Rodney Campbell's Blog

I recently joined some other fellow members of the Sydney CBD Photographers Community on Google+ for their second lunchtime CBD photowalk.

This time we headed over the Pyrmont bridge into Pyrmont for our walk – it was a very hot and sunny day but we had a good time out and even managed a few shots between all the chatting 🙂

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.

Again all taken with the Nikon 85/1.8G

Light and Shadow

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.8 @ 85 mm, 1/800 sec at f/4, ISO 100

Reflections of Us

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.8 @ 85 mm, 1/200 sec at f/2.2, ISO 180

Shadow Line

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.8 @ 85 mm, 1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 110

Star Lines

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.8 @ 85 mm, 1/500 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

Well – there isn’t a lot of mystery really… this is what happens when I don’t cover the viewfinder when doing a long exposure (during the day) using the ten stop ND filter (and some… + CPL + 3 stop GradND)… and I get some mystery light leakage over the image 🙂

With my D7000 I didn’t really have to do this – at worst just draping the camera strap over the eyepiece was enough but I’ve found with the D600 I really do have to use that viewfinder cover or suffer the consequences. Perhaps it’s an FX (full frame) sensor thing with a larger viewfinder, mirror box, etc? who knows – all I know is my daughter likes this one better :)… I guess it kinda does have that serendipitous random nature Aurora Borealis look to it.

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.

Mystery

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 120 sec at f/8, ISO 400

and here is the very next frame (where I used the cover) and what I was expecting to get – same exposure settings (120 sec @ f/8, ISO 400 and 19mm) with a slight change to the composition (rotated left a little to get a little more bridge in (all the wires)). These are both basically straight out of camera with the same minimal processing

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 120 sec at f/8, ISO 400

A couple shots from the street from a recent lunchtime trip out with just the Nikon 85/1.8G

Sushi Training

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.8 @ 85 mm, 1/100 sec at f/5, ISO 2200

Aussie Beach

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.8 @ 85 mm, 1/200 sec at f/5, ISO 110

Walkway

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.8 @ 85 mm, 1/200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 250

Stepping Out

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.8 @ 85 mm, 1/200 sec at f/4, ISO 900

Headed to Glebe/Blackwattle Bay (directly opposite the Anzac bridge) for a dawn photoshoot with Gerry and Suren.

Another nice early morning with a 5:20AM start at Glebe, instead of having no clouds in the sky like we’ve usually been having lately this time we had too much with a think bank of low fog like clouds hanging over the city. It was however noticeably moving very fast towards us across the sky so it at least boded well for some long exposure streaky skies.

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.

It was pano time today – this first was taken about 30 minutes before sunrise and is a panorama stitched from 8 vertical frames using the Nikon 16-35/4 at 26mm and 60 sec @ f/9

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 26 mm, 60 sec at f/9, ISO 100

Just after sunrise we started to get some nice stringy clouds in the sky (too late) and interestingly we still had the fast moving thick low cloud but had almost stationary high stringy clouds (moving very slowly in a different direction). Another pano stitched from 7 vertical frames using the Nikon 16-35/4 at 24mm and 1.3 sec @ f/11

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 24 mm, 1.30 sec at f/11, ISO 100

With the sun now rising in the sky it was BigStopper time – here’s a single frame showing the low clouds moving towards us from left to right and the high cloud moving slowly from right to left – 120 seconds @ f/11 and ISO 200

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 120 sec at f/11, ISO 200

Happy Australia Day Everyone :)…

Gerry and I headed out to East Balmain on Sydney harbour for an early sunrise session (starting before 5AM).

From the park at the tip of East Balmain we essentially had uninterrupted views over the water from North Sydney and the Harbour bridge on our left around through the Sydney city CBD and then past Darling Harbour and Pyrmont and finally around to the Anzac bridge on our right.

It was a very nice morning – warm enough to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt (even an hour before sunrise). The tide was highish and the water was still and there was no breeze, we also had nice smooth colour in the sky. However of course as is our usual these days, there were no clouds to speak of during twilight or sunrise but of course some magically appeared high in the sky overhead after sunrise 🙂

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.

Using the 16-35/4 at 35mm I stitched a panorama from seven horizontal long exposure (40 seconds each) frames starting at 5:20AM (during twilight about 30-40 minutes before sunrise)…

Reflections of Sydney

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 44 sec at f/10, ISO 200

of course the pano looks much better larger (than the postage stamp version above)

and here is a single frame of the Sydney CBD at 20mm

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 121.00 sec at f/8, ISO 200

About twenty minutes after sunrise this large passenger ship came around under the bridge to dock

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 31 mm, 1/3 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Finally we went for a walk down to the Darling St wharf where it was time to give the BigStopper a whirl with the sun just peeking past the city buildings…

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 29 mm, 98 sec at f/11, ISO 100