Changing Colours

December 23, 2019

One of the joys of photography is watching the landscape as it transforms through the hour before and after sunset or sunrise. The sequence of photographs here were taken either side of the sun setting at Cape Woolamai in Victoria’s southern coast. The first image has a soft golden light consistent with the “golden hour”. When the sun reaches the horizon, the light is intense and the shadows cooler. Right at sunset, the light’s temperature has warmed further, bathing the landscape in orange and red hues. And once down, all that is left is the deepening blue of the twilight sky reflected in the ocean and the darkening rocks, with only the faintest hint of the sun (now below the horizon) remaining.

All these images were taken using a neutral density and a polarising filter, with exposure times close to or at 30 seconds. The use of long exposure is a technique I enjoy, because it simplifies the scene and creates a sense of tranquility that matches how I feel, even when I’m watching a surging ocean. In this case, the waves were three or more meters high - enough to shatter over the tops of the rock formations you can see here, which reach two or three stories above the ground.

Nothing New Under the Sun

March 4, 2019

As a photographer (indeed, in any pursuit), originality is something to strive for. Honing your vision to be wholly unique is not possible, but pursuing a personal vision is every photographer’s goal…if you exclude all those on Instagram taking the same shoot of the same scene by putting their feet/tripod/phone in the groove marks left by those before.

Anyway, sometimes you mimic to learn, but then you always try to have something original to say, through composition or lighting or style, even if the subject is old.

Recently, in Brisbane, I took this photograph. Actually, I took a few, but one I rendered in monochrome and the other (taken the following evening) I left in glorious color. I haven’t seen the bridge and the city framed in this way before, so it was for me at least original. I wanted to convey a sense of scale in the bridge, because it stands so proud over the river. It almost feels like the whole city is lined up to soak in the bridge.

Not much more than a week later, I’m flicking through Michael Kenna’s book Images of the Seventh Day and what do I see but this. Now I don’t profess to having one gram of Kenna’s talent, but it would be nice if my illusion of originality lasted a bit longer. Still, great minds do think alike…

Pylons in Western Port Bay, imbued with a tranquil sense of fading light. This image is displayed at Maitland International Salon of Photography 2019 for the month of Feb/Mar.

Gentle Light, or More Sugar Please

February 9, 2019

I’m totally attracted to gentle light. What do I mean by that? Well, jump on instagram or Facebook, search for some photos, and take a look at the intensity of colour you see. So many photos are excessively saturated. Here is an example of a lovely composition that I think is ruined by heavy handed use of saturation. Some people love this, but I don’t. It is eye catching, and certainly grabs the attention when seen on a small screen, but it does’t look real to me.

Below is an image I made at a place called Tenby Point, south of Melbourne on Western Port Bay. This is currently on display at the Maitland International Salon of Photography, and I particularly like it not only for its simplicity and its strong geometric (almost graphical) structure, but also because of the subtlety of tones in the image.

This is what I refer to as ‘gentle light’—the kind of light that you see as the day dwindles into night, pastel hues that capture the actual colours we see in the sky.

Let’s look at another image. This is a side-by-side, with the image I like (before) and the image that probably would get more likes on instagram (after). Structurally, the image is really dead simple. A strong leading line with warm tones splitting three cooler zones, the deep sea to the left, the vermillion pool to the right and the dawn sky above. The image on the left is the colour that I saw with my eye. The colour on the right is bold and brassy and vivid and (frankly) the visual equivalent of too much sugar. Which do you prefer? Sickly sweet or just a touch of the cane juice?