Cheeky Monkey

Day 109

This is the response I have been getting lately. To everything.

Canon 350D, Asahi Pentax Takumar MRC 55mm f/1.8 at f/1.8 iso 800, 1/80.

Yep. I did it again

This time with a Phottix umbrella box. I LOVE the light this gives, but it really kills off a stop more light than the STU does. It's pretty much on par with the reflective brolly measurements from yesterday. The big advantage of this is the whole thing takes up less floorspace than and umbrella, AND yo can get it in closer to the subject without feeling like you are crowding them. Brollys just "look" imposing! Well, IMHO.

In this pic you can see how close the stand is to the face of the box. The whole thing is so centralised over the stand and so compact. I think I will try to use this outdoors more.. although I will likely need to also use one of these DIY Brackets so I get 1 stop more light...

Shoot Through Umbrella versus Reflective

Day 107

Yeppo

Sorry, it's a gear post.

I was under the (horribly mistaken) impression that my flash would work better through an umbrella used in reflective mode, but the shoot through mode was much softer.

You can see how wrong I was. From this, I would be much better of using the brolly in shoot thru mode, about 2m from the subject. The 2m is take from the stand to the subject.

Gotta love the huge hot-spot in front of the STU.

Getting down to Business

Day 106

They finally arrived. I made an order for my business cards online, and got a nice little wad of silly looking cards to hand to people in the hope they will stop laughing and hire me.

Let's see.

On the Road again

Day 105

So I was back behind the wheel of my super Trusty Starlet again. I was taking it a little easy on the way back, sitting on just over 100kph. On the way down the little gal was pushing up to 120kph at times - she seems to get into a funny harmonic at  the legal speed of 105-110kph, and it is hard to keep her there. She really loves 115-120kph, but I fear it's just too much for her little motor to bear.

Well, even 120kph in this car is legal.. she reads about 10% over the real speed :)

The Sun Sets on Black Friday

Day 103

Friday the 13th.

I was driving to see my Bro in Victoria so we could do another wedding shoot together. He's been real good to show me the ropes. Anyways, the drive was made difficult by the fact for about 1 hour I was driving into the direct sun. Finally, as the sun almost plopped over the horizon, and I could see again, I stopped (not) and took this pic with my iPhone. I just love the colours in this.

Long Distance ETTL

Day 102

Today I was just playing with my YN ST-E2 - the cheap copy of Canons own infra-red flash trigger. I took this pic with a 200mm lens with a 420EX on the left, and a 580EXII on the right, at about 25m. Seems to work ok. As I stepped back further there were some issues with misfires.. 25m seems to be max range for these. :(

Inside they seem to go further - obviously the roof and walls help out a bit...

Bokeh Cut-Outs

Day 101

This is just another playing with bokeh Photo

I cut out some (fugly) stars in a bit of junk mail we received, then stuck that over the front of a prime lens (55mm f/1.8, I think) and took a few shots at a car going down the road toward some street lights. The red stars are brake lights, the white are street lights. Just one star in the cut out. Potential? Maybe.

LightPainting again

Day 100

So I decided to try to light this shiny toy elephant, yet minimise specular reflections... easier said than done.

This was shot using a YN460II at low power, multiple flashes and a 20s exposure.

Roasted Marshmellows...

Day 99

So there I woz, sitting there minding my own business, and WHAMMO, some silly looking beagle shoves a stick up my back-side and roasts me over hot coals, saying "tee he he" to some balding looking kid called Charlie Brown...

My little TOYota

Day 98

Yes, this is another FreeLensing pic. I am still toying with it. This is yet another BAD example, but I like the way i makes my car look even smaller and toy like...

Easter Eggs?

Day 97

I often wonder why we claim that the Easter Bunny lays eggs.

Anyone who has ever owned a Rabbit will know what the only egg-like things from a  bunny are...

Lost in Train Station

Day 96

This is Roger Dodger, my accountant. He's on holidays. He has a bit of an identity crisis. Part rapper, part polo shirt wearing college boy. He's always got that doof-doof music pounding outta his head, and he hardly listens (or hears) a word you say.

6 months ago I told him I wanted to get "stuck into Forex or gold". That's the last I heard from him. Then he went on a break, so last week I emailed him telling him he'd better show me some evidence that he is getting stuck into Forex or Gold for me. He says, evidence, like a photo? I say, whatever, just do something.

