Huzzah! My brand new Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens arrived today. I was so excited when I got it home that I had to have a go at using it straight away. Here are my first attempts at macro photography. Click on the photos to enlarge.

I also got a Canon Extender EF 2x II and a Canon Pixma Pro9500 printer. I haven't had a chance to use these yet. So stay tuned for some reviews of all three items over the coming days. I'll let you know what I think of each item and what I'm doing with them.

Today I went to up to Port Douglas to take some more photos of the P&O Pacific Dawn that had anchored just off shore.

But in what I'm finding is a more common occurrence, my best shots were totally unexpected. As we were leaving, we stopped at the local cemetery and I was really pleased with the shots that I got. I have previously shied away from cemeteries because I thought they were boring. However I discovered that with a bit of imagination, you can create some interesting images. Here's a couple of examples. Click on the photos to enlarge.

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Today I received a question on one of my flickr photos about how to take photos of blurred water. Here is the shot in question, click on the photo to enlarge:

The enquiry was from one of my contacts named kierobau and this was their question:

i like how you blured down the water a little,
so how do you do that?
a bit out of my league i guess . . .as i only have a p&s

My answer was as follows:

Hi kierobau,

As it was around noon that I took this shot, it was really sunny and normally it's impossible to get a time-lapse shot at that time of day without over-exposing the photo. In this instance, I used a neutral density ND8 filter. This has the effect of blocking out three f/ stops of sunlight coming into the lens. Thus allowing me to take a longer exposure. There are a couple of important things that need to be considered when attempting a shot like this.

1. Amount of light (dawn or dusk or overcast days are best, otherwise use an ND filter).

2. A tripod (or somewhere to rest the camera without touching it) is essential as the slightest movement will wreck the sharpness of the features surrounding the water (which is of course the only thing that you DO want blurred).

3. A remote control or shutter release cable so that you don't have to touch the camera at all after setting up the shot (framed and focused). If you don't have one, set the camera for a delayed shutter release (5 or 10 seconds maybe). Most cameras have this feature.

4. Shoot in manual mode. Set your desired aperture and shutter speed. If you are unsure as to how long to set the shutter speed on your camera, use Aperture Priority mode. As you said you only have a point and shoot camera, it shouldn't be a problem. Most modern point and shoots come with this mode these days. In this mode, all you need to do is to set the aperture. The lower the f/ stop, the smaller the aperture - so try setting your camera to 2 stops above the lowest f/ stop on your camera eg: if the lowest is say f/ 3.5, the next stop might be f/ 4 and then f/ 4.5 - so set the f/ stop to 4.5. An added benefit to this is that two stops above the lowest aperture setting is often the "sweet spot" that will give you the sharpest photo.

I hope all of that made sense. If anyone else has any more tips, that would be great.

Here's another of my "slow water" shots. Click on the photo to enlarge:

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We have spent the last few days tripping around Mossman and the Atherton Tablelands. We stayed at my sister-in-law's last night. She has been an avid photographer for 20 odd years. We got up early this morning and went and took some photos. Here's some of the results. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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Well we finally arrived home today from our outback adventure. Now the foreboding task of sorting through all of my shots and separating the wheat from the chaff. Here are a couple of photos that I took in the final days of our journey. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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I'm back on the road today and this will be my last post until next week. Here's a photo of a sign that I took yesterday that I thought would be appropriate. Click on the photo to enlarge:

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Excuse the indulgence of the title, I just couldn't help myself... :)

Last night I met Ben for the first time. We started chatting after he made a comment on one of my shots at flickr that I had posted in the DPS Assignment for that week. Since then, we've made comments on each other's photos and emailed regularly. Now the great thing about this is that he gives me honest critiques of my work and as a result, I have often taken his (and other's) advice on board and turned what I thought was a good shot into a (IMHO) great shot. This is invaluable.

At first, when I started submitting photos for stock, I would get disheartened about rejections. But I decided to turn the experience around. As a result, I have been spurred on to find out exactly why my photo was rejected and how to fix it, or how to improve my technique so that my future submissions will be of a higher calibre. I've developed a more critical eye of my work and I think it shows in my latest work. While a shot may look good, I have learned to look for the little things like noise, chromatic aberration, sharpness etc.

At the time that I started looking for these things, I asked a few of my regular flickr commenters to honestly critique my work. I value their opinions and as an added benefit, formed some firm intercontinental friendships. Fortunately, Ben lives in Brisbane and when we had to make our unexpected stopover, we finally got a chance to meet. So here's the result of our first collaboration. We had said we were hoping for a fire engine to come past and finally one did. These are the results... The first shot is Ben's and the second shot is mine. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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I don't have time to write a proper blog today, but here are some of my latest shots for you to peruse. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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A little alliteration goes a long way on a weary Saturday afternoon. Today I thought I would share a cautionary tale with those of you who don't know this already. The first tripod that I bought was a Manfrotto. As I didn't know much at all about tripods and photography in general at the time, I assumed that because it had the Manfrotto name, it would be a good tripod. After all, I had paid a massive $189 for it! Ah... that salesman saw me coming from a mile away. It was the best one in the store - a leading white goods and electronics retailer. Hmm thank goodness for hindsight being 20/20. Never again. As I later discovered, $189 was bargain basement price and as the old adage goes, "you get what you pay for".

