If you love your work, it’s not work!

I wish I could find something which I love to do and will provide enough money to keep me alive. It’s a bloody hard thing to find, I assure you. I am not saying that I dislike my current jobs – they are both good and I find myself being too choosy in some regards. Even so, I would like to work on something that is enjoyable for me and makes me an adequate amount of money – possibly even helping out society in some way (although that isn’t a necessity). I simply don’t know.

 

Anyway, I am really interested in getting some 35mm gear organised. I’ve decided upon getting a Nikon FE, hopefully with a few wide-angle lenses along with it. Why film you ask? Simply because I will have to think about shots. I think about them now, but if I get a 35mm setup I will really need to think before taking a shot. The costs of 35mm would have to be in the film processing. So if I think I’ll be able to take good shots and not waste money!

 

Oh, if anyone has any old 35mm gear that they would like to sell/give to me I will really like to hear from you. It doesn’t matter about the brand!

24.6.10

Good morning. Well, what a day so far. We’ve somehow gotten ourselves a female Prime Minister, but overall it’s not a problem – Politicians (regardless of what/who they are) tend to stuff things up in the long run.

 

Room No. 1

In other news, I am reading Wilbur Smith’s ‘The Triumph of the Sun’. I thoroughly enjoy reading Wilbur Smith, and I am always looking for second-hand copies of his books at garage and book sales. If you’ve never read his stuff, I strongly recommend it.

When Timing Matters

Look at what was sitting right outside my office window when I got to work this morning:

 

 

Cool eh? Not to get nerdy with you and all, but this is a perfect opportunity to show that sometimes using a high f value is good. If I snapped away at this with f/1.8 you would have seen the curtains but not the crane. The old adage '”f/8 and be there” rings true a lot of the time,

 

Upon Sunsets

I like sunsets – I really really do. The fact that they’re always shifted towards the red end of the spectrum compared to sunrises provides more enjoyment. They’re romantic. They are things that people remember, and ask other people to marry them during it (amongst other soppy stuff). The Mundi Mundi Plains out past Silverton (which itself is past Broken Hill) is an awesome place to take sunset shots – but it’s an equally awesome place to go and look at (you can see the curvature of the earth from the lookout). You’ll also notice that sunsets everywhere are interesting things.

When photographing them most people will find that the pictures taken aren’t as vibrant as they remember. This is easily remedied by ensuring that the saturation (aka amount of colour) is turned way up on your digital camera. I have the vivid setting on my D5000 always at the highest saturation. This gives me photos like this:

 

Sunset I

One thing you should always keep in mind is that there are piles of sunset shots out there in the world that are nothing but the sun, a sliver of horizon and a whole lot of sky. If you’re lucky you may get some clouds in it! Try throwing in something that will give an interesting silhouette with the sunset as the background e.g.:

Sunset II

With Sunset II you may be able to feel something. You should be able to work out that the photo was taken in winter (from the leafless tree), and the whole shot takes on new meaning – and the real meaning is up to you to decide.

Untitled No. 1

Good day all. I hope you are doing well. I have spent the morning cleaning some PC2 labs in preparation for some new students coming next semester. It’s not as glamorous as you think, I assure you. My hands smell like a weird cross of rubber and Ajax cleaning powder. It’s very odd. I then spent the next hour organising and throwing out around 20 years worth of scientific catalogues from my lab. That was a little more fun.

The Grove

(Don’t you just love turning the saturation levels way up?)

Captive No. 1

What is art? I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone will ever know. Some say it has to have meaning, it has to tell a story, while others will say that it is made to evoke feelings, and there’s a third group that say you can’t define it. I like to sit in the third group, and sometimes hop up into the second one. I’d like to think that my photos have meaning but a lot of the time they are simply pretty.

Inspiration – Part One

Hello all, I hope you are having a good weekend so far. I know that I am!

Today was spent going to Bunnings Warehouse in Armidale and purchasing a few things. I did notice during the time walking through the store (apart from the fact that it was bloody cold) was that pine planking up to 30cm wide is really cheap. I will be purchasing some things and making stuff soon. Huzzah for cheap wood!

The rest of the day was spent fixing up a chair for a camping trip up to Brisbane in August. That wasn’t much, just some putting some screws into it, and filling the holes with wood putty. I’ll leave that for a few days and then another sanding and a few coast of estapol will do it well.

Now, for the meaning behind the today’s heading.I’ll let you in on some people/things that inspire me. Today’s Inspiration is for photography. If you don’t already know, I like taking photos. I like it a lot. For someone who has difficulty in all other artistic pursuits (including simple line drawings) the ability to make a nice photo is something that really appeals to my scientific brain.

I really enjoy all the photos that were taken by my family in the last century. Most of them are simple happy-snaps with people smiling at the camera, but some of them show the true insight into the people that were photographed. It really interests me.

On top of that, I have discovered some photographers whose work (I believe) is really good. The more recent ones include (in no particular order) Willy Ronis, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Doris Ulmann and the controversial (for no reason apart from the dislike of our conservative and religious Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) Bill Henson. If you haven’t seen their stuff, look them up. It’s something light-years beyond happy snaps.

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Until next time!

Grumble grumble grumble…

What an interesting day, if I say so myself. I now know you’re asking “Why is that?”, so I will now tell you. Ahem.

 

Actually, I won’t. It’s not important, and you’ll be bored to tears listening to me whinge all bloody day.

 

In other news the charger for my D5000 blew up when I put the battery in it for a charge. I’ve since decided to spend $60 and ordered a really good charger (that also plugs into your car cigarette lighter) – Hopefully it lasts longer than the 4 charges the other one had…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some more happy-snaps that I have taken, all within 10km of my home. Pretty cool, eh?