So he sent me this photo by email. Here he is, sucking fourex gold.

Lost in Train Station.

YN460II at 10 and 4 in gridded box, 580EXII in silver brolly 6:00 high. I haven't gotten the flashes out for a long while, and as this was the real reason I started the P365, I thought I had better get back into swing. But this is my "safe" lighting set up... one I can set up after.. well a few XXXX Golds. No metering, all by "guesstimation".  It's also easy to do rough edits and masks as the edges are blown. Obviously this image is a composite. The background is a photo I took in Bintan, on my GoPro Hero2. The foreground was shot in my loungeroom just now.


Today's post is a joke at myself as much as anything else. This is how I hear a lot of stuff. Sounds that run together and need deciphering to make sense... Oh, and I only wish I was telling my accountant this!

Little things...

Day 95

I remember showing my dad one day the words to "The Man from Snowy River" on the $10 note. He was blown away I could read it without a magnifying glass. I can still read it, but it hurts my eyes now :)

Today's pic is another "freelensing" attempt, but this time using one of the most ubiquitous cameras around, my iPhone. I put the same Asahi Pentax 55mm f/1.8 in from of the iPhone camera and took this snap. I cropped the image but otherwise it is basically straight from iPhone. Amazing what a little lens can do :)

The writing on the $10 note makes me think that there is a lot of detail in life that a lot of us (obviously me included) are totally oblivious to.

Life is full of little wonders, innit?

Free lensing

Day 93

No, not freelancing. Freelensing.

This is my first go at this, at 10pm at night. This is mostly rewarding with cooperative models and nice vistas, however beggars cannot be choosers.

Freelensing is somewhat a cult subsect of photography. People spend stupid money on crappy old lenses, and then hold them precariously close to their brand new shiny state of the art DSLR. Being a little luckier, I had an old (?!) DSLR and a cheap M42 mount lens laying around that I could happily risk any dust bunnies and damage to one or the other.

The technique is basically this..

1) Turn on your expensive DSLR with no lens attached (void warranty in process)
2) Hold old crap lens in front of camera, with focus set to infinity
3) Move it back and forth until you are satisfied you like what you see, press shutter button
4) Listen to crunch as expensive DSLR mirror strikes back of crap cheap old lens
5) Throw lens on ground and exclaim expletives
6) Post resulting images (if any) on blog, and brag about the vintage and amazing "miniture" look
7) Go to JB Hi-Fi and buy a Holga/Diana or a Lensbaby
8) Take the same photos wihout any frustration or damage to DSLR
9) Don't tell anyone you took them on a Holga/Diana/Lensbaby
10) Write a blog on how wonderful freelensing is

:)

This was taken on 350D, with an old (1972 model) Asahi Takumar 55mm f/1.8 lens held in front of the 350D. Some levels in Photoshop.

Hot Stuff

Day 93

Thomas Edison, I bet you would have just giggled with glee at the thought of this - an (old fashion!!!!!) tungsten bulb filament being photographed (?)* on electronic media.

Amazing how far we have come since the first reliable bulb in about 1880. Almost as a amazing as the trouble I had finding a REAL OLD FASHIONED tungsten bulb in the house... They have all been "upgraded" to those [ugly, horrible, dim, murky, depressing and green] wonderful environmentally friendly fluorescent energy saving bulbs.

It always amazes me to think that less than 100 years ago, a lot of things we complain about today were a godsend and "revolutionary". And even moreso, that even 30 years ago a lot of the things we use and abuse today on a daily basis were luxury items for the very very well heeled (portable music, mobile phones) or the uber geeky (computers, electronic organisers). And even today, I use my DSLRs with less thought for their welfare (I won't say less respect, because that is not really true than I used to use my old hand-me-down film SLR.

Times they are a changin'.

40W light filament shot with 350D and a 35mm f/2 lens on 31mm extension tube. Slight levels adjustment and cropping in photoshop.




* the (?)... is it really a photograph these days? What would we call it?

Day 92

Day 92

Just a quick photo. I love the limited DOF this lens gives - the EF 135 f/2L. Just awesome.

Straight out of camera.

