Focussing Thoughts

Just for Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:25:00 +0000

Went along to the Mud Racing at Hidden Valley tonight. Was great fun. Took my D200 and 70-200vr. Shot at iso 800 with my SB-900 Speedlight on top and I gotta say, that thing packs some distance punch. Got some pretty good shots, albeit a little noisy but that's more the fault of iso800 on a D200.

Got some great driving action as seen below and then managed to be ready to leap when a streaker launced himself dangerously onto the circuit. Because of the mud all over him it took a little while for the officials to even notice him and stop the race

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Well, thats about it. Hopefully getting the Nikon D700 shortly so no more noisy iso800. Can't wait!! Oh yeah, here is the streaker!! I blurred his bits out to make it safe for everyone!!

Young Professionals Cocktail Party 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:40:00 +0000

Well, It's been a little leave of absence from blogging for a while. Reason has been the Wedding season was massive and I have been working so hard getting those delivered blogging has been about priority 265.

Last weekend we were a supporting sponsor at the Young Professionals Coacktail Party 2008. It's our 3rd year in a row at this event and we had fantastic time. The YPCP08 is a celebration of opportunity for young people in Darwin and the rest of the Northern Territory. Mostly though its a huge piss up where many of the young professionals of Darwin get together and let their hair down.

We shot our photos a couple of ways through the night. Roaming crowd shots with on camera SB-900 action, using bounce whenever possible and we also took the trusty backdrop. We had 2 SB-800s with shoot through umbrellas at the backdrop. When someone wanted a backdrop shot we would just set our SB-900's from 'On' to 'Master' and they would trigger the SB-800's perfectly each time. Gotta love the Nikon CLS. When your working a crowd and 2 photographers both need to quickly go from Backdrop to Roaming mode frequently through the night this setup couldn't be simpler. Couldn't have done without the switch so handy on the SB-900. Good job Nikon!!

We had an amazing night, met some awesome people and then kicked onto the after party and a Monsoons in Mitchell St.

To see all the shots from the night head here.

Maybe we'll see you there in 2009!!

SB-900 Nutz

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:16:00 +0000

Just got my SB-900 today in the post. Already fired a few shots with it and compared to the SB-800 I am impressed. Quiet and effortless were my first two thoughts. Daniel and I ordered one each, mostly to use as a master for slaving our SB-800's but I have high hopes for a lot more than that now.

Once I have had a chance to play some more and use it both as a master and off camera I will post some more on the Nikon SB-900 as well as some shots.

Great Location

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:09:00 +0000

Congratulations to Josh and Sandra who were married yesterday (16 Aug 08) at the Darwin Ski Club. As far as a Wedding Venue goes it has certainly picked up this year. Josh and Sandra have been together for a while and already have one little girl with a new baby on the way.

The ceremony was lovely and a few teary moments when Sophie Lee got a little stage fright in front of 120 people. After the ceremony we took a few shots at the Botanical Gardens which had been closed down to traffic due to the Darwin Festival but we pushed our way past security and got in anyway.

This photo was taken with an off camera (camera right) SB-800 shot through an umbrella. Because of the wind we had Ashleigh hold the stand. The only problems with these umbrellas is they tend to catch the slightest breeze. The shot was triggered using the Nikon CLS and worked a treat until all of the sudden the master stopped triggering the slave. We swapped out the master for another SB-800 and kept shooting. (Gotta have a backup) Will have to perform some diags on that SB-800. We've also decided to buy a few SB-900's as Master units. SB-800 is just too clumbsy when it comes to adjusting remote settings. Anyway here is the shot. We tried some other stuff I may post later down the track.

The advantage of shooting the sunset shots so close to the reception is we were able to get back for the cake cutting and still take advantage of the after glow, which nearly always is prettier than the sunset itself.

iPhone 3G

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:56:00 +0000

I can't believe Strobist beat me to this because I had been thinking about this blog all week. You can find his here but it only covered some of the photographic uses briefly. I also won't post a picture of it just yet so if you haven't seen it you can check here.

Well, I have had these type of phones before. They supposedly do everything but usually very poorly. Touch screens are flaky at best and require realignment, plus that stylus thing. Not the iPhone, it just seems to work and it has changed some long time 'set in stone' perceptions for me.

