Digital Kosmos

A Winter's Afternoon

2009-09-27T09:36:00.004+09:30

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The low sun tells you how far north Stockton, Cleveland, UK, is: this was early afternoon and the sun is behind the trees of Ropner Park, whose skeletal boughs reflect the early December date and the fact they will be covered with snow very soon. It was a raw day in winter, 2006, filled with dramatic light and colour, the sort of photographic opportunities that are perhaps rarer in Australia. Sharpened and contrast-balanced, and, stark as this image is, extra colour was added. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Big Feller Tree

2009-09-27T09:29:00.004+09:30

This massive eucalypt was photographed in September, 2009, at Arbury Park, a special ecological school in the Adelaide Hills. It was early in the morning and the low sun made amazing textures of light and shade on the rugose bark, while the dramatic angle up the trunk made the most of the tree's amazing height. It was a simple composition shot, and was enhanced with sharpening only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The City By Night

2009-09-15T09:07:00.004+09:30

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This is the third of my night shots in Sunderland, UK, taken during a chilly walk on an evening in November, 2007. Here I'm approaching the St Peters bridge, just visible at right, from the south side, and the streetlighting has registered the muted tones of buildings and grass amazingly well. The image was enhanced with gamma correcion to bring up the middle values, then contrast and colour saturation were used to restore visual density. The camera was held solidly against a lamp post to defeat shake, allowing the long exposure to do its magic. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Silk Flowers

2009-09-13T10:00:00.003+09:30

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I took this shot in September 2009, when evening light through red and gold bottleglass caught a spray of artificial flowers and generated these deep, rich colours. This is pure opportunistic shooting, in a few minutes the image would have been gone, the idea is to see the shot and take it without hesitation: a took five frames of which this was the best, the horizontal light catching the fine-scale structure of the flowers in visually pleasing ways. Sharpened only; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

White Horse on the Hills

2009-09-12T10:29:00.004+09:30

The famous 'white horses'of the southern vales of England are a cultural icon but there are two kinds: real ones, dating from the Bronze Age and created perhaps as navigational markers in the landscape, and false ones, created in the 19th century as landscape aesthetics. This is the latter type, photographed in December, 2006, in Wiltshire. This was a telephoto shot from the roadside, and the hazy conditions were the result of rain going through all morning. Technically simple, it was a case of recording what was there before the tour moved on. I took many high-telephoto closeups but the haze seriously reduced the image quality. Sharpened and colour-enhanced; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Busy Airport

2009-09-08T09:31:00.004+09:30

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This was a simple enough shot, but compsition was the object, looking for a frame filled with machines and the implicit action of people interacting with them. Flights were arriving and deplaning at Newcastle Aiport, UK, this evening in November, 2007, and while I waited for my own connection to London I amused myself shooting through plate glass, defeating reflections by easing behind a standing display of some sort, and using telephoto to close on the subject matter. As evening drew toward night I held the lens surround hard against the glass to control shake. Here a row of Boeing 737s was marshalled at the arrival terminals, and handlers were busy with their offloading and replenishment. The usual enhancements were done; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Look Back at Autumn

2009-09-07T09:03:00.004+09:30

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In winter's grey days it's nice to look back at the bright, warm days of autumn here in the southern hemisphere. Can it really be only eighteen weeks (April, 2009) since the fall colours were bright at Loftier Gardens? Here I shot up past a picnic area under a tree whose shade created a dark foreground against the brilliant backdrop of the forest, always a visually engaging lighting situation. Normal enhancements; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Fitting the Frame

2009-09-05T11:37:00.003+09:30

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Very large objects can be very difficult to fit into a photographic frame and maintain any sort of pleasing composition. This is the British Museum's Diplodocus skeleton, which at over 80 feet long is a textbook example of how to accommodate such a subject within the confines of a photographic frame. I shot this subject from every angle imaginable, and going upstairs was a way to shrink the apparent scale. Note the slight blur on some museum patrons, a clue to the light levels and thus exposure length. Sharpened and contrast-balanced, with a tweak of extra colour. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Beachhouse at Dusk

2009-09-05T11:31:00.004+09:30

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The light levels must have been very much 'in the cracks' between what was possible for daytime photography and the restrictions for a nighttime shoot. I caught this soft study of a house on the Brighton foreshore, southwest of Adelaide, SA, in spring, 2007, between sunset and moonrise, and the chip registered the pastel tones of the cool light wonderfully well. The frame was sharpened and very carefully balanced for colour and contrast, so as not to rob it of its original feel. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Street Art in Stockton

2009-09-04T09:54:00.003+09:30

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Public artwork can take almost any form and sometimes it is quite surprising. In Adelaide's Rundell Mall we have a cast bronze pig rummaging in a waste bin! I photographed these energetic dogs in the High Street, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland, UK, having realised by their frozen imobility that they were statues, though painted to look lifelike. In Classical times statues were painted, it is only in recent centuries we have become used to the idea of bare stone, and here bronze is treated to create a strangely lifelike impression, especially when glimpsed from the corner of the eye. The composition was simple, the light soft in the winter shadows of an afternoon in November, 2006, and some foreground was cropped before the image was enhanced the usual way. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Where are the Orcs?

2009-09-04T09:43:00.003+09:30

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A forest like this sometimes seems on the brink of spontaneously giving up hordes of ravening subhuman warriors... Maybe it's because we watch too much fantasy these days, but the natural world was home to such aberrations in the mind and imagination of the classic fantasy writers and the image comes no less to mind now. This is Rocky Paddock, at Mount Crawford Forest, east of Adelaide, photographed in May, 2008, and the splay of shadows as the POV looks into the sun quadrant is aesthetically very pleasing. Extraneous forground was cropped and the image was sharpened and balanced as per usual. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Jurassic Coast

2009-09-03T10:29:00.003+09:30

These are the fossil-bearing cliffs of Whitby, Yorkshire, UK, photographed in November, 2006. The whole area is rapidly eroding and dedicated fossil hunters work the shoreline constantly. The shot was taken from the base of the east breakwater, and shows how unstable the strata is. The composition was a simple framing and the low light conditions were registered very well by the chip. Sharpened and balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Almost Air-to-Air

2009-09-03T10:17:00.004+09:30

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The marvelous thing about shooting low-flying aircraft is that if you manage to exclude any background details, buildings, trees, you can develop an image which the eye has a hard time telling from a low angle aerial perspective. This is the Aero Delphin, a jet trainer built in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, photographed at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, February, 2007, south of Adelaide. The shot had plenty of telephoto factored in to create the illusion of closer proximity, and extraneous sky background was cropped to enlarge the aircraft in the frame further. The fast shutter speed of the bright conditions stopped the action, and I managed to hold the camera sufficiently steady to have an acceptable rotational angle without messing with it. Enhancements were the usual sharpness, contrast and colour. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Stonehenge

2009-08-30T09:52:00.005+09:30

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Stonehenge was a highlight of my Wiltshire roadtrip in December, 2006, and I could only lament how rough the weather was on the day. I would have loved to see it in summer, but the greyness of the day certainly created atmospheric images. This is a generic view chosen to exclude the throngs of visitors, hundreds despite there being a 45-degree slant on the rain at the time. The chip has managed the exposure very well indeed, bringing out the median-values and detail on the subject while burning the stormy sky out to white. The image was sharpened and enhanced in the areas of colour and contrast. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. image by Mike.

