My Top ten images of 2018
The start of the new year is time to review my images again from last year and again select my top ten images of the year. Seems simple enough until you try and narrow down your images to only ten. I've now done this for a few years now and each year I can see how my Photography has progressed and see the way my style varies each year taking me on a direction I have no idea where will end. The Idea for this came from listening to Martin Bailey's photography podcast and each year Martin running through how he obtains his top ten and the difficulty it is in getting down to the final ten. https://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/2019/01/06/yearly-top-ten-selection-process-2018-podcast-645/
I can fully agree with that the final 20 images is really hard to get down to a final ten, but certainly well worth will, I've done this now for several years and each year I learn from this exercise as it shows you how to critic your own images. When someone else critics your images at times you don't always agree with them but when you critic your images to this level you certainly see your own faults.
So looking at the year I actually took fewer images this year than last, and didn't do much travel this year so most of the shots were close to home, in fact, two are in my home this year. This year also saw me participate in Canons Light Awards live photography events more on that later.
So let's get on with the review of the review.
First up is an image very early in the year, and the first of two mushroom shots in the top ten. These like most of my mushroom shots were taken in normal daylight, underexposed and lite with two off camera speedlites. Really happy with how this one turned out and taken early in the year set a high benchmark for the rest of the year. Most people are surprised when they see these especially when they see me taking a shot, and they realise that these are not taken at night.
Next shot the second Mushroom shot in my top ten was taken down in the Robertson rainforest. a small nature reserve just off the main road of Robertson, this one was shot during an outing of the local Bird facebook group Macarthur birds https://www.facebook.com/groups/1581964245377794/
an active and very friendly group of Bird enthusiasts with quite a few interested in photography. This was an example as described above where a few of the group actually saw me take the shot and were amazed at the final image. I've even got a few shots taken of me taking this image by the group. This image became my favorite Mushroom image of the year.
Throughout the year I found myself at a few Canon events. Canon released the M50 Mirrorless camera earlier in the year, and the local Camera shop Macarthur Camera house. https://www.facebook.com/macarthurcamerahouse/
invited me and a few other local Photographers to the release of the camera with Canon, So I got to shot the camera for a few hours at an Island in Sydney Harbour, before the camera was officially released. The event was held on Cockatoo Island an island in the middle of Sydney Harbour which happened to be where I had my first job as an apprentice in the 1980's when it was a working dockyard. The Dockyard was closed down not long afterwards, but open long enough for me to complete my Apprenticeship. We got to play with the Canon M50 for a few hours then hand them back, I had also bought my own cameras along so this shot was taken with my 5dMk4 taken of one of the tunnels that cut thought the island. The Island was a Naval dockyard for many years and also has some of the early convict structures of Sydney’s early settlement. This is one of my few shots I’ve played with Black and white, I tent to use colour more times than not but seem to be drawn to black and white when shooting older buildings. Happy with how this one processed.
This next shot was taken again close to home in the local Botanical Gardens, The Australian Botanical Gardens at Mount Annan, https://www.australianbotanicgarden.com.au about ten minute’s drive from my home. The last few years I’ve been trying to capture an image of every known bird in the gardens, the gardens have a bird list of 185 known birds to visit the gardens so far I’m up to 144, so still, a few to capture yet. The gardens also approached me a couple of years ago asking if I was willing to run some photography workshops for them, not having every ran a photography workshop before at the time I thought about it but a few months prior I actually attended a workshop by one of Australia’s living icons of Photography Steve Parish, https://www.steveparish-natureconnect.com.au during the workshop at the end he told me my next step in my photography journey was to run a workshop or two rather than attend them, so taking his advice I agreed to the gardens offer, since then I’ve run workshops for the last few years for them now, covering from Beginners workshops to Bird photography workshops and even some Children workshops when I encourage children to be into photography, they usually don’t need too much encouragement. The gardens are a great place for photography. This shot is of a White-necked Heron in one of the many lakes within the gardens.
