Uploads from Beetwo77, with geodata

Deep_Blue

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:07:35 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Some more shots from Chipping Norton Lake with Mike. We scored some very nice colour with the back burning smokeout to the west.

Such a good location the old Chipping Norton Lake.

I must say I haven't been out much lately and I'm rusty!

Shadows_02

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:07:36 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Fires_Of_Faith_02_pannini

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:07:35 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Shadows_01

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Sun, 19 May 2013 05:16:48 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Planned to head out with Mike to a great location nearby to shoot some long exposures. We both noticed that there was a thick plume of smoke on the horizon and decided we better head somewhere with a better view of said smoke. We raced around the corner back to my old faithful Chipping Norton Lake and the boat ramp.

Lucky we did, there was awesome colour about. I stuffed around and had problems setting up my camera so missed some of the best of the smokey colours but this is the first shot I have managed to get up. Should process from RAW instead of jpeg but I'm busy tonight. Still happy enough with it.

I hope Mike got some keepers, looked like he did! We also scouted out some great spots ;)

Red_Gate_At_A_Bull_03

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 04:50:51 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Just a little something at Mt Wilson. Nothing super exciting but I like the scene.

What a beautiful place. Need to head there in morning fog and spend the day.

Red_Trees_01_pannini

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 04:21:34 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

I didn't get the lighting or quite the composition I wanted so I have resorted to photoshop trickery.

Headed to Mt Wilson on Friday afternoon with the family. It was beautiful weather and there was plenty of colour around. I arrived probably a bit too late and little miss muppet wanted me to play with her instead of taking photos so I rushed later on to this spot (thanks JA for the link, legend :)).

These two are stitched bracketed panos. Really not liking the exposure fusion performance of Autopano lately. I don't know if I am doing something different, or if it is. Never the less I don't like the results. These shots took a lot of effort to get smooth toned skies and they are by no means perfect.

A couple of film camera toting hipsters dissed me and my digital camera but actually they made me think of a way to save these shots. In the film days, tobacco and warming filters were often used. So I trialled some different filters in photoshop and I feel the unrealistic look lifted these otherwise flat and boring images.

You may not agree but I feel I have to come up with something after 4 hours of driving.

Enjoy your weekend.

Red_Trees_02_Planar

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 04:21:34 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

The_other_364_02

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:11:51 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

The Lone Soldier (And his Kiwi mate) standing silently overlooking ANZAC Bridge a couple of days before ANZAC day contemplating what ANZAC means to those men and women who served and what it means to the current generations of Australians who have never served and most likely never lost anyone to war. Do you only remember one day per year? Do you leave the lone soldier alone for the other 364 days? Or do you fight for what you believe in through words and deeds to make the world a better place every day?

What is driving the current resurgence in ANZAC day celebrations? What do the people of Australia know of, or think of ANZAC day and the ANZAC tradition? What does it mean to you?

ANZAC Day is a time of solemn reflection to me. A time to remember that the world is a better place due to the sacrifice of others but also that our colonial past imposed horrible losses on our nation. Be that the devestation of the Aboriginal Nations or the devestation of Australian soldiers being sent into bat in impossible conditions against in Turkey.

As ANZAC day comes around again, I urge you all to question our collonial past, our involvement in conflict and war around the globe and what we can do as individuals and as a nation to try and prevent such things from occuring again.

We should encourage unity, not marginalise. This what our men and women fought and died for.

Lest We Forget.

The_Other_364

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 06:40:09 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

The Australian and New Zealand soldiers stand proudly in silence commerating those who served and fell. It seems that just a few days before ANZAC day however, they stand alone. Do you stop to think about what it means to be Australia and the amount of sacrifice that has occured for you to live the way do? Do you really know what occured at ANZAC and why? Or do you just jump on the nationalistic band wagon one day per year?

It wasn't that long ago that RSL committees nationwide were worried that ANZAC day as a tradition would disappear with the last of the diggers. But strangely around the globe in countries with Neo-conservative governments, national holidays were celebrated with a renewed fervour. Coincidence that sentiment towards que jumpers and illegals also picked up at the same time? Or was this a narrative constructed by neo-conservative think tanks to sway the populous towards their world view? I know which version of the story I believe.

Needless to say I imagine many people don't really understand ANZAC history. Many have heard that Australian's landed in the wrong spot. Many blame the british for sending Aussies over the wall to die at the hand of Turkish machine guns. Many know that the Aussies grew to respect the turks (or so the legend goes). But what of the reasons for landing in Turkey in the first place? What of this nationalistic spirit that has taken on a whole new life with thousands of back packers turning up at Gallipoli each year on April?

We are celebrating massive losses incurred largely as a result of bad leadership from the British, in a country whom we weren't really at war with. Sound familiar?

Its a shame that so many great Australian lead military actions that really came to define Australian military prowess are overlooked at the expense of a single catostrophic failure. Indeed we didn't mature as a nation that day. Our military matured in subsequent battles where we came out from the shadows of the british imperial rulers and established our own fighting techniques, or own military style lead by the great man Monash. Yes there were many other great military leaders but I'll pick him because he is a Civil Engineer and they are a special bread.

