The Light Is Awesome

Hi All,


Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

Today I have a situation where you are waiting patiently for a subject ounce you have found a place that is pleasing compositionaly and the light is awesome.

The first image I noticed the late afternoon light coming through a side street and made a quick landscape photograph. I set my camera and adjusted the settings so I would not blow out the highlights on the wall.
I adjusted it in lightroom and this is what I came up with.

Lovely Light

The second image I thought how can I use the light as a back light. I needed a person to walk through and the idea was to expose for the person correctly but also have a nice shine through the hair. Eventually after about ten attempts a lady walked through and I got the desired effect.
Patience always seems to be the key although sometimes there is not quite the amount of time you would like.

Back Lighting

Thank you for taking the time to look and read as its always appreciated.
Comments if any can be left below. Good or Bad.

Vedran

Liking Lines And Shadows

Hi All,


Welcome to My Photographic Observations.


Lines and shadows are one thing I always look out for when I am out and about.
I try to keep shadows with as much contrast as possible.

The first image I noticed the light shining through the tables and chairs and thought it would make an interesting image. In light room I made the blacks as dark as possible without losing the detail. I thought also it would look great in black and white as there was an orange colour cast and even after much manipulation couldn't get the orange out.

Lines And Shadows 1

The second image I liked the way the lines on the fence were casting a shadow on the wall. It was an interesting look as the main shadow was the angled line. I also liked the lines from the wall of the building which added some texture.

Lines And Shadows 2

Thank you for taking the time to look and read and I welcome any comments good or bad.

Vedran

Pocket Of Light

Hi All,


Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

Sometimes you notice things and you don't think much about it but a short time later the same thing you noticed before seems to be more interesting.
I was at a beach called Bacvice. The beach has a large building which houses many cafes and restaurants. I was situated at the rear of the building where there was a stair case leading up to the road. I noticed a pocket of light on the stairs but thought nothing of it and continued to walk and investigate the cafes etc etc.

When I came back the pocket of light had shifted as the sun was going down behind me. Then a lady came and started walking up the stairs and I thought this might make an interesting photo by the time she reaches that light.

Light Pocket

I had my camera ready and fired a shot or two. The first shot I had the perfect composition but was slightly out of focus. This is the second shot and her head blends in with the shadow which reduced the contrast I was after. I liked the photograph anyway and made it into a black and white as the colours were bland. The only thing in hindsight is if she was maybe one or two steps further down to have a bit more contrast where the top of her head is. but that shot was the out of focus one.

Thank you for taking the time to look and read.
If any comments please leave below as would love to read your opinion.

Vedran

Amongst The Shadows

Hi All,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

Lately Ive been experimenting with night photography, mainly capturing nice lamps weather street or attached to buildings.

In the photograph below there were people underneath a lamp and I liked the way the wall was lit but the people were in silhouette. I liked the mood that it gave so I basically left the shadows alone.

Light And Shadow

The lamb seemed to bring out the texture in the wall which was also appealing to me.

Thank you for taking the time to look and read. If you have any comments please leave below.

Vedran

When You Get Down Low

Hi All,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

I Like to get low with my camera from time to time to have a different perspective of different subjects.
I liked the look of the light that was falling on some little rocks with the shadows on one side.
It was at sunset time and there was just enough soft light to give a 3 dimensional look in my mind at least.

I flipped out the LCD screen on my Olympus and got virtually an inch of the ground to get this look.

3 Dimensional maybe yes.

I found it interesting and its amazing what you can do when changing perspective.

I hope you enjoyed reading My Photographic Observations.
If any comments then please leave below in comments section.

Vedran

Capturing Moving Subjects 3

Hi All,


Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

Continuing with the third instalment of moving subjects I have a slightly different moving subject today.
I was at the Old Fremantle Bridge and I was hoping to capture a nice sunset. I set up my tripod and mounted my camera on the tripod. I framed the composition I wanted and waited for the sun to go down. Only problem was I miscalculated where the sun would go down.
Not to let that worry me, I noticed how the trains on the Fremantle to Perth were travelling across the train bridge every 15-20 minutes.
The light was fading so I thought I would slow the shutter and get some Light trails from the train and also some motion blur.
It took me a few attempts as I had to expose for the scene as well but below is one of the better attempts.

Motion Blur Light Trail

The train was moving from left to right and the yellow streak is the windows.

Thank you for taking the time to look and read. Please leave comment down below if so desired. Good or bad...