Ranj&Manan

Day 91

This cute couple have flown all the way from Singapore for me to do a quick sitting with them. Well, that's not the reason they came, but they have flown all the way from Singapore :)

Today is April 1st. Yeah, the day where you cannot take anything seriously until lunch time, by which time it is too late to do anything much about it anyway. I had to work at the clinic this morning, and managed to duck out just nigh on 1pm. Not too bad. I then rushed home to see the fam, and rushed to meet Ranj&Manan. By the time I left home it was clouding over, and feeling stormy. The weather radar showed a good storm just 1hour off. It doesn't look like it, but what should have been pics with nice hot sun as a rim light, were instead taken in dark gloom (like f/2.8 1/125s ISO 800 plus flash). Yes, quite dark. The good bit was the soft diffuse sort of light from the cloud, which I sorta ruined with my flash.

And here is Ranj. I think she is quite enjoying herself. About 30s after this was taken the skies opened so we retreated.

Canon 5DmkII, EF 135 f/2L at f/2.8, ISO 800, 1/125s, 580EXII in 60inch umbrella 1/16 power at 8:00. For both pics. Maybe it was more like 7:00 for the first one.

Day 90

I cheated again. This was taken with my iPhone.

This is Vivek, lost in thought, watching a deep and meaningful episode of Tom and Jerry.

I am actually surprised how many kids of his age have never seen T&J. It's too wussy. There's no guns, lasers, aliens and magic wrist watches. Just bombs and knives and other forms of unrealistic stuff. I think that is what makes it seem less violent - the violent is so unreal it is really unreal. But some of the things kids watch just amaze me...

Anyway, enough of the "in my days" rot.

My boy likes T&J (or cat and mouse as he used to call it) and I love watching him watch it :)

Taken with my iPhone in a dark room, and flogged in photoshop.

All Chained up

Day 89

Just playing today

I stuck about 70mm of extension tubes behind a 35mm lens, just to see how bad it would go.

Pretty bad.

The chain is my neck chain. The rings are about 2-3mm diameter, and the photo is not cropped. There is woeful CA and purple fringing, even at high F-stops.

However being able to focus this close is amazing :)

Dance Like The Fire

Day 88

Day 88 - its a lucky day. The number 8 is a lucky number this decade, so 88 is a good number. This is a Chinese belief, and after a few years in Hong Kong one cannot come back to Oz and not still be effected buy the customs from China. You know, the mannerisms, the handing cards with two hands, and knowing 90% of the time when I pass a car with 88 or 888 in the plates it will be driven by a Chinese family :) I love a lot of the customs from China and Hong Kong, and I still follow a lot of them. A fascinating place. So our home is a mix of Indian, Chinese and the odd splattering of Aussie.

Today I am paying catch-up. I am trying to get some photos edited, as well as keep up to date with my P365/PAD. Today this idea popped into my head.. Methylated spirits and an old piece of black tile.

Fire has always fascinated me. I remember as a kid loving burning our rubbish. This was in the days when no one really cared how toxic plastic fumes were, and when we didn't have a rubbish disposal  service on the farm. We'd save the tins and nonburnable stuff and take it to the tip every 6 months, but paper and plastic was burned. I could spend ages watching the flames dance through the paper. There were other fires too, of course. The fire we used to heat the hot water, even in summer, as well as the bon-fires, barbeques and grass "burn-offs" we used to do. But the garbage fires were the ones I used to do alone, and just watch, and stoke if needed (yes, as red-necky as country bumpkins are, we used to make sure our fires didn't get away). Often the flames licking at the fuel were mesmerizing, often the fumes were sickening!!

I still love watching flames dance.

Today I resurrected my 350D. The autofocus has become too unreliable for moving objects (and paid gigs), but I am tired of carrying around my LowePro Stealth Reporter 650AW bag (phew, what a mouthful!). And I am sick of not being able to leave my gear in the car and just duck into the shops. The bag weighs 13kg most days. So I dusted off the 350D and stuck the EF 35mm f/2 lens on it. I will throw a couple of YN flashes and maybe my 420EX into a bag, and call it an everyday carry bag.

Canon 350D EF35mm f/2 at 1/400s f/3.2, iso 1600.

C'mon Boys, let's get that tree-huggin Greenie

Day 87

You've gotta say the title in a Yosemite Sam voice, "I'll get that Varmint" sort of tone :)

Yeah, I was out of ideas. I have this dark streak inside me that wanted to make a whole lot of gummy bears beating up another one, and there was only one green one left in the bag we had at home - seemed like an accident waiting to happen... but alas, it just seemed too sickeningly close to what you read in the papers that I decided I could not do that, so it's best just to have a bit of a comical suggestion of the violence instead :)

Tree hugger isn't a term I have heard for a while. When I first started being vego I used to hear it now and then - you tree huggin vego's. Now all we get is irate meat-eaters defending themselves preemptively against our perceived attacks on them. Guilty consciences? I wonder.

