Stepping back through time

Today I have crossed two things off my bucket list! I had set my heart on seeing the incredible shapes of the Cobbold Gorge and the second desire was to see the Undara lava tubes for myself. My tour guide son has taken some wonderful photographs of both places and I have seen them on different “Getaway” type programs but they both looked to be so unique that I wanted to go there myself. Now I have done it!

To begin the day we crawled out of a bed that was in the Forsayth Tourist Park at the unearthly hour of five in the morning and climbed aboard a mini bus that bounced us along unsealed roads to the Cobbold Gorge. Just walking down the new aluminum walkway was a treat – at every step the savannah scrub changed to a very different well watered riverside vegetation of strong majestic trees and smaller leafy bushes. 

 The walkway down to the little punts

The lushness of the gorge.

We only had to wait a few minutes for the earlier tour to return, two small electric powered punts pulled up and we climbed aboard.

 I thought I had made a mistake by being the last in line but no, I found myself at the very front of the second punt and I was able to attach my tiny Panasonic video camera with a “gorilla-pod” grip to the railing which allowed me to take photographs with the D90 without having to struggle with two cameras. I was in heaven! 

The Gorge was even better than I anticipated. The guide who piloted the punt was a very quiet country fellow so did not bombard us with commentary and our six fellow passengers were as quiet as I was – in fact I think I was the noisiest because of the loud click my camera makes! There was hardly any conversation or sound of exclamations at all! Today the sun was not strong so we had fairly soft light which meant that we didn’t have to fight with strong shadows and extra bright highlights. I still had to be careful not to include too much sky because it was so white with clouds that the automatic adjustments made the cliff faces too dark. Having less of that bright sky allowed a more even balance of light.

The people who show us the wonderful sights of the Savannahland are just so passionate about where they live it is infectious! The two drivers on our train (The Savannahlander) are the same, they really enjoy what they do and love showing off the features we pass and telling the stories of the different towns, their explorers and the special characters that make them the place they are.

We hear the same stories with variations – but that’s the way with story telling, the story changes a little each time it is re-told.

We were picked up from the train in Mt Surprise by a bubbly lad with a strong New Zealand accent and a Dutch name! He first took us to our accommodation at the Bedrock Tourist Park (Free standing cabins with en-suite and mini kitchen) and then out to the lava tubes.

 Our guide explaining the lava tubes and the area they cover

I was not disappointed! The sight of these huge arches of black basalt made my heart race! To imagine the phenomena that create these and the weathering that had revealed them so we could enter them is mind blowing. (well it is for me!) I had to be careful not to get left behind – I wanted not only to photograph every nook and cranny but to stand and gaze at the majesty of the place. The trees and plants that have grown in the rich soil of the decayed volcanic tubes are like a garden and to stand in the entrance of the black tunnel and gaze out at this display of greens and golds is so beautiful.

 From inside one of the tunnels looking out. (Very slow shutter speed!)

When we went into the second tunnel I was playing around with trying to get slow shutter speed photos – without a tripod this was proving really difficult! Anyway our guide enthusiastically suggested painting with light and he recommended the settings I should try. It would have worked if I had brought a tripod! But this is the best I could do with eight seconds. Jahn painted himself too – and he moved so there are three of him! Sort of!

 The bright bits are Jahn!

This time the camera is on a tiny little tripod - much better!

What a wonderful day. I shall dream of this trip!

We did so much more than this but those two I have told you are the highlights.

AJ

Lighting the tree

Yesterday I was given a rather unusual present - well it wasn't really for me, it was for the Christmas tree.
Chinese technology is so much fun and so inexpensive! This gadget that is giving me so much pleasure is a little electronic box that directs a laser light show on to hard surfaces. The colours thrown are the colours of Christmas - red, green and yellow so we set it up to hit the Christmas tree. This is how it looks

camera details       3sec        f/7.1      ISO 200       26mm

Once I had started to use the camera I wanted more pictures so I moved in a little closer. With a slow shutter speed I expected to get a lot of blur from the moving lights so I was a little surprised at how sharp they turned out.

camera details       1.6 sec       f/7.1      ISO 200       55mm

A big fad at the moment is to capture "bokeh". Bokeh is the name given to the radically out of focus effect on lights. This effect is best when there is something in the foreground that is in focus and the pattern of lights are behind.

camera details       2 sec       f/7.1      ISO 200       50mm

And one more bokeh shot of the lights

camera details       2 sec       f/7.1      ISO 200       55mm

The laser light cannot be left on all day, the recommendation is to turn the thing off after a couple of hours to allow it to cool down. So most of the time we shall be illuminating the tree with the regular tree lights and when we have visitors we shall turn on the special effects!
AJ

