Rodney Campbell's Blog

I’d not been out with my macro lens for quite some time so one afternoon recently I went out with the Tamron 90mm macro and my SB900 flash with my cheap $5 ebay over the lens popup diffuser on and went in search of the little things in life to photograph (a.k.a. stuff out in the streets nearby :))

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

What Lies Beneath – Phonognatha graeffei, referred to as the Leaf Curling spider

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/125 sec at f/22, ISO 200

and who can resist the tiny balls of fluff

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/125 sec at f/22, ISO 200

I think this is a St Andrews Cross spider

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/50 sec at f/16, ISO 200

a very closeup view of the tiny stamens on this Calliandra flower

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/125 sec at f/16, ISO 200

finally an even more scary looking Golden Orb spider – triptych showing closer and closer images

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/125 sec at f/16, ISO 200

Week 64

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

A pair of monochrome architecturals this week – one old and one new…

Of Times Gone By

NIKON D7000 + @ 12 mm, 1/60 sec at f/8, ISO 160

Offset

NIKON D7000 + @ 12 mm, 1/400 sec at f/5, ISO 100

On a recent trip down to Manns Point park at the end of Greenwich on Sydney harbour I tried some long exposure compositions leading up to and past sunset.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

This first taken before sunset with the B+W 10 stop ND along with my Lee 0.6 (2 stop) hard Grad ND. I’ve got to say trying to position the grad whilst the 10 stop ND is on is very very tricky (you basically can’t see much at all through the viewfinder – you have to wait some time till your eye adjusts to the very little light and when you can faintly see the action of the GND as you move it)

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 12 mm, 120 sec at f/11, ISO 200

After the sun has set and during twilight I turned my attention the other way and tried some shots towards the city just with the 0.9 (3 stop) GND.

I’m not sure if including these old railway sleepers sticking out over the water works or not (my wife thinks not I suspect :))

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm, 118 sec at f/11, ISO 200

There were these lovely striped sandstone boulders near the waters edge which I’ve tried to use for foreground interest along with the silhouette of the dead collapsed tree branches – I’ve got a couple slightly different variants of this – again I’m not sure this has worked – suggestions?

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 120 sec at f/8, ISO 400

I think I’m happiest with this vertical composition with some foreground rocks and the semi submerged oyster encrusted rock (I added a small touch of light painting on some of the rocks during the long exposure) and a smidgen of the tree further back and the city in the distance shrouded in a cool city lit fluffy cloud layer

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 180 sec at f/8, ISO 400

I thought I’d visit somewhere on Sydney harbour that I hadn’t been before and so here we are at Greenwich on the north shore. There is a very large Shell refining terminal consuming one side of the Greenwich finger of land along Gore Cove. It was about two hours before sunset so I went for a walk around the headland and ended up here on the rocks beside the southern end of the refinery terminal.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

I’d particularly like to know what you think of this monochrome conversion of a scene near the waters edge (both the composition and the mono processing)

NIKON D7000 + @ 12 mm, 1/60 sec at f/11, ISO 280

and for this image I’ve taken out the bigstopper (10 stop ND) and put the tripod out in the water and placed it just behind this large oyster encrusted boulder

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 12 mm, 60 sec at f/13, ISO 100

…and so another season of Netball has started again, and so begins the weekly training and early evening games.

This early in the season it’s still light when they play their games but by the end of the season with shorter days they’ll be playing under lights from essentially the start. With that in mind I took the 70-200/2.8 for a spin with their first games of the season with beautiful late afternoon and sunset light.

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 @ 155 mm, 1/3200 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

The timing for this shot of my daughter and a few of her friends on the fence was serendipitous with the just setting sun just catching them in golden glow

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm, 1/1600 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200

and just check that hair after a few games 🙂

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 @ 135 mm, 1/640 sec at f/3.5, ISO 200