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.

Compressed Perspective

The magic of the telephoto lens is making the middle distance seem close and the distant seem a lot nearer than it is. When you combine the two elements, the compression is delightfully deceptive. Here’s a simple shot taken around early November to December, 2007 (I don’t seem to have an exact date available) on my one and only visit to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, to the east of London. (Yes, I stood with a foot each each hemisphere, astride the prime meridian, as everyone does!) This is a zoom shot and the outdoor cafe area in the foreground is seen against the Millennium Dome, which must be a couple of kilometres away on the other side of the Thames. It's also an exercise in pulling information out of the dark foreground without burning out the background, so the chip handled the situation very well indeed, requiring only minor tweaks to gamma value, contrast and colour. Fuji S5600. Image by Mike.

Different Lens Coatings = Different Lens Flare

A few posts back I talked about the lens flare characteristics of different lenses, how when using the old, reliable Fuji S5600 I learned to shade the lens when shooting into the sun quadrant to keep the flare effect from occurring. This frame was captured with that camera’s later brother, the Fuji HS10, and here I was shooting toward the sun by default. I was high in the grandstand of the 2019 RAAF Edinburgh Air Show, and there was no shade at all. I remember shooting with this camera and the S5600 at the same time, both round my neck and being used for different subjects. I was eager to explore the HS10’s high telephoto range, as airshows are notorious for generating lots of pictures of bright skies with aeroplanes so far away and moving so fast they are mere dots, and I found I had plenty of reach with this one, without serious loss of smoothness in the image. Here I’m looking toward the assembly point where aircraft moved from the parking area to the runway. The Gloster Meteor classic jet fighter is frame against the fuel trucks, with a marshal alongside, radio in hand. It’s a closer angle on a frame up I had just done at a wider setting. There is no flare in the image (except around the actual reflection of the sun in the canopy) and I’m going to assume both a superior lens coating on this model, and some degree of shading—usually with my baseball cap. I remember being very busy working the pictures on that day (November 10^th, 2019, just before covid began to run rampage through the community.) Colour, contrast and sharpness were tweaked very slightly. Fuji HS10. Image by Mike.

New Camera, Old Subject

 

When trying out the characteristics if a new piece of kit, one often gravitates to well-known subjects so as to compare results, and I found myself doing just that on an early shoot trying out the camera of my new phone, the Xiaomi Poco M5. It has the highest resolution of any camera in the house, and the chip behaves very nicely under a wide range of conditions, including indirect and low-light. I found the resolution fails quickly at high telephoto values, but so long as I stay away from that much zoom the pictures are exceptionally crisp and clear, lending themselves to cropping well inside the image to pull subject from background as necessary. I went for a stroll in Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens on July 10^th, 2024, and the weather was very kind. This is a view of the tropical house, a Victorian structure for all kinds of exotic plant life that requires conditions never less than warm and steamy. Tweaks were just a fraction more contrast and colour. Xiaomi Poco M5. Image by Mike.

The Mighty Murray

Here’s a frame I captured on October 6^th, 2018—almost exactly six years ago. This is the River Murray photographed from an overlook at Tailem Bend, in the hour before sunset. Not quite “golden hour,” the toning of the evening was quite blue, but the majestic sweep of the river, framed in the gum trees, makes an appealing composition, especially against that great, complex skyscape. This seems to be before I got the trick through my head about shading the lens with my cap when shooting anywhere near the sun quadrant of the sky, thus the lens flare in the lower right. It’s endemic to the nature of lenses, but unless lens flare is the theme or object of an image, I must say I’m not a great fan of it in my images. But this is a worthwhile shot, and the lens flare is part f the story. Minor adjustments in Irfanview, including increasing gamma value to pull information out of the shadowed areas. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike

 

Magic Hour in Yorkshire

I took this frame in the late afternoon/early evening of a day in November, 2007, from the window of a moving train on the Esk Valley line between Middlesbrough and Whitby. After many grey skies and soft exposures on my 2007 UK trip, the sun finally—momentarily—came out, and I shot as much as I could, The train windows were not the cleanest, and the internal lights reflected in the glass, so I was constantly trying to find an angle to both catch the scene and exclude reflections. This one has an almost painting-like feel: the softness of even the direct light as “golden hour” progresses—note the length of the tree shadow—and the inherent autumn sombreness combining to create an emotionally evocative image. I left Whitby the next morning, going up the coast to Sunderland, and the light and feel of the next batch of shots is completely different. “Magic hour” indeed! (Just a little contrast work, and one click sharp.) Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

