Yesterday we went to the KCC Park near Sky, Victoria, to check out the Cocker Spaniel Show and of course we took Bill and Jo along too.
We seem to be the most prepared for most things, but unprepared when it comes to taking the dogs to a dog show. We forgot tape for our signs, the dogs water bowl and we forgot our own drink. We also neglected to realise the enclosure we have for the dogs is completely escapable by Bill.
Thankfully Gillian came to the rescue with her doggin cage with a lid so Bill couldn’t jump out and run around.
In the end if wasn’t a hugely successful day for PupMates, pretty sure we had spoken to most of the people there at the Dog’s Day Out and/or they had heard about us from Gillian. But I took some photos and that turned out a little more successfully.
Also made a time lapse, which we had had some height to add to it so we got a little bit of a better result, but it does OK.
I’m still going through the photos so there may be some more additions in the near future.
Last night we went down to Federation Square and caught up with Sue, Dee and Marie for day two of the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival. I found the link the other day, quite by accident, and sent it on to Suez who’s a big fan of indigenous music. Only after sending the link did I look at the line up and notice that Casey Donovan was also scheduled to play. And Casey was on right before Dan Sultan (the artist the girls love to love). So I wrote back to Sue and said we’d come along, weather pending because it was supposed to rain all weekend.
Well thankfully our weather forecasters have been off a little of late, and other than a few spits here and there, the rain stayed away.
When we arrived we searched for the girls, but couldn’t find them anywhere. After a good fifteen minutes I sent a text to Sue asking where she was, but there’s no way she would have heard my message over the sounds being made on the stage. And just after sending the message (before she would have gotten it) I look up and across the way is a group of people waving at us, and there they were. At one point in the search we would have been standing right behind them!
They had arrived earlier in the day day, wanting to catch other acts, so they had been standing there for quite some time.
The act that was on when we got there was hip-hop artist Radical Son. He was pretty standard fare when it comes to my exposure to hip-hop, which is extremely limited. He interacted with the crowd well and played a good set, ending with the adage “In judging me, you judge yourself.” Which I thought was a pretty good ideology in life.
Then the break, when David and I ducked off to get some food, and back for Casey Donovan.
Now if you don’t know Casey she, as she explained, was on Australian Idol about 8 years ago. During it’s second year on air. At 16 she was the youngest contestant on the show and she was awesome. In fact in all the years of Idol Casey is the only contestant for whom I picked up the phone and voted. What she didn’t mention last night was that she won Australian Idol. I don’t know why she didn’t expressly point it out, but she beat Anthony Callea (our neighbour at the time) and took the top honors. She was then unceremoniously dumped by the label after they contractually required one album had had its run. And if we’re being honest, like fellow Idol winner, Kate Dearaugo, was dumped because she didn’t fit the cookie cutter “pretty girl” that the industry expects our female artists to be. Talent be damned. Casey has a big, beautiful voice and it’s sad it has remained mostly silent over the past 8 years.
She played a good set that included her idol winner’s track “Listen with Your Heart” and also a favourite from her “For You” album, “What’s Going On”. With these she included other tunes including Mamma Cass’s “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” and Hairspray’s “I Know Where I’ve Been”. I was good seeing Casey Donovan, back on stage and looking happy performing.
After a very brief break it was Dan Sultan’s turn to shine. While he humbly decried his having to follow an artist like Casey Donovan, he was clearly the one the crowd came to see. I’d never seen Dan perform, nor am I previously familiar with any of his work, but I was standing in a mainly empty area, with David, Marie, Sue and Dee, until Dan graced the stage. Then we were suddenly in a crowd.
He’s a great performer, and his work is very well mainstream, not sure why it doesn’t get more airplay on commercial radio stations, maybe they do tend to steer too much away from our indigenous artists. David noted Dan’s performance style was very reminiscent of that of John Mellencamp and I tend to agree. Dan’s songs and stage presence would not be out of place on a Mellencamp stage.
