Fagan Park - Macro Photography

I decided to go out last Wednesday morning to take my newly modified macro rig for a test run. I just added a Manfrotto quick release plate so that I could quickly add and remove my D700.

It was a cold and windy day today not conducive for great macro photography. I managed to get a few shots before the wind just got too much. Unfortunately, winter is not a good time for finding bugs to capture.





The D700 is still twisting on the rig. I need the 200 PLARCH-14 anti-twist plate from Manfrotto to remedy this.

Click here for more shots from Fagan Park.

WSID - Test and Tune Day

EC organised with WSID, Eastern Creek, for a photo shoot at their latest test and tune day. Its opened to the public and for a $110 you have access to the track all day or until your engines blows.

We all met at gate 14 at 10:00 am, after we paid our entrance fee we were directed to the Top Fuel cafe where we were met at the entrance by a lovely PR lady from WSID and were told what we could and could not do. The mains ones were:

1. Not to hang over the concrete walls
2. Keep out of the way of the pro photographers

After we signed our lives away we were supplied with media IDs and a neon "media" vest so we could be easily identified. Luckily the PR lady also supplied us with ear-plugs, well some of us anyway.

Wow! it was awesome being so close to the action, it was sooo loud and acrid smoke from the burnouts filled your lungs. You could feel the pressure hit on your chest from the mini explosions from some of the competitors' engines during high revs just before they launched off the start line.

Burnouts - Smell that rubber!

Some of the launches were incredible

This is something I normally wouldn't be interested in doing but since EC went through all that trouble I thought I give it a go. I have to admit I did enjoy myself but I am not sure if I would like to do this all the time. I wouldn't mind doing the Karcher Nitro Championships meets though!

Click here for more shots from the Test and Tune Day at WSID.

Nikon 14-24mm with Cokin X-Pro Filters

Got up nice and early on Tuesday morning to get some sunrise shots and test my brand new Cokin X-Pro filter system. I left at 5:00 am to get to Turimetta beach by 6:00 am before sunrise so I could capture the beautiful colours of the pre-dawn sky.

I spent the last couple of weeks making an adapter, out of "PE" pipe, for the Cokin universal adapter to attached to so as not to scratch the lens hood of my Nikon 14-24mm. I used a Cokin X-Pro 121 Gradual Grey G2 (ND8) for the test.

Here are the results..

14mm@f/22

HDR - 14mm@f/9

Vertical Panorama HDR - 14mm@f/16 - consists of a total of 15 separate shots

Just before sunrise - 16mm@f/10

I am please with the initial test results. There is no vignetting at 14mm which is good news. Additional tests required to see if vignetting occurs at 14mm when I stack 2 filters together.

Click here for a larger views of photos.

Click here for more Cokin X-Pro test shots from Warriewood Beach.

Click here to read more on DIY filter rig for Nikon 14-24mm

Infrared Photography with Nikon D700

I decided to see if my D700 was suitable for IR photography. I used my old Nikon 18-70mm, which is a DX lens, as it had right size thread for my Hoya IR72 filter at 67mm.

I set the CWB using the PRE, by aiming at the "green green" grass. All the shots were exposed for 30 secs anything less didn't seem to cut it. I got mixed results with the D700.  It is definitely less sensitive to IR than my D70.

It was quite a cloudy day and during the 30 secs exposures if any one of the many clouds moved and blocked out the sun the shot would be ruined.

All Saints Anglican Church - Parramatta

All Saints Anglican Church - Parramatta

I processed all the shots in Photoshop by swapping the red and blue channels. I will have another go at it on a less cloudy day and see if I get better results.

Sydney Luminous Festival - Canon G10

Went out last night, armed with my Canon G10, with a couple of photo buddies to shoot the Sydney Luminous Festival again. The weather was a bit dodgy with intermittent rain. Had quite a few shots ruined because of water on the lens.

Projectors warming up with targeting marks to ensure alignment

I really wanted to see how good my Canon G10 was for night photography at long exposures. Overall, I am pretty happy with results but I thought that they were a little noisier and definitely not as sharp as my Nikon D700.

Museum of Contemporary Art 

Sydney Opera House

Unfortunately, the maximum exposure for the G10 is only 15 secs and no bulb, so it was not always possible to shoot at f8 to increase sharpness and dof. 

Click here for more of my Canon G10 shots from the Sydney Vivid/Luminous Festival.

Sydney Opera House - Sydney Luminous Festival

The iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House is currently being used as a canvas illuminated by the artwork of Brain Eno, ex-Roxy band member, as part of a sound and light festival in the city. 

The "artwork" uses "self-generating software" to manipulate 300 of Brain Eno's drawings and projecting them onto the sails.




The inaugural Luminous festival started yesterday and runs until the 14th of June. The show starts at 17:00 hrs each night with the artwork morphing every few minutes. You need to be there a quite a long time to see all the possible incarnations.




The sails are illuminated on both sides of the Opera House but the display from the Botanical Garden end is static. The sails looks awesome with artwork projected onto them and I wished it could be like that all year round.

A marks the exact spot I was taking the shots from 

I took the shots from Sydney Cove, I arrived about 20:30 hrs and there were already quite a few photographers happily snapping away. I was very impressed with the display and I would like to back to take some shots at 17.00 hrs, the light should be fantastic just after dusk. So if you are in Sydney get down there and get some shots.






Here are some up close shots of the Opera House. It was harder to take shots here as there were people walking through your shots and the worst part is some of them were photographers who should know better.

Click here for more shots from the Sydney Vivid/Luminous Festival.

Waverley Cemetery - Bronte

Got up at 4:30am this morning and looked out the window. It was wet but no rain, a good sign. I called M to see if he was keen to go for the planned shoot but ended procrastinating much too long on whether to go or not. Anyway to cut a long story short we ended up going but missed the beautiful light before sunrise.






There were a lot of joggers running through the cemetery. The wind was gale force and the waves were HUGE. There was massive amount of salt spray coming off the ocean and there was also intermittent sun showers, which gave us a beautiful rainbow.

Conditions were not ideal for photography but we stayed for about an hour and scouted the cemetery for our next visit. We also managed to take a few shots.