I intended to add links for you to read, for people to get some alternative views and back up some of my unfounded rant. But its late and I couldn't be bothered. Hows that for nationalistic pride?

I am grateful to all those who have gone before me and sacrificed so much. I am far less grateful to the many, many political leaders who have sought to gain political mileage from such tragedy and those who continue to do so at the expense of a cohesive Austrlian society.

Rant over.

Lest we forget.

Long_Brooklyn_02_B+W

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:06:27 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Another drive up the F3 with hopes of fog that quickly evaporated. I am going to persist with this shot until I get one that blows me away. The Hawkesbury River shot from the Mooney side of Brooklyn Bridge. Love these channel markers. Love the patterns of water motion you often get in this part of the river mouth.

5 shot pano, 2 minute exposures for each with a fair amount of colour in the sky and some creative use of white balance. Stitched in Autopano, processed in NIK.

I find I keep ending up with images that look the same from a processing aesthetic. I need to try something different.

Long_Brooklyn_02_CLR

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:06:28 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Swim_02

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:38:01 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Just a quick stop on the way home from Newcastle. I've been wanting to visit the many jetties on Lake Macquarie for a sunset. Unfortunately I was to late but as you may well know, I am a tragic and can't resist shooting even if the conditions aren't ideal.

Experimenting with some long exposures and B+W conversion of late as you again may have noticed.

Jetty_02

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:38:02 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

The_Church_01

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:39:35 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

The Cathedral Church of Christ the King or Christ Church Cathedral in Newcastle, New South Wales Australia is the Anglican cathedral of the Diocese of Newcastle. The church, designed by John Horbury Hunt in the Gothic Revival style, is located on a hill at the city's eastern end in the suburb called The Hill.

The present cathedral replaced an earlier Christ Church, built in 1817. When the Diocese of Newcastle was created in 1847, the original Christ Church became a Cathedral and William Tyrell was appointed first Bishop of Newcastle (1848-1879). Due to the poor condition of the original building and the growing population of the city it was decided to build a new cathedral and a design competition was held in 1868. It was won by architects Terry and Speechley from Melbourne, but they had seriosly underestimated the cost of their design and accordingly the plans of John Horbury Hunt were adopted instead. His design was for a cruciform Victorian Gothic style building with a central tower and spire over the central crossing. Work started in 1883 and the older building was demolished the following year. A temporary building was constructed nearby for services until the new cathedral could be completed and consecrated in 1902. The tower was not added until 1979 , minus the planned spire. The building was damaged during an earthquake in 1989 and since been repaired.

A long exposure at lunch time today. An amazing building in an amazing spot, perched high up looking out over Newcastle upon Hunter as I call it.

This is a two image pano with each image being made up from 8 stacked 30 second exposures. Stacked using Dr Brown's Stackomatic, stitched in Autopano and processed in NIK Silver Efex 2.0.

Im_Out_Of_Touch

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 07:57:57 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Out of touch with shooting seascapes so I thought I'd go for quantity...Another pano from Bar Beach. Beautiful location just south of Newcastle.

Last_Taste_Of_Summer

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 06:21:44 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

I really like this image. I headed to Bar Beach to capture sunset. I was hoping to look east and get some colour in the clouds but as I jumped out of the car, I noticed how awesome the sun setting through the sea haze looked and had to capture a pano.

I feel this image conveys a sense of the end of summer to me. The warm weather is going to pass this week and we will be in the reality of Autumn but it has been awesome while it has lasted. Kind of the endless summer, only without having to travel.

This is one of those images that I think would look far better cropped for web view but I feel the wider pano crop gives better contet and will look nice printed. What says you?

The last taste of summer I fear has been and gone.

Beaches_Rock_01

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:17:50 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Out of practice at seascaping so it was good to hit the coast. Happy enough with this but need to reprocess from RAW instead of the OOC JPEGs.

Bar Beach just south of Newcastle. 4 Shot pano.

Grain Corp

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 04:30:33 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

I've often looked across at these silos and assumed they were for wheat. Now I know. These are the Grain Corp facility at Carrington, across the Hunter River from Newcastle. Jut a quick lunch time happy snap shot with 12 stops of ND and no tripod!

The facility can store 164,400 tonnes of grain and can load 4,000 tonnes of grain per hour onto a ship. That is a lot of grain.

Old Faithful

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:12:03 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Hitting up some old files from Chipping Norton Lake. These were RAW files processed in LR4.4 which now supports Fuji X-Trans files.

This is a 2 image location x 3 brackets x 2 shots for each bracket. All shot at 30 second exposures using ISO to change the exposure value.

Anyway enough of the technical stuff, I quite like the final product. Love this spot and its so close to home.

Which_Bridge_CLR

nobody@flickr.com (Beetwo77) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:59:17 -0700

Beetwo77 posted a photo:

Colour processing of my previous Commonwealth Bridge shot. Great trip despite no balloons due to the great company from my FOCUS buddies Ant, Dex and Miho with a Sacha cameo.

The famous Commonwealth Bridge.