2011 has been another busy year for me. It has been busy at work throughout the year, and I spent a number of weeks on work-related travel, visiting Melbourne (three times), Adelaide, Calgary (Alberta, Canada), Brisbane, and a remote mine-site in the north of Western Australia near Kununurra.
I took a camera with me on most of the work-related trips, and in most cases, managed to find some time for photography.

ore stockpiles

remote mine-site, Kimberley, Western Australia

snow-covered mountains in the mirror

Spray Valley Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada

I also spent three weeks in the Netherlands on a family holiday - the first time I had been back for about 13 years. I came back from the Netherlands with nearly 3000 photos.

view of Elburg from Sint Nicolaaskerk

Elburg, Gelderland, The Netherlands

As I indicated 12 months ago, I made a start in kite aerial photography (KAP) this year, using an old Canon PowerShot G5 point-n-shoot camera. I also had an Introduction to Kite Aerial Photography guest post published on DIY Photography.

KAP self-portrait

taken with remote-controlled camera suspended from kite

Southern River, Western Australia

I recently purchsed a GoPro Hero2 camera, and used it for a few KAP sessions earlier this week (photos from those sessions coming soon). The GoPro Hero2 is smaller and lighter than the old Canon G5 I was using, has a wider angle lens, and will provide 11 megapixel still photos and full HD video.

GoPro Hero2 camera in its weatherproof housing

Early in 2011, I also did my first new-born newborn baby photoshoot - taking photos of Zoe Madison when she was two weeks old. It was a lot of fun, and the parents and I were happy with the results.

Zoe Madison

In 2011, I shot a few weddings. While I enjoy shooting weddings, I do not want to take on too many weddings, due to the time and effort it takes.

Marius & Alice

University of Western Australia

Throughout the year, I also went out on a few photowalks with friends, family, and colleagues, to a variety of locations.

lonely

Warnbro, Western Australia

Hovea Falls

John Forrest National Park, Western Australia

dugite snake (pseudonaja affinis)

Harvey Dam, Western Australia

My cheapest gear acquisition in 2011 was a DIY camera wrist strap, made out of cheap paracord. After several months of use, I can say that I'm definitely finding that it works well for me, and I am not missing the neck strap at all.

DIY camera wrist strap

One of my more exciting gear acquisitions was the Phottix Odin, a wireless TTL flash trigger. The Odin provides full TTL functionality for multiple remote flashes - and does so wirelessly, using 2.4GHz RF, providing more reliable triggering and much better range than Canon's built-in infrared triggering.

Phottix Odin transmitter control unit

I have used the Odin for a couple of weddings, as well as various family shoots and product-type shoots, and have been very impressed with the functionality and features it provides.

Adrian & Roslin & bridal party

shooting into the sun, with two bare 580EX flashes triggered with a Phottix Odin, in TTL mode

The number of RSS subscribers continued to increase during 2011.
According to Google Analytics, of the blog posts that were posted during 2011, the most popular were:

• Review: Phottix Odin TTL Flash Trigger
• Review: Phottix Strato II Multi Trigger
• Understanding Your Camera: F-Numbers, F-Stops and Stops
• DIY Camera Wrist Strap
• Understanding Your Camera: The Manual Mode Myth
• Understanding Your Camera: Camera Modes Explained
• Long Exposure at Point Peron
• KAP Self-Portrait
• Visiting the Solicitor
• Analysing Lens Usage
• eBook Review: 100% Reliable Flash Photography
• Newborn: Zoe Madison
• Yes, Filters Do Protect Your Lens

As shown by the list of popular post above, gear-related posts continue to prove popular.
Due to insufficient time, I only posted three articles in the series I am writing as I teach camera basics and camera operation to my children (and all three show up in the most popular posts above).



I intend to write more articles in the Understanding Your Camera series as I continue to teach camera basics and camera operation to my children.

Nicholas

Glen Brook Dam, John Forrest National Park, Western Australia

Bookings for a couple of weddings for 2012 have already been received, and I may look at writing some posts about what happens while shooting a wedding.

More gear reviews are planned, as well as a number of book reviews and ebook reviews.


Thanks to all the people who have responded to posts with comments over the last years, and I wish all my readers the best in your 2012.

If you are not a regular reader of this blog, you may want to consider subscribing via RSS or via email, to ensure you don't miss out on any new content.

Some rough-cut wooden clogs in a clog workshop, in the historical Dutch village of Marken.

wooden clogs

Marken, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @42mm, 1/50 sec, f/5.6, ISO250

Phottix are offering a 5% discount on all purchases from their online store until 25 December 2011. Use the discount code 5offxmas to receive your discount.
If you have been wanting a Phottix Odin TTL flash trigger, or maybe a Strato II multi trigger, now is the time to submit an order!

B&H have instant rebates on numerous items, including lenses, camera bodies and more, until 7 January 2012. Have a browse through their list, and see if there is anything you need while the rebates are available.




Commercial photographer Chase Jarvis once said "The Best Camera Is The One That's With You". In other words, it doesn't matter if you've got a great camera sitting at home...because if you don't have it with you, you can't use it! Chase has been a big fan of using iPhone cameras and similar, as a phone is something you normally always have with you in your pocket.

