Rodney Campbell's Blog

Continuing with my project with one lens, one focal length for one hour in one location, on a nice overcast day – this time I’m visiting the ANZAC War Memorial in Hyde Park in the Sydney CBD.

Completed in 1934, is the main commemorative military monument in Sydney and was built as a memorial to the Australian Imperial Force of World War I. It’s located at the southern extremity of Hyde Park on the eastern edge of Sydney’s central business district, and it is the focus of commemoration ceremonies on Anzac Day, Armistice Day and other important occasions.

The Well of Contemplation allows visitors to look down into the Hall of Silence from the floor above, there the central motif of the Memorial – a statue symbolising ‘Sacrifice’ rests in the centre of the building

Sacrifice

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/25 sec at f/4, ISO 100

At the entrance to the hall of silence the words ‘Let silent contemplation be your offering’ is inlaid in marble

ANZAC Rising

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

On the ceiling of the dome above the Hall of Memory there are 120,000 stars, each representing the men and women from New South Wales who enlisted for service in First World War. From this number, 21,000 were killed, or died later from their wounds, and 50,000 were wounded

Hall of Memory

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/250 sec at f/4, ISO 100

The Hall of Memory is illuminated by amber glazed windows, one on each side, engraved with a motif depicting a stylised Rising Sun symbol, the emblem of the Australian Army. At all times of the day, the gleaming bronze surface of the shrine is bathed in golden light – representing the hope of tomorrow

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During our weekend away with a group of photography friends staying at Bundeena in the Royal National Park just south of Sydney. Time spent taking pictures, eating and drinking, great conversation and processing images.

Mystical Bundeena

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 232 sec at f/11, ISO 50

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Late in the afternoon on Saturday the rain looked to be easing off a little so we took the opportunity to head down to the nearby beach and wharf in town. It was still endlessly grey so I decided to spend my time with the heavy neutral density filters taking some very long daytime exposures.

The image below was taken from the middle of Bundeena Creek which winds it’s way through the beach and out into Bundeena Bay near the ferry wharf – converted to monochrome… well… because the colour version wasn’t really doing it for me

Bundeena Wharf

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm, 246 sec at f/11, ISO 50

Later I headed around to the other side of the wharf where the rest of the group was, to find some very nice rockage and lots of interesting sea creatures and plants living on them. I found this ideal looking specimen right where I wanted it and took the long exposure shot at the top of this post just before some more heavy rain set in

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Continuing with my project with one lens, one focal length for one hour in one location, on a nice overcast day – this time I’m visiting the site of the original Sydney GPO. The General Post Office is a landmark building in Sydney with it’s main facade stretching 100 metres along the western end of Martin Place. It was sold to private developers and in 1999 reopened housing shops and restaurants and forms the base of the new Westin hotel

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Number 1

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/50 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

Hmm Left or Right?

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/100 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

Lying on the floor sometimes has it’s advantages

Reflected Up

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/125 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

Who’d have thought that keeping one’s feet out of the edge of the frame would be so tricky – I need a course in contortionism

1999

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/60 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

GPO

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/80 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

I’d originally intended on all my shots having enough depth of field to cover both the nearest and furthest reaches of the images I was taking and with a 15mm fisheye I never expected this to be an issue. However as you can see here as the stairs drop away into the distance it gradually fades towards a blur. Back at my computer when I was going through the images I was initially somewhat disappointed – I liked the composition but was a little miffed I’d misjudged the DoF – yes the closest parts of the image were very close – probably less than 30cm away but I’d hoped I’d be OK. Clearly I’d misjudged but I think the fall into blur is actually growing on me – especially as it’s only happening in the central area as we move down the spiral of stairs – perhaps a sign…

Vertigo

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/3.5, ISO 400

Again squishing my feet back against the wall as far as they can go…

Variations

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/3.5, ISO 400

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My eldest daughter and I spent the weekend with a large group of photography friends staying at Bundeena in the Royal National Park just south of Sydney. Our aim was to spend the weekend taking great pictures, eating and drinking, great conversation and processing images. We woke at 5AM on saturday morning for a sunrise session at nearby Wattamolla beach.

