Thursday Thinkings.

Have you ever had that feeling where you think that your work isn’t being viewed, or appreciated by anyone? Well that’s how I feel at this point in time. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go on a tirade about how the world is against me – just that I wonder if anyone reads this…

And now for your viewing pleasure my latest good-ish photos. I hope you like them!

Above: I don’t know why but I really like this shot. I think more night-time photography is in order. Below: Ducks at UNE

Below: Noisy Miners, Dumaresq Dam. The one on the left is taking a piece of bread from my car window sill.

 

Above: Water Hens, Dumaresq Dam

Above and Below: Microbiology Labs, UNE

When One Feels Unloved…

Morning all! The title for this post may seem a little down, but in a sense it’s how I feel. Usually I have to wade through the new emails I get (from both my work and personal emails) daily, but so far today I’ve had very few. It’s a little unnerving – which is odd because I usually don’t read through many of the emails I get. Ah well…

I also feel a little unloved because the last two photos I took – they are situated below – were deemed to be ‘Bad’ from my art student critic last night. I don’t know why – I think they’re nice shots, but one can never truly understand the mind of an artiste. I suppose it’s worse because I have an extremely scientific mind, and my idea of good isn’t in the eyes of someone who thinks artistically. Oh well – all I can do is keep on trying!

Until tomorrow!

Finally!

Sometimes I think that digital camera companies try to hide things from you. It’s probably in the name of making things easier for you, the bewildered user. But there are times when I want to play with things so that they look the way I want them to. as I’ve undoubtedly said in the past I am not a fan of post-shot editing using computer software like photoshop. If I do any processing it is basic cropping or changing a picture from colour to black and white. Some may call me old fashioned, but I like to think that composition is much better than fancy editing.

My latest issue was in the contrast provided by my D5000 when I shot in black and white was that there was a lack of contrast in the shot. An art-student friend of mine (who is known for being uber-critical) would continually pick on the contrast in my shots. I couldn’t change the contrast to provide the punchy photos I was looking for. The culprit – Active D-Lighting. Easily changeable from the on-screen menu thingy (by pressing the <i> button and then moving down to the ADL section), it is an option added to make colours look more natural, and decrease contrast problems. This is awesome for colour photography, but when I switch over to B&W I want to have a strong, striking image whenever I point and shoot. Sadly I’ve had this camera for about three months now and I’ve just worked it out – oh well...

 

Above: Playing in night-time with a single light-source. Hi ISO and Aperture…

Above Left: Evening. Above Right: Chandelier (often playing with the M setting gets you good results)

 

Above: Monkey. ADL is turned off and Contrast is turned up as high as it can go

Film-ish Goodness!

I like film. I like it a lot. But in saying that I know that digital has a place in my heart – when I want to try something out I’ll grab my D5000 and play – the worst thing that happens is that I delete the shots that didn’t work. I just can’t do that with film without forking piles of cash out in my testing.

In saying that I am now carrying the Olympus Trip 35 that I got on Monday with a roll of Kodak Professional Ektar 100 slide film. The shots taken on the UltraMax 400 film were spectacular – super clear (freakishly so) and lighted correctly. I still need to iron out the manual focus on it (you can’t see if it is in focus or not – you go off a guide for distance). The FTL didn’t far so well – there was something wrong with the shutter so in most of the shots were only half there. Oh well – they were free so I can’t complain!

I will have to get some of the photos scanned and put up – when I get the Ektar processed I will get it scanned at the camera store. Only a few more rolls to go and I’ll put in a bulk order!

It’s strange…

It’s strange how things turn out, isn’t it? I have been reading up on 35mm cameras and happened upon a bit of a gem – the Olympus Trip 35. I thought it would be really cool if I got one, so I had a look on eBay and found an example in an auction that was ending soon and only sitting on $20. I put in my bid and a few hours later won it for $41 all up.

That in itself isn’t terribly interesting. I know that. When I came into work today one of my colleagues said that he had some old cameras that I could have. He pulled out an Olympus FTL and – you guessed it – an Olympus Trip 35. I couldn’t believe it. Neither could he.

So now I’ve got two Trip 35’s (one on my desk and another in the post) and the first impressions I have of them is that they’re lovely. Well designed, no battery (they’ve got a solar cell), and a little red flag warning system that lets you know if the light isn’t bright enough. I can’t wait to get some film into this little beauty and give it a whirl!

Olympus Trip 35. My camera(s) look identical, and feel wonderful!

In other news I went out and took some shots of Thunderbolts Rock yesterday afternoon with both my FE and D5000. I know that there were photos taken with the FE, but I need to finish the roll before I can tell if the shots were any good. I hope so – I put a whole lot more thinking into taking shots with film than I do with digital (which I spend time composing anyway). Here are the good shots of the trip:

 

Not many, but they’re not bad!

The day the film wasn’t in the camera properly…

Today was spent driving in and around the Gorge Country about 30km east of Armidale. I took my beloved Nikon FE and my D5000 with me, and I was really excited about taking shots with real film. Every shot taken with the FE was composed as well as I could, and there was no dodgy stuff thrown in.

The first warning bells sounded when I got to 36 on my counter and I was able to keep on rolling the film for more shots. Around 38 I thought that it was odd enough to stop and rewind the film. About 2 1/2 winds of the film thingy and there was no more pressure that there should be with the film rewinding. I got really concerned, and when we got back into town I dropped off the film to get processed. Precisely one hour and ten minutes later I found out that no pictures at all were taken. Bugger.

Thankfully I had my D5000 with me and took some photos with it – and there were one or two that are ok enough to show here (but remember that I wasn’t composing or thinking about the shots too well).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The First of the Film – And Hopefully Not the Last!

Good afternoon fellow compatriots! Today is an auspicious day because it’s the first time that I put in a roll of 35mm film for processing! I’m not expecting anything uber-awesome with them – I put a roll of Kodak UltraMax 400 into it and had some happy-snaps of my family, pets etc. They are getting processed at the local Big-W (which is providing really good service and quick processing surprisingly). So hopefully I will know if I’m any good at manual focussing.

 

N.B. For those of you that think I’m precious because it was my first time for getting film processed and manual focussing just remember that I was brought up in a time when AF was just it, and my first more than $10 camera was a digital.

What a Weekend!

Hello all! I am terribly sorry for not writing for the last few days but I’ve been terribly busy.

On Thursday morning I drove up to Brisbane on my way to the Abbey Medieval Tournament to participate with my group Damascus. Brisbane is as crazy as it has always been, and I had to brave peak hour traffic (which I have never had to do) because one of the members of my group had their clutch blow up in the city. Despite this I survived and had the very best weekend reenacting in the eight years since I started. So many pictures were taken of myself and the members of my group that I was strangely shocked about it. And, in a rather interesting situation I didn’t take many photos at all. Oh well – it happens!

I did manage to stop off at a few spots on the way back to Uralla, and some of them are pretty good (which is interesting considering as though I was half asleep during the time).

 

 

Above: The Author in his 12th Century gear (far right) with another member of Damascus, an Angel and an early medieval Russian. (Just to prove that what I was writing earlier was correct).