During the year Sydney has a festival of lights each year called Vivid where a lot of Sydney’s famous landmarks are light up with various lights and light painting along with no shortage of sculptures. and art installations, A great opportunity for photography however also very popular so its Sydney at it’s busiest, so if you don’t like crowd and I really mean high-density crowds it’s not the place for you, but certainly worth a visit if you have never been before. https://www.vividsydney.com. The local Camera shop again the Macarthur Camera house in conjunction with Canon Australia ran a photo walk during vivid with everyone on the walk encouraged to submit their best image with the winner winning a ticket the NSW Canon light awards event. I submitted an image which didn’t make the top ten cut this year, but was in the top 20, https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjj8jXjHyhP/The camera shop judged this the winning shot for the night so I got the ticket to the light awards, which I probably wouldn’t have gone to otherwise. The light awards are a Canon even over two days the first half of the first day is a master class where you select a particular field of photography and are given a master class along with about 100 other photographers, in this case, I could have picked Landscape, Lighting Travel photography or Portraiture, I decided since I was pretty much self-taught in lighting, other than podcasts, to give that a go. We were then given a brief to shot an image using conditional lighting of an everyday object where each light source had to have a reason to be there as part of the storytelling. We had 24 hours to get the shot process it and get back to the venue for the judging. There were about 400 photographers at the Sydney even. When we returned we were again split up into our separate groups and the images were all displayed on a full-size cinema screen (The event was held in a cinema complex) and critiqued once by one, it was worth it for that process alone, seeing how the Canon Master analysed each image its strengths and weaknesses. It turned out my image was selected the best in the lighting category, the other three groups were then bought into our Cinema and again all the images were shown this time all the images form all the groups The four Canon masters then had to argue in front of us why their image from their group was the best image of the four groups images. Nerve racking time. They quickly narrowed it down to two images and slowly went towards the landscape image, fortunately for my the Master of the lighting class was of strong mind and argued a final argument for my image and the other judges came back to my image. Which meant I won the NSW Canon light awards, a Big Wow moment for me. For that, I got $1000 voucher for the local Camera shop which went towards inks for my Pro1000 printer. I also won a trip to a mystery location yet to be announced for the years Grand final light awards with three other photography’s from three other states. The image below was the final image I submitted for the NSW entry, Nine sperate lights were used in this shot one a Speedlite the rest torches, Two iPhones, pretty much every light source I could find in the house. Big thanks to https://linnetfoto.com/ for the Masterclass and pressing for my image.
This next shot was taken in the gardens and is a Restless Flycatcher, this one was just hovering on the lookout for insects, I had a series of these but this one he just looked back at me making the image. He wasn't at all afraid and I managed to get within a few meters of him. Using a 600mm lens at that range certainly helps to blow out the background. Looking at the leading edge of the near wing this image to me almost appears 3D at times. A few of this year's images seem to have a 3D feel to them including some that didn't make the cut. Shot in the Australian Botanic Gardens, These are in the outer southwest of Sydney and there are many people who don't know of these yet they are the largest Botanic Gardens in the southern hemisphere.
Next up and possibly my favorite from the year, though really hard to call that, Is this set of Waratahs. The Waratah is the State Floral emblem of the State of New South Wales. These were again taken in the Australian Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan, Taken in normal daylight but again using an off-camera speed lite, this time only one, but enough light to give shape and depth to the image, really happy with how this one turned out. Again I've done some additional processing on the leaves in this image which I feel really made the image, compared to the original unedited image. The trick is to not overdo it.
Only three more images left and next up is a Nankeen Kestrel, again shot in the Australian Botanic Gardens. The gardens have an amazing collection of bird life as mentioned above and there's always something to see and capture. the Kestrels hunt on the grasslands in the gardens in a couple of areas and in this case the wind was blowing a bit so this one was just sort of in stationary glide mode. I was able to predict where it was going to be and walked up the hill, Careful of my footing to avoid any Brown snakes, not something you want to be standing on, and just waited for the right moment again the 7d MkII and the Sigma 150 to 600mm Lens, did a great job of this shot, with the bird being correctly exposed the sky blew out but for images like this it doesn't worry me that the sky has blown out, the details the feathers.
