Gold in the Doldrums

This morning Xenedette and I headed to Long Reef on Sydney’s northern beaches, where we were to meet up with over 30 (yes, thirty) other photographers for a dawn seascape shoot followed by breakfast.

The morning looked to be promising, and Long Reef has traditionally been a location where I have achieved very pleasing images; but this morning, for me it was not to be.

There were some nice pinks and oranges in the sky, but I struggled with composition, which is quite unusual for me.  Normally I can plop my tripod, make a few adjustments, and see something that’s pleasing.  Not today.

I shot a series of compositions on the end of the reef, but they greatly disappointed me.  They were really quite mediocre.

I set very high standards for myself, and become exceedingly frustrated if I fail (in my own eyes) to meet them.

I was, and remain, very tempted to scrap the images.

There was really only one image which had any worth, and even then, it’s not something I’d give a high ranking.

Here’s the image:

Upsized McNugget

Ironically, it was well after the pinks and oranges had gone, and the camera was facing the opposite direction.

Despite the photographic failure,  it was fun to meet up with 30+ other photographers, and have breakfast together later.

The Making of “The Smoking Gun”

Almost five years ago to this date, an old Flickr contact of mine, Rich Legg, created a photographic image of a smoking gun.  I was impressed, and I commented on his image at the time.

I recently decided to have a go at this type of shot myself, and did so today.

Rich used a Glock 29, but I decided to use a real gun (sorry — gun humour).

Firstly, here is the image I produced this afternoon:

The Smoking Gun

Now I’ll explain how I created it.

I vaguely knew how Rich went about creating his image, but I decided to take a slightly different approach.

While Rich did it in one shot, I decided in advance that the final image would be a composite of two images: one of the firearm, and another of the smoke.  I didn’t want to rig the set to capture both elements in one frame, and more critically, the lighting setups for each shot would be different, and wouldn’t work together.

The image of the firearm was shot with one lighting setup, and the image of the smoke was shot with a different lighting setup.

To photograph the firearm, I did the following (not in this particular order):

• set up the firearm on a table, and angled it to point upwards at roughly 45 degrees;
• placed a non-reflective black backdrop 90cm behind the firearm;
• mounted a Canon Speedlite 580EX II on a light stand, positioned at 45 degrees camera left;
• mounted a 42″ white translucent (shoot-through) umbrella on the stand;
• configured the flash for half-power at 24mm zoom;
• placed a white backdrop under the firearm to bounce light under the barrel assembly;
• mounted my camera (with 135mm lens and remote shutter release) on a tripod, composed, focused and dialled in 1/160th at f/11 and ISO 100; and
• attached PocketWizard PLUS II transceivers to both the camera and the flash.

With my remote shutter release in my left hand, using my right hand, I held my 80cm silver reflector to the right of the firearm, pointing upwards, to bounce light into the underside of the muzzle area.

To photograph the smoke, I used the same ‘set’, consisting of the black backdrop and the camera setup.  What changed most significantly was the lighting setup.

The smoke source was an incense stick I had bought.  I placed this in a glass bowl on the table where the pistol was positioned for the earlier shot, and lit it.

I placed the flash at 90 degrees to the right of the incense stick, about 10cm away, and elevated to the same height as the smoke.  On the flash, I dialled in 1/4th power and set the zoom to 80mm to concentrate the light to a narrower beam.

From that point it was simply a matter of snapping away, capturing various smoke formations wafting through the air.  I occasionally moved around, or waved my arm to agitate the smoke.

Shooting the smoke was the most challenging aspect, as smoke tends to be unpredictable, and it can take a while to score an aesthetically pleasing, well-composed shot of smoke, especially when it is to be used in Photoshop compositing as the smoke emanating from the muzzle of a gun.

After many shots, I landed one or two that were useful.  I settled on the second of the two candidates.

To create the final image, I performed raw conversion on both the firearm image and the smoke image.  I rotated the smoke image so that the smoke wafted upwards rather than at the angle it was moving at the point of capture.

I added the smoke image as a new layer in the firearm image, re-positioned it to align with the muzzle, added an black layer mask and painted the smoke into the image using a soft white brush at 100% opacity.

As anyone who has shot smoke can attest, smoke tends to appear blue.  To counter this issue, I added a desaturation adjustment layer, dialled down the saturation in the smoke so it appeared a more natural grey, and using a black layer mask, I painted the desaturation effect onto only the smoke.

Other minor adjustments included cloning, contrast and sharpness.

For those curious about the firearms, the pistol is a Kimber Gold Match Stainless II, chambered in 9mm Parabellum.

