Outback Photographer

Testing Blogpress

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:30:00 +0000

Decided to try out Blogpress for iPhone. Could be handy, but I suspect my laptop is still safe as my #1 blogging tool.
Now all I have to do is figure out why it's not working with my Wordpress accounts.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Studio

The art of seeing

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:45:00 +0000

Photographers are a funny mob. We get so involved in how to do things, or how that effect is done etc, that we often forget that photography is about seeing and painting with light.
What camera do you use, or what lens or what f stop are always bandied around when photographers get together. You don't often see photographers spending much time developing their eye.
Our vision, in reality is the only thing that separates us from each other. As creatives we need to be practicing daily our craft, our vision, our eye. Yeah I know as working shooters there is a whole lot of other stuff we have to do, like paperwork, marketing promotion and just simple talking to clients. All that stuff gets in the road of us training at our chosen vocation. Can you imaging a pro footballer, golfer or tennis playing not practicing daily, instead doing the other stuff. How long do you think professional sports people would last if they didn't practice.

We're moving forward....

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:46:00 +0000

Well that's what our new Prime Minister tells us, I guess we can all forget the train wreck of the last government and focus on a bright and fabulously wonderful future with our new team.... Not the dream team we were promised at last election, but a moving forward team.

One of the things I've never really got about moving forward, is why is it always good to move forward? For example, if I've parked my car facing towards the edge of a very high cliff.... is it still a good idea to move forward, rather than stay still or go backwards.

If we move forward, do we get a better deal, and better governance? Or is it just possible we get the same deal? New packaging, new slogan.... moving forward.

What do we do when we move forward? Now that the dream team have tackled all the hard issues like, climate change, whaling in the Southern Oceans, giving each kid a lap top in an education revolution and of course my absolute favorite the National Broadband Network, which has been rolled out to give us international standard access to broadband. What do we do when we move forward?

I ponder sometimes the alternatives to moving forward. Sadly there are none unless you like middle aged men, trying to prove they are some kind of action hero running around in tiny little bathing costumes. Oh well... At the end of the day, I'll guess we'll just have to move forward.

Is it just me?

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:20:00 +0000

I was lighting the fire in our studio this morning and picked up and old newspaper. Started reading as I tend to do... Read a piece on a guy taking his ex boss ( they both worked for the same company, she was his superior) to court because she let him have sex with her. Apparently when he made advances to her... note he made advances... he is claiming that she should have said NO.

Instead they had an affair that lasted for several months until she finally said enough is enough.
The guy wants compensation for the stress and suffering he under went while he was shagging her. Apparently this dude believes that it is all her fault for letting him screw her.

The woman concerned has since lost her job, however Randy as I'll call him is still employed but now wants to be compensated for his unfair treatment.

What is this world coming to? Sounds a bit like the barbaric act of stoning a woman to death for committing adultery and letting the fella go, only in this case the fella now thinks he deserves a pot of gold after the honey pot runs dry.

Back to more pleasant things. A gentle balloon flight across Australia's larges salt lake, Lake Eyre. More of these pics can be found at excitations stock archive.

Macbook Pro battery life.

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:38:00 +0000

Is it just me or does the advertised battery life of a 17" Macbook Pro SUCK?
Brand new machine, the apple claim a wonderful battery life of over 5 hours (in fact I'm pretty sure they claim more than that) mine is lucky to last 2 hours. I thought that was ok given that I use mostly processor intensive programs, but I noticed the other night that it still died in 2 hours and 15 minutes while I was just doing emails.
Nice bit of kit, but why the deception? When Canon and Nikon make a big deal out of battery life on their DSLR's you get much better life than the previous model. Apparently a concept that escapes the little silver apple.

Photographing from a hot air balloon at Lake Eyre

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:16:00 +0000

Just returned from a road trip to Lake Eyre in the northern part of South Australia. We were there at the invitation of Balloonist and adventurer, Kiff Saunders. Kiff was involved in an horrific road accident earlier this year and celebrated his first balloon flight by flying over Lake Eyre.
The outback photographer got to ride along with Kiff. You can view some of the images captured here at excitations stock archive.

