I didn't even switch on the photo workstation! My processing has piled up and inspiration is coming back online. In a way it has been nice to not do any photography ... to just let it go for a little while, to regroup and reassess my focus so to speak.
Here comes 2012!
Flying foxes with lightning - Elizabeth Bay Sydney
Here's a lucky catch! A crop from a 30second exposure during a twilight thunderstorm at Elizabeth Bay in Sydney.
I didn't see until post-processing that I'd caught two flying foxes. Cool huh?
So ... Flying foxes with lightning - Elizabeth Bay Sydney :-)
Happy New Year 2012
Wishing everybody a Happy New Year and all the very best for 2012 ...
This is one of those pictures best suited to some quiet time pondering ... like the beginning of a new year ... or the quiet patch of a garden which is where I found this :-)
Family Portrait Session: R&T
From a family portrait session I did just before Christmas. These guys were great fun to photograph ... four families, 12 people including three littlies. There was much running around and chasing and everybody played. This is why I like taking pictures of people :-)
If you're watching ... thank you.
Tidbinbilla Trip
Took a trip out to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, near Canberra on the weekend with some friends ... always love going out there. This was a quick trip to get out of Canberra for a while and one of our favourite destinations is The Sanctuary - a large wetlands ecosystem surrounded by bushland and protected by a predator-proof fence providing sanctuary for a range of native animals in a natural setting.
A pair of Red Belly Black Snakes (Pseudechis porphyriacus) basking.
On one of our first visits to the Sanctuary, a volunteer guide showed where a colony of Red Bellied Black Snakes - Pseudechis porphyriacus or 'red bellies' for short. On that day there were perhaps 6 snakes in two groups nestled amongst the tussock grass by the side of the pond. On Saturday there were maybe 9 snakes in 3 groups including this pair basking in the sun. I think they must have shed recently because their skins and colouration were beautiful. I took this with my 18-200mm and was about 5m away from them. Black snakes are generally placid if left undisturbed ... I likely wouldn't try a shot like this with a brown or tiger snake. Just quietly walk away ... quietly walk away :-)
Gallery: wall works - more images from the ANCA Show
'wall works' - a show opening tonight at The Australian National Capital Artists (ANCA) Gallery in Dickson, is the final show for the 2011 season at ANCA. Here are some more shots from the session I did in there last Friday while the artists were setting and creating their works.
An earlier post with more images from this session can be seen HERE
ANCA Gallery is located at 1 Rosevear Place, Dickson.
'wall works' (a preview) - ANCA Gallery
'wall works' 7th - 22nd December 2011
Last week I was given a heads-up by friend and artist Nicci Haynes about an exhibition on at the Australian National Capital Artists (ANCA) Gallery in Dickson. Apparently ANCA are repainting the gallery over the new year period and have invited a select group of artists to use the walls of the gallery as their canvas. The show is called 'wall works' and I went along on Friday afternoon to take some photographs and was impressed by the scale and quality of work going on in there and I present a selection of images below. I highly recommend anyone interested to do the same.
The show opens officially on Wednesday 14th December but is open to the public now for anyone interested in the creative process. Of particular interest to me were the wall size works by Byrd and Hanna Hoyne, the intricate musings of Paul Summerfield, the 'there but not there' figures of Nicci and the vibrant etchings of Tesss Horwitz.
From the ANCA website "Six local artists transform the gallery by working directly on the walls. Byrd with Hanna Hoyne, Mariana del Castillo with Gus McGrath and Alex Asch, Nicci Haynes, Tess Horwitz and Paul Summerfield. Curated by Narelle Phillips"
A second post with more images from this session can be found HERE
'girl on the floor' by Nicci Haynes
Hanna Hoyne
Byrd applying some fine detail
Entry Designs by Paul Summerfield
'fire extinguisher surrounds' by Paul Summerfield
'white crouching figure' by Nicci Haynes
Artist Byrd
Hanna Hoyne
Tess Horwitz
Fred Smith’s Dust of Uruzgan CD Launch - in review
I think the gig marked a real step-up in the stage-craft and production of a Fred Smith performance. As always, his songs were passionate and rendered well and his band (Liz Frencham (double bass), Lachlan Coventry (pedal steel and electric guitar) and John Jones (drums)) supplied excellent and solid support. The addition of projected images of Afghanistan worked well too. The audience was made up of an eclectic mix with many folk attending their first show after hearing a couple of tracks on the radio. ABC Canberra’s Virginia Haussegger introduced both sets with great gush. I never realised she was such a fan. I had the privilege of attending the soundcheck to get some stills of Fred and his band prior to the show and am attaching a couple of them for you to have a look at. There is a larger set to be found at Fred’s page on Lushpup Images.
Taking the Street - Bill Cunningham New York
I went and saw Bill Cunningham New York last night at Dendy in town. What an insightful and inspiring movie! For those of you not familiar with the Bill Cunningham, he is a street photographer who has been photographing the clothes of the streets of Manhattan for the past 40years. He's over 80 and still gets about on his bicycle. This documentary was made in 2010 and released in March 2011. For me, the film provided a much-needed (for me anyway) alternate perspective on the whole notion of 'Street' photography; something I struggle to balance ethically. Cunningham is only interested in the clothes ... and interesting clothes at that. That people are wearing these clothes speaks out to be admired or seen as different and Cunningham responds to that by taking their picture. I guess where I begin to have issues with 'Street' photography is when it becomes inherently intrusive in a voyeuristic sense ... the desire to share in the grief or suffering that is not your own. It seems to me to be largely a product of a middle-class seeking to appropriate something missing, something more real or valid than what they themselves feel is present in their own lives. That said, I have seen some fantastically powerful images of the ordinary people engaged in their lives unaware of how in touch with the real they are. At the same time I have seen whole albums of ridiculously gratuitous (and highly lauded) 'Street' photography that borders on the disturbingly voyeuristic. What struck me about the film last night was that here is a man who has dedicated his life to photographing the happenings on the street, producing an unparalleled historical archive. Perhaps he is equally aspirationally voyeuristic? Maybe Cunningham conducts himself in a more kindly way ... there certainly seems nothing creepy or ulterior about his approach. I found the film intensely interesting and there were some great people interviewed. Go see it if you can.
B+W ND110E 10 stop filter - testing
I recently tried out my B+W ND110 filter on some coasty water. I liked the results. These were shot using a Sigma 10-20mm on a D80 body using a tripod. Exposure time was around 30seconds each. I shot in Manual because the camera kept underexposing by a long way ... I had this idea that the body would adapt to the 10stop reduction in light and adjust shutter speed accordingly but it didn't seem to. Anyways, I liked the results. Read more