we’ve had some gorgeous sunsets around here the last few weeks – sometimes, I’ve been fortunate enough to have time to take photos 🙂

Warnbro Beach Sunset

The recent storms have eroded the beach a fair bit exposing a little rock shelf that wasn’t there before – or at least as long as I’ve been here (11 months) – its good though – adds some foreground interest to sunset pictures 🙂

I also took a panorama of the bay, which is always difficult as the sea and sky move between shots and I don’t really have the best lens or tripod for the job.  That said – with a bit of photoshopping, it came out ok

Warnbro Bay Panorama

Set the studio lights up – well, one of them – I really like the single light look at the moment and took some self portraits, aiming to get the real dark and moody black and white look

me

quite pleased with that 🙂

The Cactus wireless flash triggers work flawlessly – brilliant!!

I love hats.  Always have done.   Which is a pity, as I look a bit crap in them.

I was chatting away to my kids on Skype webcam yesterday (for those of you who don’t know, my kids live in England with their mother (my ex-wife) and I live in Perth, Australia) when I put on my youngest step-daughter’s Hi5 beanie and was making them laugh lots

So I took some shots with Jay’s camera (my old Nikon D50, which still rocks and the gorgeous Sigma 30mm)

So here, for you general amusement, is me.  in a hat.

me in a hat

damn, I’m gorgeous.

*snort*

ooh, my cactus V4’s are here – wireless remote flash triggers – lots of off camera flash goodness.

means I need to learn how to meter properly *eep*

Cactus V4's

..only using the 50mil for 3 months like I said I would in April – I’ve been using the 18-200 for landscapes too.  I kinda forgot about that.

At least I haven’t taken the 18-200 out with me for general shots – I spose thats something to hold onto.

Someone told me once that great pictures are made by getting close and thats what I’m being more and more drawn to of late.  So much so that I reaaaaallly want a wide angle – probably the new Nikon 10-24mil, or maybe a Sigma 10-20.  They’re not that “fast” though, but its pretty bright here so that shouldnt be a big problem – maybe a 10mil f2.8 prime would be better? Oh, and I’d love a fisheye too..

Or maybe I should just suck it up and go full frame and buy a D700 get used to the wider field of view with what I already have?

*sigh*

Not that I have any money at the moment, I just spent $8000 on air fares so I can get my gorgeous kids over to Perth for my wedding at Christmas

A bad workman always blames his tools blah blah – I’ll just suck it up, its not as if a D300 and the stuff I’ve got is actually crap – faaaar from it.  I’m just needy. LOL

well, lack of really – its been a quiet few weeks with nothing specific going on. The step kids have broken up from school for almost 3 weeks so they’re busy running around the house beating each other senseless. Jay’s back is really not getting better yet, so she’s having to take it easy – just sitting in the car for 20 minutes is almost unbearable for her, which is kind of restricting what we can do and where we go. It’ll probably be that way for some months yet I suspect. Just in time for Spring then.

Been a bit quiet on the photography front. I’m planning to enter an Exhibition scheduled for December, hopefully it’s not going to be when my kids and parents are here, cos I wont be able to attend – we’ll see. So I’ve been taking pictures in anticipation of that event – its called “FLUID” so I have several ideas, not least of them involving the ocean, given that I live 500 meters from it. I don’t expect to have a final set to submit until close to the due date – I’ll keep on taking shots, experimenting and seeing what develops.

In the meantime, here’s one that I do have that’s along one of my themes.

experiments with motion

Went out at the weekend to Mundijong to take a few fillflash photos – got some nice ones of Jay – still need to work on the ambient/fill balance a bit, its not quite right yet.

Jay

That brings me onto the last thing that happened this week of note – the Ashes.  Yes, Cricket.

1st Test, England were a bit outgunned by Australia, they didnt bat badly in the first innings, they go a fairly decent score actually, but the Aussies batted better and England couldn’t bring any venom to the bowling.  So it came down to the end of last day – England had to get a few runs to ensure the Aussies had to bat again and the Aussies had the last two batsmen in the England squad out with an hour or so of play left to win the match.

But they didnt – The English held on and the match was a draw, such is the way of things.  However, the Aussie captian, one Mr Ricky Ponting, complained and bitched and told tales and called the English unsporting for wanting a change of gloves for one of their batsmen in the last few overs of the game (given that it was lose or draw, I’d want the best chance too).

Well, Ricky – you’re a whining crybaby big girl.

You had a massive advantage and you played very well. but you fucked up with the bowling at the end and couldn’t convert that advantage to a win so had to blame someone else.

Its how test cricket goes.  Suck it up.

You want to know why the English love to hate the Aussies at cricket – its that attitude.     They’re awful gloating winners and the worst losers ever.  Australia play some awesome cricket, but the arrogance and childish petulance that comes along with it just makes us want to wipe their noses in it.

So, with apologies to my adopted nation

COME ON ENGLAND!!

I seem to have finally shaken the cold/flu thing that I’ve been laid up with for so many weeks.  I’m still not 100%, but I’m no longer weighed down by it.

At the same time though, Jay has really done her back in – the physio thinks its a disc injury in her lower back, but the muscles are still so tight that he cant get to that bit yet.  I suspect she’ll be off work for a couple of months 😦

In other news, I’m going to take part in a photography exhibition in December – hopefully before I have to go get the kiddies and get married and stuff.

Had a corker of a sunset the other night – bought a Cokin ND4 filter to slow things down a bit at sunset time, tying to get some more motion blur in the sea and sky.  Think I’ll need an ND8 though, a 4 really isnt enough.  Even so, the piccies turned out well

Sunet at Point Peron

Sunset at Point Peron

Work is very slow at the moment, so I’m building a demo setup with Oracle middleware – Portal, BPEL, Service Bus and the like.  Hopefully I can get it all hanging off one instance of WebLogic Server – We’ll see.