The start of something new

Today could have gone in 2 directions, we have now headed into the 2nd direction …

Most of you will know, that after the unbelievable run at the end of the season where Parramatta won 10 of the last 11 to go from nowhere to the grand final has ended in disappointment (figuratively).  As players and fans openly wept in disappointment after perhaps the biggest game of rugby league to date, it’s hard not to be excited for the future. 


Ofcourse we all wanted the fairytale finish, and nobody wanted it more than the carryovers from the 2001 grand final defeat.  The final score isn’t too much different from that game in 2001, but this is different.  2001 left a taste of bitterness and frustration in an embarrassing defeat.  As a result, players left, coaches eventually found new teams, and the eels crashed back into mediocrity.  2009, same spotlight, still a defeat, but as the camera showed the myriad of young faces on the Parramatta squad, you can’t help but be excited for the next few seasons. 

 

The likes of Mortimer, Hayne, Moimoi, Inu, Grothe and Reddy flanked by seasoned vets such as Cayless, Hindmarsh, and Burt already sounds like a promising future.  Let’s not forget the return of much loved centre Timana Tahu, and the additions of Shane Shackleton and Justin Poore starting from next season.

I hope the young players remember this feeling and hold onto it until they win a grand final.  This feeling is what’s going to drive them to victory, it’ll make them work that much harder in training and in the off-season.  And Hindmarsh … well we all just want to see him win.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t do it today.  But we got a great young team, and we’ll give it a good crack next year” Nathan Cayless during the post game ceremony.  All Parra fans should be proud of this team and how far they’ve come, you’ve done us proud and we’ll definitely be there in support come opening game next season.

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Shades of 2001

“Once again our second half defence was absolutely outstanding” ~ Daniel Anderson

It was a game that had the feel of a Grand Final, loser gets sent packing, and winner takes all.  It wasn’t, but for

the players and the 74549 fans, there couldn’t have been a better game of footy.  Friday night was about Hayne, it was about El Masri, and it was about Sydney.  But throughout the course of the game, there was trouble for the stars. 

Patten taking an accidental knock to the head in the first play for the bulldogs.
Hayne on report for coming in with his knees when Goodwin scored the first try.

El Masri moving the fullback to accomodate the loss of Patten, and thus exposing the doggies right side defence to the brilliance of Inu and Burt.
Parra skipper Nathan Cayless limping down the tunnel with a hamstring injury

With all this going on, it’s easy to get sidetracked and lose your way in a game as important as this.  Fortunately for Parramatta, the supporting cast stepped up to keep the pressure on.  Eventually, after 70minutes of see-sawing scorelines, the tries came rolling in.


The win on Friday night was a credit to the underrated players of today’s game.  Starting with Ben Smith (left), was once a part of Parramatta’s backline.  After being sidelined with injury, is now in the 2nd row as a strong defender and reliable attacker.  Let’s not forget the awesome catch he made against the Titans to score a try.

Jeff Robson (middle), before last night, did you even know who he was?  Now you can refer to him as the “landscape gardener on minimum wage who got man of the match in possibly the biggest game Sydney has ever seen”  Sure he’s not the most exciting player, or even the most skilful.  But he brings solid defence, great organisational skills and a steady hand in possibly the most unpredictable team in the comp. 

Joel Reddy (right), always overshadowed by the great accomplishments of his father Rod Reddy.  When he’s not being compared to his dad, he’s being called mini-Hindmarsh (the resemblance is justified).  He is definitely the most underrated player in the team, he scores tries, saves tries, and even puts the Guru through a gap every now and then. 

We all love the stars of the game, but we can’t take these guys for granted.  The guys that throw “hand-grenades” before being held in a tackle, the guys that are always in support (ie the try by Daniel Mortimer), and the guys who spend half the match with their faces in the turf to keep the ball in possesion.  Grand Final is ours to win or lose, we’ve made history over the last 11 weeks, we just need to do it for another 80mins. 

