geoffeldridge

Jenny loved this willow photo. (Large version of the photo above is available here)

As per usual, an incredible folder of photos.

Jeff, yes it was a bit of an effort to get the backpack and tripod around the 22km circuit. Definitely worth it to get this transparency. The detail is amazing. On a lightbox using a 6x loupe, you can see the trunks of trees in the distant (blue) mountains .. would have to be 15-20km away. I am looking forward to producing an A3 print of this at some stage.

Hanna .. thanks for the comment. The formation is located on the north head of Botany Bay (La Perouse), which I found a few years ago. I am constantly amazed at how it appears depending on the time of day and prevailing weather. This shot was taken late afternoon and was used to help me compose one of my first 4x5 large format photos (I am in the process of acquiring a scanner). The attached image will give an idea of the scale of things.

I had some Acros in the bag, but did not use it. A B/W Photoshop version is shown here.

Yes, Jeff, after 4 years I have finally upgraded from the 2M IXUS. I bought the 300D the day before we left for Shanghai where Jenny and Joanne were participating in the World Dragon Boat Championships. The camera sat in my backpack for the first few days as I had no idea how to use it :-) The "wind in the willow.." photo came at the end of a session sitting by the side of the lake reading the manual and trying all the options. This was my first photo after that session on the walk back to where we were staying. Luckily, it was the first photo I took using RAW mode storage. I was stunned to see the detail revealed (particularly the fine branches in the top right corner) after the phaseone processing.

 

I do miss the portability of the IXUS (though I still carry it with me) when using the 300D. Also the 300D is a bit more obvious and I am still coming to grips with seeing through a viewfinder.

 

comments welcome ..

Barely a pixel out of place on this one. Colour seems right for me. As a photographer, I can sense the pleasure you must have derived when you found this scene. Some scenes just cry out to be photographed and this is one. Your framing is just perfect and definitely suits the square format. So much to explore, with many highlights (of the scenic type, of course). The reflection of the roof tiles in the window is the "icing on the cake", as they say. Just wonderful.

a dusting of snow ..

Phil, it will be sad to see this folder go when you decide to right click and select the "Empty Recyle Bin" menu option.

I was looking around your folders trying to find the Field Edge, Kenilworth after having seen your recent impressive Istrian Landscape. One reminded me of the other. Looking in the Recycle Bin folder, I remember commenting on this photo. Must admit I did not remember noticing the transmission line on the fields horizon first time around.

Anyway, many stunning photos here. I also particularly remember the three Warwickshire photos with Warwickshire 2 being my favourite (another familiar theme). Look forward to following more of your photographic adventures.

It would interesting to hear what would be your favourities here and why, before they disappear.

Thanks .. Geoff

Comments appreciated ..

G'day Leigh, though I have been fairly quiet over the last 8-9 months, I am still taking plenty of photos, of which one or two have found their way to photo.net. I've also watched your road to ignominy.

Anyway, saw this last Saturday when it was titled Moonscape, which was no doubt inspired by Tony Dummett's Moonscape. What can I say? The devestation is complete. Having also spent a day up in the mountains behind Canberra last December, I feel I have been to this very spot. A clever title and clever photograph. Well done, as per usual.

Hope to catch up soon.

Regards .. Geoff

The Shallows .. Princess Royal Harbour/Albany

another view ..

Phil, thanks for your insights into the photo. Your powers of observation and your ability to quantify these observations in to words is an incredible gift and is one I envy very much.

Reeds have always been a personal favourite subject. My first photographic encounter with reeds was up on Fraser Island in April 2002. I had this Fraser Island photo in mind when I took it last week. Particularly note the floaters as they are my favourite element in that photo.

The current photo was really an exercise in post-visualisation and design. Being an exercise it gave me a chance to play with some ideas that I am trying to explore with my photography and that is the idea of introducing subtle imperfections to a photo, be it at the time of exposure or there after in the digital darkroom. I am attracted to some of the ideas introduced here (http://mellowbreeze.net/japaneseart/) which I posted in comments to some photos here (trigonometry and corps).

The imperfections I noted as I explored with the cropping were the tiny fragments of reeds along the top edge of the photo. Imperfections introduced at exposure were:

• a slight ripple (from a bird swopping into the pond at a regular interval) on reed just above the floater.

• the noticeable gradation in blue intensity from right to left (as you noted).

To finish my ramblings, I think your observations are spot on and you saw more in the photo I than I saw (the beauty of photography). I will also file away your "hmmm" in the recesses of my mind so that it become part of my photographic decision making when making exposure choices.