Globes in the Sun

2009-08-29T09:53:00.004+09:30

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Art decor can range from the irritating to the engaging, and the classically simple purety of these sherical light shrouds, echoing organic bubbles against the natural sky, is a strangely pleasing image. Art imitates nature, steel and glass become an organism, a linear one but no less a reminder of stems and branches, or of the floatation bladders of sea wrack. These lights were photographed on the Festival Plaza, Adelaide, in January, 2008, and were a simple composition exercise. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Deceptively Calm

2009-08-28T09:04:00.004+09:30

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The shelter of cliffs buffers a town from the weather, and just as the old town of Whitby nestles in the protection of the Esk River estuary, so Sunderland grew up around the mouth of the Were. This is the Sunderland marina, a new residential complex sheltered by the shoulder of the Roker cliffs from much of the force of the North Sea weather, and here the marina seems placid, almost Mediterranean. The frame was taken from St Peters Rd, in November, 2006, and was sharpened and colour- and contrast-balanced. The horizon line was squared up with fine rotation. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The Adelaide Hilton Hotel

2009-08-27T09:40:00.004+09:30

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After an evening band shoot at a city pub, I was heading home via public transport from Victoria Square, Adelaide, and could not resist trying again for a definitibe portrait of the Hilton Hotel, in the full beauty of its floodlights. I steadied the camera against the uprights of the bus shelter and picked up a few frames of which this one has the most comfortable composition. The chip does a remarkable job of registering the intense contrast in a night time image, the length of exposure can be seen from the blurring of the pedestrian and car at lower left, and the frame was enhanced with the usual round of tweaks via Irfanview for publication. August, 2009. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Lytham Rd, Blackpool

2009-08-27T09:19:00.003+09:30

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The sky was the motivating factor in this image. It was just after sundown on a chilly evening in November, 2006. I was standing on a bridge, looking north toward Blackpool Tower, and was exploring for a while before retreating to my hotel. The short wavelength light in the shadowed street is an interesting, soft registration, while the clouds make for an artistic counterpoint to the angular, built environment. Sharpened and enhanced, with gamma correction bringing up middle values and contrast hardening them off. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Reflected Forest

2009-08-25T09:35:00.005+09:30

Sometimes you 'see' a potential shot, and do some manoeuvring to make it happen. This is the glass facade of the new wing of Flinders Medical Centre, south of Adelaide,with the tall eucalypts lining the seasonal stream that runs by the foot of the building reflected clearly. I saw this image from the parking lot on the opposite slope and picked the right spot, zoomed in hard on the effect I was interested in and grabbed several frames. The time of day was crucial, had the light been from a different angle the reflection would not have been as clear: the trees had to be catching direct light but not the facade. April, 2009. Sharpened and contrast-enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. mage by Mike.

Available Light, With a Difference

2009-08-24T09:39:00.003+09:30

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This is the British Museum's mounted skeleton of the dinosaur Baryonyx walkeri, photographed in December, 2006, and it presented a different lighting situation to most other displays. The floodlights built into the mount provided all the primary illumination, whereas most of the freestanding dinosaurs are in mysterious, soft lighting and are so large that flash shots tend toward the indistinct as the subject flows into the background in ways contrary to the usual performance of flash. This is a non-flash shot and the contrast level is excellent. The frame was sharpened and colour-enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Hot Sundown

2009-08-23T10:19:00.004+09:30

One would expect this shot to be using a gold filter, but it was taken without any aids at all. It's a high telephoto value on the setting sun, taken off Brighton beach in August, 2007, and it suggests a hot day, a very tropical feeling: it was a cool late afternoon, and after sundown conditions became rapidly chilly. The horizon line is almost exactly horizontal also, which is pretty fair for hand-held shooting. Sharpened only; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Stone of the Ages

2009-08-22T10:05:00.003+09:30

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This shot was taken inside Salisbury Cathedral in December, 2006. This is a place of living history and one is very much aware of the passing centuries, of the millions of pairs of feet which have walked these halls before. I had mixed success with this shoot as the lighting levels were essentially low but the building so huge that flash did not have a hope of reaching. I took my best shots with the camera held imobile against an upright to let the long exposures do their thing. I have some shots with people visibly moving, illumination was that low. This was an attractive composition in which the late afternoon sun could register along with the artificial lights, and outline the 12th century stonework to perfection. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Catch the Flash

2009-08-21T08:42:00.004+09:30

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Reflex shooting can give unpredictable results, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Here a Robinson R-22 helicopter is framed quite well, at a high telephoto value, as it passes obliqiuely, at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, February, 2007, south of Adelaide, South Australia. The short exposure time has stopped the blades and the timing of the shutter has also captured the strobing of the beacon on the aircraft's tail boom. The general grain of the image is an artifact of the telephoto setting, and the fact it was taken at only 2mp, a way of getting a large number of frames onto a flashcard in the days before really big cards started to become affordable. Sharpened and colour-enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Waterbirds in Grey Light

2009-08-20T09:55:00.003+09:30

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These swans were photographed on the lake at Ropner Park, Stockton, Cleaveland, UK, in December, 2006. It was a day of changeable weather, alternately grey or sunny, rainy or dry. The birds on the lake, ducks, swans, geese, are expert wranglers for food and flock to any visitors. They make unusual photographic subjects, especially in the quite steely light of the moment. This shot was cropped from a larger frame, sharpened and the colour enhanced slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Alien Organisms

2009-08-19T10:00:00.003+09:30

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These huge, bizarre plants were photographed at the lake at Loftier Gardens, in the Adelaide Hills, in April, 2009. They are so strange, rising so imposingly from the waters, that they evoke thoughts of lush alien jungles, when of course they are very much terrestrial. The exotic plants gathered in botanic gardens are often eye-opening in their sheer unfamiliarity. This was a simple frame-and-shoot, looking more or less into the sun quadrant of the sky but the transparency of the vegetation creates almost the illusion of side-and front-lighting. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Soft Dusk Light

2009-08-17T09:41:00.003+09:30

This is one of my Newcastle Airport shots from November, 2007, taken with the camera held firmly against plate glass and with the benefit of a piece of furniture blocking reflections. The sun was down, leaving the world in indirect, long-frequency light, and so long as the camera was steady the chip translated the conditions remarkably well. I framed the standing aircraft and waited for the taxying aircraft to reach the right point in the composition before the releasing the shutter, compensating also for the timelag in that operation. Sharpened and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Autumn Mirror

2009-08-16T14:58:00.003+09:30

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This is a delightful study of the lake at Loftier Gardens, east of Adelaide, taken in April, 2009. Viewed from the south side, this was a zoom shot of the northern bank. The image was cropped to draw the attention tightly to the trees and their reflection, and create a palette of pure fall colours. Sharpened, colour- and contrast balenced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Sun Quadrant

2009-08-15T10:09:00.004+09:30

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Shooting into the sun quadrant is always an adventure, as the characteristics of your lens will interact with the lighting angle and any other local conditions to create flash and glare, often intrusive factors but sometimes aesthetically pleasing on their own merits. The prismatic artifacts in the dark area are particularly interesting. This shot was taken at the base of the east breakwater in Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK, in November, 2006, looking toward the west side of the harbour, something of a reflex shot to catch the passers-by in the midst of the glare, and basically see what happened. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The Dry Land