Perception 1 - I just couldn't bring myself to use apple products. I have seen them before, and I have used them before but in setting up my iPhone to sync with iTunes (wireless encryption & iTunes remote) it just worked. No dodgy failures or unexplained lock ups. It was the easiest device I have ever connected to my PC. YES PC. It has got me think, what else does apple do so well. And I know I am not the first person I know to start to think this way after using the iPhone for a while.

Perception 2 - Email syncing to your phone is not for real. It sometimes works and your constantly out of sync. Well, not so far. I have my iPhone setup to sync with our PureArte Exchange Server and it syncs within seconds of a change being made through my outlook client. The same whether its email, contacts or calendar. Admittedly some of the functionality isn't in the iPhone, but if I invite an attendee to a meeting on outlook my iPhone certainly understands and any updates I do on the iPhone are sent out. Assign a photo to your contact on iPhone and see it appear synced in Outlook in no time flat.

Perception 3 - Touchscreens are crap. Unreliable and definately a technology in need of dev. Any crap on the screen makes it unusable. Again, not the iPhone. The touch screen combined with the video transitions makes the phone almost relaxing to use. I often pick it up and flick just to enjoy the interface. No complaints from me!!

I bought the phone for 3 reasons (4 if you include making phone calls but I expect any phone should have that sorted) and they are the portable portfolio, the iPod (podcasts and music) and the email syncing. Any photographer running a business doesn't like to be tied to their computer. Now I can reply to important emails if required, get my reminders, stay organised and SHOOT!

This phone does all these things very well, and a whole range of other useful but not essential functions which make shooting easier. Weather, Sunset Info (Thanks to photocalc $3.99 in Aus) Maps for finding clients and for Notes for scratching any thought or idea I have at the time.

Wrap up!! I bought this phone because I am a gadget guy. I buy things to fulfill a need in me to own flash and shiny (and expensive which this is not ) gadgets. I had no idea how easily it would integrate into what I do and then change it for the better. This is a tool. When I find a tool like this, like my pocketwizards, like my Nikon gear, that just works and enables me to apply myself even better that gets me excited.

My final tip!! I love this one. If your like me you give out business cards all of the time. Hopefully people hang on to them, but I know many people put them through the wash, lose them or file them somewhere safe never to see the light of day again. What I like to do is this. Once you've chatted, grab their email address and email them a business card, online, on the spot. You now have their contact details to follow up, and next time they sit down in front of the computer they will see your personalised business card reminding them of your conversation, and what you can do for them. You've just had a chance to make 2 impressions instead of one. Still carry a card or two just incase. Good luck.

Date with History

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:38:00 +0000

Congratulations to Michael and Mel who got married at East Point (technically Dudley Point) on the 08/08/2008. A lot of Weddings in town on that date. Very busy for a Friday. We didn't have a lot of locations mostly because the ceremony started an hour before sunset and of course the Bride was traditionally late. We did have heaps of group shots so nothing really out there amongst these photos so since I have never posted a Marriage Certificate signing before here it is.

This was the tallest Groom I have ever photographed. We did our best to hide it in all the photos. He is around 6ft 6in which is only a guestimate because we didn't ask him how tall he is. Figured he probably gets it all the time. It was a lovely ceremony and reception and the first Wedding I can remember in ages where my feet weren't shot at the end. Ashleigh assisted marvelously again and Daniel starred on with a whole heap of his specialty sunset shots.

Christian's First Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:46:00 +0000

Well, this is a first for me. I have NEVER photographed a child's first birthday party before, except maybe my own little girls. I have plenty of experience in general with kids. Kids are the Achilles heel for some photographers but I don't mind photographing cute kids.

This birthday was held at the Timorese/Chinese Association and wasn't the regular party I am used to. There were around 350 guests, and it was held late at night. I didn't arrive until 8pm. Wow. My little girl was going to bed and I was off to hopefully find some chirpy kids younger than her.

It was quite an entertaining night, with a bar, plenty of food and a live band all for little Christian and his family. His slightly older brother Jordan was there too. Their parents Jose and Valentina were so proud. It was great.

Here is a picture of Christian with his Dad, using an SB-800 and shoot through an umbrella on a portable stand. Only one light was used for all these photos so it's easy to get a feel where the light was. It was triggered using another SB-800 on camera as the master. Fairly safe an reliable technique inside and at night. I had only one flash failure all night. Pretty happy.

