Best of 2015

I haven't done one of these for some time but I saw Jim Goldstein's tweet referring to his annual blog project to collect photographers' "Best of year" links, so I thought I'd have a look and see what I'd done during the year that was 2015.

The first thing I looked at was my Lightroom catalogue to find that there were a shade under 1,800 shots with metadata showing the year of 2015. Keep in mind that I delete any totally unusable (accidental release, hugely under/over-exposed, totally out of focus) or unwanted (sky or ground shots used to mark the end of a sequence, kids' or drunks' "take my photo, take my photo, take my photo") shots. The ~1,800 shots remaining represent, in the 'old money' that I still sometimes think in, an average of one roll of film per week. I need to make an effort to up this rate next year.

A surprising split this year was that I took slightly more shots with my Nikon D5000 than with my D90 (908 to 857). I think this is because I picked up a Lowenpro Passport Sling bag on special from Cameras Direct and it was an easier fit with the D5000 than with the D90. My D90 always has the battery pack/grip on it, mostly because I've lost the original battery compartment cover!

Daily carry bag

Another interesting statistic that I noticed from my Lightroom catalogue data was my use of lenses this year.

I love that 60mm lens!

Moving from Lightroom to my main on-line presence, Flickr, I find that I have posted a mere 172 photos this year. This really needs to be picked up. Still, I suppose it's better than my poor 500px account which was given a miserly 15 shots for the whole year (and five of them were from a series shot on the same day).

And so to my actual favourite shots of the year. I narrowed them down to ten, in which there is one insect macro, two abstracts, three flower macros, two landscapes, one street shot and one Photoshop composite. There are a total of seven people in these ten shots, but six are in one photo and they only take up about one eighth of the area of the image.

Let me put them in order for you, from January 1 to December 3.

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New Year's Day. Looking out the privacy glazed window of my bathroom I was taken by the resemblance to Andreas Gursky's Rhine II. I may have been hung over, but hey, if you want to pay 4.3 million dollars I'll print you this photo and destroy the negative.

Green

At the end of the month of January, in preparation to whisking up a vinaigrette for a salad dressing, I poured some olive oil, red wine, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar into a white bowl. Dinner was delayed for some time while I set up some lighting and shot this.

Sol

One Friday in late February, having missed my intended train from Footscray station I had some time to kill. I took to riding the escalators and exploring what I could see of the different eras of architecture that was available. I noticed this young lady watching me and pointed my camera away from her to ease any tension she may have felt. I still took this shot though.

Reflections

The following Saturday I took a little photowalk around my neighbourhood. This was during a professionally stressful period while I was developing a database to collect and manage information to allow the Education Department to allocate millions of dollars in funding. I needed some peaceful imagery. I managed to get two favourites on the same day.

bluepink

Purple Trumpets

As autumn approached, in March my favourite (ok, my only) niece got married in a beautiful location in country Victoria. I wasn't the wedding photographer (the name's Billy, not Silly!) but of course I took a camera.

Alix's Wedding

I dislike square landscape shots but in May, after a walk along the Lerderderg River near my place I had a bunch of exposure bracketed shots and well, seeing as Lightroom was now offering baked-in HDR and Photoshop had baked-in panorama stitching, how could I not experiment? Some of it was awful, some awesome!

Double river view

There are places in the world where winter is bleak and miserable. In Victoria, Australia, we mostly just get different pretty flowers to shoot. Wattles, acacias, and literally five minutes walk down the road from me, this gorgeous thing.

Pincushion Hakea

Throughout this year I have been applying myself to learning to do more in post-processing using Photoshop. I really like where I got to with this moth macro overlaid with some grungy textures.

Moth (textured)

This brings me up to just last week! A composite shot of 19 (it was 20, but salt crystals are hard to shoot!) individual shots of various herbs, spices and other condiments from my pantry. This is the first image in probably 30 years that I deliberately made with the plan of printing it in a large format.

Spices

Well thanks for taking the time to look at my pictures and read my nonsense! I'd love to hear from you in the comments below, if you could spare a moment or two.

The next year should be very interesting, photographically. I have now officially retired from work, so I have much more time to spend on artistic endeavours. I have also bought myself a present of a large (-ish) format printer and will be expending more effort into print making and presentation. There's fun to be had!

Good light, my friends, good light.

Photo aggregators on Twitter - Dodgy or not?

If you follow a lot of photographers on Twitter*, sooner or later (probably sooner) you're going to see an RT of a very good photograph tweeted by an account like @Fascinatingpic or @Fascinatingpics or similar.

Now I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that perhaps not all of these photographs are taken by the actual account holders.

Take, for example, this wonderful image tweeted recently by @EarthPix...

If you drag this into Google image search, you get three pages of results, including five "Visually similar images" which are obviously the same, as well as one "ring-in". This particular one resonates with me as it is reputed to be over Corio Bay, which isn't a million miles from where I live.