As mentioned earlier By winning the State Canon Light awards I won a mystery trip with Canon for the grand final. A date was confirmed and I was told to be at Sydney domestic Airport early in the morning, which meant an early start for the day as an hour train ride to the station, where I was meet by Canon Ambassador Jenn Copper who gave me an envelope which revealed the location of the 24 hour challenge. So began a full on exciting weekend of photography starting with a few hour plane flight to tropical Cairns, one of the few parts of Australia I hadn’t been to. We arrived and picked up a hire car and drove to the local Hotel which was to be the base for the event we were given our brief and then 24 hours to have four shots taken, processed, printed and mounted. No pressure of cause, oh the final catch, we weren’t to take our own toys but everything was to be provided, We were given the new Canon EOS R with three lenses for the 24 hours so a new camera to get use to as well, everyone was on the same level there no one had used one so something to add to the mix. We were buddied up with a Canon Ambassador for the 24 hours to make sure we didn’t do anything dangerous i.e. get too close to a cliff etc to get a shot. Make sure we didn’t get fatigued driving to far etc. It was a great weekend here’s a short Video Canon prepared afterwards showing what the event was like with four of use out and about.
What the video didn’t show was the temperate of 41 deg. Centigrade and humidity of 70% Great weather to be out rushing about. None of us were use to those temperatures and humidity combined. The 41 Deg wasn’t a problem coming from Sydney we’ve just had several days of 44 Deg here. But the 70% humidity was something else, something I hadn’t experiences since I was last at Darwin 30 years ago. The event was fantastic, I didn’t win this time but received great feedback from my images, I had four very strong images I thought but they were a bit weak on meeting the brief, but I was happy with what I had and within the 24 hours was the best I could come up with so I was happy with what I submitted. The image below was my best from the 24 hours. One of the things that was missing from the supplied toys was a speedlite, but I made use of a headlamp to light this shot, I lit three of my four shots and all up I was happy with what I submitted.
The final image is a simple image and maybe because its still so fresh in my mind I may have snuck in to the top ten, may have been the emotional attachmentthe image as well, as I was created Just in time for Christmas and became a framed print for my Nice who has received word that she has a full time teaching position for this year her first full year with her own class. So what better than an apple for the teacher. For this shot I set the apple on an ipad, which has a dark reflective surface, gave the apple a quick spray or water first then set up a pair of speedlites and took a series of shots and focus stacked the image, same as I would a mushroom shot. Surprising how many apples I had to go through to get one free of dents and blemishes, I’m sure the people in the fruit shop were thinking I was being overly fussy selecting an apple just to eat, as I rejected quite a few before I selected this one, I actually picked a few just in case but each was carefully selected examining to make sure there was no dents or distortions on the surfaces, scratches or other marks.
So thats the end of my top ten images for 2018, Still think I'm heading in the right direction with improvements over the previous years.
https://glennsmithphotography.zenfolio.com/blog/2018/1/my-top-ten-shots-of-2017
https://glennsmithphotography.zenfolio.com/blog/2017/1/my-top-ten-shots-of-2016
https://glennsmithphotography.zenfolio.com/blog/2016/1/2015-top-ten-shots---year-in-review
https://glennsmithphotography.zenfolio.com/blog/2015/1/2014-top-ten-shots---year-in-review
Another year where I can see improvement and proves you don't always hve to travel far from home for your shots, hopefully this year I'll find a landscape or two shot in the mix, this year was definately short of landscapes there were a could in the top 50 images but were cut out as the list got narrowed down.
Each year as I do this exercise I certainly find value in it and can see how it adds in my self improvement as when I take shots I think back to the reviews adn what images were rejected and why, and hopefully I self correct more often before hitting that shutter button.
We'll see what this year brings, I've already got a few images for the year so far so who knows where this year will take me. Always fun to see.
Thanks for dropping by my blog, hopefully this year it will be a bit more regular again.
Glenn.
Western Australia Photography Trip Part two.
Welcome back to my blog, of late a very neglected blog. Of late been a little flat out but hopefully, things should be easing up a little now and I can get back to the regular weekly blog posts was achieving a while ago. So this weeks post is a continuation of my shots from my Western Australia trip with Steve Parish. We spent a few weeks late last year travelling from Perth up the coast then up to Karijini National Park.
