Synergy, Synchronicity, & Serendipity

 "Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer’s daughter." 

~Julius Comroe Jr

It was almost certain that I wouldn't get a photo worth putting up today.  Another bleak, wet, depressing day in Sydney.  I was almost desperate to get a photo, and I didn't want to believe that I couldn't get one. 

Almost given up, on the way between my garage and the front entrance to my humble abode I found what I was looking for ... well sort of.  It was more like, I knew what I wanted ... but I didn't know.  

As usual I had my 50mm f1.4 on the camera, and realised I couldn't get close enough to get the type of photo I wanted ... I needed a macro, and more light as the sun was setting pretty early.  As quick as I could, I ran upstairs, switched to my Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro and mounted a Canon 580EXII flash with a diffuser.  After some basic processing in Adobe Lightroom, we have the result ...

Camera: Canon EOS 50D

Lens: Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro

Shot Settings: 1/60, f/2.8, ISO 500, External flash fired

This photo is the farmer's daughter, the world is my haystack, and I had no idea what my needle looked like.  I'm a catholic, not a very good one, but one nonetheless.  And for this photo to happen, the raindrop had to be the perfect size, land on the perfect spot between 3 very symmetrical leaves, and on top of that I had to walk past at the right moment to pick up on the details.  Coincidence ... possibly.  

Since we live in a world of such synchronicity and serendipity where different elements combine to produce such a synergistic effect, it's hard not to believe in an omnipotent being.

Simply put, I'm just glad I was there at the right time

And until next time, Cheers

Side note: Dwight Howard had an amazing game today (40pts 14rebs) to lead the Orlando Magic to the NBA finals to play the Lakers in a best of 7 series.  Check out the recap here

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NRL Round 12 - Parramatta Eels (13) vs Cronulla Sharks (10)

I was sitting at home last nite, thinking about what photo I'd put up here today. Saturday, no work, no real plans ... normally means no photo. So I bought tickets to the footy for me and my mate.

For those of you who don't follow the NRL ... Parra is one of those frustrating, inconsistent teams with a lot of promise and a reasonable amount of talent. The Sharks are coming last on the ladder, have no clear future, a lot of negative publicity and well ... we don't even know if there's going to be a sharks team next year.

Long story short, horrible game, depressing weather, freezing cold, and only about 7500 people in attendance. I still wonder why I bothered to go ... wait that's right, Parra was supposed win this game no worries ...

So before I forget that this is a photo blog, and start analysing the game ... I'm just glad I atleast got some good shots :) You can read the match recap here

Location: Parramatta Stadium

Camera: Canon EOS 50D

Lens: EF 70-200 f2.8 IS USM

Shot Settings: 1/320, f/2.8, ISO 1600, no flash

There isn't a whole lot to say about this photo, but the original photo is ridiculously hazy (due to the heavy rain). So I saved what I could ... and we have the result. I still cringe over the game every time I see this photo haha

This next photo is a little more uplifting, only because it features a Parramatta player whooo

Shot Settings are exactly the same as above, since I used manual for these situations.

And finally, we have a shot of the Parramatta captain, Nathan Cayless ... one of the tireless workhorses in the game today.

Only thing I can say, love the face.

Yea I know the last couple of posts have been a bit dry, especially compared to the american indian post i did a couple of days ago. But hey, atleast the photos turned out alright.

By the way, for anyone who doesn't know this, you can enlarge the photos just by clicking on them.

Anyways, I shall head back to completing my phys chem reports.

Until next time, cheers

As always check out my flickr, there's always new photos on there.

Or if you don't like flickr, hit up the links on the side for facebook and twitter :)

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your average friday at uni

Couple of photos today, couple of interesting things happened ... but at the end of the day it was still your average uni friday. Chose to bring a different lens today, and these photos might show the versatility of this lens ... haven't regretted buying it yet :)

So we start off here ...

Location: UTS Design & Architecture Building

Gear: Canon 50D & EF 24-105 F4L IS USM

Settings: 24mm, f4, 1/250, ISO 1600

So this was physical chemistry 1 tutorial, more or less to do with thermodynamics .. but we got into so much depth that it became quite abstract and we might as well have been discussing the meaning of life. If the equations on the board don't phase you, you're a better person than i am haha.