I don't carry my DSLR camera with me every day, as it's too large and heavy, and inconvenient to take with me everywhere. I've had a company-provided Nokia phone for many years, but the camera in my current Nokia 3120 Classic is only capable of very crappy photos!

I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S II Android smart phone, which has a camera that is capable of 8 megapixel still images (with a 28mm equivalent focal length), and full high-definition 1080p video at 30 frames per second. (Check out the interesting advert for it here.)
While the camera on my new smart phone will never replace my DSLR, it will provide me with the opportunity to take photos in situations where I previously did not have a camera with me.



I recently bought a GoPro Hero2 camera. It's a tiny camera capable of 11 megapixel still photos (with a field-of-view of 170 degrees!), full HD video, and comes complete with weatherproof housing and various mounts.

Check out this video on YouTube for some interesting ideas on how these cameras can be used.
I am intending to use the GoPro Hero2 camera for kite aerial photography.

Here's a photo to show just how small this camera is.

GoPro Hero2 camera in housing

photo taken with Samsung Galaxy S II phone

B&H do not yet have the GoPro Hero2 in stock, but have the older GoPro Hero Original and accessories for both the Hero and Hero2 avaiable.
GoPro cameras can also be ordered directly from gopro.com. I ordered mine from gopro.com, and it was delivered (to Australia) a week after being ordered.



Want to look through some cool tilt-shift photos? Want a place to show off your own tilt-shift photos? The tiltShifted.com website is an online showcase for tilt-shift photographers. You can submit your tilt-shift photos for inclusion - a couple of my tilt-shift photos are visible here on tiltShifted.com.



Here are some great selections of photos to inspire you.

• Tiny People's Wonderful World of Food
• Incredible Photos that Capture Day Turning into Night
• 100 Awesome Illustrations of Forced Perspective Photography
• yowayowa camera woman diary (Natsumi Hayashi, a Japanese girl who posts levitation self-portraits - see here for some background info)
• levitation photos by Denis Darzacq
• Create Wonderful Sliced Fruit Images

A sneak peek at a wedding I shot a few weeks ago. Here's the bride pretending to drive away in the very cool Kombi that they used as their wedding car.

getaway car

Roleystone, Western Australia

While fly-fishing at Harvey Dam yesterday with some friends, we came across the 1.5m dugite snake shown in the photos below. Actually, it is probably more accurate to say it came across us.
While standing on the edge of the dam water with a rod in my hand, the snake's arrival was announced via some screaming by a female friend.

dugite snake

Harvey Dam, Western Australia

The snake was clearly terrified, and tried to blend into the background by not moving at all.
I immediately grabbed my camera, and started shooting the snake.

With some gentle encouragement with a fishing rod, the snake departed up the hillside, and disappeared in a hole in the ground.

dugite snake

Harvey Dam, Western Australia

With summer almost here, and the weather starting to warm up (37 degrees forecast for next week Wednesday!), I thought I'd dig out a photo from a much colder season.

This photo is from my trip to Canada in April this year, at the end of the northern winter. While exploring near Barrier Lake (in Kananaskis Country), I saw some snow on a bench, and decided to get closer with the camera.

snow on a bench

Barrier Lake, Alberta, Canada
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 1/125 sec, f/7.1, ISO100

Last month I shot the wedding of Marius and Alice. The rain held off during the day, with only a shower or two when we were driving between locations. It was a fun day, and we visited some of my favourite wedding photo locations, including UWA and the Crawley Edge boatshed.
Here's a few shots from the day.

A fishmonger weighs fish for a customer at the markets in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

fishmonger

Utrecht, The Netherlands

When walking through the old city of Elburg, in the Netherlands, earlier this year, a wedding was about to start. I loved the look of the flowers on this black VW Beetle that was parked outside the town hall, so I took a couple of shots with my 10-22mm lens.

Wedding Beetle

Elburg, Gelderland, The Netherlands

Wedding Beetle

Elburg, Gelderland, The Netherlands

A different kind of Dutch windmill to the last one I posted. This one was shot in central Holland somewhere, while cruising through the canals in a boat.

Dutch windmill in the fields

The Netherlands

Here is a photo from a wedding I shot earlier this month. This was a spur-of-the-moment shot, taken out the window of my parked car with a 70-200mm lens, as the wedding cars were driving through a carpark towards me.

wedding car in black and white

Pioneer Village, Armadale, Western Australia

I have been using a DIY wrist strap on my camera for the last couple of months, and I am finding that it works very well for me. When on a photowalk or a photo shoot, I wasn't using the camera's neck strap, and typically just would let it hang down, getting in the way.

This wrist strap allows me to completely remove the neck strap, provides some security against dropping the camera, and adds some wrist support when holding the camera up to my eye.

I have used it on a couple of photo shoots and a photowalk, and am not missing the neck strap at all.

The problem with many of the commercial hand/wrist straps is that the top normally attaches to the strap mount, while the bottom attaches to the tripod mount underneath the camera. Because I don't use a battery grip, such a strap would be too small for my large hands, and it could potentially foul the tripod mount.