So what to look for in a tripod. Some advice that I was given and read along the way was:

A) A good tripod and head are usually NEVER sold together. You'll probably have to buy both items separately in order to get something decent.

B) Have a budget. I couldn't afford to spend a lot of money but I knew that going cheap was not an option either. Get what you can afford.

C) What do you want from the tripod body? Would sturdiness or weight be your main consideration. If you won't both of these considerations in one package then you are looking at big bucks for one made with carbon-fibre material. For me, weight is a much more important consideration (though I don't want something flimsy either). So I opted for the Manfrotto 190XB Aluminium Tripod which weighs in at 5kg. Not too heavy to carry cross country on my landscape adventures, but sturdy enough not to have to worry about its stability.

D) What kind of tripod head do you need/prefer? My tripod had a flimsy ball head which would either not hold in the place that you put set it, or it would slip under the weight of the camera body and lens. Precise orientation of the camera was limited too and I would spend ages trying to line the camera up. This almost put me off ball heads altogether. Yet I kept reading that "all the pros use them". So when it came time to bite the bullet, I investigated further and tried a few of them out. See Lesson 2 below. I decided to go with a Manfrotto 322RC2 Joystick Head. It was both firm and flexible and its manoeuvrability can be customised with a "friction" dial to make it either looser or stickier to move.

A couple of lessons learned here:

1) Buy your equipment from a reputable camera retailer. Generic retailers and department stores often have both limited stock and the staff generally have limited knowledge of cameras and camera equipment. You might strike it lucky and find a salesman who knows what he is talking about in one of these stores, but I never have (I would also apply this advice for computers and computer equipment although the chance of finding a geek who knows his stuff at a department store is much better in my experience).

2) If possible, try the equipment out before buying. In the case of a tripod, carry it around the store and get a feel for the weight. Set the tripod up and collapse it again - does it work efficiently and smoothly? Attach the tripod head that you have chosen and try it out as well. Attach your camera. If you haven't got yours with you, ask the salesman to get your model from the showcase with a comparable lens - ask them to attach the heaviest lens that you have in order to gauge whether the tripod head can support the weight of both the camera and lens, particularly in portrait orientation.

3) Have a healthy bank balance. Be prepared to spend at least $200 on the tripod mount and another $200 on the tripod head.

4) If the salesperson has any problems with the requests and/or actions in Lesson number 2, refer to Lesson number 3. You are spending a lot of money and if the sales staff are not obliging, go spend your money at a store that will accommodate your requests.

So if anybody has any suggestions to add, I'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment and share your experience. I am by no means an expert but I like to share the knowledge that has so freely been given to me.

On to my two new photos for today. Here are some shot that I took yesterday on my explorations in Brisbane. Click on the photos to enlarge and have a good weekend.

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Live View is one of the new features on the Canon EOS 450D (aka Canon Digital Rebel XSi) that I underestimated. At first I thought it was a gimmick. However, after experimenting a bit with it, I have discovered that there are some benefits to using it occasionally. The major benefit that I have discovered is that it gives you a totally accurate representation of what the sensor is "seeing". Thus when using manual focus, I find that I can more accurately judge the sharpness of the focus especially in low-light situations. I will definitely be using this feature more than I thought that I would.

An update to the travel situation... We are currently in Brisbane, waiting until Monday for the van to be fixed. Today is the ANZAC Day public holiday, so the mechanic and just about every other place is shut down for the day. It is also my partner's and my 14th Anniversary today so it's a happy day. To celebrate, here are a couple more shots from our recent journeys. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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Hi all. Sorry for the unexplained absence over the last week. I thought I would have more access to the Internet than I have had. I got back from Melbourne last Tuesday. Pretty much straight away, we headed off in the Winnebago on our outback journey. At the moment we should have been heading back up the Queensland coast to Cairns, but we had to make an unscheduled pit-stop in Brisbane in order to get the CV joints fixed on the van. I have managed to get some limited Internet access so I'm taking this opportunity to do this update.

I've managed to take lots of photos over the last week and once I have a bit more time, I'll upload them on my flickr pages and here for everyone to see. I'm been playing a lot with my Canon 450D (aka the Canon Digital Rebel XSi) and the more that I investigate it's features, the more I like it. Again, I'll give a detailed review of some of these features in a future blog.