Thanks again .. Geoff

PS - appears as if you are coming to Australia next year (a JM comment alluded as such). If you are planning to visit Sydney, please let us know.

.. While the homes can be rebuilt, it will take anything from thirty to fifty years for the bush to return to its former grandeur. ..

After my writings of above (made at the National Library of Australia in Canberra this afternoon), I must admit I felt a bit guilty that I appeared to neglect the human side of the fires. It was all rather clinical which probably comes from some kind of detachment from the real story.

Well, tonight as I returned back to my brothers place (after buying Ring of Fire 2003 by Dianne Thompson) I sat down to watch Stateline (ACT). It was the last episode for the year and it was devoted to revisting the fires and looking at the impact it has had on the community and individuals.

The most moving story was that of a mother and daughter who had received extensive burns to their bodies while trying to collect and move their horses during the fire.

The daughter (Niki) has only just returned to Canberra from Sydney after 11 months of hospitalised burns treatment. She has lost most of her fingers to the fire as well receiving extensive burns to her face and upper body.

Interestingly enough, prior to the fires she was studying to be a photographer and one of her first outings back in Canberra was to the attend the gradutation ceremony of her former classmates.

Her mother's dream will come true when Niki picks up and starts using a camera again. An incredibly moving and inspiring story. A full transcript can be found here.

Tony, thanks for posting the stitched panoramics from your recent trip south. This one seems to be filled to perfection. It is very much like a Fred Williams "strip" landscape painting, with all the transitions from foreground to background and everything in between. The horizon appears almost endless.

The fires of Summer 2002/2003 will live long in the memories of the Australian public some which have been captured here (ABC - ACT fires: eyewitness accounts).

My own memories are captured with some photos from the time:

• Fires start - A week earlier (08 Jan 2003) a lightning storm rolls over the top of the Snowy mountains starting fires to the west and south of the Kosciuszko National Park.

• Spot Fires Fought - The storm seemed innocent enough, but within a day Georgia Peach (Elvis' sister) and friends were working around the clock to contain the fires.

  As we travelled back to Sydney, a stop over in Canberra saw more lightning storms with distant and tiny smoke plumes on the Brindabella's horizon (photo from another trip in early 2002).

• A week later, the fires ravage the western forests of Canberra and take out half a suburb (500 homes) and kill three people.

• The Day After - the sky is still full of smoke and the soul searching starts to find who is to blame.

Fires have forged the Australian landscape and nature has adapted in unique ways to accomodate these natural events. After more than 200 years we settlers of this land are still trying to control/tame bushfires. I hope we can get it right, though I expect there will never be any universal agreement as to how it should be done and when we have done it.

Thanks again .. Geoff

PS - A small tutorial on the use the Red Channel to achieve the monochrome rendering would be useful. Finally, a colour view of this photo would be interesting to view.

Georgia Peach ..

take 3 .. another version .. the 500 pixel width does not do these images justice.

CORPS: a slight imperfection .. This was the first photo I saw from you. I think Carl's comment regarding the "corps" brought me here. I am not a particularly experienced photographer, but from my experiences thus far, I tend to think many photographers seem to err on the side of perfectionism. Any slight visual incongruence is enough to destroy the photo. A few years back someone mentioned to me that the Japanese can see value in an imperfection in a piece of work. Here is a link (http://gaijinarts.co.uk/japanese_art.asp) that describes it briefly. Whilst I would say there is a lot more to it than I would ever understand, I often find myself making decisions during composition to include a small imperfection. If anything, I am happy I am seeing these things at the time of exposure and making a decision to include or not include. Alternatively, I guess I just might be using this idea of "imperfection" as an excuse for sloppy composition or to be just different. Anyway, I hope there is something for photographers to think about here.

As a thumbnail this looks almost black and white. A very effective monochromatic scene. Again, everything comes together .. the rope arrangement, the diagonal flow of the wood grain and shadows, and the black triangle in the top right corner .. all decisions you made to maximise the visual presentation of this scene. You seem to be enjoying the "dinky digital camera" :-)

Steve, have been following your photo.net progress and thought I would leave a few comments, as you have been particularly generous yourself in providing comments. BTW, your comments are always spot on!

I particularly like this one. I think the compositional arrangement is about as good as you could get with this scene. I like the randomness of the lights in the barrels along with the barrel segmentation and the blue sky above. It all comes together to make a great photo.

mind games #1 - from the day before .. need to learn contrast masking technique.

yet another view .. I like colour some times .. as per above uploaded photo (26 Oct 2003)

A rotate left and horizontal flip .. seems to make the image a bit more balanced (see attached uploaded photo).