esperance

Right so as i mentioned below i went to Esperance for the weekend. I went for a bit of reflection on life time and also to do the race photography as a practise run. But also managed to fit in some happy snapping while i was down there. So this was my bedroom, i slept in the car. This was south of Yallingup.


I havent really done much in the way of scenery shots as i tend to prefer the little things, so i had a play the following morning with some beach scenes. This was with my tele zoom as the surfers were quite a way off.


Then as the sun went down i had a bit more fo a play with lighting and reflections and tried to capture tranquil. I like the colours in this, and was glad they came out in the photo as they were in the real.


Then i tried to have a bit of a play with angles and creating interest


I bought a fisheye lens the other week, which is used for getting wider field of view with some distortion. From what i understand it works best with a centre focussed feature and then a beautiful elongated backdrom like a shoreline in the background. I havent quite worked out how to get the most out of it yet, but while down there i wanted to just see how it looked. Im really looking forward to playing with this lens more when i go to Exmouth next week, look out sis, im going to drive you nuts while you are happily reading youre book on the beach!!

So then my attention then gets drawn to the little things in life, and im rolling in the sand observing assorted things from their level. Heres a cute shell, i liked its calming colours.

This shot is weird, i almost deleted it cos the focus was up the shit. But then i looked again and i quite like the moonscape style of it, so it came back. I also quite like the bird prints.

Prints in sand amuse me, but more than that i wonder about the animal or person. When i saw these prints i wondered if the person was a runner. Its a really good footprint in my opinion. Nice high arch but to hoo high, nice toe off. I wonder if she runs. I think its a girl. Actually i remember reading once that you can tell by the width of prints whether the person is male or female (due to hip width), but i am just basing it on no evidence.

Lillies are a noxious weed down south, apparently they clog the waterways and suffocate native species. As much as that is true, i think they are beautiful.

And from the underside, the lilly has a really cool geometry thing going on.

pro practise take 3 - a race

So yesterday i went down to Esperance to practise snapping runners. I also took loads of other pics which i'll post once i have them downloaded, but heres some of my race pics.

pro practise take 2 - B&B

Ok, so after the vegie shop experience i asked a local B&B, whom i make the bathroom products for, if i could come and have a practise on her rooms. She also does catering and so i did some with a cooking theme too.

The aim was to pretend i was shooting for a website and so i wanted the shots to be enticing, but not just a stand in the corner and click kind of shot.

I found the lighting a huge problem and have since bought an external flash, so i took loads of useless pics, but heres some that worked.

I asked if i could come back and shoot some of her and her cooks whilst cooking and she jumped at the chance, so looking forward to that, although slightly shitting bricks at the prospect of moving subjects.

faces - i gotta get up your nose and in your face

ok, so i am having problems with people. i have been trying to snap some people of late and its not coming naturally.

i get quite nervous with people, i think i am worried about being watched and worried i will offend them by drawing attention to their interesting features. I think there is also the reaction time issue, where you need to just keep pushing the trigger, not waiting for the perfect composition.

Today while i was having a practise with a B&B i was playing with some of her statues and dolls heads and i was having a ball. I totally lost myself in the moment and i think the shots came out kinda cool. This was just a doll, but from some angles she looked pure evil, see....

Then another i found on a shelf, i tried to make her smug.

And then, oh my god, i spy these amazing faces in her garden and i am in heaven! im climbing on top, underneath, head between my knees....i need photography yoga pants.

Ok, so here lies the problem. When i snap real people my shots become boring and awkward. I think these shots are saved cos the girls are beautiful.

But this opportunity i am really quite angry at. Heres an amazingly interesting looking dude, but my shot is just dull. I guess with someone you dont know (ie he was a homeless man in a park) its hard to get up his nose, but i didnt really capture any emotion at all. eye level is dull, and no expression is dull.

pro practise take 1 - the vegie shop

Ok so just as a practise i asked the local vegie shop if i could come and snap some pics in their shop. I explained i had a new camera and was just after experience doing photography for businesses, as some day i have dreams of doing photography professionally.

i guess the first thing that i realised was that its really weird being watched. I have only really snapped in my own time with no one around, and its quite awkward to be stared at while you are trying to concentrate on lighting and angles (and umm lying upside down under a scale just to see what it looks like). I got a bit freaked to be honest, and just wanted to get out. I think that should just improve with more practise.....i hope.

The second lesson was that you cant just play with lights on, lights off, lamp here, torch there. I need to look at a flash for indoor stuff as the shutter speed was too low for a lot of the shots and so they were blurred (as i was hand holding the camera). Also the lighting in the fruit room was just plain awful, it cast an orange glow over everything. Im sure photoshop could fix it, but, well, i dont have photoshop yet.

So i think its fair to say, first practise run as a pro, was bordering on a disaster!! Nonetheless, since this is all a learning experience, i shall post the best of them, heres 5 that i am ok with. Im not put off, i have another practise tonight as a pretend sports phorographer, and then later in the week snapping a B&B.

freo safari

So i had to go down to Freo for a race this weekend and decided to make a bit of a journey of it and so booked a place to stay and took my camera. And then i took a pic of me, meet kath the photographer!

I figured since Freo was renown for its history Id try to take some building shots. Came across this old Boys School and liked the sign and so came up with this.

Then the wording on a wall outside the Freo Arts Museum grabbed my attention. Id been reading in my Photo Index book about using wording to create interest and so have it a whirl.

I dont really like this pic, but i still like the number on the side of the wall for some reason. I think the pic annoys me because of the green window frames, they seem wrong. Anyways its making it onto the blog cos the number is cool, and its my blog and i can have any reason i like.

From this point i wandered down to the Left Bank on the foreshore and thought i might wack on my zoom and try for some shots of people doing stuff. I wandered past the pub first, just snapping away, then set myself up down one end, trying to compose this bum shot. What i really wanted was more bums so i was just kinda loitering around with my zoom firmly focussed on some arse and then a bouncer came and asked me to stop. I mean really? is that offensive that i shoot some bums? maybe it is, i was trying to decide if i would be offended if someone shot my bum and i didnt think i would, well unless it was a sleezy looking dude, but im a girl, and i dont think i look particularly weird. But nonethless, this is all i have cos people are moody bloody things.

So i went back to snapping nature, its so much easier to deal with. A few random bird shots followed, all using the zoom. Im suprised at how easy it is to hand hold the zoom, i thought they would be blury without a tripod.

And as the sun started to set, the colours on the water became really beautiful, this isnt touched up, this is just how it was, it was really tranquil.

This is a different shot, but a similar feel, the water was gorgeous.

Then came across a few assorted jetty's and so tried some shots looking along their length with various focal points.

And then a close focus on the jetty bollard.

As the sun was going down some of the footprints going across the sand really started to stand out so i wondered how a footprint shot would go. Guess these are better done soon after high tide when there is little interference cos it was hard work finding a piece of sand with only 1 set of prints. I quite like this though, id like to shoot a shot of someone walking along the beach on their own with their prints in the foreground. I might have to do that with my sister in Exmouth in a few weeks.

A very cute little sand castle, beautifully decorated in some local flowers and stones!

And then i got very excited!! i discovered what the river debris looked like thru my zoom and i was in heaven. I am so going to love that macro lens when i can afford it. But in the meantime i have reduced 50 bazillion jellyfish shots into my favourite 2.

And this.

Oh no, hang on, i lied, one more, i promise this is it.

And lastly to finish off, before i went back inside to feed my grumbling guts, i shot this one which i really like. Its nothing much just a lump of wood under a jetty, but i like the texture variation and the colours.