Such a cartoon

Day 59

So.. today I come home, and see the boy sitting at the table, with a crown on. The crown says "Vivek The King". Trying my darndest not to say anyhting mean, I asked him what he was the King of... no reply. So I pulled out my iPhone to snap a pic, and he pulled this delightful face. It sort of reminds me of those clowns you see in shows and amusement parks, you know the ones you put the ping-pong ball in the mouth of? Uhuh.

Now, in this pic the food looks gross, as does anything half masticated. However, Vids makes one heck of a nice spinach and ricotta pie thingy. I think we collaborated on the recipe but I have no idea how to make it :)

The day at work was pretty cool. I am the unofficial dental king, so my day was mostly cat dentals. Which is fine, I do enjoy knowing I am making the little things mouths feel better - is that sad? It was hammering down with rain, so by the time I walked out to the paddock (yes, like real grass and mud) where my little Starlet was parked, I had to jump over puddles and rescue the poor little car from being submerged in pot-holes :)

Anyways, not being lazy, but thinking this was a nice "my day" pic, here it is. Taken with my iPhone 4, some playing in photoshop to give more of a cartoon feel.

He really can be a cartoon.

Mini-me?

Day 58

Sometimes I wonder if we try to make our kids follow us, and grow up too quick? But then others, it is them that want to emulate us...

Here are two pairs of my grottiest shoes. and the young fellas "copies". At least his are cute!

Painterly?

Day 57

Flowers? Yeah, I know.

I was trying the "painterly" look... painting with light to try to re-create that really cool sort of surreal look those still life paintings have... It didn't really work, but I sort of like this anyway, in it's own pathetic sort of way.

Just used an ND8 filter and a YN460II flash in hand to get the lighting the way it is, and some tweaking in post. Wanted some shadows but not many, and to bring out the detail.. it isn't what I had in my mind's eye but some things never are.

Ciao until tomoz - same bat-time, same bat-channel... gawd I am really showing my age...

Nothing could be fina, than splashing at Umina

Day 56

Today was a "rare" Sunday off. Vids and Vivek went to Balvihar (obviously Vids teaches a class, Vivek learns!). Afterwards we met for lunch, and dashed off to Umina for a splash.

I love the Central Coast. I spent my early years there, from the time I can first remember until I was about 6 years old. I still have family there, but we have lost contact.. sadly. My grandparents and dad lived there until they left us all behind, so now the Central Coast feels kind of empty for us, yet it still has it's calling and charm for us.

I took the trusty GoPro Hero2 for another splash. Here's Vivek just before he was dunked.

And playing on the sand..

and an awesomely happy "accident". I had the camera set to take a shot every 0.5s. I had put the camera aside and was about to turn it off when these girls ran past, and I actually did not realise I had snapped them... sigh...

And a bit of a landscape pic. This camera isn't bad for wide view landscapes. This is cropped to look like a "panarama" but it is just one image. Kewl.

Hi ISO

Day 55

 Tonight I went to Circular Quay/Darling Harbor to check out a restaurant that I am going to shoot a party in. It's a real nice joint in the the Harborside centre. I was mostly going to check out things that will effect/ruin my chances of getting goods images... and there's a lot of those :) The dinner is to be held on the balcony. If the weather is fair, the event will be held with the roof retracted, which means no roof to bonce flash off. There is only 1 wall, and it is a glass window :)

So this leaves me with a mission to find a way to reliably and pleasingly photograph a couple and their guests, in less than ideal lighting. As will always be the way. The other fun thing is that until 7:30pm, the sun will be reflecting off the city opposite (or behind me in this photo above), meaning the light behind most of my subjects will be super-bright, and I will have to find a way of matching that artificially. There's a "magic" half hour where the sky-light is beautiful, and the ambient light is JUST enough to shoot and get nice images.. well, at least on my 5DmkII. The 60D will struggle. After that magic 30 minutes, it will be dark with no roof.

Of course, if it rains I will have a roll out white roof. But it's no fun for a family to choose such a beautiful spot if it rains, so I can hardly "hope" for that.

Above is a single shot at high ISO of 3200, f/4, 1/10s. I really should have increased the iso and closed the lens aperture a bit, but this image surprised me anyway - such depth, and no noise correction software used at all. The 5D might be an oldy, but is surely is STILL a goody.

