Thursday 12 December 2013

Pentax A3 Film Photography - #3


I have finally gone through the second roll of Fujicolor C200 film and had it developed and scanned last week.  Got some very nice photos out of it!

I am particularly excited because I only realized that some of my Pentax lenses are 58mm diameter; the same as my Canon lenses and that now I can use my Cokin system and screw on filter on both! Some of my Pentax and Sigma lenses are 55 and 52 and I will be buying the appropriate size Cokin adaptor for them shortly.

As with the last shoot with this film, Fujicolor C200, I am very happy with the colour it gives.  I use minimal editing digitally on the scanned result, and crop when needed. I stick to only using digital edit methods that I know equate to darkroom processing methods.  One day I hope to have my own darkroom but that is a way off from now.

These were taken using a Pentax SMC F 35-105  f4-22 zoom. It is the first time I have used it and it gives a lovely result!  I can't wait to use it for my next Street Photography project which will be in Black & White so keep your eyes peeled! 

I hope that you all have been well in your part of the world and life is treating you good.

Jordy

These photos are for sale. Contact me if you are interested.

All photos on this blog are © Life with Jordy Photography and may not be used without permission.

Trains.  Newcastle, Australia

Newcastle Beach. Newcastle, Australia

Newcastle's got balls !    Hunter Street Mall, Newcastle, Australia

Hunter Street Mall after dark.  Newcastle, Australia

Fitness on the Beach.  Newcastle Beach, Australia

Newcastle NOW!  Hunter Street Mall, Newcastle, Australia

Railway pedestrian overpass from the Hunter Street Mall to the Port Hunter Foreshore. Newcastle, Australia

The Train Station.  Newcastle, Australia

Railway overpass and Port Hunter Tower. Newcastle, Australia


Monday 9 December 2013

I've been a little busy - but it's all good!

It seems like an age  since I posted on here last.

Unfortunately, I cannot ignore my real job (as a Radio Dispatcher for the NSW Police) which often gets in the way of what I love to do!  Don't get me wrong; I love my job working on the Radio but I get a lot more personal satisfaction from my photography.

Fortunately, the other thing that has kept me busy, was a great opportunity to enhance my photography experience in a very different way. However, I must tell you this short story first....

Some months ago, I received a message off my contact page from this blog. It was from the Editor of the NSW Police Monthly magazine.  She was requesting permission to use one of my photographs for a story.  I sort of did a double take at the time, wondering how they had found the photo on my blog.  When I asked her that, she replied that she had simply Googled photos of Nobbys Beach (the location they wanted) and my photo had popped up in the top 10.  (Have to admit that that rating on Google did excite me a little....)

When she found out where I worked, she asked me if I get out and about with my camera very much (Ha, is she kidding!?) Anyway, as with most Government Departments, the magazine is on a shoe string budget. There is only 1 photographer to cover the whole of the State of NSW for the Police Force, so they rely on the goodwill of enthusiastic amateur photographers (staff of NSW Police) to help out. Long story short; I have provided photos for articles in the magazine ever since.  It is not a paid thing but, that does not bother me; I reap the benefits of the experience.  I am learning about taking photographs for print media where I must consider that they will want to put print over some parts of the photo and I must take into account the composition to allow for this. I am also getting acknowledgement for the photo in the magazine to Life with Jordy Photography, which has the potential to send more people my way online.

Anyway, about 2 weeks ago, I had an email from the Editor asking if I would like to do a job for them. The Special Olympics Asia/Pacific Games was being held in Newcastle and the regular photographer was not available for the opening ceremony. Luckily, I was not rostered on and was able to attend for them.

The reason that the Police Media wanted to cover this is that the Torch Run for these Special Games is organized by Law Enforcement Agencies around the world to raise money for the Special Olympics. It is actually known as the Law Enforcement Torch Run (Google it and see how big it actually is!)

I learned a lot over the course of a few days!  Police Media had to negotiate with the Special Olympics Committee for a place for me on the arena on the Opening Ceremony.  Of course, I needed a media pass.  Although I was given total access to the field, it was indicated that I should not just go wandering about! I had to be in certain places at certain times to get PR photos of the Torch Runners and the Commissioner. I had to meet up with a Media Manager whose job it was to monitor the numbers of media on the field at any given time.  The TV media covering the event would not allow the use of flash on the field and so I had to turn up theISO (which didn't turn out too bad) to get correct exposure.  I was right there for the final handover of the Torch from the Police Commissioner to the athlete for the lighting of the cauldron.  I got some photos in before I pulled back the zoom to get the wider angled shot.  At that exact minute, the bloody TV camera crew walked into shot between myself and the other 2 photographers blocking out the Commissioner and the athlete.  By the time I had quickly changed position the moment had gone!  Luckily, the 2 photos I took of the Torch handover turned out well and the magazine can still use them!

