Charlie's WorldShack
Posted on April 18, 2011
In the 1920’s, there was a small seaside town with ramshackle fishing shacks, beautiful wooden clapper-board holiday homes and the start of a tourist industry.
Now, the town is a city, having grown exponentially from the boom years of the 1950’s to today, where it now has over 100,000 people
Some of the old houses are still there, hidden amongst the new, some restored, some dilapidated, some for sale, ready for demolition.
Fremantle
Posted on April 14, 2011
I love Fremantle. It’s the closest thing to a town with charm here.
For all the beauty and space and cleanliness of Western Australia, its all a bit new, which means that most places near here are modern and somewhat lacking in character. Ok, totally lacking in character.
Perth is the same, most of it is pretty new, and the bits that are older have been somewhat overwhelmed by the modern stuff. Shame really, I’ve seen some pictures of the city in the 50’s and it had all the charm of Fremantle.
Went for a walk
Posted on March 19, 2011
When the kids go their father’s house every other weekend, Saturday is the ritual lazy morning day.
Jay and I chill on the sofa, have a late breakfast and catch up with each other’s lives. Well, it’s hard when we’re busy during the week to get a solid block of time to not have to think about other stuff.
Today we decided to go for a little amble down to the foreshore and get morning coffee.
Tripski, part 1
Posted on March 5, 2011
So, as you know, I went to England to see my beautiful kids. England, land of the village pub, the Darling Buds of May, long summer evenings, rambling footpaths and history going back millenia.
Well, it wasn’t like that. The sun didn’t shine. It rained all the time. It was freezing. The cloudbase was 3 feet above the ground – so much so it didn’t really get light a couple of days. But hey, it was February and it wasn’t entirely unexpected.
More to the point, it wasn’t why I was there.
My kids
I had a lovely time with them – they’re so utterly amazing. But then I’m a little biassed. Their little faces when I knocked on their front door is the best thing ever. Every time. It’s like the biggest light ever comes on. Probably like seeing kids faces at Christmas, but times one hundred.
They’re so cool.
Here’s a few pics from the first few days..
A little fun with the 10-20 wide angle
Now some more normal shots.
Next post – the cousins. Well, a couple of them anyway, there’s a tribe of them we didn’t get to see this time.
stormy weather
Posted on January 30, 2011
We’ve been on cyclone watch for the last few days as tropical cyclone Bianca has been making its way down the Indian Ocean from the tropics and is forecast to swing inland right over Perth today.
Well I think its petered out and although the wind is increasing and the sky is looking very dark all of a sudden, apparently its not scheduled to be the roof lifting monster that was once feared. In fact, you can hardly see it on the weather radar.
Good! Being next to the ocean like we are here, we often get storms in the winter and just occasionally in the summer too and we’re well used to be battered by some pretty strong winds, but I don’t want to go through that kind of thing if I don’t have to!
Anyway, yesterday, out of the blue, we had thunderstorms arrive and they left a trail of destruction across the state – north and east of us got pummelled by this thing – causing damage everywhere.
It kind of missed us, we got some rain, lots of rumbling thunder, amazing skies and that was pretty much it.
Well, being the photo happy snapper I am, I had to get a shot 🙂 Cool, huh?
Later in the day I thought we were going to get the most amazing sunset – the clouds were just too thick though, but the skies were still very interesting, even if they didn’t glow and shine like I expected.
One minute it’s too hot, the next, nature decides you need a storm, the next its 38C again and then that very afternoon, a cyclone rolls over. Australia, never a dull moment.
work rest and play
Posted on January 29, 2011
It’s been a busy week after the pee-test drama.
I’ve had lots of work to to for a really hard proposal, some interviews and generally me feeling like I need a weekend really badly. Didn’t really get an Australia Day at all cos I was too busy with trying to create project plans and statements of work out of thin air.
Anyway, blah blah.
