Mixed Emotions

I have a few things on my mind but really being inspired by the change in weather yesterday where we had rain and lovely mist over the last of the autumn leaves.
Today the sun is out but there is also wind and I am sure that some of the beautiful leaves I have had my eye on may not be there much longer.  So, inspired by some work last weekend with my lensbaby and imagining the effect of bright blue sky (today's weather) gusty breeze moving the leaves and glorious colour I've just zipped outside, taken a few lensbaby shots with my 5Dmk11 (I usually just pop it on the smaller sensor body) because I can see some magic happening so want as many pixels as possible to play with.
AND I wasn't disappointed.  I'm going to find another 30 minutes later today to have another go.

Here is my meagre offering that's had a fast and furious edit in LR4 and Nik Color 4.0.


Enjoy!!  I certainly did.

Late Autumn Light

It's Mothers' Day and it's been glorious.  Blue skies, crisp clean air, cool enough for a coat but warm enough to enjoy being outside.

I've recently been discovering some of my older images and looking at them with clean eyes.  It's so easy to get immersed in some newer work that you lose a bit of perspective - are they really that good?  maybe not? or maybe they are.  However, I find that when images are put aside for some time, fresher eyes are often a better judge.

So what have I been enjoying?  I've really loved finding some of the older images from the local area here in the Blue Mountains.  I'd completely forgotten that some of them even existed.  One of the joys of this sort of reminiscing is that now my skills in editing are far better than they were even a couple of years ago.

I've loved working with Nik software and have made a real effort recently to dig a bit deeper and learn more about the tools on offer.  Nik Silver Efex is a great B&W help.  Because I was never a darkroom person I avoided a few of the film effects that are hidden in the palette but recently I did a couple of webinars and have found so much more that I had been using.  Color Efex is my other current favourite.  Version 4.0 allows so much more than the earlier version so I've been working my way through it slowly and finding the ability to use multiple filters in an image quite beautiful.

So, today, with the last of the sunshine lighting up a couple of my maples, I grabbed the camera determined to take a shot for posterity.

Here are a couple of my favourites - real quick and dirty shooting and a bit of lick and polish thanks to Nik.


Enjoy!!

And so it was Autumn

Love Autumn!  Love the light, the colour, the aromas that begin to come from kitchens working and wood burning (sorry I know that's not good for the environment but I do love the smell of logs burning slowly).

I always dream for months about what I will shoot next Autumn.  Autumn comes and I'm still dreaming, planning, waiting... The local trees are never quite "right" .... another day, another week, another location...

The story is the same each year and suddenly, rather than waiting for Autumn to come and be at its best, I'm chasing images because Autumn is leaving and I wasn't on the bus again!!

However, when I look back at my collections from previous years it is this late Autumn bloom that I really love the most.  Less leaves on the trees, more blue skies, more light paths thru the branches, more shades of colour.

And so it is this year as it always is.  Panic sets in that I've missed the darn event again so off I head to see what is left.

I've recently spent a week with my elderly mother driving around the  country, enjoying the beautiful Autumn weather and seeing some of the country thru new eyes.  I'll add a post about the whole Thelma and Doris trip a bit later but today, I just want to celebrate Autumn.

A few images here that I grabbed a couple of days ago when a bunch of retired women were up at Norman Lyndsay's Gallery in the Blue Mountains planning a photographic workshop that we are running in September and as we were leaving we saw some wondrous mushrooms that we've not seen in these parts before.  http://www.normanlindsay.com.au/

I headed back in the mid afternoon and as I'm wont, I ignored the mushies and followed my heart to chase down wispy Autumn impressions.  Just a few attached here.

Enjoy!

(Above) Impressions from one of the fountain pools with bubbles from the water drops and colour from the overhanging Autumn foliage.

This one (above) is my favourite.  I've just printed it and I'm about to frame and hang in the house.  It looks stunning (if I can be so bold?)

Wet ANZAC Day in the city

In the last hour or so, I seem to have lost the beginning if this post.  I'll see if I can remember what I wrote ....  Just looove technology!


My photography group spent the morning in the city with Greg Dickens http://www.photosydney.com.au/ doing a bit of street photography and recording the happenings as we saw them around the start of the Anzac Day march.


I've come home, wet and weary and have spent a couple of hours downloading and sorting my images.  Not much from today that will be much use.  In fact, I've had to delete at least 70% of what I took.  Some of them were pretty shocking!  I thought I knew how to focus at least!!!  Obviously not. 


Never mind, the challenge continues ... Even when I return with a pretty meagre bag of images (like today) it's always a bit of fun to mull over the failures (or non successes?) and remember why I pressed the shutter in the first place and try to work out what I might have done better.


I've had a bit of a feet fetish with my photography of late.  I had some fun today looking at the colour and movement along the pavement as people made their way past.  I've included a couple here.


I captured a few shots of people that I quite liked however I don't feel completely comfortable posting online, so I've culled even further.  There was a pipe band with a couple of very young members who made great subjects.  I think I have one that is a little anonymous that I'll be able to pop in here.

This was my city of Sydney, 25 April, 2011 as I experienced it.  Wet, miserable, crowded, enjoyable, fun!!

