Shot of the Day #77
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Its a dead tree! Wow, yeah not much to talk about here, just a really cool exposure. My eye was drawn to its bleached white trunk, seeming to illuminate in contrast to the dull shadows. Also, facing east at sunset presented the dramatic darkening sky, which was just too good of a backdrop. I made the most of that in Lightroom, contrasting tree and sky. Although the foreground is pretty much silhouetted there was no point lifting any detail out; after all the tree is the subject. Nevertheless, anything in the frame should always be attended to, and I thought maybe just a hint of colour in the foreground would balance things up.
Dead Tree, Victoria
Shot of the Day #76
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After a long arduous day of university (..yeh right!) a friend and I decided to photograph the new building on our campus (not pictured). After spending a good amount of time inside the new building we ventured outside to get the remaining ‘blue hour’ light. Which worked out nicely with this very colourful apartment building; a good find by my friend Mr Zhou – by the way, thanks for bringing your much sturdier tripod! So, once I had the raw file imported into Lightroom it was just a matter of selectively saturating the near spectrum of colours. Particularly I really wanted to bring out the rich blue of the sky, but I cheated a little bit with some split toning. This point-of-view or angle struggled against the ambient street lighting from below, so some clever cropping was employed to lessen the impact.
Coloured Apartments, Melbourne, Australia
Shot of the Day #75
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After finding some inspiration in a colleagues exhibition, I had to do the same (obviously…not exactly the same!). The Koonung Overpass has been a structure I have passed under for many years, twice daily, and up until now I had never photographed it. It is an elegant pedestrian bridge that has been photographed many times before, so I wanted to change things up a bit and really differentiate mine. With the addition of light painting it all changed! This is the swirling lighting effect in the bottom right, achieved with a cheap 5 LED torch and the 20 seconds long exposure. Mind you it wasn’t as simple as swinging a torch around (well it was), but it is a suspension bridge so being ‘not heavy’ (pun avoided) on your feet was essential to minimise blur. Fortunately I had the help of my very patience and loving mother to hang onto my camera in case it fell – Thanks Mum!
Koonung Overpass, Doncaster, Melbourne
Shot of the Day #74
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While sitting in the back seat of this vintage wedding car I couldn’t help snapping this journey back to the 1950s. I was lucky enough to ride around in this beautifully restored Armstrong Siddeley all day, with the bridal party of course. Both drivers were amazing Chauffeurs and handled the heavy non-power-steering very smoothly. It was very classy indeed, and they never once broke character! With the power of raw imaging I was able to lift a lot of leathery detail up out of the shadows and similarly with the contrasting highlights. As you may notice I have gone a tad overboard with my saturation, really wanting to make the vivd colours pop out of the frame!
On our way to the big day
Shot of the Day #73
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For some of us summer is almost over, and that means so are the sizzling barbeques & sandy beaches – its a very unhappy thought:( Anyway, before we get all depressed about the seasons and fleeting memories, lets just remember that we will always have our ‘steal’ photographs…they steal the moment for us! Ok, terrible joke aside lets just get to the photo.
So, earlier this month I with all the bridal party were down at the beach doing a wedding shoot. While everyone was getting out of the cars I was scouting out the place, and stumbled upon this amazing scene. I mean how cool is this, just chillin’ on the beach, on a sofa! Surf Life Savers all over Australia do a tremendous job, and I think their loving attitude for the service can be witnessed right here. This has got to be one of the top ten summer shots for me, thanks for posing for the camera:)
Again, using the Carl Zeiss 85mm F1,4, what an amazing lens it is. I purposely blew out the highlights to give that warm summer glow, but I couldn’t really make it to 1.4 (only f2.8) – without changing the angle away from the sun.
Surf Life Saver
