Next Photowalk :: Seeing the Person

The next photo walk is coming up.  Sunday 7th May, 1:00 to 2:30pm. Meet at Madeline's Cafe, Jells Park.

In this Photowalk session, we will investigate using the landscape as the background for an “environmental portrait” that perhaps gives some insight into the personality, hobbies or lifestyle of the subject. We’ll explore a ‘keep it simple’ strategy to arrange visual elements. In the case of a  portrait in nature, we need a complementary centre of interest so as not to distract but rather to compliment and give context to the subject.

Composition becomes very important as an aid to telling a subject's story. Composition is a massive topic in art and design. So we will just explore some of the rules of composition and share tips and common pitfalls in developing a strong design for your photos. We’ll also have a bit of fun deliberately breaking some of the common rules of composition.

Register via the MAPh events page

Also staying on thing photographic,  MAPh – Museum of Australian Photography (formerly mga) is holding their 100 faces exhibition until 29^th May. It’s a great opportunity to study a range of portraiture.

Rescheduled Photowalk

 Due to the miserable weather last Saturday the "Birds in Flight" Photowalk has been rescheduled to Saturday 1st October. If your were already registered from previous Saturday no need to register. Otherwise, you can still book through Eventbrite. Fingers crossed for nicer weather.

Next Photowalk :: Birds in Flight

The theme of the next Photowlk in Jells Park is Birds in Flight (details and registration on Eventbrite)

Getting a starburst effect

My attempt on the photowalk to demonstrate how to get a starburst effect really just showed I needed to clean my lens. BUT here is what I wanted to show. If your camera can stop down the lens to a small aperture (a high f number such as F22) do that. It is then a very small hole for the light to come through. Then find a place that the strong sun light (even though it was overcast) is peeking through (such as a gap in the branches of the silhouetted tree). It's that easy.

Remember to change the F stop back after taking the photo to avoid the diffraction (allowing you to get the starburst effect), causing problems in your normal photos.

Photowalks Resuming (at last)

The lengthy covid-19 lockdowns and some personal health reasons, meant I stopped running Photowalks some time ago. I'm pleased to announce I am resuming them in conjunction with MGA (the Monash Gallery of Art). There will now be a small fee (to help cover the administration), and I encourage anyone with a camera (including phones) to come along.

Sunday June 12th. 1:00pm

Meet at Monash Gallery of Art

860 Ferntree Gully Road

Wheelers Hill, VIC 3150

Note registration is now via the mga eventbrite site or events on their web page,

Social Isolation and the Photowalker

The cancellation or postponement of large Photowalks need not be an end to your photography, in fact, social distancing and working from home could give you the opportunity to practice more. Firstly allocate some time each day, it could be a short art 15-30 minutes. Now go for a walk with your camera. It might take a refocusing of your mindset, thinking more locally even around the home or garden. If your town isn’t totally shut down and your feeling well take the opportunity to get outside.

I’m lucky I live close to a large natural park in the middle of suburbia and I walk in there two or three times a week, there is always something to photograph. See my Year in Jells Park album on Flickr. It need not be a park, it could be local road signs, letterboxes or interesting street trees. Your imagination can be let free, with a digital camera there is little penalty if you decide to throw everything away and start again. The key is to really look around before you take the picture, so you are not taking the obvious snapshots but photographs that interest you.

If you’re in a total lock-down or confided to a 14 day self-quarantine, or suffering Flu like symptoms and need to self isolate, look for favourite spots in your home or garden, places that catch a special light. Start looking I’m sure you will find them. 

Perhaps do a series on your favourite chair.

The Vagaries of Planning a PhotoWalk in Nature

I have been running free PhotoWalks in Jells Park (and occasionally other locations) for a couple of years, and one of the biggest issues has definitely been the weather. I seem abnormally talented at picking either rainy/stormy or super hot/glary days, of course trying to pick the daily weather months ahead is my excuse. I’m not sure I will ever be able to improve on this particularly given Melbourne’s notoriety for changeable weather. Still learning to exploit the conditions or at least not be limited by them is a great photographic skill itself.

Jell’s Park has an amazing array of birdlife, and my next PhotoWalk is in part timed to get some good bird photography opportunities. Last year around this time there were hundreds of Ibis arriving at night, a family of regularly Spoonbill cruising the lake at dusk, Herons, large flocks of Wood Ducks grazing on the lawns, So I planned a late weekday walk (to avoid crowds)  in the golden hour light before dusk. Should all be pretty reliable, given favourable weather right? Well not quiet  looking around now the Ibis have pretty much abandoned the lake (and left their favourite island a wasteland), so have the Spoonbills and only a few grazing Ducks are still around.

However all is not lost. Yesterday I went on a late afternoon scouting trip looking for the best locations and likely bird species to capture.  Rather than Ibis and Heron I saw Egrets and Pelicans. Rather than numerous ducks on the ground their were sulphur Crested Cockatoos and Galahs (not shown) and a lots of small birds flitting in and out of the light (also not shown) and plenty of cormorants, moorhens, coots and ducks.

So the next Photowalk should be really worthwhile if you want to try your hand out at photographing birds or just enjoying the afternoon light.

If you’d like to join us please Register via Eventbrite.

Photowalk & Replacing an old reliable companion

As I packed up from taking this group photo of those that went on my first Jells Park Photo walk. A light breeze and a stray camera strap caught my old travel tripod and it just fell apart. Luckily the camera was in my hand. Its not the first time the very light tripod has collapsed or blown over, The poor thing is 13 years old now and has one foot replaced by a champagne cork, a broken leg lock and a winder ratchet that something drops a few inches or slowly slips down. Its saving grace that it has never actually caused damage to any of my cameras and it really light and compact. It can be put in my case when travelling  or in the back of my car. When really needed it was usually at hand. It was a reliable friend. Yet fall apart in a light breeze isn’t exactly being reliable.

I hadn’t planned such a sudden change but I noticed essentially the same model out the front on special in JB HiFi and a very reasonable price. It is still Aluminimu, not carbon fibre, lighter, smaller and extends higher. I’m sure my old friend, the silver model, can retire quietly without any incident.

Great Weather for a Photo Walk

Photographing the Photographers

Jells Park Photo Walks :: A Sense of the Place

I just realised I haven’t posted anything about a series of free photowalks I will be hosting in Jells Park (over the next 10 months). The series of walks follow the notion of Photography with an Artist Eyes, so they are a little different. The first photowalk is only two week away and has the theme A Sense of the Place. The number of participants is limited to 20 and this first photowalk is almost full now. If you want to join the fun please register via Eventbrite at the link above.

Seeing :: The Essence of a Tree

As an exercise in Seeing, suitable for a PhotoWalk style session, I figured the ideal subject might be a tree. So first you need to make a sketch of an idealized tree (could be a line drawing, a rough tonal sketch, or even coloured in). This exercise works well in a group so let the other photowalkers see it but then put the sketch away. The challenge is to find and photograph a tree that most closely resembles you tree. It might be harder than you think. Especially if you don’t keep checking your sketch.

What is going on here. Well you are doing three things

1. Previsualising the image
2. Learn to see a photo before you take it
3. Framing your photo to match your expected view

These are three skills to expand your seeing good photograph beyond just looking in the viewfinder or phone screen.