This DIY camera wrist strap only attaches to the top strap mount on the camera body, and is adjustable to fit any size wrist and hand. It allows me to leave my tripod quick-release plate screwed onto the base of the camera body, and I can clip the camera onto my home-made rapid strap without having to remove the wrist strap from the camera.



I first saw this DIY camera wrist strap here on Jan Christian's blog. While Jan used red paracord for his strap (which works well with the red strip on some Canon L lenses), I decided to use a more subtle black paracord for my wrist strap.



Jan specifies 550lb 7-core paracord, which can easily be sourced on eBay or elsewhere on the internet. The ends of an appropriate length of paracord (approx 60-70cm) are tied with a lanyard knot.

The strap is then looped through the top right strap mount on the camera body using a simple lark's head knot. As it will probably be a tight fit through the strap mount on the camera, use one of the inner strands of paracord to help pull it through.

pull the strap through the strap mount

lark's head knot on the camera

The length of the strap can then be adjusted to suit your wrist size by moving the lanyard knot. As Jan says, you need to adjust it to find the "sweet spot where there's a little tension on the strap but enough slack so that you can still manipulate the buttons on the camera".

Once suitably adjusted, cut any excess off the ends, and melt them to prevent fraying. If necessary, the strap can easily be removed from your camera at any time, without having to undo the lanyard knot.

the finished product

using the strap

If any locals who know me personally are interested in trying one of these wrist straps, I have plenty of black paracord, as 30 metres was the shortest length I could find on eBay at the time!

A curious piglet keeps a careful eye on me as I take his photo.

curious piglet

Wittelte, Drenthe, The Netherlands

Phottix have delivered yet another interesting and useful camera accessory - this time addressing the shortcomings of wireless TTL flash technology offered by Canon and Nikon. The Phottix Odin is a wireless TTL flash trigger that uses RF communications, thus providing more reliable triggering and longer range than the infra-red communications used by Canon and Nikon's built-in wireless flash triggering functionality.

While there are many non-TTL wireless flash triggers available, they all require the flash power to be set on each individual flash. The Phottix Odin allows multiple remote flashes to be triggered either in TTL mode, or in manual mode, but allows all parameters to be set from the Odin transmitter control unit, rather than on each individual flash.

This TTL flash trigger was initially going to be called the Phottix Helios, but the name was subsequently changed to the Phottix Odin.

Thanks to Phottix for providing a pre-release Phottix Odin for review purposes, and thanks to Steve for responding to my many questions.

Note that the photos in this review show a pre-release version of the Phottix Odin for Canon. Silk-screen labelling on the finalised version will be slightly different. Refer to the product photos at the bottom of the official Phottix Odin annoucement to see the labelling on the release version of the Odin.



Features

The Phottix Odin TTL Flash Trigger has the following features:

• three flash groups
• four channels
• can use ETTL/manual mode or ratio mode
• each flash groups can be configured for ETTL (with FEC) or manual mode
• each flash group can have zoom set by ETTL or manually
• high-speed sync up to 1/8000 seconds
• second curtain sync
• remote flash wake-up
• compatibility with Phottix Strato 4-in-1 and Strato II Multi receivers

DIY Photography has published a guest post by myself, which takes an introductory look at kite aerial photography (KAP).

The DIY Photography website is a great resource for information on DIY light modifiers, building a home studio, as well as various photography techniques and camera hacks.
The DIYP site is run by Udi Tirosh, a professional photographer. He emailed me some time ago, asking if I was interested in writing a guest post about KAP, so I jumped at the chance.

Head over to DIYP to read my Introduction to Kite Aerial Photography guest post.

KAP self-portrait

Southern River, Western Australia
Canon PowerShot G5 @7mm, 1/1600 sec, f/4

In the Netherlands, the humble bicycle gets a lot more use than in Australia, with many people regularly using their bikes for commuting. There's also a type of bike designed for carrying more cargo, typically known as a "bakfiets" in Holland (probably best translated to English as "cargo bicycle" or "freight bicycle").

Here are a few bakfietsen that I saw while walking around the city of Utrecht.

bakfiets outside a bike shop

Utrecht, The Netherlands

While in the Netherlands in June/July, I noticed the variety of cobblestones that many villages and cities had, with different types and shaped cobblestones being used in different locations. The cobblestones ranged from rectangular, square, round, random-shaped, and more.

While bending down to take a photo of these cobblestones, just outside the Dom tower in Utrecht, I noticed a love-heart-shaped indentation in one of the stones.

cobblestone love heart

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Incidentally, the photo above is the one I was about to take when I damaged the CPL filter on my Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens, but the filter protected the lens itself from any damage.

Taken while on holidays in the Netherlands recently, I noticed this window on one of the barns on an uncle's farm, and had to take a photo of it.

farm window

Wittelte, Drenthe, The Netherlands

While travelling around Holland in June/July, we quickly gained an appreciation for the numerous canals criss-crossing the country, as well as the many drawbridges that allow traffic over the canals.

The drawbridge shown below is in Ruischerbrug, in the province of Groningen, and as we drove towards it, the drawbridge was raised (see second photo), to allow a long barge through. We pulled over for a closer look and some photos, and the photo immediately below was taken once the barge had passed through and the drawbridge was lowered again.