We start this week at Kalbarri Three-quarters of the way up the coast from Perth to Shark Bay. Kalbarri is one of those places that has so much to see and could easily spend a few weeks there before travelling on. As you'll see from some of these shots to follow.
This first shot shows Steve taking a shot over Murchison River just around the corner from Natures window.
Whereas these one's are of Natures window looking up the gorge.
Steve taking his turn at the window.
A few shots taken around the window, the sort of place you could easily spend a few days here alone. So much to see so many textures, colours and contrasts.
When we drove back into the caravan park we were staying at, I noticed these Tawny Frogmouths in a tree in the middle of the caravan park everyone walking around about them looking like no one was noticing them and they certainly weren't paying any attention to anyone. Having their midday nap.
This one's taken at Ross Graham lookout where there are a few walks, one down to the Murchison River. This shot shows a Whistling Kite coming to land on a rocky outcrop take from the rim of the gorge so a rare shot from above of a kite.
Whereas the next shot is taken from the bottom of the Gorge with the still water and reflections, even in a remote area like this there are people about so had to wait about half an hour for the shot to get the people out of the shot. But with the early morning sun lighting the cliff face and the still water made for great reflections.
Sunrise at Natures window again.
The gorge drinking in the first of the morning light starting to light up the cliff faces.
Back along the coast of Kalbarri, the Surfers were in action.
Then waiting for sunset along the coastal cliffs.
Sunrise at Z-bend pretty much the only wildflowers we came across, looking at the season they are having there now this year looks like we were a year out, they are having a bumper year there for wildflowers there this year.
Coming back into Kalbarri we stopped off at Murchison house station. The station has an old shearing shed which walking into it is like stepping back in time, plus a small garden which attracts the local bird life, here's a few shots from around the station.
A few shots from within the shearing shed. Really is like steping back in time walking into this shed.
The bonus was the Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo around the station a small flock of these were there. These are listed as endangered so good to see a group of there about, we all so spotted these on Endangered Species day so what are the odds of that.
Early morning at Kalbarri the Pelicans come in for a free feed each morning in the park oposite the Pelican cafe.
Back to the cliff tops at the ocean around Kalbarri.
Finally, we drove north to Shark Bay, this one's Monkey Mia where the wild Dolphins come in each day for a free feed its been over 25 years since I was last there, the infrastructure has grown up around the beach but the sceen is the same.
I'll leave this one here and be back soon with the next instalment of our WA trip last year.
Thanks for dropping by my blog.
Glenn.
Western Australia Photography Trip Part one.
Back again for another blog post, been a while so about time I got back into this.
For the next few posts I'll cover a photography trip I did late last year with Steve Parish Over the last few years I'd been on a few of Steve's Photography tours and when he mentioned that he was going to do a few weeks in WA and asked if I was interested how could you say no to that. the Idea was to time it right for the wildflower season over there, well that was the plan, In the following few posts you'll see what we managed to get.
First up we drove north of Perth to the Pinnacles, Nambung National Park Where limestone pillars emerge from the sand dunes, some over 2 metres high, others considerably smaller. The whole landscape is dotted with this pinnacles. We managed a sunset and sunrise shoot here, But think you could easily spend more time here as so many angles to shoot from.
Afternoon Sunset shot over the Pinnacles.
For this shot tried my hand at a bit of light painting as we waited for Sunrise.
Scatted throughout the Pinnacles are a few outcrops of small scrub, this is home to various bird life and the occasional Wallaby as well.
This first one a White-cheeked Honeyeater (Phylidonyris Niger)
The long shadows of the early morning light.
There were also a few Galahs about this one on his only little Pinnacle as it warms itself in the first of the morning sun, mornings were a bit cool over there, so this one was still in warming up mode.
This one has the bottom Galah dragging its beak back and forth in an arc across the Pinnacle, the best we could make out was it was sharpening its beak, we could be completely mistaken but it spent a good 15 minutes dragging it back and forth.
This one shows one of the Galahs showing of its rock jumping skills.