Just a handheld snap of fireworks. Some motion blur, oh well.

Life is what you make of it...

Day 54

So.. tonight I was stumped for ideas. I tried light painting fruit, and got bored, pet portraits.. they ran away... still life... flowers were wilting... ok... what now... Then I sat numbly and just stared into space... hmmm... 5DmkII, 135mm f/2L... if you can't make a nice pic you have a problem... It reminded me of a bit of a gag we had at work today..

I was operating on a doggy, flushing an abcess if you must know, which is a horrible job to do. I was flushing everything with sterile saline, and squirting the saline all around, "accidentally" splashing anyone within cooee. One of the receptionist made a remark, rather sarcastically, something along the lines of "you really enjoy your work, don't you?". To which I replied (surprisingly for me, as I generally think of cool things after the time has passed) "life is what you make of it"...

:)

Anyway, back on track. Today's photo is of some grass seed heads, taken thru the bokeh of some streetlights. Sort of reminds me of those Japanese paper drawings you see. Just something simple. Grass. Street lights. Nice lens on nice Camera. Bokeh.

Turn something simple, into something pretty.

Life is what you make of it.

Midnight mates - Ben and Jerry

Day 53

OMG this is girlie isn't it :)

But at 11:00 when I was driving past a Service station and needed to get milk, Ben and Jerry's was calling. I needed a sugar hit, and amongst all the chocolate, lollies and energy drinks, there was B&Js.

I got home at about 11:30, set up the gear and took a few quick shots before collapsing into bed.

We had a work dinner/meeting, which was a bit of fun, real nice burgers  - pretty darn close to the best vege burgers in the Sydney basin, as they were promised to be :) The meeting finished at around 10:30pm and we all scurried home.

YN460II in gridded snoot 6:00 high, lowest power, YN460II with blue gel at wall 1/16 power.

Cheers

day 52

Happy Birthday to me :)

Today was a long day at work. Everyone was running around like the proverbial blue-@rsed fly, yet we still only just managed to clock out at 7pm. The guys at work were so good and bought 2 cakes for me, but it was so busy that by the time we had a few minutes to cut the cakes all but three of the staff members had left for home :( It was a really nice idea, and thanks heaps guys!

I then pedaled the Starlet home and washed the doggy germs off myself. Vids had prepared an awesome dinner and mini party for me. We had Sarva and his family - Hema and Regan, over for dinner. Regan and Vivek are good buddies, so they played while we chatted over yummy tucker and nice wine. To top it off we had a delicious baked cheesecake as my Birthday cake, but luckily no candles :) There would be too many.

So here is another self-portrait. I am proud of this one. NO, not because it is a good photo, far from it, but because I actually managed to set up my gear and my camera whilst I was so sloshed I could hardly put two words together.

The glass I am holding is the one too many!

I will be paying for that tomorrow. YN460II in gridded softbox 10:00 and 2:00, YN460II in blue gel at wall behind me at 12:00, YN460II in beauty dish at 6:00 high. Camera on self timer - gotta find my shutter release cable for the 5DmkII - I know I had one from one of the YN602 kits but I put it someplace "safe" for that day I got the 5D... now I gotta find that safe place!!

The 5DmkII really has an amazing shallow DOF. This was shot at f/5, I know it's close focus, but I am not that far behind and I am OOF. cool :)

Ooooooooooooh!

Day 51

How often do you look (chimp) into the LCD and have such a response? If you're like me, never!!!

Uhuh, one of those days. More to come tomorrow :)

Ciao

Blast off

This is why you don't let little boys play with big boys toys.

This is Vivek using our new Karcher high pressure cleaner. He tends to go just a little bit "ape" with it, so all my flashes were in Zip-Lock bags or shopping bags. The camera was vulnerable, but I was  dancing between him and the camera, darting out of the way just as I hit the trigger.

