Postcards from tomorrow.

Better late than never I always say! So last weekend was the annual epic mission southwards to catch the autumn colours and have a general scout for the following year. This year we ventured further southwards than previously and spent the first night in Armidale and the second night in Glen Innes. Kane and Matt drove down early Friday morning, and managed to catch some amazing sights. Mel and myself ventured down on Friday afternoon after yours truly had finished work.

The Saturday morning started off quite well. Matt had been in contact with a couple that live down that way and had managed to wrangle up a shooting location on some private property just outside of Armidale. That was an absolutely amazing place for a dawn shoot.

It had all the classical elements, you'd expect, fences, lone trees, windmills, creeks and a fair sized lake. And to top it all off, there was just the perfect amount of fog rolling across the land to make shooting condition perfect.

Deal with the hand you've been dealt.
Canon 5DmkII + Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L USM + Cokin P.121s

The above shot was taken just before the sun rose. I have other pics of this morning, with different compositions, etc. Believe me, this is just a teaser. Not long after the sun rose, there was nothing for it but to take advantage of the early light and the sweet still calm of the chill morning air. And with that, it was a quick scoot round the other side of the lake, throw on the NDx400 and shoot the clouds. The water was solid, like sheet of shiny glass; the perfect thing for sweet, sweet reflections.

Postcards from tomorrow.
Canon 5DmkII + 17-40mm f/4.0L USM + HOYA NDx400 + Cokin P.121s

After we'd finished there we retired back to the hotel room to catch a few Z's, pack up our gear, dump photos off the memory cards and charge the camera batteries. Not long after check out we found ourselves travelling further south, once again under the direction of Matt's contacts. Our destination this time was something a little more well known; Gostwyck Church. This is an amazing little church perched haphazardly onto the middle of what can only be described as an over-sized traffic island.

I've no images to show of that church just yet, but rest assured, that there are some amongst the 1300+ images captured that weekend, and you may just get to see them. What fascinated me about the church and it's surrounds was this massive tunnel of trees that lead off into some private property. I borrowed Mel's IR filter, and went to town on this.

Time will pass us by.
Canon 5DmkII + Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L USM + 850Nm IR Filter

While that image was being taken (it took several minutes) i grabbed the 50D and tried my hand at a technique I'd come up with a few weeks earlier. In short the technique is this: Long lens, small aperture, make a panorama. The resultant effect is an image that has an impossibly small Depth-Of-Field for a single image. Which really adds an extra amount of 'pop' to it.

Excuse me, can you help? I'm having trouble predicting the future.
Canon 50D + Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

Trust me when I say that you really need to view this image large to get the full effect. After Gostwyck Church we started our journey north towards Glen Innes. That part of the trip I'll save for another time.

On another note, but still about the trip, I had purposely set out to test and take video footage with the 5DmkII. The end goal was to put it together into a short film that kind of 'chronicled' our mission. I encourage you to watch it large and in HD.

Autumn Mission 2010 from Joshua Robertson on Vimeo.

Until next time.
J.P

Canon 5DmkII; It's about the Results.

A little bit of sunshine to brighten your day.

Well, it's been a week with the 5DmkII and to keep it brief, the camera is amazing, especially when compared to the 40D/50D. When you first pick it up, you can feel the extra weight and heft in the body, and the larger size over the 40D and 50D make it much nicer to hold, even without a battery grip (which would be my preferred method of use). The camera just feels more solid.

The thing I really love about it though (physically speaking), is the "ka-chunk" and the feel of the mirror-slap/shutter.

Image wise, it is superb, straight away I could spot the difference when I compared shots with the 50D. Both the DOF and bokeh are both a substantial improvement over the 50D. The DOF is more shallow and pronounced by the full frame sensor. The shots seem 'smoother' and the high ISO noise handling is definitely a lot better. The first outing this camera had was to shoot a wedding on the Friday just gone, and I've many a usable shot taken at ISO3200.

The only let down (and this is the general vibe I get from the community, as well as personal opinion) is in the Auto-Focus system. It's old. The centre point is accurate and sensitive in extreme low-light situations, but the surrounding 8 leave a lot to be desired.

But enough of that silly talk, here's one of my favourites from the wedding.

Gear: Canon 5DmkII+Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L+Canon 580exII
Camera Settings: 1/60s, ISO800, f/4.0 @ 63mm
Bride: Chloe Newton (about to become Chloe Blanchard)
Hair and Make-up: Andrea Bartlet of www.completetreat.com.au

J.P.