2009-08-14T10:00:00.004+09:30

Is this the dry heart of Australia? No, this photo was taken in November, 2006, on a domestic shuttle between Adelaide and Melbourne. The watercourse holds enough moisture for life to survive but away from the river the heat and dust rule. The trick with this kind of shot is to see the interesting ground features, frame and shoot before the plane is past them, but from 20, 000 feet the scenery scrolls by slowly enough for the process to become a comfortable one. Sharpened, and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Around the Feet of Giants

2009-08-14T09:50:00.005+09:30

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This is the East End of London as it has been redeveloped in recent decades, a maze of new residential and business blocks fronting on the waters of the long-disused commercial docks, a veritable Venice of canals and bridges, the 19th century maritime trade complex recreated as gracious living in the 21st. The Docklands Light Railway is the people-mover which threads it all together, running on a system of bridges and elevated tracks from the region of the Tower of London to Greenwich and points further afield. This shot was taken through the train window (some reflections of internal lighting appear as the price of framing the material for its own benefit) on a Sunday afternoon in November, 2007. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Metal and Complex Light

2009-08-12T09:18:00.004+09:30

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Here the POV is under the tail of the DeHavilland Sea Venom at the Fast Jets Fighter Museum, Parafield Airport, north of Adelaide, taken in January, 2007, and the range of tonal values the chip has gathered are striking. The shadow areas have been adequately registered, while the main lighting source is burned out, yet the general colours of the environment have been captured with great truth. The image was sharpened, and the colour and contrast adjusted slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Street Scene in Shadow

2009-08-12T09:08:00.003+09:30

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This frame was taken in the morning at the top of the eighteenth-century Henrietta St, Whitby, in November, 2007. The shadow of the east cliff is cast over the mouth of the River Esk and flattens the contrast, and this frame, looking back down the steep street, catches the compression of perspective with a medium telephoto factor. The verticals of the buildings become the theme, and the horizontal of the road surface the element giving meaning to the verticals. The absence of pedestrians creates an almost staged air, and a quite artistic feel. Sharpened and contrast- and colour-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Extreme Distortion

2009-08-11T09:26:00.003+09:30

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This is the most extreme example of heat distortion I've yet photographed. My post "Unintentionally Artistic" looked at catching a stem of grass correctly in focus as a consequence of the chip being unable to focus on the heat-distorted aircraft in the background; this is the same aircraft, a T-28 Trojan flown by Wayne Pearce at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, February, 2007, heading in the opposite direction, further away and 100% masked by the heat haze rising from the runway. The photograph was taken at high telephoto, thus the distortion becomes the entire image. Colour-enhanced and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Vanishing Point in Stone

2009-08-11T09:19:00.006+09:30

This is a pleasing perspective shot, taken on the south side of the south breakwater on the Roker foreshore of Sunderland in November, 2006. The low lighting angle was about 3.30pm. The conditions were very cold, with a stiff breeze, and I went down a flight of old boat-landing steps to capture this angle on the stonework. This engineering is 19th century, and the deterioration of stone and iron under the impact of the environment creates always-interesting images. Sharpened and colour enhanced, Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Lighting Depth

2009-08-08T14:15:00.003+09:30

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This is once again opportunistic photography: at the Gumeracha Medieval Fair in May, 2009, I snapped some close-ups of the armoured horsemen after their display. The jousting area was set up at the base of a steep hill, which created a shadowed background in the late afternoon, while the foreground remained sunlit, and here the backlighting does interesting things with both armour and the foliage closest the POV. This is a complicated lighting situation and taking advantage of it for striking composition makes the lighting the key element of this 'personalised hardware' shot. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

19th Century Landscape

2009-08-08T14:07:00.003+09:30

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This image is an excellent contrast to my last photo from the Esk Valley Railway. That time the lighting, the cleanliness of thr window and the angle on the subject were wagering against the shot, but this time everything was going for it: a clean window, lighting favouring the subject matter, and a lower telephoto factor providing for less inherrent grain. This is a classic old farmhouse in the Esk Valley of Yorkshire, between Middlesborough and Whitby, snapped on a sunny afternoon in November, 2007, from the passing train. But for the visible motion on the foreground tree, you would almost think you were standing on the far side of the valley from the clarity. The frame was sharpened and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Then and Now

2009-08-05T09:22:00.004+09:30

Architecture defines the centuries, and here in the Adelaide CBD the 19th and 20th centuries are very apparent. The city is less than 200 years old, and the neo-classical styles that defined grandeur 150 years ago are now almost quaint, though the size and stylistic inventiveness of modern buildings has often been criticised as lacking the inherent dignity of prior centuries. This is a view of Adelaide's tallest building, taken from Currie St in April, 2009, and was technically an exercise in composition, balancing the vanishing point symmetry of different structures in different alignments to create a pleasing, vertiginous, image. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Urban Visitor

2009-08-04T09:51:00.003+09:30

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Seagulls penetrate to the heart of London, reminding the viewer that the Thames, so wide and placid and dirty, is in fact a tidal river and that the arm of the sea known as the Thames Estuary is not very far to the east. This bird posed for a telephoto portrait on a (fascinatingly textured) rotted wharf piling on the river frontage near the Tower of London, with the old cruiser HMS Belfast framed as the background, in November, 2007. Sharpened and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Evening in the Valley

2009-08-04T09:42:00.004+09:30

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This photograph was taken in the country near Williamstown, east of Adelaide, in October, 2007. The shadow of the hill behind the POV was starting to move across the valley, and the horizontal, long-frequency light created the amazing field of colour and shade seen here. This was an opportunistic shot, a few minutes and the whole image would have changed, so the idea is to zoom on the area that most grabs the eye and grab the composition while it lasts. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Lens Flare by Night

2009-08-02T09:54:00.003+09:30

Given that this image was also taken through a window, it turned out very well. After several hours delay for weather, my plane finally backed away from the terminal at London Heathrow bound for Australia, in the third week of November, 2007. I had photographed the aircraft from the terminal, and at last got some shots through the window as she started to move. Here the massive flood lights burn out in lens flare, and reflect from the wing. The shot was cropped down to better focus on the area of interest, then sharpened. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Characterising the Action

2009-08-01T09:26:00.003+09:30

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This is a less-precise variation on "personalising the hardware," almost a crowd-scene, though the image tells a story. The sign on the truck sets the scene, the people are the personification of what's happening and the helicopter, stopped in flight overhead, is the "noun" of the narrative in the sense that it is the object, and the "verb" in the sense that flight is the action. This was one of a batch of similar shots taken at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, February, 2007, in which the close proximity of people and aircraft made for many interesting action shots. Trying to shoot aircraft devoid of passers-by is a skill all by itself, but when you combine them deliberately some engaging compositions result. Sharpened, and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Bridge on the Esk

2009-07-31T09:38:00.003+09:30

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This is an intensively reworked shot. The original was taken, with plenty of telephoto dialed up, in November, 2006, through a train window (note the marks), looking under the road bridge just inland of Whitby, alongside the River Esk in North Yorkshire. This perspective, framing the historic buildings on the East Cliff, is hard to obtain from anywhere else but the moving train. The image was squared up using fine rotation, then extraneous top and bottom areas were cropped. The softening effect of the window (due to shooting obliquely through it, rather than square-on) was ameliorated by sharpeneing around 15%, then the contrast and colour were adjusted. The final result is not up to the standard of shooting without that dirty window in front of the lens, but the unusual composition goes a long way to forgiving the shortcomings. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Dawn Light in the Forest

