David's Photo Blog

My Photos now at SmugMug

2009-06-09T00:18:00.000-07:00

Hi all

You'll now find my photos mainly at

http://dbm305.smugmug.com/

See you there!

This one really is dawn....

2009-02-23T11:46:00.001-08:00

Untitled1, originally uploaded by dbm705.

Actually the last posting was just before dawn! Here we are on Denham's Beach again. One of the amazing things about the New South Wales south coast is it's beaches; lovely little sandy beaches punctuated with fascinating rock outcrops and forest that comes down to the sea.

Dawn at Denham's Beach

2009-02-23T11:43:00.001-08:00

_MG_2288-Edit, originally uploaded by dbm705.

Visiting the coast house of a friend who has just had a very sugnificant birthday! Got up before dawn to try out the 5d Mk II. Amazing; not that that will be visible in this web sized image!

Cliche

2009-01-30T03:56:00.001-08:00

................................................................, originally uploaded by dbm705.

Sometimes I can't resist a cliche. While waiting to meet friends for lunch at a place perched above the North Sydney Pool, I saw that this angle on the Syney Harbour Bridge was possible. So took it, while relaxing under a palm tree. Ah lie can easy at times.

Little River

2009-01-23T21:52:00.001-08:00

................................................................, originally uploaded by dbm705.

This photo is something that Australians will often have mixed feelings about. The trees are very attractive; this was one of our camp sites on the Six Foot Track walk. But they are all European trees, feral from some settlement that used to be here. To me, one moment they look lovely, next they are woody weeds.

On The Six Foot Track

2009-01-23T21:37:00.001-08:00

SixFootTrack, originally uploaded by dbm705.

The six foot track runs from Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, a bit less than 50km to the Jenolan Caves. We walked it in three days, which would have been a doddle had we been fitter. But sadly we weren't. And on this image the mode dial of my LX3 had shifted, so I ended up with a JPEG. They really need a stiffer dial so it doesn't shift when you put the camera away! Makes no difference at this size, but the JPEGS from the LX3 sacrifice too much detail for noise reduction to my taste.

More revisiting to print

2009-01-17T11:13:00.001-08:00

NewPedder-Edit, originally uploaded by dbm705.

This was almost a year ago, above Lake Pedder in Tasmania. It's five stiched exposures.

This Image Again

2009-01-09T20:41:00.001-08:00

MistRPPLIghtHR-Edit, originally uploaded by dbm705.

This is a blog entry about printing really: I got myself an Epson 4880 printer and did some printing of various images, and in the process realised that the quick and dirty B&W conversion of this image I processed early wasn't up to much, and that I should re-process from scratch with B&W in mind. It makes a big difference; lots of the adjustments you do for colour are unnecessary at best, and lots of changes can be made for B&W that mess up the colour balance of a colour version.

The Cathedral Church of St Mary

2009-01-04T02:17:00.001-08:00

_MG_1675-Edit, originally uploaded by dbm705.

A friend had drinks on the roof of her building, which has one of the best views from the East of the Sydney skyline. Here you can see St Mary's (Catholic) cathedral in the foreground, towered over by Mamon in the form of the Sydney Tower.

Those towers again

2009-01-01T03:58:00.001-08:00

_MG_1574-Edit, originally uploaded by dbm705.

I didn't manage to photograph the towers when they were lit up last time; here they are again lit, and the sky was obliging. Happy New Year!

Nectarine

2008-12-28T21:54:00.001-08:00

_MG_1482-Edit, originally uploaded by dbm705.

Playing around with my macro lens and CS4; this is the result of blending seven exposures together each focussed in a slightly different plane. That's what it takes to get the apparent depth of field in this picture! Even though each was taken at f8, that's still only a thin plane of sharpness with this much magnification...

The Capertee Valley

2008-12-23T16:20:00.001-08:00

LightAlpenRPPHR-Edit-2, originally uploaded by dbm705.

The Capertee Valley is on the western edge of the the Wollemi National Park in NSW. It's amazing; the largest canyon in the world I believe (not the deepest, though, the Grand Canyon in the USA has that distinction). We were coming back from an expedition burying food for an projected 7 day walk across the park and this amazing light on the the canyon walls was visible. Had a panasonic LX3 with me, and a light tripod. Jumped out, set up the tripod, and got a bracketed set of exposures off just in time. This photo was made with two of them layered, brushing them in and out manually so as to get some dynamic range without the HDR special effect look.

The Opera House

2008-12-23T03:47:00.001-08:00

OperaPano, originally uploaded by dbm705.

The fabulous Spiegeltent was set up recently in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House. And then the sky went on fire.

A triptych of graffiti

2008-12-22T20:22:00.001-08:00

_MG_4812 as Smart Object-1-Edit, originally uploaded by dbm705.

This panel is made from an image of graffiti on a pipe covered wall at the University of Sydney

Another wrapped smoke stack

2008-12-21T15:37:00.001-08:00

Sydney Park, originally uploaded by dbm705.

Here's another one. They are lit up at night so maybe more soon..

Sydney Park II

2008-12-21T15:02:00.001-08:00

Sydney Park II, originally uploaded by dbm705.

The city of Sydney has put Christmas wrapping on these mid nineteenth century chimneys. They are in a park near my house, on the old brickworks site where the bricks for most of the Victorian cottages in this neighbourhood were made.

At the ANG

2008-12-06T15:44:00.000-08:00

ANGstarfish, originally uploaded by dbm705.

They try very had to stop you taking photographs in this gallery. Not just with flash; rather with anything. I wonder if this is because of the improved high ISO performance of recent digital cameras? Anyhow took this before being stopped

Candle Heath in the Coyoyo Creek

2008-11-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

P1010263RPP, originally uploaded by dbm705.

Spent the weekend in the Budawangs with philosophers; the candle heath (I think) that is in this picture is just by the Coyoyo Creek, well know to Budawangs walkers as the water supply nearest the camp site used to access the Castle and Monolith Valley. It's a very long hot steep climb in even to the camp site.

This next one is from a rock platform just above Coyoyo Creek; it overlooks a valley looking out over Folly Point (I think). Pigeon House is just off the picture to the right. The fog lifted after a day of rain and mist. Wish I had got there a few moments earlier...

2008-11-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

MistRPPLIghtHR, originally uploaded by dbm705.

A Few From the Archives

2008-09-01T01:03:00.001-07:00

This is Cape Raul near Port Arthur in Tasmania, if you look really really closely you'll see the climbers and their ropes!

Royal National Park

2008-08-31T18:59:00.000-07:00

This is near Sydney; went on a longish walk there last weekend; amazing views and remarkable rocks. And all less than an hour from the centre of a town of 5 million!