Now, this is nothing like what I wanted to get. But the model is not exactly the most obedient, losing track of instructions and spraying away willy-nilly... hence the bags on the flashes. The resulting image is two images stacked and masked. I was lucky to get him in any sort of useful pose at all. And because he is such an ageeable model, I had to have him standing on a table so that he would not fall off (I wanted to use a small ladder) in his enthusiasm and haphazard spraying :)

Anyway. The spray is an amazing thing. It's a Karcher 2.080, the cheapest they make at present. I got it to clean a few things, mostly the pebblecrete you see in the photo, which has a layer of slime and dust that turns to grease when wet. Now, I'm not one to give praise that readily (a fault of mine, as I am reminded often!), however this thing rocks. It is one of the few things that actually does what the box says it will do.

When used with the nozzle 2 inches from a surface, it will blast anything off it, and even blast loose paint, or dig into rubber. Beyond about 4 inches, it just stings a little, and beyond 1 foot it just blows a mist, very fast.

Today I wanted to create a comical image of Vivek being flung about by this jet of water. Alas this is the best we could do in fading light.

YN460IIs used. at 8:00 in white plastic bag at 1/2 power, in the rain, at 1:00 in ziploc bag at 1/16 power. 3:00 in ziplock bag at 1/2 power, 6:00 high in STU at /14 power. Camera triggered by YN RF602. flashes triggered by Phottix Stratos. Canon 60D 24-105 f/4L at 24mm f/5.6, iso 400, 1/100s.

Lil' Firey

Day 49

He loves firetrucks. I'm not sure if all kids have a thing for firetrucks, or if this little one knows his late Grandpa was a firey, but he is obsessed with them. That steel peddle truck you see in the left - he asked me to bring that from Hong Kong for him! Vids and Vivek helped me move to Hong Kong in 2009 - my third Hong Kong stint by then. He was only about 2 at the time. We had a blast, and we went out a lot together. Anyway, he spotted this pedal car in the window of a shop in Ocean Terminal, pointed to it, asked for it, and I thought no more of it after I had said "no, it is too big to take back to Sydney" (as if a 2yo would really understand or care what I said, if he wanted something!).

As time went on, I stayed in HK, and the fam went back to Sydney on what we expected to be a short stay before joining me in HK. The stay ended up going on a bit longer, however, the young fella confidently claimed at his next birthday in July, that I was bringing him a big red firetruck from Hong Kong. He even described it, as best a (then) 3yo could. So I had to do some thing!

I searched for this thing in all the places I thought I had seen it, then finally found it in a dark corner of a Kids accessories store. I was able to haggle the price down (as you do) and drove home, very happy with my purchase... until I measured it. It was well over the maximum baggage size, however I had mentally stripped it down and thought I could squeeze it into a box that would just scrape as max allowance. I had to remove the steering assembly, the ladders and hose and windshield etc, and managed to just get it into a box at just shy of the weight and volume limits. I was stoked.

Then I had to fly it to Sydney as check in baggage (with a few hiccups on the Sydney end), and the re-assemble it before his Highness saw it. He was happy, but not at all surprised... almost a "yeah, I expected that... next". However, even today, he and his mates play on it, so I don't feel too cheated by his non-chalant acceptance of my gift.

I tried to fill the room with light here - 2 YN460IIs bounced off roof at 1/2 power, 580EXII on-board, bounced. One of my first pics with the 5DmkII - the 24mm lens on this is WIDE! So much wider than it is on the 60D - almost useful, one could say.

Oh, Rats!

Day 48

And so they are... well, so I am told. These cute little thing were handed in to our clinic today. They are so cute. Today was a cool day at work. I was tired as can be, something that we have to change.

I had hoped to take the 5DmkII out for a trial shoot with the boy, however, just before leaving work these little things came in. I snapped a few pics, then Kath held them up like this for me - awesome little mass of rats! I used a 580EXII bounced off the roof, and 31mm extension tube behind EF85mm f/1.8 lens. Lucky I shot this at work. I'm bushed now!

Anchors away!

Day47

Today Vids had an interview, so I swapped days at the Welfare League so I could have today off, and ferry Vivek to and from Montessori. After the interview we headed to Audley Boatshed for a paddle, squeezing it in before a nice thunderstorm hit. It was a lot of fun, and instead of subjecting my big toys to the risk of kiddy accidents on the water, I took my GoPro Hero2 along instead.

