Capturing the glide

Whilst I have made multi-image montages of birds in flight before, i have found trying to use tools like autostitch, a little hit and miss, mainly because it is seldom that I have enough overlap for such automatic software to make seamless joins. So I have had to resort to more manual techniques.

 

The three photos I took (show above) of a pacific gull landing on the beach, had enough surrounding detail to try out autostitch and it did find joins for the last two images and it is beautifully seamless. However autostitch refused to add in the first image, despite all my attempts twiddling with the overlap settings.

I was therefore very surprised at how beautifully the windows Live Gallery make/panorama tool worked. i guess the only problem was the shift in the overlap because i was panning up as I was also panning horizontally. So I decided to make a feature of these joins, in the stepping black "matte".

Pacific Gull Sunset

Pacific Gull Sunset, originally uploaded by imageo.

venus bay beach sunset

venus bay beach sunset, originally uploaded by imageo.

it was very cold but still worthy the effort to capture the last of the sun's ray.

Photographing birds in flight

Taking photos of birds in flight has become quite a personal challange. It is not that easy, they move fast, your don't get to choose the background or lighting, the list of issues goes on an on, BUT the results can be very pleasing. If you are interested there is a great group on flickr Field Guide: birds of the world and I like the second entry of their tips for better bird shots,
1. practice
2. practice
3. repeat

fleeting light

Photographing a rainbow is difficult enough, but the light wasn't great and I wanted to try out a HDRi set and get a piece of driftwood in the foreground. Ok it didn't quite work because I can not get good registration on the images, because i was moving and it was hald held. Still the rainbow was spectacular.

Almost Winter

Autumn is drawing to an end and winter is drawing near

Thanks

A special thank you to all those who attended my first "solo" exhibition opening on Sunday. Especially Kieran Kennedy for his well researched words as he opened the exhibition. For those that missed the opening the exhibition is on in the Meeniyan Art Gallery till 23rd May.

Earth :: Water :: Wind
Photography & Art Works by Norm Hanson
THE ACCESS GALLERY
May 4th-23rd
Meeniyan Art Gallery
84 Whitelaw St. Meeniyan 3956

Meeniyan might be worth the visit if you are a fan of the ABC new drama Bed of Roses, much of it is filmed in this beautiful part of south gippsland.

Hello Mister

Some of the happy people at the market in sarong.

Tiny beach houses at Sorong

Tiny beach houses at Sorong , originally uploaded by imageo.

These are the smallest house I have ever seen. Yes they are full houses not bathing boxes!

The roof repair guy

The roof repair guy, originally uploaded by imageo.

Life is a lot slower and simpler out on the islands off west papua. If the roof leaks? You don't have to rush to Bunnings, you just wait for the rain to stop and find a banana tree. Oh and yes you need to find the roof repair guy, he'll be siting in the shade.

rice paddies

rice paddies near makassa, originally uploaded by imageo.

Aerial view of flooded rice padies near makassa

HDR Jakarta Sunset

HDRi Jakarta Sunset, originally uploaded by imageo.

The bracketted set of photos, used to create this HDRi image, were taken without a tripod and with long exposures. So without dynamic photo's pinwarping this would have just been a triple exposure blur-out.

The Collages are getting bigger

For those worried that I am neglecting my photography, don't stress. I am not! It is just that blogging has been a lower priority. I have been busy preparing for a solo exhibition at Meeniyan's Access Gallery (84 Whitelaw St. Meeniyan, Victoria Ph:(03) 5664 0101), from 4th to 18th. May.

The Exhibitions is based around the themes of Earth, mainly rock paintings, Wind and Water, mainly photographic works with a big emphasis on photo mosaics (my photo impressions) and collages. Collections of photographic eggs will also debut.

Nice lighting

The dusk lighting of the clouds was specataluar tonight.

The Engagment Party

The Engagment Party, originally uploaded by imageo.

I must begin with considerable acknowledgement for inspiration from the work of a fellow VIC/TAS thread memeber of the Australian Photographers!! group on flickr, thescatteredimage and beyond that to david hockney. There is definitely something beautiful in these recompiled collages, hockney describes this finding his "lergy", in the distored perspective that shift slightly in time as well as space. I guess they tell more of essence than a single static image.

egg-cident

egg-cident, originally uploaded by imageo.

For Photo Friday's topic fragile

One flicker too many

SAY NO!
Originally uploaded by alatimed

Flickr only announced its video service on Tuesday and the chorus of loyal flickr-ites saying NO was unbelievable. A fellow Australian Photographer!! Father McKenzie started a group to say NO to VIDEO on flickr and already it has 24,000 plus members. Surely flickr had done some market research! Or was this a yahoo play against Google-YouTube juggarnaught? Such immediate angst suggests that most are happy with flickr just as it is.


So what is my opinion, I don't really have a strong one. From a bandwidth point of view there is already enough of it wasted on flickr already, and what was wrong with putting your video on YouTube anyway? Is competition going to improve that service or more importantly flickrs?

I'm wondering if the flickr gods will be changing their motto from Flickr loves you, to Flickr who cares!

Forest collage

 

Why not make your portfolio into a video!

Nature's Entryway
Originally uploaded by Reggiesgirl

Reggiesgirl from flickr has a used wonderful way to show her portfolio of nature photography, she made it into a video. With so many screens atound in modern life, making your still work into a video (or slideshow) is a great way to guarentee they will be seen (at least by your friends and family, but if you want your 15 seconds of "net fame" you cam also trust your arm on YouTube as reggie's girl did)



There are any number of good programs (too many to mention here) with which make your slide show and convert them into a video masterpiece. Try Microsoft's Photo Story 3 if you are looking for a free program to try out. At the very least you probably already have Movie Maker which can also do the job.

Light in the rainforest