Elizabeth Quay at night

Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @10mm, 55 sec, f/9, ISO100

The Spanda Sculpture is a 29m piece of art made of steel and carbon fibre, and was designed by WA-born artist Christian de Vietri. It apparently represents water ripples, and links the Swan River with the land and sky.
It is well lit at night, and makes for an interesting photography subject.

This set of photos was taken just over a week ago, and as with the set of photos of the Elizabeth Quay bridge that I recently posted, I've used black and white to emphasise the shapes and light.

Elizabeth Quay is always an interesting place to shoot at night, with the coloured lighting along the paths and across the bridge. Earlier this year, I captured some long exposures in colour (photos are here).

Last week I ventured out to Elizabeth Quay with my oldest son and a friend, and decided to try converting some of my photos to black and white.
Here's a few long exposures of the bridge, in black and white.

Elizabeth Quay Bridge

Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @10mm, 91 sec, f/9, ISO100

young girl in the classroom

Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @73mm, 1/50 sec, f/4, ISO1250

When we were in West Timor in April, we spent several days in the classrooms at Elpida School, running some lessons in English. Even my children had an opportunity to teach, and they loved it! Here are a few photos of the students that I photographed during our time at Elpida.

Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @85mm, 1/320 sec, f/4, ISO200

The children in this collection of portraits are from local families near the Elpida School in Noelbaki, in West Timor. One afternoon we spent some time playing soccer with children from the New Hope Home on the concrete soccer pitch at Elpida School, and many of the local children came to watch.
Most of the children were happy to smile at my camera, but some were a bit too shy and hid their faces.

Bento

Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @105mm, 1/100 sec, f/4, ISO200

Bento is one of the children living in the New Hope Home. He seems to have a knack of getting in front of the camera, he somehow managed to get into the background of quite a few of my photos at Elpida School and around the New Hope Home.
Here are a couple of photos where Bento was the subject, rather than just sneaking into the background of a photo.

Bento sneaking a peek backwards in church

Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @105mm, 1/100 sec, f/4, ISO800

abstract lights

Kwinana, Western Australia, 2016-03-20
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @80mm, 1/2 sec, f/6.3, ISO100

Something a little different - this is an abstract (intentionally) out-of-focus photos of a ship being loaded at the Kwinana Grain Terminal Wharf.

For those who are wondering what the lights are from, see here for an in-focus photo of the same subject.
More photos from the same evening shoot have been posted previously here and here.

Yanto

Elpida School, Noelbaki, East Nusa Tenggara (West Timor), Indonesia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @80mm, 1/100 sec, f/4, ISO200

One of the many friendly faces from our time in West Timor in April this year. This is Yanto, who graduated from STAKRI two years ago. In 2014, when I visited West Timor for the first time, I was privileged to be able to visit Yanto's remote village and share a meal with the locals. In April 2016, when I returned to West Timor with my family, we came across Yanto's smiling face at Elipda School, where he now works.

If you're a Photoshop user, you should be familiar with using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to edit your RAW images. Did you know that you can also use ACR to edit JPG files and other image formats? THis allows you to still use ACR for the intial post processing of images for which you don't have a RAW version, such as photos taken with your phone camera.



I use Adobe Photoshop CS6 for editing and post-processing my photos, with all initial adjustments being done in Adobe Camera Raw 9.1.1, and additional editing before opening the photo in Photoshop. There is plenty of information on the web about the benefits of shooting RAW with your camera, so I won't detail that here - but the key benefits relate to the additional information available in the RAW image that can be leveraged by ACR to allow easy recovery from under or over exposure, correction of white balance, and much more.



Sometimes you won't have a RAW image available - for example, when you want to post-process a photo taken with your phone. Remember that the best camera is the one that's with you - and most people have their phone in their pocket all the time.

Many people do not realise that you can edit JPG and other image formats in Adobe Camera Raw too. Opening a RAW image in ACR is just a matter of double-clicking it in Windows Explorer - but how do you open a JPG or TIFF image in ACR? Double-clicking it in Windows Explorer will open it in the default image viewer, and opening it in Photoshop will bypass ACR.

