That Wanaka Tree

So I was watching videos on YouTube about New Zealand before my trip when an image of this tree came on screen. I'd seen this before somewhere but had no idea it was in New Zealand so I jumped on the computer and did a quick image search for 'tree new zealand' and That Wanaka Tree came up in the results, next was to find out exactly where it was and learnt that it is the most photographed tree in NZ!

10:19pm

Enlighten

From 9:30pm-10:30pm on March 15 Bendigo's public spaces and lane ways were alive with art designed by youth that was projected in various shops, walls and via a bicycle (the projector bike complete with a sound system). Starting at the Bendigo library with a smoking ceremony the tour wound it's way down Hargreaves Street, down Chancery Lane, across to the Law Courts and finishing with a impressive display on the large white wall of the conservatory.

Long exposures at midday

A couple of weeks ago I made the jump from Photoshop Elements 12 (been using since 7 skipping some versions) to Lightroom and Photoshop CC subscription service. Didn't take long at all to get use to how Lightroom worked and adjust my workflow to suit. 

Now that I use Lightroom there are many tutorials on the interwebs that I can put into practice, the first one I was how to simulate a long exposure in Photoshop by using many shorter exposures which is great for extra long exposures during daylight hours just like my first test image below that has a simulated exposure time of 7 min 10 secs all done in Photoshop and I'll walk you through it.

Simulated 7 min 10 sec long exposure

Charity Cricket Match

Last night I was the official photographer for the third year in a row for the Health Bank Cricket Challenge between Bendigo Bank and Bendigo Health that helps to raise funds for Asha.

This year the match was held at the QEO in Bendigo which made for some great opportunities. The photos below are only a small selection of what I took. It's not often that I include people in my photos so the selection I have in this post shows more of the atmosphere of the night with more emphasis on the whole picture using a lot of panoramic to capture this.

Bendigo Bank - Winners of the the night

2 Storms

Just had two storms with some rain and lightning in two days, something I do not remember happening before, the first was on the Friday evening and the following evening.

I love shooting storms, there's an attraction to them and a little fear. The first selection of images are from the Friday storm, the second are from the Saturday one.

Friday

Motion Timelapse

Almost 2 years to the day and I've completed a journey, sure took me long enough. Thought it was only one year since I stopped working on it, right at the last part (tap the rig so I can mount it on my tripod). Originally designed to hold my OM-D EM-5 but now is used with a GoPro.

The first video

A little history

• A day in Bendigo in November 2013
• The dolly track built and tested in September 2013
• The dolly in September 2013
• The dolly track in September 2013
• First prototype in August 2013

F Stop Lounge Photowalk - Melbourne

I'll start by saying that this post is a massive one in terms of images from my trip down to Melbourne for a photowalk that started at The Boatbuilders Yard at South Wharf hosted by F Stop Lounge. This was my first official photowalk and it was a great day hanging out with fellow photographers as I am usually shooting alone also great to see the results and see how other photographers get their shots sure made me feel comfortable sitting/laying down anywhere to get a photo.

All photos but the first which was taken, edit and posted on my Sony Xperia Z1 Compact phone were shot with the m.Zuiko 9-18mm f/4-5.6 wide angle lens on an OM-D EM-5 and it only took me around 4-5 hours to go through the photos and process them into what you see below, I've put them into chronological order to make it easier to follow my trip to Melbourne.

The photowalk started at 4:30pm and I had a two hour train trip to do before hand, the latest train I could catch to make it in time (and that allowed some time before the photowalk for some of my own street photography) was the 12:30pm service which was delayed by 40min due to signaling faults down the line.

It was a photo day so I figured I'd start early with a shot of the Bendigo train platform during the 40 min delay.

Colour Me Rad - Deakin University

Over the weekend I was at the recent Colour Me Rad that was held at Deakin University in Waurn Ponds, Geelong. 

Health Bank Cricket Challenge 2

The second annual charity cricket match between Bendigo Bank and Bendigo Health was on last Friday night and I was the official photographer again. The charity cricket event is to support Asha (Asha means hope in Hindi. Asha give people living in slum areas of India hope by allowing them to realise their potential, regardless of background, caste or religious beliefs.)

Lightning Storm

This photo is available for purchase via my RedBubble shop.

After the huge response I got from my lightning photos from last night and some questions about camera settings and how I blended 5 photos to get the one above I thought I'd write down how I did it.