At the end of the day, Jarryd Hayne’s Dally M medal, 7 game win streak, beating the Dragons, Titans and Bulldogs in succession … all this will have been for nothing if the Grand Final isn’t ours.  Nathan Hindmarsh knows what I’m on about “we’ve come from nowhere to being 8th and now in the grand final … but we haven’t won anything yet” ~ Hindy during the postgame conference.  Oh by the way, congratulations on 259 career games, tied in 1st with Ray Price. 

Maybe next Sunday can erase the bitter taste that I’ve had in my mouth since the 2001 grand finals. 

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The Impossible Dream

Not too long ago everybody wrote off the Parramatta Eels for this season. Inconsistent form, frustrating combinations, handling errors and a genuine lack of creativity from key playmakers turned what was supposed to be a promising season into a landslide.

Fast forward a month or two, the eels officially had no mathematical chance of making the finals. Nathan Hindmarsh once said on the footy show “we need to win 9 out of our next 8 to make the top 8”. The next night Parra played Melbourne in Hindy’s 250th career game for the eels, we won.

We also won the next 6 games, finishing off with a great game against the West Tigers. The city of Parramatta was buzzing, the papers couldn’t get enough of Jarryd Hayne, these 7 straight wins were a direct result of his brilliance. All of a sudden people were calling the Eels premiership contenders, they were talking about Hayne the way people talk about Kobe … “we know he’s going to get the ball, we can’t stop him, all we can do is try to limit his chances and make it harder for him”

The following week, Eels played the Dragons, who at the time were in a heated battle for 1st place alongside the Bulldogs. I remember saying “we’re going to beat the dragons, we’ve won 7 straight, they’ve lost 3 straight”. The scoreline … 37 – 0, Dragons win.

1st week of finals football, Parra played the Dragons (yes, again) 1st vs 8th, and after the 37-0 drubbing the previous week there were a lot of doubts over this game. In a remarkable display of hard-nosed defence and a bit of luck, Parra won the match by 15pts at Dragons home ground.

Parramatta fans flooded to Sydney Football Stadium the following friday to play the Gold Coast Titans in the quarter finals. The motto was to take it one game at a time, and the Titans were the 3rd seed with a great halfback-fullback combination in Scott Prince and Preston Campbell. But a spirited performance from the supporting cast such as Todd Lowry, Ben Smith and Jonathan Wright helped bring the Parramatta faithful to their feet.

Notable performances include:

- Nathan Hindmarsh (as always) : 49 tackles, 10 Hitups … and a fair few crucial tackles at that
- Jarryd Hayne (why is nobody surprised?) : 165 Run meters, 357 Kick meters, 17 Break tackles (17!)
- Fuifui Moimoi : Just because he’s FUUUUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"The confidence comes from just playing in tough matches week after week,”

"Realising we are good enough to withstand pressure and counter-punch.

That is what the confidence comes from."

With that being said, I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. But we are all witnesses, friday made the history books, Eels had never beaten Titans before (EVER). Time to make history again, win the premiership from the 8th position and get some redemption from that 2001 season.

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It’s an Arms Race (Chapter 1)

Admit it, photography has come a long way. Gone are the days where you pretty much need your own photographic darkroom for processing and development to be called a pro. In fact, pros now have a digital darkroom in a workstation as small as a MacBook Pro. This should make things easier … right?

Well … technically no. I’ll provide a structured series of arguments to sway any doubters, and if there are still doubters after that we can settle it with a bar fight lol.

Before you read on .. make sure you WATCH the videos, they’re awesome. Even if you’ve seen them before you’ll enjoy watching it again.

The Cons of using film:

- overexposed and underexposed negatives when taking the photo is harder to fix
- If you have your own darkroom and do your own developing manually, there is a chance of overdeveloping or underdeveloping the film. Which makes the negs pretty poor quality despite how good you took the photo

- If you use a manual enlarger, there is the change of overexposing or underexposing when transferring the image from the neg to the light sensitive photographic paper

That’s 3 major steps where minor mistakes will affect the desired result out of your images. If you are careful enough, most of the time things go well, but sometimes you just can’t do a whole lot about it. After reading that, it would be safe to assume that being a digital professional is much easier.