A Grim Magnificence

November 2007 seems such a long time ago! I took this image in Welford Rd. Cemetery, Leicester, UK, across the road from Leicester University, where I was doing a fieldwork survey for my PhD, supervising senior students who were gaining fieldwork course credits by assisting me with the data collection. We had worked through the afternoon, and early evening was coming down by four o’clock or so. The lighting quality created such a painting-like feel, I couldn’t resist grabbing some scenic shots among the dry record images of the gravestones, and as evening progressed the skyscape over the ivy-grown monuments developed a very Gothic feel. Catching detail in the foreground was down to how the chip handled the conditions, and the old Fuji S5600 has always been very good in this respect. I featured one or two shots from my Leicester stopover many years ago, back in the first incarnation of this site. Contrast, gamma and colour were slightly adjusted in Irfanview, otherwise this is just how it looked on the day. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike

Small Harbour

Tour boats at moor, Endeavour Wharf, Whitby, England, November 17^th, 2006. The weather was overcast, as you’d expect so late in the year—note the Christmas decorations are up on the lamp posts. Conditions were not the sort that give you bright, sharp pictures, but I shot what presented itself and there was usually something of interest, if not of earth-shaking photographic merit. This was my first UK trip, to attend a conference at the University of Sunderland, and my first time on British soil in 36 years. I stayed three weeks or so and had a wonderful time, taking 1481 frames in the process. This is not a lot by some standards, I know! Contrast, brightness and colour were adjusted in Irfanview. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Evening Storm

I captured this frame two years and one day ago—September 11^th, 2022. A simple shot, looking west over the back garden hedges, of a storm front moving up from the gulf. This is one of those occasions when nature presents you with a spectacle and says “catch me!” I took a long series of frames that evening, but this one has a strange purple hue to the light that is so effective, so unusual. I could have processed it out, but that’s what the evening looked like, and that’s what I'm presenting. A tiny touch of contrast enhancement was the only effect applied. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

The Goddess and the Australian Sky

This is the goddess Guan Yin, the 18-metre statue at the Nan Hai Pu Tuo Buddhist Temple at Sellicks Hill, overlooking the Gulf St Vincent. It’s been a landmark for many years (begUn 2011), and construction of the complex is continuing. This frame was taken on April 7^th, 2018, during an expedition down to Victor Harbor and back via Mt Alma, and the weather could not have been more perfect. This shot was not enhanced at all, this is just as it came from the camera. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike. Mm

Reaching for Distance

This shot was an experiment with the high-end of the telephoto range of the camera I was working out at the time. It’s a view from Crowsnest Lookout, on the hills above Victor Harbor and the south coast, with the town of  Middleton (IIRC) in the foreground, taken on April 13th, 2019. That’s the Southern Ocean, with the Coorong barrier beach and Lake Alexandrina in the background. We were into ‘golden hour,’ the sun declining rapidly off to the left. Minor adjustments were made in IrfanView. Fuji FinePix S6500. Image by Mike.

 

Gulls on Painted Water

I love shooting reflections, and sometimes, when you close in on a reflective surface to exclude the ‘real world’ source material of the reflection, the result can become abstract art. Here are seagulls on the placid waters of Whitby harbour, Yorkshire, England, photographed on Sunday, November 7^th, 2010. I had taken a long stroll around town in the afternoon, visited the abbey on the headland, and would soon be shooting the lights after dark, but here the ambient conditions were suspended near the end of day, and the waters picked up this artsy look—almost like an illustration coloured in. Minor-adjustments to contrast and colour only. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Down the Tube to Lanantarn

Yes, I’m a sucker for vanishing point symmetry, it catches my eye and I’ll shoot it whenever I find it! This is the Heathrow Express terminal deep under Heathrow Airport, at 5.33 and 54 seconds (by the electronic signage) on the morning of Sunday, October 31^st, 2010. My plane had just got into Blighty, Customs was a quick process (I remember we were the very first plane load fronting up to the desks for the day!) and I was eastbound for London Town with my luggage. I travelled with the camera round my neck and shot as I went, and all sorts of interesting things appear as one goes. The light was low, of course, so non-moving subjects were preferred (cameras were less fancy in those days, and soaring ISO speeds were a thing of the future). Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Deceptive Woods

