Other Shots

While I am in the mood and have the time for uploading I thought I'd share one or two other shots I've taken this month which, while nothing to do with the monthly title, are shots I like and would therefore offer for your comment and (hopefully) enjoyment:

"Red Sky at Night"

F2 1/16 ISO400

I swear there has been no tinkering with the saturation on this one, this is as is.  There have been some other photoshop trickery but not saturation.  It was an amazing sunset colour and when I saw it I was a little "merry" on the way home from a few liquid refreshments.  While waiting for the ferry I thought I must be a little "over refreshed" but took the shot anyway and was chuffed when I downloaded the shot this evening.

"Harbour Reflections"

f2.8 1/320 ISO 80

This one was shot yesterday while coming home on the ferry and I just loved the abstract composition combined with the reflections of two Sydney harbour institutions as the bridge and the ferry.  I could say it would have been better if I had the opera house in there as well but I'm not sure.  Th opera house and the bridge in the same shot can look a little cliche in my mind.

"QVB Ethereal Light"

f5.3 1/160 ISO200

This show was originally intended to be an entry for "small world" and I was going to play and try and do a Mr Cooper Style tilt shift fake but Mr C beat me to it.  As you may be able to see from the blurring I got part way through with a few blur filters but then stopped when Mr C stole the thunder on that one.  The shot was take through my office window so there are multiple reflections and distortions (unavoidable where window doesn't open).  However, when I got fiddling with the saturation, and in some part de-saturation, I couldn't help loving the ethereal quality the light seem to take on, almost as if it was viewed through a dream.  So what started out as one homework has kind of accidently morphed into a completely different shot that I really like for other reasons.

And a final little challenge for the die hard techy-spods, how many of these shots do you reckon are HDRs?  I know the usual answer is all of them because I am shooting them but what do you reckon this time?

Water - Steven's efforts

I have a couple other ideas but just in case I don't get around to it here are a couple of water shots to keep you all going:

Lighthouse on the Rocks

f4.5 1/2000 ISO200

Washdown Area

(f8, HDR, ISO 200)

I know these two are fairly spurious links to water but what can I say, if it was straight forward it wouldn't be nearly as......as........shutterbug now would it.

The first is the lighthouse at Kiama and has water in the bottom corner.  The second is the showers on site at Sydney Airport in the "Aircraft Dump Bay" which is the lovely area where the airplane toilets are discharged into.  Imagine a GIANT public toilet and proportionally smelly.  This is one place you DON'T want to have a reason to use the emergency shower!!

A little Aside - Water Bottle

Although not in any way related to the current homework topic i really wanted to share a shot I took at the weekend which I have to admit (and at the risk of sounded conceited) came out every bit as fantastic as I hoped it would when I took the shot:

No not strictly (or even loosely) related to my normal subject matter of building, cranes and construction plant I still loved the shot because of the almost unreal quality the surface of the bottle took on when view in the early dawn light and the nice even coating of dew.  Contrasted against the granular texture of the sand behind I am pretty chuffed with it.

And also thanks to the trickery of HDR when you zoom in there is still a wealth of texture and colour.  Yum!

Ps.  I'll admit straight up, yes this has been tinkered with just a little. and yes it is yet another HDR shot but what can I say - it looks nice so ends justify the means.

The Mosque is Open......but not

Imogen and I took a long intended trip down to Abu Dhabi at the weekend to see the new Grand Mosque which I have driven past many times but never been in to have a look at. Now with it being start of Ramadan last Saturday I was aware enough to ring ahead and check it would be open and that it was OK to take photographs and was pleased to hear it would be so we arose at 7.30am and headed off.

However, suprise suprise, we got there to find a 'problem'. It seems that, as promised, the Mosque was indeed open but......nobody was allowed in. When I pointed out that this therefore meant they were closed he insisted that I was wrong, they were open as plainly demonstrated by the doors all being open, but it was just that nobody was allowed in......not even Muslims.

Go figure.

Anyway, undettered we came to an agreement that I could take pictures of the mosque provided I stayed on teh block paving (which is classified as the car park) and didn't step on to the marble floor tiles (classified as the Mosque). And so here are a few shots taken this weekend:

These were taken with the new toy which I might have mentioned once or twice to a few of you, the new D700. Now for those I haven't bored silly so far the camera has a whole range of fantastic features (which I won't bother listing here) other than the main one for HDR which is 9 shot bracketing from +5EV through to -5EV. Bored of camera talk yet?

Well, what this basically means is that I can now shoot 9 shots every time I shoot knowing there is a very good chance I will have enough to use for HDR. For example here are the nine shots that when into making up the pillars shot:

Now I will admit right away that of these nine the HDR software really only needs 3 or 4 of these shots in order to work, but with the 9 shot bracketting don't need to even think about it, just shoot them off and select them when I get home. If you're interested I'll explain more at the next shutterbugs.