Billy Connolly - High Horse Tour 2015 Melbourne

Last night I got to see Billy Connolly live in Melbourne at Hamer Hall, something I 've wanted to do for some time and regretted not seeing him on his last visit to Australia. Amazing night complete with enough laughter to cause tears!

Melville Caves

Last weekend I visited Melville Caves in the in the Kooyoora State Park not far from Inglewood in Victoria. Hadn't been to the area for quite a few years and was great to visit again and this time with a camera to get some great shots. All photos below are taken with an Olympus OM-D EM-5 with the 12-50mm kit lens and the 17mm f/1.8 prime. Some are HDR and I used a Gorilla Pod for stability.

Cactus Garden

Few days ago I was at a cactus garden in Buckrabanyule which is near Charlton in Victoria getting some shots of cactus flowers, here are a selection of photos I got whilst baking in the afternoon heat and continuously swatting at flies, but well worth it for the different subjects to shoot.

Geminid meteor shower, Dec 14 2014

After the early Sunday morning shots I took but with no luck capturing any meteors I tried again on the Sunday night a little after 11pm. Instead of shooting from my back yard I walked down the road a little to a new housing development area that has only the road so far with wider areas and less light pollution from the numerous street lights are growing in the area.

I managed to get more than I thought, most I didn't see with my own eyes but captured them in the 30 second long exposure photos. I did see one very bright one shoot directly overhead but the camera was unfortunately not pointing in the right location to capture it.

Before taking this shot I could hear cockatoos in the area but could not see them, long exposure picks up the noisy birds in this large tree under a huge starry night.

Not a meteor but still looks good against the stars!

Bendigo Show

For the first time in a few years I went to the Bendigo show and checked out the sights including the photography shed, some great photos in there and I wished I had entered some photos, maybe next year, I've done it in the past and got some awards but I'm pretty sure I'm a better photographer these days, anyway I only had my camera phone (Sony Xperia Z1 Compact which is a pretty decent camera) and got some shots from the ferris wheel of the show

Macro of a flower in the floral shed

Awesome camera cake in the cooking shed

Tractor in the Agriculture shed

Next few shots are of a short monster truck show, got some alright shots too!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Finally they are all here, each of the 4 brothers are now huddled together on my desk. It started around 2 weeks ago when I stopped by the small arcade area at the local cinemas and found they had some small TMNT figures in one of those UFO style two armed skill tester machines. The other UFO style machine has minions from Despicable Me 2.

The first win was getting the leader Leonardo out after having one go on each of the machines (two sides to a machine) each go costing 1 token (basically $1) I missed on the first three goes (Minion,Minion then TMNT) on the last go (and token) Leonardo decided to hang onto the UFO claw and hitch a ride out!

Later that week Donatello and Raphael both eagerly grabbed a hold of the claw and got out at a cost of 1 token each. I looked for a Michelangelo but of the few that were amount the rubble of turtles none were in a spot that the UFO claw could reach (I tried twice and lost 2 tokens).

I checked a few days later but no refill on the turtles and still no Michelangelo that was in grasping range of the claw. That was until today when I noticed there was one Michelangelo that was in grasping range but was hiding under a Donatello, took me 6 tokens ($5) to get the last brother into the position show below. Luckily a friend was with me and helped out with 4 more tokens and after a lot of right from Michelangelo he finally came free and now stands along side his brothers ready to face whatever comes next.

Blood Moon

Start middle and end of the October 8 blood moon/lunar eclipse shot on tripod with an OMD EM5 and the 75-300mm at 300mm.

Started quite cloudy and could only get a few shots at the start, buy 8pm the clouds and mainly cleared.

Clouds and trees with the start of the October 8 Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse

 Below are the three photos that make up the first on this page, each one is a crop as 300mm does not get this close.

Tried to capture the blood moon and the stars around it in the one exposure, zoomed out to 75mm and shot for 2 seconds at ISO 400

Ice Bucket Challenge

At lunch time yesterday Bendigo Bank staff members took on the Ice Bucket Challenge, here's a few of the shots I got whilst shooting at 9 fps. View the full story on the Bendigo Advertiser website.

Moon rise after the Supermoon

I was unable to get a shot of the August 2014 Supermoon until the moon was higher in the sky so the following night on the 11th I got ready to shoot the near Supermoon rise as it rose off the horizon through the trees and clouds.

Mobile Phone History Part 2

Finally updated my phone history by adding the latest one, the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. Again I've tried to keep the image to scale - check out part 1.

So far loving this phone, does all the phone stuff but more importantly the camera performs amazing for it's size. Below are a few example photos taken with the Z1 Compact