The little guy was just waking up when I took this. Poor fella. The second shot is of Christian's older brother Jordan, who like his brother is wearing his little sailor suit. Very cute.

This last photos is just of some random kid cruising around at the party. He is a cute little fella and had this facial expression like that caught me. He had balloons, food, music but still he looks just so sad. It's gorgeous.

Took a HUGE number of photos over the 2 hours I was there, but these were my favourite 3 and I probably could have stretched the list to a few more but since you weren't there you probably aren't interested anyway.

Foggy Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:33:00 +0000

Well, in the tropics occasionally we do get some fog, but not like this. It was a thick blanket of fog across the city and rural area. I was rushing to get going Wednesday Morning but couldn't skip an opportunity to at least take a couple quick shots from home. Taken around 7:45am on the 30th July and the outside temperature is above 20 degrees Celsius. The picture below was taken from our upstairs deck.

This second shot from the driveway just to demonstrate the fog density. I know this is common in colder climates but very rare in Darwin so I thought I would share it with you.

Remember to click on the pictures to see larger version. Cheers.

Noel & Lindy

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:30:00 +0000

Well, I have been a bit slow on this one. Congratulations to Noel and Lindy who confirmed their love for each other at the weekend. They already have two kids so they decided to make it all official.

It was a lovely Wedding at the Speaker's Green at Darwin's Parliament House. A great venue, except for the light punching through at about f800 at 1/125th.

Here is a pic of the happy couple taken at the Administrator's Office on the Esplanade. We enjoyed the day and thanks Ashleigh, our new assistant who did a top job of helping out. She received a lovely compliment from the bride as we were leaving and we do like to leave a happy Bride and sometimes even a happy Groom.

Extending the Wedding Shoot

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:15:00 +0000

Congratulations to Jesse and Jenny who were married on Saturday the 12th of July. It was a nervous occasion but it didn't show in the photographs. We even changed things up and trusted our strobes to continue shooting after the sun had gone down. Never done location photography in complete darkness with small strobes before but I think it worked out fantastically. We used 4 in total using the Nikon CLS. Have a look for yourself.

I should probably mention too that this shot was taken with a Nikon D3 and the Nikon 24-70mm f2.8. This gear doesn't take bad photos. Just the people using it. But with Daniel working it and with the SB-800 focus assist these shots are sweet. Good job Daniel.

Ryan & Sasha

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Congratulations to Ryan & Sasha who were married on Saturday the 5th July 08. The Ceremony took place at Skycity Casino Lawns and the reception was held upstairs.

This photo was taken just as the sun had set. The light at the ceremony was very hard as sun came in between 2 big trees causing dark shadows and bright highlights. Still the photo have turned out quite well.

The final photo is the cake cutting, taken with one large shoot through umbrella lighting the cake and them and then falling off to darken the background somewhat.

The Bushy Life

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:30:00 +0000

Today we had a family day today out to see a Bee Keeper and then out to a rock melon farm. It was very interesting to see how it all happens and the huge scale of the property.

Tas was our tour guide pictured below. He keeps his bees out on many of these properties so they can pollinate the fruit. The white boxes you can see in the photo above are the bee hives and the green shed way down the back is where the sorting and packaging is done. Click the images to enlarge.

This pile of Rock Melons doesn't look very appetising, but that's OK because this is the waste area where poor quality rock melons come to die. For the most part they still taste great, they just look ordinary and the everyday consumer doesn't want to eat something that doesn't look right. Didn't stop us though. We knocked a few off. They had only been on the ground 15 minutes when we got there though.

Here is a picture of my daughter Mikayla doing her share of the work and picking some Rock Melons to take home.

It really was a great day out doing something a little out of the ordinary for us. Especially since we had the behind the scenes tour and got to taste some great Rock Melon.

Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:52:00 +0000

I have been playing in Photoshop, taking it easy and as always trying to learn some new things. I got this photo idea from a book by Scott Kelby called "the adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers" which I have been going through and have found some great tips from a real expert.

This is one photo I have had a play with and found a different way to display it. It was a macro of a rose I took some time ago. I liked it as it was but though it might get this job done too.

I had to crop the original removing most of the greenery and just leave the rose. Some green can still be seen in the top right. I really like this effect but it may not be the perfect image to use because the rose isn't quite perfect, the DOF needs improvement and maybe some harder light would have made it a little more contrasty. Nevertheless, its something I learned from. That's the most important thing.