Vedran

A Black And White Evening At The West End

Hi All,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

One of the genres of photography I like is black and white at night. I was walking around the West End of Fremantle and was trying out my Olympus 25mm F1.8 Lens. I wanted to see how it would perform. The idea was to capture the light from the old style street lamps reflecting on the old buildings.

The next four photos is what I came up with.

A Quaint Little Court Yard

The Reflection In The Window

Street Corner Lighting

Old But Still Standing

It was a fun exercise and as you can see not to shabby me thinks.

Thank you for taking a look and read. If any comments good or bad please leave below as would be fun to read.

Vedran

Capturing Moving Subjects 2

Hi All,


Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

I'm continuing the series on moving subjects today as I practise my panning.
I was standing in a nice location with the low early morning light directly behind me. I happened to be situated on a main beach road close to Leighton Beach in North Fremantle. I had my shutter stopped down to about 1/80th of a second and as the cyclists were zipping by I would focus and rip of about 4 frames.
It is fun trying to practise and from memory i had a group focus going on my auto focus on my camera.
One interesting thing that happened was as I was making the photographs a car slowed down to a very slow crawl and a woman with a look of hate was taking my photograph.
I didn't think anything of it but about 15 mins later 2 police cars stopped on the side of the road and 4 police officers got out and 2 walked towards me.

They came to me and asked me what I was doing as they were investigating a complaint. I politely told them that I was making photographs and practising a technique called panning. I then asked if they wanted to see the photographs and then I showed the dozen or so that I had taken at that point.
I explained what i was trying to do and they then told me I was doing nothing wrong and that I could continue.
They wished me a good day and all of them left. I continued for about half an hour more and then left as the light was getting harsh.

Here is one of the better ones of the morning.

Riding At A Nice Speed

Thank you for taking the time to look and read. Please leave a comment if you like, good or bad as all appreciated.

Vedran

Landscape Sunset By The Salt Lakes

Hi all,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

I don't do a lot of hiking or walking for that matter, which makes things a bit hard for nice locations.
A lot of what I see is what I see when driving. Here I was driving along the old Mandurah Road when i noticed a section where there still was some water in the salt lakes.

The sun was on its way down and I saw a section where I could frame the shot with a shrub in the foreground. I positioned myself so the sun was just peeking through the right tree. I wanted to create a sun star but didn't quite get the sun star I wanted but still got a nice frame I think.

The Salt Lake On Mandurah Road

I liked the clouds that were in the frame also so I had to wait from time to time for the sun to make an appearance.

Thank you for taking the time to look and read. If you have any comments leave below as would love to know what you think.

Vedran

Magenta Sunset At The Boat Marina

Hi All,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

Today I will talk about a FLW Filter.

What is that filter you ask...
It is a filter that is primarily used for cutting out the colour cast from fluorescent lights to correct the imbalance. It is magenta/purple in colour and is quite interesting what it does.
It can also be used at sunrise or sunset for landscape photography to bring out the magenta you see in the sky.
In the photograph below I used it and it gave the scene a lovely magenta feel. I could have not used it but in my opinion the scene wouldn't have had the same effect.

Of course I used my tripod to steady the shot.

Magenta Sunset

Thank you for taking the time to read.
As always if any comments please leave below as opinions always helpful.

Vedran

Watching The Light Shine On The City

Hi All,


Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

It is interesting to me how until you take up photography that you don't take a whole lot of notice of the light around us all. I find when I'm out and about I always tend to notice the light now with a thought in my head how can I capture what I see.

I don't mean to say that I don't notice a beautiful sunset or sunrise if we are out and about because that's a given. What I mean is like my photograph below. I was driving through South Perth and came to the foreshore on the Narrows Bridge side.
I liked the look of the way the late afternoon light was covering the city as the shadows were just starting to form.
There were no clouds to complete the picture the way I wanted but none the less I took out my tripod, mounted the camera and selected my focal range. I wanted to smooth out the water so I attached a 10 stop ND filter to make the shutter speed longer.

The Light And Shadow

Thank you for taking the time to look at and read My Photographic Observations.

If you have any comments please leave below whether good or bad as any are appreciated.

Vedran

Capturing Late Afternoon Light

Hi All,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.


Today I have two photographs of a Landscape variety. One was made when I saw some fabulous afternoon soft light on some hay bale rolls in a hay field while driving around and the other while walking around Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour.