In that respect … yes (not to fret, I haven’t changed my mind). Sure I can take photos in RAW format (giving me ample room to fix exposure), and sure if I mess something up in processing I can hit the undo button. Even the printing of photos are neglected as most people would prefer a copy of the images on a CD so they can facebook it. As a result of this, in today’s photographic world, it makes it really hard for an individual to stand out. When people apply for photographic positions, they often get asked what equipment they have. If I was an employer I would favour the candidate with the more serious equipment over the one with basic equipment.

I know what you’re all thinking, it’s the photographer not the equipment. And I would say that you’re correct, however that’s just not the way society works. Many brilliant people get overlooked no matter how good their work is all because their gear wasn’t as serious as the guy next to him. I don’t blame them because that’s just the way it works. When a customer is asking me about DSLRs and he brings up the fact that he used to be a “pro”, I automatically ask what lenses and what bodies he worked with. And sure enough after telling me his life story, he’ll name some of the lenses that he has and I’ll end up thinking “are you serious? That’s some pretty basic stuff” And eventually I would see some photos that he did back in the glory days and I’ll think to myself “If I had a son, and he was 3yrs old, he could take better photos than that”

The problem here is that film SLR pros don’t understand the nature of digital photography. They even undermine it and brush it away, while us digital users do the exact same to film people. I’m not saying there weren’t any great photographers back then, there are … Max Dupain, Kiichiro Ishida to name a few. But there are a lot of people that will think “I can tell this kid I was a pro and he’ll believe me because he’s young enough to be my grandson and that digital photography will never match film photography”.

If you are one of those people, read on. If you’re not, well … read on anyway.

The game has changed, and if you’re not willing to hop onto the bullet train we’re leaving you behind. Gone are the days where you could win the dunk contest with a tomahawk, these days you’ll need to dress up in green and jump over a 7ft tall superman and complete the dunk to get a good score.

The simple truth is … digital photography has taken photography as an art, as a source of communication and a source of evidence to new heights. With film, 400 ISO provided some pretty grainy photos … on the Canon 5D MkII … what grain? Too dark, cant shoot? Let me just pump up my ISO to 6400 while you sit there and ponder how you’ll get a shot that doesn’t turn out pitch black.

Digital will never reach film? Please, us digital shooters are so multitalented that we can even piece together some hectic short videos shot ENTIRELY on an SLR. Go on, watch the video

What up? That’s another point to the digital crowd.

I won’t overload you with too much info in one go. In fact I haven’t gotten to the heart of my real argument. Think of this as an intro if you must, but things will make more sense as I post up the rest of my beef over the next week or so.

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Busy Days

Many of you will have noticed that I haven’t been writing anywhere near as often as I used to. There’s a very simple explanation for that … wait for it .. UNI. Between Organic Chemistry and Inorganic Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry and Physical Evidence, it’s hard to find time to write these days.


Lucky for me, I still find a small amount of time to get inspired and take the occasional photo. In fact as I’m writing this I’m watching the Wallabies vs Springboks rugby match (Steyn is a magician out there). The world champs are really flexing their muscles right now.

I won’t reveal too much, but there’s some exciting movement in the photographic plans at the moment which involves some possible new equipment along with some other stuff that could lead to more shoots and more work. On a side note, I’m writing & posting this using Windows Live Writer which is surprisingly intuitive and easy to use.

Oh and how rude of me … I introduce my brothers Chuck and Cam

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The Persistence of Our Memories

There is an interesting concept about time. If I was to describe time not in hours or days or years, I would have to describe it relative to another significant moment. Many before me have tried to define it, many have tried to control it (albeit unsuccessfully). Me, I just want to capture it, freeze it, and imprison it for all to see.

