Bicton Forshore, Western Australia - Prepares for cyclone Bianca
With news of the impending cyclone Bianca coming to wreak havoc on the city of Perth, Western Australia i was salivating at the thought of the capturing Perth's best storm photography since the storm that tore through Perth's Western Suburbs in March 2010.
Fortunately for Perth and unfortunately for storm photographers cyclone Bianca had faded dramatically by the time it hit Perth and we received little more than a good soaking for our lawns.
What cyclone Bianca did provide was some dramatic cloud formations that i knew would create powerful landscape images. Heading out on Saturday i was looking for a good vantage point to capture the sky's looking into the sunset.
My first stopping point was Point Walter, though with the focal point being either the Sandbar facing North or the Jetty facing East, it wasn't right. Moving on i started heading to either Leighton Beach / North Fremantle or Cottesloe where i knew i could look straight over the Indian Ocean as the sun set.
On the way, I stopped in-between Blackwall Reach in Bicton and the Bicton Baths. This beautiful stretch of river is so scenic and the wind had died down making for ideal conditions for landscape photography.
The image above is at a little beach landing where people store their boats. This shot is a 9 image stitch created in Photoshop CS5. I also used a neutral graduated filter to help emphasise the power that mother nature can create when angry.
As with all my photographic expeditions lately, whenever i seem to get a landscape that I'm really happy with i manage to break something in my rush to get the photo.
This time shortly after this set of photos was taken the leg of my tripod wasn't secure and it my canon DSLR smashed onto one of the boats smashing the graduated filter. Little damage for a great shot unfortunately but i must remember to not rush so much and enjoy the landscape photography experience a little more.
Texture and Line of Tree in Fremantle taken from Perth Photography Tours
As part of the photography challenges we were set on the Perth Photography Tours that i will help run from Fremantle, each participant was asked to find and photograph the elements and principles that were discussed and taught prior to the the challenge. It's a great way of getting a photographer to think about his surroundings in a way that they may not of thought about before. In this photograph the challenge was to find texture set around the Fremantle markets, I have captured the rough texture of the bark and also focused on the lines created from the branch of the trees. The soft dappled light helps to emphasise the texture much more than if it was in harsh direct sunlight.
Sunday i ventured out in the hope if getting a decent sunset photograph of Crawley Bay / Nedlands foreshore in Perth, Western Australia. I was relatively happy with the resulting image. I've also got some panoramas to work up as well that should make for a great feature shot on a wide wall. These will print at over a 1 metre long at full resolution.
I havn't had a chance to add this image to the online shop as yet but if you're interested, please let me know and i will organise ASAP. I'm trying to make an effort to get out and capture some decent Perth landscape photographs while winter is still here as it offers the chance to get some interesting lighting and cloud formations that you don't commonly see in summer.
This is a shot from about a while ago when hiking in the Porongerup Ranges in the South West of Western Australia. The Porongerup Ranges are right next door to the more famous Stirling Ranges though without the crowds and just as equally beautiful. There are some challenging hikes that are of about 4 - 5 hours return to the summit. It was on my way down from the highest peak that i twisted my ankle quiet badly.
The bad part of this was obvious. I was about an hour and a half walking away from the car with a twisted ankle and a 8kg Camera backpack as well. The good part came to me when rolling on the ground in pain i saw these flowers below hanging to the edge of the "cliff" from a ground perspective. I thought the square* composition suited the image.
* I also had to crop the image as the pain in my ankle clearly left me slightly delusional and the horizon was crooked.
Saturday afternoon was raining goals at East Fremantle oval as the Sharks thrashed the Peel Thunder by 132 points in their largest ever victory against the Mandurah based team. Steven Dodd was brilliant both forward and back for the Sharks who raced away from the Thunder who were competitive until quarter time.
From a photography standpoint Saturday was the first game that has been overcast all season. A sports photographers job is always easier when you don't have the harsh shadows from the sun to contend with. It also means you can position yourself wherever you want to on the oval which enables better angles.
The local derby between South Fremantle Bulldogs and East Fremantle Sharks was a memorable one on the foundation day long weekend, not only because the Sharks gave the bulldogs a good old fashioned belting I got my best photo of the season so far. Kym Monteath was streaming into goal and soccered from mid air in one of the goals of the season. This frame captures him mid flight (matrix style) before scoring the goal.
On my last day in Dalat, Vietnam i took the slightly daunting journey through a slum section of Dalat. This man was facinated by my camera and my Daughter, Isiah. He wanted to see what he looked like and posed for a couple of portraits before bringing his grandchildren in for more photos.
Even though he didn't speak a word of English we seemed to develop a bit of a rapport and shared a few laughs.
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