Is this your shot? I'd love to credit you with it, I really would. In fact, if I knew whose shot it was, I would have emailed and asked for permission to use it in this blog.

Does that make it an "orphan" image? I believe that the UK has passed Acts of Parliament and is in the process of passing enabling regulations that change the copyright law such that anyone could use an image like this. Not just a small version used under "fair usage" to illustrate a point as I hope that I have done, but to print them as large as the pixels will bear and sell them for all the market will bear! It doesn't seem right to me.

The strange thing about these photo aggregator Twitter accounts is that they don't seem to be trying to take any advantage. Their links just link to the images; they don't try to send you to other, perhaps dangerous, websites. Some of them are very specialised in the types of images that they aggregate.

So what are your thoughts? Here are some of the accounts that I've noticed over the past few weeks.

@BestEarthPix
@GoogleEarthPics
@EarthPix
@ vppluse
@Fascinatingpic
@Fascinatingpics
@SciencePorn
@Earth_Pics
@SWildlifepics
@tiger6300
@scienceporn_
@Earth_Pics9
@TimedPic
@RichPeoplePixs
@Car_Porns

Note the similarity of some of the names.

Do you follow any of these Twitter accounts? Do you follow any other accounts that are like these ones? Do you see these accounts RTd into your timeline? Do you RT these accounts when you see them?

I'd love to hear your thoughts about these Twitter accounts, because I'm really not sure what to think about them. I'd very much appreciate your input.

And if you ARE one of these accounts, I'd really, really like to hear from you!

Good Light.

*As I do. I've filled one list to the max (500) and started on another!

Death!

No, come back! It's not going to be gruesome or morbid. It might be a bit sad, but I hope it'll be interesting.

The other day I took a little walk up to Maddingley General Cemetery, which is not too far from my place. I put the link to the map because Google will tell you that the cemetery is in the middle of town! That is a shop, an optician from memory, which is also the registered office of the cemetery's trustees.

Anyhoo. I put together some gear and went for a stroll on an usually sunny late May morning.

The gear that I took with me was:-

• Nikon D90 - gotta have a camera for this sort of thing!
• Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 lens - given the crop sensor on the D90, this is my 'nifty fifty'.
• Tamron 60mm f/2 lens - my macro lens (it's also a great portrait lens, I love this baby!)
• Nikon SB600 flash - in case I needed some fill light
• Orbis Ringflash adapter - great for macro work.

I didn't take a bag, just slung the Orbis on my shoulder, Tamron 60mm in one pocket of my shooting vest (yes, shooting vest. Don't judge me), flash in the other and off I went.

When I got there, it looked just like your average small country town's general cemetery, with different sections for Catholics and Protestants. I didn't see any sections for non-Christians though. I don't know if the cemetery is still in use. I didn't see any fresh plots, but the latest dates I noticed were only from last year so it probably is. There's certainly plenty of spare space.

I had a look around some of the more modern areas. There are some large mausoleum-type burials, mostly with Italian and some Greek names representing Bacchus Marsh's more recent history as a market gardening centre.

Most of the 'recent' burials looked to be well tended and most had full grave layouts and marble or granite headstones.

This one was a bit more on the 'budget' side.

I had actually thought that this was just a temporary placeholder while the monumental masons were making up the actual headstone, but the date of death is from 1986, so I guess not.

Another nearby grave was not quite so well tended.

Maybe the Connors were just a prickly bunch.

Then I made my way back to the older area where there are burials from the pioneer days. Now we're getting interesting!

Some of the burials were not tended at all and had no headstones or other markers.

Where there were markers, the thing that stands out is how many children died very young in the late 1800s. Life must have been tough for those early pioneering types.

Even if you made it through childhood, you weren't guaranteed a long life. Poor Nellie was only 18 but I imagine that in the late 1800s she'd have been "husband high" and living her own life. Sadly, her grave marker shows no indication of a husband, nor does is say who erected the stone for her. There is a large area of blank space as if there would be other burials in the same plot, but there the story ends.

Here's an interesting one. Alexander Murdoch, an immigrant from Scotland like me, seems to have been remembered quite recently. He has a very modern headstone compared to the others who died in the nineteenth century.

Another family who lost young children were the Andersons. This one, though, stood out for me because of Mr Anderson's unusual middle name. He would have been born around 1826; I wonder if he was born here.

Moving into the 20th century, we find the a grave marker, the side of which commemorates Charles Lyle who died 2½ years after he took part in the landing at Gallipoli. Did he make it home from the war or is this a memorial marker? I don't know, but I salute him.

As I headed out of the older section of the cemetery, I discovered that some people had apparently chosen to be interred in what looks like a wood-fired pizza oven! I have no idea of the significance of this monument. If you know, please tell me in the comments.

One last look back at the more modern area. I believe these are headstones marking cremations. I like the tension between the curve of the line of markers and the straight line of the boundary hedge.