Wattamolla Sleeps

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 123 sec at f/11, ISO 100

We knew that the weather forecast was pretty grim for the whole weekend (you don’t know that when the trip was planned months in advance :)) but we were here so we pushed on. To be fair it could have been much worse – it was raining for quite a bit of the time but whilst it was completely clouded over with very very heavy clouds it was at least not raining when we woke and prepared to leave. It did however rain a little on our short drive to Wattamolla which was of some concern but once we arrived the weather gods at least allowed us to walk down to the beach and start shooting before it started to drizzle.

So with umbrellas at hand and rain covers over our gear we began our morning ritual…

At the back of Wattamolla Beach there is a lagoon and a small cliff with what looks to be a very nice set of waterfalls (when the water is flowing). Unfortunately today even with the rainy conditions (and in fact rain in Sydney for the previous week) the water still really wasn’t flowing and all we had was a single thin fall. I’ve seen images where there’s a wide cascade of water coming over the edge and I look forward to one day shooting that

So we stuck to the beach and I tried some compositions both on the right and left sides with the rocks that were available at a medium to highish tide

6:30AM and it’s a bit over ten minutes to sunrise (not that we saw any of that – it just got gradually lighter grey). The image above is a natural two minute long exposure in the dark with no filters at all (which is unusual for me :)). I’ve left the blue cast (because I like that sort of thing – others hate it) for a dreamy look to the sky and ocean

I then moved back to the beach to try something with the rocks in the foreground – I liked this curved piece (reminding me of some long low creature digging into the sand – a platypus maybe?) right at the waters edge and with a long exposure the waves intermittently washed around it right up to the tripod

Digging In

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 57.00 sec at f/11, ISO 100

A move to the other side of the beach I’m up on this nice looking sandstone wedge with the 16-35 to let it point me out to sea (and that nice looking log wedged in the rocks (I did try to move it to a better position but alas it was very tightly wedged)). Whilst it doesn’t look much changed this was taken just a few minutes after sunrise – apparently it’s directly out towards the middle – I’m sure you can see it out there on the horizon… not… Still quite dark at this time allowing me to still use a long exposure

Pointing the Way

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 28 sec at f/13, ISO 100

Finally as it was getting lighter I looked around along the rocks for somewhere I could get some nice water movement in some images with a shorter exposure time to emphasise the structure of the swirling water. Found this great spot with the waves every now and then washing right up to encircle this great rock in my foreground. Pushed the ISO to 400 and opened the aperture to f/8 to allow a shorter shutter speed (0.6 seconds) to capture the water

Wattamolla Swirl

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 22 mm, 1/2 sec at f/8, ISO 400

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Whilst we were staying with my parents at my childhood home recently I continued my exercise in small scale light painting of natural world seeds and seed pods

My mother has this fabulous collection of these in some baskets and I took the opportunity to try some of them out – here are some of my favourites

Enveloped

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 134.00 sec at f/32, ISO 100

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.
To recap I’ve got my subject securely in position using a Wimberly plamp with my camera and macro lens on a tripod pointing at my subject with a bulb mode remote controller

I darken the room (turn off the lights) and with just a single small LED torch with some black gaffer tape wrapped around the head to allow me to more finely control the light and limit any spill I set about light painting my subjects during a long exposure

For all of these I’ve had to stop down quite some way f/32 to gain enough depth of field with the subjects so close and at times quite deep. I know this sounds like I’m also deep into sharpness and detail robbing diffraction territory (and it is) but honestly it isn’t anywhere near as bad as most people make it out to be and I’d much rather the depth of field in this case than a slight loss in sharpness. Shooting so closed down also has another useful effect – it helps to counteract any ambient light (esp any stray light) and allows for a longer exposure giving me more time to paint with light

Clover

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 117 sec at f/32, ISO 100

Five

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 118.00 sec at f/32, ISO 100

This one was interesting because I couldn’t use the plamp to hold this one so I needed some flat surface to put it on so it could stand up. I was hoping the top surface of my dad’s inkject printer/scanner (which was black and glossy) might do the trick and add some cool reflections – it did

Sharks Teeth

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 121.00 sec at f/32, ISO 100

Nine

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 93 sec at f/32, ISO 100

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