Most of us NEVER even try to convert anyone from eating meat. Our decision is personal. We do it for religious, moral/ethical, health and other reasons. Our choice. I don't care what you eat. But don't tell me why what I eat is bad for you, especially when you are wrong :)

I've had otherwise intelligent non-vegos go off on a tirade about how "you vegos" are killing the planet with all your clearing of land for growing soy and stuff... Funny how passionate people also seem to lose a lot of their ability to see clearly... I generally just smile (anaemically of course, as we vegos are pale, weak and anaemic creatures) and let it be... While I would really like to say.. do you really know how much soy goes into everyday manufactured foods? How much "soy" vego food do you see in the supermarket? Can you show me a place where there is enough of this to be considered a threat to the environment? (please, I can't find much at all!). Conversely, can you prove to me that this same soy from horrible sources is not used in your holy food, or that your delightful steaks come from beasts that don't harm the Earth?

But alas, we don't bother defending ourselves these days.

We know we walk a higher path.

:)


Shot with Canon 60D and EF 135 f/2L at f/2.8. Amazing narrow DOF on this lens, this close.

Prep'n for Surgery

Day 86

She gave up when she couldn't find a brain in there :)

We had a great day at work today. I was feeling a little scruffy with long sides and a big bald patch, so I decided to cut my hair. Kath was my willing assitant, so we decided to try a silly scene. I guess we could have gone the whole lot with drips and hibitane prep bottles etc, but I think this was good enough.

5DmkII with 24-105mm f/4L at 24mm f/9, with YN 460IIs on the shelves for the rim/surround light, 580EXII on board as trigger. I'm in a much less hairy predicament now :)

Scruffy hound

Day 85

She's taken over my recliner :) and is giving me a cheeky "see if I care" look..

Feeling sluggish

Day 84

Back from Melbourne trip finally!

I do....

Day 83

Well, they did!

Possessed

Day 82

This is Jack.

Jack is actually a very sooky dog - nothing like the rabid-looking lunatic in this photo.

He's my brother's dog. I am staying with my Bro as tomorrow I am going to be second shooter for a wedding he is shooting. He's been good enough to put me up to it. I'm stressing :)

Back to Jack... he is actually trying to catch a bisuit, yo can see just in front of his mouth. It's funny how he moves forward, but his skin has to play "catch-up". Also "funny" how I focused on his nose but as he moved the focus was on his neck. :(

YN460IIs off camera, at 7:00 (direct) and 3:00 (bounced to roof) at 1/8 and 1/2 power respectively. No idea of camera settings, but aperture was wide and ISO was low, shutter would be max sync speed (1/200s).

Wind of Change

Day 81

I love these wind turbines. They're on the freeway between Sydney and Melbourne, just near Yass. There's about 8 of them - I have never counted them. You can see them for miles, especially at night. I reckon they're a great way of making us all think a little about alternative energy sources each time we drive past.

I chose this pic out of about ten I snapped before jumping back in the car to race off in case a truck ran up my butt - one of my irrational fears is sitting on the freeway shoulder :) I like the way the road curves and the hills form lines across the photo. Weird sort of play of geometry :)

I'm currently in Tarcutta.. the halfway point b/w Sydney and Melbourne, that has just recently been By-passed. I'm sure last time I drove down here I still had to pass through the "township". Gotta love "progress".

One bonus I learned today - uploading photos on my laptop via Telstra on my iPhone as a modem is WAY faster than our home internet - go Optusnet... slow as a wet week.

Time to sleep.

Time to Recharge

Day 80

A bit silly I know.

I feel like this some days, and right now the girl looks liek she could fall over any minute. I think it's time for us both to recharge, but I have to clean my car (aka remove all photo related crap and paraphernalia out), and pack the Girls car for my trip to Melbourne tomorrow.

Today I traded my near new Eneloop Charger (plus the difference in price) for a new Powerex Maha C800S. There is (was) nothing wrong with my other charger - fast, great discharge cycle, funky white matched my batteries and looked great :) My workplace was getting new batteries and got a deal on the Maha charger with their Eneloops, so I decided I had to swap - there's no way they'd use the extra features of the Maha - they just needed a solid reliable charger. And they were happy to get the batteries on a good deal, and get some cash back as well.

