Tag Archives: lights

From the Outside and Across the Corner

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Architecture, Melbourne, Photography

≈ 74 Comments

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Over the last year I have taken so many images of the Manchester Unity Building and when I got the new lens I had to try it out on it as well.  I can fit so much more into the image than I could with my previous wide angle.  The image quality is just amazing.

From the CornerCan you believe those clouds are the ones that were there, I haven’t done anything to them really.  I did add some gradient to the sky.  I wanted to darken it a little.  I did try doing something else to the sky, but it just didn’t work, so I went back to the original and started again.  I think I started this image about three times all together.  I love the colours of the building and how they came out.  This was taken just as the sun was going down, but we didn’t get a real sunset.

Trying to work out what to leave in the image was hard. There are so many wonderful details.  I ended up leaving in heaps of them.  I am hoping that your eye starts with the lights around the first floor and then it shoots straight up to the tower.

In ContextThis was taken about an hour and half later.  It was dark and the lights of the city were on.  I liked how you can see the statue of Burke and Wills and the tower of the Town Hall.  The lights at that top of MU building look fantastic and I tried to get some shots of just it, but I was getting too many light spots, reflected light and it made the image look so messy.  You can see some in this one as well.

The clouds in this were pretty amazing, and I think it was the wind that caused that, it getting pretty windy by the time I did this image.

I don’t do this enough, go in at night and take photos.  Partly because I don’t like doing it on my own, and also because I am usually too tired, but I think I will try to do more.  You get to see a whole heap of different things and that is always good.

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Mezzanine with an Art Deco Flair

19 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Architecture, Melbourne, Photography

≈ 48 Comments

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Dead on my feet, that is how I feel right now.  It was another early morning this morning to get up and head into the city to take some more photos of the Mezzanine floor of the  Manchester Unity Building.  I do love that first floor, it is reminiscent of shopping in a by gone time.

Shopping Strip Art Deco StyleThis is a row of shops, or were once shops on the mezzanine floor of the building.  They still look like shops, but now they are all offices for Smile Solutions.  I really like how it has all been restored back to the way it was in the 1930′s.  I can just imagine what stores would have been here back then.  Can’t you just see a lady all dressed up with best clothes, wearing a lovely hat, gloves and a bag to match?  Dressed special because she was coming to the city for the day.

I took this image last week.  I am not totally happy with it, but when I went back this morning I used the new lens, so I hope I got something even better, I will need to process it, but I’m sure it will be good.

Grand Father Clocks and Fountains

This is at the end.  You can’t really see them in the first image.  Unfortunately the lens I used last week was not quite wide enough, but I can tell you now, I did take this image again this morning and I got a lot more, so I’m really excited about processing this one again.  How beautiful is that clock?  I love the curve at the top.

Lighting the WayLast week when I showed you the image of the reception area, some of you asked about the light fixture.  I knew I had taken another image of it, and here it is.  It is so gorgeous.

Finding the DirectoryPart of the brief I was given was to get a good image of this area.  I know that this image has been accepted and did fill the brief.  I was really happy with this.  You can read every name on that directory, which took some working out.  I think I spent about 5 or 6 hours on this image.  Which is a long time for one image for me, but I think it was so worth it.  I just put a movie on the tv and work away.

I have only had a quick look at the images I took this morning, but hopefully will be working on them for the rest of the week.  I still need to get the fish tank one done, but hopefully I got the right image for it today.  A busy week ahead.

New Flash

I am thinking of buying another flash unit.  At the moment I have a SB600 and a SB900.  The SB900 can be used remotely, but not the SB600, so I think I might get the SB910 so I can take better still life images.  Though that leaves me with a flash unit that I don’t need any more   I am thinking of selling it on ebay, but not sure how much to charge for it.  I think I might try around $200 plus postage.  Does that sound fair?

