Camping

I just returned from a trip out west past the Blue Mtns and had a chance to take some photos one day where we were camping.  I didn’t have anything in mind when heading out buy was hoping that the rain that has been pelting Sydney recently would subside and give me chance to shoot.  Well for the most the time, there was alot of fog but not much rain so I was able to get some photos that are different from my usual perspective.  I left my most commonly used lenses at home and ventured out with one that is not used as much as I like, the Nikon 105mm/f2.8 macro with VR image stabilization.  After talking to a client during the week who was wanting some “detail” shots of the Norther Beaches for his apartment, it got me thinking that my usual focus is on the wider, more grand landscape.   A new project is a great way to invigor your work especially when you are trying to create images that are different to your normal routine.

I was very lucky and found some old rusted American FORD trucks that appear to be about maybe 30-40 years old or even more.  They had huge potential for this project with lots of worn, smashed or faded parts with loads of texture.  My 105mm was in lens heaven.  Now I tried two techniques.  One was to simply shoot tight shots on the different areas of the trucks and try to incorporate some of the vehicle as blurred background.  This proved quite successful as the bokeh from the wide apertures created great smooth pastel colours that just melted together.  Other benefits were the short depth of focus really focus your eyes on the little details removing the clutter from the frame.

The other technique I used, was to set the camera to 1:1 true macro scale which focuses the lens to a set length, say about 40-50mm.  Then I would hand hold the camera and simply let my body sway side to side, forward and back and fire off the camera shutter when I saw something that looked good.   This produced some images that made deciphering the subject a little difficult but also interesting as it would catch people out not being able to tell what subjects were or how they were placed.

My last images were a bit of fun and were taken at night when some of my family started to play with sparklers around the fire.  Started out simply as writing words in the sky to getting half a dozen people working to our final images of an UFO like vehicle being driven by a person.  Too much fun.

I hope you all had a great Easter and enjoy the images, I think I will be trying out some of these ideas in the future, maybe at my next photography event or when out shooting landscapes and the weather is not cooperating with my intended ideas.

Gilbert.