I'm wanting to film a project for uni at the reserve across from my house, so yesterday I went on a location scouting trip. I hadn't been over there very much recently, and even then when I've been I've only gone on the track to the reservoir and back. This time I went in a completely different area and loved it. I got surrounded by a ton of butterflies, but only having the 18-55mm lens meant I couldn't get a decent picture - and now have an urging to go visit the butterfly house at the zoo! I did however get this really nice picture of the bush. It was hard to get the exposure right because of the sun, and I also realised that I had rubbish in the bottom of the picture so I took a few, but in the end I just did an Auto Tone and cropped it in Lightroom and got this which I am really happy with. I thought about putting it into black and white, but decided to leave in colour - I think the different shades of brown and green are essential to the picture. There are lots of other photo opportunities in the reserve, I'll be making sure to go back another time during the year.
Incidentally, yesterday was Red Hill Show day, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I won Best in Show for the second year running! I also got another first, three seconds and a third! Really surprised myself after entering the exact same photos at Berwick and not winning a thing. Having said that, I would have chosen one of the other entries to win - I thought it was amazing and would love to take a similar photo. It's all someone's personal opinion though I guess. Now I just have to choose which ones to enter into Melbourne - I had 10 in Berwick/Red Hill, but their entry fees are $2 compared to $10, so I'll have to only choose 2 or 3 I think.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Project52: Week Twelve - Bush
Project52: Week Eleven - Fire
Another week where I didn't think I would get a photo, but opportunity came late Saturday night. It had been a crazy week, and, to top it off, it was my weekend on at work so I really had no time! However, it was the neighbour's birthday, and when I got there they had a fire going, plus they had a tree that was really nicely lit by the light on their shed. With all the people there I couldn't really take photos of the tree, so I took photos of the fire instead. Used my tripod of course, then in Lightroom increased the blacks to take out some odd bits and pieces, which also had the effect of making the colours a bit more extreme. It's the same thing I do on photos of fireworks and I think it worked really well. Perhaps not quite as impressive as a photo I've taken of embers at a bonfire, but still nice.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Project52: Week Ten - Stairs
Okay, I (half) cheated this week. This is a another photo from the Botanic Gardens, only I decided to try and make it look like an oil painting using a Photoshop tutorial I found on the Internet. It was just too hard to take a photo this week. I had some unexpected events occur (some good, some terrible) and, having possibly gone through the entire range of emotions possible, meant that I couldn't find any creativity in me (not to mention getting behind on uni work). Having said that, it was quite fun experimenting with the oil painting effect and I learnt lots out it as it involved using filters I haven't used before.
Now things are more or less back on track and looking forward to really getting back into it this week.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Project52 - Week Nine: Pandora
No, not Avatar's Pandora (though I still wonder why they weren't all wearing bracelets). This was my Christmas present from my parents, and the subject of another 'Oh dear it's Saturday I need to take a photo' made worse with a 'Oh dear it's raining I'm not going out in that'. I've actually been wanting to take an up-close photo for a while. It was really hard to focus on, but I quite like it. It's just sitting on a notebook that was on my desk at the time, and I added an 'antique photo' effect. Quite cute I think.
So uni is now in full swing (well it is the second week) and I'm already struggling to fit it in. I WILL DO IT!
Project52 - Week Eight: Botanic Gardens
Well, I thought this week was going to be a piece of cake. We had planned a few weeks earlier to go see 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' (don't laugh) again (I said don't laugh!) at the Moonlight Cinema at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. I was wrong, of course. It was just one of those zero inspiration days, and even trying to take night skyline shots didn't work (though that may have been the logos of the companies I've been applying for depressing me). This was the best of the lot. I've taken something similar before that's doing the rounds of this year's Shows, but I think I possibly like this one better.
Incidentally, if you're ever planning on going to Moonlight Cinema, get there early - we got there at 7:30 (gates opened at 7) and it was already close to full - and the movie wasn't even starting until 8:30. Was still an awesome night, highly recommended.
Project52 - Week Seven: Experiment
I know, long time no post again. The last few weeks have been kind of crazy - as well as uni going back, I've been filling in applications for graduate positions. These involve lots of questions about teamwork and leadership and why accounting, which are all good fun. Hopefully they pay off - I'm through to the final round with one already which is a good thing.
This photo is a strange one. I was experimenting with my flash (and incidentally discovered it rotates as well as being able to adjust the angle - I've only had it for a few months!) and I overblew it. Big time. All you could see was a slight right edge and some of my hair. For a bit of fun I pressed auto tone in Lightroom and it somehow found my room's purple wall colour. And my hair colour. I played around with the other settings and ended up with this. I was kind of hoping to take a 'real' picture later in the week, but it didn't happen so this is it.