Two Nankeen Kestrels (Falco Cenchroides) A parent and young.
This pair had just finished their Breakfast of local wildflowers and the evidence is still on their noses with the yellow pollen still stuck to their face.
From Nambung National Park we drove north to Geraldton These shots are taken at the Memorial to HMAS Sydney II. Which was lost in the Indian Ocean after a skirmish with German raider HSK Kormoran.
This last two for the week were taken at Northampton on our way north.
So that's it for the first part of our Western Australian photo adventure, back soon with part two.
Thanks for dropping by my blog.
Glenn.
My top ten shots of 2017
Well it’s that time of the year again to review my work from last year and narrow it down to my top ten shots. I’ve been doing this each year now for quite a few years, thanks to Martin Bailey of the Martin Bailey photography pod cast. https://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/blog/
Each Year Martin goes through his top then shot for the year and explains the pain of discarding so many great shots to narrow it down to just ten. Each year I feel his pain as it really is so difficult to throw out the last ten from your final twenty. So here’s my final ten, though my second ten could have so easily been a complete set of ten in their own right. I also did a top nine from Instagram this year and I’m any to see one of my top ten here was also what was picked for my top nine form Instagram likes. Though my top nine from Instagram were all bird shots and that’s entirely based on likes, a program automatically generates your top nine based on likes. Where as my top ten here is based on my selections of my years work.
So on with the top ten.
First up first of Three Fungi shots for the year, Again using two off camera speed lights one with a brown gel to give the warm soft light, these are focus stacked to give the great detail. Love all the fine details in the gills on these.
Next up is a shot from Strahan Tasmania an early morning shot before the wind had a chance to ripple the water giving a near perfect mirror reflection. The different coloured wooden row boats just adds to this shot.
The next show was also taken in Tasmania and is at Cradle Mountain, most shots in the area or around Dove lake and the Cradle, which I also got a few but this shot is of this little wooden cabin which was an old Bath house for the guests that stayed in the area. Considering it snows in the area any time of the year, the Warm bath would come in handy.
The next shot also from my Tasmanian trip is of a small troupe of Fungi growing on top of an old log in the forest. Again light with two off camera speedlites and focus stacked.
This next one the first of three Bird shots in my top ten is of a Silvereye (Zosterops Lateralis) this ones taking in my local Botanic Gardens, the Australian Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan, which is only a few minutes from my place and can be seen from my window, the Gardens have over 184 different Bird Species known within the gardens and has 12 km of roads within the gardens. I usually spend a few hours each weekend in the gardens there looking for the different Birds and Fungi to shoot. This year I ran a series of photography Workshops with the gardens and more are planned for this year. This shot the Silvereye I’ve had printed large in A2 size print then matted and framed it, White mate and black frame its hanging in my Mother’s house on a Green wall the same colour as the background so looks great colour wise on the wall.
This next one is of a pair of Welcome Swallows (Hirundo neoxena) as they chased each other over one the lakes in the Botanic Gardens. Towards the end of the day if I’m still in the gardens I’ll go to the lakes and practice my panning shots on the swallows, if I can get the fast moving swallows I’ll be able to get most birds, so these make great practice for me, this time the sun was setting so the golden light on the water and two birds in the one shot so happy with this one, and the water colours make it just that more interesting.
Later on in the year I made a trip to Western Australia for three weeks photography so a good year for photography travel for me. This shots of an old shearing wool shed still in use. Walking into this shed is like walking back in time so I gave it the works post processing wise and really happy with the results here, Its had a bit of everything Lightroom, photoshop and silver effects as well, so been though a lot of processing far more than I normal do, but this case it worked out well. The shearing wool shed was at Murchison house station Kalbarri Western Australia and well worth the stop just for the shearing shed, I took quite a few shots in the shed that day.
This next one also taken at Kalbarri Western Australia, taken from the cliff tops at sun set. Slow exposure to get the motion in the waves while getting a moment when the fishermen on the rocks stayed still long enough to capture them. The sun still has the golden light lighting up the cliff faces, so everything came together for this shot.
