Small Planet

On August 24 2006, Pluto was officially demoted as a planet. Pluto is now known as a "dwarf planet", which is in itself an oxymoron (planets aren't exactly dwarfs). So I've decided to make my own planet, still just experimenting so hopefully I'll have some better ones up in the near future.

It's quite simple to do as long as you have the correct images to start with. I took a 360 degree panorama at Homebush Bay (bird sanctuary), merged the lot on photoshop, then used the polar co-ordinates filter. After that all you have to do is clean it up a little bit with the clone stamp and healing brush and you're done! More in depth tutorial can be found here.

You might also notice my font is different, many users will know that the basic windows fonts don't provide too many cool fonts to work with. Theres a website (click here) where you can download fonts, then simply drag them into your fonts folder in control panel to install them. The one I used this time is called Waltograph (actually looks pretty similar to what the name suggests).

Like I said I'll be workin on more stereographic projections, but in the meantime you can have a browse at this flickr pool dedicated to these images.

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Picking up right where I left off, I'm definitely excited about the LX-3. I've spent the last couple of hours skimming through flickr and looking at what people have been doing with the camera. I was mainly looking for photos that show the LX-3's colour representation, sharpness (with minimal photoshop) and found a couple of gems. Like this one and this one.

Photography makes me do some crazy things. I'm not the biggest fan of bugs and insects and other little bastards like that, but if I have a camera and a macro lens with me ... I'll get as close as I have to just to get the shot.

And all this kind of leads to my photos for today. It's all good when we take photos of the more "graceful" insects. When I take a photo of a dragonfly I think "Hey, that was an awesome shot" and, "I think I'll frame that one"

Camera: EOS 50D

Lens: Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro

Settings: 1/500, f/3.5, ISO 200

Location: Lake Parramatta (deep in the bushland)

My impression of that dragonfly photo was ... I like that photo, and if I show it to people, I'm sure they'll like it too.

The next photo, however, is slightly more polarising ...

Camera: Canon EOS 50D

Lens: Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro

Settings: 1/125, f/5, ISO 200

Location: Laker Parramatta

In this situation, I'm a photographer first ... so naturally my first impression of this photo was "Wow look at all the detail, I've never seen a fly this close before" and "Damn this is a really sharp lens". After viewing it on the computer monitor for a couple of seconds, common sense prevailed and my thoughts quickly turned to "That's so dirty", "There's so much detail in that it's disgusting", and "I think I'm going to throw up".

Every photographer that loves macro work will go through this thought process. And eventually we realise that some things are better left unphotographed. I have yet to see a macro photo of a cockroach framed in anyone's living room.

So I leave you, my children, with this question ... are we so speciest as humans that we look down upon lowly pests and parasites such as those that belong to the blattidae family? I'm no Buddhist, but I think I'll do everything within my power to not be reincarnated as a cockroach. Time to save the world ...

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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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