Why deceptive? This image excludes anything man-made: one would be forgiven for thinking I was in the depths of a forest when I took this frame, and that’s somewhat true, as the whole region is heavily forested. But there was a town’s main street just behind me. These trees are above the carpark at Aldgate, in the Adelaide Hills, where a walking trail begins, leading a few kilometres to Mylor. The main road, carrying the weight of through-traffic, is below and behind my POV; sun through trees is a favourite theme and composition of mine. This frame was captured on the 15^th of April, 2017. Some minor adjustments were made: colour was increased a little, and gamma correction was used to pull out mid-tone detail from the otherwise harsh contrast. Image by Mike.

 

Sombre Evening Sky

The south end of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia, is “big sky” country, long and flat, conducive to appreciating those amazing South Ocean cloudscapes that roll in. This is Clayton Bay, in the lakes region, in the late afternoon of May 26^th, 2018, and a weather front was coming up fast. The scene had a moody atmosphere, spectacular but sombre, and I captured several interesting studies of these clouds over the water. The image is sharpened a tad, squared-up with custom fine rotation, and contrast and colour have been adjusted slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Converging Reflections

Anywhere there’s water, there are reflections, and Playford Lake, at Belair National Park, is a place one can photograph over and over, as the changing weather and differing times of day and year conspire to make the precise nature of the pictures different every time. I took this one on a fairly blah day, May 9^th, 2023, an expedition that took us a few interesting places in the Hills region. The weather had been cloudy and the light soft until the sun broke through at this point, and I was able to grab some studies with far more substance—better colour and contrast, with defined shadows and, above all, reflections. These are the trees on the small island in Playford Lake, a haven for waterbirds, and surely one of the most-photographed islets of its sort. Minimal enhancements, via Irfanview. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Pastel Skies

Been very busy and two weeks have gone by since I posted—so this will be a two-post day. First up, one of these shots you just have to be there to get—this is part of a sequence of images taken out the window at my side on the last leg of my journey home in 2010, capturing the changing tones of the sky and light on the aircraft as the sun came up The sun was rising on the other side of the plane, but I got to see the delicate graduated colours in the sky. Luckily, the temperature and humidity conditions conspired to give me a clean, ice-free window at this point. The view is over the starboard wing of an Airbus A-330, the QANTAS plane Noosa, heading into Adelaide on November 17^th of that year. The frame is almost exactly as it came off the camera. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Blue and Gold—A Whitby Twilight

 

This is a longer view toward the Gothic church in Skinner Street, Whitby (I posted a close up almost exactly a year ago, “Cold Stone, Warm Light,” on July 20^th, 2023) which I captured around November 6^th, 2010, during an afternoon and early evening stroll through the quaint seaside town on the Yorkshire coast. The sun never rises very high at that time of year, so time of day is often difficult to pick from a photograph. This was probably not much after 4 in the afternoon, but the streets are filled with shadow, very blue against the golden light catching the upper parts of the church. It’s a magical place and a magical time of year, just after Guy Fawkes’ Night, when autumn slides quickly into winter. I remember having a drink at The Granby Freehouse, at right of the picture, still a very traditional pub at that time—I’m not sure if it has succumbed to development and updating in the 14 hears since. I set a scene in my first vampire story right there in that street (appearing soon in an anthology with Hiraeth Books!) Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Colour Therapy 3

Blue sea, green grass, perfect compliments in a pallette of colours meant to bring tranquility. This is the view south toward Cape Jervis from the cliffs above Morgan’s Beach, in the south of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia, taken on July 21^st, 2017. That's Kangaroo Island on the horizon. I got a fair few interesting shots on that day, as the weather and sun angle were being kind. Simple composition—I let nature do the work. The frame was squared-up a touch with fine-rotation; contrast and colour were tweaked slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Colour Therapy 2

 

Following the theme of colour for its own artistic sake, here is a study of the trees at Mylor, South Australia, which I took on July 13^th, 2017. The sun was beautiful on the foliage, and while some trees were still showing their autumn reds so late in the season, these perennials were in their full winter green. The two shades of green against the blue sky made an irresistible melange of colour. This is the image just as it came from the camera. Fiji FinePix S6500 (one of my learning outings on this camera), automatic. Image by Mike.

