Tag: photography

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2012 Retrospective

It’s hard to believe another year has already rolled around. It doesn’t feel that long ago that I was writing a post this time last year with photos from 2011.

This year my photography increased quite a bit over the previous year partly due to a little side project called the Art of Baking that I’ve setup with my girlfriend (more on this towards the end). I’m happy with the direction my photography is going in. Probably like you, I’m never happy with my photography and there’s always a little thing or two that bugs me when I go to look back as the months pass. But finally I feel that I have a grip on the processing and composition where it’s feeling natural and isn’t just riding the current trend like others are known for. I love with photography that there’s always room for improvement and we’re constantly learning and developing. This is what keeps me coming back to apply new things and styles I’ve learnt.

Some of these things I’ve learnt throughout the years I’ve tried to document in various articles on this blog. Just in case you missed any here’s a recap with links through to the articles:

 

Bay of Fires, Tasmania

The year started off on a huge high for me photographically speaking. I’d spent a lot of time as a kid around the St Helen’s/Bay of Fires area when I wasn’t into photography so it was always high on my list to take some photos around there with nice light and colour in the sky. My family booked a holiday house up there after the New Year and we spent a few days up there. We spent a lot of time as kids around Beerbarrel Beach catching waves on our foam boogie boards at the time. It’s some of my favourite memories so it was nice to go back with camera in hand and get some photos. This was the result from a spectacular sunset one evening.

Aami Park

After coming home from a few weeks in Tasmania over the New Year, I was itching to take a photo of Aami Park on sunset when an A-League soccer (err… football rather) game was on to capture the stadium all lit up. Lucky for me I didn’t realise they used fireworks upon a goal being scored. It was a nice way to start the year shooting in Melbourne.

Docklands, Melbourne

Photo Mingling

Last year I tried to make an effort to meet new photographers as it’s always nice to meet others that share our odd obsession for standing around as our cameras expose for a long exposure. After many emails back and forth I met Jon Sander, a talented designer from Melbourne. We shot a few times throughout the year and are hoping to pull our socks up and do it at least once a month over 2013. Here’s hoping! PS, you owe me a beer Jon 😉

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Daily Carry

This year I tried to make an effort to carry my camera when riding to work or visiting friends for lunch of a weekend to capture things I might normally capture with my iPhone/Galaxy S3 on Instagram. These were a  couple of my favourite photos captured from randomly carrying my camera over the year.

 

Double Exposure Blending Tutorial

I’m always eager to read about new techniques whether it be in camera or in photoshop. One of these techniques was creating a double exposure blend which I created a tutorial about on YouTube. It’s a neat little trick that is worth a try if you have a close up photo of yourself and an image to blend over the top.

Landscapes and a Slight Mishap…

I also shot quite a bit with Ben Jensz over the year. Ben is someone I met when I first moved to Melbourne. We’ve tried to get around recent ish places to Melbourne as much as we can and this year was no exception. Although not shooting as much we would have liked, we got some photos in at Cape Schanck and various water falls around Victoria.

But there was one slight hiccup for me this year. The day my camera fell and went for a swim. It was all set up ready to capture a photo of Turpin Falls and was exposing for the minute until mid way through the exposure it somehow moved and fell into the water. As you can imagine I was devastated and had the camera inspected by Canon who declared it dead. Cutting my losses I quickly bought another Canon 5D Mark II to replace the camera so I could get back out shooting again and put the loss behind me. Sucks.

This was a photo of Turpin Falls captured just before the camera slipped and fell into the water…

But as I said, a replacement camera wasn’t far away and I quickly made sure to order a new one. Here I am with my baby 😉

Last Couple of the Year

Unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of shooting towards the end of the year and here’s a couple from December at Park Beach and Clifton Beach both in Tasmania.

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 Art of Baking

We’ve had a lot of fun with the project with a rising amount of traffic coming through and features in a couple of local magazines. I’ve found it quite challenging shooting with lights due to the obvious difference over my normal style of long exposure photography. But for the most part it’s been a fun project that I’ve really enjoyed doing with Rani. Without her baking prowess it would be nothing. I’ve tried to separate the baking photos by presenting them at the end. Be sure to check out our little blog.

 Thanks!

And that’s it for another year. Thanks for all your continual support over the year. It never goes unnoticed and I appreciate it a lot. I hope you had a great year.

You might also be interested in my 2010 Retrospective and 2011 Retrospective posts from previous years.

If you have any comments or just feel like saying hi, be sure to drop a line. I always look forward to hearing from people so don’t be a stranger.

Thanks,

– Alex

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Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) Explained

Recently a friend purchased his first DSLR camera and we’ve been getting out doing some shooting around Melbourne and Tasmania (where he’s based). Helping someone starting out with photography has been rewarding as I’ve been able to show him the things that I wish I knew when I was starting out with photography which has forced me to go back and read up on things. The little things like explaining the various camera filters and learning about features on your camera that you didn’t know were there. One of these features is the Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) feature. As cameras have advanced, the AEB feature comes standard with most cameras now days. This guide is more so written for Canon cameras but the logic can easily be applied to other brands.