These two fellows (above) explained that they were French  (from Noumea) and were quite chuffed to pose for their portrait.

The city was alive to the sounds of bagpipes.  The weather may have been horrid, but the music was fabulous.  If I remember correctly, this image was taken about the time I realised that I could perhaps pan and follow a subject for a few seconds.   Hello?? This is not a new idea but I'd obviously forgotten all about it.  Photography is never easy!

The excitable group (above) were waiting for their special person to appear in the march and a few moments after I took this image one of the woman ran at her  "special someone" and squealed for joy.  It was certainly a moment and although I was not tall enough to shoot that scene, when I looked at the couple of images I'd taken at this time, the emotion is certainly evident.  On reflection, I was pleased to have a story to match this image.

Quiet Dignity

The guy holding this cap up in the crowd for all to see made for a good shot.

These next couple of images are my tribute to the umbrellas on the day!

Hats, hats, hats.... and a range of experience and emotions beneath.

And here (below) the city pavements and the trees and buildings above,  added their own beauty.

 I was fascinated by the array of matching and marching feet.

This small image below is my moment of abstraction for the day!  The movement that was captured almost gives a painterly effect.  I think the white bit that's hanging down is maybe attached to the uniform???

While we waited along King St and watched the start of the march, it was hard to ignore the enthusiasm shown by this young fellow for his task of keeping his group in step.  Check out the look on the guy on the LHS.

The navy groups quite often seemed to be led by a young female carrying the ship's name.

And in this image (below) we have the Little drummer Girl, keeping near perfect time.

From the same band ...

In the zone @ Tarana

Highly recommend all photographers find some way of isolating themselves for a short time just to focus on photography. It is the advice you see so often from those who are successful photographers and artists. For me it's always so easy to forget this advice and it's only when I find myself with this special opportunity that I begin to sing photographically and make all sorts of promises to myself to repeat this activity more often.

Don't get me wrong. I pretty much have my head in my photography world most of the time, but it's often in the midst of doing 3 or 4 other things. All of these photographic opportunities are fabulous - I never know what I'm going to get or what I might see or what might present itself. However, when I truly remove all the "noise" from my daily life and just allow myself the time to soak in all that is around me and think, dream, imagine, talk photography .... my work is so much better.

A few days ago I headed over the mountains, west of Sydney to spend a couple of days @ Tarana and the Fish River area. It was cold and much of the Autumn foliage was already on the ground. I travelled with 2 other women photographers and our brief was to laugh, talk, share, shoot! And I think it is fair to say that we excelled in all aspects!

We stayed at the Tarana pub in the cabins that were warm and cosy. The BBQ worked, the fridge worked, the water was hot and the sunrise the next morning was to die for - that's for those who were up in time to see it. Sadly (or wisely?) I was in bed but my buddy photographer kindly brought the viewing screen in so I could see what I was missing.

It was once the home of trout fishing 
http://bluemountainsfishing.net/fishriver.html  and looking at the river as we drove around you can see why this is. Much of the river bank that we drove around is fenced so it was only accessible in a couple of places. One of the better ones was Flat Rock Picnic Area on Mutton Falls Rd between Tarana and O'Connell. Really worth planning a couple of hours here if ever you find yourself in the area.

One of our group is working on a personal project about water so it was a great opportunity to spend some time in an area that had boulders, rocks, gravel, flowing water, small rapids and unbelievably beautiful colours and reflections. I'm still working out how I want to show some of the work I did but including here a few of my early edits. I've also uploaded a handful to my pbase site. http://www.pbase.com/ssteel If you clock on "recent" you should see them.

Enjoy! I think I will get some real pleasure out of working with these images over the next couple of weeks. 

This image (above) was taken in the area close to Flat Rock reserve.  I'd been working with a wider lens and an ND filter and polariser but just had a feeling that I wanted to see if I could get something different with my 105macro.    I like the result and particularly some of the underlying colours in the water.  Interestingly a couple of the images taken in this river look to be black and white.  I can see no colour at all.

Early morning, close to the hotel.  I was wandering around with some pretty weird looking clothes - I ran out of the cabin excited about the light and dew and didn't bother dressing for public view!  I was warm and I got some great shots and that is really all that matters.
I loved the pearls of light behind this wispy plant.  It was moving slightly in the morning breeze and I like how the movement adds to my enjoyment of the image.

What glorious colours!  A birch tree I think?? Or maybe a beech??  I get them mixed up.

The hotel had a few pieces of old farm machinery in the grounds. It fitted in beautifully but it was at its most captivating early morning with dew drops and low sun in the sky. I let my wonderful Sigma 105Macro do its thing and the abstract image (above) is the result.

Instead of working ....

Should really be doing a bit of sorting and organising for a garage sale tomorrow - I have been working away on it for weeks but it is happening along with 7 or 8 projects that I have on the go.  Most important is the sorting of some old images that I really want to print or publish. The Turkey book is one of them, but another is to do with the glorious colours of the seasons here in the Blue Mountains.  Not everyone gets to live in a World Heritage Area and I think I often take it for granted.


So today, in recognition of the season that is just starting, Autumn, a few of my favourites from the last few years here in the mountains.


I'll add a few more each time I need a bit of "me" time.



Enjoy!!!