Here’s another shot from last nights shoot with a slightly different composition. I think I prefer the point of view of this one a little more than the other, but as this one was shot later into the evening the colours aren’t as impressive. I also like that the clouds are more prominent in this photograph. What do you think?

Canon 5D + 17-40 F4 L
25 sec.
F11
ISO-250
28mm

I drove down to Burleigh Heads tonight to watch the sun set and to take some photos. I have tried this location a couple of years back and was happy with the results I got back then, but I think what I captured tonight is far better than my previous efforts. I do have better gear now, but I’ve also picked up quite a few pointers since then, learned how to use my camera better and have become more proficient with photoshop.

This is just a single frame shot with the 5D and 17-40 F4 at 22mm. I found out tonight that I can’t shoot at 17mm while using my Cokin grad filters as the holder is visible on each side of the photo. 20 seconds worth of exposure, F16, ISO-200.

If any body is interested in exchanging links with me, let me know in the comments section. Cheers.

So, tonight I revisited to try and better my photo from last night. I like this one a little more but I think I could do better. I just need some clouds in the sky! The weather has been too nice… I’m going to retry some of my really old photos from back in 2006 over the next few days so keep a look out.

Oh and I picked up a new Manfrotto head for my tripod and it is now back in action.

I am on holiday in Queensland at the moment, the Gold Coast to be more specific. I took a few quick snaps tonight down at Kurrawa Beach looking towards Surfer’s Paradise. My tripod is broken at the moment so this one is handheld at ISO-500. This photo needed a bit if work in photoshop to look half decent. I adjusted curves, levels, saturation and did some dodging and burning here and there. I’m quite pleased with it considering it was rushed and hand held.

Thanks for stopping by.

This evening I walked outside, looked up towards the sky and after seeing the cloud cover I thought, “I should be out shooting right now”. So, I grabbed all of my gear and jumped in my car and headed towards the Swan River in Bicton. Unfortunately, I missed most of the best light while I was driving to the location. The sky was lit up with orange, purple and pink during my drive but the colours began to fade as a began shooting. I only shot a dozen frames but I still managed to capture this photo that I am quite pleased with and it was good to finally get out and use the 5D on location.

I did a fair bit of processing to this image - levels/curves, saturation, dodge and burn, etc. I might put the original image up later for comparison if I am feeling confident.

Update: Here is the original image straight out of the camera.

A couple of days back I purchased a Canon 5D body from Jamie after finding out he was selling it at a bargain price. It was an offer that I knew I wouldn’t come across again any time soon, so I jumped at the chance.

Yesterday, I decided to take it out and play around with it a little. Me and a few work mates played a round of golf at Glen Iris Golf Course and I got to take a few quick photos in between playing. The top photo is of my friend Ryan and the one below is one that he took of me. I had to process the top image a bit as it was the first photo I took and hadn’t changed any settings yet. The sky was blown out so I (quickly) added in some clouds from a different shot I took on the day.

I am loving the full frame goodness that the 5D offers. My wide-angle lens actually feels like a wide-angle! I’m looking forward to taking it out on a landscape shoot as soon as I can. Maybe tonight or tomorrow night.

Thanks Jamie.

Here’s another shot from my trip down to Dunsborough a few weekends ago. This is a 7 frame panorama from memory that needed a lot of work in Photoshop. I must not have been concentrating at all when shooting the frames for this one. I’m quite pleased with the composition but not with the effort I put into capturing it.

I haven’t been doing a whole lot of shooting as of late - been busy with other things - but i’m hoping to get back into the swing of things as soon as possible.

I put up a few new links in the right column, so check them out!

I’ve been asked a few times on the blog how I find the Nodal Ninja panoramic head so I thought i’d do a little write up on it for all the people interested in buying a panoramic tripod head.

Before I purchased the Nodal Ninja, I bought a Panosaurus, which did the job it was designed to do, but I found it a bit of a hassle to set up each time I wanted to shoot panoramas. I accidentally left it in my car on a hot day and it warped which was the end of that.

Over the Christmas holidays I met up with a fellow flickr photographer, Beau, at Kings park and he was using a Nodal Ninja. He asked if I would like to try it out for a few shots and of course I said yes. It took only a matter of seconds for him to take his camera off of the NN3 and for me to put mine onto it. It was also quick to level with the use of the bullseye level and ezLeveler (the ezLeveler is an optional extra). After shooting a few frames I knew I wanted one. And once I got home and loaded the images onto my PC and watched them stitch seamlessly I wanted one even more. A few weeks later I purchased the Nodal Ninja 3 mkII pack from their website. They were out of stock at the time so I was refunded my money and told that they would have more in stock within 1-2 weeks and I would be notified and receive free express delivery. They delivered on that promise.

The Nodal Ninja 3 is small, lightweight and easy to set up. It came with detailed instructions. Most Canon and Nikon camera and lens combinations have been pre-measured and are listed on the website, which makes the initial set up simple. The default detent ring allows for 15/18 degree rotations. The NN3 package also contains 20/24, 45/60, 72/0 and 90/120 degree detent rings which suit different lenses.

I haven’t had any major stitching/parallax problems while using this product, besides the usual moving water, and would highly recommend it to anybody looking for a budget panoramic tripod head. The main thing you need to do to achieve good results is to make sure the head is level. See some examples of what the Nodal Ninja can do in some of my previous blog posts.

For more info check the Nodal Ninja website.

I have given my main site a makeover and would like to know what you think of it. I will eventually get around to making the blog match but don’t have the motivation right now.

I’ve been getting asked a lot of questions about the Nodal Ninja pano head so I might post up a review later. If I can manage to put some words together, that is.

Neal and I were planning to go out on a shoot at Cottesloe Beach last night but plans changed so we headed out there this morning for sunrise instead. Dylan Fox came along, too, so I finally got to meet him.

The sunrise wasn’t anything special but I think we all still managed to get a few nice shots. You can see one of mine from this morning above. It is a 7 shot panorama, each frame at 5 seconds. I played around with the colours a bit in Photoshop and added a motion blur to the sky (one tip I learned from Christian at his course).

Christian Fletcher is holding another photography course on the 19th of April starting at 7:30pm. Read more here. It is well worth the money if you are into landscape photography, no matter what experience level you are at.

I’m working on another image from this morning at the moment and will put it up later if it turns out nice.

Thanks for stopping by.