Space and time are merely human inventions in a crude attempt to comprehend the world. Philosophers, physicists, religious leaders have all been able to come up with a feeble attempt of describing the phenomenon that is time and space. The most noble attempt by far has to be from the self proclaimed genius Salvatore Dali in his painting "The Persistence of Memories"

This painting is absolute genius. The feeling you get when you first see this painting is impossible to describe. It's a mixture of shock, awe, bewilderment and wonder. To top it off, nobody knows what it means. Why melting clocks? Why FOUR clocks? What is the meaning behind the ants crawling on the clock in the bottom left corner?

In this painting, time has forever been immobilized by Dali. Three watches, suffering the same creative death while a fourth lies mysteriously in its own secluded corner oblivious to its own impending disaster. It doesn't tell time, perhaps it doesn't even have hands. This fourth clock lies there, mocking us in its self-sufficiency, inviting us to come and open it and forever tame its secrets. These watches melt so that our time on earth is not represented by a ticking time bomb.

The persistence of our memories, at times liberating and at times suffocating, but always fleeting. Its meaning? Elusive

NB: On a completely different note, perhaps Dali just melted some chesse which instantly inspired him to paint this cacophany of madness onto canvas.

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Serene

To many people, silence is the solution to a lot of problems in their lives. There is something quite serene to being alone in certain places. I'll admit that I prefer not to be alone in most situations, but there are a select few moments/places where the silence is golden. After all, silence is the real conversation between friends, not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts.

In situations like this, there is nothing like being alone. This is the foyer of The Venetian, often crowded with gamblers and tourists, it's rare to be able to get a photo with absolutely nobody around. For a split second, it is as if you own the place, and you're not sharing it with anybody else.

Leonardo Da Vinci once said "If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself, or even less, in proportion to the thouglessness of his conduct; and if you have more than one companion, you will all more deeply into the same plight.

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Light Show

Perhaps the hardest type of landscape to capture is cityscape at night time. The lights from buildings are contrasted against the dark shadows and a lot of the time it doesn't turn out the way you want it.

The easiest way to capture a night landscape is to use a long exposure on a tripod. This was a 5 photo HDR merged with Photomatix Pro 3 and processed in Photoshop CS3. It's a slightly different representation of HK harbour, with much more contrast and mood than what you normally see. Personally I quite like the big white halo of light suspended above the main tower, I actually have no idea what it is (but it's in most of these photos).

In any major city there will be photo opportunities like this, but here's my list of what I think are the best for night landscape:

- Las Vegas (Casinoes, bright lights, interesting personalities ... what more do you want?)

- Macau (like a mini Vegas, great if you're not 21 or can't afford Vegas)

- Paris (Art, fashion, culture)

- Beijing (those Olympic buildings look great at night)

- Alaska (aurora borealis ... enough said)

So ... if you live in or near these places, what are you waiting for? If I were you I'd be out night after night trying to improve on my shots. After all, Sydney only gives you a certain amount of options before you get sick of it.

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Why not

Every so often, we feel an urge to do this ...

Yes, you do

Maybe you don't go through the thought process of "I don't feel like waiting for the traffic on my side to clear so I'm going to take my bright red scooter through absolute chaos and see if I make it"

But surely there have been times where you just go "I'm going do something completely out of the ordinary just because I feel like it". Every once in a while, something like this will happen even if it makes no sense whatsoever.

Have a look around you, you'll see examples of this all over the place.

Maybe I'll even be there to photograph it ...

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Another game, another milestone

On monday July 20th 2009 Nathan Hindmarsh played in his 250th career game.

Over his years as a Parramatta Eel, Hindmarsh has been the face of consistency. Every single week, no matter how bad the Eels are playing, you can count on him to have a stat line of 45 tackles and 15 hit ups ... easy. If an opposing player was on the fly to score a try, he'll be there. If an opponent is trying to barge over the defensive line and score from close range, he'll be the one lying underneath the ball to hold it up. There was nothing spectacular about the game he had against Melbourne, but guess what, he had 48 tackles and 13 hitups while inspiring his team to a hard fought victory. If every player on the team played with the same commitment that Hindmarsh does, Parra would be a much better team.

