The Art of Accepting What’s There

Every photographer hopes for spectacular lighting conditions and weather that is kind to his or her composition. The plain fact is that we don’t always get those things (I was sunny when I left Adelaide, and the grey skies and rain began at the first stop, Melbourne), and we work with what we have—making a silk purse from a sow’s ear at least some of the time! But when you’ve travelled across the world and have a particular day available for walking out and shooting what’s there, you make what the conditions give you, and with any luck you can come up with something that’s worth looking at. This was my first day in Sunderland in November 2011 (I don’t have accurate dates, I forgot to set date and time when I cleared the flashcard for the trip!), and I would be occupied at the conference at the university from the following day, so this was it—sight seeing, if possible, through mist and drizzle. Well, I went out and walked, and I shot all sorts—Roker Park, Mowbray Park, the Wintergardens, the museum, street scenes, the river, the foreshore. It’s the same outing as my post “Nature’s Effortless Drama,” and one or two others. This is a view over the lower river, looking out into the North Sea. Sunderland is a busy port for shipping, and the river is a highway for trade. This picture has almost the texture of a watercolour, created by a buildup of washes to depict the flat, misty conditions. This is what it looked like, and I recorded the thick, hazy day in all its glory. I think there is aesthetic appeal in this—the starkness, the apparent “hardness” of the day, metaphorical, if you will, of the bulwark of human industriousness against the impersonal forces of nature. A bright, sunny day would give this view a very different emotional context, but here the dreary weather asks the viewer to think more deeply about the scene. Colour and contrast were adjusted slightly in Irfanview. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

One Sunset Among Many

 

Over the years I’ve had the chance to photograph many sunsets, sometimes with long series of frames capturing the whole event. This was one such occasion, on the way back from a drive down the Fleurieu which had taken in Hindmarsh Falls not long before (July 17^th, 2017). The vantage point was an overlook on the highway down Sellick’s Hill, giving a wonderful view out over the Gulf St Vincent, and the weather front approaching from the southwest over the sea was the perfect medium through which the declining sun could work its magic. I have dozens of frames from about this point to late in the event when colours had faded to pastel shades, but I can’t get enough of those with the richer tones. There was no photographic trickery here, just point and shoot at fair telephoto settings to exclude the silhouetted shoulders of hills. No enhancement was done, this is what it looked like and what the camera recorded. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

How to Cheat at Wildlife Photography

 

Since when have I been a birding photographer? That’s my sister’s province, and I wouldn’t dream of trying it! But this was a little different. This pic was taken at Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills, on October 31^st, 2018, during an afternoon visit, and those who have been there will know how it came about. The restaurant has a long wall of plate glass looking into a protected garden where the birds come to feeders, and if you’re a fair hand with zoom and framing, you can grab studies like this from your seat. The chip handled the lighting conditions wonderfully. Cheating, yes, but I was not going to turn down the chance of a pic like this when the birds were barely three metres from me, and sitting still to be photographed! This picture was mot enhanced in any way. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Happy New Year’s Eve!

The Australian Vista

'Tis the longest day here in Australia and I wanted to post something taken about this time of year, so here’s a wide view of the Australian landscape as the festive season approaches. This is the top of Mount Alma, South Australia, looking south, on December 13^th, 2019. The day started out quite overcast but cleared out to that hard, brassy sky that so characterises an Australian summer. The hard blue sky over the yellow grass, harsh light and gum trees—no matter where I am in the world, these things will always mean summer Down Under. (At that altitude, there's plenty of green  persisting!) A simple line-up, the composition framed by the trees is the essential aesthetic. Photographic technique is a no-brainer, just point and shoot. Minimal adjustment in IrfanView, some gamma-correction, brightness reduced slightly and a boatload of colour added. Leagoo M9 phone cam shot. Image by Mike.

Nature’s Effortless Drama

I took this shot in November, 2011, during my fourth UK trip. It’s a view over the Sunderland foreshore in thick and hazy weather, one of a series, this one with a fair measure of zoom used. I took a walk when I got into Sunderland (for a conference at the university) after a long journey from Australia, and you can see by how low the sun is that the date is well advanced toward winter. This was probably mid-afternoon but the sun didn’t seem to pass about 25 degrees of elevation at that latitude at that time of year. I did not process this image at all—it speaks for itself. The haze, the sun through cloud, the way the chip exposed on the brighter sky and plunged the land and sea into twilight, are, to me quite perfect in their own right. This is the kind of show nature turns on all the time, and thick weather can deliver images far more dramatic than bright sunshine and sharp shadows. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