Hard Light

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:32:00 +0000

Well, I have been getting ready for another Wedding this weekend, but thought I would take couple of pics for myself when my wife mentioned she was washing the dog. It's never easy to get a nice shot when both parties are involved more in the washing than the photography.

I decided to focus I what I could control and that was the light. I setup on Nikon SB-800 on a stand with a pocketwizard and started cracking away. No diffuser in sight. Changing up the aperture (settled on F5) and the shutter (settled on 1/400) so the sunlight was knocked down a little and my subjects were nicely lit.

Over about 15 minutes I took a whole range of shots but this was my favourite. I am still struggling with the hard light mainly because it is so hard, but it certainly adds a new dynamic to the photos.

One single hard light, not difficult to workout the setup yourself. Hope you like the effect.

Experimenting with Light

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:06:00 +0000

I have been playing with light again to see what can be achieved and how I can improve my batting average when I step up. The shot today I have posted is two separate shots stitched together for comparison. The setup is explained on the picture but I will put it here too. Click on the image to see a large version at anytime.

I am using an SB-800 triggered by a pocketwizard. The SB-800 has a CTO gel placed on it to warm it up. This is clearly visible with the shot on the left because the umbrella is a warm orange and not white. The White Balance is set to Daylight to correct for the sky and to emphasize the warming gel. Even though the sky is correct technically, I don't like it. This shot is taken around lunchtime and the sky is ugly. Anyone standing next to the umbrella would also be warmed by the umbrella.

For the right hand shot I have corrected the White Balance for the CTO Gel. Now the umbrella is white. The sky however is cooler as a result of the colour temperature change when correcting for the gel. Much more attractive. Now, anyone we stand next to the umbrella will also be colour balanced nicely for outside (Unless you want them to appear warm like at sunset) so this does nicely for during the day.

Car Show

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 07:41:00 +0000

Went along to a local car show today. We have some friends who were showing two cars and I never miss an opportunity to take some photographs. Too many ropes and restrictions, and people wandering into your shots to get anything extraordinary but still some ok shots.

Shot using available light the entire time. I don't like small hard flash when shooting cars with lots of chrome. One car as you can see here above had some added available light, but nothing I could control. I would love to stick a few remote strobes in a around this car a play with some very cool lighting effects.

Not a bad show for Darwin standards. I am also looking forward to an opportunity to shoot Brett's 66 Mustang (this yellow one) at a later date. Brett & Ange also have a Willies Hotrod. No photo here and not yet running. The world will surely be in oil crisis once it starts guzzling the gas. I will post some photos once it is completely finished.

Lastly, I have stuck this photo of a nice Porsche. I have always loved Porches and would love the chance to shoot a beautiful car like this somewhere a little more appropriate.

Sometimes I am too lazy to get down and frame a shot like this so I just lower the camera, crack off a few frames and check how they turned out on the Camera's LCD screen. Sometimes you are surprised by how the perspective improves the shot.

Air Force Open Day

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:42:00 +0000

Today my Daughter and I, along with my in laws went along to RAAF Darwin to an Open Day. As always these places are hot and lots of walking is required. They just don't build things close together on Air Force Bases. I was also about one of 50 kazillion people with a camera and wasn't hopeful of getting any inspirational Air Force type photographs.

The Open Day is part of Exercise Pitch Black 2008 taking place over the skies of the Northern Territory - Australia. It involves aircraft from plenty of nearby nations and the United States.

The FA-18 pictured in these three pictures performed an Aerial Display which was one of the best I have seen. Instead of just your standard fly over it flew low level, upside down, vertically and was very impressive.

These shots were taken with my D70 and 18-200 Beach Camera because I don't like carrying all the gear at places like this when a fairly basic kit gets the job done. Not sure my pocketwizards and off camera flash would have been very useful with these shots, especially the last one.

Face Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:25:00 +0000

My wife, Michelle, is a Children's Entertainer. Today when she was heading off to work I thought it was a great time to catch her all dressed up. She was running a little late so I didn't have more than a few minutes to get a shot we both liked.