What an amazing flight, lifting of just as the sun peeped above the horizon and over Australia's largest salt lake in minutes. Amazingly, even though we were drifting slowly over the lake, the whole flight seemed to flash by. So many things to photograph and so little time to do it.

Living with fire and ememrgency response

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:54:00 +0000

If you live in Victoria as I do, unless you have been comatosed for the last couple of months you would be aware of the Royal Commission into the Black Saturday Fires. Media and political interest often fuel these inquiries into disasters... because some has to be at fault... right!

Funny thing is anyone with even half a brain knew that we were in for one hell of a day on February 7th. A week of sky high temperatures, very low humidity across the state had already laid the ground work for a disaster. The Bureau of Meteorology forecast high winds and high fire danger days before. It was just a matter of when and where disaster would strike, not if.... Or at least that is the way our fire fighting forces should have viewed the situation.

Now the CFA has copped a lot of flak over its handling or rather miss handling of the days events and rightly so. We should however separate the CFA into two parts. The teams on the ground busting their guts doing everything in their power to save lives and property and on the other hand the administration and management division. One group literally laying their lives on the line every time they turn out to a fire or emergency. The other group charged with the responsibility of ensuring crews on the ground are trained, equipped and provided with timely up to date information, enabling rapid and safe deployment in the advent of a disaster situation arising.

The failures within the CFA appear to primarily lay with management. Failure to adequately ensure the CFA was ready to handle an event of this magnitude. Failure to have in place a communication system that worked. Failure to disseminate information to its own members and failure to provide any relevant and useful information to the public. Who by the way are not totally free of blame here. There was plenty of information available to suggest that there was a clear and present danger. We all have to accept some responsibility for our own well being. " Oh look Bill there's a bloody great fire up wind of us... awesome, now let's crack a coldie and watch the cricket".

Ultimately we all need to take responsibility for our well being. Choose to live in a flood plain, expect your house to be flooded. Construct your dream home on top of an active volcano, expect your life to reach new heights. Choose a beautiful, forested mountain area in South Eastern Australia in which to live and you will need to accept that bush fire is inevitable. Prepare for the day, don't expect help to come, be self sufficient, arrange your own defenses and expect external utilities such as water and power and phone to be cut. If the additional cost of providing your own protection or the worry and uncertainty are too much for you.... move.

A communication meltdown may have been due to an overwhelming event... But that's what disaster management is about, being prepared to handle events lager than normal. If we only prepare for day to day work loads, we are always doomed to failure as soon as work loads elevate to a higher magnitude. In this case we had an advanced warning of several days, in fact months. How would emergency services cop with a spontaneous disaster. A large aircraft crashing into a small remote rural community during summer. No chance then to think about chains of command and protocols.

Governments have to ensure that our emergency response services are in a position to immediately assume control of a situation. They must ensure that the people at the top of these organisations are capable of immediately initiating a chain of command, utilising suitably qualified personnel, not desk jockeys who collect a salary and sip cups of tea at a political level. Management figures who wilt under pressure, and fail in the most basic of managerial practices have no place in any emergency organisation.

However the failures of emergency response organizations pale into insignificance when compared to successive governments over the last 30 odd years, who have slowly eroded any advances made after Victoria's last significant fire event. The implementation of fire refuges to name one. Demanding management that is capable of performing their duty is another. We have a Royal Commission into this latest fire which from memory our Premier said "will ensure that this never happens again". I just wonder if we will have exactly the same reaction to a catastrophic fire event 30 years down the road.

If you think I'm being a bit harsh, take a look if you will to our emergency response to Swine Flu. Had this been indeed a killer virus we would currently all be dead. Could our already struggling health system cope with even a minor terror attack? Would our response be to meet the challenge head on, or would we, as in the case of Black Saturday, make provision to change the triage conditions of incoming patients . I believe you normally require burns to 10% of your body to be admitted to the critical burns unit, but I understand that was to be raised to 30% on Black Saturday. Although this was not implemented, due primarily to a high mortality rate with few people caught in the inferno surviving long enough to need hospitalization.