So here we have some action photos of the day... very lame as far as the "adrenaline" these cameras are suppose to capture, but so what. I love being able to snap what we do without worrying about what happens to my camera. This toy rocks!

So here is Vids, paddling Vivek and I along the river at Audley. Vivek is doing his thing and burying his head into everything...

and striking a pose

mummy paddling hard, Vivek splashing duckies

Vivek with the "Historic Boatshed" behind him

Vids striking a pose

And one shot to show we're all aboard - the sad thing about being so yuck in front of the camera is I spend most my time behind it.. and over the years there a re so many family pics without me in them!

All shot with my GoPro Hero2, no idea of settings, just aim and shoot. Some post to adjust (using Topaz Adjust) and bring out some detail. Love this little toy!

Day 46

Day 46

Today Mahesh and his dad came over for a quick visit. I was going to loan Mahesh an old Canon 299T flash and some radio triggers to try on his way cool Fuji-film x100. These little cameras rock, and I was thinking he could have some real fun with OCF and this toy. The x100 is a ripper of a camera, and the beauty is most people think it is just an old film rangefinder and treat you like a dag, or ignore you. For candid and street pics, this is real cool! But it is such a great camera that it tends to be overlooked because of it's looks, and the fact it has no zoom. Anyway, I hope Mahesh has some fun with the falsh and his camera.

The photo is Mahesh's dad. We were trying a funny pose and comical angle. I would prefer to have done this on white, or with rim lights all around, however Vids drove off to go to work (yeah, at 8pm) with the car that had all my gear in it. So we had to make do with 2 stands and Mahesh as a VAL (Voice activated Light-stand, for those knew to these crazy acronyms). YN406IIs in softbox at 11:00, 3:00 and beauty dish at 7:00 high, in close.

Light Painting

Day 45

First of all, Happy 40th Birthday, Vijay! I know you don't read my blog, but I am saying it here anyway :) Hope it's been a good day. I have just given you the best Birthday present ever - I kept your sister in Sydney so you could enjoy your day in peace. You are welcome, however, I am sort of regretting not sending her over.. permanently tee he heeeee...

Today's photo - I wanted to do a black on black again, but thought I would try light painting. I have heard some awesome stories, and seen some awesome pics from light painting. It's a shame I can't emulate them! The image above was shot with my 60D, with a Hoya 3-stop ND filter, f/16, iso 100, 30s exposure. I hand held a YN460II at 1/32 power and flashed it at the camera, at varying angles and distances, to get  the light coverage I wanted. The hardest part was getting the 5D and MarkII to show up properly yet not blow out that part of the camera. I had tried it with an LED MagLite but it was just not powerful enough, and I was getting too much ambient if I increase the iso.

So here is a light painting of my new toy (which I am proudly telling those that have no idea what a 5D MkII is, that it is worth more than my car). I am hoping either tomorrow or Friday to stick my 135mm f/2 on this little beasty and see what sort of Bokeh we can conjure up.

Happy Valentine's day :)

Day 44

No, this was not my gift to Vidya! This is my beloved, gifting me my dream camera... I might be wrong, but I have a sneaking feeling she is being a little facetious in the way she is showing affection to my new toy? Hmmm. You think?

Today, as you know, is Valentine's Day. It also so happens to be the day we decided that it would make a lot of business sense to invest in a 5D MkII. I have been dreaming of this camera for a long time, and had always put it in the "buy after you make some money from photos" basket. However, it became apparent that for my first paid gig, I would need either a very wide lens, or a full-frame camera. Seeing as though a good quality wide lens for an APS-C camera is worth quite a bit, AND I needed a second camera body anyway, AND I have a 24-105mm f/4L lens already, it just made more sense to pick up a 5D MkII.

I was also going to wait until the announcement of this camera's successor, so that the price would drop a little. However I managed to get this on sale (due to the prediction of the announcement being sometime soon) and I have frankly given up waiting. I am also very VERY lucky that JB Hi-Fi do interest free payments :)

So, now I have in my possession a 5D MkII. I have high hopes for this toy. Everyone I speak to has no shortage of praise and superlatives for this camera. Some even go as far as to say it is better than... umm, ok, moving on.