"Borgbrug" drawbridge over the Eemskanaal

Ruischerbrug, Groningen, The Netherlands

The name of this particular bridge is the "Borgbrug", which I suppose could be translated as "Borg Bridge" ;-)

Last month I returned from a 3-week family holiday in the Netherlands, and came home with several thousand photos. I'm slowly working my way through the photos, and will be posting some of them on my blog in the coming months.

While I have been to the Netherlands several times before, this was the first time I have been there in summer, and we had a great time, making the most of the very long evenings (with daylight savings, it gets dark at about 10:30pm).

Here's a typical Dutch scene, a windmill, near Diever, in the province of Drenthe, in the north of the Netherlands. We were driving past, and stopped on the side of the road so I could capture this windmill. In the first couple of photos I shot, the windmill was in the shade, but then the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the windmill, resulting in the photo below.

Diever windmill

Diever, Drenthe, The Netherlands

I've previously written about why I like to keep a filter on the front of each lens to protect it (normally a UV filter). It is a subject that seems to divide photographers - some always have a UV filter on each lens, while others don't like to put any extra glass between their lens and the subject matter.

While recently in Europe, I had another experience that confirms why I have a filter on each lens.



While getting down on my knees to shoot some interesting cobblestones in the Netherlands last month, I stumbled, and the end of my lens banged into the hard cobblestones. I had the Canon EF-S 10-22mm wide-angle lens on my camera at the time, with a 77mm low-profile circular polarising filter (CPL) on the lens.

The end of the filter took the brunt of the impact, as shown in the photo below.

damaged CPL filter on a Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens

The lens itself wasn't damaged at all, other than a slight scuff mark on the outside of the filter thread. Despite the damage to the CPL filter's outer element, the filter glass is still intact, and the filter still rotates fine (initially a little stiff, but it has since loosened up).

damaged CPL filter

With the damage to the CPL filter, I can no longer attach another filter to the front of this CPL filter. However, I don't like to stack filters, so that's not an issue for me.



If I hadn't had any filter on the lens when it contacted the cobblestones, the filter thread on the lens itself would very likely have been damaged. With damaged filter thread on the lens, I wouldn't be able to screw on any filters, nor would I be able to use my Cokin Z-Pro filter holder on the Canon 10-22mm lens.

I would much rather have a damaged filter, than a damaged lens! A filter is a lot cheaper to replace than repairing or replacing a lens. In this particular incident, although the filter was damaged, it's still completely useable.

The Dear Photograph website collects user-submitted photos of a photo from the past in the present, and some great photos have been submitted.

Dear photograph
Some things never change
mikaelagallagher

Head over to the Dear Photograph website, and browse through their collection. Alternatively, dig out some of your old photos, and take your own photos to submit to the website.



The Young Me / Now Me website has user-submitted pairs of photos - where one photo is of the person or people from years ago, and the second photo is of the same person or people in the same location.

Photographer Irina Werning's Back to the Future project takes the concept a step further, taking old photos of people, and then re-creating the scene with the now-older person, using similar looking clothes, hairstyles, lighting and backgrounds.
(Note: some photos in the Irina's collection are NSFW.)



Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg have found a new use for animated gifs, using them to create some very interesting photos with subtle animation that they call "Cinemagraphs".

Have an adventurous weekend, by Jamie Beck

For more examples of these cinemagraphs, head over to Jamie's blog, or see this journal post on redbubble.com with more info and links to tutorials on creating your own cinemagraphs.



For all you keen photographers, you can now buy a piggy bank in the shape of a DSLR camera, called the DSLR Bank.

To help you dream about photography, you can also buy lens pillows, with a wide selection of different lenses available.

Early on last week Saturday morning, a few brave souls ventured out to Kings Park to catch the sunrise.
There was some low-lying fog over the city, river and the hills, which provided some interesting views as the sun rose behind the city. This shot was taken just after sunrise, with the sun just off the left of the frame, and a lone boat in the river providing some interesting ripples in the water.

Swan River at sunrise

Kings Park, Western Australia, 2011-07-16
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @50mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO100

We have been breeding Gouldian finches for several years. A few weeks ago, I decided to try to get some photos of a parent Gouldian finch feeding one of their young babies. The young finches were a little shy, and here's one of them hiding behind a leaf.

baby Gouldian finch peering through a leaf

back yard at home, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @188mm, 1/100 sec, f/4, ISO200

These baby finches had only been out of the nest for a week or so, and were still demanding to be fed by their parents. Before too long, I was snapping photos of the father Gouldian finch feeding one of his brood (photo below).

male Gouldian finch feeding a young finch

back yard at home, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @135mm, 1/100 sec, f/4, ISO200

After reading a recent post by Jason, where he analyses the focal lengths he uses, I was inspired to do something similar.
I performed a similar analysis on all the photos I took in 2010, looking at which lenses I used most, and the focal lengths used. This was done in light of the fact that I have been thinking about maybe selling one of my lenses and getting one covering a slightly different focal length.



ExposurePlot is a useful application for performing analysis on your photos. Just point it at a directory of your photos, and it reads the EXIF data in all the photos in that directory and subdirectories, and generates graphs of the data.