2009-07-31T09:33:00.004+09:30

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This photograph was taken in the hour after dawn at Mt Crawford Forest, north-east of Adelaide, in May, 2008. The mist was still quite heavy though the sun was burning it up, and this frame catches not only the horizontal light outlining the tree but shafts through patches of mist at upper right. Such images are ephemeral, you catch the moment for the moment will never return in precisely the same way. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Deceptive Summer

2009-07-30T08:27:00.003+09:30

These marching columns are streetlights on St Peter's Rd, Sunderland, UK, photographed in November, 2007. The colour factor is the important point here, besides the composition of the poles and the tower to the left. That blue sky feels Mediterranean, it certainly creates a visual feeling of warmth, which is totally deceptive. Note the distortive effect of the lens on the verticals. November in Sunderland is decidedly chilly, and the wind was like a knife all week. The image was sharpened and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Big Bridge, Small Boat

2009-07-30T08:17:00.004+09:30

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This is the lift bridge over the river at Port Adelaide, photographed in summer, 2008. It's almost visually humorous to see a gigantic bridge opened fully to allow through a tiny sailboat on account of the mast being a fraction too tall to pass under the closed bridge! It also nicely contrasts the weight of the industrial construction of the bridge against the relative delicacy of the boat: one built to work solidly through the generations, the other built for speed in a mobile element. The picture was taken from the Hart's Mill Waterfront area, at medium-high telephoto, and was simply a matter of composition, the bright day providing ideal conditions. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The British Museum (Natural History)

2009-07-27T10:26:00.004+09:30

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Grandeur was a symbol of empire, and the neo-classicism of architectural design in the 18th and 19th centuries was a deliberate invocation of the respectability of classical times: London and Paris are scattered with Neo-Roman buildings. This is the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, brainchild of the always-controversial Richard Owen in the 1850s, an example of the way Britain's economic and political power had the resources to devote to public structures of the magnitude of cathedrals and palaces. With a building so very large it is never easy to capture it appreciably in the confines of a single frame, and this shot, taken from the other side of Cromwell Rd, is about as far back as you can get before the trees interfere with the composition rather than contributing to it. Sharpened and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Trying For Motion-Streaking

2009-07-26T09:20:00.004+09:30

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This is a simple effect with a manual camera. In the old days I would put the camera on the tripod at it's lowest hieght, focus in, then set the apperture to F16, forcing the shutter speed out to half a second, then the motion of the water would streak into solid bars of soft-edged light, which is of course how the famous Steve Parish creates those amazing water images in his celebrated landscape photography. Digital cameras are another matter, and this was purely experimental: was the light level in the Flinder Medical Centre rainforest garden low enough to force a long exposure without going to apperture priority? Almost! The result, while not quite the arty streaking it might have been, is certainly engaging: the crystal clarity of the wet rock texture, and the individual droplets of water catching the light. December, 2007; sharpened and colour-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Precision Flying

2009-07-25T09:29:00.003+09:30

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This is a high telephoto shot, and the lack of image resolution is at least partly due to that. But the shutter speed is very high, stopping the vortex of the smoke trail to show each prop-beat eddy perfectly. This is Chris Sperou, Australia's all-time aerobatic champion, in his trademark Pitts biplane, and Warren Stewart in the Beech B33, flying their super-close manoeuvres at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, in South Australia, February 2007. The shot was cropped close from a larger frame area before sizing for publication. The image was sharpened and contrast-enhanced very slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

River Cruising in London

2009-07-24T10:07:00.004+09:30

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The Greenwich Reach lends itself to panoramic imagery wonderfully. This shot was cropped from a standard frame, taken in November, 2007, from the shores of the Thames between the Royal College of Music and the Cutty Sark's drydock. The sleek, futuristic Thames Clippers are a usual sight, the tour boats plying up and down this famous, historic river through the heart of one of the world's greatest cities. Technically, composition was the object here: I framed the city and waited for the boat to cruise into just the right place before releasing the shutter. The picture was enhanced in the usual way, sharpened and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Fish-Eye Reflections

2009-07-23T09:50:00.004+09:30

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Christmas trees can be very hard to photograh. For their lights to be seen at their best the ambient illumination should be low, and flash pretty much defies the object of the lights. You can snap away for ages before you get a decent shot, and this macro closeup is delightfully sharp. The red orb is a perfect spherical mirror in which the camera itself can be seen, along with the photographer. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Prime Meridian

2009-07-23T09:29:00.004+09:30

This piece of what appears to be modern sculpture is the marker at the Royal Observatory, Greenwhich, London, showing the line of zero degrees (the metal strip recessed in the ground), the 'prime meridian' of the world from which navigation calculations derive. There have been others in the past, the French had a coordinate system with zero passing through Paris, and I believe there was a Russian system based on Moscow. This one is a tourist mecca, and everyone needs to stand with a foot in each of the eastern and western hemispheres at once. The oblique 'mast' of this gyroscope-like structure is almost certainly aligned on the celestial north pole, therefore reproducing the axial tilt of the Earth. The photograph was a simple composition piece in which the principle challenge was taking it in the moments when the monument was not obscured by the thronging visitors. Sharpened only. November, 2007; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Ancient Landscape

2009-07-22T13:37:00.004+09:30

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Staying with the dinosaur theme from the last image, here is an ancient landscape: Fern Gully, at the Loftier Botanic Gardens, east of Adelaide. This nook in the hills catches warmth and holds it to enable an island of highland rainforest to survive amongst the native eucalypt forest, creating a very Mesozoic feel to the place. This shot was an exercise in composition, finding just the right angle at which to capture the feeling of the spot, the natural composition of the trees and the path, which somehow never 'felt' the same through the viewfinder as they looked to the eye. The image was sharpened 5% only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Old Bones Tell Stories

2009-07-22T13:26:00.003+09:30

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This is the British Museum (Natural History)'s specimen of the American horned dinosaur Triceratops, photographed in December, 2006. it is complete to the last fragment, and an imposing reconstruction. The museum's dinosaur gallery is kept in twilight which makes photography difficult: long exposures, meaning keep that camera steady, or flash. The short range of the S5600's flash is probably the camera's single weakness, certainly the only factor which I can say has had a measurable impact on my work with it. This is a flash shot, and it pays off because the skeleton is just inside the size range at which the flash can envelope it, certainly it's important elements for the purposes of the POV. The ambient lighting is warm-toned and low but helps fill in the darker areas with tonal variation, while the flash has brought up the fine texture of the essentially dark subject matter well. Mid-tones were enhanced with gamma correction, then the image was contrast-balanced and the colour and sharpness tweaked. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, flash. Image by Mike.