Did I also mention all 250 games were with the Eels? In this day and age where club loyalty isn't a big thing, that kind of milestone is just unheard of. I'll throw in some examples:

- Craig Wing signing with Japanese RL (wtf?)

- When Willie Mason, Mark O'Meley went to the roosters (cmon now .. )

- Tahu to union

- Brett Finch (enough said)

I'll just say that not too many of these deals went down too well in public opinion, except maybe for Tahu, only because he's such a cool guy.

Let's not forget Hindmarsh is only 30 years old, there's plenty more mileage left in those legs and I have no doubt that he will make it to 300 games AND end his career with the Eels. When it's all said and done, Hindy will go down as one of the greatest forwards, second rowers, Eel to ever play the game.

Yes, he still hold the record for most tackles in a single game: 75 tackles vs ... Melbourne Storm in 2007. What kind of monster finds the strength to make 75 tackles? He has got to be the most underrated player in the league right now, he's so good that people take him for granted. The last 2 years he's been snubbed from Origin for players like Laffranchi and Learoyd Lahrs (how many people even know him?), yet he continues to play like a man inspired night in night out.

Good on ya Hindy, the way you play the game is a testament to rugby league.

And another thing ... he blogs too

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Parra Eels vs Melbourne Storm (18-16)

In what was advertised as Parra legend Nathan Hindmarsh's 250th game for the Eels, this game quickly turned into a showdown between 2 of the best full backs in the league. Whenever one would pull off something brilliant, the other would answer back with a show of his own.

Jarryd Hayne continued his brilliant form sparked mid-season by State of Origin, and proved a handful for the Melbourne defense whenever he got the ball. On offense he continuously got involved in set plays and made half breaks to keep the Storm on their toes. On defense he ran down Billy Slater multiple times (which isn't easy) and saved a number of tries with his excellent positioning.

As always, Billy Slater looks dangerous every time he touches the ball and if it wasn't for some hard nosed Parra defense the score line would read a Melbourne victory. Slater played an important role, along with Greg Inglis (origin center) and Cooper Cronk to lead a late rush after being down by 10-0 at the half.

Don't worry I haven't forgotten that this was supposed to be Hindmarsh's game, I'll elaborate more on that in tomorrows post with some more photos from the game.

Both photos were taken with the EOS 50D and EF 70-200 f2.8L IS USM.

Settings: ISO 1600, 1/320, f/2.8

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New plug-in ... Color Efex

On a night where you're bored, there's really nothing to do but shoot.



The steps I used included:
- HDR merge 5 exposures using Photomatix Pro 3

- B&W conversion using Color Efex Pro 3 plug-in for Photoshop CS3

- Minor sharpening to finish it off

This is the first time I've used the Color Efex Pro plug-in, and its conversion of colour to B&W is way better than everything else I've used. Some people will simply desaturate a photo to make a greyscale image, more experienced users will use the built in channel mixer in Photoshop CS3 ... and they both work fine.

But why settle for the ordinary? In one step, I can now produce the same result as I used to when I needed to use 3 or 4 steps in photoshop.

So definitely check it out guys, Color Efex Pro

Oh by the way, this photo was done pretty late at night at ANZ stadium (in case you couldn't notice the big sign) ... and the rangers don't exactly like it. So if you want to get in there and do some shots, get what you need asap ... and if they show up, atleast you already have what you want. They'll just rave on about how the car is parked illegally and you're not supposed to be taking photos etc, ignore them and move along :)

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Cokin neutral density filters ... not so neutral?

There is a saying that every photographer lives by. No matter what they major in, whether it be sports, landscape, wildlife or even paparazzi ... they all say "if I can get one good photo out of this shoot, I'm happy". After all, it only takes one great photo to make people say wow.

Today's shoot was pretty much based on one subject, and I worked mainly on one angle. Not something I normally do, I normally like to explore my options when I arrive on site ... but today I went there with one photo in mind and I wasn't going to go home without it.

