Month: August 2024

Mist on a sunny Sunday

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A sepia warm feel to a photo taken on a cold sunny but foggy day

For some reason I nearly always feel very comfortable using a TLR and the Rollei T in particular. The camera I used through my Art school years was a Minolta Autocord II that focused with a leaver beneath the taking lens which was almost as good as the Rollei left hand focus wheel (knob) The disadvantage was that in cold weather (for me) it was too easy to catch the shutter if the leaver happened to be on the RHS at the start of focusing. Other than that the lenses and the film advance is much the same. Like really the linking of the aperture and shutter speed on the T and peculiarly I think the Rollei T is the only TLR that has that feature. Several TLR’s have 645 adaptor mask and counter wheels but as far as I know only the T in the house of Rollei. I’m going to put some fast 800 colour film in it next something that I have never used in medium before !

Cyclops the possum

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Cyclops is a brush tail possum he left his mothers pouch late last year or early in 2024 he or perhaps she has a damaged right eye the fur is thin under the eye showing some scar tissue. I’m guessing it was caught by a claw from another possum or animal although most other creatures tend to avoid possums but I have seen larger male pademelons take a swipe at them and they also have formidable claws. From observation of Cyclops’s movements my guess is that he is totally blind in the right eye he is also much smaller than possums born in the same season and when we first encountered him he was not in the best condition. Even though he can climb trees very quickly he is at a disadvantage I have noticed that when climbing he has crashed into branches in his path. Possums are much maligned in Tasmania because they certainly cause damage to any fruit or nut trees. In urban areas they do like to break into attics and are often to heard chasing, fighting and bonking on roofs. As a result their major predators are humans, dogs and even cats when young.

My new model!

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A Bennetts wallaby happy to pose for a quick snap no model release required!

Met a new model on the evening walk a very willing to pose Bennetts wallaby. Sadly these wonderful often quite skittish animals are killed in their hundreds on Tasmanian roads especially as they freeze in the headlights, in this case it has been frozen with a TT artisans mini LED which I received yesterday. For USD$ 7.00 this is a remarkable little light it has 3 Color temperatures: 6000K/4500K/3000K with a CRI 95+ for accurate colour rendering, the print is illuminated below is set at 4500K and taken on an iPhone its pretty darned good for the cost. I have been using mini LED’s from Lum X and Joby for about five years now and they just keep getting better and better and halving in cost every few years. For small scale studio work I honestly don’t think I could ever go back to speedlights. I’ll try this one with some colour film over the next few days. I have previously made captures like my new best friend (above) with a fairly high powered headlight in the past, but framing the photo and aiming a head light simultaneously is often quite a tedious process.

TT Artisans the Chinese company that has produce some wonderfull lenses have come up with a remarkable tiny shoe mount light, its ideal for evening walks

TT Artisans the Chinese company that has produce some truly wonderfull lenses have come up with a remarkable tiny shoe mount light, its ideal for evening walks, or even small scale product photography!
Yes a series of Autumnal prints will be available for sale from my gallery in a few weeks…

Aurora through a fog…

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By the time 11:00pm rolled around the fog became quite thick

By the time 11:00pm rolled around the fog became quite thick not quite pea soup (a few older poms will know that expression) the temperature had dropped considerably. The little OM had been sat on a tripod since 8:45 and had ceased becoming a magnet for condensation but I had left a protection filter on the lease just in case. However the tripod for some odd reason was dripping wet, something to do with the calf high grass perhaps?. Directly above the sky was clearer and a deep crimson that faded off in to the deep blue night sky. The moon was still quite bright in the north but the light hardly reached the ground to illuminate any detail. All told as the fog moved around it was like existing inside a JM Turner painting, quite an experience!

On the road to an aurora…

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Aurora visible from Northern Tasmania

Last night was a very good night for sky watching the southern aurora glowed with brilliance and delivered many changes in the two or so hours we could stand, gaze and tolerate the cold. Within an hour a thick fog had descended to treetop height and the temperature dropped further. Compared to the last solar storm in May the colour was visible much higher in sky and the colour seemed to streak both vertically and at a lower angles. I used an OM systems EM5 with the pro zoom the RAW files were processed in DXO pure raw, finished in Affinity Photos 2 and sharpened in NIK.

Henty House, Brutalism in Launceston!

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Henty House A brutalist office building in Launceston

Henty House, in a town famed for its Georgian and Victorian architecture, the stark concrete mass of Henty House once built to contain state government offices was recently sold to a private syndicate. The brutalist building built in 1983 and designed by architect Peter Partridge is in sharp contrast to Macquarie House a Georgian building a few short metres to the left (north) of this photo. I had reason to enter this building on numerous occasions and have been impressed with the spatial feel of the building it must be a wonderful building to work in.

A rainy night in Launie

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A rainy night in Launie with apologies to Brook Benton

A rainy night in Launie with apologies to Brook Benton. With a voice as rich and as smooth as oiled mahogany ‘A rainy night in Georgia’ epitomises the sheer haunting beauty of the black soul voice.
As for my picture the digital camera can do things which become tediously trying with film and these days expensive. Even with practice experience there are only two films I would consider for night work Fuji ACROS and Ilford 3200 rated at 1600. The former because ACROS film is unique in as much as one doesn’t have to account for reciprocity failure and the Ilford film because it can be pushed to 6400 and beyond (12500 anyone!) with acceptable results when developed in Ilfotec DDX, which sadly is perhaps the most expensive developer available in Australia… The above was made on an OM systems EM5 and the reason how I could capture this is the absolutely remarkable image stabilisation that the camera offers. No tripod needed!

Jonquil’s the first of the spring flowering bulbs

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Bulb culture, from garlic to the rare and often difficult to propagate (in Au) Fritillaria imperialis, yours truly loves bulbs! This year my Jonquils are early which is surprising considering the average temperatures that Launceston (Tasmania) has been experiencing for the last few months. With a slight breeze the individual flower heads bob around as if they are chatting with each other. Wallabies and Pademelons also do not eat them which is a bonus, one less plant that needs to be protected with guards!