Julieanne Kost

Yesterday as well as visiting with clients I was lucky to attend a presentation by Julieanne Kost, Adobe's senior evangelist. Its always great to have a chance to learn new tips and tricks about the software you use on a daily basis. Julieanne spent a lot of time on my favorite software Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which frankly, has really given photographers a brilliant new tool.

Happy Birthday Stephanie...

Canon 1Ds II, 70-200mm f2.8 L lens

A good friend of the team at Excitations is celebrating her birthday today, we couldn't miss this opportunity to wish her all the best for the day. Of course it gives the Outback Photographer a chance to post a picture of a pretty girl as well... That can't be a bad thing.... right.


The above shot was captured recently when Stephanie visited the studio as one of the models for a promotional shoot for a fashion house. Shot on the steps of our Barn Style Studio, using entirely natural lighting.

Any way happy birthday Stephanie, hope your day goes really well.

On the road again.

Excitations photographers take the Outback Photographer on the road... This time to the city were like a fish out of water I struggle to find my way around, get totally frustrated at the amount of time it takes to get anything done, and quite frankly I spend my time wishing I was back in the bush.

This will be a short post as today I'm off to an Adobe Masterclass to learn lots more neat stuff aboout Adobe Photoshop, I hope. Then there are a number of client meetings, and a laptop to fix.

Jock

Canon 1Ds MII 24-70mm. iso 1600

If you ever visit White Cliffs, in far North Western New South Wales, you must look up Jock. He is easy to find, just ask any local. Jock will take you through his underground dugout which he calls a museum. It is in fact a very large dugout with many rooms all packed with relics from the mining days. I'd guess that Jock has at least, one of just about everything, stashed away in his underground home. The real treasure though is Jock himself. He is entertainment plus, loud, jovial and your guaranteed to leave with a smile on your face. Chances are you'll learn a bit as well.
If you would like to license the use of this stock image, click here.

Bushmans cure...

Here is an old trick that I was reminded of just the other day.

Ever cut yourself shaving and the nick just keeps on bleeding? Try a little bit of spiders web. Just collect a bit of spiders web on your finger, roll it into a loose ball and place on the wound.
Seems to work really well. I've heard numerous reason why it works, none of which sounded to scientific, but its results that count.
I'd be a bit cautious that the owner of the web wasn't home, while I was collecting the web. And if your in Australia, and the web is very strong, I would seriously consider getting my finger out as quickly as possible. The Red Backed Spider spins a very strong web, and the female of the species has a bite that can be deadly to even the strongest human. How do you know which one is female? Well, basically if you see a Black spider with a bright red stripe on its abdomen then its a female Red Back. I guess the other method is to let it bite you... if you die it was a female.
As with all posts of this nature, I'm not a doctor nor a scientist, and I'm in no way qualified to give medical advice. I'm just passing on an old bush remedy.

Todays a no shooting day... yes the worst kind. Instead I face 12 hours in front of the old MacPro catching up on a whole lot of post production.

The little things...

It Sunday morning already, that means we're slap bang in the middle of a busy weekend, we currently have nice overcast conditions with a breeze that is picking up. As we will be shooting portraits for most of the day, and many of those sessions outdoors the overcast suits me fine but the strengthening breeze isn't so promising.
So why the image of two flash unites? Well last evening to finish off the day I had a recently completed residential property to photograph. Our client wanted a night shot of the building, so I opted for the old time exposure approach, locking the camera off on a tripod, making one exposure based on the evening sky, a second exposure for the window lights and a third to capture the exterior ambient light around the building. All very simple stuff really, but there were a few areas around the building which needed a bit of extra attention. My normal approach is wait a few extra minutes until darkness falls, then make another longer exposure while walking around painting the required areas with light from a Canon 580EX set to full power. A few minutes post work in Photoshop blending the different exposures together and the jobs done. Last night however I decided to use both the Canon 580EX and a Nikon SB-800. One in each hand, fire one off, then while that unit was recycling aim and fire the second unit, as the units were being operated manually there would be no compatibility issues with synching and any slight differences in colour balance would go unnoticed. The big bonus for me is that I would finish up just that little bit earlier.
Now comes the problem, well not really a problem, just a small irritation. If you look at the picture above you will see that both of these excellent Speedlites have a small button on the bottom left hand corner of the unit. Canon mark theirs "Pilot" it is raised from the units body and glows read in the dark. Nikon have recessed their "Flash" button into the body of the unit and it doesn't glow. With my rather large hands this tiny little button on the Nikon is a bit difficult to press at any time, but in the dark it proved even harder to locate and activate. Just to add to my woes, there is a raised button just above the "Flash" button on the Nikon which changes the unites "Mode". Yes you can guess which button was pressed accidentally more than once.
Off course the obvious answer is to use two similar units, but on this occasion that wasn't possible. It is often not the big differences between pieces of equipment that are important but some times the smallest design differences that catch us out. Both of these Speedlites work well for me on the odd occasions that I use them mounted to the camera. Nikon SB-800 mounts onto the camera just that little bit faster than does the Canon 580EX.

Big Dry

In keeping with the drought theme this photograph was taken recently on a trip to Adelaide, strong winds were kicking up a large amount of localized dust. While I'm the first to admit this isn't a great image, it is a true look at what happens in the Mallee region of Australia during a period of drought. I'm really glad my Canon 1 series cameras are dust and moisture sealed, because the middle of a dust storm isn't a good place to have your cameras.

Blank sheet of paper syndrome

Yep, Its the old blank sheet of paper syndrome... what to post on your blog for the first time. Well lets face it it really can't be that hard can it, I mean millions of people do this every day and obviously they don't have a problem with coming up with ideas.

Ok so I can tell you that the outback is dry, really dry. We here in South Eastern Australia are well into a "Dry Spell" as the locals often refer to a drought. This particular drought has been building for around 11 years, which quite frankly is enough.
The media would like us to believe that the continuing lack of rain is a direct consequence of climate change. They may well be right about that, I doubt that anyone truly believes that man isn't having some pretty ordinary effects on the environment. However, in Outback Australia drought cycles are pretty common, and traditionally the intensity of these dry spells vary from a single season to many years in length. Looking on the bright side, "EVERY drought is followed by rain".