Archive for February, 2009
Photography of Manly Beach and Sydney Harbour
Posted by: | CommentsSo as many of you know I have not been around here for a week and a bit. However the reason for this is that I have been out snapping shots like there is no tomorrow. Just as a quick note, for each of the photos below you can click on the photo to enlarge it.
I have two major achievements that I would like to show you from the last week and a half. The first is this shot of a Rainbow Lorrikete.
There are a heap of these little critters that hang around on a tree not far from my balcony and so last weekend I decided to get out and snap some shots. This was the best one of the lot (I personally feel anyhoo) and the colours and vibrancy of the shot really made me proud of it. If you are interested the full gallery of the Rainbow Lorikeets can be seen here.
The rest of these shots are from an outing that I took on Friday to Manly Beach (Sydney, NSW, Australia). There are several different galleries that I have set up from the one shoot so I thought that I would pick the best photo from each to show you.
The first gallery is the Sneaky Lizard gallery. Nearing the end of my expedition I stopped for a rest on a bench overlooking Manly beach and after a few minutes heard a rustle behind me. I turned around to see this little critter hiding there.
He (it) actually seemed really tame and I was able to get quite close up, however at the time I was still using my 70-300IS lens as I did not want to miss the shots while changing lenses. I was able to get some really great shots so would recommend a visit to this gallery.
The next gallery up is the Oz Jetboating Gallery, now I actually did not go on this, but while I was out on the ferry on Sydney Harbour they circled around us a couple of times so I was able to get some great shots.
I really liked this photo because of the brilliant spray of water that came out from one side of the boat, it almost looked like the spray from a waterfall and I felt it just captured the moment in time really well.
The last gallery that I will pull a photo from is the Seagull Gallery, now while I know that the good old seagull is not the most elegant of all the bird family, they are a great start for a budding photographer.
I really liked this shot because of the contrast between the dark green trees and the blue sky and then again between the dark green tree and the white of the seagull. Unfortunately when this image is blown up to full size the seagull is a tad out of focus but on these smaller images it is not noticeable.
Finally there are two more galleries that you might be interested in checking out, Manly Beach Shots contains some great stills of water breaking over the rocks and the beach as a whole while Sydney Harbour Shots contains a lot of great images of the harbour when I was going to and from Manly on the ferry.
As always I welcome any feedback, either comments here or comments in the galleries themselves as the only way I can learn more is to have my work critisised and learn from my mistakes.
Look forward to anyone’s thoughts.
Stuart 
Canon EOS 50D has arrived.
Posted by: | CommentsI have spectacular news. My swanky new Canon EOS 50D has finally arrived, I am only missing my final macro lens as Canon did not have it in stock.
However so far I have managed to get my hands on the following:
Camera: Canon EOS 50D
Lenses:
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Prime Lens
- Canon EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM
- Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Accessories:
- Canon Speedlite 580EX II
- Hoya Super HMCPRO1 UV Filter x2
- Sandisk 2x 8GB Extreme IV 45 MB/s Compact Flash
I decided to throw all this info up on the “My Photography Hardware” page so that if anyone is curious in future I will keep that list regularly updated with what hardware I am using (and have used in the past).
I also had my first photography class last week which was a real eye opener and has answered a lot of my questions that I have been wondering and there is still another 6 weeks to go. The tutor is bubbly and managed to keep all the content interesting and lively, even while going through the history of cameras and photography.
Our homework this week was to chose one or two of our favourite photos that we had taken at some point in our lives and bring them along to class next week. I am getting a couple of photos printed up at the moment so I will see how they come out. [EDIT] If you would like to see my homework that I have completed for this week with a short description I have put it up in my online gallery.
For now tho, I thought I would share photos of the new hardware with you.
Stuart
A huge week ahead!
Posted by: | CommentsThis week is going to be a big one, thanks to Canon Australia’s efforts I was able to spend last weekend trying out a Canon EOS 50D while I await the arrival of mine. The reason being is that I have enrolled in a photography course with Sydney Community College that starts this week and I needed to get myself familiar with the camera that I would be using.
I have to say that I am really getting into photography and I hope that I will gain some (much needed) skills from the course which runs over seven weeks (a few hours a week). I have tried to read a photography book but found the language to be just as confuzzling as it was before I began reading so perhaps I can revisit that throughout the course.
Keep your eyes peeled, I hope to have my first thoughts of the course up on Thursday but it is my birthday on Wednesday so I am pretty busy over the next few days (but will try my best).
Stuart
