The wire

Slowly easing back into a more regular post holiday posting pattern…

Walk on by

This reminded me of the low res printing that I saw in newspapers before digital. It’s nice when the situations throw in a filter for free.

Hammered

– This image best describes how I am beginning to feel lately

Walking the dog

We try and get a daily walk in, taking different routes around the neighbourhood and Bohdi has responded well but is still learning how to act around other dogs. He is not aggressive but does not really know his own strength and the play biting behaviour might be mistaken as aggression by someone that did not know better.

One of the upsides is when the light and the weather are good there are always opportunities to make some images but holding still is not one of Bohdi’s skills yet, so they tend to be things we encounter along the way.

 

Patience

It took five hours from the time I first saw this faded sign for the sun to get in the right place to cast the shadows from the peeled paint like I know it would.

This is what I saw earlier in the morning and as the light was behind the sign  there was not a lot I could do with it then and there. It always pays to think about where the light is and where it can and will be.

Now I could have sat there and waited but I found other things to do.  Patience in this case is more like knowing something will come and being ready for it rather than just giving up and walking away…

 

Out scouting

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Sometimes it’s okay to keep it simple, go out with minimal gear and just look around.

This weekend I spent some time in Melbourne doing just that and these are some of the images. I’m happy with the two images of the posts in terms of composition.  I want to go back and see what they are like when it is not overcast. The late afternoon light will also change the way these look in terms of colour temperature. The stonework and ironwork door details were just a starting point. I want to go back when the sun is higher so that is just grazes the stonework and brings out the texture.

I tend to try and work quickly, unless there is something worth more effort it is best to keep moving. The images I make on these occasions act as a notebook to jog my memory. They prompt me so that next time I’m in that location I may be able to improve on what I saw with a different lens or time of day.  My phone does a pretty good job of note-taking. I can throw together camera images, location details and other notes fairly easily.

Go around the back

I finally get to have a breather after an intense few weeks getting the latest paper ready for submission. A walk around Kyneton yesterday morning produced some images I’m pretty happy with. I took a different route through town and was rewarded. The peeling paint was found off the main street behind an old hall. The “building” theme for this month can be ticked off now.

I also took a different approach in that I packed light and limited myself to prime lenses a 40mm macro and my old 90mm macro. It got me moving rather than zooming, and my back was very grateful for the reprieve as I used an old Lowepro bumbag instead of a heavier backpack. That 90mm lens has been with me for 20 years. It gives me a good working distance for macro and doubles as a portrait lens. Unfortunately it needs replacing as the focusing has problems, so it is at the top of the wish list.

While I’m on the topic of upgrades, I mentioned some issues in a previous post that meant I have been looking at a new way to work with RAW files. I was going to upgrade to Lightroom 5 but I have too many reservations and so I am looking at alternatives, including Capture One Express which was used for these images. It does look and feel a lot like Lightroom but the range of presets and export options is limited. I’m not sure that is a bad thing and it had no problem with RAW images from my camera. Based on this and what happened with my lens selection yesterday I am starting to think less is more…

“Faking” it

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The light, the leaf and all the elements of the image above are real. What is fake is that none of it was as seen here when I first came across it. I made decisions that took these elements and arranged for them to look this way and those decisions extended to changing the light.

Let me explain. Last weekend I was out walking and I saw this bridge railing. The light was pre-dawn and a little overcast, so there was no definition. I liked the curve and I thought about what I could do to bring that out.

I made two decisions straight away. I created some contrast by using an off-camera flash coming from the right hand side and I simplified the composition by going closer and losing the top and bottom rails. I used a wide aperture to isolate a section. It looked better to me but I felt it needed more.

The next decisions resulted in the final series of images. I saw the leaf on the ground nearby and it had the right colour contrast against the steel. There was also the contrast of organic against industrial textures. I needed somewhere to place the leaf  so the bottom rail came back into frame. I also shifted the flash to the left hand side to avoid shadows falling across the rail. It made more dramatic shadows as well.

Now if there is a point to this post it’s that you should always give yourself permission to change what is in front of you when it suits. It is no worse than adding a filter or making changes in post.  Another point is to always ask yourself what you can add or take away.