It was a great night, I took a bunch of photos, I think some of them turned out alright.
Casey Donovan
Dan Sultan
As we did last year, Australia Day 2011, to celebrate Australia Day we head down to the Geelong foreshore with our friend Kathryn for a day of photos and fun.
First though was a quick stop at the Wyndham Cache for breakfast. We had lunch there last Sunday and have to say our second visit wasn’t as great. Clearly they weren’t prepared for the crowds of the public holiday and the horse show that was happening just up the road. Only two front of house staff were on, pretty sure the owner and his wife, and two kitchen staff. The kitchen kept up better than the front of house and after a bit of a wait to place our order or breakfasts arrived. I had French toast, which after ordering seemed a little wrong on Australia Day.
When we got to Geelong there was a slight hitch. Some boofhead (read “I”) forgot my camera and left it sitting on the kitchen table at home. Thankfully Kathryn was travelling with all three of her camera bodies that day; a Nikon, a Canon and a Konica/Minolta. Kathryn was going to let me borrow one of her bodies for the day, as they’d most likely just be sitting in the boot.
I think, however, that both David and Kathryn could tell I was a little miffed that I wouldn’t have my own camera and David suggested we go home and get it. Kathryn opted to stay and start visiting the festivities while David and I made the hour-long round trip back home to get my camera.
On our return, now much happier with my own baby in my hands, we set about exploring the foreshore. It was set up much the same as last year. From where we parked, on top of the hill, it was a short walk to the skate park where the “grungy” bands were playing, then past the pier, over to the first part where food stalls were set up and the main stage was in place. On the main stage our new Australians were being sworn in as little Aussies, with this year’s group including a gentleman of 88 who has lived in Australia for over 60 years but this year was the oldest person in Australia becoming a new Aussie on Australia day 2012.
Further along was another park with another stage of performers, followed by the Giant Sky Wheel (just past the marina) and the beach volley ball beside that. Across from these were yet more stalls.
We took a bunch of photos at the volley ball and moved on down to the far end, to the Eastern Beach Swimming Enclosure, where the kids (young and old) dive from the diving boards and fall, sometimes flailing wildly, from the high platform. These kids are quite often fun to watch for ages. They have so much fun bouncing around and trying new tricks.
One little girl was by far the highlight of the day. When it was her turn, she’d walk out to the edge of the diving board, look down, think about it, look back at her brother (who was waiting next in line) and then back at the water. Then she’d wander back off the board, too scared to jump and back to the end of the line. This went on about seven times before, on the eight, her brother went out on the board with her and stood with her while she did her “look and consider” routine. This time though her brother must have offered her comfort because she was suddenly crouching down and then launching herself off the edge of the board and into the water. Had it been one of my siblings I’m sure we would have pushed them off before the third time through. But her brother, and all those waiting in line, were very patient with her.
Of course once the first jump was out of the way there was no stopping her.
We had lunch at one of the stalls, I opted for a calamari and prawn basket while David and Kathryn had baked spuds. We also indulged in dagwood dogs, soft serve ice-cream and fairy floss, all right when I say “we” I probably mean just me. But it was a celebration so it’s all right for a little indulgence to occur.
While we had at first considered hanging around for the fireworks display later in the night we were all a little worn out form the sun and walking around and around. We instead opted for a ride on The Giant Sky Wheel, then home. On the way home we passed by Werribee South water front where they had just started celebrations, though I’m sure most of the people had been there all day, and it was packed. They were going to have fireworks there too, but we still decided it best to call it a day.
In all it was a fun day, we always have a good day when we’re out taking photos. I think we came back with a nice collection. Many of which probably won’t see the light of day. But here’s a few of my favourites from the day. You can see more in my Flickr set: Australia Day 2012.
Oh man, I have been waiting for this shoot for so very long. Not only have I finally shot in the field I have been stalking for forever, I finally got to shoot with Amirah. Many thanks to SueZ who’s been trying to get Amirah and I together for a few years now.
