From Down Under

Well, they had to de-ice the plane before I left Birmingham and its been 36 degrees here. Took me about 30 seconds to acclimatise and I have lost my 'whitest person on Bondi' tag that my bro had initially named me.

Last night was my first go at after dark stuff, mainly because at around 7.30pm my eyes have rolled round in my skull.  I've bought a polarising filter and a Slik tripod since I've been here. I'm pleased with the tripod, much better than the Jessop's one which I'd returned.

Plenty of post production still to do on this one, light rain started to fall and I tried to get under cover and carry on getting some shots.

I mainly want to get some good portraits and I'm using a 50ml f1.8, having a fixed focal length is a challenge but I'm enjoying the small size and DOF.

Trying to put more thought into the end product so that I can produce a photobook as a family record. The boys, Jack nearly 5 and starting school next week, Harry 1st birthday next week, change so much.

Took the chance to visit an Annie Leibovitz exhibition at Circular Quay which was exceptional and well worth further study, and I'm reading all the Oz photo magasines.

Wildlife and families are one and the same thing really and birds fascinate me especially the strange buggers they have here. In the course of altering my ISO I also changed the image size to its smallest setting when I took this one. What a twat!

Its an Australian Dipper (I think) similar to a cormorant. They don't have as much waterproofing as other waterfowl so, without the buoyancy, they can dive deeper but then they need to dry out.

And a bit more wildlife.....

My Latest Muse

This is Mary Lou.

From Wiki:

The Boerboel is a large, mastiff dog breed from South Africa, bred for the purpose of guarding the homestead. These dogs were often a first line of defense against predators and were valuable in tracking and holding down wounded game. Old farmers tell many tales of the strength, agility, and courage of their Boerboels.

 The word "Boerboel" derives from "boer", the Afrikaans/Dutch word for "farmer". Boerboel, therefore, translates as either "farmer's dog" or "Boer's dog". The Boerboel is the only South African dog breed created to defend the homestead.

The protective character of the Boerboel is still evident and is much sought after, as is the calm, stable, and confident composure of the breed. The dogs are obedient and intelligent and have strong territorial instincts. The Boerboel remains the guarding breed of choice amongst current day farmers and is very popular for the same reason in urban communities.

I took some pics with a white background, but this one with the black set up was the stand out shot. Taken with 1 speedlight off camera.

BPS 4th Internal Comp

These are my pics for the next competition. I'm going to be in Oz so won't be there for the judgement day.
Could someone stay awake and write down my remarks please if poss?

Printed;

 Bristol Harbour

 Great Spotted Woodpecker

Catie Rose
Projected:

 Bacchus God of Wine

 Yellow Boats

Beach Boy

All is fine over there, I'm just flying south for the winter.

I'd be interested to hear your remarks before then and what you think.

Bristol Docks

A forcast of 'Not as bad as last week' was enough for us to trek to Bristol for our group photographic Christmas expedition, although at 6.50am the only one keen to get in the car was Saffy.
I felt fantastic having had a coffee and Lemsip, chatting merrily to Steve who snored his interest in the conversation.
First stop was breakfast and caffeine top up, during which we all agreed getting up so early had been a terrible idea and we weren't going to go outside till lunch time. We had found a great place for a huge reasonably priced breakfast with very good coffee. Infact we'd have probably stayed there all day if their toilet had been working.

Only the brave 5 remainded of our full group of 8

The Three Wise Men, Eric, Jim and Steve.   

And a new granny, Suzy.

Down to business.

It was hard not to be influenced by Steve's usual despare of the 'pants' lighting. The harbour had been frozen over and was full of thick pieces of ice with a dull mist. The land seemed the same color as the drab sky. We risked life and limb in a dangerous boat crossing with a cheerful ferryman (not).

We wandered on and found the Banksy picture.

Then had another coffee and a sit down in the museum on a suprisingly comfortable wooden bench whilst Eric ran round it, the museum not the bench, to save us the bother.
Four photographers with all their kit sitting squashed together on a small bench seemed to set the museum security on edge and we moved on. We went up a hill then down a hill, then wandered a bit more taking some more rubbish photos. Oh the joy of digital.

We dropped in at the cathedral.

 But then we all lost the will to walk and went to a pub to argue over cameras, syrup in cola, tripods and the menu. But during the time we were there it went dark and Mr Bright's 'Pants Lighting' disappeared to be replaced by pitch black, which he loves.

He introduced us to the dark art of night time photography, brilliant.

A great time was had by all and I learnt loads. One thing I'd noticed that everyone elses pics looked better/sharper than mine on their camera screens and I couldn't get the start burst effect. At 3am the following morning it occured to me I'd got a plastic protector over the my screen, DOH!

I'm wondering if I've got a panel amongst the night ones I took. Thanks v much, Steve.