To open a JPG or TIFF image in ACR:

• open Photoshop
• File -> Open As
• select image file
• change "Open As" to "Camera Raw"
• click "Open" to open file
• use ACR for initial post-processing
• click "Open Image" to open in Photoshop
• complete the rest of your post-processing in Photoshop

File -> Open As menu item in Photoshop CS6

file dialog in Photoshop CS6

Opening a JPG or TIFF image in ACR doesn't magically give you a lot more detail or the ability to recover many stops of over or under exposure, as a JPG or TIFF image doesn't have sufficient information in it. However, you can still benefit from the adjustments available in ACR to do your initial post-processing.

Not all the functionality of ACR is available when opening a JPG file, such as the following:

• white balance presets not available (only Custom, As Shot, Auto)
• picture styles
• colour profile
• only open a single file at a time

It is possible to configure Photoshop's default behaviour to open all JPG and TIFF files in ACR if that's what you want. See here for details on changing Photoshop's default behaviour.
In newer versions of photoshop, you can open a JPG or TIFF image, and then apply ACR as a filter, as detailed here.

As regular readers of this blog and people following me on social media will know, I recently led a team of 12 on a mission trip to Kupang, West Timor. The team consisted of myself, my wife, our four children, and another six members from our local church community.

We had some great experiences in West Timor, and spent time at the New Hope Home, Elpida School, and travelled to a remote mission post to start building a school.

We are currently fund-raising for a roof over the concrete soccer pitch at Elpida School. The soccer pitch is used for a wide variety of community events, from weddings to soccer competitions, and a roof will keep the sun off, and allow for a wider use of the facility. (I also visited West Timor in 2014 as part of another Wings To Work trip, and was involved in pouring the concrete soccer pitch.)

If you are interested in donating some funds towards the New Hope Home or the roof for the Elpida soccer pitch, please contact me for more information.

I hope to post some more photos of our experiences in West Timor on my blog in the coming weeks. See below for a video of our trip, as well as an article about our trip that two team members, Dani and Trish, wrote for a local mission publication. As their article provides a great overview of our trip, I'm publishing it here too (with their permission).

Ninja Wren!

While photographing some Splendid Fairy-Wrens in Pemberton earlier this year, there were two wrens posing on top of a fence post. (In Western Australia, they are often referred to as "blue wrens".)
I captured a number of frames of these two birds with my Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L lens. It was only later that day when I was reviewing my photos on my laptop that I noticed that I had captured one of the birds in mid-air, looking like it is performing a martial arts kick on the other bird!

I've included a couple of other photos of the same birds below, in some more "normal" poses.

Elpida School students, teachers and the Wings To Work team at the beach

Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @12mm, 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO100

During our time in West Timor last month, we visited the local beach in Noelbaki several times with the children from the New Hope home, as well as with the children from Elpida School, swimming and playing soccer on the beach.
The photo above is of the students of Elpida School, teachers, and the Wings To Work team at the beach, after a walkathon from the school, through the nearby rice paddies.

evening at Barate beach

Barate, East Nusa Tenggara (West Timor), Indonesia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @10mm, 1/500 sec, f/4, ISO250

The best time for landscape photography is in the evening or the morning, when the sun is a lot lower, as it provides softer light and more interesting shadows than the harsh mid-day sun. This photo was taken in the evening, with the sun low in the sky to the left, resulting in the golden light on the trees, and some interesting shadows and reflections on the wet beach sand.

This is the beach in Barate, north of Kupang, in West Timor (East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia), photographed last month. We were camping under the trees just to the right of the beach, while spending a couple of days in Barate to visit the local church, and start a school building project.

sitting around the bonfire at the beach

Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 30 sec, f/4.5, ISO320

We recently returned from a trip to Kupang, West Timor (East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia), where I led a team of 12 (including my wife and 4 children) on a Wings To Work trip to spend some time at the New Hope Home and the Elpida School. This was my second visit to Kupang - I was a member of a Wings To Work team in September 2014.

One of the (many) highlights of our trip this year was a visit to the mission post at Barate, north of Kupang. The photo above was shot on the beach at Barate, just a short walk from the area where we were camping under the trees. A 30 second exposure captured some of the stars, as well as the sparks flying from the fire.

Some more photos from the same evening on the beach are below.

Kwinana Grain Terminal Wharf

photographed from Rockingham Beach
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @82mm, 30 sec, f/10, ISO100

Here are a few more photos from a night shoot last weekend with a friend. These photos are of the CBH Grain Terminal in Kwinana. The first two photos were taken at Rockingham beach, south of the grain terminal. The bright lights in the background are some other industrial plants, including BP Refinery, Alcoa Alumina Refinery, and others.