Christmas Squared

20 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in Photography

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Last night we headed into the city.  It was going to be one of the few opportunities I was going to have.  Unfortunately, it was raining, though not heavily, but enough to make you search for cover and enough to make it very humid.  It was also very busy, very, very busy.  People were everywhere.  Very unusual for a Wednesday night, but not unusual for a week before Christmas.

The Town Hall put on a spectacular show, but I have to work on those photos some more, so today I have a couple of photos from the City Square, which has also has a fantastic display this year.

The Squares TreeThis is the tree in the middle of the square.  This tree was a lovely surprise.  The City of Melbourne usually puts up this big metal structure that resembles a tree, but it is just a metal structure.  This is so nice.  When we walked into the square my daughter said, “this is pretty cool”.  She also said that it was pretty cool that they had her baby photo there, but she didn’t remember any of the people around her.  She was talking about the nativity scene and the suggestion they had used her baby photos for it.  She has an active imagination.

The Square, which is normally fairly empty, was full of people.  There was no point trying to get a photo with no people in it, it was impossible.  I removed a few from this.  I like the look of the tree with St Paul’s Cathedral in the background.  I had to add a lot of light to the image, it wasn’t this bright when I photographed it.  When the lights were all on, it seemed to be pink or purple, very strange.  I am quite happy with what I have done with this one.

Tree with Manchester Unity in the BackgroundFrom the other side of the tree you can see the Manchester Building in the background.  I zoomed in more with this and tried to get some the tower and the top of the tree.  I like the way they are both just up there.

It was an exciting night to be in the city.  The windows at Myer had lots of people in front of them looking at Russell and Santa.  I tried to take a video of it, but it didn’t really work.

It was festive, if you know what I mean.  There is something about Christmas needing to be dark.  We can’t have the cold, but when the sun goes down, and you can see the lights it seems more like Christmas.

I hope you are getting ready for the big day on Tuesday, and are feeling the Season to be Jolly as well.  I am actually excited about Christmas this year, first time in a while.

Within

28 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in Art, Melbourne, Photography

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St Paul’s Cathedral has been on this blog before.  It really is a stunning building.  On that Sunday, a week and half again, I took one image of the cathedral, remember with the woman sitting out the front.  It was in the post called Quietly. The doors were closed in that image, but just before we left, the doors opened.  I did, of course, take some photos.  I have applied some of the processes that I have been doing in the last week or so.

I wanted to highlight the light that was inside, but I don’t think I have done a very good job.  I don’t know if I like this at all.  Is it a bad thing to show something that I don’t think worked?

I like the concept of the light coming from within the Cathedral, perhaps that idea, that when all is dark outside there is something inside. I really wanted to show the light coming through the arch.  I tried so many things, but I kept losing the light.

This is not the original image, I’m not showing that today, but this is pretty close to it.  I think I prefer this one.  The simplicity of it.  I have done almost no processing to this at all.  I have used curves to change the exposure, a little bit of gradient across the top, but very little.  I don’t think I did anything else.

My first thought was to scrap this image and start again, then I decided, I would show this.  I think I am big enough to realise that I am not perfect, and not every image I work on is going to be fantastic.  I do believe this is one of them. I really do like the second image more.  You will have to decide which one you like best.

I am going to be putting a lot more of these images on my website again.  Hopefully soon.  You will be able to find them in the Experimental 2 gallery under Art Gallery on my website www.leannecole.com.au.

Field Trip – More on the City

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in Field Trips, Landscapes, Melbourne, Photography

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When we first went out, we were going to photograph the freeway, that was the main reason for the field trip, but as we were heading to the boulevard, I could see some amazing lights hitting the city, so I suggested we stop there.

There was a beautiful sunset and it seemed like the right thing to do, to stop and see what we could get.  The light was hard, with the bright light coming from the setting sun, and everything else was dark, so the only thing to do, well so it seemed, was to do some bracketed shots and do some HDR’s.

We were only here for a short time, but it is amazing how much the light changed in that time.

I am hoping that I am getting these in the right order, but I think you can see that more lights have come on in the buildings in the city, so it would be a fair bet that this one was taken after the last one.  Of course, if I had any sense, I would do the HDR’s in the order I originally took the image, like I said, if I had any sense.