I was a little nervous earlier in the day. I always get nervous when I’m shooting with someone new. On top of that I was shooting deliberately with the light behind Amirah and using a flash to create the front light. I really like the look it gives.
Originally this shoot was supposed to be of a male model, a blue sky with a few white clouds and back when the grass was still green. I found a couple male models but it was hard to pin them down while also getting the weather right.
On hearing my frustration with it all, SueZ insisted I shoot with Amirah, so we set it up a couple of weeks ago. With the way the weather was today I called Suez to say it was starting to look nasty and considered cancelling the shoot, but then thought, “to hell with it”, I had to shoot.
I always pre-visualise my shots. And while photographers are always told that’s a good thing to do, I’m a nutter for it. An incredibly visual person I get a vision in my head and too often am not happy if I know it’s not going to turn out the way I want it to. Take the field for instance. This is what I wanted it to look like (but with real green grass, not the fake I did below):
But Mother Nature just wasn’t playing nice. Ever. And today was the last straw. Basically because I’m pretty sure the field is going to be mowed down any day now and will soon be a field of hay bales (another opportunity for another shoot).
The shoot turned out, as these things often do, to be just right. Sure I didn’t want an overcast and cold day, but I think we did a great job. And it’s worth remembering a making photos isn’t just about what the photographer does. It’s most definitely a team effort when a model and assistants are involved.
All shot with a single flash (Canon 580EX II) on a light stand, often held in place by the wonderful SueZ when I couldn’t get the light stand to do exactly what I wanted it to.
These are just quick edits, but I think they’ve worked out well.
Unlike many other shoots I’ve done in the past I have to say this would be one of my most successful when it comes to the number of keepers to the number of throwaways. Amirah was a great model with an amazing outlook on life and having SueZ along made it all the more fun.
I look forward to shooting with Amirah again. I had so much fun and want to publicly thank Amirah and SueZ for an awesome afternoon of shooting.
Behind the scenes:
The genesis of this shoot was the field and a stool. I wanted the stool, I wanted a stool that looked just like the one you pretty much don’t even see in these shots. I scoured Ebay for weeks and then drove all the way to the other side of town to get the one I found.
The shoot was lit by a Canon Speedlite mostly off to the side, varying on the shot, held on a light stand for some. Then held by the awesome SueZ when the light stand wouldn’t give me the angle I wanted. The human light stand is always awesome but I think I need to invest in a C-stand with an arm for future shots.
Lighting was of course helped out by the giant ball of light in the sky, which for this shoot, was greatly diffused by the cloud cover.
Having a bit of fun between shots.
This is what it looked like on the camera.
Amirah was quite cold at times when the wind came up.
The one light I used.
My amazing assistant for the day, SueZ.
What did I learn from today’s shoot?
- To stop worrying about the pre-visual in my brain. Use it as a launching point and run with the idea, understanding photography is organic and you just have to ride the wave.
- To get out and shoot, bugger the weather.
- To love your model, especially when willing to stand in summer clothes, in winter-type weather (but in Summer), who’ll lay down in a scratchy grass field. I do always appreciate my models, the photos wouldn’t be what they are without them.
- Consider buying a battery pack for my speedlite. Or at the very least better quality batteries so I can get more shots out of a set of batteries.
The great folks at Craft and Vision have made a brand new ebook, 11 Ways to Improve Your Photography, available for free. Packed with 11 great tips to help you along the way to making beautiful and compelling photographs.
Often we look around us and snap what we see without really thinking too much about it. We think, that looks good, snap, done. But good photography is more about just snapping away and seeing what you have when you get back home.
There are things to look out for in your composition and techniques you can use to ensure you come home with more keepers and less digital garbage.