The command-line exiftool provides similar functionality, but requires a little more effort to process the results.
For example, to extract the focal lengths of all photos and dump the results into a text file (recursively going through all subdirectories looking for photos), the following syntax can be used:

exiftool -r -focallength * > focallengths.txt 

If you are a Lightroom user, Lightroom can report various statistics by lens, aperture, focal length, and more. Just click the filter combo at the top right, and select "Metadata" to view the filter criteria.



During 2010, I took photos on numerous work-related interstate trips, visiting Sydney (twice), Adelaide (three times), Brisbane, Gold Coast, Roxby Downs, as well as a road trip through various locations in NSW, including Newcastle, Wollongong, Nowra and Botany Bay.
I also shot one wedding, did one family shoot, and took plenty of photos on several holidays with my own family.

moth and everlasting flower

Lesmurdie Falls National Park, Lesmurdie, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 1/1000 sec, f/4.5, ISO400

Safety Bay is a popular location for kite surfers. To capture the movement and speed of this kite surfer, I used a slow shutter speed, and panned the camera.

a kite surfer speeding along the water

Safety Bay, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 1/40 sec, f/22, ISO100

While on a remote mine site in the north of Western Australia recently, I was able to take some photos while being shown around the site.
Here's some nickel ore, ready to be dumped into a crusher. The lighter pile in the foreground is low-grade ore, while the darker pile behind it is higher-grade ore.

mixed ore

Kimberley, Western Australia
Olympus uTough 8010 @5mm, 1/640 sec, f/3.9, ISO80

We have had a couple of extra boys in the house for the last week, while friends of ours were overseas. On the weekend, I snapped a few photos of the boys, and here's some results.
For lighting, I had a 580EX on the hotshoe, reflecting off the wall behind me and off the ceiling.

Craig

Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO200

Michael

Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO200

Craig

Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @43mm, 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO200

Last weekend I got my KAP rig (kite aerial photography) airborne for the first time. KAP is a form of aerial photography, where a camera is suspended from a kite line to allow aerial photos to be taken, with the camera either being triggered by an intervalometer, or controlled and triggered via radio control.

Here's a self-portrait taken during my first KAP attempt. Also in the frame is my 12 year-old son Ashley, another keen photographer.

KAP self-portrait

Bob Blackburn Reserve, Seville Grove, Western Australia
Canon PowerShot G5 @7mm, 1/400 sec, f/4

I didn't have the kite and camera very high, or airborne for very long, as I was pushed for time, and the wind was quite gusty. The photo below is stitched from 7 individual photos taken with the KAP camera.

Bob Blackburn Reserve and Armadale Aquatic Centre

image stitched from 7 photos

Bob Blackburn Reserve, Seville Grove, Western Australia
Canon PowerShot G5, f/4

Phottix released the Strato 4-in-1 trigger just over 12 months ago (read my review here), and have now released an updated and improved version called the Strato II Multi (also known as the Strato II Multi 5-in-1 wireless trigger).

The Strato II Multi includes all the functionality of the Strato 4-in-1, but also provides a number of improvements and additional functionality.

Thanks to Phottix for providing a pre-release Phottix Strato II Multi for review purposes.

Note that the silk-screen labelling on the pre-release version shown in the photos in this review shows "Strato Multi", but the name of the finalised version will be "Strato II Multi".



Features

The Phottix Strato II Multi is a multi-function device that can be used as:

• wireless flash trigger
• wired shutter release
• wireless shutter release

and it provides the following features:

• 4 channels
• 4 groups (transmitter can trigger one or more groups simultaneously)
• TTL pass-through on the transmitter
• remote flash wake-up
• backwards compatibility with the Strato 4-in-1 receiver

In the September school holidays last year, I took my two sons on a road-trip to Cervantes for a few days. I am still catching up with post-processing photos from last year, and have more photos from that trip to go through.
Here's a long exposure of the fantastic colours that showed up after sunset, taken at one of the beaches in Cervantes. The lone seagull posing on the jetty provides an interesting silhouette, although he wasn't completely still for the 8 second duration of this photo.

seagull silhouette at sunset

Cervantes, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 8 sec, f/13, ISO100

Summer is definitely over in Australia, and the weather is (finally) cooling down after a long hot summer. That means nature photographers can look forward to the colours of autumn, when the leaves turn red, orange and yellow, and provide some fantastic photography opportunities.
I love the colours of autumn, and always try to find some time to capture the colours with my camera.

To remind everyone (in the southern hemisphere) what they can look forward to, here's a photo of an autumn leaf from last year, taken with one of my favourite lenses, the 35mm f/2.

autumn colour palette

Burswood, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 35mm f/2 @35mm, 1/500 sec, f/2, ISO100

Although it seems like it was longer ago, it was only a week ago that I returned home from a week-long training course in Canada.
I had one free weekend in Canada, and on the Saturday, I went for a drive through Kananaskis. Here's a photo of the side mirror of my rental car, showing the typical scenery in the mountains.

snow-covered mountains in the mirror

Spray Valley Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 1/80 sec, f/8, ISO100

New shoots on a grape vine wrap themselves around old tendrils from a previous season.

all wrapped up

Settlers Rest Farmstay, West Swan, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @58mm, 1/800 sec, f/4, ISO200

I still have a back-log of photos from the last year or so that I am slowly working through. Here's some photos of a lion at the Perth Zoo, taken in June last year.