So here is the new charger, before I have even plugged it in to test it. You can see how sleepy my poor Eneloops are.

The big brother to this charger has been one of the best things for those that use a lot of rechargeable batteries. This one is apparently as good, but takes twice as long to do it's job. Apparently 1 microprocessor for each battery (I'm pretty sure my Eneloop charger did too), so it must be good :)

The only downside is the Maha doesn't have a car charger adapter in the box - the Eneloop one did. Oh well.

Simple lighting for this one - gridded and snooted YN4650II at lowest power 11:00.

Loungeroom tourism

Day 79

Almost as good as armchair expert/scholar/insert-term-here.

Yes, this is (badly) shopped. Took 2 minutes. I was actually trying out my lighting factors for a shot I had in mind, but I thought this was better so I used it instead. This me being a dork, in my loungeroom, photoshopped onto a photo of Darling Harbor I took from Cockle Bay wharf about a month ago. I actually photograph well as a Dork. I should take up the persona as my normal self - it comes so naturally, no effort at all.

This photo actually reminds me of when we were traveling thru Asia whilst working in Hing Kong. Every time we passed anything of interest (or banality even, like a rubbish bin) there would often be someone posing next to it doing the "V". So, whilst in tourist mode,  in all our sarcastic and ironic bravado, we sat on some sculpture and did the "V" for a photo. Standing to one side, was a group of kids, giggling at us and mocking our"V". Where they mocking us for mockingly doing the "V", or did we just not get the "V" right?

I wonder.

Today wasn't a bad day. We have gotten into the habit of trying to get to bed before midnight, and the last 2 nights we managed 10:45 and 11:30pm. I am gobsmacked. For the preceding 2-3 years my average night has been 1:00am, and at least twice a week at 2:30am. Waking time still has to be at about 6:30am.. well, we tend to get up at 7:15 and bolt out the door at 7:40am, and just get to work on time, or leave at 7:50 and have to take the M7 and pay the Toll.

So for some weird (!) reason I am not totally zombie-like at 10pm. Weird stuff huh? However, I actually feel like it is bedtime now. The body is a weird thing. I'm using the word weird a lot in this sentence, which is a weird thing, weirdly enough.




Softboxes 10 and 4 with manual flashes, 580EXII onboard using ETTL at 2 stops under.

Skinky on pinky

Day 78

.

Day 77

Day 77

When Angels and Serpents Dance...

Day 76

I love this pic :)

These are my two nurses of a Saturday. They make bad days a lot of fun, and good days even better. We have a really cool Albino Carpet Python in the clinic right now, as well as the resident snake cecil, a regular Carpet Python. Most clinics have clinic cats, we have a clinic python. He doesn't like sitting in the waiting room entertaining clients, luckily.

Today was a great day as far as Saturdays go. I ventured to the local Westfield for lunch, and spent most of my 30min break either parking, or getting out of the parking station. What is it with people that we can't think of anything else to do of a weekend, and we all go shopping. Isn't there football fields, national parks, beaches and thousands of kilometers of highway to spread ourselves along? Why do we all come to air-conditioned shopping centres with myriads of sales, copious eye candy and amazing assortments of food to eat? And Apple Stores?

Ok, I think I sort of answered my own question.

The Apple Store bit, I mean :)

Anyways, after our last consult I snapped a quick pic of the girls. 580EXII on light stand camera right, with silver reflective brolly. EF 135mm f/2L, Canon 5DmkII with ISO set to Low (ISO 50). Flash triggerd manual using Phottix Strato II.

We managed to attract a (small) crowd of (small) boys on skateboards - I think they expected to see legs and lingerie along with the brolly. Kowabunga dudes... or what do skate kids say these days? It used to be SK8 or Die dudes, but that is soooo 80's.

Motivation: zero, Care Factor: zero.

Day 75

That's the motivation meter on the big hand, and the "Care Factor" on the small hand. The Care Factor has 2 scales - the one you tell people is the lower scale, the real one is the upper scale. It's actually verging on negative, but anyhow :)

Day 75. Such a nice number, this should be an awesome pic. In case I need to really explain the pic, it's a wall clock with hygrometer (out of frame) and thermometer. The big zero is actually 10, and the small scale is (you guessed it) degrees Celsius/centigrade and degrees Fahrenheit. No, it isn't really that cold, although somedays my wife can be like a Harry Potter Dementor. The small hand is photoshopped in. It's actually still about 25 degrees at 11pm, and feeling every degree of it.