I did happen upon a cynical thought pop into my head during the inward debating that took place over the last few days in order to come to the decision to make this purchase. The thought was... just how stupid is it that so many people still discuss camera lens angles of view in terms relative to 35mm film, or "full-frame"? Ok, we sort of need some point of comparison, and ten years ago when average Joe photo enthusiest was buying consumer digital SLRs, he knew film and needed a reference point, so comparing to film made perfect sense. But, now let's be honest, how many of you dSLR toting people out there have ever shot, or really remember how to shoot, film format? Or own a full-frame camera? Yes, maybe 10% of dSLR users?

I have shot film. Until 2006 that is all I shot. However, since then I have only shot on APS-C sensors, with the occasional film and the odd 120 medium format film. I think and see in "crop sensor" format. For me to predict how my photos on my 5D would look, I have to imagine them in APS-C format! Thus my 24-105mm lens is really a 15-65mm lens in APS-C terms.... on the 60D it is apparently a 38-170mm lens in full frame terms, but that means nothing to most of us these days. To most of us we know how a 24-105mm will look on APS-C. That is our new reference point. Not a big deal. Or is it?

Just a thought.

YN460II in softbox gridded, at 2:00, YN460II in beautydish 6:00. YN460II with green gel and sto-fen type diffuser behind model pointed at wall. There was also a YN460II in gridded softbox at 10:00, however it didn't fire in this pic - all the batteries seem to have given up at the same time, so tomoz will be a crazy "charge all batteries" day....

On the Cat walk

Day 43

Roxy

Roxy is a patient at work. She's way cool and loves cuddles, and purrs like a lion... do lions purr? I can't tell you what is wrong with Roxy, as that is confidential. I could tell you, but then I would have to feed you to her. In small pieces.

Today has been a good day at work... so far. I am writing this blog entry between consults, so it might all turn pear-shaped before I head home, who knows. This is the vet industry after all.

This photo was taken with a piece of yucky grey table vinyl as a backdrop. I'm hoping to photograph a lot more pets, and I wanted something I could hose and that would not get smelly, as was durable and versatile. I was also hoping to a backdrop one that was not shiny, but had to settle for this, and position the flashes such that they did not cause any specular highlights on the vinyl. I know they make neutral grey washable backdrops, but I needed it yesterday and I don't want to pay extra $ just because it is purpose built. Let's see how this goes for now.

STU at 4:00 and 8:00 at with YN460II at 1/2 power in both, 24-105mm f/4L at about 30mm, f/7.2, 1/200s, iso 200 I think.

Tough lil' dudes

Day 42

LOL, the background is actually red, not pink! I should have used a blue or green gel.

Today was my Sunday at work - I work 1 in 3 Sundays. Sometimes I get home for a late lunch, other days I get home for arvo tea. Today I was lucky enough to get out for a late lunch. I met Vids and Vivek at Castle towers, then drove home through a horrendous storm. The roads were so overflowing with water it was about 8 inches deep in places.

Upon coming home, some friends from down the road dropped off their boy for a play with Vivek. That is Aryan on the left. I managed to get them to pose for 1 minute before they lost interest.

YN460II in softboxes at 10 and 2, YN460II in 20inch beauty dish at 7:00 high, flagged YN460II with red gel at wall at 4:00. Levels and smoothing in post.

wouldn't that be nice...

Imagine waking up, and finding your kettle pouring your coffee for you, and your breakfast already being made in the bowl... images of the Weasleys house in Harry Potter books, where the sink has a brush washing the dishes on it's own etc. Awesome.

Today was a long day. Weekends are supposed to be short days at work, finish at 3pm. However, I had to run down to the Welfare League to do a surgery we did not do yesterday, as we were unable to get the greenlight from the boss, as he was gallivanting out of contact. So after finishing my normal Saturday shift, I dashed to the other clinic and proceeded to remove a corn-cob from the small intestine of a 30kg male pit-bull pup. Needless to say, but my motivation for the pic today was quite low. All my ideas needed either a nice looking model (ahem, me? scratch, Jilly? ha ha... Vids? busy. The boy? Asleep.) or a lot of foot-work, or a lot of brain-work, or sunlight...  or all of these. So this was the best I could do today. Not what I had hoped, but I am liking the creative avenues this sort of photo can open up.