Here are a couple of shots that I took with the new Canon EFS 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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The continuing saga of my photographic adventures in Melbourne: Day 14

Just a quick blog today. Today we went to the Werribee Open Range Zoo and I got lots of great shots. I haven't processed them, except for two that I've just done just for this blog. Click on the photos to enlarge:

Ankole-Watusi	Vervet Monkey

Also, the other day I went and got two more tattoos. One of the Com-Badge Insignia from Star Trek: The Next Generation (on my chest) and one of the Battlestar Galactica Season 2 logo (on my other arm). They're still healing, but here are a couple of pictures for you to see. Click on the photos to enlarge:

Com-Badge Tattoo	BSG Tattoo

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The continuing saga of my photographic adventures in Melbourne: Day 13

As mentioned yesterday, I now have an Expodisc.  I've been using it all day today and I have to tell you, it's probably the easiest and most effective device I have ever used for creating a custom white balance. It's as simple as setting your exposure,then standing in the position of the subject that you intend to photograph, placing the Expodisc in front of your lens and then taking a shot. For the Canon EOS 450, all you need to do is then go to the menu settings, select custom white balance - the shot you just took will come up - and pressing select. You only need to change the custom white balance when the lighting conditions change. Here are a couple of examples that I took last night. Please excuse the cheesiness of the shots and the slight bluriness. I was testing in low light conditions and didn't bother to get my tripod out. But as you can see, especially in the walls, the shot with the Expodisc is much more accurate than the shot taken with the camera's auto WB setting. Click on the pictures to enlarge:

Without Expodisc	With Expodisc

Today we went to the chic suburb of Prahran and I got some great shots of the old heritage listed buildings. I'm still in the midst of processing them, but here are the first two shots that I've processed. Click on the pictures to enlarge:

Rechabite Hall	Big Store

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The continuing saga of my photographic adventures in Melbourne: Day 12

I didn't take any photos today so I will post some shots that I took yesterday with the  Canon EFS 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens. I did however acquire an Expodisc. This nifty little device is for setting custom white balance, and I've heard lots of good things about it. As soon as I've had a chance to test it out, I'll post a review. In the meantime, here are those aforementioned shots. Click on the pictures to enlarge:

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The continuing saga of my photographic adventures in Melbourne: Day 11

Today, I went to St Kilda and did a lot of experimenting with my new Canon EFS 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens. I've got to tell you that I'm loving it sick. I had always wondered how those super-wide landscape shots were made and now I know. Of course, you have to be careful not to go overboard and to find the lens' sweet spot. I'm still trying to determine that point, but I think that I did okay with my first shots. What do you think? Click on the photos to enlarge:

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The continuing saga of my photographic adventures in Melbourne: Day 10

I've been on a bit of a spending spree today. I went and bought a Canon EFS 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM which will be perfect for my landscape and cruise ship photos. This weekend, we are planning to go to the Grampians, so it will get a good workout then. I'm  still experimenting with the 450D and the more that I use it and investigate the settings, the more I love it. In one of the best moves by Canon, the ISO button has been moved next to the shutter button. Not only is this more intuitive - making it simpler to change ISO settings without looking at the back of the camera - another great benefit is that accidental ISO changes are virtually eliminated. Every now and then, with the 400D, I would find that I had accidentally changed the ISO setting without realising it. Maybe it's just me, but it was way to easy to accidentally depress the ISO button and change the setting. Thankfully, that should be a thing of the past now.

I also made an appointment to get two more tattoos on Wednesday. It's official, I'm hooked. I plan to get another Star Trek related tattoo and also one of the Battlestar Galactica logo. I can't wait. I'll post the shots after they are done.

Here are a couple more photos from the Collingwood v Richmond game at the MCG yesterday. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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The continuing saga of my photographic adventures in Melbourne: Day 9

I've been experimenting a lot with my new Canon EOS 450D today. It's a great camera that has 4,272 x 2,848 resolution and is 12.2 megapixels. The average RAW file is approximately 18MB and the processed jpeg is approximately 8MB.

We went to the MCG to watch the Collingwood v Richomond AFL game. Fortunately we had seats directly behind the goal and I managed to capture some great shots. I've only just got home, so I haven't had a chance to process the images yet, except for these two which I processed just for this blog. The first is a panorama of the front of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the second is a shot of the Collingwood team at the start of the game. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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The continuing saga of my photographic adventures in Melbourne: Day 8

Just a quick blog today. I bought a Canon EOS 450D (aka Canon Digital Rebel XSI) today. I'm very excited and am just about to go out for dinner and take my first shots on it. More on it tomorrow. In the meantime, here's an update on my tattoo and some shots that I took today. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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The continuing saga of my photographic adventures in Melbourne: Day 7

I took some great shots of my friend Frank today. My original plan was to get some of Frank in his business suit, but he had today off work and came along with me. The first shots that I took of Frank looked too posed. By the time I took this, Frank was getting annoyed with me taking his photo. Therefore, this is a more natural composition in my opinion. I'll try some more sophisticated shots if I can convince Frank to let me do some more photos. Click on the photos to enlarge:

Then I went and got my first ever tattoo. It was a great experience. The tattooist was really friendly and very professional. He was kind enough to let Frank take some photos while I was being worked on. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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The continuing saga of my photographic adventures in Melbourne: Day 6

This morning, before I went out, I attempted to do some self-portraits. I'm not too fussed with the results, but hey, it's my first attempt. Here are some examples. Click on the pictures to enlarge:

I then went to meet a photographer named Ian Roberts for lunch. We have a mutual friend and it was interesting to meet another photographer. We talked for a few hours about technique and style. It was very enlightening. After lunch, this stack of beer kegs caught my eye and I took a couple of shots. Click on the photos to enlarge:

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