Well, I’ve just posted my 31st image on Instagram (#shoottheadventure). That might seem good, but since it’s 15th February, and I have only a few images “in the bag”, it means I’m running a bit behind. In truth, I expected this; producing effectively seven images a week was always going to be challenging. Nevertheless, I am still very much committed to the project, and on 31st December of this year, I will endeavour to post my 365th image.
My two primary goals with this project were to widen my photographic horizons, in terms of the types of images I produce, and drive myself to do more photography. I’m happy to say that I’m headed in the right direction with both of those goals, though it is difficult with work and family commitments. For many years I defined myself as a “Landscape Photographer”, and it’s only recently I’ve realised that this has had the effect of putting self imposed limits on me, so I want to break away from that and define myself simply as a “photographer” in future.
The images I’m posting in this blog are a selection of my favourites from the first 31. The featured image for this post is a shot of the Customs House in Rockhampton. It, along with other buildings in the town’s Quay St, are illuminated in the evenings, with lights of constantly changing colour. In fact, I didn’t set out that evening to take this shot, the idea in my head was my long exposure nightscape of one of the town’s river bridges. After I’d completed that shot, I was on my way back to the car with my tripod still extended under my arm, when I spotted a possible composition of the Customs house. I took a few shots, but wasn’t really expecting any keepers, because the colour of the lights kept changing, and I wasn’t really very happy with any of the previews on the camera. Later, at home, with a little manipulation to increase the exposure on the building’s dome, I realised I had a keeper. It’s definitely one of my favourites of the series so far!
This image is the Nightscape of the Fitzroy River bridge I set out to take, and I’m quite happy with it. I might have liked a little more movement in the clouds during the 30 second exposure, but it was a relatively wind free evening. I’d set up my camera on my tripod with my Sigma Art 18-35mm f/1.8 aboard. The shot ended up being taken at f/8 to get the 30 second exposure at 100 ISO. I’ve had the Sigma lens since November last year, and I have to say it is a heavy beast, but I’m over the moon with it’s sharpness, even at f/1.8. I had been a little worried about it before I decided to get one, because some reviews suggested that it had some difficulty nailing focus, especially the Canon version. I’ve not found any such problems; it focuses instantly, and beautifully quietly for me. Once I’ve had it a good few months and used it enough, I’ll do an in-depth review.
This shot, is a little wildflower I plucked from our garden at home. I was struggling with the lighting, and eventually ended up using an external flash mounted on a second tripod. I decided to spray some water on the flower, and as I was doing so, I realised that I could probably freeze the water spray as it landed on the flower if I set the camera to underexpose the ambient light and allowed the flash to freeze the water. It took a number of tries to synchronise my manual spraying from the water bottle with the shot using the two second self timer, but this is the result. This is a shot taken with the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro, at f/8. It is a lovely crisp lens even at f/2.8, but of course the depth of field is so shallow that it’s not practical for this kind of shot. I’m confident that with a more sturdy set up, I will be able to produce some really exciting shots in this style.
These two shots are of the same Flower, another plucked from the Garden, a Hibiscus. The shot on the left is one of the five tiny Stigma at the top of the right hand shot. Again, I used an external flash here, and the closer of the two shots is taken at f/l1, the other at f/4. I liked the way the water droplets on the stigma seem to have become tiny mirrors.
The thing I will have to work on with my macro shots, is getting some kind of better “studio” set up. These shots were taken with the flower balanced on top of a glass, on the patio, and I was continually annoyed by the slight breeze moving the thing at inopportune moments. The 60mm macro lens, I suspect, will produce a fair percentage of my shots for this 365 series. I want to try it out shooting some portraits at some point. I’ve read various articles saying that it’s very good for that, and it certainly is an ideal focal length, but I suspect that the bokeh might not be the most attractive. Time will tell.
Well, as regards future shoot plans, my family and I are heading off from our backwater town to the bright lights of Brisbane for a few days next week, and I hope to explore whatever opportunities present themselves there to build a bit of “stock” for the project.
Keep checking out my Instagram (#shoottheadventure); I’m posting all the shots there regularly, and I’ll do more detailed info on my favourites here.
Catch you soon,
Jim
Shoot The Adventure 