In conclusion, a few important legal and safety-related notes:

1. Yes, this firearm is real.
2. Yes, it is mine.
3. Yes, I am licensed to possess and use handguns.
4. No, it is NOT loaded.

I hope you enjoy both my image, and learning about how I created it.

Whale of a Cascade

This morning I met up with around 15-20 other seascape photographers for a dawn shoot at Whale Beach and breakfast at Newport afterwards.

It was an epic seascape shoot, with people everywhere.  We managed not to get in each other’s way, which is quite something, given the number of shutterbugs.  Fortunately, there is plenty of room, and compositions are bountiful.

The conditions were superb, with a brooding sky and rich red/orange colour on the horizon from the rising sun.

Whale Beach, which I’ve only shot once (further around at Devil’s Cauldron) features lots of rocks and rock shelves which are great for shots of cascading water.  The conditions this morning were very favourable, with a near-full tide and a decent swell.

Here’s one of the images I captured:

Whale of a Cascade

It was a very fun morning, and I met a few of the better known Sydney seascape photographers whose work I follow, but whom I had never met or seen in action.

It was a great bunch of people, and a very fun morning, resulting in some pleasing images and new friends.

Don’t Put Your Life on the Line

With my recent re-ignition of my passion for seascape photography, it’s a good time to remind people of the dangers of seascape photography.

Back in 2010, I published an article on Tips for Safe Seascape Photography.

Earlier tonight, I encountered the following Australian-produced video segment, hosted by Andrew Ettingshausen, about rock fishing safety.

While the video is primarily aimed at rock fisherman, fishing isn’t the focus; the advice is generic, and applies equally to seascape photographers, who, like rock fisherman, stand on slippery rock shelves in sometimes dangerous conditions in pursuit of a nice ‘catch’.

The video echoes some of the advice I provided in my article, but also includes some extra advice which is food for thought, and may well be worth following.

Safety is always an important part of seascape photography, and there’s no time like the present to remind oneself of the dangers, and brush up on mitigation strategies.

Safe shooting!

Mona Vale Pool Revisited

Before dawn this morning, I met up with Brent for a seascape shoot at Mona Vale pool.

It’s been quite a while since I photographed one of Sydney’s ocean pools.  A few years ago I was working on a project to photograph all of Sydney’s ocean pools.  I shot 23 of the 30 pools before I became disinterested and shelved the project.

Mona Vale Pool, which I photographed only once before in 2008, is one of the most interesting of Sydney’s ocean pools, as it sits on a sand bank a good distance from the shore, and has beaches and breaks on both sides of it.  Consequently, in the right conditions, waves crash into the pool and water flows over the edges, producing lovely cascades which are great to photograph.

This is one of the images I shot:

Mona Vale Pool Revisited

This morning’s weather was quite patchy, and the sky wasn’t great, but was better than a cloudless sky.  In the time I was there in the darkness waiting for Brent to arrive, I saw cloudy skies, clear skies, cloudy skies again and everything in between.

Rain also hampered our efforts for a while, as did the horrid sodium vapour light adjacent to the pool, which illuminated only for a short while before it automatically extinguished, freeing the pool from the hideous orange colour cast with which it was previously inflicted.

I did manage to land this image and a few other compositions.

It was nice to be standing in water as the torrents spilled out of the pool and gushed past me.

 

The Great Cathedral by the Sea

Since Saturday’s rewarding dawn shoot at Cathedral Rocks (about 90 minutes away), I’ve processed and uploaded two more images.

The most dramatic image from the shoot would have to be this image:

The Great Cathedral by the Sea

All of the elements were aligned: the sky was moody, the water was flowing, and the rocks were colourful and texture-laden.

I spent a fair amount of time post-processing this image last night.  I originally ran three of the exposures through Photomatix Pro, but I opted instead for my usual technique of manually blending seascape exposures, and altogether, I preferred my own results.

I may publish a post-processing tutorial on this image at some point, but in the mean time, I am enjoying simply viewing this image.

Cathedral Rocks really is a stunning place to photograph, and I’d encourage any seascape within a 200km radius to visit and photograph the place.  It’s enjoyable enough to view with one’s own eyes alone, but photography was my intent, and the morning’s conditions were ripe for dramatic seascape imaging.

 

Hitech 10-Stop ND Filter on Order

I’ve just ordered a Hitech Pro Stop 10-stop neutral-densty filter.

As its name indicates, it’s a neutral-density filter which reduces the light intake by ten stops.  When fitted to a lens, the Pro Stop ten-stop filter reduces the light intake to about a thousandth of the light otherwise seen by the lens.