It’s been interesting though – I got offered the job for the place I had to pee test for and also at the DIY chain store too. And it looks like another company that I interviewed with also wants to offer me a job too.
Its nice to be in demand – I’ve had a few interview fails in the last couple of months – not because I’m crap or anything, it’s just I wasn’t right for a particular role. These other jobs though are right up my street and all for different reasons.
I have some actual concrete news, but I just need to wait for a few days before sharing.
So, thats the life changing work stuff over with.
Now, onto the fun stuff
I went to hang out with the kite surfers again which was cool – they were all a bit drunk as it was Australia Day. Spent a bit of time chatting to Cesar Portas again – he’s a cool guy – I really want to get the chance to take a lot more shots of him. One of his friends was out though and having a lot of time
Most folks were packing up and I didn’t get stunning shots like last time. I’ll be back though.
Its been really hot and humid the last few days as we have a cyclone making its way down from the tropics – its been hard to even move about without melting, but last night after a day of feeling like I was in a sauna, I decided to take some beach shots again as I havent done that in ages.
The sky looked like it might be amazing, but was a complete dud in the end, so I got some cool abstract shots instead.
So there ya go, work and play all in one post 🙂
A.T.G.A.N.I
Posted on January 5, 2011
All The Gear and No Idea.
Its a common problem. A newbie rocks up with many thousands of dollars of shiny new kit and has not a clue what to do with it.
You can find examples of this everywhere and in sports and hobbies of all kinds. Its an issue where people have lots of disposable income and somebody tells them (or maybe possibly hints at a kind of a compliment) they have an ounce of talent.
All of a sudden, they have dreams of being the next Lance Armstrong (cycling), Annie Leibovitz (photography) or Valentino Rossi (motorcycling) or Eric Clapton (guitar) and go out and spend as much as they possibly can on the very best equipment.
A flash, full carbon, dura-ace equipped bike, a top flight digital SLR and a brace of professional lenses and flash guns, a race replica motorbike or a Fender Stratocaster and Marshall amp and cab combo.
Whilst all the time have absolutely NO idea of how to use any of it.
I’m going to focus on cameras as it’s the thing closest to my heart (well, cycling is too, but I’ll leave that one alone)
I’ve seen this so many times. Someone takes a nice shot with a point and shoot camera, takes this as a sign of massive untapped talent, so spends thousands on a super DSLR, with which they promptly take hundreds of super high quality but utterly shite photographs, increasingly blaming the failures on the camera, the light, the subject, etc. Anything but themselves.
So, I’ll enlighten everyone.
Bar a few circumstances where professionals or serious amateurs will make use certain features, the camera makes almost NO DIFFERENCE to the result.
Yes, I know – you’re thinking this has to be wrong. Well, it’s really not.
An image needs to speak to an audience, to capture imagination, to stir the soul or heart, to provoke a reaction, to inspire and cause the viewer to stop and admire.
So, how many of those things has anything to do with equipment?
Clue: Pretty much none of them – its all to do with aesthetics. Which you can capture with anything, and in many ways, advanced technology actually works against this.
Yes, sure, sometimes you need a specific camera to do something – a long lens for wildlife or professional sport, an underwater housing for the best marine photography or a very low noise DSLR for low light portraits or weddings, but 99% of the time, the camera has nothing to do with it.
How many of the great shots that you have seen are due to the best quality smallest pixel, lowest noise and highest resolution?
Clue #2: None.
You know how I know this? I bought a Nikon D50 when I couldn’t get the right shots with my antiquated point and shoot. No additional lenses, I just spent time working out how it worked and made horrific mistakes, got way ahead of myself, got a reality check and kept on learning. Then I bought a D300 just after they were released. And it did pretty much nothing to improve my shots until I went back to basics and worked out what I wanted the camera to do for me.
I went through that trough of disappointment with digital and bought a Holga and a Trip 35 and even a Hasselblad 500C/M to teach myself how to read light, how to compose and how to take a good shot.