Today was an ok day. My boss and most of the regular crew are off holidaying (ahem) doing volunteer work in Bali. I skipped the trip (tickets booked) because of my shoots with Anjana and family, which I found out about a few weeks after I bought the Tix to Bali.

So we had a very skeleton crew at work, and a locum. But we had pretty close to a normal day of surgery and consults, so we had it pretty much stretched between us all to get the day done on time. And I must say, pats on back, we did it :)

Today I was just sitting there thinking... what if I didn't do a pic today?

But as you can see, I could not bear the thought of such a dismal outcome over laziness and weakness... so here we have a pic. So obviously the factors aren't quite zero.

Charlotte...

Day 74

So here she is. I have called her Charlotte as I cannot think of any other name associated with webs - apart from Tim Berners-Lee...

This little beasty is about as big as a bonker marble... 2cm across the body. Not HUGE, but still pretty scary to have pop in your face when walking outside at night with a torch. In the photo I have scared here to the top of her web, and she is madly spinning herself more web to hang onto and get away from this mad chnuk of glass and plastic that keeps flashing bright light in her (many) eyes. I like this pic beacuse yu have see her using one of her little leggies to place the web, whilst using the rest of them to hang on. Such amazing stuff these little critters do at night, and we bulldoze through it all each morning, screaming like little whimps in the process...

This was taken with a 60D, 35mm F/6.3, handheld 580EXII in a ring-flash adapter, using ETTL remote.  Liveview to focus, but it was all done standing on tippy toes and balancing with the camera at arms length, so I am impressed anything is in focus at all.

Oink Oink.

When all else fails, RTFM..

Day 73

So... today was ma day orf. Ya know, the dayz wen ya doan ave ta go twerk but ya tew bizzy doin udder stuff ta reely corl it a day-orf? Ya, wunna dem.

But today, I taught my self to weld.

As you can see.

I went to Bunnings as I do on my day off, and bought a welder. El-Cheapo Ozito brand. Then I came home and did as we all do - googled read up on how good (or crap) our plunders are. And I learnt - not just from the internet, but the hard way, that El-Cheapo welders are El-Cheap for a reason. Only dumbass DIY weirdos buy them. Any one who knows how to weld will buy a real one.

Like everything else.

Cheap is for 90% of the population how have no idea what they are doing :)

Like me.

So here I am, oscillating between burning a hole in my steel tubes or not getting enough current to form an arc, when finally I seem to miraculously hit "welders zenith" and the whole shibang seems to actually work. It was just sublime. Then all of a sudden the machine stops buzzing and I am left looking (mouth agape, dumbly staring) at the welding rod for an answer. Then I finally turn to the machine - the little "overload" light is on. Ohh, ja. Like this machine will work for 2 minutes before it rests for 10 minutes. DIY super sh*t crapola El Cheapo welding machine. Like a public servant :)

Okies, it must be lunch time...

Finally I got some of my welding done (top secret project!) when I am invited for a few beers down the road. It was Sarva, who is always a lot of fun, and the added benefit being the kids could play. So we sit down for a drink, and before I know I have the best part of 3 shots of whisky (mighty fine stuff) in my glass. Which was continuously topped up, totalling about 8 shots I think. Finally we said our good-byes and trotted off home for the kids dinner. I then attempted to weld again, however for some weird reason the bits kept moving and the floor kept spinning. I figuired maybe it was the El Cheapo welder again, so I gave up.

YN460II at 6:00 low, 580EXII on board bounced to roof, using ETTL with -1 stop FEC. Star effect obviously added during photo editing

Day 72

Day 72

This cute little dude is a Pigmy Bearded Dragon. He's a way cool little critter. On this pic he is sitting on my MacBook Pro, as you can see by the Apple icon underneath him (iCon.. is that a new form of online fraud??)

Just a little bit corney

DAY 71

Monday. Don't you just love them? When all your *cough cough* rest and relaxation from the weekend finally pays off, and you get up on time to go happily skipping off to work, clicking your heels in the air.... and then you wake up...

Yeah, we all love Mondays. Today wasn't too bad, as Mondays go.