Focal Depth

2009-07-19T10:31:00.006+09:30

A fascinating effect of telephoto photography is the available distance over which focus is sharp. Here the photographer in the forground, inside the focal depth range, appears as sharp as the main subject, which is at least 20 to 30 metres further away. This shot was taken at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, February, 2007, and was sharpened, and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Mountainous Cloud

2009-07-18T09:59:00.004+09:30

Clouds are ephemeral subjects, you shoot what you see when something special appears. These stratocumulous formations were drifting over Adelaide from the Gulf St Vincent in May, 2009, and I framed this towering formation from Carpark 1 at Flinders University, south of Adelaide. Even though the university has a hilltop location there are still intrusive elements taller than the photographer's vantage, carpark lighting for instance. This photograph would have been perfect if not for the lighting poles, but even so it makes a very aesthetically pleasing show of light, shade and colour. Colour and contrast were enhanced slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Hong Kong Smog

2009-07-17T10:23:00.004+09:30

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This photo was taken shortly after dawn from the international terminal at Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong, at the end of October, 2007. I didn't even try to beat the reflections in the plate glass, but just recorded exactly what met the eye: the reflections of the terminal lighting overlie a scene of industry, the fascinating array of cargo-handling systems serving the 747, against the backdrop of dense smog through which the hills are ghostly suggestions of themselves. Sharpened, and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

GPO, Adelaide

2009-07-16T09:36:00.003+09:30

This is the clock tower of the General Post Office, Adelaide, on Victoria Square, photographed in February, 2008. This building dates from the mid-19th century and when it was new it was one of the taller structures in the city, along with the Town Hall and the cathedral. This was 8.35 on a hot Sunday morning in summer and the brilliant sunshine brings out the richness of colour between the sky, the trees lining King William St and the cleaned stonework of the tower. Sharpened and colour-and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Hotels by the Sea

2009-07-16T09:26:00.003+09:30

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This is a 'holiday snap' style photograph, where composition is the goal. These hotels are on the clifftop above the old town at Robin Hood's Bay, on the coast of Yorkshire, UK, photographed in November, 2007. Fine rotation was used to offset the wide-angle distortion effect which curved the buildings in at the top. The exposure balance between the shadow side of the buildings and the slight burn-out of the sea background is most pleasing, creating a great sense of depth. Sharpened and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Crystal Clear Image-Stop

2009-07-14T09:14:00.004+09:30

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This is an example of what a camera can do when there is enough light on the subject. I was shooting at high telephoto to close in on the subject, which would have been perhaps 100 - 150 feet above the ground at this time, and let the automatics handle looking into the afternoon sky, maybe 45 degrees of arc away from the sun. Extremely short exposure time resulted, stopping the spinning blades as if they were motionless, while the aircraft is perfectly exposed. This was part of my Goolwa Classic Airshow shoot from February, 2007. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Focus on a Stem

2009-07-13T15:22:00.003+09:30

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Here is a trick easy with a manual SLR but infuriatingly difficult with a full auto system: focusing on a wispy, insubstantial subject rather than the material further away filling the rest of the frame. With a manual, crank the focus ring until you have what you want, nothing could be simpler, but with an autofocus system it's often pot-luck as to precisely where in your composition focus will fall. As with the aircraft shot published recently, the chip has here successfully chosen the foreground object as the focal target, creating that wonderfully 'arty' feel, as the soft focus de-emphasises the background. This shot was taken in the rainforest garden at Flinders Medical Centre, south of Adelaide, in December, 2007, and was sharpened and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Layering of Light

2009-07-12T08:47:00.005+09:30

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This is one of the series of studies I took in Welford Rd Cemetery, Leicester, UK, on Halloween 2007, a cold evening with a fast-declining sun. The play of light and colour are visually very appealing; the chip has found an excellent balance between foreground and background elements, silhouetting the overhanging branches and finding their mid-tones by burning out the evening sky. The colours of the autumn trees have likewise been optimised by the exposure, as have the cool values of the stones; the luminous quality of the sunlight through the golden tree draws the eye, while the shadow-side of the stones creates a sense of depth by providing a field of tonal difference. Sharpened, contrast- and colour-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Australian Sky

2009-07-12T08:37:00.004+09:30

This is another example of a serendipitous alignment. These wind-torn clouds in a hard, summer sky, framed so neatly against the flagpoles atop Parliament House in Adelaide, are seen from the Festival Plaza in February, 2009. In a few minutes the clouds would have moved and the essence of this image's aesthetic quality would have changed to something else, so photographs like this are truly captured moments in time, whose precise qualities are totally unique. Sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Atlantic Weather

2009-07-10T07:41:00.003+09:30

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This is another study of the Irish Sea coast of Blackpool, taken in December, 2006. Hail made it difficult to get anywhere near the seafront, and I was sniping these shots between bursts in the weather. In this one I managed to hold the camera level in the wind, and composed the car and building against the long graduation of the storm front over the sea. The containers at left add a vivid splash of colour which really reveal the iron greys of the background. On days like this it is the momentary, passing lighting conditions which draw the eye, and the luminous quality of the breakers creates the defining contrast. Sharpened and balanced for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Personalising the Hardware

2009-07-09T08:24:00.003+09:30

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Hardware, machines of any kind, are always interesting textural and light-effects subjects, or of interest for their own sake, but to personalise the image creates another dimension. People depicted in promotional illustration or photography compliment the product by depicting desirable lifestyle, and this is the same mechanism at work. Here the telephoto medium close-up on this D.H. 82 Tiger Mother, at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, in February 2007, has the dimension of personalisation due to capturing the passenger looking toward the camera, creating an emotional exchange in which the viewer participates in the image. Photographically it was not a difficult shot, simply a composition which sought a close angle on subject matter which was being well-documented from all perspectives. The image was sharpened and balanced, and fine rotation was used to help to square up the horizon line, correcting the tendancy to rotate the camera to the right with the shutter release. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

It's All About Exopsure

2009-07-08T07:27:00.003+09:30

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Brilliant sunshine and fast shutter speeds make for amazing results in the digital age: look at the mid-tone clarity on these figures in violent motion, the truthfulness of colour registration, and the frozen sharpness of edges. These are combatants on the field of honour at the Gumeracha Medieval Fair in May, 2009, photographed on the 'sport' setting to optimise results on a moving subject. The clear sunshine made possible extremely short exposure times, maximising the stop-action effect. The frame was enhanced slightly by the usual techniques. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic/sport. Image by Mike.

"Black 5"

2009-07-08T07:17:00.004+09:30

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"Black 5" is a very famous locomotive: it used to draw Queen Victoria's train over a hundred years ago. It is preserved in immaculate condition at the National Railway Museum, York, UK, and makes for a very difficult photographic challenge. First it is a highly reflective black object, second it's stored in a museum whose internal lighting is a mix of full-frequency and fluourescent types, thirdly the object is too big to paint with flash, and lastly, the light level is even softer than at the RAF Museum at Hendon. It's dark in there, and upping the virtual speed may not have made all that much difference, going by more recent experiences with concert shoots. I held the camera steady any way I could and just kept shooting, sure something usable would be among the blur. This image was gamma-corrected to bring up mid-tones, then contrast and colour balanced to restore overall integrity, and sharpened for clarity. November, 2006. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

A Painted Forest

2009-07-06T13:41:00.003+09:30

The play of light, shade, colour and backlight here create a image with its own validity divorced from the landscape in which it was observed. There is something of the tonal quality of the paintings of the 18th century French master Fragonard in this, in which the light in the trees is the theme and subject, and the aesthetic of the moment is very much a 'leightmotif' as characterised the art of the Rennaissance. This picture was taken as a high telephoto close-up on a group of trees at Loftier Gardens in April, 2009, and the image was sharpened and contrast- and colour-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

New Cars on an Old Bridge

2009-07-05T09:03:00.003+09:30

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A little-seen angle on London's Tower Bridge: I took this shot standing on a traffic island, and took my time lining up the symmetry. Even so the frame still needed a custom rotational fix to square it up, along with the usual enhancements. This was Sunday afternoon traffic in November, 2007, and London is a permanently busy town. It's another example of the old and the new, the centuries-old architectural style of the bridge counterpointed with the up-to-date designs of the cars crossing it. This same bridge has carried every era of car design since the car was invented, and shows every sign of continuing to do so into uncertain futures. Fuji FinePix, S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Unintentionally Artistic

2009-07-04T09:31:00.003+09:30

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When you're shooting on the fly you can only take advantage of what happens in front of you and see what comes out later, and sometimes the results are surprising, things the eye did not register at the time. This is an old T-28 Trojan trainer, flown by Wayne Pearce, at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, February, 2007, an aircraft I captured in many studies. The conditions were bright sunshine (exposure time is short enough to stop the prop) and a strong, buffetting wind, and by afternoon a lot of heat was reflecting from the landing strip, creating the heat haze seen here. I was tracking with the aircraft on landing, at maximum telephoto, and it seems the heat haze meant the sonic focussing beam could not find the subject. But it did find the strands of grass blowing in the foreground, generating an image that suggests I focussed deliberately on the grass to let the subject matter blur artistically. This is serendipity, I certainly could not have made it happen! Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Colour- and contrast-balanced. Image by Mike.