The photo below shows the Grain Terminal Wharf on the left, and the Grain Terminal and Storage Facility on the right hand side, with four conveyors linking the two.

Something a little bit different from recent posts, this is a 30 second exposure of a refinery in Kwinana, shot from the side of the road on the weekend.
The photo was converted to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2 from Google's Nik Collection.

Kwinana, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 30 sec, f/9, ISO100

a trio of Splendid Fairy-Wrens (Western form)

Pemberton, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @200mm, 1/1250 sec, f/4, ISO200

Here are a few more photos of the Splendid Fairy-Wrens I photographed in Pemberton earlier this year. In the top photo, the two birds on the left (females) were both vying for the attention of the male, both trying to get as close to him as possible, and constantly pushing each other out of the way. It was quite entertaining to watch!

female Splendid Fairy-Wren (Western form)

Pemberton, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @200mm, 1/2500 sec, f/4, ISO200

male Splendid Fairy-Wren (Western form)

Pemberton, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @200mm, 1/800 sec, f/4, ISO200

The bright colours of the male Splendid Fairy-Wren (commonly referred to as a "blue wren" in Western Australia) almost look too bright to be real! The Splendid Fairy-Wren is native to large parts of Australia, and can often be seen in parts of the south west of Western Australia. While holidaying in Pemberton recently, there were numerous fairy-wrens around the house that we were staying at, so I spent some time photographing them. They were not very shy, and I found that sitting or standing still in one location allowed the birds to get close enough for me to photograph them.

Elizabeth Quay Bridge

Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @10mm, 109 sec, f/10, ISO100

On Friday night I headed out to Elizabeth Quay with Chris, for some long exposure photography. Elizabeth Quay opened to the public a few weeks ago, and neither of us had visited it yet, so we were keen to see what it looked like at night.

It didn't disappoint - there's a giant illuminated artwork that runs around the entire inlet called "Lighting Edge" that varies in colour, and the bridge across the inlet is lit up nicely too.
Here's a selection of my photos from Friday.

male Scarlet Robin

Pemberton, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @200mm, 1/2000 sec, f/4, ISO640

A beautiful male Scarlet Robin, photographed while holidaying in Pemberton earlier this year. We were staying in a house on the outskirts of the Pemberton town, surrounded by native trees and fruit trees. There were plenty of birds in the trees, and this particular photo was taken while seated on one of the verandahs of the house, where I waited for the birds to come closer to be photographed.

Zoe at golden hour

Pemberton, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @200mm, 1/160 sec, f/4, ISO200

The evening sun during golden hour provides great lighting for portrait photography, due to the lower angle of sunlight, as well as the golden colour of the light. On this particular day, while recently holidaying in Pemberton with friends, the cloud cover in the west during golden hour diffused the sunlight, providing fantastic lighting for some portraits.
Facing Zoe (friends' daughter) towards the setting sun provided some great lighting on her face, and she was happy to pose for the camera, hugging one of the veranda posts.

Warren National Park, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @35mm, 1/60 sec, f/4, ISO500

While recently holidaying in Pemberton, we took the opportunity to take some updated family photos, as well as some photos of our children, as I wanted an updated photo for in my wallet and to share with the extended family.
These photos were taken when we visited the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree near Pemberton (some claim this tree is Australia's scariest tourist attraction).

With some cloud cover in the sky, and the tall trees providing some shade, the lighting here was great for photography, with the diffuse light providing a good opportunity for some group photos and portraits, including these photos of my four children.

Warren National Park, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @65mm, 1/60 sec, f/4, ISO500

contemplative Samantha

Pemberton, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art @35mm, 1/800 sec, f/1.4, ISO100

After a brief break from blogging in the last few months of 2015 due to work, work-related travel and other commitments, I'm back for 2016 with plans for plenty of blog posts!

I'll start the year with a portrait of my youngest daughter, looking very contemplative while sitting on a swing, and shot with the fantastic Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art series lens.

This was taken during a recent holiday down in Pemberton, where we spent a week and a half with some good friends, relaxing, sight-seeing, and having a great time. I'll be posting more photos from our time in Pemberton in coming weeks - of the kids, local birds, and landscapes from the area.