The other photos I took on the night and in the earlier Torch Runs will be used for Public Relations and also as File Photos for any future story.  I'll just post a few here!

The worst part of the whole experience was fighting the horrendous traffic into the stadium at Newcastle!  It took me 30 minutes to drive the last 2 kms to get to the designated parking area that had been organized!

It was a wonderful experience!

I hope you have all been well, as we have.  Take care in the hustle and bustle leading up to Christmas!

Jordy
















Sunday 24 November 2013

Green Point Reserve, Lake Macquarie, Australia



Green Point near Belmont on Lake Macquarie, is such a lovely place!  A great grassed picnic area, the reserve is on the shores of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales.  Walk along the reserve from Green Point along a concreted path and in a few hundred metres, come upon another large grassed open area with public BBQs and picnic tables.  Overlooking this grassed area is a series of 3 lookouts from which I have taken and posted photos from on a previous blog status.

Although I had been there before, I went again; this time taking my son Lachlan with me.  He is a budding photographer and had not been there before.

As you can see, it was a beautiful sunset, filled with those lovely golden tones and colours.  I have never seen sunsets like those over Lake Macquarie.  The lake reflects the fiery colour of the sky all over and gives a great effect for a photographer.

The main object of our Photo Safari on this particular day, was the large tree situated in Green Point Reserve.  It is a beautiful, huge tree and, every time I visit there is a family having a picnic or someone just lying underneath taking advantage of its' shade.  The Sun was in an awkward spot for my photos of the tree and when I saw how blown out the water reflection was, I decided to change them to Black & White because the silhouettes of the children looked much better in the B&W.

Once the Sun started to get lower in the sky, the water reflected the lovely golden tones from the sky.  There was a couple of blokes fishing in their tinny on the water and I managed to catch them in silhouette also against that glowing water.

I hope you enjoy these!

Regards to all

Jordy



These photos are for sale, contact me if you are interested.

All photos on this blog are © Life with Jordy Photography and may not be used without permission.











Tuesday 5 November 2013

Swansea Heads, NSW, Australia


I had, a short while ago, purchased an ND8 filter for my Cokin system.  I already had a screw on Marumi ND8 filter and I thought I would play around with using both filters at the same time.

Swansea Heads in New South Wales, is where Lake Macquarie (the largest permanent salt water lake in the southern hemisphere) joins onto the Tasman Sea on Australias' east coast.  At the tides, the channel can run fairly fast and so I decided that was where I wanted to be for the long exposure photos.

I arrived about 2 hours before sunset which gave me ample time to do a recon for the photos and decided that the best option was the small wharf that ran beside the boat ramp of the Marine Rescue Boat House.  I wanted a subject that would stay still whilst the long exposure smoothed out the water that ebbed and flowed around its' pylons.

Once I had that sorted, I went for a short wander over to the rocks that form part of the breakwall and shoreline of the Swansea Channel.  I set up with both ND8 filters to see what sort of long exposure I could get in daylight.  I am happy with the result, however to get that really silky smooth look to the water in sunlight, I really need to get a much darker ND100 filter.  The 2 stacked ND8 filters enabled a 5 second exposure from f22, ISO100.  It was sufficient to get a likeable effect but I would still love to have that ND100! [haha !]

I had set up on the rocks to catch the waves coming in over the top and in and around with that swirling motion.  There was a fisherman standing on a rock who was standing very still.  Murphys' Law! - I only wanted him to stand still for 5 secs but, NO, as the shutter opened he reeled in and moved off.  The subsequent photo caught his movement and that of his fishing line also, so I did salvage something from that at the end of the day!

The one thing I love about the ND8 filters is that those beautiful warm colours of the sunset are enhanced and a lot of glare is cut from the photos.

I hope you have all been well.

Regards

Jordy

Serene Swansea Heads, NSW, Australia
Swansea Heads Living - NSW, Australia.  ISO100 f22 5 second exposure.

Poles Apart at Swansea Heads, NSW, Australia.  ISO100  f22  5 second exposure.

Marine Rescue Wharf - Swansea Heads, NSW, Australia.  ISO100  f22  20 second exposure.

Marine Rescue Wharf and Breakwall - Swansea Heads, NSW, Australia

Swansea Heads Sunset - NSW, Australia.  ISO100 f22 6 second exposure

The Ghost Fisherman - Swansea Heads, NSW, Australia. ISO100   f29   8 second exposure
Long exposure on rocks.  Swansea Heads, NSW, Australia.  ISO100 f29 8 second exposure.

