Workshop Nine - Exterior Love.

Just for future reference, TILT SHIFTS ARE AMAZING. 


Anyway, Belconnen could be much worse than it is, it's pretty, green and full of public servants. Could be worse! After bagsing the tilt shift (with no idea of how to use it) we set off towards the little park across from the Mall. I was able to get the miniature effect which was so exciting, it was unlike anything I'd ever seen or captured before. It was all so strange really, this lens was being twisted and it's shape was being distorted at all angles but it was producing really interesting effects. 
We then practised our converging lines and there were many fits of hysteria when the lines actually changed just by moving the dials. Yeah. Hysterical photography students on the pavement with public servants walking by with curiosity plastered all over their faces. GOLDEN. 

There were a few different photos that came out of that day, but my favourites aren't the ones of the buildings which kills the whole reason of this exercise but i suppose i did learn how to use camera movements which means it wasn't a complete loss! 

Workshop Five. A little late but Colour Balance all the same.

I love colour balancing as much as the next photographer. It can save or sever your head basically.

That week we tripped over to the National Convention Centre and got given a few problems to work through, four different scenes we had to meter correctly, colour balance with an inbuilt setting and then custom white balance. I have never had to custom white balance before probably because I had no clues on how to do it so this is a wild learning curve and now that function makes a whole lot more sense.

In the the beginning we had a bit of an issue because we had three different light sources, florescent, warm spot lights and natural lighting from the windows, hence the problem, which to balance for? In a perfect world we'd able to turn one off, turn one down, close curtains or have equipment capable of metering for al three. If only.

In the end we ended up metering with a grey card for the warm spot lights as they were the brightest of the three therefore the most dominate.

This was great because now I can see how skewed some preprogrammed functions are, well even worse than before. I’ve also seen the light, I need a grey card STAT.

Workshop Eight - Interior love.

 Belconnen has been revolutionised since I was last there so walking in was a little like getting stuck in the twilight zone. My first words were far too explicit to put in print but the idea is there.  I only managed to offend a few people with my initial reaction so that’s a plus! I love going places and just shooting for the fun of it, getting lost on a train of thought or running around searching for new lines and patterns to base a concept around. It’s pretty rad when your teacher lets a whole class of rowdy punks loose in the Mall and basically says don’t make a nuisance of yourselves now go. The detail shots are my favourite, there’s so much texture to concentrate on in the Mall, it becomes a little overwhelming when everywhere you turn in a geometric pattern, array of lines or collection of perfectly arranged sticks in a vase. I wanted to follow the different textures a little more so that was my main focus throughout the day. My favourite detail shot is the arrangement of sticks, they were kinda dull but had beautiful soft lighting behind them, I used a shallow depth of field and did a little post production.  

Ned and I had this beaut idea of riding the lift up and down a million times to try get a long panorama which was a bit of sight to see and it was well worth it. Something I liked so much about yesterday was being proved wrong about how boring an interior shoot can be. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did so for me it was a really successful day. 

Publish Post

Workshop Seven - Landscapes

I love a good early morning hike up to Mt Stromlo as much as anyone but the constant grey seemed to cloud the good mood and vibes. I really love that place, all of the burnt out structures give it such character but at the same time, it feels so hollowed out, so lonesome up there. The first few images I took turned out flat as a tack as there were no shadows because of the serious lack of sun. Unfortunate but we still made it work pretty well and I love the balance and perfect exposure my HDR has for it.

James and I had been up to Stromlo after the fires so we knew what to expect which was a little bit of an advantage. I’ve thrown an image into this blog post of what we encountered when we went up there and a panorama I took the other week with the class.

The panorama is a little sad but I still like the graduation of green and the mass of grey clouds. Not every panorama situation can be all beautiful and sunny with strands of vivid colour running through the sky so I suppose this is the complete opposite of a Ken Duncan image. I would like to trip up to Mt Stromlo again but with the intention of capturing a sunset over the valley, that’d be pretty sweet. There is so much to photograph up there with all the burnt detail, sweeping valleys and hollowed out buildings.

The Industrial World.

1. Horizontal and Vertical Perspectives of the Interior 
2. Exterior of Building
3. Completing a Task
4. HDR Image
5. Panorama Shot 
6. Detailed Shot

This shoot was most interesting as I'd never had to take photos like these before, cold and sterile and industrial. I'm use to warmth and flare and pretty girls. But I did enjoy it, I learn't a new skill so what more could I ask for? 

Milling around while people were still working, trying to photograph them in their element seemed to be a little harder than expected. The young kids knew we were there; they constantly looked around searching for us and out large black inconspicuous cameras. I suppose this gave us something to work on, we had to creep around and be ready with our shutters the moment they forgot to keep their guard up.

Shooting the outside of a building was also something I’d never done before and I think I did an okay job of it. There were a gazillion cars parked out the front and a lonely dumpster crowding my frame so I didn’t manage to get the whole building but the red against the blue still looks pretty cool and the clouds reflecting on the glass isn’t the worst thing in the world.

I don’t normally like HDR’s, unsure of why but to me they always come out grey and need so much more work than first intended. I’m not complaining about having to do the work but for something that is supposed to make your life easier, it fails. This HDR was a little fulfilling though I must say, I could see how everything was well exposed and balanced. I only had to do a little work to make it bounce a little. 

Large Format Cameras are Wild.

So we were just hanging out with big beautiful pieces of history the other day in the courtyard, looking at converging lines, lens movements and tilt shift capabilities. RAD! Large Format Cameras take sheet film, not just rolls you can buy at Teds down the road. They have these film holders that can only fit 2 sheets each and I can't imagine having to load them in the dark let alone on location. CIT does have digital backs for them but I suppose if you're going to go to all that trouble of using the LFC then you'd probably want to do it right instead of all that work for 11 mega pixels.  I can't wait to get them out and have a play with the movements :)