An interesting postscript: As I was leaving, just outside the cemetery fence I found a little teddy bear lying in the grass. He was all mildewed and mouldy and covered in dirt, but he was wearing a white coat with some sort of health provider's logo. Perhaps he was a comfort bear given to a small child at a hospital or hospice. I wonder if the loss of the bear caused more tears than attending a funeral may have caused for this hypothetical child. We shall probably never know.

My friend Allan Saw (Flickr, Twitter) was moved by the fate of this poor teddy bear and used his wonderful photographic and post production skills to create this image of a Teddy Bear Wake.

(Note that this image is © Allan Saw and may not be used for any purpose without his permission)

I think that the concept of the wake, even the funeral, are important. Not for the dead, but for the living. It is necessary for the living to grieve, to celebrate the life of the dead person so that they can move on with their own lives.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on life, death and photography in the comments.

Good light.

Cricket photography.

Nothing to do with the insects...

...although this is actually a cicada, not a cricket!

I love the game of cricket. I'll watch any game in any format I can find. On TV or live at the ground.

I particularly love test cricket. This is the form of the game where a match can, and ideally should, last for five days, and even after that time it is possible to not get a result. Although it is increasingly infrequent, test match cricket can end in a draw. Note that a draw is not the same as a tie. There have only been two tied test matches, one in Brisbane in 1960 and one in Chennai in 1986. This is a very rare result; the two thousandth test match will commence at Lord's tomorrow (July 21, 2011).

Over the past four years I have been a non-playing* member at the Darley cricket club in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria and I'm just about to start my second season as a committee member.

For the first two seasons I was the official scorer for the First XI side but for the last two seasons I have been attending matches as a photographer. Hence, finally, the reason for this blog post!

Now cricket is played on a large, oval shaped ground and most of the action takes place near the centre of that ground. What we need here is some long glass. I use the Tamron SP AF 200-500mm f/5.3-6.3 usually in the range of 300-400mm. Note that I use a Nikon D90 so the smaller sensor gives some extra telephoto advantage, but that's a story for another post.

You will see that, given the range of aperture of this lens, I am going to struggle to suck in light in low light situations, and to get a nice shallow depth of field to isolate the action from the background. Fortunately cricket is a bit of a fair weather game and is usually played in good light conditions. It does pay to keep shooting when the play stops though.


For the second problem, one of our grounds is on the side of a hill. No, the ground is level, but shooting from one side means that there is nothing on the other side for miles.


So what do you shoot? I have tended to shoot everything. Three to five shots at 4.5fps of almost every delivery, the same or more of catches and run outs, a couple of shots of fielding to make sure I get at least something of every team member.

This is too much! It is a huge amount of wear and tear on my shutter and makes the job of culling prior to editing simply unbearable! I must learn to ease back a little.

I also tend to watch most of the game through the lens. Some people say that cricket is a slow game, but when the action happens, it happens quickly.

And there is plenty to shoot. There is the batting. Sometimes the batsman gets the better of the bowler and scores runs.


Sometimes the bowler wins that contest.


There are catches.


Appeals (I love the triple symmetry in this one).


And the one the bowlers all love to see, wickets with the bails flying in the air.


Don't forget the crowd, they like to get involved as well.

(Edit: Ok, maybe "crowd" is a slight exaggeration.)

And then there are the "What the ...?" moments. A batsman and the fielders should always keep their eye on the ball. Sometimes you get distracted by a flying, broken bat though! Psst! The ball's on this side, guys.


For those that love both cricket and photography, it is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Of course there are the after-match beers, which always taste better when washing down a victory.


So, do you shoot cricket? What about other sports? Leave a comment with a link to your favourite sports shot.

Special thanks to my Twitter friend Sarah for encouraging me and keeping me supplied with cricketing photos during the Australian off-season. Sarah is the official photographer for Kent County Cricket Club. Check out her work here, or follow her on Twitter.

*For all my love of watching cricket, I have never played the game apart from school-yard lunchtime knocks.

Good Light.

Clarity

Nothing to do with Darren Clarke winning the Claret Jug trophy at the British Open golf tournament in Sandwich, Kent!

This is about the clarity slider in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.4.1 (hereafter called LR3).

The clarity slider has been available in Lightroom since version 1.1 and as a brush setting since LR3 (I think).

Clarity has been called the “make your photo better” slider by Adobe and NAPP resident expert Matt Kloskowski and many, many photographers have used it as a brush setting (small brush, clarity at about -50) as a skin smoothing tool in portrait shots.

But what happens when you crank it up the other way? Turn the knob to 11, as it were.

Well clarity is all about lines and edges so when I took this shot of beautifully patterned tree bark, I knew it was a candidate for some extreme clarity setting.



So I cranked the clarity up to 100 over the entire image, did the same with contrast and added a slight vignette to hide the boring bits direct the viewers eye to the centre of the image, and here's what I ended up with.



Do you use the clarity slider in LR3? Leave links to your favourite shot in the comments and let me know what you did, why you did it and why you like the results.

Good Light.