11 great tips from 11 great photographers, contained in a beautiful, pdf-based photography book, 11 Ways to Improve Your Photography. Perfect for reading on your computer or on your iPad via iBooks. And yes, it’s completely free.
Really more than just tips, we have 11 great chapters to help us improve our photography and give us focus.
- Make your images more dynamic — Piet Van Den Eynde
- Tame your digital exposures — David Duchemin
- The power of the print — Martin Bailey
- Learn to direct the eye — Michael Frye
- Understand the stages — Alexandre Buisse
- Create projects and collaborate — Andrew S. Gibson
- Refine your composition — Nicole S Young
- The power of the moment — Eli Reinholdtsen
- Forget lens stereotypes — Piet Van Den Eynde
- Slow down and learn to see — Stuart Sipahigil
- Make stronger portraits — David Duchemin
Of course Craft and Vision have a great number other amazing photography ebooks, all at $5 or less. Check out Craft and Vision for more information.
About a month ago we took some photos of our puppies in front of our TV with the PupMates website in the background. The photo was to accompany a story about PupMates.com.au going into the November issue of the Dogs Victoria Magazine.
It took a few goes to get this photo, but it was worth it in the end. Everyone seems to love it and the magazine decided to run a full page instead of a half page for the story.
Click the image below for a full view to read.
The casting call is out there and the stage, as it were, is set.
I’ve passed these fields of grass and canola for years, often dreaming of doing a shoot in them, never getting off my butt and doing it.
Now driven by the fact that the fields may not be there for much longer, due to urban sprawl, I’ve made the move to get some shoots done there while there’s a there in which to do them. There’s also a time factor based on the grass appearing to be pretty close to hay-bale time, when it will be mowed down and turned into massive round cylinders of hay. Which could of course be a good location to shoot too.
So far I’ve had three responses to my casting call, two of which I think will be perfect. If past experience is anything to go by at least one of them should commit and we’ll make some great photos.
With any luck both will commit and I’ll get to have a couple of goes at the fields before they are gone.
Yet another Sunday and another unusual social outing. This time organised by SueZ. We’ve not had a good run with our Sunday outings, it’s always something interesting and new.
Last night was, in my opinion, a great night. We were drawn to this night due to SueZ’s neighbour, Bernie, being part of the group. I stress it is my opinion because David and Denise didn’t love it. In fact David wanted to leave pretty much right away. But I loved it.
What’s not to love when an eclectic bunch of people gather together on a stage to have fun. All brought together through their love of, for most an unusual instrument, the ukelele.
The Melbourne Ukelele Kollective, or MUK for short, wrapped up their September residence at The Cornish Arms Hotel in Brunswick last night in a splendid manner. They began as a small group of players in 2004 and these days count as many as 20-30 people on stage during an event.
As the photos and videos that follow may attest, these guys and gals have a great time on the stage, entertaining the pub crowd and themselves. I just love watching people enjoy themselves, doing something they love and sharing ti with others. The sort of passion they display is infections and you have no choice but to leave the venue with a spring in your step.
Do yourself a favour and get along and see them when you can. Ignore the fact that David didn’t like them and go with an open mind and open ears, you’ll love it.
Check out the Melbourne Ukelele Kollective website for gig dates.
Videos
Photos
They even had an audience participation section when they played “Nutbush City Limits” folks got up and joined in doing the Madison.
At the end of our street is a massive canola field. Once a year the fields grow into this wonderful sea of yellow and it stays like this for just a few short weeks before the field is mowed down into hay bails.
Of course this has only been the end of our street for a short time. A little while ago the land our house is built on was a field too. It has only been a housing estate for about a year. I’m thinking it’s only a matter of time before the field that holds the canola field is taken over for more housing to feed Melbourne’s residential sprawl.
So we’ll enjoy it for this season. It might be the last time we got to.
Some folks have asked where this is, it’s in Point Cook, Victoria in Australia. Google Map below shows location.