Storm Over an Old Church

2009-07-04T09:22:00.003+09:30

One of my favourite lighting situations is found usually in the later afternoon when a heavy weather front is moving through, and the low sun can strike under the clouds. This often creates a deeply stormy background sky framing a fully sunlit foreground, an ephemeral situation which a photographer can preserve for posterity. This is the old church (pre-1850) at St. Marys, south of Adelaide, photographed in August, 2007, on a rather raw afternoon. Besides the lighting conditions, the composition not only exploits the height of the bell tower, it frames the ancient Saxon architectural style against Australian gumtrees, a delightful juxtaposition. Sharpened, contrast- and colour-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

One Big Ship

2009-07-02T09:31:00.004+09:30

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Photographing HMS Victory is not easy. Stand back far enough to see the whole vessel and you tend to get smaller buildings in the shot as well! This was my first glimpse of the historic Georgian warship as I walked through the public access museum area of Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, in the 'Gunwharf Quays' district, on a very grey day in December 2006. The sheer size of the ship is stunning, she towers into the sky and is well over 200 feet long, a triumph of timber engineering. Exposure times were long on this day as the chip dealt with low light levels and intermittent rain, and composition was always going to be a compromise between seeing the ship unobstructed but only in close-up, or longshots that were visually cluttered. Sharpness and colour were enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Grandeur of the Romanesque

2009-07-01T09:18:00.004+09:30

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The ancient architects of the Mediterranean cultures could never have imagined that their styles would be seen as epitomising the respectable, dignified establishment thousands of years later, but even today the Classical and Romanesque styles automatically suggest grandeur and power. This example is on the corner of King William Street and Currie Street in Adelaide, South Australia, a 19th century building in a colony eager to establish itself swiftly as a modern and respected corner of a far-flung empire. The photograph was taken at medium telephoto to exclude all surrounding information and concentrate solely on the play of symmetry and light, the texture of the stone and glass. Sharpened and contrast- and colour-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic; April, 2009. Image by Mike.

The Cold North Sea

2009-06-30T09:33:00.004+09:30

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Clear weather brings an almost warm feel to this image, when the fact is it was chill on this day in November, 2007, and the wind was almost too strong to stand against, thus the huge waves pounding onto the Yorkshire coast. I took this shot from the base of the west breakwater at the mouth of the River Esk, in Whitby, looking northwest along the coast toward Sandsend, and used high telephoto to frame the sea against the headland. The foreground and a little sky were cropped to focus attention on the thematic areas of the frame, and colour, sharpness and contrast were adjusted. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Ephemeral Subject

2009-06-29T10:35:00.004+09:30

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Some subjects are there and gone in moments, and you need to anticipate their appearance to catch them on film (or in pixels). Fast-moving subjects fall in this category, and when an aerobatic plane trails smoke it makes pictures in the sky which have the beauty of the physics of fluid mechanics. Here I'm photographing the aerobatic display by the Extra 300s type, flown by Paul Andronicou at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, February, 2007, and while the aircraft itself is the subject matter it becomes visually conjoined with its smoke trail, so the corporate effect is the sense of motion the audience receives. In this sense, the smoke is as important as the aircraft in the aesthetic effect they generate, and the photographer must mot try to zoom solely on the aicraft and track its motion to the exclusion of all else -- it's not possible, for one thing, and you miss the visual suggestion of motion in the smoke if you do. This image was cropped to achieve composition, and sharpness and colour were enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, image by Mike.

Whitehall

2009-06-28T13:14:00.004+09:30

Whitehall is London's famous 'corridor of power,' the street where government buildings cluster thickly from centuries gone by, built in the style of the Classical revival and adorned with statues as if London was making a bid to be New Rome. The Plain trees thrive in the city and this shot serenditiptously captures the ephermeral contrast between a dense cloudbank and sunlight on marble architecture. This building is seen in the closing shot of the main titles of The Professionals classic action series from 1977-'81. The vertical format was cropped out of a horizontal frame and a slight fine rotation was used to square up the symmetry. The colour was adjusted, along with contrast and sharpness, making a pleasing balance betweek the green and grey elements. November, 2007; Fuji FinePix, S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Angry Sky

2009-06-27T09:02:00.004+09:30

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Storm skies are always dramatic and are totally ephemeral: here one minute, changed completely the next. Shoot when you see the spectacle unfolding! The problem with shooting skies in an urban context is interferance from structures -- the building skyline, but more intrusively light poles and wires. This shot is from a set taken in St. Marys, south of Adelaide, in July, 2007, beside a main road while I was waiting for a bus, and I could have wept with frustration as the cables strung over the road were impossible to exclude from any angle I could get on the coming weatherfront. This is where the digital artist comes in, to paint out the wires, but that's a long job and takes a skillful hand, or it's as obvious as taking an eraser to a heavy pencil line, it makes a mess rather than a seamless repair. The raw image is very dark and gamma-correction was used to bring up mid-tone values, then contrast was increased to restore the drama of the picture, and colour was brought up to add depth. Sharpening finished the enhancements. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Visually Deceptive

2009-06-26T09:34:00.003+09:30

This is the Sunderland,UK, marina, a residential development at the mouth of the river, off the entrance to Sunderland harbour. The modern high-rise appartment blocks are partially protected from the north wind by the Roker cliffs, and from the often heavy North Sea swell by the breakwaters. The colour of this image, barely enhanced from the raw file, along with sharpness and contrast, suggests a very Mediterranean climate, which is the deceptiveness of photography. This picture was taken in November, 2007, it was cold and a biting wind had been blowing out of the north all week; these yacht are laid-up for the winter. The vertical format is here the result of cropping the central body of the image from a horizontal format frame. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The Light From Beyond

2009-06-25T08:48:00.003+09:30

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Images like this always evoke thoughts of dimensional portals, energy disruptions, gateways between "here" and "there" so popular in SF and fantasy. This is the afternoon sun framed amongst trees on the high slopes of the Adelaide hills, just south of Mount Lofty, in the upper parts of Loftier Gardens, April, 2009. Capturing the sun is one thing, but what the chip makes of the rest of the image is the measure of it. Mid-tones, harsh contrast, lens flare, backlighting, strike-through and silhouette, and a sharp registration of detail as a consequence of the forced minimal apperture, make for a fascinating study of the natural world. Sharpness and colour were enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Panning with a Moving Subject