And I’m still learning.
My favourite shot? I’ve not taken it yet 😉
So go out, take photos with whatever camera you have to hand – the iPhone is a prime example of this – shoot, look for image you can see in your mind, create, experiment, learn to read the light, go back to basics, try film, polaroid. Do all of these things, even buy a second hand vintage camera from ebay to experiment. Look on Flickr for photos you love and work out what it is about that shot that moves you and try to replicate it.
Point and shoot cameras usually have enough manual settings to do most things. You know that Av and Tv mode you keep on looking at but never using? Ever used that macro mode on the point and shoot? Learn what they do and when to use them before moving on. Learn when to use a certain setting to control the end result.
But whatever you do, don’t go straight out and buy $5000 cameras and lenses to do any of that for you. I guarantee it’ll make no difference whatsoever if you don’t know what the camera actually does.
mad dash
Posted on December 7, 2010
I had my Tuesday free time again tonight, but as the sunset and golden hour is now later than the time I have available, its difficult to get any decent landscape shots.
So, as there was a good breeze, I bolted down to Safety Bay to see who was out on the water.
I met a lad from Devon with a camcorder in a waterproof housing filming his mates doing some cool tricks. It turns out he’s Ned Taylor, UK #1 freestyle champ. Not that he even really mentioned he did much kite surfing. So much modesty! I’m sure I got some shots of him the other day actually – be good to see what he can do for the camera.
Anyway, we had a good chat – he was really getting in there with the filming – very cool – all those wide angle on the water shots you see on TV of kite surfers – well, that’s how they do it – waist deep in water!
I got a few shots, but I had so little time – shame really – hopefully I’ll get another chance to come down and take some really cool shots of them all out practising.
I’ll be back for more soon 🙂
Tuesdays on the beach
Posted on November 3, 2010
As luck would have it, I have to run big’un around on a Tuesday, so it means I get almost an hour of photography in before I have to collect her again.
At the moment, that hour happens to be the golden hour just before sunset, which is awesome for photos.
Last week, I took the old jetty shots and was pretty happy, so I gave that location a miss this time and went further on up the beach in search of some boats and things to get up close and personal to with the wide angle lens.
Mangles Bay in Rockingham is where all the boats anchor and it’s really cool, underused and very quiet. The yacht club could do with some updating, but apart from that, its lovely.
However, this whole place is under threat from a massive marina development (please visit http://handsoffpointperon.com/) which is will destroy hundreds of hectares of previous ‘permanently preserved native bush’ (yeah – that status was overturned – amazing what happens for a quick buck) and replace it with millionaires canal side houses, apartment blocks and an enormous marina. Nice.
Anyway, so before we lose this wonderful place forever (which, lets face it, once the money starts to flow, no amount of local objection is going to make any difference whatsoever), I thought I’d get some photos.
The light was amazing, clouds make such a difference to the sky and the feel of a shot, plus the circular polariser creates outstanding definition between white and blue.
Thats all for now – I’ll be back out later in the week or next week for another location, work and personal commitments being equal – so if you like the pretty pictures, check back soon.
In other news – its the middle of the week, which means – Red Wine Wednesday – stay tuned 🙂
if at first..
Posted on October 27, 2010
..you don’t succeed, then try try try again.
You may remember I took a few photos of the jetty (again) last week – well, I wasn’t happy with them, so I went out again last night to take some more
My fave of the night:
Same view, just a slightly different range of colours – I think this was a slightly longer exposure
And lastly, a random view back towards Rockingham that grabbed my attention that actually came out rather well.
Of course, all the time I was doing this, I didn’t really notice that the sky to the west (the jetty faces pretty much North) had lit up bright amazing red and would have made a fantastic backdrop to some of the other westerly facing beaches and jetties. Ah well, I’m still stoked at these shots and don’t really care!
Charlie's World 