This photo is actually not as photoshopped as it may seem. It is a 5 photo HDR (all photos approx 30secs in shutter speed). After merging the 5 photos, it was simply minor colour and levels adjustments to different parts of the photo.

One thing I should say though, that blue/purplish tinge in the sky and water are straight out of the camera. When I do landscape photos, I almost always use a Cokin graduated ND8 filter. Whenever I use this filter along with a long exposure, this colour cast always crops up. Some photographers hate this cast, but I quite like it, especially during the twilight hours.

p.s. This shipwreck is at Homebush Bay, Sydney. Yep, bet you didn't know that did you?

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Name this bug

Camera: Panasonic Lumix LX-3

Settings: ISO 80, 1/50 sec, f/2, manual focus at minimum focussing distance

Since I have a Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro for my SLR, I rarely use the macro function on my compact. This photo here ... I was walking home and saw this little furry bug glued to the glass window outside my door. Me being me, I took a photo (couldn't be bothered to run upstairs to get the SLR).

I switched the camera to manual focus, set it to minimum focussing distance (0.01m), and moved in and out until I got a sharp picture. It took a couple of goes to get a decent photo, and this is definitely harder to do with a compact compared to an SLR. After some basic processing in Lightroom and CS3, I flipped it to B&W to see what it would be like. Interestingly enough, the monochrome made the insect look even more alien the original photo in colour. I still have absolutely no idea what this thing is ... but if a moth had sex with a sea monkey (somehow), this is without a doubt what it would look like.

Being a macro post, I can't end this without mentioning the best (and affordable*) macro kits commercially available (SLR & Compact).

- Nikon D300 + Nikkor AF-S 105mm f2.8 micro ... totals to roughly $4k

- Canon 5D MkII + EF 100mm f2.8 macro ... roughly $4.6k

Compacts are harder to judge, as they tend to give different magnification ratios. From playing around with different types of cameras at work, the compacts that impressed me with their macro include:

- Canon Powershot G10

- Canon Powershot SX10/SX1 IS

- Lumix LX-3

- Ricoh R8

You might notice there aren't any Nikons in the compact list, and it's because I havn't been impressed with a Nikon Coolpix since 2001 (seriously). The P90 arrived in store today, and since it was one of the most hyped up Nikon compacts (EVERYONE asks about them), I decided to crank it out and do a quick hands-on analysis.

I was NOT impressed at all, and I DON'T understand what all the hype is about. First of all, it's an ugly camera, I thought the lens looked flashy but everything else screams 1980 (in a bad way). The rear LCD screen had terrible resolution, compared to some of the newer canon screens anyway (G10). I'm sure the camera had image stabiliser, but it might as well have been non-existant. Colours were a bit cold, but that's ok cos some people like that. Images were not particularly sharp ... and it performed averagely at ISO 800. It's not the most terrible camera, but it's not for me, and definitely not for that price (~$779)

As usual, I went off track near the end of the post but you guys should be used to it by now. I make this up as I go and I'll put down whatever pops into the front of the queue. My mind is a cluttered mess, and not even I know how to sort it out.

p.s. Have a click on the links on this post, the reviews give some good insight into the type of image quality that I'm so picky about.

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Photomatix Pro 3 (finally got rid of 2.5)

I finally decided to update my HDR software. The one I've been using since I discovered HDR was Photomatix Pro 2.5, I now use Photomatix Pro 3.13 (or something like that). The differences are subtle, a slightly modified UI (User Interface), and the menus are in language that the layman can understand (more or less).

To understand why computer generated HDR images are necessary, we have to get a little more technical. To start with, a camera with a higher dynamic range allows you to capture more detail in the highlights and shadows of scenes. When you look back at your images, you may notice blown out highlights (that stay white no matter what you do), and dark shadows (that stay black no matter what you do). A camera with a higher dynamic range will actually give you some detail in those parts.

