Art and Practice
Today I thought it might be interesting to look at some images. It is something I have missed doing. I hope you have missed them as well. Today we are going to look at two new images. I’ve been exploring some of my Melbourne images and seeing what experiments I can do with them.
Read more
Today I just have an image. Looking for the light.
Today reminds me that it has been twelve months to the day, pretty much that I met some amazing people in New York and had an incredible day looking around some of the sites. I wanted to remember that day, and thought I could do it with you.
I’m going to give you links to two previous posts and give you a collection of some of the photos.
I have a busy day ahead, so that is all I have for you, sorry, but I am sure you will love looking back on my trip as well.
In Melbourne there are many bridges that allow you to cross the river. Some are for cars, and many for pedestrians and bicycles. One bridge that is one of my favourites to photograph is the Seafarers Bridge where it goes over the Yarra.
One View
The things that go over are like ribs of a ship or a sail. It is like our mini opera house. There are so many angles to experiment with. This image is also a long exposure. I’ve really only done long exposures here once, but it is definitely a place I want to do more.
This is from the other side. I’ve began to realize that I need to explore the angles a lot more.
One of the downsides with this bridge is how popular it is and there are always people on it, or so it seems at times. This is where the advantage of doing a long exposure comes in. If you can get a long enough time then you can get photos so that the people don’t show up. It is something that really interests me with long exposures.
I’ve been using the Formatt Hitech Filters, and the one I especially love is the Firecrest 16. I’ve now got several of their filters, and the full ND filters are the ones I like the most. I have the 6 , the 10 and the 16 stop, I just need to get the 13 and I will have the full set. I really like their filters.
The next thing to get is the filter holder and maybe the 10 stop to start with for my Nikon 14-24mm. I would love to be able to do some long exposure photography with that lens. That is next on the list.
I just keep wanting to go into the city and take photos these days. I find it so satisfying. The more I do it the more I can understand what sort of scenes I want to shoot. I have a purpose in mind and I can see that it is becoming a reality, if that is the right way of putting it.
When I was in New York I had some good opportunities to take photos of the Manhattan skyline and when I got home I processed them. Some of them are among my favourite photos that I took while there, especially this one. Now I want to try to do that with the Melbourne skyline.
I like the way the buildings are like blocks all jammed in together. I really liked the way the image turned out from the processing. I managed to repeat it on a couple of other Manhattan skyline shots, but I don’t seem to be able to get the same look for Melbourne.
Besides the fact that New York is so much bigger than Melbourne, it is also much denser. There are so many more buildings there. Tall ones too. I think that as it is surrounded by so much water it is also easier to get back from it and get these types of shots.
Melbourne is a whole other story.
You can see that while I was across the water you just can’t fit a lot in. This is one end and there aren’t a lot of tall buildings on this side of the city.
I also don’t seem to be able to get the same sort of processing to work with my photos of Melbourne. I’m not saying I don’t like this, I do, but for different reasons. I do love the skyline shot so my challenge now is to work out how to process them for here and make them my own. I am starting to work out some things.
The other thing I have to work on is finding different perspectives to shoot from. That is on my list to do this year. Though, the summer is really making things hard for me.
I will have to continue the experimenting with the processing. I know I can do it and I know my Photoshop skills are up for it. I am quite confident about those, so now it is time to just play, my favourite thing to do.
Have you been keeping an eye on the gallery pages? I’m adding new photos all the time and sorting through some. I will also be making them all for sale as well.
The other day I had to do some work on a image unexpectedly and as I was doing some basic work to it, I wondered. So I decided to see what I could do with it and spent a lot more time on it.
I really like the way it has come out. I did quite a bit of work on the buildings to bring them out a lot more. I used curves quite a bit to achieve that. I also like using the dodging tool as well. I added some colours to the shadows as well.
I had a similar image a while back, it wasn’t quite the same, it didn’t have the new World Trade Center, but I like having that in it. It is becoming an iconic building in New York and you know when you see it that you are looking at New York. I also like that you can see the Empire State Building as well. The difference in heights between the two is quite amazing. That could be due to the fact that the ESB is a lot further back, still nice having it there.
I really want to do some shots like this of Melbourne, but we don’t have a big expanse of water like that for you to get it in the distance. Melbourne is far more closed in and our river isn’t that wide. We also don’t have that many large buildings. I have a few ideas and when I get my camera back I will be spending some time in the city seeing what I can get.
I’ve had some problems with the galleries here. Something changed somewhere, but I have got it all figured out now, well I hope, and you should be able to click on the images to see a larger version of the image.
