Here’s a variation on slow photography using a slow(ish) shutter speed, but with a moving subject. Using my variable ND filter, ISO 50, and f13 I was able to get this shot down to 1/5th of a second. By panning with the runner I was blurred her arms and legs keeping the body and head relatively steady. The bright sun reflecting off the bay provided a great opportunity to turn the runner into a near silhouette.

I tried longer exposures, but with the bright background, the runner’s arms and legs were largely lost in the light and almost didn’t register in the image. The notion of a head and torso hurtling down the beach didn’t really work with the image I was trying to create…

 

 

Just a few days ago on the beach, taking this picture, I was wearing a fleece hoodie trying to stay warm in a cold southerly wind. Today it’s 36C! Despite the heat, we took the kids to the zoo for a few hours before it got really hot. Tomorrow … 41C. Going to be chasing the air conditioning…

Anyway, the picture above is another long exposure. This one was 30s at f16 with the variable ND filter cranked up. Again, the water was pretty rough, but the long exposure smoothes it right out.

 

 

Another in the slow photography category. The sun was still up for this one so I used my new(ish) Marumi variable ND filter which goes from a single stop to about 8.5 stops (ND2-ND400) by including two linear polarizing filters that rotate 90 degrees from parallel to perpendicular. When the two filters are aligned, the light goes through with just one stop of light blocked. When the two filters are rotated 90 degrees to each other, the combination blocks a lot of the light coming through. I used to do this with two linear polarizers back in the old days before most polarizing filters were circular. Thankfully though Marumi was prepared to trade me some of my hard earned dollars for this handy filter.

With the sun still firmly up in the sky, I closed down the variable ND filter to its darkest point, then dropped the ISO to 50, closed down the aperture to f22, and squeezed out 13 seconds of exposure before the highlights were getting too out of hand.

Today, I’m pleased to share my first image from Melbourne since we arrived in August. I captured this image on Saturday night in a suburb called Middle Park in Melbourne. It’s right next to the much more well-known and more popular St. Kilda. The sun hadn’t quite set yet, but it was low enough for me to shoot this at f16, ISO 100 and 30 seconds. The water was quite rough, in fact it was spraying up over the end of the pier (hence all the water), but the long exposure smoothed it right out. This view is looking south out across Port Phillip Bay.

Hopefully this will be the first in a long series of much more frequent posts this year. It’s all easy while on vacation… I’ll see if I can keep it up once I’m back to work!

I grew up on the eastern(ish) side of Canada, a long, long way from any ocean, but on the shore of a beautiful little lake. While the ocean was far away, there were lakes everywhere!

It wasn’t until my 31st year that  I found myself living with the ocean at my doorstep. That ocean was a very long way from home. In fact, it was all the way around the world. Despite 30 perfectly happy years without the ocean in sight, I became firmly coastal. While I accept that I’m not likely to ever own that dream beach house in this very developed world, I’m feeling pretty committed to at least living nearby. As a result, many of my favourite images are by the coast. Throw in a dramatic sky and I’m all set.

This particular piece of coast is on the west coast of Canada, in Vancouver.

 

While I do love shooting early in the morning, it’s always such a close competition between getting up and sleeping in.

 

Hopefully, this is me getting back to regular blogging. It’s been pretty patchy since May, but I have good excuses. Packing up house and moving around the world to Melbourne, Australia takes a bit of effort.

Sorting, purging and selling started in May and got serious in June. As of June 28, we were officially homeless and our lives were either packed up in suitcases or in a big metal box. We took the suitcases with us and wished the big metal box an uneventful 10-week trip across the Pacific. We then set off on a six-week tour of Canada, visiting friends family on the west coast, camping through the beautiful Rocky Mountains, visiting more family in Southern Ontario, invading the homes of friends in Ottawa and then back to Vancouver again.

The image above is the city of Vancouver as seen from Stanley Park during our visit to the west coast of Canada.

On August 19th, exactly one month ago, we arrived in Melbourne with very little organised beyond a hotel and a hire car. Given the low starting point, we’ve accomplished a lot in one month. We moved into a house (shipment delivery day was very exciting!), we bought a car, we bought appliances and furniture, the kids are back in school, the older one has high school sorted, we’ve caught up with a few friends, and I’m back to full-time (non-photographic) work.

Although we’ve been away from Melbourne for two years, everything is so familiar that it seems like it was just a blink.

Another one of the sea lions from Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island.

Hope you had a good weekend!

Continuing from yesterday, here’s a different perspective on the Remarkable Rocks found on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. This was our last stop of the day as the sun was setting. Thankfully the crowd cleared out for us before sunset so we had the place mostly to ourselves. Well, mostly. There was this one couple who were really difficult to avoid catching in my images. They kept circling the rocks with her posing and him shooting. They rarely stayed still long enough for me to grab a shot without them in it. Luckily, with a little patience I managed to get a few without them.