Just playing.

YN460II in softboxes at 1/2 power at 10:00 and 2:00, bare YN460II on stovetop at 1:00 at 1/16 power with CTO gel, bare YN460II bounced to roof at 7:00 at 1/2 power. Levels and saturation in PS. I didn't even try to fix the distortion here so the benchtops and doors etc are not parallel. Two images combined in PS, obviously.

It matters not if you win or lose, it's how you play the game...

Day 40

Friday. End of the "normal" mans week. How many of us have normal jobs these days? Most of my fam (the ones that actually seem to work) don't have normal jobs - we're all ambos or vets or whatever.. we all work stupid hours, stupid days. Just the nature of the beast.

Today was a long day at work. What should have been a 5:00pm finish dragged on until 6:25pm, for no real reason, just many little things. And we still didn't finish the days work!

We had some guests for dinner, and we drove them home, a 1hr 20min return trip. So by the time I got back and pulled the camera out, it was 11:15pm. I was pacing the house trying to get an idea when this one popped into my head. I would like to have used the smoke machine for a really dirty pub feel, and to give the silhouette in the foreground so more separation from the background, but that would have pushed shooting time well into tomorrow...

Obviously this is two images. Me standing with the blade, then me laying down with different boots on. Snooted YN460II with grid on stand on table (to mimic a table downlight), YN460II with CTO gel in softbox at 2:00 for rim of standing me in foreground.

I'm not sure which of my alter egos won this game.

The path to excellence

Day 39

I was going to call this one "Espresso-lution", like the drawing of the "evolution" of man, and the many copies and parodies of the same.

This was not the image I imagined, but, as seems to be a repeating theme here, I was running on empty by the time I got to do my PAD. We had a meeting with a potential client at home, discussing an upcoming Wedding and associated events. I am very pleased to say we reached an agreement, and I will be shooting my first paid wedding in a few weeks. I am stoked. I have covered a few weddings and receptions, but I ahve never been paid for it to date.

After the meeting we were both a bit drained, and I had to force myself to open the camera bag and run out in the rain to get my stands and Off Camera Flash gear form the car. The set-up ended up being simply a softbox at 10:00, bare flash at 4:00 low power, dutch angle for "fun", undo the "fun" in photoshop, but try not to hide it so it looks intentional. Artsy way of hiding a "stuff-up". Oh, I mean, the angle indicates the ... la la la..

I do love the espresso from our machine -  a Saeco Via Venezia. Not exactly the cheapest machine for a machine that has no auto-off and only 1 pump, but for the best espresso, I can't complain.

Peeka-Boo...

Day 38

I do apologize to those who have arachnophobia. However, as much as I dislike these critters, they have been put here just as we have.

Tonight I was sort of stumped for ideas. I thought I would do a macro photo of the dog's nose, however, being the ever-so-agreeable model that she is, she cowered away and shivered under the table once I stuck my ring flash modifier on the camera. I must say, my "ring flash" knock off is pretty ugly, but it is NOT scary. Except to Orbis, the company that made the real one :) See, the "real" Orbis RingFlash costs $250 here in Oz. I think I got this one for $30AUD in Hong Kong. It's a Q-Flash ring flash. I pulled it apart, shoved some foil in it, cut the cardboard a bit, and put it back together. Now I have a Macro "Ring Flash" for $220 less than an Orbis. I might take a pic of it one day...

Anyways, so after Jilly decided she would cower under the table, I had to find something else to shoot. I had just finished glass one of cheap red wine, and I was sort of floating, yet somehow tripping over things.. if you know the feeling. You know those days when 1 glass of wine just slaps you like 3 shots of tequila? No? Trust me. It happens. :)