It was bound to happen...one day.

Its the natural order of things...

Little did I know it would be today.

So I was shooting some 13 and 18 piece instrumental bands last night, when the 50D started to do some funny things. First it started with the shutter button on the battery grip not responding, then the shutter button on the body itself wasn't responding... then when I'd half press it, you could visually see the aperture close ever so slightly through the viewfinder...all in all, quite a worrying thing to be happening. Especially considering I've got a wedding coming up this Friday, for which I need a body that works. So the time came when I would have to pool my monies, live off naught but noodles for the next month, and have a bit of a spend.

...and spend I did.

Walked out with a Canon EOS 5DmkII, Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L USM, and 2 years extra insurance on the body. But I figure it's worth it. I've really been getting back the passion and fervor for my photography recently, and I really want to get into some bigger commercial shoots, and assist on some and go back to TAFE/university and skill-up.

This is just another step in the road.

In other news...
Here's a few pics you may (or may not of) missed recently...(click to visit them on my flickr)

I know it, and you know it, so why can't you just embrace it?


There must be a way out of here...


Hook, Line and Sinker...

So there you have it, a quick wrap up on the latest happenings.

Until next time,
J.P

45:330:241

The passage of time is inconsequential.

45 minutes sleep. 330km travelled. 241 second exposure. 1 epic evening/morning/mission.

The night started at 10:30pm on Thursday night, when I lay down for some sleep, after a restless 45 minutes I awoke/stumbled out of bed and jumped in the car, ready for my Friday to start. 2 hours later, via the Caboolture service centre to pick up Kane, we were meeting Mel at Dicky Beach on the Sunshine Coast. Our goal was simple, the addition of 4 day old full moon and a shipwreck on a clear beach at 1:30am, is an unmissable occasion. The near full moon provides an amazing amount of light, and allows you to capture locations like these as most people would never see them.

The part I love most about the beach at these times of night is that the tides have come and gone; yesterdays comings and goings have been washed away and the beach is clean and clear. Ready for photographers to come in and create their particular brand of art.

It's such a free feeling.

You've got to be there to get the shot.

J.P.

Austentatious

Austentatious

This is another local band from Brisbane, Australia, called Austentatious. They feature an excellent line-up of very talented local musicians. This band is primarily a Bob Marley Tribute/Reggae band, with the aim for coorporate work.

Here's a Lighting Diagram for my setup:

Created using the OLDC

As you can see, it's a fairly simple setup, but the real magic happens in Post-Processing. The quick and dirty version of my workflow for this images was as follows:
- Import into Lightroom
- Do a few minor adjustments (white balance, blacks, crop and straighten)
- Run over it with the spot removal tool and remove all the unwanted bits and pieces
- Export into GIMP
- Apply a Soft light, Screen, and High Pass Filter layer.
- Adjust the opacity of the layers until the desired look is achieved.
- Apply the watermark,
- Export/import back into Lightroom
- Upload.

I did say it would be quick and dirty. If you have any questions/comments about my workflow or setup, or about what I do in general, then please leave a comment below!


J.P.

"Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads..."

Misaligned Values.

I really wish I had more time to write more and show more. But we haven't had internet at our place for the last few days and it's only just re-connected now. So like the good boy I am, I've uploaded a shot from last weekend, taken in a rush on a morning out in the countryside. Be sure to click through it find out the particulars on the image itself.

and be sure to view it large on black, it looks a million times better.


Stay at it.

J.P

Be fruitful, rather than busy.

Meaningless Eccentricities.

I've said it once (maybe not on this blog...) and I'll say it again and
again. I love the night time., but more specifically, the random hours
that I need to be awake to practice my craft. I love the night sky so
much, there's so much out there. I like to sit and ponder.

So yes, I'd planned a nice sleepless weekend, capturing sunsets,
sunrises and startrails as well as attending a meeting for some upcoming
stuff (stay tuned!) and having some chill time with some friends (and
thats just for saturday!)

However my day-job had other ideas, and now I have to work a half-day on saturday morning. Which isn't so bad, it gets me closer to paying off a few debts and closer to saving up for that next camera-related purchase.

The thought that has been rattling around in my brain the last few days is quite simple, and like the title of this post already gives away...Be fruitful, rather than busy. Our lives are so full of junk; wasted time, missed opportunities and depressing regrets. Some house-keeping and spring cleaning of our existence is in order I think. Prune away the dead and useless parts, so that the good stuff may flourish and bear fruit.

Who's with me?


J.P.