2009-06-24T15:52:00.003+09:30

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Sometimes the results of a shoot can be surprising. The Goolwa Classic Air Show 2007 was my first time shooting a flying display digitally rather than with the trusty Pentax K1000s and the manual zoom lens, and I was very pleased with the range of effects and benefits that came through. Here I'm panning with the takeoff roll of the restored WWII-wintage Yak-9 Russian fighter, flown by Jim Wickham, managing somehow to keep the horizon level (I think the camera was balanced on top of a fence post) and tracking left to right with the subject at high zoom. Oddly enough, though the shutter speed was fast enough to almost stop the prop, the background is attractively streaked while the subject is sharp and clear. I was not using sport mode, but the day cleared out to bright sunshine (and a buffetting wind) and the chip made great use of the faster available speed range. The image was sharpened only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Orderly Trees

2009-06-23T07:49:00.003+09:30

I took this shot on a roadway across the ridge above Rocky Paddock, Mount Ctrawford Forest, north-east of Adelaide, in May, 2008. It's in the high telephoto range and I was surprised at just how much information the image contains, given that I was shooting at only 2mP on the day. The further forests -- tree farms, this is a pine plantation for the building industry, being progressively harvested -- created a symmetry on the hillsides which made an interesting contrast with the organic nature of the trees closer at hand, and the telephoto framed one within the other. The tonal range within the greens and other hues is appealing, also. Sharpness, contrast and colour were adjusted slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Inside, Looking Out

2009-06-22T09:05:00.003+09:30

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An amazing thing about the evolution of a city is the way its structure becomes interlinked. In eastern London, the Docklands Light Railway was built as a 'people mover' linking the residential redevelopments taking place around the long-disused docks (the revolution in sea freight with containerisation made the old docks redundant long ago) and this elevated railway snakes amongst the buildings, crossing canals and docks, and passing right through some buildings. This station is inside a low floor (third or so) of a high-rise tower, and immediately outside is a bridge across a wide canal. The city engineering is impressive and almost picturesque in a 21st century way. Here the chip has done an amazing job of balancing the dark interior with the bright exterior, and creates a real feel of conditions on the day. The natural contrast is very hard, and mid-tones were enhanced with gamma correction. Colour was also encouraged a little as an image like this is preferentially close to black and white. December, 2007; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Machine Texture

2009-06-21T08:48:00.005+09:30

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An aviation museum has many subtle and visually interesting textures, from the gloss of paint finishes to the not-yet-restored grub and corrosion of metal long exposed to the elements. Here the engine is dismounted from a Mirage III fighter, workhorse of the Royal Australian Air Force in the 1970s, at the Classic Jets Fighter Museum, Parafield Airport, north of Adelaide, and the lighting conditions were a challenge. The shadow areas inside the engine bay contrast with the burned-out primary light source and the chip has found an excellent balance, bringing out good mid-tones. This was further enhanced with gamma-correction, plus a round of sharpening, contrast and colour adjustment. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic; January, 2007. Image by Mike.

Caedmon's Cross

2009-06-20T08:44:00.004+09:30

This beautiful Celtic cross with deeply-incised graphical detail on all faces of the shaft, stands in graveyard of St Mary's Church, on the East Cliff of Whitby, Yorkshire, UK. It commemorates Caedmon, the great bard of the Dark Ages, remembered for the beauty of the spoken word as an artform. A trail up the cliffs to the site of the old abbey on the east side of the River Esk is known as "Caedmon's Trod," a 'trod' being a local term for a path (e.g., the 'Sailor's Trod' ran across the moors between port towns on the coast). This simple portrait-format shot was taken in November, 2007, on a cold and breezy afternoon, looking north-west along the Yorkshire coast, and the view awakens thoughts of this place before modern development, when such stone carving was the epitome of its artform. Sharpened, colour-enhanced and contrast-adjusted. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Reflections in a Rippled Lake

2009-06-19T09:43:00.005+09:30

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The subtly-shifting surface of a calm lake makes an amazing reflector, and while a glass-smooth lake at the foot of a fall forest in New England or wherever makes for the ultimate in reflection shots, the infinite variability of the interplay of light with the surface of water makes any such scene visually interesting. This is the lake at Flinders University, south of Adelaide, on a bright, calm day in April, 2009. Note the mixture of both Australian eucalypts and European willows. Telephoto was used to exlude unwanted background and frame the trees and their reflections. The image was sharpened only for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Town with a Long History

2009-06-18T09:21:00.003+09:30

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This is the Highstreet, in Stockton, Cleaveland, UK, a town with a very long history. There was a castle at rear left of this picture in medieval times, commanding the river which is a couple of hundred yards beyond the buildings (its foundations were found by workers in the 1960s), and there has been a street market here (hence the breadth of the street) for some 800 years, the charter for which was granted by King John, of Robin Hood fame. I took this photo in December, 2006, hence the Christmas decorations, and you can see by the clock in the tower of the Town Hall that it is 12.05pm. A series of rain squalls went through and left the roads wet, excellent reflectors to the patchy sun that came up later. The image as taken was quite dark, so mid-tones were recovered with gamma-correction, then contrast, colour and sharpness were all adjusted. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike

Autumn Glory

2009-06-17T08:55:00.003+09:30

There's nothing like the autumn in a decidious wood, the colours are wonderful to the eye and the soul. This is a telephoto close-in on a patch of luminoscity created by the backlighting of a fall tree, direct sunlight shining through red and gold leaves to silhouette the trunk and boughs. Things like this tend to jimp out of a landscape to a photographer's eye, and draw the camera like a magnet. Sharpened and contrast-balanced; Loftier Gardens, April, 2009. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The Millenium Dome

2009-06-16T09:16:00.003+09:30

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London's Millenium Dome was built as an exhibition pavillion to mark the change of century, on a reclaimed industrial site in Greenwich. It was a controversial project seen as a money-pit by many. Open during the year 2000 with millenium-related exhibitions, it fell into disuse and has subsequently been revitalised as part of "The O2" entertainment district. I took this shot at high telephoto at the beginning of November, 2007, as my plane was circling London waiting for landing permission. The softness of the image is due to the accute angle through the window, and the colour, contrast and sharpness were all adjusted to maximised the result. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Stop-Action at the Gallop

2009-06-15T08:32:00.003+09:30

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This is another shot from the Gumeracha Medieval Fair in May, 2009. I was shooting on the camera's 'sport' setting, which optimises exposure time as short as possible. Capturing a horse in full gallop, unblurred and with excellent tonal qualities, is a good result. Shooting into the sun quadrant would also have driven the shutter speed up, and the chip has compensated to render pleasuing mid-tones in a situation which would have favoured hard contrast in the days of chemical photography. Sharpness and colour were tweaked slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Night on the Street

2009-06-14T10:11:00.003+09:30

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Sometimes digital cameras can amaze you. This is a full night-time shot in streetlighting, and it's as clear as if you'd stepped into the street and looked around. It was a bitterly cold night in November, 2007, and I was leaving a function at the Bonded Warehouse Restaurant in Sunderland, UK, to walk back to my boarding house. I held the camera against the wall, rock-steady, to let the chip work its magic with a long exposure. Note how the wall is distorted with the wide-angle effect of the lens. Mid-tone areas were enhanced with gamma-correction, then contrast and sharpness were increased, and a slight custom rotation (a fraction of a degree) was used to minimise the proximity-distortion of the wall. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Light Through Quartz and Feathers

