Rodney Campbell's Blog

I attended the second Google Plus Centennial Park PicANiK on a lovely Sydney day where we were doing a little model portfolio shooting followed by an evening of fire twirling and light painting – I know a full day of sharing and learning and having a bit of fun.

I arrived late to the party unfortunately so only caught the end of this session with Taylor Hodgson, one of our fabulous models on the day. I managed just a few images of Taylor with her fabulous smile (thankyou for being such a great model – esp having to deal with a dozen people with D-SLR’s all vying for your attention at once :))

Note: These photographs (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.

Scrim to the left to soften the sun, softbox to the right and a bare flash hair/rim light behind her and the glorious Sigma 85mm f/1.4 finishes it off

Million Dollar Smile

NIKON D600 + 85.0 mm f/1.4 @ 85 mm, 1/160 sec at f/2.2, ISO 100

A little photography creation Gerry and I were working on very briefly when we were experimenting with light painting toys at Middle Head Fort. A stark black and white conversion on a theme based around his Russian GP5 gas mask. Props to Gerry – I just came along for the ride 🙂

Note: These photographs (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.

The Punisher

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 34 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

We had to at least try an Orb and a Dome whilst light painting in the dark forest at night – surely…

Note: These photographs (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.

River Orb

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 407 sec at f/8, ISO 100

and whilst Gerry’s dome itself worked out fine as did some of the other individual light painting elements the combined construction of the various components just didn’t gell for me

Domed Gateway

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 601.00 sec at f/8, ISO 100

and just sometimes… less is so much more… this one pretty much straight out of camera…

The River Path

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 145.00 sec at f/8, ISO 100

I was keen to make my first visit to Narrabeen Tidal Pool count photographically, the threat of rain was nearly imminent and I’d brought an umbrella both as a deterrent to the rain but also to use as a prop. I was originally intending on using it on one of the timber boardwalks but this concrete pool edge/walkway out to the reef provided a good location to try some things.

My self portrait of sorts just as sunrise hits the horizon and the storm looms large…

Waiting for the Rain

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 23 mm, 0.8 sec at f/11, ISO 100

after that it was back to the main pool to try some compositions using the boardwalk and the epic sky which was brewing out over the sea

Lead me to the Light

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 1/3 sec at f/11, ISO 100

finally when we were loosing some of the colour in the sky and it was nearly half an hour after sunrise it was time to get out the Lee BigStopper to try some long exposure work before the storm hit us. I had to bump the ISO a little so we didn’t get into stupid exposure time territory – this one (251 sec @ f/11 and ISO 200) looked good straight on the back of the camera and is one of my favourite shots from my visit to Narrabeen tidal pool

Heaven Whispers

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 22 mm, 251 sec at f/11, ISO 200

I’m sure I’ll be back here again to photograph some more…

After the sun had set on our quick trip down to Manns Point in Greenwich; I wanted to try some twilight long exposure panoramas. The only real trick with these (beyond the excessive amount of time it takes to take one pano set (and trying to level your tripod in the dark and seeing how far to rotate for each frame with a very dark viewfinder:))) is waiting for all the lit moving craft to move out of your frames (ferrys, speedboats and even some kayakers).

I took two panoramas of essentially the same scene – however the end results look quite different even though they were only taken about 10-20 minutes apart. The first with the longer exposures (and CPL perhaps?) captures the late twilight purple/blue, whereas the second has headed into night (by now we’ve essentially lost the twilight colour in the sky) and we’re influenced more by the strong light pollution from the city lighting the clouds from below.

Two very different looks on the same scene – which do you like the best?

Note: These photographs (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.

Panorama stitched from seven (7) vertical frames taken at 35mm and 60 seconds each @ f/11 and ISO 200 (also used the Lee 0.9 grad ND and Heliopan CPL) (I actually had to bump to ISO 400 for the last four frames because the light was dropping) – taken between 7:15PM and 7:25PM. I also did a little light painting on the tree…

Dark City

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 60 sec at f/11, ISO 400

Panorama stitched from six (6) vertical frames taken at 35mm and 30 seconds each @ f/8 and ISO 400 (just using the Lee 0.6 grad ND) – taken between 7:30PM and 7:40PM

Golden Glow

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 30 sec at f/8, ISO 400