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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
12-19-2020, 09:40 PM
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From a walk on the Australian Alps Walking Track, Walhalla area, Victoria. KP + DA 20-40 Limited
Mountain Grey Gum (Eucalpytus cypellocarpa)
Grey gum bark and leaves
Grey gum and tree ferns
Trigger-plant
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
06-15-2020, 04:02 PM
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I did and they are. Great shots both.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
06-13-2020, 09:15 PM
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Messmate forest (Eucalyptus obliqua), Cape Liptrap Coastal Park, Victoria. K-3 + DA 20-40 Ltd
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-27-2020, 04:54 PM
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:lol::lol::lol:
You might get a spell now Rod as I'm done with the 2014 images and haven't any current ones to set you off again! Such a beautiful place, Tarra Bulga.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-27-2020, 04:38 PM
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A walk in Tarra Bulga NP in South Gippsland, Victoria in 2014. (Final instalment from the belated processing of these batches.) This park preserves remnant ancient cool temperate rainforest from Gondwana times.
Myrtle Beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii), a link to Gondwana times.
Cyathea Falls
Rainforest gully, with mighty Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) on the higher slopes.
Third photo taken with the K-30 + DFA 100mm macro WR; the others were taken with the K-30 + DA 12-24.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-15-2020, 03:04 PM
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Behind my rhetorical question was a musing about whether my low rates of keepers and publishable images tells me something about my skills. I guess your implicit answer is that that's the wrong question. I take your point.
With almost all the photos I took in 2014, I probably had at least some idea of what I was trying to achieve. Many of them were different attempts to get something from the same subject - whether a burst of a bird in flight or a scene with different framing or different mixes in the exposure triangle. I suppose I'm asking myself whether I should be more discriminating. Or at least be more ruthless in culling from the beginning.
I took about 1500 photos on a two-week trip to Tasmania in 2017. That's very few by your standards, but I felt that I was constantly looking for opportunities. My partner thought that I was obsessed about photography rather than being in the moment. To make matters worse it took me a span of about 2 years to finish processing, culling, filing and publishing them, when I didn't have a lot of spare time. (I can edit probably 50 photos an hour on average - it can be 30 seconds for most of them, but occasionally I might spend up to an hour on one that I think is really worth it.) I finished wIth 885 keepers (about 60%), of which 265 (17%) are in my Favourites folder and 159 (4%) are on Flickr. I would need to be living a different life to deal with 4 or 5 times that number. And if I did take 5000-7000 in two weeks I would be living a different life, probably alone. ;-) Of course YMMV.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-14-2020, 03:04 PM
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I sympathize Norm. I can see how it happens. We went out a lot in 2014 and had a number of trips away. It all gets away from you quickly. I kept up with the shots from home, but it's taken years to catch up with the trip photos.
Here are my reflections on the 2014 experience. I had about 9000 shutter activations during 2014 - about 24 per day. I used to bracket shots a lot then (first mistake) and I kept almost all of them (second mistake). I started out processing all but the ones way out of focus and culling afterwards. As time went by I was more selective about the ones I processed. Anyway I finished up with about 4400 processed jpgs (some of them several attempts at processing the same image). I kept about 2400 of those in my Pictures folder. Of those, 850 were in my Favourites folders. About 300 of those Favourites were family-type photos which I haven't published. Of the other 550, I have posted about 180 on Flickr with a handful of others to come. So from 9000 shutter activations, about 2400 keepers, 850 Favourites (I would not keep so many now) and say 190 published (I would not publish so many of them now). To put it another way, from shutter activations, roughly 26% keeper rate, 9% favourites rate, 2% publication rate. And to be honest, starting now with the same set each rate would be lower.
Sounds a bit "spray-and-pray". Is it just me?
My take-home lessons are to be more ruthless from the outset and keep being ruthless all the way through. Processing, culling, filing and publishing all take time. That time has to be rationed. Quality beats quantity.
Incidentally, even though I shot RAW + jpg in 2014, there was not a single image where the OOC jpg was better than the processed RAW file. Even though I wasn't so good at processing in 2014, I could still do better than the camera could.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-12-2020, 12:38 AM
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Finally finished processing my 2014 images during Covid 19 restrictions. Found a few gems ... including these from a walk in remnant cool temperate rainforest in the Strzelecki Ranges. K-30 + FA 77 Ltd.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
04-10-2020, 01:34 AM
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From a walk with friends in one of my favourite places - Tarra Bulga NP, remnant cool temperate rainforest in the Strzelecki Ranges, Victoria. KP + 18-135
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
04-07-2020, 03:29 PM
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Turtons Creek in the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. K-30 + DA 50mm f1.8
This was from a walk in 2014. While subject to stay at home directions, I'm catching up on processing a bunch of images that I didn't do at the time. I don't have either the camera or the lens any more.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
03-22-2020, 01:52 AM
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View from the suspension bridge in Tarra Bulga NP, Victoria, on a walk in the cool temperate rainforest. K-30 + DA 12-24
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-13-2020, 10:57 PM
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Ha! Yes you don't find that forest around Wang.
Forest walks of any kind are not feasible at the moment. Smoke is terrible today.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-12-2020, 03:47 PM
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A walk in the cool temperate rainforest, Tarra Bulga National Park, Victoria.
