This photo was taken down the coast in Batemans Bay as the sun was starting to go down. It was taken using the auto mode as I was being a bit sneaky and waiting for the fishermen to stop looking in my direction.

Crucial ingredient for a good stir fry.

Significant wind damage occurred in the Illawarra and South Coast, one of the windiest parts of the country. Gusts as strong as 126 km/h hit Bellambi, on the Wollongong coast, the strongest recorded there in six years.
Source

So with the wind blowing, it seemed like a great day for a bushwalk and it was. Initially I had to dodge branches that were scattered on the highway blocking some lanes and then we came across a tree that was blocking the road to the Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk. Luckily enough we were able to move it aside and get passed. The tree top walk is an amazing piece of engineering. How they built it without destroying the landscape is quite an effort. We were advised that the tower can withstand 280km/h winds so we were fine…. haha. When climbing the steps you could feel the tower swaying. Once at the top the views were of course very scenic and the coastline visible.

After the tree top walk Lara and I ended up having a look around Kiama near the blowhole. Even with the choppy water there wasn’t enough swell to cause it to go off so we let the seagulls entertain us.

After completing a bunch of assignments, I finally had some time to get out and take some photos. I had intended to get photos of surfers after last weeks swell so I was armed with my Sigma 70-300mm lens ready for some telephoto shots. However, the beach was flat and the weather was overcast so I gave up on that idea and loaded up c:geo on my phone and found that I was within 50m of a geocache. Whilst looking for the cache I spotted this eastern water dragon watching me and figured this shot is worthy of a POTW, although this isn’t the first time I’ve spotted one of these in the wild. If only Bear Grylls was around…

Bit of a delay in the photo of the week lately. Things with uni have been pretty full on and I haven’t had much time to myself to get creative with the camera. This photo represents the hard yakka of studying and the build up of work that accumulates throughout university. Hopefully things should settle down and I’ll get back on track.

The rope on the front deck of the Rivercat taken with the nifty fifty.

Whilst back in the mountains for a break from uni I got some mates to come on a photography adventure into Sydney with the only real purpose to see the  Sydney Morning Heralds 1440 Photos exhibition at the State Library.

We were armed with:

• Pentax K100D Super + SMC Pentax-DAL 1:3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL
• Pentax K-X + SMC Pentax-A 1:2  50mm
• Canon 500D + Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II

To enhance the photography adventure we caught the Ferry from Parramatta. Although it was actually Rydalmere as the water level was too low for the ferry. It was about 50mins to Circular Quay with a better view than what Cityrail could offer.

Once off the ferry we blended in with our DSLR’s, a lot like ninjas. It didn’t feel as awkward to take random photos as about 80% of everyone else in the city was doing the same thing. I used the cloning technique that I had previously learned to create the skateboarding photo and also utilised some HDR techniques for the Centrepoint shot.

The exhibition was held at the State Library. The majority of photos were significant moments captured in time from around the world. A lot of the photos came across as being in the ‘right place at the right time’ but the text detailing each photo was both interesting and sometimes disturbing. As the city lights switched on and the day turned to night it led to some interesting night photos.

We couldn’t go into the city and avoid taking photos of the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House. The 50mm prime lenses came into the spotlight in the lower light conditions.

A long walk to Chinatown led us to an array of restaurants with plenty of Chinese girls trying desperately to coax us into their restaurant. It was slightly annoying getting a menu shoved in your face every 3 metres. The way to deal with them was to simply take a photo of them, they didn’t like this too much. After reviewing some of the menus we were still hesitant on where to go so we consulted to the 20c coin toss. She didn’t like that either, but it was her lucky day and we made our way up for the $16.50 per head banquet that consisted of:

Entree:

• Springs Rolls
• Dim Sims
• Chicken & Corn Soup

Main:

• Satay Chicken
• Mongolian Lamb
• Beef & BBQ

The only thing missing from Chinatown was dessert but we had that covered and took a walk to Darling Harbour to arrive at Pancakes on the Rocks just before closing time to finish the night off.

Actually, there was an old drunk on the train that provided us with Cityrail entertainment for a good half hour that finished the night.

Constructed in 1885, the reservoir has a diameter of 20m and a height of 6m with an original capacity of almost 2,000,000 litres. The reservoir was decommissioned in 1990. Source: http://www.hunterwater.com.au/1012.aspx

Photo number #26 wow, that’s halfway through the year since starting this challenge! I was told about this location from another photography enthusiast and it was well worth the effort to take a look. The HDR gives a surreal feel to the pics. Newcastle also gets some great sunsets and when I spotted a few clouds on the horizon I was certain I’d get something good. The sunset shots haven’t been altered, just cropped. Below is an old construction photo I found whilst researching the reservoir.

To get things back on track I snapped this shot the other night as I was trying to get through a frustrating assignment. Taken using the 70-300mm using the macro feature. I had to use a small aperture with a long exposure to get a decent amount of depth of field. It’s been heavily cooked in Adobe Lightroom to give it more punch, I think my camera was over exposing a little as well with the 300mm lens.

During Holy Week and Easter we enter into the drama of salvation. The shadow of death stretches over us; we know the desolation of Good Friday; we wait through Easter Saturday until the light of the Easter fire is kindled. Then the doors of death that slammed shut on Good Friday are torn open at the Easter vigil and light and noise and rejoicing lift us off the ground……more->.

