P365 May29: More from Redcliffe

A rainforrest walking track in Mapleton Falls National Park.

Sunset again from Jamieson Park, Scarborough. Tonight's was even better than last!

Our generous host and my mother-in-law Trish in silhouette against the sunset.

P365 May28: Sunset in Redcliffe

It's been a challenge to get photos while on our trip to Redcliffe. A combination of harsh daylight, short twilight, surprisingly frequent rain and the desire to just be lazy has made it tricky to get all the awesome photos I imagined taking. However, I've still been happy with a lot of the pics I've taken so far. Tonight was the best so far :)

Nomi and I drove up to the top tip of the peninsula to watch the sun set over the Glasshouse mountains. The sunset itself wasn't exactly spectacular, but it had its beautiful moments. We hung around after, waiting for the sky to get dark so I can try some more of the long-exposure shots I've been enjoying lately.

Check out the rays! Pretty chuffed they came out as well as they did.

These fisher-folk were illuminated by this imaginary spotlight for just a few seconds, as they sat on a narrow spit.

Trees can make a lovely frame for a photo! This was a one second exposure about 15 mins after sunset.

As we were driving home I could see these giant clouds brightly illuminated by the moon. Wit the patience of a saint, Naomi waited for me while I ran down to the beach and took a half dozen long exposure shots. This one was two minutes long, and that turned the waves into a light misty strip in the foreground. That Jupiter, bright in the middle right, and Antares - a red giant star - at the top right.

This is a similar angle tanken with the fisheye lens. The moon is high in the sky, and Scarborough can be seen to the far right with the lights of Redcliffe in the distance. That's a plane in the middle, not a meteor :)

P365 May27: Redcliffe Museum

Click images for larger versions.

Today Al and Trish organised a day trip around the Redcliffe penninsula for the Cornish Association of Queensland. Naomi and I tagged along to give a hand and to take some photos of the event for the newsletter. One of the destinations was the Redcliffe Museum, which is small but remarkably modern, interesting and well laid out. I took a few panoramas here, inside and out.

The above panorama can be viewed as a full size interactive panorama.

The tour took most of the day, and unfortunately the evening became a cloudy and stormy affair with torrential rain, which is very welcome in drought-stricken Queensland, but precluded my photography plans for the rest of the day.

P365 May 26: Around Redcliffe

Nomi and I had lunch on Margate Beach.

The moon was lovely this evening.

Here's the moon over Redcliffe as viewed from Al & Trish's balcony. 5 minute exposure with fisheye lens.

The ibis roost at Humpybong Creek. 30 Second exposure.

Humpybong Creek at night. 5 minute exposure.

P365 May25: Redcliffe birds

Taken this evening down by Humpybong Creek in Redcliffe QLD.

P365 May24: Packing

Worst 365 ever... Sorry folks, but it's hard to think of a good photo to take at 1:30am the day before we leave for a holiday! Here's our bags almost packed :)

P365 May23: Light Tent

Now that I have the wireless flash remote, I'm able to use a light tent! "What's a light tent?" i imagine you asking. This:

Basically this is a cardboard box, with tracing paper replacing three sides and a sheet of long white paper hung inside. With the flash to the side, shining through, the subject is illuminated with beautiful soft, diffuse, even light, and casts soft shadows. Best of all, the tent is dirt cheap to make and does a professional job!

Product shots - I fear you no longer!!

P365 May22: Yellow rose

My wireless flash remote arrived today! This lets me move the flash off-camera, giving me much more flexibility and control over the lighting of the subject. These pics are a couple of examples. The top photo has the flash to the right and a reflector on the left. The bottom image has the flash below and behind the rose, so the light filtered through the rich yellow petals.

I'm not sure what to make of the flash remotes yet. It seems that they fire less than 50% of the time, and the timing seems off so that the shutter has closed before the flash fires. I'll need to look into this further, as reviews online haven't described problems as severe as this.

P365 May21: Nomi's B'day

Happy birthday my love!! We had a pleasent afternoon tea at Mum's with the family :)

P365 May20: Star Wars marathon

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars this Friday, I organised a Star Wars movie marathon. It wasn't as successful as I hoped, as hardly anyone was able to make it. But a great time was had by those who were there :) Sorry to those of you who missed out! :P

P356 May19: Bitsa

A bit all over the place today! I went looking for a park nearby to take photos, but the one I found wasn't terribly photogrenic, so I hunted around for some subjects that might look interesting as macros.

This is some tree sap oozing from a trunk badly burnt in a recent fire.

A super close-up of a knot in a tree that reminds me of a finger print.

Thought i'd try a couple of all-sky panoramas, and remapped them to centre the whole sky.

That evening we went out for Korean BBQ with a few friends for Nomi's birthday.

Naomi and Darren.

Colin.

Anna.

P365 May18: Lens for the brain

It helps me focus.

P365 May17: Circuit board

P365 May16: Poor teddy

Don't ask... I have no idea.

No bears were harmed in the taking of this picture.

P365 May15: What to shoot?

It can be very difficult to think of what to shoot when I remember I haven't taken a P365 image at midnight. So here's a bit of fun with the wireless remote and my mobile phone.

More from Albert

My first real non P365 blog entry since I started it :) But more photos! These are a few more panoramas from the Albert Nicholas Gardens yesterday which I stitched today.

First, here's a link to another interactive spherical panorama, but this one is different in an important way. This is the first "high dynamic range" (HDR) panorama I've tried. 30 second HDR tutorial: Cameras cannot capture detail in the whole range of brightness levels in a scene, and as a result highlights and shadows get 'blown out'. One way to get around this problem is to take a series shots (3 in this case) exposed correctly for highlights, midtones and shadows, and then merge them to get the best of each. This is tricky when panoramas need 6 shots anyway, so a HDR pano takes 18 photos, all which need to be stitched and merged.

The result, however, is worth the effort I think. When you have a look, notice how you can see a reasonable amount of detail in both the darkest and lightest areas:

Albert Nicholas Gardens HDR panorama.

Here's three more "flat" panoramas. Make sure you ckick on the images below to see them properly!

P365 May14: Alfred Nicholas Garden

Click on the images to view larger versions!

I've been itching to get out somewhere special and spend an afternoon just taking my time and photographing. Today I was able to make the most of the unexpectedly good weather and drive up to the Alfred Nicholas Garden in the Dandenongs. It was just beautiful. The trees were all golden, and their leaves scattered all over the ground and the small lake there.

I took several panoramas, both 'flat' ones, like that above, and many 'spherical panoramas' like the one below.

Below is a Quicktime VR panorama, which requires Quicktime to be installed. Also, if the panorama does not show up in feed readers, just click on the link to this post (usually the heading) to see it live on the blog.

The above panorama is only a tiny preview of the full thing which looks MUCH nicer. If you have a moment, PLEASE have a look at the full size version. I promise you, it's worth it :)

I can recommend this location to any photographer, but be aware, it's quite a steep walk in and out of the garden to the lake.

There are still lots of photos and panoramas to process and stitch, so watch this blog for links to more photos in the future.