Last night we went out to see Kate Miller-Heidke at Wellers at Kangaroo Ground in the far eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Kate has been performing a series of “regional” shows at intimate venues throughout Australia putting a few new songs into the ears of fans to see how we might react to the new material before she heads into the studio next month to record her new album.
After being on the road for over two years, a lot of that time opening for Ben Folds, Kate has returned with some great new sounds. A completely different Kate can be found in her side project “Fatty Gets a Stylist“, both the name of the album and the band.
It’s funny to refer to it as a band when in reality Kate’s intimate shows are always performed by Kate and her husband Keir Nuttall and together they are Fatty Gets a Stylist. Fatty’s sound is at times very different to Kate’s. At times so similar I find it hard to believe her story that on first play some of the folks they were touring with were unable to tell it was actually Kate singing.
One of the songs from “Fatty Gets a Stylist” and I think my favourite track off the album was played at last night’s performance. “The Tiger Inside Will Eat the Child” is a wonderful song at last night it sounded a little different than on the album, though I tend to believe that if recorded for the album it won’t change much from the Fatty Gets a Stylist version, perhaps in a slightly different key.
One of the other songs was more fun, “Southern Cross Tattoo” was a narrative of the ocker Aussie’s lifestyle, attending music festivals and proudly living the “Australian Way”.
There was also a couple beautiful new songs, the one that sticks in my mind was about Keir’s grand father, borne from Kate and Keir living in the house of his grandparents who passed away last year and seeing their things around them. Then there was a song about “Sarah” which revolved around two friends going to a music festival, getting a little drunk on the alcohol they smuggled in and the titular Sarah disappearing without a trace. It’s a lament along the lines of “Caught in the Crowd” once again seeing Kate apologising for not being their for her friend who went missing for four days without any memory of where she had been or what happened to her. There was no mention of whether this song’s inspiration was autobiographical or spawned from some other world-event.
The old favourites were played; “Caught in the Crowd“, “Can’t Shake It“, “Politics in Space“, “The Last Day on Earth“, “Space The Cannot Touch” and “Are You F*cking Kidding Me“, aka The Facebook Song.
Known for her occasional take on another artists work, last night Kate drew on her time in the US and favoured Detroit-born Eminem, covering “The Real Slim Shady”, it was wonderfully hilarious. While I’m not certain everyone in the crowd knew Eminem’s song they all enjoyed Kate’s performance.
All up it was a great night. I’m looking forward to some new material from Kate in the not too distant future. Until then she has a great back-catalogue and Fatty Gets a Stylist to keep my hears happy.
Follow Kate Miller-Heidke or Fatty Gets a Stylist on Twitter.
A bit of a change from the Flickr Find, found a new site called 500px, they show the pics off a little better than Flickr does. Hopefully Flickr will realise that people are flocking to 500px and pick their act up. But then with the recent sacking of Carol Bartz as CEO from Yahoo (owners of Flickr) who knows what’s going to happen. Odds are Yahoo will go back up for sale.
Time Passed and You Never Came by Carlos Gotay
Only thing I don’t love about it is the small size you get for an embed and that the code actually puts it in a table, what’s with that?
Today at work I was able to go to the Westpac Centre to see the launch of “Jock”: The Story of Jock McHale, Collingwood’s Greatest Coach. After the panel discussion, which I was there to video, the VIPs presented for photos by the media. I, the interloper, jumped in for a couple of shots.
After the event was over Lou Richards talked to the media outside. Strange that though the floor was open to questions during the event the media seemed to hold their questions for Lou until after. I was on my way out, to head back to work and decided to grab a couple of snaps of Lou Richards.
A perk of the job, I sometimes get to be in the right place at the right time.
I haven’t yet written about last Sunday… the nature of the events may well be enough to push my blog to MA15+ status. But the Sunday just gone was relatively calm in comparison.