Often the lions at the zoo are not too keen to pose for photographers, but are sleeping in the back of the enclosure. However, on this occasion, this male lion was lying on a rock, keeping an eye on the zoo visitors, and cleaning his paws and face.

One of the performers we saw in action today at the 2011 Fremantle Street Arts Festival was Leapin' Louie, performing his comedy cowboy routines.

a tall unicycle and a burning whip....what could possibly go wrong?

cracking a burning whip

Here's a photo taken in Sydney in late 2009, capturing the lights of Luna Park after sunset. It was shot across the harbour from Blues Point.
I tried a few different exposures, and found about 10 seconds gave good results to capture the lights on the spinning ferris wheel, while still smoothing out the water.

Luna Park at night

Blues Point, Sydney, New South Wales
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 10 sec, f/7.1, ISO100

This is the eighth article in a series on "understanding your camera" that I am writing as I teach camera basics and camera operation to my children.

In the previous article in this series, I discussed the various modes available on most cameras, from the fully automatic modes to the semi-automatic modes, creative modes, and manual mode.



There are plenty of people who believe you are not a photographer unless you always use manual mode.

For someone who is relatively new to a DSLR camera, the idea of using manual mode can be a bit daunting, especially when you are struggling to come to terms with the concepts of exposure, aperture, and you are still learning your way around the controls of your camera.

I don't have anything against the people who choose to use manual mode. However, I do have a problem with the people who insist manual mode is the only way to use a DSLR camera.



Modern digital cameras contain a lot of electronics that can make smarter and faster decisions about exposure than you can.
Rather than having to choose the ISO, aperture and shutter speed manually, let the camera take control of one or more of those parameters, while you set the parameter(s) that are important.

Let the camera do most of the work, and you can then adjust the exposure up or down a little, if required, using exposure compensation.
This will allow you to focus on actually taking the photo, the composition, and capturing the moment, rather than fiddling with the camera's controls to get the right exposure in manual mode. This is especially true for people who are still learning the controls on their DSLR camera, where adjusting aperture, shutter speed and ISO isn't second nature, and you haven't yet figured out how to do it blind-folded, with one arm behind your back.

I recently did my first newborn baby photoshoot, photographing Matt and Roz's new-born baby girl.
Zoe Madison was born on 11 February, and was just two weeks old when these photos were taken.

sleeping beauty

supporting hands

Revisiting photos taken a while ago, and post-processing (or re-post-processing them) can be an interesting experience, as you can find photos that you didn't think were worth post-processing at the time, as well as finding photos that you think are worth post-processing again, using a different style.
While recently browsing through photos from a 2008 Tasmanian trip, I decided to post-process some additional photos, and one of the results is shown below.

This photo shows loaf formations at the Tessellated Pavement, near Eaglehawk Neck, in Tasmania, which I visited several years ago. I found the Tessellated Pavement a fascinating place, and would definitely like to spend some more time there.

loaf formations at the Tessellated Pavement

Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania
Canon EOS 350D, 10-22mm @12mm, 1/30 sec, f/9, ISO200

Working on a jigsaw puzzle on a recent holiday.

working on a jigsaw puzzle

Port Kennedy, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @65mm, 1/80 sec, f/3.5, ISO250

This is the seventh article in a series on "understanding your camera" that I am writing as I teach camera basics and camera operation to my children.

SLR cameras and many point-and-shoot cameras have a mode dial, allowing you to select one of a number of different modes, depending on the conditions and how you want the camera to respond. However, many people do not understand the different modes, and leave their camera in the fully automatic mode all the time.

It is important to understand exposure, and what the camera is doing when you take a photo, and that is the reason why I'm looking at the different modes.



In full auto mode, the camera is making almost all the decisions about the exposure (aperture, shutter speed and ISO), and has to guess what you want. In many situations, you are much better off using some of the other modes available on your camera, as it will allow you to make decisions about some of the variables, while still (optionally) allowing the camera to make decisions about other variables.

In this post, I look at each of the modes available on most cameras, and provide some information about how the camera reacts when configured to use that mode.
(Note that I am more familiar with Canon cameras, so some references are specific to Canon cameras. However, the description of the modes is just as applicable to other brands of cameras.)

I love the juxtaposition of the bobcat parked outside a solicitor's office on an Adelaide street, and couldn't resist taking a few shots while walking past.

visiting the solicitor

Adelaide, South Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 1/50 sec, f/7.1, ISO200

Enzo Dal Verme is a photographer based in Milan and Paris, and he shoots for various magazines, including Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Elle, Glamour, and others.
He says people kept on asking him for tips on how to shoot reportage, and as a result, he decided to publish "How To Shoot A Reportage", where he shares what he has learned from his experiences around the world.

Enzo provided a free copy of the PDF version of this eBook for review purposes.

