I shot all my early images on large format film, with a hand held light meter, so I can tell you there are a few big things that make digital cameras such a huge leap from film. Such as…
…Continuing on from this Previous Post
One of the main difficulties you will encounter when shooting into the light is that your light meter will almost certainly produce a dud result. Your camera’s light meter assumes a subject of mid tone grey, so to balance the tones with the intense bright light coming straight into the lens it will show your subjects as black silhouettes, usually with no detail information in the shadows.
Your image will usually turn out very dark…
I still remember reading the exposure guide pictograms on the Kodachrome 64 box when I was young. It showed in wonderfully simple graphics how you should always shoot portraits with the sun over your left or right shoulder so that the bright sunlight shines directly onto your subject, and never with the sun in front of you shining into your camera lens… This gave us many generations of family photos of people with screwed up faces as they squinted directly into the bright sun.
Regardless of what the old Kodak film box says, shooting into the light can produce some stunning results if you are careful with your exposure and practise a little.
It’s not going to be right for every subject, but there are many situations when an image shot into the light can add enormous drama to a scene, especially if you can create strong shapes and take advantage of the shadows produced.
The image to the right was taken at the Mongar Tshechu, a cultural festival in the far East of Bhutan, shooting into the light, deliberately.
Look at the shadow stretching out in front of the dancer, see how it’s adding so much to the narrative and the dynamic nature of the image?
You could even say that the subject of this image is the dancers shadow rather than the dancer himself.
This shadow also gives a real 3D depth to the image, something that can be difficult to achieve with a 2D medium like photography.
A mirrorless camera, what is the point? I’m not doubting the validity of mirrorless, its a serious question. I love mirrorless technology and I think it’s clearly the future of camera manufacturing. But I also think many people seem to have missed or forgotten the reason a mirrorless camera was so attractive in the first place. Small and light… Remember that?
So you have your trusty DSLR setup with 4 reliable carefully chosen lenses, maybe a 16-35mm f2.8, or a 14-24mm f2.8… A 24-70 f2.8 and the quintessential 70-200mm f2.8. You are prepared for just about any photo opportunity. So you are ready to head out, you go to pick up your camera bag and… Read the rest of this entry »
I have just put together a Japan photo tour in Winter for next year in February. Actually this sounds like I threw the tour together in a hurry, this is not the case. I have actually been putting together this tour for some months, but only just this week released it… and there are only 2 spots left already… and I haven’t even sent out a newsletter yet!
Camera Insurance, like all insurance is pretty uninspiring stuff and if you are like most people, it’s not something you want to think too much about. You pay your money and the job is done, right? Until you find out you are actually not insured, which always happens at the worst possible moment.
I have been insuring all my camera gear with WFI (Westfarmers Federated Insurance) for about 14 years now, in fact they have (had…) all my insurance. This included my Gallery insurance for fire, theft and damage, Public liability and workers compensation.
They also insure my car, my house and contents. It all adds up to rather a substantial amount of money each year, just my camera gear alone comes in at around $2,900 per year and has been over $4,000 per year at the peak of my gear addiction…
After 13 years of running the Fremantle gallery it has come down to just two weeks to go until the end… Well, until I close the gallery anyway, which for me is really a beginning, the beginning of the next chapter.
To make a little easier for everyone to know what stock I have available on sale I have created a web page with a list that you can see HERE>>
Another year, another birthday. This December 15th Monk Art Photography Gallery turns 13, and this will be the final birthday. After 13 years I am moving in to the cyber age and going completely online… and shutting the Gallery.
This image was shot on my last trip to the Pilbara in the middle of last year, Spa Pool is a small rock pool (about the size of a big spa) in Hamersley Gorge which is part of Karijini National Park. A lot of visitors to the park skip Hamersley Gorge since you have to drive quite a way outside the park to get there. It looks inviting doesn’t it? Like it would be nice to sit in, as the name suggests? I have seen people swim in Spa Pool… Briefly. It’s very very cold.
This image was shot in the early pre-sunrise light of dawn, so there was no sunlight bouncing around causing havoc with the shadows. At that time of day the light is still directional as the eastern part of the sky (where the sun is about to rise) Read the rest of this entry »
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