This is getting more and more important as a lot more people (from a wider market base) are buying DSLRs. Traditional film has a dynamic range of approx 15 stops, the dynamic range for my EOS 50D is approx 8.5 stops. To get around this massive shortage of dynamic range, us digital users can do 2 things:

1) Live with it (and you actually can ... most of the time)

2) Take a few photos. Underexposed, correct exposure, overexposed (doesn't need to be in that order)

Once you have taken those photos, a program like photomatix can be used to blend all of them. After minor adjustments, we end up with a photo like the one above. There is detail in every single part of the photo (where there is supposed to be). At 100% view on the original edited photo, the detail is astonishing.

Apart from getting an incredible amount of detail, you can get quite a nice effect on the photos as well. Give it a try.

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Insignificant

"Ideas are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny"

Carl Shurz (1829-1906)

When looking up at the stars, we are in effect looking into the past. We see history unfold right before our eyes, we never see what they really are, just past representations of each of them. Their light takes so long to reach us that all we ever see of stars are their old photographs.

This image took 30secs for my camera to capture, at the end of those 30secs, and the next 2secs for me to press the replay button ... it is most likely that I took a photo of them from 8years ago.

Hypothetically, if I stood out on my balcony right now and an alien from another galaxy was to take a photo of me (right now), by the time his/her/its "camera" finishes capturing the image ... back here on earth years could have passed. Yet this would be happening in real time and parallel to each other. In effect I am coexisting at different stages in my life perceived from different locations throughout the universe.

Which brings me to this conclusion.

- If you stand in front of me, I will appear as I am (19yrs old)

- If you look at me through a telescope (a massive one) from mars, I would appear younger (lets say 16years old)

- If you look at me from pluto (through an even better telescope), I would appear to be 8.

- From the next closest star (proxima centauri), to you I would not have been born.

Some food for thought

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Who killed Black & White?

From the days of the Daguerreotype, calotype and even the tintype, a majority of the history of photography was captured in monochrome. The images were a black and white rendering of real life scenes and situations. Even when colour photography first came around, it made more sense to capture in black & white. Colour processing was very expensive, and the images were poor.

The quick expansion and improvements in colour photography made black and white processing a chore to find and develop. Less and less stores carry B&W film, less labs process in B&W, and colour was a breath of fresh air to a tired and worn out hobby.

Good news is ... black and white is back!

In a world where everything is saturated in colour and dominated by pixels, B&W gives off the illusion of "real", and to many ... it seems fresh (we love the retro stuff). The driving force behind this movement is that shooting in B&W allows the photographer to learn more about how highlights, shadows, lines, patterns, exposure all affect the final product. A lot of times, colour assists in hiding the imperfections of the final product e.g. a saturated photo can make a low contrast photo look acceptable. As a result, many photography students learn the basics of photography with B&W Ilford film and darkroom processing.

The image above was taken with my EOS 50D, but I decided I needed a different outlook to a tired and overblogged landscape. Initially it was a 5 photo HDR, but the post crop and monochrome afterwards made the difference.

NB: Need some new locations to shoot, let me know if you have any suggestions

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Why we love panos

Panorama photos have always held a spell over me. When I first saw them, I couldn't see what the big deal is. If anything I thought panos were stupid, they're long, odd shaped, hard to frame, and have no standard in sizing.

Soon after the purchase of my first SLR, the EOS 400D, I realised the limitations of taking a single photo to capture a landscape. When working with lines such as the horizon and the contours of mountains, valleys & coastlines, it is natural to utilise a wide format frame.

This technique in photography have become such widespread that some photographers have dedicated themselves to panoramic photos, Ken Duncan is a well known example. What makes him so well known is not only his dedication to panoramic photos, but his style of image processing after taking the photo. In this day and age, an artist's post processing style is as unique as his signature. All successful photographers have a fine tuned way of processing their images that are instantly recognisable by those in the field.

Post processing has become especially important as almost anybody mildly interested in photography is likely to own an SLR. No longer will resolution and turn around time separate the amateurs and the pros, the market has become much more diverse and it will come down to how well you process your photos that will set you apart.

Me, I'm still working it out :P

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What ... it doesn't come with a card?!