Morning light

I enjoy taking my dogs to the park for a walk and because they are big dogs and feel rather responsible for me, I walk early - before there are other people with dogs out walking! They are too strong for me should they decide to chase off any opposition! So far I have managed without a problem. The trouble is, as summer rolls nearer the daylight starts earlier and earlier! I will soon have to take one dog at a time "just in case" - but that means twice the distance for me! The dogs are always on their leads - or I would spend most of the morning trying to find them!
When we walk along the footpath the two dogs trot side by side and right at my side - so they look very well trained. That is until the outside dog decides to suddenly sniff at a tree trunk and shoots off to the left. The sudden pull manages to catch me off balance and I very nearly get yanked over the back of the dog that is still beside me (usually Byron). That might sound quite funny but I can assure you that it doesn't feel very funny at the time! Whoa!
Our morning stroll takes us into the Hinterland Park - which is deserted at this time of the day. Most times I do not see anything striking enough to take out the camera - which is always in my shoulder bag along with a collection of blue plastic bags for doggy-do pickups, and my mobile phone should I need rescuing! But one morning the light was beautiful and I managed to juggle the dogs - who both wanted to sniff different trees since I had stopped walking - and firstly captured the light racing through the trees in a small area of wetlands.

There is a saying "The best camera is the one you have with you" and this little camera is just so handy. It was left behind on the coach driven by my tour guide son, back in 2007 (I think) and was never claimed. I sent away for a battery charger and another battery and it has been my constant companion since then. I have no qualms about letting my little grandchildren use it. It seems to be almost indestructible! Besides which I love to see the world through children's eyes! So this camera is the one that lives in a handbag and when I am using the Nikon D90 it stays in there!
Another shot from that walk in the park is this one of a spider's web.

Not being able to play with depth of field with a little point and shoot camera, it is quite difficult to get a satisfactory picture of a web. Against the brightness of the sky it has disappeared and yet to my eyes it was quite visible. Another difficulty is with using the LCD screen as against using a viewfinder. Knowing that the focus is on the right part of the photo is tricky!
To be honest, I have used some of my Photoshop skills to enhance the colour. (If I hadn't told you, would you know?) Yes, another downside of a P&S camera is that changing the white balance and exposure to get the right results is not comparable with the controls on an SLR. But the photos were "almost there" and just needed a little warmth added. So "The best camera is the one you have with you" plus a little skill with Photoshop!
AJ

Photo layering

I have been playing yet again! I was busy recording tutorials for a workshop to be held on Wednesday when I managed to get distracted! Every day I enjoy reading the posts from DPS and sometimes becoming "inspired" to try one of the suggestions. The simple tutorials I had been recording led me from one topic to another and thanks to that Photography site, I started to think of textures and layering.
I am not sure if my "pupils" would appreciate this sort of manipulation so I am sharing it with anyone who visits my blog instead!
I started out with a blank canvas and using one of the bog-standard weird Photoshop brushes that I had never used before - it looks a bit like a dirty smudge - I made the brush huge and with two dabs created an interesting "background". Then I "colorised" it in Hue and Saturation and then textured it with a very large and deep canvas texture from filters. I created a soft vignette using the Lens Correction filter and came up with this.

Having a texture meant I needed a photo! I dug one out of my collection, it was a rather pleasant, quiet photo of an Australian pelican on the edge of the water. The texture was overlayed and all sorts of blending modes and opacities were tried. When I settled on one combination I liked I then used a mask to clean the texture from the bird.
So far so good - but not really as inspiring as I thought it could have been. What about some text?
Googled "Australian Pelican" and on a scrap of paper wrote down what was written on the site I opened.

I played around with the colour of the text and placed it over the image making it cover the entire picture. This time I used the Multiply opacity.
 Once again I erased the layer from the bird and this is what I ended up with.

I quite enjoyed experimenting but I am not sure if this example is dramatic enough. I shall have another go with a different texture and photo and see what I can come up with!
AJ

Another lighting effect

Once more I have been playing around in lighting effects, this time with "spotlight". Of course, with any effect it is possible to go "over the top" and get really bizarre effects but I am so conservative that I aim for the natural look!
We had a shower of rain this afternoon and I raced out to get a few shots of rain dampened flowers. A few spots of water on the petals always gives a great look! Rain does it so much better than a mist gun!
Anyway, with one of the shots - a rather gorgeous day lily - I thought I would have a play with the spotlight effect. The settings I used are shown above - I hope they are large enough that you can see the numbers I used? You can easily see how I pulled the ellipse about so that the bright effect was where I wanted it to be. If the ellipse is too narrow or too small the effect is much harsher.
I also clicked into the white colour picker squares and changed the colour to a light yellow to echo the colour of the flower. Stronger colours have a different effect so I recommend that you have a play!
Now take a look at the subtle difference I made to my picture. Maybe you feel it is too subtle? However every picture is created to the likes of the person in control of it - I work on my pictures so that I like them. Its a bonus if YOU like them too!

Another Photoshop effect to try

I thought it was about time I taught myself how to use a new filter in Photoshop. So after working quickly on a couple of pictures (after all this was just an experiment!) I duplicated the image and with the duplicate applied a lighting effect. You can see from the screen grab the settings I picked. The effect was rather good so I have included a couple of before and after shots to show how it looks when used.
To get to the lighting effects go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects and have a play! When the omni lighting effect is used - this is the one I particularly liked - it seems to have the effect of brightening in the area of the circle - which can be resized and moved too - and darkening the surrounds. Well the darkening is created by moving the "ambience" slider. This darkening is loosely like adding a vignette to the image.