Anyway, so in my infinite wisdom and wine induced dutch courage, I walked barefoot into the garden to shoot flowers. Of course every blade of grass that touched my foot made me scream inside like a little kiddy, thinking a big bad hairy spidey was on my foot.. and then I saw them.. spideys.. curled up as snug as a bug in a rug, in their little leafy lairs. I always wondered how these creatures manage to fold and curl a leaf so neatly to make their homes... Anyway, I continued bare foot into spidey zone, knowing full well I was being stupid.. going barefoot. But you know the feeling, when you know what you are doing is stupid, and you know that it is highly likely you are going to get hurt/bitten/burnt/zapped/impaled or even worse, caught... yet you still do it? Oh, you grew out of that? Ok.. ooops. Anyway, here I am, barefoot in the garden, at 9pm at night, with a Mini-Mag-Lite in one hand, and the camera with a badly fitting fake/modified ring-flash in the other hand, trying to photograph spiders in the dark... to make it more fun, these guys have to be about 2cm (less than 1 inch) from the end of the lens to be in focus. And they move. Fast. And they have no patience for a yobbo with a torch and big fat camera chasing them around their web.

The resulting image was shot at iso100, f/7.1, 1/200s with an EF35mm f/2 with 31mm extension tube behind the lens. On camera was a YN 460II set at 1/8 power (I think) in the ringflash thingy. I used Live view, aided by the torch.

To show you just how much "life" we don't see... check the pic below, with a blow up of the middle of hte frame. Had me giggling, I can assure you :)

Two little chicks

Day 37

This is Kathy. Kathy is one cool chick. I am lucky enough to have her as one of my nurses. She's holding a little chick. I'm not sure what it is :) I am embarrassed to say, I will have to ask her! Today was a cool day at work. Just the usual hiccups and fun stuff we chew through each day. I managed to get Kath in front of the camera, and to pose for this, on the onus I cartooned it a little. I actually really like the pic, but Kath is very so-so about it.

Tonight work followed me home. Sarva's dog had eaten some chicken, plus/minus bone, and was now walking around looking real sick. So Sarva rushed over with Goldie for me to check. Yup, she looked like a dog that has swallowed (well, not fully swallowed!) a bone. Anyways, I checked her over and did some magic vet stuff, and sent her home with specific instructions on what to do (you know, the if-then-else scenarios). Let's cross fingers.

YN460II in STU 10 and 2, 420EX on camera with eTTL at -2 stops FEC. 24-105m f/4 lens. Not sure of settings :) I had a vet student (thanks Zoe) hold a white reflector behind Kath, which I then put a new backdrop on in Photoshop.

It's inevitable...

Day 36

OMG, don't movies affect our thoughts!.... the idea for this photo came from that Mr Bean movie, you know, the one where he is going to Cannes and as usual he does his thing, causing utter chaos and moments that make you squirm... along the way he picks up a gal and he's driving her car along all night, and there is a scene where he has his eyes held open with match sticks, like this. It just cracks me up every time. I might actually do a photo in the car like that one day :)

Then as I was trying to think of a title... Agent Smith spoke to me.

It is you know. You can't fight it, Mr Anderson.

Today was an OK day at work. Bit of a late finish. I was sort of hoping to do my PAD at work - we had some cool little critters come into the clinic today. But time just was not on my side.  So I dragged myself home, bashing my head for ideas, when I sat down and felt a wave of sleepiness come over me... I thought of Mr Bean and giggled... Light Bulb!

The resulting pic is not as awesome as I would like - I wish I knew how to make it pop more... anyway, this was made from 3 images. I shot the steam in one shot (my machine wont steam and do espresso at the same time). then shot the coffee pouring, then I put myself in there and shot again, masking out all the bits I did not need.

Softbox 10 and 2, silver reflective umbrella 6:00 high.

Mmmmmmm

Day 35

This is health-food-Sunday. I think amongst all that cheese, saturated fat and high GI pizza base there might be a hint of tomato...

Today was a stinker. Probably the first day in 25 years I have put on shorts and a beater and just sat at home. No Sunday Bunnings trips or anything like that. Thanks to Vids I got a bit of a sleep in, but the bed kicked me out, and I still needed more sleep. The plan is to go to bed a little earlier everyday... ie sometime before 1am would be a big step in the right direction.

Vivek has been good all day. He went to Balvihar classes this morning with kids heaps older, did his stuff and came home. Spent most the day lounging and chatting with us. We were both flat, so we were very happy that he was entertaining himself. The iPad helps a bit too. For dinner we decided to get some Pizza - something we rarely do. Sort the icing on a lazy day.

No complaints from the boy, as you can see.