First three KP + DA 20-40 Ltd. Last two KP + DA 15mm Ltd (HD version) |
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
08-03-2019, 12:09 AM
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Autumn in Foster Flora Reserve, South Gippsland. KP + DFA 100 macro.
Hairpin Banksia (B. spinulosa)
Lichen on a eucalypt.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-11-2019, 12:30 AM
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Cool temperate rainforest in the Tarkine wilderness, western Tasmania
K-S2 + DA 18-135
Myrtle-beech
K-3 + DA 12-24
Huon pine. K-S2 + DFA 100 macro WR
Woodear fungus (I think)
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-16-2019, 02:44 PM
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I think Dan was referring to mine (the second and third photos in post #1224). As for your leaf photo, it's beautifully done. It needed plenty of contrast and microcontrast to make the most of the striking composition.
It was entirely due to post-processing.The lighting was rather flat when I took these two. Here they are uncorrected.
 
I lifted the exposure, adjusted the tone curve and increased the microcontrast and clarity to bring out the details. (There are details everywhere - for example the coral fern is beautiful but you hardly see it in the uncorrected image.) Whether I overdid it is a matter of taste. Yes the final versions are a bit harsh, if you like, but I was trying to give a feel for what this sort of dry schlerophyll bush in Australia is like - full of sharp-edged sedges, rough bark, straggly trees, prickly shrubs, usually accentuated by harsh light. All that is part of the special beauty, as I see it. When you are there, the visual richness (and the smells and the sounds) is overwhelming. When Europeans first painted these places they softened them (often in a Turner or Constable style) and failed to capture any of this. That only really changed in the 1890s with the Heidelberg school of painters.
With photography we have the opportunity to portray things as we see them. The diversity of visions is like any other art form, IMO.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-12-2019, 05:27 PM
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They do. I like the contrast of textures too.
From a walk in Bunyip State Park, Victoria, in November (which is the height of our spring). This was the buttongrass walk, a remarkably diverse 3.2km (2 mile) loop through unusual plant communities with a number of uncommon to rare species. Poor soils often seem to produce the greatest diversity, because no one species dominates.
Swamp bush-pea, something of a rarity. K-S2 + DA 55-300 PLM.
All the remaining shots are K-S2 + DA 20-40 Ltd.
Stringybark eucalypts and a view towards the Black Snake Range.
Messmates and coral fern.
This looks like a little conifer but it's actually Bushy Club-moss (Lycopodium deuterodensum), part of an ancient family of spore-bearing plants from Gondwana times.
There are many species of pea flowers. Not sure which one this is.
Wiry Bauera (Bauera rubioides)
Woolly tea-tree (Leptospermum lanigerum)
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-04-2019, 02:56 AM
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From a visit to Wilson's Promontory National Park in November.
Callistemon (bottlebrush) flowers on Telegraph Saddle. K-S2 + DA 55-300 PLM
(I missed a flock of Gang-gang cockatoos flying overhead while I was taking this.)
Juvenile Grey Butcherbird near the start of the Tidal Overlook walk. K-S2 + DA 55-300 PLM
Tidal River and Mount Oberon. K-S2 + DA 55-300 PLM
Norman Bay and the mouth of Tidal River. K-S2 + DA 18-135
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-21-2018, 03:38 AM
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Thanks very much, Rod and Walt.
Lovely shots Mohammed.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-20-2018, 02:30 PM
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Just to the east of Melbourne's tumourous sprawl is Bunyip State Park, a reserve of 166 square kilometres of bushland around granite hills. It's a wonderfully diverse place with rich flora and fauna. Unfortunately it's heavily infested with trail bikes and Hiluxes on weekends, but it's usually very quiet on weekdays. On two recent weekday trips we didn't see anyone.
The first of those trips was to see the Forest Boronia (B. muelleri) flowering. It isn't common, with a patchy distribution in Victoria and southern NSW. Much of the year it's an unremarkable looking shrub, growing to about 3 metres, but in October it produces a profusion of beautiful flowers.
K-3 and DA 20-40 Ltd.
K-3 and DFA 100 macro WR.
And a lovely pea flower to finish. K-3 + DFA 100.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
10-28-2018, 04:01 PM
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Fairy garden on a heathland walk. K-S2 + DA 55-300 PLM
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
10-03-2018, 04:06 PM
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Thanks very much Charlie. Yes I did cross-post to the Trees thread. That thread moves pretty fast - blink and you miss things. I kind of prefer the pace of this one.
I'm enjoying all these northern hemisphere autumn shots. Fall is an apt word. (It makes no sense here where there are very few deciduous natives.)
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
09-20-2018, 04:13 PM
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Mt Cannibal reserve, West Gippsland, Victoria. K-S2 + DA 55-300 PLM.
Stringybark eucalypt
Mt Cannibal is a granite hill. Ideal site for moss and lichen.
Gnarly tree base.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
09-20-2018, 03:57 PM
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Bunyip State Park, West Gippsland, Victoria. (The Bunyip is a fearsome creature of Aboriginal lore, that lives in rivers and swamps. Didn't encounter one on this walk. ;)) K-S2 + DA 18-135.
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