Sagacity

My 2012 Photojourney

Here is a selection of my Photojourney for 2012. It was a year of learning, up until this year I never had worked out what kind of photography I loved, I now have discovered Landscape and what I call HDR Plus – The music is from around 1995 when I was in a band called ‘Sagacity’, I wrote the music and played guitar on the track, My cousin Darrin wrote and sang lyrics, his brother Matt played Bass and and another cousin, Brad played drums… a bit of a family affair! It was a lot of fun so I thought I would share it along with my photojourney for 2012… enjoy!

Instagram can sell your photo’s

Is it time to Instapanic?

It seems that Instagram has overtaken the headlines today, the company released new T&C’s (Terms and Conditions) that allows it to sell users images and information to advertisers without re-imbursing or compensating the original owner. Apparently this will take effect from the 16th January 2013 and I am not sure if it cause for panic just yet… thousands of users have been deleting their accounts and there is a flurry of negative comments across the internet in regards to the move by Instagram, my guess is that the message will be received loud and clear and the T&C’s may end up being revised or changed. But is it time to panic? I don’t think so… the change is 3 weeks away and this will give you time to consider your options, the risk of your images being used online is always present, as soon as you upload it you’re taking a risk… I wonder how many Instagram users have used an image without consent, or worse still, copied music or software? At least Instagram are asking for your permission. I am not sure of my stand on this one, and wasn’t getting a great benefit out of it anyway, so for me I may just close my account… I am interested in your feedback and thoughts so leave a comment if you’re up for it…

Today’s iCandy – Lifeguard

Along many beaches are these cool lifeguard towers… this one is on Kurrawa Beach at Broadbeach.

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Taking photo’s through glass

Eliminating reflections

I was invited to a dinner at a restaraunt called 360, for those of you unfamiliar with Sydney, that is the revolving restaraunt at the top of Sydney Tower. It stands 309 metres (1014ft) high above the Sydney CBD making for a ‘birds eye view’ of the city. Being the keen photographer that I am I took my DSLR to dinner… you never know, if conversation gets boring I can excuse myself and indulge in some image creation…

I did get the opportunity to grab some pics, and the first issue I faced was reflections, I thought if I get my lens really close to the glass, I would eliminate it… no such luck, what was worse, was these windows are double glazed, and the reflection from the outer pane of glass is destroying my image! I really didn’t get anything I was happy with.

I was planing a trip to the Gold Coast, and whilst the Sydney Tower is tall, the Q1 tower on the Gold Coast is taller! I wanted to get a shot from the top of Q1 and I knew they would probably have similar construction so I decided to start working out how to eliminate the reflections. Below I share with you how I shoot through glass.

The Gold Coast comes to life at night…

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To avoid reflections when shooting through double glazed glass you need three items

 

Rubber Lens Hood

1. A rubber Lens Hood. They come in all shapes and sizes, and I found with my wide angle lens it was visible in the corners so make sure you get a hood that will suit your lens. There are UWA rubber lens hoods. The hood allows you to press/rest your lens up against the glass to eliminate any reflections on the inner glass panel, you will still have reflections on the second ‘double’ panel of glass in the case of double glazing that a lot of these towers have unless you use item number two!

Dark Cloth

2. A dark Cloth. To get rid of the reflections on the outer pane of glass, you need to hang a dark cloth on the window, and then shoot through it. Use a 30cm x 30cm cloth, cut an X in the middle of it big enough for your lens to fit through, I suggest make it a snug fit, so it wont slip over your lens hood, this way it all stays together nicely during your shoot.

Suction Cups with Hooks

3. Suction cups (unless you are an octopus then you won’t need the suction cups). The final piece of the puzzle, use the suction cups to mount your dark cloth to the glass.

Basically, you are creating a dark room for the end of your lens, I also cleaned the glass where I was shooting to get rid of the fingerprints left by previous admirers. So there you have it… a nice cheap and effective solution to shooting through glass.

Finally Home… YAY!

788 images later…

After a week away I am pleased to be home, there is nothing like my own bed! I have downloaded all my images from my memory cards to my Mac and surprised to see that I had taken 788 images! This will keep me busy for a little while… A lot of them are several of the same composition as I find with sunrise and sunset the colour keeps changing so I just keep shooting, that way I am going to have something I am happy with. A couple of locations I was really excited about shooting was a church in Armidale and the Gold Coast from Q1 skypoint observatory, both of which have turned out to be fantastic shots that I will share with you later.

the daily pic – Night Shift

‘Night Shift’ – The first day I was on the Gold Coast the weather wasn’t very good. I always prefer a few clouds in my shots as it creates drama and interesting shapes and textures, especially at night. The gold coast makes this “Shift” as the sun goes down and the people leave the beach to enjoy the night life… enjoy!

(Click on the photo to order yourself a print or to download (please see licensing for the rules!)

Lifes a Beach…

Enjoying a short stroll to the beach

I am currently away with my family on the Gold Coast, I have been getting up each morning for sunrise and it has been great to roll out of bed and stroll across the road to the beach. Back home I am an hours drive away from the beach so a bit more planning and thought has to go into my shoots… I am yet to get the ‘cracker’ of a sunrise I am after… Hopefully it will turn up before I have to head home…

It is good to see some of you have registered for the 21st October Photowalk at Long Reef. It is a great location and if you’re into photography I know you’re going to love this spot! If you haven’t registered yet you can do so on FACEBOOK or GOOGLE+ (click on your favourite)

the daily pic – the Seagulls

The beach comes to life early here, a lot of people are out for their morning ritual as the seagulls hold an early morning meeting to discuss their chip snatching strategies for today… enjoy!

Q1

My pic is featured on the Photomerchant page!

Photomerchant is the company that I use to host my portfolio, they are an Aussie company that is the solution for anyone that wants to be able to sell their photo’s online. If you head to their Facebook page, you will see my image ‘Sunkissed’ featured as their cover image… and out of hundreds, maybe thousands of photographers they work with, they were happy to have my image up in lights!

the daily pic – Q1

I have a few shots from when I stayed at Broadbeach. I took these when I was on my balcony, level 31 of Peppers resort. If you look into the distance you can see Q1, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere.

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Golden hour on the Gold Coast

I took this picture at sunset from my balcony. I was staying at Broadbeach at Peppers Resort on the 31st Floor. I just love the colours in this picture, the HDR processing really brings a cityscape to life for me. I have just had this image printed 30″ x 20″ and it looks awesome. I will be framing it this weekend and my intention is to put together a quick insight/tutorial on how to frame your own pictures. It is actually easier than it looks, although this will be the largest print I have ever personally framed!

Click on the photo to order yourself a print or to download (please see licensing for the rules!)