Softboxes at 10 and 2, silver reflective brolly at 5, high. Bare flash at wall with blue gel. All flashes YN460II triggered by Phottix Strato

Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh...

Merry Merry king of the bush is he...

A little bit of Australiana for ya!

Today after work we met up for drinkies at Kath's house, to say farewell to Vicky. I had brought my gear thinking I would take a pic of the girls as my PAD, however a couple of cheeky Kookaburras dropped in to say hello. I didn't have my 70-200mm zoom, so I had to do with my 24-105mm f/4, and crop the image a bit. The 24-105mm is pretty soft at 105mm, so this was stopped down to f/7.1, iso 640, 1/80s with 580EXII onboard.

Kath's house is in a beautiful spot, in Faulconbridge. It's just so peaceful... or as Michael Caton would say... "how's the serenity?"

Cute as can be

Day 33

How many kids do you know that can still look cute whilst stuffing their face with food?

This was taken at the wedding reception of Rachel and Justin. The resulting Photoshopped with vintage feel image reminded me so much of a polaroid I just had to do the cliche.

Eye of the Tiger

Day 32

I was debating whether to call this "eye of the tiger" (after the song from Survivor.. yeah, I was a kid then, I remember it on the radio) or to call it "Lip Smackin". Vids had a peek and said "she looks like a lion!".. sold!

Gypsy cat is a grumpy, 14yo (so we worked out last night) fat tortoiseshell cat. She's my fave 4 legged critter. I love cats, and Gypsy taught me how to love them. I was a farm boy, where cats were left in the shed to catch rats, and you did not pat them, cos cats were for wus-bags.

We adopted Gypsy from RSPCA in 2000. She soon developed cancer in her left eye, as a 2.5yo cat. We removed the eye. The cancer came back in the other eye a few years later. We went through 2 further bouts of chemo and now she is in her third remission. She seems to have a genetic predisposition for this, as we can't find a trace of it anywhere else in her - it just comes back to her iris.

Back to Gypsy as a "person". She is a typical cat, though much more a private cat than most. She becomes a wild critter when she is taken to a cattery or to a clinic. I seem to be the only person who can handle her then, but only because she drops her guard a little for me, and cos I have a lot of respect for her "space". She has really taught me a lot about cats. If I could work with cats and cows only, it would be awesome.

When we traveled to Sasin Gir many years ago (before it was a tourist hotspot with real transport there) I was so overcome with how much lions are like domestic cats. The way they lick their paws, the way they walk. This is what I love about cats... they can be so delicate and careful, but those little soft pink toepads are hiding claws that are so powerful and lethal, and that cute little muzzle is hiding some ferocious teeth - such a juxtapose of assets. Their temperament is the same... that purring and smooching, hiding that sudden change into a scratching, biting critter. But that is what I respect - we don't always want to be out socializing and being chummy, sometimes we want our own space. Cats have the guts to tell you that.

I like that.

Softboxes at 9 and 3, 85mm f/1.8 set to f/6.3. Triggered with Phottix Stratos. Gypsy was lured and kept in place by Cheddar cheese slices - hence the licking of lips.

Mutty Mongrel

Day 31

This is a weird one :)

I was trying to see how hard/easy it was to get those portraits that people do, you know where they stack photos from all the family members on top/beside each other with a black backdrop and just the rim of the faces showing? Well, I wanted to try it, but I only had one model.. well two. But one of us has banned himself from being his own photo subject because he is ratshit at it. The other one is an emotional, fussy, and very unwilling model. I ended up coercing her to be a model by using banana chips - those salted slices of fried/dehydrated banana.. she strangely likes them...

60x60cm softbox with grid at 2:00, feathered big time, and half covered. YN460II at 1/32 power, 1/200s at f/6.3, iso 100. Triggered as usual by Phottix Stratos. This was taken in a room with no backdrop. If you stand close enough to the flash (in this case 30m from softbox) and have the flash set to expose how you want at that distance, the inverse square laws basically dictates that the light will be so weak it won't light up much else. It's all physics :)

I blacked out my hands - I was holding my ever-so-cooperative model.

It's actually very easy to do this with the dog. Might try it with people next :)

Photography, proudly tested on animals :)