Sunday 13 October 2013

Saturday afternoon on Lake Macquarie


I have some new lenses for my Pentax A3 35mm SLR. One of them, a 35-105 zoom is especially good for street photography. Intending to head out on Safari on Saturday for some street photography, I packed the Pentax in with my Canon 600D.  Because it was such a hot day I decided to head south to Belmont; there would be plenty of people hanging around the lake foreshore, people diving and jumping off the wharf into the lake, picnics  etc etc, all wonderful subject matter for film!

For some reason, I decided to divert to Green Point along the way; that is usually a popular area and has pure unfettered views across to the other side of Lake Macquarie, besides, there may be some boats out and about on the lake!  Well...... I crested the hill and got very excited!  The lake was teeming with sail and boats of all sizes.  I didn't get to shoot any street photography.  I just took in the beautiful breeze running off the lake whilst sitting under some Pine trees in the shade and watched the boats run.

There were craft of all sizes, from small windsurfers, to the slightly larger but very fast 29er's and 16 foot skiffs from the 16 Footers Club at Belmont, up to the large graceful yachts from the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club.

There was a lot of ducking and weaving going on; I have never seen that many boats on that particular stretch of lake before.  Perhaps it was just my perspective at water level?

I started shooting on manual mode, but some of these boats were fairly quick under sail, and I found that if I focused and then had to adjust shutter speed or aperture for correct exposure then the moment had passed.  So, armed with the thought of  'just get the picture' I changed to AV mode and let the camera determine shutter speed.  I used a large aperture of f5.6 because I wanted to get that shallow depth of field on the subject with light bokeh in the foreground and background.  It worked well and I was much faster getting the photos.  

I shot with the Canon but did try a few with the Pentax (that'll be interesting!)  I used my Canon 55-250 zoom with attached UV filter.  For some reason, I have ended up with a slight vignette on the photos, something I didn't expect. After some research I have found that this lens will give slight vignetting on larger aperture settings.  I also found out that if I were to use the Canon RAW conversion software that this vignetting can be corrected automatically during conversion.

I could have stayed well on 'til sunset, but now that we have daylight saving (YES YES !!) that would have been a few hours away.  So, I made my way home, put the SD card into our LCD TV to review the afternoons' takings and sat down with a beer....... aaahhhhh... life's good!

There are more of these to see on My Facebook Page.  Visit me there and say Hi !










Thursday 19 September 2013

Special guest appearance at Torana Fest 2013, Newcastle, Australia


My overseas followers will probably ask themselves,'what is a Torana?'.  Well, the Torana was a car that was manufactured in Australia by General Motors - Holden - the Australian subsidiary of General Motors. Various models were built in the period 1967-80. The name 'Torana' apparently comes from an Australian Aboriginal word that means 'to fly'  -  and that is exactly what a lot of them did!

The photographs that I wanted to present here though, are not of a Torana!  At the Torana Fest, there was a special appearance of an old racing warhorse.  A 1953 Holden 48/215 also known as a Holden FX.  These cars were the first to be introduced to Australia as Australias' own cars.  This car has been mechanically re-conditioned but is basically in original condition as it was when it raced in the first ever Australian Touring Car Championship in 1960 at Gnoo Blas circuit just outside of Orange in New South Wales.

At that race the driver was Des West.  He came 11th outright and 8th in class.  He perhaps would have made better time if he had not stopped to help out a fellow driver who was trapped in his car after a crash.

To read more about this car and its current owner follow this link

If you would like to see more photos from the Torana Fest please visit my Facebook page and check out some icons of Australian Motoring History!  If you visit, please like my page there because then you can keep up with all of my other photography subjects!

Hope you have all been well.

Jordy






Wednesday 4 September 2013

Pentax A3 Film Photography - #2


I usually prefer a black and white film.  I can't quite put my finger on why.  I think it is the soft tones and contrast that appeal to me so much.  This time though, I wanted to try something different and so I put a Fuji C200 colour film through the Pentax.  

Of the 36 exposures, these are the ones that have been most successful.  There were a couple that just straight didn't work out and there were those culled on the Lightroom floor because I just wasn't happy with the composition.

The problems with some of those that didn't work out were caused by a couple of reasons.  For the Darby Street safari, I was using a Pentax SMC-A 70-210 zoom.  The lens is quite heavy and, it seems, I have been spoiled by the image stabilization that comes with my Canon lenses; my hands aren't as steady as they used to be!  

The other thing is my eyesight!  I now wear glasses and the Pentax does not have an adjustable diopter so that I can take my glasses off to use the manual split focus system.  It is ok if I wear my glasses but I really need to have an eyecup so that I can rest my glasses lens against the soft rubber which should keep out some of the reflected light that hits my glasses which makes the focussing difficult.