The day started with a trip to the Werribee Mansion for a photography workshop organised through the camera club. It was a great morning and while I didn’t get any great shots I learned a bunch and now have a thirst to do some more workshops with the people who ran yesterday’s. We learnt about how to see light and how to manipulate the light.
The most important lesson of the day was that we shouldn’t be hunting locations, we should always be hunting light.
One anecdote included Ken Duncan going bush for three months, and returning with only six photos that he considered usable. We were told its because Duncan is a location-based shooter and has to persist at a location until the light is right. A landscape photographer has to consider the time of day, the weather and the season (which alters the light quality).
It was also a fun morning. The instructors are masters of the one liner and they know their stuff. Can’t wait to learn more.
That was only the morning. In the afternoon we went to Sue’s house for dinner and over the road to The East Brunswick Club for the Global Hip-hop Collective. Hip-hop not being our thing we were there to support a friend who was performing.
We also finally got to meet Ameriha a friend of Suez’d who we have heard much about but never met before, we also met her new boyfriend Tom. Lana made us all some amazing pizza for dinner.
I, of course, took my camera along for the show. It was so dark in there I bumped the ISO all the way to 3200 and even higher to 6400, so there is a fair bit of grain in the shots. But they captured the moment. It was an interesting night, though we didn’t stay the whole evening.
It was still a late night though so today I was so very tired I thought I could have slept at my desk at work. No more late nights for we oldies.
After looking for a while David decided he would like to get a new camera. Goodness knows I have spent enough money on my hobby and he’s been like the second child using hand-me-downs when we go out on photo days with our friends so it was about time he got something new for himself.
He chose a Sony α55 it has some pretty cool features and hopefully he’ll soon upload some photos so I can show you what he does with it :D
Yesterday afternoon we went on a small trek to Werribee South to try it out and I took my camera along too. Here are my photos from the short trip.
Yellow Pole
Fishing
Poor starfish
5 knots
And then later in the night, around 10pm David decided he wanted to take his camera night shooting, it had had time to charge properly by then. So we went out, all the while me protesting as it was raining on the way into the city, but on arrival it was a slow drizzle so we took some shots from Birrarung Marr and then from the Docklands.
Cityscape from Birrarung Marr
Docklands by night
I’m such an anti-social git, this was quite a big step for me, joining a club of people.
But inspired by Kathryn, who has been going for a while now and is quite the social butterfly, I’ve joined the Williamstown Camera Club.
A great bunch of people, very different in backgrounds and ages. I’ve only been to a couple of meetings so far it has been quite good, but I must confess, sometimes I feel like I’m at something like an AA meeting and at anytime someone may stand and make the proclamation that they are such and such and they have an addiction. And let’s be honest, that wouldn’t be far from the truth for most of us photography people.
Meeting every second and fourth Tuesday of the month (why can’t it just be fortnightly, it would be so much easier to schedule) around 60 people come together to talk and show photography. We have competitions every month with a fixed topic and an open category. This month the fixed category is “from on high”, it’s up to you to determine what that means and shoot an image that fits with the category. The open category is, as it would suggest, open to any image. Images are submitted using competition numbers rather than names, to give a sense of anonymity. The judging is performed by an outside person, often a member of another camera club who is known to be knowledgable. And they come along to a meeting and present their critique and provide scores for the images.
This months entries from me are actually older images, in future I hope to shoot specifically for the challenge of the month. That is after all what the challenges are for. To inspire creativity and to push one as a photographer.
Tomorrow I’m off to a club-organised workshop by Shelton Muller. As a member of the club, which costs $60 per year, we have subsidised events. The workshop would normally cost around $60 per person but we only pay $25 and the club pays the rest. They get their money from member contributions, raffles and sponsorship from the local councils for performing tasks, like this month so of the club took photos for a people with disabilities sporting group. The individual photographers don’t get paid, the club does and the photographers get the experience of shooting.
It’s going to be great tomorrow, I’ve seen work from other workshops by Shelton, looks like people have fun and get some good knowledge from them.