As a salesperson at Camera House, I get a lot of camera enquiries. Most of the time, the conversation goes well, and the customers leave either with a brand new camera or freshly learnt info about photography and what's right for them.

The end of the conversation typically goes like this (other salesmen will feel my pain)

Me: Yep so this seems like it'll do what you need. Good sized screen, Li-ion battery, 10x zoom.

Customer: Sounds great

Me: mmmhhhmm

Customer: So how big's the memory card that you get?

Me: It doesn't come with one, but it takes SD cards, and you can have a look at our range of SD cards over here *points to accessories cabinet*

....

and from here I generally get a variey of responses ranging from complete understanding to complete outrage. Depending on that response I'm either cracking jokes with the customer or left trying to defend the manufacturer (I seriously don't get paid enough to argue this every single time :P)

Today I had an absolutely brilliant classic from a customer during this conversation. When told that the Panasonic TZ-11 doesn't come with a card ... he said "But when you buy a car, it comes with batteries". I stood there and thought "This guy just threw the worst argument at me", but me being on the clock I restrained myself and politely said "Well when you buy this camera you get a battery too". Needless to say, this sequence of events left him wondering how on earth he lost that argument.

Everyday I wonder why people expect to get a memory card with the camera (free). I always tend to end up saying to the customer "When you bought your film camera, it didn't come with film either ... and I'm also pretty sure that it didn't come with free processing". This notion of NOT getting everything you need is not new, it's been around for ages ... so I just can't understand why people ONLY expect this kind of freebie when buying a camera.

To assist my argument I will come up with a list of examples (just off the top of my head) that I have/will use when people complain about not getting a card.

Customer: Well the camera's useless without a card, why don't they give you one?

Me: - Toasters don't come bundled with free bread, what good is a toaster if you don't have bread? Go complain to Myer about that before you ask me that again.

- Your CD burner didn't come with blank CDs

- That wallet you're holding didn't come with free money

- The toy that your kid's playing with ... I'm sure batteries weren't included

- Did your iron come with free shirts?

- These photo frames don't come with photos either

- My car didn't come with free air con ... and I didn't complain

- That $4000 camera over there *points at the 5D MkII*, that doesn't come with a card either

- Those professional photos you got printed a week ago, you had to pay extra to get the photos didn't you? That's what I thought ...

I can go on and on and on about this, and if you work in this industry you'll know the frustration so feel free to go ahead and use these arguments. If you are a customer, and have asked that question before, I hope you now know how annoying and how wrong you were (or still am). Since manufacturers (Nikon, Olympus, Canon, Sony etc) don't have to deal with these questions, I'll take one for the team (for FREE) and I hope I've changed your way of thinking with this blog. I guess what I'm saying is ... take this advice, it's FREE advice and it's good advice.

Tomorrow's blog will be less ranting and more reviewing, stay tuned for a preview of the much anticipated Olympus "Pen" E-P1 camera that even the layman can undestand.

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Royal National Park

Camera: Panasonic Lumix LX-3

7 photo Panorama

The Royal National Park in NSW is located south of Cronulla, near Waterfall and Engadine Station. The actual national park covers a huge area of land that is impossible to cover on foot. After being defeated by the Wentworth Falls trails, we decided to tackle one a little closer to home, giving us more time.

We chose a circuit style track which goes along the edge of the coast and back through thick bushes and steep inclines. Overall we covered a large variety of terrain, including coastal, tropical, bushland, and marshes. The panorama above is a typical view during the coastal section of the track (if you're lucky you will also find small herds of deer in low lying, high incline bushland).

As with any day of hiking, travelling, roadtripping ... there's always a time when everything goes wrong ...

Camera: Canon EOS 50D, EF 24-105 F4L IS USM

Strobe: 580 EXII with diffuser on camera hot shoe (1/2 power),

580 EXII bald 5m to the right (1/1 power)

Photo inspired by the multitude of potholes and unpaved roads leading out of the national park.

Finally, if you want to try out these hiking trails, pack food ... we didn't, and we starved

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