I love these images.  I don’t know what it is about them.  My husband said they had a futuristic look about them, I don’t know if that is true, but they have something.

The freeway lights have come on, and I know this was one of the last images I took.  I don’t know which one is the best, you can help me decide.  Please?

I have taken photos from this spot before, but the last time it was already dark and the images were just lights, much like the ones I showed earlier today.  I like the clouds behind these.

As I already said, they are all HDR’s, with 7 bracketed shots.  I used Photomatix to process the HDR’s and then did post editing with Photoshop CS5.

I wasn’t going to show this, but I like the city in this one and the lighting was similar to the other one.  What do you think?

Perhaps another day I will show some more, but that is enough for today.  Two posts in one day for me.  Unusual, but don’t expect it too often.  Sometimes, I just have too many photos to show.

Field Trip – A Sneak Peak

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in Field Trips, Landscapes, Melbourne, Photography

≈ 10 Comments

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Last night was another field trip and we went to the Yarra Boulevard and took some photos of the city.  I used my remote shutter release and let it take long exposures of bracketed shots while I supervised the others. It worked quite well.  I wasn’t that interested in taking too many shots as I have done these before.

The above image is not something I have taken before and it was a new spot we tried.  I think it was great, and think it would be great to go back there some time when the sun is setting.

The image is a HDR, I don’t think I would have been able to get the detail in the sky if it wasn’t a HDR.  I should have a look at the straight images and see what i can do with them.

I zoomed in more for this image.  No idea if it is better, though you lose a lot of the detail that is in the sky.

I have some others, that I will try posting later today.

Sometimes the Photography is Not the Art

20 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Art, Photography, Still LIfe

≈ 17 Comments

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A couple of days ago I was asked, by a friend, to take some photos of her ceramics for an entry she wanted to make.  It is a strange thing when you are photographing something like this.  You have to use all your photography skills and your knowledge of lighting and stuff, but the end result has to be that the ceramic piece needs to be the star and the photography has to take a back seat.

These images are purely documentary.  If the pieces were mine, I might try to be more creative, but when you get paid to do a job like this, you have to do what the client wants.  So I was asked to take photos of the pieces.

The artist is my friend Lene Jakobsen, a Danish ceramic artist living in Melbourne.  She has a website and you can visit it here.  If you would like to look at Lene’s work, she will be at the Ivanhoe Makers market tomorrow, Saturday, at the Livingston Community Centre, 1 Livingstone Street, Ivanhoe, from 10am to 4pm.

This is one of her vases.  It is very hard to photograph, especially with the very shiny glaze on it.  It reflected everything in the room.  I need to find a way to stop the reflections, if it is possible.  I tried to photoshop some of them out, but it was impossible to do them all without ruining the vase, so I left some, but tried to make sure you couldn’t really tell what the reflections were.

This vase has a mat glaze, but it presented with other problems, it is hard to photograph because of the colour.  It was turning out pink, which this clay does.  I remember using it once and it comes out with a pink tinge.  I used curves to help keep the pink tinge down.

I love the dots on the work, the dots also make it very tactile and if you are like me, like to touch things, then you would love touching this stuff.  One of the things I don’t like about museums and galleries, can’t touch anything.  I know why you can’t, but still, it is great when you can.

I don’t normally show images like this, but I thought it would be interesting to explore photographing something where your technical expertise is necessary, but not your creativity.  I used a very old studio light I had, that my external flash set off.  I used the external flash remotely and it was one of the lights that I used to photograph the ceramic pieces.

I was happy with the work, but I suppose as I do more, I will learn more.  I might need to see about getting a professional, more up to date studio light, so I can do it more professionally.  Though, hard to do when no one seems to need me to do any work for them.  Perhaps with time I will get more jobs and can justify spending the money.  I don’t know how people do it, but trying to make money from photography seems to be an impossible task.  Time.

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