Reportage, according to thefreedictionary.com, is "the reporting of news or information of general interest", so in relation to photography, reportage is photojournalism. I think the author assumes anyone reading this eBook knows what reportage is, as he doesn't define the term at all.

The PDF version of "How To Short a Reportage" is a 68-page eBook full of practical tips and advice on shorting reportage. Enzo discusses numerous topics, including finding inspiration, why people shoot reportage, different types of reportage, preparation, and more, before going onto the practicalities of shooting itself. Numerous photos are included in the book, demonstrating many of the practical aspects mentioned in the text.


For anyone interested in photojournalism, "How To Shoot A Reportage" is a great reference, with plenty of useful and practical information in it.

This eBook can be purchased from Enzo's website, and is available in EPUB format for E4.99 (approx USD$6.95), or PDF format (contains more images than the EPUB version) for E8.59 (approx USD$11.95), with a print edition coming soon.

I still have a back-log of photos from 2009 and 2010 that I need to go through, and I am slowly working through them as I find the time.
This 30-second exposure was taken in Adelaide in October last year, when I had a fantastic view of the sunrise from my hotel window.

sunrise over Adelaide

Adelaide, South Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @10mm, 1/30 sec, f/3.5, ISO400

Yesterday I was testing some lighting setups with two reflective umbrellas on light stands, each with a Canon 580EX flash firing into it, triggering the flashes with a Canon ST-E2 wireless flash transmitter mounted on the camera's hotshoe. I wasn't concerned about ambient light, so I was shooting with the camera in manual mode, way under-exposed for the ambient light inside, and relying on the flashes in ETTL mode to provide enough lighting. The background is a plain wall in the living room.

I managed to talk my wife into being the first test subject, and with some minor tweaking of the umbrella positions, I got the shot shown below.

Ruth

Seville Grove, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO200

I was pretty happy with the result, particularly given the very quick setup time of the light stands and umbrellas. Using ETTL mode for the flashes in a situation like this means there's virtually zero setup time of the flashes themselves, other than potentially dialling in some flash exposure compensation to achieve the desired lighting.

Late last year, inspired by some of the long-exposure photos by Tasmanian photographer Alex Wise, I bought a B+W ND 3.0 filter.
It is a neutral density filter with an ND 3.0 rating, which means it reduces the exposure by 10 stops, letting just 0.1% of light through. In other words, it's an expensive piece of dark glass!
I bought a 77mm sized filter, to fit my Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens and Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens.
An ND filter reduces the amount of light allowed through the lens, thus allowing the use of much longer shutter speeds during the day.

Here is one of the first photos I took using the 10-stop ND filter. This is a beach scene at Point Peron, taken about half an hour before sunset, in January. The ND filter allowed a 30 second exposure with a fairly wide aperture of f/5.6. A long exposure on such a scene serves to completely blur the waves, resulting in a flat ocean, and milky/smoky water where the waves were breaking on the beach. Due to the movement of the clouds during the exposure, they are also blurred, providing a streaked look in the sky.

long exposure at Point Peron

Point Peron, Rockingham, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @13mm (10-stop ND filter), 30 sec, f/5.6, ISO100

Another photo from Lake Walyungup last month, showing a lonely clump of grass against the white gypsum lake bed. I had to get the camera on the ground to achieve this low viewpoint, but I'm happy with the result.

lonely

Lake Walyungup, Warnbro, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @12mm, 1/250 sec, f/7.1, ISO100

"Taking Your Portraiture to the Next Level II" is a brand-new 58-page eBook sequel by Edward Verosky to the "Taking Your Portraiture to the Next Level" eBook which I reviewed recently.

In this sequel, Edward discusses covers a number of topics that he avoided in his earlier portraiture eBook. Topics include

• building a portfolio
• various ideas for shoots,
• finding subjects
• interacting with your subjects
• gear discussions
• brief section on post-processing

With lots of sample photos included in the book, the author provides plenty of useful information for improving your portrait photography.

Note that if you haven't yet read the Edward's previous book, "Taking Your Portraiture to the Next Level", I would recommend you read it first, before reading book II.


The "Taking Your Portraiture to the Next Level II" eBook can be purchased online for USD$15, and is available for immediate download after submitting your payment online.

While on holidays near Rockingham last month, we visited Lake Walyungup while looking for some geocaches in the area. As it was summer, the lake is mostly dry, and it's an interesting location, with the lake bed covered in gypsum (not salt, as many people think).

broken glass

Lake Walyungup, Warnbro, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO100

While bike riding around the Rockingham area earlier this year, we came across a bobtail on the side of the cycle path. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to photograph it, and took a number of photos with a wide-angle lens, placing the camera on the ground very close to the bobtail.

I think the bobtail saw its own reflection in the lens, and decided to put on an aggressive show, resulting in the wide-open mouth pose shown below.

The bobtail is also known as a Western Shingleback, and its scientific name is Tiliqua rugosa.

bobtail

(Tiliqua rugosa)

Warnbro, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @13mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO100

A bunch of grapes catches the late afternoon sun at a vineyard in the Swan Valley.

grapes

Settlers Rest Farmstay, West Swan, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 1/640 sec, f/4, ISO200

I recently came across some eBooks by Edward Verosky, a professional photographer who likes to teach people how to make pictures. I bought a few of his eBooks, as DPS was offering them at a discounted price, and have been impressed by the content.

