Pictures should tell a story

I'm a believer that pictures should tell a story and create emotion. This is what I have attempted in the following pictures.

 

Bride

 

Bride and groom

 

Hopelessness

 

 

Heritage listed builing at The Rocks

 

Remembering Scheyville

Landscapes and Panoramas

I'm not really into landscapes and seascapes, but occassionaly I do a panorama shot.

 

Approaching storm over Sydney viewed from Long Reef. Nikon D7000, 1/2500 sec, f/7.1, 18mm, 200 ISO

 

Been fishing: Nikon D90, 1/1600 sec, f/8.0, 200mm, 200 ISO

 

Panorama of Fisherman's Beach, Long Reef

 

Super wide angle of entrance to Narrabeen Lagoon

 

Panorama of entrance to Narrabeen Lagoon

 

Panorama of Sydney Cricket Ground

 

Reflections, Sydney CBD

 

Storm surf at Dee Why

 

Stand up board rider

Birds and other wild life

I'm into birding - patience is required and often with no result. Some of my better shots were taken by chance - being at the right place at the right time. As with portraits of people the better shots of birds have the eyes in sharp focus and preferably with some catch light.

 

Gull in flight. Nikon D90, 1/2000 sec, f/5.6, 200mm, 200 ISO

 

Gull in flight. Nikon D90, 1/2000 sec, f/5.6, 200mm, 200 ISO

 

Portrait of a Nankeen Kestrel - Nikon D7000, 1/1250 sec, f/8.0, 500mm, 200 ISO

 

Portrait of a kookaburra - Nikon D90, 1/500 sec, f/8.0, 500mm, 200 ISO

 

Lorikeet - an aboreal parrot found on the east coast of Australia and now common in urban areas. They are nectar feeders and often seen around bottle-brush bushes. Nikon D90, F/5.6, 1/100 sec, 170mm, 200 ISO

 

Tawny frogmouths in my backyard - they are thought to be owls but they are not raptorial birds.

 

 

Cat's eye

 

Focussed on something

 

Experimenting with film

I enjoyed my days with film, and I do occassionaly shoot film today. I particularly like to experiment, and below are some examples:

 

Patterns of street and car lights by moving camera, slide film and reverse processed. Shot with a Nikon F60 on Fuji Sensia 200ASA. F11 at 10 seconds. Reverse processed.

 

 

 

Creative blur can be used for effect. Portrait, irridescent light shot with film. Black border on the right is due to my crappy scanning.

Fuji Sensia 100 ASA, f9.5, 2 secs. Under bulb light and cross processed.

 

Sydney night time, Agfa CT 100 ASA, F4.8, 1 sec, cross processed.

 

Display cabinet, shot with Nikon F60 and Fuji Sensia 200ASA, F5.6, 1/6 sec . Internal flouresecent light. Reverse processed.

 

 

Sydney opera house shot with film - deliberate movement to produce blur. Nikon F60, Fuji Reala 100ASA, F4.6 at 4 secs.

 

 

Abstract, film. Shot with a Nikon F60. I'll have to find my notes for film type, F setting, exposure time etc.

 

 

 

Patterns of street and car lights by long exposure, slide film and reverse processed. Shot with a Nikon F60 on Fuji Sensia 200ASA. F11 at 10 seconds. Reverse processed.

 

 

 

Reverse processing is a method of obtaining "negative prints". Pictures are taken in slide film and processed normally in E6 chemicals, but the film is not cut nor mounted. Instead, these positives are printed as you would "negatives" to onatine the negative prints. Dee Why street scene at night. Shot with slide film and reverse processed. Reverse processing is more suited to night scenes where weird effects can be achieved. Shot with a Nikon F60, Fuji Sensia 200ASA, F11 at 10 secs. Reversed processed.

 

 

Today is 13th December, the first day of the 12 days of Christmas. So it's appropriate to put up my Merry Christmas image.

The nativity figurines and Santa Claus were photographed in my home made light box, with both velveteen and white paper background. Two flashes used (SB910 and SB700) at various EV's and various locations relative to the figurines through double layer muslin. The tych was created using Tych Panel, a photoshop automation tool for Photoshop for the creation on diptychs, triptychs and ntychs by Reimond Trost. The text was added in Photoshop.

Below are just a few photos I took over the weekend. The first lot were takent at Dee Why RSL at the show Tumbling Dice - a Rolling Stones tribute band. The lens was a Nikkor 1.8 50mm, with no flash.
The birds were shot from my verandah with a  Sigma 150-500mm at 500mm.

 

 

Figurine shot in a home made light box. SB910 to camera right at -1.0ev. SB700 at camera left and slightly behind figurine. Black velveteen background. Flashes very close to light box and shot through two layers of muslin. Triggered with Nikon's CLS system.

Moon shot - most people do a moon shot, and below is mine. I have been reading up on lunar photography, and like star trains stacking images is the way to go, with freeware such as registax.

Moon - 1/200 sec, f/7.1, 500mm, 200 ISO

Diptychs originally were any 2 flat carved or painted panels attached at a hinge. This has been modified in recent times to encompass photography such that a diptych is two photos that fit together and are better than when apart. More than 2 photos can be added for example a triptych is 3 photos.

The purpose of many photographs is to tell a story. Diptychs, triptychs and n-tychs are great for photographic story-telling. I had previously used a tych of surfer Courtney Conlogue winning her semi final in the Beachley Classic at Dee Why beach.

Tych Panel v2 by Reimond Trost is a great Photoshop Panel for the creation of diptychs, triptychs and ntychs. It is basically an automation tool for Photoshop, and it is free, and is available at: lumens.se/tychpanel

A few more examples of tychs:

Sydney's Latin Fiesta at Darling Harbour

Bob Geldof in Sydney

Kestrel on the hunt

Developing a passion

Seagulls in flight

Singer with a comic action applied

Vivid Sydney and Lighting the Sails

Anzac Day

Textures - you either like them or loath them. I like them, they can add mood to what would be a rather drab or so-so image.

Textures are freely available on the net, and Flickr is a good source for free textures - see the "Textures for Layers" and "NinianLif's texture addicts" as good starting points. You can always photograph or create your own textures.

Adding textures to images is easy if using Photoshop CS5 or CS6. I use the Photoshp Panel by Russell Brown - he has a great Texture Panel for adding textures to images. It will only work in CS5 and CS6. Follow this link: russellbrown.com/scripts.html

Seagull in flight off Long Reef with texture added

Cat with texture (don't ask what he is doing with his tongue).

Rowboat in Pittwater with added texture.

Ettamogah pub with texture

Long Reef beach with texture.