OK rant over have a great day.

Snake oil salemen.

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:13:00 +0000

While researching for a stock shoot the other day, I came across a website announcing an upcoming book by the sites owner. There was lot of hype about the books value to anyone wanting to become a real professional photographer. How buying the book would tell you the secrets of making huge amounts of money from this exciting new career. It would show you how to become a full time professional in a matter of weeks. We're not talking taking snaps at some wedding but flying the world to all the most exotic locations, living the high life and being paid copious amounts of money for you new found skills.

Sound good doesn't it! The funny part is though, I'd just read an article in a very respected international photography magazine by this very same person, bemoaning the fact that photography as we know it is over.... According to the author there are very very few big jobs around and they seem to be shrinking daily. Accelerated he believed by the current economic downturn. I guess the only logical thing for a photographer who can't find work is to write a book on how to make a fortune from photography. Sadly, this book will be snapped up by thousands of would be wanna be's, all hoping to share in an almost no existent dream. I think I'll just keep on doing lowly wedding snaps and pictures of people and not get involved in real photography.

Getting nude for the camera.

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:38:00 +0000

Our good friend Cate over at excite art, asked a nude art model for a models perspective of getting ones kit off for the camera. She posted the short article by an anonymous model this morning. Interesting read for anyone who has ever wondered about what the nude art modeling scene is like. See the excite art "Baring it all" post here.

PS Minimus, Wentworth, Australia.

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:25:00 +0000

Not the greatest image in the world but it brings a smile to my face each time I see it.This has got to be one of the smallest Paddle Steamers around. I'd call it a model but I'm sure its registered as a Paddle Steamer so that buggers that up. Funny thing is that apart from being tiny, the vessel is very well trimmed, and floats in the water just like her really big sisters. Must have been quite a feat trying to balance such a small hull with a heavy steam engine up one end and two people up the other. I've notice that a lot of the paddle steamers plying the Murray and Darling Rivers here in Australia, list badly to one side or the other. Not sure why this is, design or badly placed ballast.

Everything change, all stays the same!

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:21:00 +0000

Ok so I admit that the title to this post is confusing…. However the other day a client made a statement to me about how photography must be “so much harder for professionals now that everyone can take photos”.
Funny thing is photography has been available to the masses for all of my lifetime and most of the previous generation as well. Sure technology has changed but the actual concept, optical science and required vision have not. Most people today capture their images digitally rather than use film, but light still has to pass though an optical focusing mechanism before exciting a whole bunch of electrically excited receptors to create a picture. A wide angle lens still works much the same as it did ten, twenty, thirty or more years ago, as does a telephoto or zoom lens. Automatic exposure systems still get it right about 80% of the time as they did during the latter parts of the film era. Autofocus has been around for decades, admittedly it has advanced more rapidly since digital photography, that most likely because of the relative youth of the technology than anything else.

One thing that has remained constant throughout the relative short life of photography as a medium… is the photographers vision. From memory it was Henri Catier-Bresson who said something to the effect that there is nothing worse than a sharp rendition of a soft fuzzy idea. Ahmen to that.

A novel idea

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:17:00 +0000

Received an email yesterday from a prospective model, suggesting a TFP shoot. Traditionally a TFP or TFCD shoot involved both model and photographer exchanging their time free of charge and both parties gaining new imagery for their respective portfolio's. Nothing new photographers and models have been exchanging time for years, sometimes beneficially to both, mostly one will loose out because of wildly differing levels of talent.
Yesterdays proposal was different however as our model intended to charge her full rate for a her services, while in return I was to supply her with a full set of fully retouched images for her use along with full copyright of all images. Maybe just maybe I would have gone with it if she was bringing something to the table.... such as lots of photographic experience, a distinctive look or even a novel idea... but no, despite her claim to have worked with all best photographers in the world, her portfolio showed only crappy, happy snap photos obviously taken by raw beginners.

Reluctantly we politely declined her kind offer....

When is art not art?