2009-06-13T09:59:00.005+09:30

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Australian seagulls are small grey and white birds that are seriously human-habituated. They beg for food whenever they see a human, and will always tidy up fast food abandoned on the sea front. I took this shot not long before sundown in the spirng of 2007, and the low-angle, short-frequency light has created some interesting effects. The point that draws the eye is the sun shining through the wind-ruffled feather, then the refraction through quartz grains in the sand, while overall the play of short-frequency light in the highlights and long-frequency in the shadows creates an almost painting-like texture. Sharpened and colour-enhanced for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Slow Burn Image

2009-06-12T09:29:00.003+09:30

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Having experimented with faster virtual filmspeeds and encountered 'digital grain' in the 800 ASA range, I'm actually glad I stayed with 200 ASA and played the camera-motion game at my shoot at the RAF Museum, Hendon, in December, 2006. This is their Lancaster bomber and shooting a black aeroplane in a huge building in which the illumins were never quite right for photography was a technical challenge, but the clarity and liquid-smoothness of the 5mp image were in fact worth it. I saw a photo taken in the Lancaster assembly line during WWII, an early colour negative, with a filmspeed so slow you could see the ghost-images of technicans who were walking through the frame. To my amazement, the same thing appeared in this shot: note the patron at far right. This tells you how long the exposure was. The camera was held solidly against a column to eliminate motion, then the chip simply did its thing with the exposure, rendering a very pleasing final result. Sharpness and colour were enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Colour Therapy II

2009-06-11T09:09:00.003+09:30

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The hard Australian sky, viewed through dense foliage and the splash of tropical blooms, makes a pallet that's hard to resist. Colour for it's own sake! This was a simple snapshot, looking up toward the library at Flinders University, south of Adelaide, in April 2009, the blooming period for the Bougainvillea. The campus is on a hilltop, facing the northerly sun, and is often bright and colourful. Sharpened only; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Landseer's Iconic Lions

2009-06-10T09:29:00.004+09:30

The four bronze lions that flank Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square are a London icon. But no matter how familiar you think you might be with the sights of this city, nothing prepares you for their size when you finally see them in person. They are several times lifesize! The lions, strongly symbolic of British power in Imperial times, were cast in 1867 from a sculpture by Sir Edwin Landseer, the 'most celebrated animal artist of the reign of Queen Victoria,' as I once heard him described. He was criticised for giving animals eyes that were too expressive, they had a human quality that was uncomfortable to the 19th century mind; it is also said he had never seen a lion when he sculpted the original, but used his dog and cat as references! The metal of which these statues are cast is said to be the melted-down cannons of the destroyed French fleet, captured in 1805. The photograph was not difficult, but a composition in which there were no intrusive elements was; here one of the four shares the frame with the decorated base of Nelson's Column, but at least there are no buildings, people (or pigeons) in the shot. Sharpness and colour were enhanced, the latter considerably to put some hue into a watery winter sky. December, 2006; Fuji FinepPix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Hong Kong Dawn

2009-06-09T09:33:00.004+09:30

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The plane from Australia got into Hong Kong around sunrise and the smog made for strange lighting conditions, like this purple twilight. This shot was taken at the end of October 2007, over the wing of a taxying Qantas 747, and was the clearest of a batch of frames. The duplication effect around the lights was an artifact of the plane window. The frame was cropped down to a panoramic view on the subject matter, and colour, sharpness and contrast were enhanced slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Intrusive Elements

2009-06-08T09:02:00.004+09:30

Sometimes there are elements in the landcsape you can't avoid, and they can be the kiss of death for a great photo -- rubbish bins, for instance. Here a street light gets in the way of this 'monolithic' shot of the Optus Communications building on South Terrace, Adelaide, taken in January 2009. I tried moving around but then other lights intruded into the frame also. I even took a frame incorporating traffic lights as a complimentary symmetry. But this is a perfectly framed image of the tower in dusk light, with wonderful colour gradients and vanishing point symmetry, which perfectly demonstrates how an intrusive compositional element can get in the way of a shot being rated first class. Sharpness was the only enhancement. Fuji FinePix S6500, automatic. Image by Mike.

Three-Master On Show

2009-06-07T08:53:00.003+09:30

Only one original Georgian warship remains in the world, HMS Victory, safely drydocked at Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, but period vessels have been built for contemporary reasons. This is The Grand Turk, built for the 1990s TV series based on C. S. Forester's immortal Captain Hornblower novels, a fully-featured and entirely functional sailing vessel in the style of the Napoleonic period. The ship is kept in good condition and is a standing exhibit and tourist attraction moored at Whitby, Yorkshire, UK. Mock swordfights enhance the period flavour, and the vessel is open to the public all rear round. I took this photograph in November 2007, one of a long series in many different lighting and weather conditions over two visits, but this is one of very few in which I was able to appreciably frame the whole ship. Like Victory, she is both large and in close proximity to buildings and other structures, so an unobscured vantage is difficult to find, except from the other side of the river. The framing was simple enough and the chip handled everything else, the challenge was composition. Sharpness and colour were enhanced for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Riot of Colour

2009-06-06T10:08:00.003+09:30

This is another of my Loftier Gardens shoot from April 2009, celebrating the absolute artists' pallet of the autumn deciduous woods. What can you say? The crackling reds and yellows against the blue of the sky creates a virtual colour-therapy that is like summer's last gift before the bare boughs of winter. These images were technically simple, the chip did the hard work and left me free to think about composition, to see the shots in the landscape and make them happen in the lens. Sharpness was adjusted, there was no need to mess with colour! Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Evening in an Old Town

2009-06-05T09:09:00.003+09:30

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The texture in this photograph is quite amazing, the variety, from the metal of vehicles to the swirls of an unsettled sky, the direct sun highlights on the upper parts of hundred-year old buildings and the overall long-frequency light in the wide shadow areas. I took this shot in November 2006, on Oxbridge Lane, looking into Yarm Road, Stockton-on-Tees, Yorkshire, UK. Yarm is the anglicised, lingually-drifted hand-down of Iarum, the name of a Roman river port just a few miles away, which is a comment on the antiquity of this part of the world. This photograph was taken on a blustery afternoon, around 3.30pm, with not much over an hour's daylight remaining. Colour, contrast and sharpness were enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Organic Tangles

2009-06-04T10:14:00.003+09:30

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Even when shooting an event, there are photogenic marvels in the natural world that still claim the photographer's attention. I found this amazing tangle of tree limbs while at the Gumeracha Medieval Fair in early May, 2009, and was struck by the Fangorn-like quality, the riot of wild growth, that so amazingly complimented the ancient theme of the day, while also being an Australian native tree in juxtaposition with a European cultural stream. The frame was a no-brainer to take, just point, zoom and shoot. Sharpness and colour were adjusted slightly. Fuji FnePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

One Serious Breakwater

2009-06-03T09:02:00.003+09:30

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Actually it's one of two... These great, curved breakwaters extend way out into the North Sea from the Roker foreshore, just north of the entrance to Sunderland harbour. They are Victorian engineering, all solid stone and cast iron, and are capped with typically 19th century lighthouses. The area enclosed between them seems to be a safe beach for the summer tourist trade rather than guarding the mouth of the river, as the twin breakwaters do at Whitby. The photograph was taken from the esplanade, and was cropped down to a panoramic image, removing some foreground and a lot of sky. The horizon line was levelled up using the fine rotation tool, and the image was sharpened progressively to regain the clarity expected of such a shot. Colour and contrast were also adjusted slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic; November 2006. Image by Mike.