We had a Corn Snake come to work. Apparently it was either found or dumped or the owner got a bit scared and handed it over, either way, WIRES surrendered a Corn Snake to us. Sadly, we aren't in control of what happens to this little fellow. It is illegal to have them without licence, so I am not sure what will happen. I think one of our wildlife people with the appropriate pieces of paper will take care of him. He's such a cute snake. You don't see many here as they are from the States. They're as common as rats over there. They're very friendly and love to hide in your clothes as you hold them. I love their big bug eyes :)

YN460II in 43inch umbrella high camera left. Isn't he cute?

Day 70

Day 70

Sunday night! It has been a bit of a busy weekend. My last 2 photos were taken on the actual days, but not edited nor posted on the day. I still feel this is within my "rules"I set myself for the Project 365. The pic has to be taken each day, but obviously some days it will not be possible to post them as well. This weekend had two of those days!

Starting on Friday. I had Friday off. I swapped my normal Thursday to have Friday off instead. I had arranged to meet a Bride-to-be for a photo-shoot in Circular Quay, prior to dinner in Darling Harbor to celebrate her parents 25th wedding anniversary. This was the same family for whom I photographed the Sangeet last weekend.

However, plans did not quite work out, so it was just dinner that I ended up covering. The family generously shouted me and Daniel dinner and drinks - both of which were awesome. We ended up just taking casual photos of the get-together, with one or two formal photos after. For this shoot I had a 580EXII on camera, and Daniel carried a bare 420EX as a slave flash, pointing it wherever I  demanded, to act as a fill light and second light source.

Then on Saturday, I attended a puja at their house. I set up a bit of gear for this - some YN460II's on stands x 3, and a 580EXII on one camera, and a 420EX on the other, with Strato or Strato-II triggers on cameras too. Effectively I over-rode the ambient, only relying on the flashes for lighting, which I think turned out quite well.

Today, Sunday, was a day off! Vivek and I went to see Daniel and Di and kids. The purpose was to entertain Vivek, meet-up with Daniel and see his house he has been renovating for yonks, and also to borrow a basket for my car roof-racks to use in my up-coming trip to Melbourne.

We decided to try some daylight photos, something I have been itching to try for a long time. So we went out in the 3:00pm sun, and tried some set-ups with my flashes. The resulting photo was a crop from a photo taken with a EF 135mm f/2 L lens on a Canon 5DmkII, at 1/160s f/2.2 with 2 YN460IIs in an umbrella softbox camera left. I had a ND8 filter on the lens to allow me to have f/2.2. I am sort of pleased with the results, but as the cloud kept on coming over the light was not consistent, so it was a bit of fun. I definitely learned a lot about this sort of thing today, "do's and don't's" etc. And I got a sunburnt bald patch!

Day 69

Day 69

This is from a Puja I shot for Anjana and family. Check out my Day 70 post for details.

Day 68

Day 68

This is a candid shot of Anjana at a dinner I attended on Friday, at Zaafron in Darling Harbor.

 Check out my Day 70 post for more info.

Luna-tic

Day 67

Uhuh. The moon. Amazing ja?

Well it is. And this was also a little lesson to myself. I was just pondering how to take a photo of the moon.. do I put the camera in Aperture priority and shoot, or P-Mode, or what? I hardly ever use anything but Manual mode these days..

Of course, P-mode and A-mode won't work. Well, at least with my lenses they won't - the moon is so small one the viewfinder that the metering will shoot for the black, not the whites of the moon. So the moon will be pure white and overblown.

Sunny-16 I thought. Sunny-16?? Uhuh. Well, the light from the moon is reflected form the sun, goes through our atmosphere, and hits us, therefore the light reflected from the moon alone should be theoretically the same intensity as it is here on a bright sunny day.

So I set my camera to f/16, iso 100, 1/100s. Then cos I was using a 200mm lens I changed the shutter to 1/400s, and opened the aperture to f/8 to make up (2 stops faster, 2 stops wider). Then because I knew Sunny 16 would make the moon a little grey, not white, I set the ISO to 200, for a stop more light. Viola. Cropped a bit to make the little spec of a moon a bit more interesting, some levels in PhotoShop.

Funny how a silly little rule they made up for film decades ago when cameras did not have meters, can still work for digital photos of the moon :)

The Fallen Shall Rise Again

Day 66

It was going to be a much grimmer title, such was the mood I originally felt when I glanced upon these flowers... but my mood lifted on further thought and retrospection.. well, a little, anyhow..