Colour Therapy

A couple of days past the solstice of winter here in the Southern Hemisphere, things have been pretty cold—sunny days before rain is due, but some very cold nights. So at this time of year I thought it would be nice to post an absolute contrast, a spring photo . This blossom is on a tree in the front garden, frame grabbed on the 8^th of September, 2017. Basic tweaks only. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Roman Corner

I’m sure there’s a wealth of history about this exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London, but I think of it simply as ”Roman Corner.” One walks through here between one part of the classically-appointed museum and another, but this particular area recreates ancient times—the statue is probably original, and the marble probably all comes from Italy. If you look in the right direction for a moment, you could be two thousand years ago, in a well-to-do house of a lost civilisation. I took this photograph on November 1^st, 2010, my one and only (to date) visit to this amazing museum. Contrast and colour were increased a little, as was sharpness. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Glittering Waters

The sun broke through and made merry with these fountains, so they were recorded from multiple perspectives. These are the fountains in Hyde Park, London, photographed on November 2^nd, 2010. This was my second day in England on that trip, and I took a walk through Hyde Park from the north side, down to the Albert Memorial and Hall, taking in the Serpentine, the sky mirrors, the Peter Pan statue and more. I have a few other frames from this batch that are well worth a look. Colour and contrast were tweaked—the day was generally overcast and fully embodied the different quality the light has in those latitudes at that time of year, such a marked contrast to here in Australia. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Depth Perspective

Here is an interesting telephoto depth compression. This is the Adelaide city centre seen at max zoom from the gardens of the Carrick Hill mansion in Springfield, above town, taken on January 25^th, 2023. It was a pleasant, warm afternoon, just right for a picnic in the grounds, and the gardens were wonderfully photogenic. Views out over the city and sea certainly underline why the well-to-do would choose to build up there. This shot was simple enough, it was the lineup of the foreground foliage and the nine kilometres-distant city towers that cried out to be captured. The image was squared-up using the fine rotation tool. Minor adjustment to contrast, colour and sharpness. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Deceptively Mild

I only posted three images in May—I meant to do four, so I’ll make sure there’s at least five in June. This is the jetty at Brighton, South Australia, photographed on November 24^th, 2014. I’ve featured a frame or two from this shoot before, as the changeable conditions were most interesting. Looking north, it seemed like a perfect early summer day, and west, like this one, was still bright and clear. Looking into the south-west, a heavy weather front was moving in, creating dramatic iron greys behind the sunlit foreground. This is a simple snapshot, but the colour and vanishing point symmetry are pleasing, and the shoot is an ever-fresh reminder of a day nearly a decade ago. Minor adjustment to contrast, colour and sharpness. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

In the Garden of Calm

This is another frame from Himeji Garden, Adelaide, South Australia, which I captured on October 20^th, 2016, when I took a day in town with my sister in law, on a visit Down Under. Nothing clever from a photographic aspect here other than composition perhaps—just a beautiful place that’s always so nice to see. Minimal enhancement. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

River Frontage

Here’s a deceptively simple image that’s part luck, part skill. A reflex shot—the scene presented itself and I grabbed it—from the window of a train on Tuesday, November 16^th, 2010, on my journey south from Sunderland to London, to head back to Australia. This is maybe 90 minutes after I got the pics of Durham Cathedral through the haze, and several hours before I framed up the neon lighting at Heathrow Airport (see older posts). The train ran through considerable fog, through towns, past great steam-belching power stations, and by the time I was around the latitudes of Birmingham, the weather cleared to sun and blue sky. This is the River Nene, where it flows through Peterborough, and I managed to catch it through a clean patch of window, with the sun angle right for the scene and not to make every speck of dirt on the glass flare. Some adjustments were done—it was squared-up using custom rotation, and the contrast and colour were tweaked just a little. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Geometry in Iron