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:48:00 +0000

Now I’m not going to get into this one. I’ve never been a big supporter of the idea of labeling any photographic works as “art” or “fine art” or my favorite of all time “fine art nude”. In fact I’ll be honest and tell you that I have no idea what art is!

Years ago it was a common belief that photography couldn’t be art because it was to easy. Everyone could take a photograph, so photography couldn’t be art. Then if you take that tack, my argument would be that I have a welder and a pile of scrap metal in my shed, which in a few short minutes I could turn into a sculpture, an art form supported by those early detractors of photography as an art. I can however, guarantee that my sculpture would not be art.

So why bring up this subject again? A post on one of the photographic forums recently, once again arguing the case for photography to be considered art. The discussion trotted out all the old arguments for and against, with the exception of one lone voice, who in a tirade of venomous abuse which I won’t repeat here, declared that any photographer charging for his work couldn’t call himself and artist, because the act of accepting money for art, stopped the works from being art.

How much does your $700 wedding package cost?

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Sun, 31 May 2009 08:48:00 +0000

Yep believe it or not that was my favorite phone call question this week. I guess I'll have to think about the answer for a bit... now let me see... could the answer be $700..
Nah... gotta be a catch somewhere.

excitations stock

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:15:00 +0000

excitations stock

excitation stock today published a gallery of stock photos from the Mildura 100 Ski Race.

Whistling Kite (Haliastur sphenurus)

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:28:00 +0000

Here's a shot that I've been going to do for way to long. You know how it is, you see the image or opportunity but just don't get around to shooting it. Well this week I had a go, and yes I'll have to do some more work on it, for a first go I'm happy. Image created with a Cannon 1D IIn with a 100 - 400 piece of glass extended out to about 320mm. The rig was locked off on a predetermined focus point and fired remotely by a couple of Pocket Wizards.
Now all I have to do is hope my friend will continue to cooperate. The Whistling Kite (Haliastur sphenurus)and his family are a regular sight above our studio complex, swinging by most days to check out the available food supply and occasionally to say g'day.
One of the family will often answer to Robyn's mimicking of their calls. And of late we've noticed that they will come up to some trees near the studio just to keep and eye on what we're up to and I suppose remind us that they are around and would really like some lambs hearts put out for them to swoop on and carry off to a nearby tree.

Urban Landscapes

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 03:45:00 +0000

Looking forward to shooting some urban landscapes in and around Tasmania during January.
He's a gallery of some urban shots created on our last expedition back in August 2008. To views full screen, click on the little icon 2nd from right at bottom of gallery.
Towns included in this gallery include, Nhill in Western Victoria, Ballarrat, St Kilda including the famous Palais Theatre and Novotel Hotel.

As always feel free to embed this gallery into any non commercial or personal blog. To do that, just click on the triangle icon bottom righ corner of this gallery, copy the code and paste it into you blog or site.

Many things to do no time to do them..

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:48:00 +0000

I'm sure that's the case with most photographers during the lead up to Christmas, certainly is here. There are a number of interesting things happening in the photography industry at the moment, many I would like to comment on but not today my friends.

We have managed to get the slide show widget working over at the excitations stock blog, love you to drop on over and check that out. We will be posting regular galleries features on the site in the new year.

What price for a photo?

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:41:00 +0000

An age old question faced by photographers every day of their working life. but I have to feel for a photographer friend who was recently approach by a junior member of a small publications editorial staff, wanting to use one of his pictures in the publication. After asking the usual questions, about magazines circulation, image placement and size etc. He quoted what he felt was a very reasonable price. Imagine the look on his face when he was told. "We never pay photographers for pictures, most times they pay us, so that the can advertise the fact that they've been published".
Wow there's a business concept I hadn't thought of. Imagine the amount of extra work I could get if I paid clients for the privilege of shooting them.

But I guess it's not that new, I'm hearing that wedding photographers in some parts are advertising that they'll shoot your wedding absolutely free... just to get experience. I saw a post on a bridal forum the other day advising brides to go to their local school and ask one of the photography students to photograph their wedding. Much cheaper than paying for photos taken by a professional, and in the words of this writer " more likely than not the photos will be better too".