I recently reviewed Edward's "Taking Your Portraiture To The Next Level", and am now taking a closer look at another of his eBooks, titled "100% Reliable Flash Photography". It is a 75-page eBook that provides detailed information on improving your flash photography, both indoors and outdoors.

Edward first provides some introductory information on lighting, covering the terminology and tools associated with flash photography, providing definitions for all the commonly used terms, and describing the equipment, ranging from snoots, flags and more. An overview of light, reflected light, large vs small light sources is next, as well as a brief overview of how cameras set exposure with aperture, shutter speed and ISO, as well as exposure compensation and flash exposure compensation.

I love silhouettes, especially against a sunset sky. The sunset on this particular day certainly didn't disappoint, with some cloud cover providing a range of interesting colours shortly after the sun disappeared below the horizon.

sunset cross

Settlers Rest Farmstay, West Swan, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 35mm f/2 @35mm, 1/125 sec, f/4, ISO200

Grape vine leaves provide an interesting silhouette against the sunset colours in the sky.

vine leaves at dusk

Settlers Rest Farmstay, West Swan, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 35mm f/2 @35mm, 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO640

vine leaves at dusk

Settlers Rest Farmstay, West Swan, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 35mm f/2 @35mm, 1/160 sec, f/2, ISO160

I enjoy shooting during the golden hour (the first or last hour of sunlight during the day), it provides lovely lighting. This is another photo from our recent farmstay in late December, in the Swan Valley.

grass at sunset

Settlers Rest Farmstay, West Swan, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @42mm, 1/640 sec, f/4.5, ISO100

Not sure if you noticed it, but several months ago I enabled full-text RSS feeds, so anyone subscribing to blog updates via email or using an RSS reader will now see the full post, without having to click through to the blog itself.

(If you are not subscribed to this blog, then you may want to consider subscribing via RSS or email to ensure you get get notified of all new posts on this blog.)



I recently came across a cool device with the interesting name of Little Bramper. It is a bulb-ramping intervalometer for Canon DSLR cameras that allows the shutter speed to be varied during a time-lapse, to allow better results for time-lapses done during sunset and sunrise.

Here's a sample time-lapse created with a Little Bramper (via Canon 5D tips):

Sunlight behind a vine leaf accentuates the structure and veins of the leaf.

grape vine leaf detail

Settlers Rest Farmstay, West Swan, Western Australi
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 1/1600 sec, f/4, ISO200

This is the sixth article in a series on "understanding your camera" that I am writing as I teach camera basics and camera operation to my children.



It has been a little while since the previous post in this series. I am hoping to publish additional articles in this series a little more regularly this year.
Before looking at camera controls and camera operation, I want to first re-visit the concept of f-numbers, f-stops and stops, as an understanding of these is important for further posts in this series.



The f-number is the ratio of aperture to the focal length, because the area of the aperture opening changes with focal length.
It can be calculated as the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the aperture opening, ie,

f-number =	focal length
	--------------------------------------
	diameter of aperture opening

This allows you to calculate the f-number (aperture number) for a given focal length and aperture diameter, or alternatively, to calculate the aperture diameter for a given f-number and focal length. For example, this equation allows us to calculate that a 50mm lens at an aperture of f/2 will have the lens aperture opened to a diameter of 25mm.

I'll be posting more photos in coming weeks from our recent farmstay in the Swan Valley.
In this photo, the evening sun provides some rear lighting on this dried grass, bathing it in a golden light. I love the colours and lighting during the "golden hour" just before sunset!

golden ears

Settlers Rest Farmstay, West Swan, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @24mm, 1/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO100

We spent last week at a farmstay in the Swan Valley. The kids loved interacting with the animals, including collecting the chicken eggs each morning.

Samantha collecting the eggs at Settlers Rest farmstay

West Swan, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 35mm f/2 @35mm, 1/200 sec, f/3.5, ISO500

Looking back at 2010 makes me realise just how busy a year it has been for me.
In addition to being busy with family committments and community-related committments, I travelled fairly regularly for work, spending a total of 7 weeks away from home.
I visited Sydney (twice), Adelaide (three times), Brisbane, Gold Coast, Roxby Downs, as well as a road trip to various locations through NSW, including Newcastle, Wollongong, Nowra and Botany Bay.

I always try to take a camera with me when I travel for work, and managed to find some opportunities for photography in those locations.

looking down on City Beach

Flagstaff Point, Wollongong, NSW
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @19mm, 1/200 sec, f/11, ISO100

I participated in the Worldwide Photo Walk for 2010, attending one of walks in Perth with my two oldest children (aged 10 and 11). I also went on several other photowalks with friends and colleagues throughout the year.

St Mary's Cathedral

Perth, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @21mm, 1/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO100

One of my more interesting photography-related purchases in 2010 was a Canon EF 35mm f/2 lens. On a Canon 50D body, I prefer the 35mm focal length rather than 50mm (a 35mm lens results in an effective focal length very close to 50mm, rather than the 50mm lens' effective focal length of 80mm).