SETUP: I have a diffused strobe camera left creating soft light, and the sun back camera right as the separating light. The garden was still in shade so it is underexposed a few stops because I didn't want the sun to blow out Michelle's hair too much. I could have lit the Background separately but didn't have time. I used a couple pocketwizards to trigger the strobe so my little girl didn't go tripping over the cabling.

I will be playing around with a few photos like this as we are in the planning stages of a new website for Michelle. Will link to it when it is done.

Pocketwizards

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:58:00 +0000

Finally they have arrived. All three of them. I ordered them early last week and today I unwrapped the box like a kid at Christmas. They are three key tools to unlocking off camera flash and retaining a huge amount of reliability.

I have played with the Nikon CLS. I don't mind it, and TTL has its advantages, but now I have real control. Will definitely use TTL and maybe even a very small amount of on camera flash when required but the only way to get good at running off camera flash in full manual is to go hard.

This is my first effort with the Pocketwizards. I used two of them to take a picture of the third one. Just used a diffuser (A4 White Paper) in front of my SB-800 camera left and a reflector camera right. This was just messing around though. The plan is to get some actual people to stand still for a while and light them up. My DIY snoot is cocked, locked and ready to rock.

I will definitely post some of my future successes, and maybe even a few failures but I am sure there will be too many to choose from for the first while. Wish me luck as I journey into the unknown.

Not As It Seems

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 10:01:00 +0000

Here is another photo of my Daughter. Was at the beach having some family time and decided to try and pull some strobist tricks out of nowhere, with nothing but my beach camera (Nikon D70) and it's 18-200.

Took this shot on full manual, with the onboard speedlight on manual too. Shot is ISO 200, F11 & 1/500th. This was where it ended up. Took some tweaking and the little speedlight was at full tilt overcoming the aperture.

Because the flash is on camera and not finessed the light is hard. Next step will be to get that flash off camera and restrict it a little. Still reasonably happy with the effect and now bright daylight looks like twilight.

Off Camera Flash - First Real Attempts

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:04:00 +0000

Well, I've been living on the Strobist Blog lately. It is the best place I have found for good honest helpful information. I am loving some of the work done in full sun light and making good use of the hard light. Very handy for our Weddings here in Darwin.

In the meantime, I have been fiddling, using my Daughter as a model as usual. I took this shot with my White Balance set to Tungsten, and a CTO filter on the front of a snooted SB-800. Keep in mind she is not posed, just sitting still watching TV and I have done nothing with the photo other than crop out some distracting surrounds.

This really is my first attempt so I am reasonably happy. I am starting to get very excited about the possiblities of this off camera flash, using small portable lights in what I once thought were difficult lighting situations.

Thanks Strobist.

Remote Sea Side

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sun, 25 May 2008 08:20:00 +0000

Congratulations to Tarrant and Angelina who tied the knot at Crabclaw Island this past Saturday. It was a fantastic ceremony and reception and we had the privilege of staying for the entire reception and spending the night. We got up early to drive back to Darwin thinking bush driving after dark isn't the safest option for getting home.

The locations were great, but different to our usual routine. The sunset isn't over the water and the dust was in everything. The light played the game unusually from about 5pm onwards and it was a successful days/nights work.

I must also add that Daniel's Nikon D3 is certainly pulling its weight at these Weddings and it's no light setup.

Wedding Bells

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sat, 17 May 2008 11:55:00 +0000

Congratulations to Carl and Kellie on their Marriage today. Married at the Wesleyan Church at the Darwin Botanical Gardens they are a fantastic and fun couple and we wish them every happiness.

Congratulations Peter & Camilla

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:58:00 +0000

Congratulations to Peter and Camilla who were married this past weekend on Speaker's Green at Darwin's Parliament House. The 10th May 2008 shall forever remain a special day.

This shot was caught with a Nikon 17-55mm f2.8. The sun was incredibly harsh and all but killed the sky that day. All up it was a pretty good day's shooting and a good wedding with a very friendly bunch of Groomsmen and Bridesmaids.

Location Portraiture

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Davies) — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:55:00 +0000

Today was a huge day. Spent 10 hours on my feet working with Daniel, shooting most of the day. The shot today is from this morning. We shot for a lovely couple and their cute daughter. Being the day before Mother's Day I am tempted to send the shots through early but I think it's better to wait to all the post production is completed.

You can get some idea of the harsh light in Darwin. This shot taken just after 9am. The sun was already belting in. Anyway, huge day so quick post.