This next one is again of a Fungi in the Australian Botanic Gardens and is of a Stink horn not one of the most prettiest of fungi usually but with the low shot, and the lighting this one came out well, so goes to show you don’t always need the prettiest of subjects to make a great shot. Two off camera speedlites and focus stacked. All the Fungi shots are taken with an old Canon 60D so also showing you don’t always need the latest gear. Having said that all the landscape shots are with the Canon 5Dmk4 and the bird shots are the 7DmkII with Sigma 150 to 600 sports, not the lightest of lenses but really happy with the results I get out of that as this next shot show.
The last shot from this years top ten is of a rainbow Bee-eater (Merops Ornatus) this one wasn’t taken in the local Botanic Gardens but the nearby Nepean River at Camden about 15 minutes drive so not far. This shot has captured the bird as it does its stretching exercises prior to its next flight.
So all up another good years worth of shots. Early December I bought myself a Canon Pro-1000 Printer so I’m now starting to print my own work rather than send out for prints so this years project will be learning to get the most out of the printer, with the aim of at least one print a day, so far since I’ve had it I’m managed that so going well, this will push my photography to the next level as images that are acceptable on the screen soon show up any small faults in the print so working to get better results pus learn the new world of printing, I’ve booked myself in to a framing course in February as well so I can learn all the tricks there as well. So another interesting year coming up. Plus a Series of photography workshops being run in conjunction with the Australian Botanic Gardens, so busy times ahead.
Thanks for dropping by my blog this week, for my top ten shots of 2017.
Glenn.
Tasmania Days 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14
This weeks blog is two days shots combined, from the Trip in Tasmania.
Looking back at where the last blog post was viewed 16 countries this time around, with Australia coming in at number one, then Russia followed by the United States, After that Tieing for fourth place was the United Kingdom and Canada, Sixth Place was Spain and France and then all on equal Eighth place was Belguim Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Taiwan, and Vietnam. So 16 countries last time around, we'll see how we go this time.
This first shot is taken at Low Head at the entrance of the Tamar River showing the pilot station, this is Australia's longest continually operating pilot station.
This ones overlooking the beach at Badgers head the western side of the Tamar River. Showing the long waveforms as they make their way to the beach stretched out below.
One of the locals at Narawntapu national park taking time out for a quick scratch.
Next up the historic town of Richmond and its famous Bridge.
From there we headed southwest and travelling along the Tyenna River we stopped at Westerway just opposite the primary school there, there's a Cafe called the Possum Shed in the river there are Wild Platypus that come out and swim in the river.
Still heading west some of the scenery along the Gorden river road.
The Amazingly Talaented Madeleine Jones you can see her work at her web site http://www.imagjen.com
Red Knoll Lockout at Lake Pedder.
The next day we drove back to Hobart, More of the scenery on the drive back to Hobart along the Gorden river road.
Downtown Hobart again Constitution dock.
Sandy Bay Hobart
While at Sandy Bay a small flock of Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos flew over.
Looking back towards Battery Point.
From there we drove up to the top of Mount Wellington
The amazing colours and textures of the snow gums near the top of Mount Wellington.
Then the views from the top of Mount Wellington.
Back down the bottom again and the view from the other side of the Derwent river looking back at the casino.
And the Tasman bridge again.
A few more shots around Hobart and the Derwent River.
Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Hobart. This Sanctuary has a couple of decent Devil Runs to the have plenty of room to roam about in.
We spent a couple of days at Mount Feild National Park with our Accommodation just outside of the park so easy to get in for some night shots and late afternoon shots when the crowds had moved on. Once the People move out the Little Paddy Melons come out and take over.
Being just outside the park gave me a chance for some light painting of Russell falls.
This fungi growing on the end of a log looks like a map of Tasmania with a bit of imagination.
Horseshoe falls
Just love all the moss covered trees, logs, and rocks under the canopy, I could spend weeks here.
So that's it for this long overdue blog post and wraps up the Tasmanian trip. since this trip I've done a trip over in WA and plenty of weekend shoots as well so plenty to come in the new year plus my usual end of year top ten shots, which I've started to review now. So stay following for that post in the coming days.
Thanks for dropping by my blog, back again in a couple of days with my next post.
Glenn