A Giant Passing By

Here is an interesting photographic proposition—a twilight image from an unstable platform. Today, with speed-of-light ISO available, it’s not an issue, but back when this was taken, just over 14 years ago, on November 15^th, 2010, ISO was as limited at dpi, and you did your best. I was on the ferry Pride of the Tyne, on the return leg of a trip to Tynemouth Castle and Priory, crossing the wide river at dusk, and the ferry paused to allow a ship to go by on its way out of port, accompanied by the pilot boat. The ship was the Komet III, riding high as if devoid of cargo, and her towering seven-story superstructure seemed disproportionately tall—to this day I can only imagine how such a ship would roll in a heavy seaway! But as a photographer, I got to expose a whole sequence as the ship glided by in the soft evening colours, and this one is the most detailed close-up. Minimal adjustment was required—she was squared up by a little to get the verticals true, then contrast and colour were tweaked. A pleasing image—I’ve often thought the old Fuji chip handles low light conditions very nicely indeed. The same camera is still in action today! Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Fun with Reflections

You can get up to all sorts of tricks with reflections, but sometimes you find the reflection is the whole image. This is a 1926 steam locomotive, preserved in the National Railway Museum, York., UK., which I photographed on my visit in late 2011, and the lighting conditions in the sheds were tricky—soft enough to make blur a constant hazard with the light gathering ability of the cameras of the day. (Now, no problem, they handle low light like magic, but then? It took ingenuity.) The engines on display are polished to the nines, and the interplay of artificial light and gleaming surfaces did all the work in this image. It’s not even enhanced, in any way! Just metal, paint, a lot of hard work with polishing tools, and the interplay of light, creating a machine-as-art situation. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Calm Bay

This is Horseshoe Bay, Victor Harbor, South Australia, photographed on April 16^th, 2019. It’s a simple point and shoot at medium-high telephoto value, from the carpark at the Bluff. This is the trip where I was airing out the Fuji S6500, a very good camera with lovely lens and chip performance. I got some great shots that day, and this one is attractive for its simplicity. There’s enough resolution to see people on the far beach as surely as leaves in the foreground, and the lighting conditions were very nice that day. Just a nice photograph! Minor adjustments in IrfanView. Fuji FinePix S6500. Image by Mike

 

The Drama of Evening

Sunsets grab your attention in the most dramatic way—perhaps as much for their ephemeral nature as for their beauty. They last only minutes and every one is different, an infinite range of variation all down to the ever-changing clouds. This was one of the series I took from the vantage of Flinders University many years ago, this frame date-stamped February 13^th, 2005. I was in the final stretch if my Masters Degree at the time. I could have fiddled with this image a lot, and probably ended up losing the striking depth and vibrance of the moment. All I did was pull up the gamma value a couple of notches to bring out a little mid-tone detail, and take it one click sharper. I considered using fine rotation to level up the horizon but it was going to cut into the image at its edges in ways that would sacrifice something of the moment, so I left it as is. Fuji S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Geometry and Reflections

 

My eye is always caught by the interplay of straight lines in perspective. That pays into my fascination with vanishing point symmetry—all parallel lines have that element, but only extended lines display it in an eye catching way. This is the outside steps of the Medical Sciences building at Flinders University of South Australia, photographed on 5^th August, 2011. The building was new at the time, if I remember correctly, and this accessway is on the outdoor route for walking from the university down to the hospital to connect with the bus home. This was late afternoon, and the interplay of the shade slats, the stairs, the reflections in the plate glass to the left, and the general afternoon light, created a striking image that made me pause, pull out my camera (not sure why I had it at the Uni on that day), and take a whole series of frames. This one seems to capture the best balance of all elements. No to minimal enhancement was needed. Fuji S5600. Image by Mike.

The Timeless Gothic

 

Here is an uncomplicated picture by any standards, made special by its subject matter, This soaring Gothic architecture is York Minster, which I photographed in late 2011, during my fourth UK trip. The weather was being kind on that visit, as opposed to another trip to York when it was pouring down. Vanishing point symmetry is always visually appealing, and the built environment aspect is special as it carries a context of Medieval times. No enhancement at all was done, this is just as she came off the camera. Fuji S5600. Image by Mike.

I’ve been particularly busy/distracted in the last few weeks and had not noticed the time going by, so I’ll put up three pics in quick succession.

Struggling with the Sun

 

One thing you have no control over when you’re sitting in a window seat on a plane is the relative angle of the sun. If the plane is flying this way, the sun is there, of it’s flying that way, it’s over there, and the sun is either in your field of view early or late in the day, or too high to invade your frames in the middle hours. This pic was one of the series I took on approach to Singapore on the way home from the UK in November, 2007. The sun was low as it was late afternoon when we arrived, and the approach pattern saw a nice panoply of seaways, ships lying at anchor, islands in the glittering waters and so forth, all of which cried out to be photographed. In this frame, the sun is low and, while in picture, the cloud haze has cut the glare, and the chip has handled it very well. There’s only a suggestion of lens flare, and for once the imperfections on the plane window are not apparent. The flaps are already down, which tells you the plane was not far from Changi Airport. Nice texture and toning—contrast, gamma, colour and sharpness were adjusted a little in IrfanVew. I was also shooting at low DPI in those days. Fuji S5600. Image by Mike.