I'm pretty sure that holding your reception at Macca's would save heaps of money as well. The only difference is at the little Scottish restaurant you'll get a half decent feed, I'm not sure about your photos though.

Canola crop in flower

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:46:00 +0000

The other day while returning from shooting in the Grampians the outback photography team drove past a few crops of Canola in flower. What a great sight, just wanted to get up and do some aerials of it, but alas no time for that, maybe next year. Most of the cereal crops we past on our journey were to say the least struggling with the continued dry weather. Today has, however, brought some rain over almost all of Victoria, with some good falls recorded. Much to late for many farmers, but welcome all the same.

Bush flies and beautiful brides

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:10:00 +0000

Canon 1Ds II with 16-35mm USM

The outback photographer was in the Australian Inland Botanic Gardens near mildura yesterday for the wedding of Tate and Jonathan. We had a fantastic day shooting with a great group. I'm really happy with the wedding images we created during the afternoon, but have to say there will need to b a fair bit of post production on this lot of images due to the arrival of a large number of really friendly "Bush Flies". Boy were they a blood nuisance, crawling all over our subjects and getting in front of the lens when I was shooting wide angle back lit photos. Like little diamonds in the sky in hundreds of our shots. Each and every one of the little buggers will have to be retouched out.
Anyway this shot was created at days end, we had just finished shooting Tate and Jono in the back of their bridal car, when I notice the boys all nicely arranged in their ride. All I had to co sas walk around behind them, and yell out loudly... the rest as they say is history...
Anyway the shot above was capture at days end

The ever beautiful Stephanie

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:44:00 +0000

Canon 1Ds II f2.8 70-200 IS USM @ 100mm, 2 light studio set up.

The outback photography crew recently had the good fortune of shooting with the young and very lovely Stephanie. This studio portrait image is not however one of those images. Mildura photography studio, Excitations is currently preparing a set of promotional photos for glamour and fashion portraits and our recent images of Steph are still under wraps... But nobody said I could not use some older pics of her on the blog.
We can't just have nature, landscape and travel type pics here can we now! For the record this was a really simple studio shoot. One large lightbox camera left almost touching model, gold reflector just below models chest and just out of shot and one hair light which is doing absolutely nothing, because I'm in too close yet again. For those of you with eagle eyes the second catch light is from a large and bright window in the studio.

Glossodia major, Waxlip Orchid, Australia.

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:06:00 +0000

Another native Australian orchid this fine morning, Glossodia major, or the Waxlip Orchid as it is more commonly know. Fairly common around Victoria this beautiful orchid has a single leaf at ground level, grows to around 25cm in height with normally a single flower which can vary greatly in color from almost white through to dark blue.

Nikon D2x, 60mm f.28 micro nikkor lens and SB800 flash.

Next time your out in the Australian bush, keep a close eye out for this stunning orchid, and also for some of the far less obvious native orchids that abound in the Australian bush.

Nodding Greenhood, Pterostylis nutans.

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:34:00 +0000

Nikon D2x with 60mm f2.8 Micro Nikkor lens.

We've added a few stock photos of native Australian orchids to our online gallery here. This image is of a Nodding Greenhood,the outback photographer found in the Grampians region of Victoria on a recent trip there.

Pied Currawong

noreply@blogger.com (Australian Outback Photographer) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:07:00 +0000

Canon 1Ds III with 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS USM lens @275mm f5.6

The above shot was created recently while I sat in our "Troopy" having lunch. I'd like to spin you a yarn about how difficult it was to capture this image of the Pied Currawong, or Strepera graculina to his friends. I'd be fibbing if I did that because this guy and in fact most of his extended family were anything but camera shy.

At one stage he even ventured into the troopy and sat on the steering wheel with me seated right behind it. I'm pretty sure it was my lunch, rather than my company that he really desired, but it matters not. To get this shot the only technical problem was getting it into his head to sit on a nearby fence so that he was outside my minimum focus range.

If your wanting to check out some real nature photography may I suggest Laurie Excells blog, to see some images created in Alaska over the psast week.