I was mindlessly looking at the wall, tinking of what to do for my photo today, mentally scribbling and throwing away pieces of paper... when I chanced upon the vase... I then noticed the flowers Vids bought a week or more ago, indeed they are already in a previous blog post. They had already wilted by the time I photographed them then, well beyond they're "beauty".. however, not beyond their Beauty? ... anyway, today I noticed the seeds and petals that had fallen from the flower, and in a very molancholy way it made me think of life, the cycle of life plants and insects (.. and humans?) portray... as pretty as these flowers were, they were no challenge for time, and the inevitable, however as a final last word, they send these seeds off, to begin the circle of life again, germinating, growing, flowering, wilting, going to seed...

It's a happy sad thing to see... Vids and I both have this relationship with flowers.. the beauty they bring into the hom when they are in full bloom, but then the reality that hits us as they fade... for myself I think the reality brings to the fore a topic I generally avoid thinking about, Life...  and how precious and fragile, and easily lost it is...

Revenge of the Garden Gnomes

Day 65

Yeah, I know. Pretty creepy. I need a hair-cut, but I could not find the time this weekend, and one part of me is enjoying looking scruffy. Although now it is verging on sleazy too..  so I brushed my hair forward too play the goof and thought it looked pretty darn gross, almost like a garden gnome.. or a moron... so here I am, pick your description.. Garden Gnome or moron. I don't mind. :)

Love the way the hair grows stupid on the sides, but not at all on the top. Might shave the top and try a Mr Burns shot one day :)

Softboxes 10 and 2, Silver reflective umbrella 6:00 high, flash on wall with blue gel at 12:00 behind me. Shot with 5D mkII - gotta love the wide angle of view this camera gives with my 24-105mm lens.

Day 64

Day 63

Under the Southern Cross I stand

Day 62

Under the Southern Cross I Stand

A sprig of wattle in my hand,

A native of my native land,

Australia you little beauty

I'm not an avid cricket fan (runs madly for cover). Yeah, it's a bit of a thorn in the side when I am married into an Indian family.. actually it is probably just as well I am so impartial :)

This photo today was taken using 5 speedlights (4 x YN460II and a Canon 580EXII on top) on 5 stands with radio triggers, then adjusted in Photoshop to add the star effects. I think you can see the placement of speedlights in the photo :)

I wanted to test out my new Phottix Strato II radio trigger. I just bought a trigger and receiver today to match my old model Phottix Stratos. The new ones were supposed to be back compatible, and I was just testing that they indeed were. And indeedy they are! Just like the box says. Gotta love that.

I'm a big fan of Phottix. I'm a little sad they copied PocketWizard in the past, however their new range of gadgets are just amazing, and they quality is very professional IMHO, especially when compared to other Chinese manufacturers (no, I am not being prejudiced, I am being objective). So far my original Stratos have gone close to 18 months without issues. I almost just got another Strato transmitter, but was smitten by the extra functions and back compatibility of the Strato II. Anyway, I have a few bits of Phottix gear, and for a price to performance standpoint, they are exceptional value. 

However my Yongnuo YN460II speedlights have been my most used piece of gear ever, I think... well I guess that makes the Stratos up there too, as they are ususally underneath the YN460IIs. I did, for a brief period, use YN triggers too, but the ETTL pass through of the Phottix Stratos and the sold reliable feel to them have won me over, and the YN 602s are now on loan to various mates.

Which reminds me of the reason I got another trigger in the first place... I needed (wanted?) 2 cameras with a flash on board for a few gigs. and I often incorporate manual off-camera flash with an ETTL controlled on-board speedlight. Radio triggers are the only 99.99999% reliable way of doing this. So the Strato was a godsend, however, having only one meant that I had to change the trigger as I changed cameras. This was bulky. So I got another trigger.

The beauty of the Stratos is that the manual flash does not interfere with the ETTL metering of the Canon system, thus even if it shows in the image, it just forms a star (not quite as pretty as the ones above) in the image, and does not totally throw the metering off. Awesome for events where the room is too dark ambiently, but close up flash does not bring up the rest of the room, or if the room is so dark the shutter speed is very low and you are shooting people moving. Both these situations I am going to come across quite a bit in the next two weeks, so I am glad to have these little toys to play with.

Enough gadget talk. Time to charge my batteries (and the ones in my gear too).

Bubbles

Day 61

:) more to come