I didn’t go to the church for religious purposes but it makes for a damn good photo. We had a walk around inside at like 11:30pm and were surprised to find people wandering about. The lighting was really dim so it had a creepy feel to it as we spotted some dude in a black cape walk passed. I wish I went inside the church last year when I was doing the ancient architecture course as the church featured the construction techniques that we learnt about.

The photo for this week was taken on the breakwall alongside Newcastle foreshore and Knobby’s Beach. It is a popular pathway for both young, old, prams, bikes or those people who feel inclinded to jog. I noticed this little sign painted on the tarmac and thought it was a bit more interesting than the usual scenic landscape shot although the pelican photo is pretty awesome as well…

Taken on our trip to Smiths Lake, we went swimming at Seal Rocks and perched on top of the hill is this massive lightbulb to warn the ships of the rocks and reef that lies beneath the water.

This photo has been created using high dynamic range photography (HDR). This has been my first successful time shooting for HDR and the results turned out impressive. The image shows the underneath of the Victoria Bridge crossing the Nepean River. Notice the detail in the pilons and how the graffiti shows up.

Ross and I went down to the Nepean River Weir for this photo adventure. It has been raining a fair bit lately and the weir was overflowing. As we walked along the banks Ross spotted a Eastern Water Dragon. I thought it was pretty amazing to see such an animal in this type of environment as there was plenty of rubbish and pollution in the area.

Download this video 1280×720 @ 24fps

I went out with Ross & Noor to have a go at shooting the full moon on Saturday night. There was a bit of cloud around so we waited for some clear sky. I was pretty happy with the results.

It was a bit of a trek to get out to the lookout. Not remembering how far it was, we walked for what seemed like 500m and then finally we arrived at the clearing. The moon was slowly rising above us, but it was touch and go to see if we were going to graced by the presence of the moon, lingering behind the thick cloud cover.

Alas, the clouds dissipated briefly and provided us with a good couple of hours from about 8.30 till 10.30 at night to take a few shots and play with the camera’s before the rain promptly ended our night.

These are my 4 pic Best of photo’s – Ross

Hope you Enjoy!

]]> http://petesmedia.com/2010/02/the-moon/feed 0 http://petesmedia.com/2010/01/weekly-photo-4-%e2%80%93-rainbow-lorikeets http://petesmedia.com/2010/01/weekly-photo-4-%e2%80%93-rainbow-lorikeets#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:48:22 +0000 Peter http://petesmedia.com/?p=1898 Continue reading →]]>

On Saturday afternoon Sydney had it’s hottest day in 4 years. The temperature finally dropped below the 40′s  and I ventured outside for some fresh air, after sitting in the air conditioning all day. These rainbow lorikeets were cooling off in the neighbours birdbath so I whipped out the Sigma 70-300mm and fired off a few shots of them making a splash.

F5.6 1/180s Onboard Flash

I was inspired by a thread on the Digital Photography School forums on capturing water droplets. After seeing some of the results I had to give it a try. Using a blue cup in the bathroom sink and my new macro lens adapters onto my Tamron 18-200 I was able to obtain a decent shot. It turned out to be more about chance than skill. I took about 20 shots and got about 4 keepers. One thing I learnt from this exercise is how handy an external flash would be. This would allow me to experiment with high speed flash photography.

I don’t normally go into the city, maybe like once a year so it is a bit strange to have the second photo of this weekly challenge to be of Sydney Harbour yet again. I went in to see Peter Helliars Dreamboat Tour at The Opera House and took my camera along. I bought my brother tickets for Christmas, the show itself was pretty good. I took a while to get into the humour but after a while I was laughing. I was more excited about just going to The Opera House and mingling with the city life.

I thought choosing one awesome photo a week would be easy but it’s hard to restrict it to just one as you can see I’ve included a few other photos from the night. I settled on the harbour shot as I find it the most interesting as there’s plenty to look at. It was also taken with some finesse by hanging my camera outside the railing on the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the strap tight around my wrist in order to get a clear shot of Circular Quay and not lose the camera. It was also the first time I’ve ever walked across the bridge so that was kinda cool.

We spent the night in Sydney at McMahons Point. Although we couldn’t quite see the  Harbour Bridge we still got a spectacular fireworks display as they were going off all around the harbour. Without doubt, the biggest fireworks I’ve ever seen. Twelve minutes passed so quickly!

This year I am going to attempt to post an awesome photo for each week of the year to make use of my new Pentax K-X and assortment of lenses. I’ll start this challenge with these shots of the Sydney fireworks display. Enjoy.

f/22 4 second exposure. Notice the seconds hand moving. Below are a couple more from playing around with my camera. To obtain these close up macro shots I blutacked a macro adapter lens that I had for my video camera onto the front of my 50mm prime lens and wow. I can put objects withing 10mm of the lens and focus on them.

Download the Video – 52mb

I went for a photo trip with Noor and his new Canon 350D. I dug out my Panasonic GS400 video camera and stuck my Rode Videomic on it to document the day. We’re going on a road trip soon and it’s been a while since I’ve used my video camera and Noor is new to DSLR photography so it was worthwhile to get a bit of practice.

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