5 posts tagged “photography”

Yup, I think I've got photographer's block. My Flickr account isn't updated as often as it should be. I know that I've been busy (note my last entry about writing 30,000 words in under a month for assignments), but I also think it's sucked my creativity.

So, Utata has a big project coming up and I really want to participate. They've got 6 categories:

• Stock photography
• Portraiture
• Landscapes
• Portfolio
• Projects
• Photojournalism

She had it coming...

After doing this photo (left) I thought that it might be interesting to put together some sort of noir type story, because that would stretch my photography skills, my photoshop skills, and my writing skills. But then, my photoshop skills are kinda subpar, and hell, that sort of writing is definitely not my forte.

Docked

The fact that it's winter in Wellington makes it difficult because there are no events going on where I could take a group of photos centred around a theme. And while I love taking fun pictures with my devil duckies, they're not going to be my project.

So, that's where I am. I'm stuck with a photographic block, and the desire to come up with something good. Talk about frustrating. I'm hoping that after a bit of relaxation once I turn in my last assignment my mind will decide that it likes to be creative again. Until then, I'm stuck.

Line of Yaks

This weekend I went to Wings Over Wairarapa in Masterton, New Zealand. I mainly went for a photographic challenge to myself. I'd never been to an air show before, and by that same logic, I'd never tried to photograph an air show before.

Taking pictures on the ground is easy because nothing is moving. It can be hard to try to come up with shots that aren't too cliche, but when you've only got so much time to wander around the ground displays before you need to get back to your spot to watch the flying, it's not too much of a concern.

Edgabatics

Taking pictures at of the flying planes at an air show is a challenge. Everything is moving so fast, and you have a lot of other challenges to deal with as well. I was using a Nikkor 70-300 f/4-5.6G lens on a D50. Even though the propeller driven planes go slower than jets, you have to shoot with a lower shutter speed so that you don't freeze the propeller in your shot because it just looks strange. So this means making sure you have a slow enough shutter to capture it, but set the aperture high enough that your shot isn't totally blown out and white.

Yakobatic Loop

For the propeller plane shots, my shutter speed was somewhere in the 1/200 sec range. I shot on full manual so that I could slightly underexpose my shots. This turned out to be a pretty good method. Even with the settings on my camera correct, the next difficulty came in framing my shots. As I said before, even slow planes move fast. Getting the right timing is difficult and I applaud people who don't need to take 5 shots to get one at air shows. I still did some post-processing work in iPhoto afterwards just to lighten things up, increase some sharpness, and do other minor corrections, but I feel like I learned a lot.

Polikarpov I-153

The day was overall really enjoyable, the weather was nice and warm, there was a gorgeous breeze, and the atmosphere was just good. The only downside of the day was getting back to Wellington. We were informed around 12 that the Rimutaka Hill Road was closed due to a terrible accident and was unlikely to reopen until at least 8pm, so people returning to Wellington were told that it was recommended to go to back via Palmerston North (a small 100km detour). Even that wouldn't have been so bad if there hadn't been another accident on that highway, which led to even more delays. Combined with the extra traffic from the air show, what should've been an hour and a half without the detour, what should've been 2.5 hours with the detour, was a 5 hour ride back to Wellington. I was never so happy to get back.

Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries

A while ago, I found instructions at Photodoto on how to make a lightbox for taking photos in. I'd seen instructions on a couple of websites, and thought that I would give it a try. I wound up using a large piece of 5mm thick foam board, and some white poster board for the background. The foam board made it more sturdy, and I figure that I can always change the poster board on the back if I want a different colour background.

The box was simple to make. It has 5 sides to it, and the top has a flap that I can fold up or not (partially because the foam board was too short, but I'm saying it's so that I can decide if I want to the box to have a top or not). I'm debating putting flaps on to the sides of the box where I can fold them up and have the light filtered through a piece of paper. I think that it might work, and the box is definitely stable enough. Thankfully this was just my first incarnation of this project and it cost me less than $15 to put together, so not bad at all.

I would try to explain what I did to make it, but I think it's better to point you to places that have instructions (with pictures) that are easier to follow.

Yesterday I went to Castlepoint because it was suggested as one of the New Zealand AA's 101 Must-Do's for Kiwis list.

749 Corners

Castlepoint Lighthouse

This billboard leaving Wellington should have been a sign that the drive was going to belong, and filled with very windy roads. But we decided to press on and keep going, because it was supposed to be a quintessential New Zealand seaside town. Perhaps it was, but there wasn't much to see unless it was hiding. We pressed on, and made it there in about 2.5 hours. And there was beach, and a lighthouse, and a general store. I'm not sure what else there was. But that aside, it was pretty. The lighthouse and the ocean and the blue skies were very pretty. But it was definitely a lot of driving just to see a lighthouse.

At the very least though, it provided some really nice photo opportunities, and a really nice panoramic shot of the area.

Castlepoint Panorama