Repeating shapes always make for interesting visual exercises, and this is mid-Victorian ironwork—Brunel’s masterpiece, Paddington Station, in London. After booking into my hotel on Sunday, October 31^st, 2010, I walked back round to the station to play with imagery, and this one was taken from a footbridge spanning the tracks. In the 1850s (Paddington opened in 1854), British railway engineering was a boom industry, and cast iron was the masterstroke of the age, making possible shapes and sizes of structure previously unknown. Here, thousands of tons of iron create an airy, arched pavilion large enough to accommodate the smoke of steam trains without choking the commuters, and to this day it is one of the busiest railway terminals in London. A simple shot, it took advantage of the topography, creating an almost organic feel. Minor enhancement only—just contrast and colour. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike

 

Rolling Country

The opposite ends of the year are so different in Australia. This country would be grey-yellow in high summer—as it is now, at the end of April as I post this, for the simple reason that while the days are shorter and the temperatures cool, there has been no rain to trigger the greening. Fair’s fair, the last green didn’t vanish until; February this year, but the rains are taking their time... This photo was taken in August, 2020, and is a view of the farms off Robinson Rd. in the Adelaide Hills. The place is so lush and tranquil it could be the English countryside. Colour contrast and sharpness were given small adjustments. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Smooth Gradient

 

One can lose track of photographs when one takes a great many, and after a little recent organisation of files I came across sets from 2019 which had been overlooked. A couple of country drives not long after my birthday that year took us to some spots in the south, and this particular shot was taken in the late afternoon from Crow’s Nest Lookout, which is on the hills above the south coast. At the time (April 16^th, 2019) I was giving another camera a workout—it’s still on standby for when my old S5600 finally gives up the ghost. This is an exercise in how the chip handles high contrast, looking past trees silhouetted in the light of the low sun. The gradient of colour in the sky is quite amazing, and the image has a great deal of “body” to it. The chip handles the conditions very nicely indeed—I must use this camera more! Note the super-wide format selected, and the higher DPI. Minor enhancement only—some gamma adjustment in effort to pull out detail in the foreground. Fuji FinePix HS10. Image by Mike.

The Wide Sky

 

A favourite photo stop is the top of Mt. Alma, South Australia. A hill, of course, as all our “mountains” are, and the road leads over the summit. But that view! In fair weather or foul, the breadth of sky is amazing, and the farms below are spread out like a toy landscape. To the south you can catch the Southern Ocean between folds of the hills, and it’s always quiet up there—birds and the bleat of sheep, wind in the grass... I took this shot on December 13^th, 2019, after an excellent early Christmas lunch at Inman Valley Country Kitchen, and you can see the country is already getting into summer mode—quite a contrast to this summer gone by in which green persisted locally until February! This wide-angle shows the breadth of the Australian landscape rather to perfection. This is a phone pic, and no enhancements were done at all. Leagoo M9. Image by Mike.

950 Years of History

This is Durham Cathedral, one of the oldest in England, whose origins date back to the early years of the Norman conquest. I grabbed this and several other frames through the window of a train on Tuesday, November 16^th, 2010, having departed Sunderland at 10.30 on my way to London for my return flight to Australia. The train passed through Durham’s elevated railway station, thus the views over the city and across to the bluff above the river bend where the Cathedral and castle were built. The morning, though quite clear, was hazy, and the train window adds to the effect. In this frame I managed to not pick up my own reflection, which is always a hazard—I have memories of pressing the camera to the glass to avoid reflections in many instances. I would have loved to spend some time in Durham, exploring this amazing place and its history, but that was set aside for a future trip—which unfortunately hasn’t happened yet. This picture marks the beginning of the second year since I resurrected this blog (April 9^th, 2023).Very minor enhancements were done—there’s not much more to pull out of a frame as soft as this. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

 

City Streets

 

In contrast to the last few images, which have celebrated the natural world, mostly forests, here is the complete opposite—no blade of green to be seen. This is the view from Grenfell Street, Adelaide, South Australia, toward what was built as the REM-Myer Centre, back in the 80s, along the pedestrian-only James Place. I remember when I grabbed this shot, in June, 2020. I had been to the city for shopping and was heading back to my bus stop when I saw the vertical symmetry, the light catching it just so, and had to stop, grab out my phone and record what I saw. Phones are great for those moments when an interesting composition presents itself. The contrast, colour and sharpness were minimally enhanced. Leagoo M9. Image by Mike. Mm