So that is about the extent of it; I had some shake and slight focus problems with a few, but the majority turned out fine and here is the best of those.  

I think I will have to curb my enthusiasm at times; having a film in the camera is sometimes like a kid with a dollar in the lolly shop! 

The photos for this blog entry were taken in Darby Street, Newcastle and 1 at Caves Beach, which is just south of Newcastle in Australia.  The cat in the photos is a very friendly fellow, and I am lead to believe his name is 'Rabbit' !  I caught him sitting on the sidewalk meowing at the passersby who would stop to give him a scratch behind the ears, which he thoroughly enjoyed!

It was about 8.30am, and the street was just starting to come alive.  Darby Street has some lovely sidewalk dining and there were a few people out & about for breakfast.  The smells of bacon and coffee were everywhere.....mmmmmmm....

I lined up to get a photo of a bloke walking down the street, obviously on his way to work, he was having one of those wide open 'not quite with it just yet' yawns.  After I got that image I lined up on the next when I heard someone ask, 'What are you up to?'  I turned around and found my friend Dan walking toward me; he was the one who had been doing all the yawning and I hadn't recognized him with his hat on in the half shadow of the sidewalk! (Hope you enjoy the photo Dan!  Ha ha...)

Anyway, that's it for me this time. I have to plan my next safari; I have a colour film in the Voigtlander!

I hope you are all well and that life is good!

Jordy











Thursday 29 August 2013

A Notorious Few Days in Newcastle


Gidday everyone.  It's been a couple of weeks since I blogged. I have been busy doing those little odd jobs around the home, you know; the ones from the never ending list!  I did get out and about last Friday though.  I heard on the grapevine about a small ship that was visiting Newcastle.

Not just any small ship. This is a replica of a Portuguese 'Caravel' an ocean going sailing ship from the 1500s.  In this type of ship, the Portuguese and the Spanish sailed the world in what is now termed the 'age of discovery'.  Many famous explorers sailed out to places unknown in these ships e.g. Vasco de Gama.  Of the three ships led by Christopher Columbus, the Nina and the Pinta were apparently Caravels also.

I arrived early on the Friday morning to capture some Sunrise photos with the Notorious being the main subject.  I had to wait until 10am for the ship to open for inspection.  My son Lachlan came with me for the photo safari so, whilst we waited, we walked into the Newcastle Mall for a spot of breakfast and the best coffee in town at a small cafe called One Penny Black.  I grabbed a few photos whilst there and, after dropping Lachlan back to his unit, went back to the ship.  

This particular replica the 'Notorious' took 10 years to build using 300 tons of reclaimed timber. It is beautifully made and is a real treat to walk her decks and go below to see the sparse living quarters. It is not actually a tourist attraction as such; the builder and his wife actually live on board; it is their home.  They sail around the coast of Australia dropping into ports along the way, where they open the ship up for inspection to the public at a very minimal cost and, it is totally worth paying a few dollars to have a look around.

After leaving the ship, I had to drop the car in for a tyre rotation. Whilst it was in the workshop, I went for a wander up Hunter Street to look for a high vantage point from where I could shoot a panorama of Newcastle.  I walked into the Pinnacle Apartments and talked my way into being taken to the top floor of that building.  The building manager (whose name I cannot remember now - apologies!) was very kind to take some time out for me to get the photos.

The Notorious left Newcastle yesterday at about midday.  I waited on the Stockton Breakwall to get some photos of her sailing through the heads.  I have added those here as well.

There are many photos of the Notorious added to her Facebook page and you can follow her around the coastline of Australia.

I hope you have all been well as I have.  I am on the final leg of 4 weeks leave and back to work on Sunday (Fathers' Day) of all days; not really looking forward to it.....sigh......

As Always

Jordy

Sunrise on Furled Sail, Newcastle, Australia

Arrr, Notorious Cap'n, Newcastle, Australia

Just check out the craftmanship that has gone into building such a ship! Notorious at Newcastle, Australia

Notorious berthed at Queens Wharf, Newcastle, Australia

Sunrise over Port Hunter, Newcastle, Australia

Leaving Newcastle, Australia

Ships Bell - Notorious, Newcastle, Australia

Notorious sails out through the heads past Nobbys Point, Newcastle, Australia

Just couldn't resist this one in Black & White.  Hunter Street, Newcastle, Australia

Daffodil Day from One Penny Black Espresso Bar, Newcastle, Australia

The Tugboats are kept very busy on the Port, Newcastle, Australia

Panorama of 3 photos stitched together. Newcastle, Australia.



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...