Perth Australia Day Skyworks 2010

I wanted to try something different this year, so I revisited one of the freeway overpasses that I had previously visited on another photo shoot.

My original plan was to shoot alongside the river, but the tide had come in late in the afternoon, and there wasn’t anywhere good to stand since the water level had covered the beach and it was hard to get a clear shot of the city skyline so I decided to shoot from the overpass to take advantage of the traffic travelling along the freeway resulting in a combination of the fireworks and traffic trails.

I can’t believe the amount of stupidity I witnessed last night. I was taking photos from a freeway overpass over the Kwinana freeway and before the fireworks started, 4 men ran across the freeway (And crossing the train lines) and then back again, and if that wasn’t stupid enough, they were completely naked! LOL

I can’t believe that despite all the warnings about parking your car on the side of the freeway and how police were going to crack down on it which was on the news and on the radio all day, we witnessed cars all stopping in the Emergency lane, and within 15 mins of the fireworks, there was a line of cars parked along the emergency lane. To make matters worse, it was where the lanes merged up, and yet 4 cars decided to park where the lanes merge up, and we watched as 2 cars decided it was time to go, and as they were pulling out of the emergency lane, they nearly got cleared out by traffic travelling along the freeway! Eventually the Police came and told them all to clear off. I counted 25 cars in my final photo before the police arrived!

The thing was, where they all had decided to park, there was a big sign saying “Emergency stopping lane only” Absolute stupidity!

Overall it was a good show even though it got a bit windy around sunset, at least the temperature wasn’t to high this year.

Photos from the night can be seen over on my redbubble page:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/EOS20

Happy New Year!

I just like to wish all the readers of my blog a happy new year,  and hope you all come back and visit my blog in 2010.

Don’t forget to take a look at my 2010 Calendar:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/calendars/4102239-2-2010-calendar

Merry Christmas!

I would like to just wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you all have a great day, and get everything you wanted.

Merry Christmas!

Flying under the radar

I was going through my redbubble photo folio looking at possibly cleaning up my folio for the new year and I feel that some great work has gone unnoticed, maybe this is because my folio has grown quite a bit throughout 2009.

You can see some of my unnoticed work by following the link: http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/journal/4333127-my-unnoticed-work

Canon EF-S 15-85 IS Lens Review Posted

I’ve just posted my Canon EF-S 15-85 IS Lens Review, you can read it by following the link.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/journal/4270608-my-canon-ef-s-15-85-f-3-5-5-6-is-usm-mini-review

Saturday December 5 – Star Trails Over Lake Clifton

It was a rather warm Summer night on Saturday here in Perth and we had clear skies, so I decided to head out and spend a few hours shooting some star trails. I decided to head down to Lake Clifton http://www.lakeclifton.com.au South of Mandurah, and about 100km South of Perth. On this visit, there was no moon not like on my last visit http://eos20.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/august-7/ so conditions were ideal for shooting star trails, but having some moon light would have been ideal so I could have used the ambient light from the moon to illuminate the Thrombolites http://www.lakeclifton.com.au/yalgorup.html so had to use my spotlight to bring out the detail of the Thrombolites. I brought along two cameras on this visit, I bought my EOS 7D and used my new EF-S 15-85 IS lens, and I also brought along my old EOS 300D and 18-55 lens, and I also brought along my 50mm f/2.5 macro to use as a large aperture lens. I set up both cameras on tripods with shutter release cables, and I shot a series of 30 second exposures and combined them using the Star Trails stacking software http://www.startrails.de/ which I find does a better job then shooting a single long exposure which tends to result in a image full of long exposure noise which can easily ruin a nights work, and by using software I can delete frames if necessary (Planes flying though the exposure, camera shake, etc) and I get a cleaner final result and can shoot star trails pretty much anywhere without worrying about getting a over exposed shot when shooting near bright light sources such as in the city.

On this night it was pitch black, with no ambient lighting out here, since it’s located a fair way away from the nearest towns, which meant the stars were easily visible with very little light pollution other then headlights of passing cars off in the distance. There was a bit of lightning off towards the horizon East of my location when I arrived, but that only lasted about 30 mins and didn’t affect my shooting since I had the cameras pointed South to try and get the best star trail patterns, unfortunately I didn’t end up aiming the cameras directly at the Southern Star, so I was a bit off, and didn’t get the full circle I was after, but the results still came out well enough.

It was windy on this visit, unlike on my first visit where it was relativity calm which resulted in some nice reflections on the water, and the tide was coming in which meant the Thrombolites were submerged again on this visit, and I ended up getting wet to set my camera up low enough to get the composition I was after on my final star trail series, but I think it was worth it for the shot I ended up getting. Here are a few of the photos from the night:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/art/4261586-2-star-trails-over-lake-clifton

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/art/4261582-2-star-trails-over-lake-clifton-thrombolites

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/art/4262314-3-star-trails-over-thrombolites

New Canon EF-S 15-85 IS – First Impressions

I received my Canon 15-85 IS lens today, you can read about my first impressions of this lens by following the link:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/journal/4184256-another-new-lens-canon-ef-s-15-85-is

Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas is on it’s way, and it’s that time of the year when we all are starting to think about what to get for our family and friends. What about giving them some unique artwork that will last them many years, and won’t be forgotten a week after Christmas?

Check out some of my art that is on sale on redbubble.com and specially priced for the Christmas season!

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/journal/4101658-my-favourites
Or pick up one of my 2010 Calendars:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/calendars/4102239-2-2010-calendar#comment-22371095

My Canon EOS 7D Reivew Posted

I’ve just posted my Canon EOS 7D Review:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/journal/3973240-my-canon-eos-7d-mini-review

My EOS 7D Arrived Today!

My new EOS 7D arrived today and now I’m sitting here waiting patiently for the battery to charge up so I can try it out. I can’t wait to get out and test it out!

I also got the new EF-S 18-135 IS lens which will be my walkabout lens on this camera. I chose this lens because of it’s nice zoom range and should be a nice light weight lens for me to replace the 18-55 IS I had with my 500D. (Much lighter then the 35-350!) and I got the kit for a bit more then the body only.

The new lens feels great paired up with the 7D! It feels like this lens was made for the camera! The lens has a decent build quality and has a metal lens mount.

I haven’t had a chance to try it out on the 7D yet (Still waiting for the battery to charge) but I shot a couple test shots using my old 300D and the lens seems sharp, and the AF performs good for a non Ultrasonic motor lens. The IS seems to work well, and it’s pretty silent (You don’t really notice it when it’s engaged) Colours and contrast and sharpness look good from the test shots I’ve taken so far.

The camera feels really solid, and the viewfinder is massive! It’s allot bigger then the 500D’s viewfinder for sure! it’s also noticeably larger then the viewfinder on the 40D/50D, I would say it’s about the same as the Nikon D300’s viewfinder. You now don’t get the Etched AF points when you look through the viewfinder though (It’s all electronic like on the Nikon’s) so the view though the viewfinder is totally clear. It’s also dim when there is no battery installed because the new viewfinder is battery dependent (Just like the Nikon viewfinders) so I haven’t had a chance to see how bright the viewfinder is because I’m waiting for the battery to charge, but I will write up a mini review after I’ve had the chance to use the camera properly.

Anyway, I can’t wait to get out and try out the new camera, I will write up a 7D Review once I’ve had the chance to get use to the new camera, and shot with it for a while, in the meantime keep a eye out on my folio for some photos taken with the new camera and lens.