I was out to do some bird photography one day and saw a field of hay bales. I remember I had tried to photograph them before but they were gone when I came back.
This time I took no chances. I stopped my car and set up my tripod and put my camera on it after finding the composition I was after. On the lens i put on a polarising filter and dialled in to get rid of some glare and saturate the colours.

The Hay Bales In The Field

The second photograph when walking around with camera in hand and i noticed the shadows and light on the cray fishing boat. I didn't have any filters but in hindsight was not needed anyway because the sun was behind me.

The Light Was Fabulous

Thank you for taking the time to read. If you have any comments please leave below as would love to see your thoughts. Good or Bad.

Vedran

Capturing Moving Subjects 1

Hi All,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

One of the things I like to practise with my camera is a technique called panning.
The idea of panning is moving at the same speed as the subject to give the impression the subject is moving fast or to convey movement.

In this photograph below I practised on a few cyclists that were zipping by. I tried to keep the background with some sort of foliage or objects as a plain horizon would have been difficult.
Its not easy and I had a few or more than a few that didn't work as you need to keep the subject sharp also.

On top of that I needed to make the wheels look like they were moving also.

Cyclist Moving Quickly

This was the best out of the many I took that morning. I cant say its perfect but am sharing as I hope to continue the series over time so I can gauge my improvement.

Thank you for taiking the time to read. If you have any comments please leave in comment section down below as I would love to hear your thoughts.

Vedran

Sunset At Supetar Marina

Hi All,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

Today I share a photograph from where I saw a nice sunset.

I didn't have my landscape kit with me which included my tripod and filters
as I was mainly walking around and making photographs of various subjects or people that caught my eye.
In the section of the marina I tried to position myself in a way so the boats were at an angle to lead the eye through the frame.
The sunset was a nice fiery orange which made for a nice contrast.
Initially the boats were more in darkness which I bought out and lightened in post so I could get what I accurately what I saw.

The Fiery Sunset At The Marina

Thank you for taking the time to read My Photographic Observations.

If you have any comments good or bad please leave below as always love input.

Vedran

Lovely Sunset Light On Boat

Hi All,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

Today I noticed some lovely soft light which was shining beautifuly in the later hours f the afternoon.
There were a few boats in Split Harbour but this Sailing Ketch really caught my attention.
The light was soft and it gave a subtle orange glow on the masts and the body of the boat.

The Subtle Orange Glow

I dont know too much about boats but i just liked what I saw.

Thank you for having a read of My Photographic Observations.

If you have any comments then please leave below as would love to read them.

Vedran

When A Candid Photo Will Do

Hi All

Welcome to My Photographic Observations.

One of my favourite pastimes is walking around with camera and lens in hand and observing situations around me.
I often like making candid photographs of people when they are posing for family or friends.
It can be a little daunting but i just like the practise of practising my photography and camera holding technique.

In these 2 photographs coming up I used my Nikon d500 and my Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 lens.

Nikon d500 and Sigma 70-200mm f2.8

I liked the sharpness on the subject and the bokeh (out of focus background) was quite nice in the above image. She was posing for her friend and just happened to turn her head at the right time.

Nikon d500 and Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 lens

This Second image was made later in the evening after the sun sent down. I had to raise the ISO which is the cameras sensitivity in order to let more light onto the sensor. This lady was also posing for a friend and she looked away and i managed to time the shot right.

In case anyone wonders about candid photography, this is my take. I generally try to be candid but if I see a negative reaction from the subject I will go up to them and say yes I took your photo. I show the photo and tell them that I don't use in any bad way etc. If they are happy after my explanation then I keep photo. If not happy and they want deleted then I do so in front of them so they can see I'm not lying.
This is all if I get noticed, If not then I carry on as per usual with making photographs around in my wanderings.

Thank you for taking the time to read My Photographic Observations.
If you have any comments then please leave them below.

Vedran

Perth At Night

Hi All,

Welcome to My Photographic Observations

After a long time I have decided to restart My Photographic Observations.
I will share my photographs and on the odd ocasion even a slide show.

I was at Kings Park in Perth, Western Australia one morning pre dawn and thought I would try a long exposure with light trails. The city was my subject with Kwinana and Mitch Freeway in the foreground.

I used my Nikon D610 with the Nikor 28-300mm Lens at about 70mm. I also used a Lee 3 Stop Graduated Filter to bring down the highlights in the sky.

Perth Sunrise

In the end I thought it turned out ok.
If you have any thoughts or comments please say below as all comments welcome.