Just a quick reminder that the Swan River Trust is holding another photography competition for photographers in Perth, Western Australia.

Its free to enter two photos, though the competition closes March 15th 2011 so get your entries in.  The theme of the competition is: My Riverpark - What i love about Perth's iconic rivers.  With a subject so diverse there is no end of photographic opportunities.

http://www.riverguardians.com/News/photocompetition


Here's one panoramic photo i was thinking of entering, taken from Freshwater Bay in Peppermint Grove.  This 13 image panorama, stitched in Adobe photoshop CS5 shows amazing detail at full size.
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Cyclone Bianca - Perth Photography
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.


 
 
I'm finally getting around to getting to the mass of Vietnam photos. These were taken in between Dalat the picturesque mountain town and on the way to Nha Trang on the train.  The landscape of the rice fields was pure luck as we were hurtling along at a hundred kilometers per hour i stuck my camera out the top of the window and snapped some at the highest shutter speed i could. 
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Another image after one of the most remarkable storms in Perth in recent history.  This Mother and son took advantage of a clearing of the clouds just before sunset to visit Cottesloe beach, Western Australia and see the aftermath of the storm.  I like the fragments of the setting sun that are starting to break through the heavy cloud cover and the "happy" colours of the umbrella.
 
 
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I went out Monday night to try and catch a good lightning shot over Fremantle and Cottesloe and left empty handed.  I did manage to get this shot during 5 magical light minutes as sun was setting.  This shot has had very little post production (the light and colour were incredible).