Monday 25 June 2012

My New Kit !

I 'lashed out' the other day and brought myself a Canon 600D Twin Lens Kit!

I have been needing/wanting to upgrade my Panasonic Lumix FZ30 for quite a while now, but considered the prices a little too high for what I wanted.  Besides, the Panasonic was giving me some great photos so I was in a position to sit back and wait.  Finally, after price watching for over six months, I finally found a price that was ideal at JB Hi Fi.  It was $400 cheaper than the nearest rival and for the money I saved, I also brought a Speedlite 430 EX II flash unit!   So, I am thinking, all in all, it was really worth the wait!

There are a few things I am gradually getting my head around.  It's not so much that I don't understand them but rather that, now I have a camera with so much more functionality, I have to remember to use it!  It is not quite as forgiving as the Panasonic was.  For example the 55-250 mm lens gives me the same zoom capability as the built in megazoom on my Panasonic.  At full zoom, I could get a pic without any shake on the Lumix  without the use of a tripod but, the Canon seems to be a little more sensitive to shake at full zoom. However, the Canon does not display any of the graininess and noise as I used to get from the Lumix. 

I have played around with the Speedlite flash in slave mode and I am loving it!  Planning all sorts of shots where it will come in very handy.  The first that springs to mind is night street photography on some of the wonderful architecture here in Newcastle!  Great light from different angles!  Check out my profile pic on my Facebook Page to see what I came up with just playing around!  Ha ha .... it was fun.

So, where to next?  Well I am gonna definitely drop the hint for my birthday for a couple of ND filters.  I do want a wide angle lens because I love what they can do, but will have to do some homework to see just what is available out there.  

Anyway, here are my first 'serious' attempts with my new kit.  I have to say that some did not actually work out, but I have figured out where I went wrong for those.  These are the ones that worked.  

I hope you enjoy them!

Hope you are all well as it is with us here!

Regards

 Jordy

By the way, my photos are for sale.  If you are interested contact me on my Contact Page or send me a private message on my Facebook Photography Page - Life with Jordy Photography.  If you visit my FB page, please click the 'Like' button and you can keep up with what is happening there also.










Wednesday 20 June 2012

Barney - Tales of a Family Dog

Barney is about 18 months old now.  He is a rescued dog.  That is to say, he and his brother and sisters were dumped by some lowlife and left to die.  Some kindhearted person found them and handed them in to Newcastle Dog Rescue.  We found him via their Facebook page and the rest is history!

He is the best dog.  Loving and gentle with just a touch of cheekiness.  He greets most people who knock on our door, with the boundless enthusiasm of one who loves to meet people and make friends.  We think that he has some idea that he was rescued, and perhaps that is why he shares his love with all of our friends with such reckless abandon!  Mind you, we have seen him when he has suspicions about the person knocking on the door and his assertiveness is reassuring, especially since I am a shift worker and not always at home on some nights.

He absolutely adores the beach and runs wild over the sand with a huge grin (if dogs can have a grin) written all over his face.  Here is a dog who loves to play.  Actually, mention the word 'play' and his ears will prick up and he will go and get a toy from his collection for a tug of war game which seems to be his favourite. 

Although it is winter here, we have had beautiful sunny days with a temperature of about 21 Celsius!  It being such a perfect day on Monday, we headed off to Caves Beach for the afternoon.  It was a beautiful afternoon, but not without tragedy.  As you can see by these photos, Barneys' favourite toy is a blue rubber 'stick'.  He loves to fetch for us to throw and he never tires of the game.

Barney, however, is afraid of the waves that roll into the beach and have a tendency to dump all over him.  Kim threw the stick and it landed in the wet sand.  Barney raced up to it but, alas! a wave started to crash into the beach and Barney retreated to a safe distance.  Unfortunately, the receding wave also took his blue stick with it and, Barney was left sitting on the beach looking forlornly at the surf to return his beloved toy.  It didn't come back, and we could see the confusion and disappointment on his face.  Hopefully, it may turn up on some distant shore, and another playful dog will realize the potential of the blue rubber 'stick' toy for a game or two!

These photos I have taken with my new Canon 600d - I love it!

Hope your are all well

 Jordy

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Thursday 14 June 2012

Mobile Phoneography #1

I have a Samsung Galaxy II mobile phone.  It has an 8Mp camera and I must admit that I was a little skeptical about its' photography prowess when I first brought it.   I then discovered some applications that work wonders and have now found that my phone is capable of taking some great photos!   The size of the photos would really inhibit them from being used for large print but, they are great for the web. 

The 2 main apps I use are Camera 360 and HDR Camera which have a wide range of options with each app.   The HDR Camera App takes 3 bracketed exposure shots and processes them all in the phone software!

These are an example of what I have taken up til now but, I will try to post on a regular basis as I take more.

One thing I must mention.....walking down the hill from my parked car on the way to work gives me some spectacular views, hence there are probably an usunual proportion of Sunrise photos here!

Hope you're all well.


Lurv

Jordy




















Wednesday 6 June 2012

A Monochrome sort of Afternoon

I have been busy at work and home, and the weather has been atrocious so I have not had much of an opportunity to get out and about.

I awoke at about Midday after a block of 4 12 hour shifts (2 day and 2 nights) with that fuzzy hazy brain that all shiftworkers have experienced.  I decided to set myself a little assignment using shallow depth of field, a few different lighting methods and present the outcome in Black and White.

Ok, what subject?

I thought the candles might be interesting, especially as they sit in a shallow glass container surrounded by small rocks which would also look good.   I have yet to conduct further experiments, but it appears it is difficult to focus on a flame!

I then turned my attentions to my favourite book.  It is the entire collection of Peanuts cartoons!   All of Charles Schulz work wonderfully bound and printed on glossy paper.  Some in colour, others not but, I love that book.  It is just great to pick it up and open up a random page that I know will bring a smile to my face!

The other book that appears in one of these photos is a book of dog photos.  Called 'Dogs Gods' by photographer Tim Flach, it is full of some really awesome dog photos.  I recommend this book for a coffee table conversation piece; I haven't met anyone who hasn't liked it!

The third thing I had to search for was the oldest book that I own.  Richard Carvel by Winston Churchill.  When I first purchased this book, I thought it had been written by the British statesman Churchill, who boosted the moral of his people through the most darkest days of World War II as Prime Minister.  It was a few years later that I accidentally found out that it was not him, but an American author who penned the work.  This particular edition was printed in 1900 and so is well over the century.  A little tattered and brittle, I thought it would make a brilliant subject!

The bottles came up great!  We have a small collection of bottles from different eras of Australian history.  The bottle in the foreground must nearly be about 90 years old also, because the sketch on the label depicts a half finished Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The last photo I took was of the cello playing elephant.  I wanted to experiment using a torch after the room had turned dark with the sunset.

The afternoon was dreary, overcast and wet, so I decided that Black and White would match the mood of the photos.  I love black and white photos anyway, irrespective of the weather!

Hope you enjoy this lot!

 Jordy

By the way, if you like my work, it is available for purchase!   Contact me via the Contact page on my blog here, via my Facebook Page  Life with Jordy Photography  or email to lifewithjordy@live.com.au.   












Catching up.

 Well it has been a couple of months since I posted a Blog article.   I don't have any Project or roll of film in particular to share wi...