And from the discussion of why stuff happens the way it does, we journey to another world ... a world of 12ft unicycles

Location: Darling Harbour

Same gear as the last photo

Settings: 24mm, f4, 1/800, ISO 250

It was a lot higher than the photo let on, and we were impressed enough to actually cough up some change for the guy.

We've gone from the meaning of life to a dreamworld where men in unicycles con little children of their money. Now I present the final destination of the very long day ... a meet up between UTS Exposure and USYD Photosoc

Location: Hermann's Bar @ USYD ... props to them for a nice bar

Same gear as the photo before and the photo before that

Settings: 24mm, f10, 0.3sec, ISO 1600, flash fired

Before you judge, there's actually a reason behind the madness of the settings used in this photo. ISO 1600 was used so the photo didn't look like it was taken in a cave.

Shutter Speed of 0.3sec was used to keep the colours in the background in the photo. If 1/60 was used, the background would actually be white ... as the flash would overcome the lights lighting up the wall.

And the abnormal f/10 aperture was used to control exposure ... straight forward aye?

The meet up was definitely a success, and at the very least everyone enjoyed themselves in their own weird way. The camera definitely got put to the test today, starting off with an indoor photo, then to bright sunlight in the middles of the day, to a very dimly lit bar. My conclusion ... pretty versatile. A lot of other things to consider, but I won't get into that today haha

The lens, being L-series, I never worried about. 24mm was wide enough for everything I needed today, and didn't hunt much (if any), even in the bar :)

Oh and I just realised, you can click on all the photos to see them bigger, you should really check out the whiteboard :P

Again, check out my photos on flickr www.flickr.com/chrisw230889

or if you don't like flickr then most photos are on facebook too

Cheers

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Last of the Indians

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The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged....

Photo taken with Canon EOS 50D, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens

Settings: ISO 1250, f/1.4, 1/50

Well he definitely felt at ease with the environment, from warming his hands over a fake plastic fire to opening up his tipi/teepee (however you want to spell it) for all of UTS to see ... he felt right at home. An exclusive interview revealed that he thoroughly enjoys gangsta rap, especially the inspirational lyrical genius Ice Cube, "today was a good day" being the favourite track. Well fellas you can definitely see on his face, that today was indeed a very good day.

When asked what he did in his spare time, he responded with ... "I bring it for Compton, hustling day in and day out whenever I'm not paying respects to my ancestral tribe"

Unfortunately that's all I had time for, as he felt the urge to delve into a state of deep introspection and insight by way of a native american plant, Peyote. We wish him good luck and hope he doesn't hallucinate that his left arm turns into a snake and decide to saw it off.

End Part 1

feel free to check out my other photos at www.flickr.com/chris230889 :)

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the first one

All photographers suffer the dilemma of seeing something amazing and regret leaving their camera at home. I've been there too many times, and finally decided to do something about it. This blog is about all those photos that I would have missed out on if I didn't carry the 50D around with me.

Half the time, I'll find use for the camera .. on the days where I don't, I might dig up an old gem and write about it. Today also marks a milestone for my Canon 50D, as I took my 10 000th photo with the camera at 3:25pm, 28/05/09 (bought the camera sometime in December 08)

And I present today's photo

Shot with the Canon 50mm f1.4 ... nifty little thing, I chose this as the lens to carry around mainly because it's so light. Not the most versatile lens, especially on a 1.6x crop sensor, but I've learnt to work around that.

Settings: ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/640, no flash

Location: Parramatta River ... if you google parramatta river you'll find that it's one of the dirtiest rivers you'll ever come across. The water in the photo is pretty murky, but provides a nice contrast with the feathers on the pelican.

Pelican's aren't normally around, could be a seasonal thing, or even by chance, but I think I got pretty lucky to have a chance for this photo. I still reckon that pelicans are one of the most graceful creatures on earth, if you've seen them take flight you'll know what I'm blabbering on about :)

Well, that's it for now, I might dig up something cool for the next one, or even come across the black panther ... who knows?

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