This significant light intake reduction allows for blurring of water, cloud and other movement in bright light, which can result in some dynamic, striking images.

I’ve been wanting a ten-stop ND filter for quite some time, and as a user of Lee ND and GND filters, I had hoped to procure a Lee Big Stopper; but this filter is unfortunately very hard to obtain, with long waiting times.

In the mean time, the newer version of the Hitech ten-stop ND filter has been receiving some positive reviews and gaining popularity amongst photographers like myself who are keen on long exposure imaging.

One of the big advantages of the Hitech filter is that it has a rubber/foam gasket on the rear side of the filter, which shields the lens from light spill between the filter and the filter holder.  It’s also cheaper than the Lee filter, and is made from resin rather than glass.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with this filter in my seascape, landscape and cityscape photography.

Cathedral Rocks… It Rocks!

This morning a couple of seascaping buddies and myself set out for Cathedral Rocks, a stunning patch of coastline off Kiama Downs on the NSW south coast.

The location, which has been on my ‘must shoot’ list for too long, consists of stunning volcanic rock formations, and its main feature, from which it gets its name, rises out of the water, making a fantastic focal point for seascape images.

The trip down the coast this morning was challenged by rain and very thick fog, but I knew that there would be substantial cloud cover at Cathedral Rocks, which is always a good thing.  A stormy sky is always a pleasure to see, but there’s also the chance for some stunning colour to break through as the sun rises.

Here are two of the images I shot this morning.

Dawn at Cathedral Rocks

Cathedral Onslaught

More images are to follow.

I thoroughly recommend this location for seascape photographers.  The rocks are rich with texture, and the ‘cathedral’, surrounded by crashing waves, commands attention.  In strong seas Cathedral Rocks would be an even more spectacular location.

Elgato Video Capture: Great Stuff

A few weeks ago I purchased Elgato Video Capture, a hardware and software package which allows computer-based digitising of video from analogue video sources such as VHS cameras and VCRs.

Some background:

In 1999 I bought a VHS-C video camera, which I used on two overseas holidays and various social events.

For many years, the 18-odd VHS-C tapes I shot have been my only copies of the footage I captured long ago, and about a year ago I started thinking about transferring the footage to DVD media.  I’m not a fan of analogue media, and magnetic tape has a tendency to deteriorate with usage, and is sensitive to strong magnetic fields such as my amplifiers.

I looked at the Elgato Video Capture package about a year ago and took note of it, but decided it wasn’t a priority.  When I was at the Apple Store a few weeks ago to buy an iPhone case, I again looked at the package, and this time decided to buy it.

Tonight I started the process of digitising my many hours of home-made video.  To my mind it made far more sense to store the video footage as digital files on a computer rather than format-shifting from VHC-S to DVD.  (I’m not a fan of optical media either.)

The Elgato package consists of a dongle-like hardware device with a USB cable on one side (for connection to the PC), and RCA and S-video connectors on the other end (for connection to a video camera or VCR).

It also includes a very simple-to-use, step-by-step software package (for both Mac OS X and Windows) for performing the digitisation, which, as one reviewer commented, even your mother could use.  You simply connect your PC and analogue output source to the dongle, run the software, click a few buttons and away you go.

After stopping the recording, the software provides a simple, effective interface to trim any extraneous footage from the beginning and end of the recording, which saves post-production in video editing software if the footage has been shot such that it doesn’t need any other editing.

After completing the capture, the software provides quick shortcuts to play the video, upload it to YouTube or load it into iTunes.

As I type, I’m in the process of digitising my second tape.  It’s such a simple and elegant package which gets the job done nicely.  Having reviewed the footage from my first tape, as well as another video I digitised earlier, I am happy with the result.

I have many hours of digitising ahead of me, but once I have completed this long-overdue project, I will have peace of mind, knowing that my legacy video footage has been digitised, is more accessible for viewing, and most importantly, is backed up.

That’s quite a good return on my $200 investment.

Contrasting Conditions at Turimetta

Here are two vastly different images from the same dawn seascape shoot at Turimetta last Tuesday.

Seaweed

The first image above was taken shortly after arrival, and in the pre-dawn darkness, the moving water is abstracted to the point where its movement is almost invisible.  A sense of calm is evoked as the clump of seaweed sits stranded on the sand bank.

Nearly an hour later, I shot this image:

Northern Aspect

The above image is very different to the first, in that the distant brooding sky, turmoil in the water and calm, warm tones of the rocks provide contrast within the image itself, and also contrast with the earlier image.

This goes to show that it’s possible, in the same shoot at the same general location, to achieve varying images with a distinctly different look and feel.