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Photography Tips – Composition

Hi all,

A little while ago I was asked by Digital Photography Magazine to write up a small article on how photographers can improve their photography with some photography composition tips. It was a little challenging sitting down coming up with the tips as most of these composition tips are things you begin to naturally incorporate into your photography workflow without realising.

In the end I provided Digital Photography Magazine with 6 different styles of composition that I try to rely on upon arriving at a scene and feeling slightly unsure what I’ll be photographing. Keeping an eye out for reflections, leading lines, colour in the sky, simple compositions or even compositions that would benefit from being placed in the middle of a frame, gives me some variety in how I might photograph the scene on the day.  They’re not rocket science but are a common theme across all my photographs which have got me to where I am today.

Be sure to catch the tips in the next edition of Digital Photography Magazine.

Thanks,

– Alex

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SEO Tips for Photographers

I’m by no means an expert at Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and if anything, still very much an amateur. But nevertheless I find SEO an interesting topic and have benefited from optimising my content over the years to develop a consistent stream and rise of traffic to my blog.

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2011 Retrospective

I can’t believe the year is almost over. It has been a busy but fun year.  Here are a collection of photographs I’ve taken over the year. Hope you enjoy.

Hobart

Earlier in the year (note – 3am on New Years Day) I thought it would be a great idea to apply for a job in Melbourne and move away from Hobart for a bit. I applied for a job later that day without actually thinking I’d get an interview but soon found out they wanted to hire me and I had 10 days to move over.  Find somewhere to live, move all my belongings over, no biggy? It was a rush and a mad fortnight of trying to spend time with everyone before I went. These images are all captured during this time.

Star trails – New years day

It was the first time I’d been to Mona Foma since it started a few years ago. Friends and I made an effort to get along to as much as possible which was a blast. I’m disappointed I’ll be missing it next year especially with word Girl Talk is playing.


All man on my pink chair…

I started a little project called The Travelling Camera. I’ve been lazy with it this year but it’s a project where an Olympus OM-2n film camera sent with a list of things to photograph to friends. So far three people have done the project and just waiting on a fourth. If you’re interested in participating in it next year, be sure to contact me.

Before I left I was rather keen to tag along on a trip up to the Great Lakes with Sam Shelley. It’s an amazing place and somewhere I hope to explore more when I one day move back to Tasmania.

During the 10 days, I had to quickly find somewhere to live in Melbourne. I flew over to Melbourne for the day to look at four places, all of which offering me leases. It worked out well and I was able to pick the unit I wanted most.

But it was soon time to pack up and move away.

Leaving Devonport on the Spirit of Tasmania

Melbourne

Arriving into Melbourne at 6am and being greeted by 30 degree heat.

The first few months of moving over I was rather lazy and went into tourist mode.

AFL – Watching Carlton draw against Essendon. I ended up going to 7 games throughout the year which is odd as I don’t actually have a team.

Albert Park – Where I sometimes like to go running.

Drinking possibly a little too much coffees.

Discovering a new found love in ph?.


Working those star jumps…


Long exposure of traffic entering Exhibition Street (near work).

Throughout the year I had a play with some timelapse. I’m lazy and never got around to finishing the clip but here is a selection of clips captured throughout the Melbourne CBD.

Oh… And of course a yoyo clip (much to the amusement of the guys I work with who randomly came across my Youtube channel).

Shrine of Remembrance

Living reasonably close to the city, I sometimes like to run or walk home. Taken during winter as I was leaving work.

Another photo as I made my way home from work.

Back to Hobart Briefly…

I went back to Hobart for my birthday to catch up with friends and family. Having not been taking many photographs since moving to Melbourne, I was pretty keen to have some early mornings and shoot some sunrises.

Mt Wellington from the Hobart Eastern Shore.

Overcast sunrise at South Arm, Tasmania

Playing around with reflections at Eaglehawk Neck on sunrise

Back to Melbourne

When I got back to Melbourne I was asked to photograph our IT staff for the staff intranet and phone book. It was different but fun.

A friend – I like this one.

It took me a while to start leaving the city and taking photographs. I was lucky to meet some guys who shared the same interest as me so we made a few trips throughout the year.  This series is from Marysville.

Playing around at Docklands on sunset

Cape Woolamai – I took a trip down to Cape Woolamai, Phillip Island with some friends who I also went to Marysville with. It was probably my favourite place I’ve taken photos all year.

Clouds passing above during a 13 minute exposure at Elwood Beach.

And finally, another trip back to Marysville on a cold and wet morning. Probably my second favourite set from this year and a nice set to close with.

 

I hope you enjoyed these photographs and thank you for all the support from people who have commented and emailed throughout the year.

– Alex

Click here to view my 2010 Retrospective.