Rodney Campbell's Blog

I recently joined the Flickr FOCUS group for a Macro day. It started with a short workshop on macro photography followed by lunch at the Opera Bar at the Sydney Opera House and then a move to Sydney’s Royal Botanical Gardens for some practical macro work.

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.

Even though I would really like to, I didn’t really do any extreme closeup work, still it was a fun way to spend a couple hours in the park…

Wrapped Tightly

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/60 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Bird in the Shadows

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/200 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Tangled Web

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/80 sec at f/16, ISO 200

and lastly one I’m really not sure about

Tentacles

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/60 sec at f/16, ISO 100

I was driving by this location early one very foggy morning and I couldn’t resist stopping and taking a shot of these trees and the carpet of gold they left behind

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.

Carpet of Gold

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/80 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

and as I had the fisheye on board anyway I grabbed this curvy shot of the girls heading into their fog filled school

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/125 sec at f/4, ISO 100

Well it had to come – it was very overcast the whole of Saturday and the weather started turning all through the day but by the evening it was torrential and not at all conducive to photography…

We made a vain attempt to try some shots of the factory in Oberon at night from a distance up on the hills but the fog and rain were so thick we could barely see a few metres in front of us.

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.

It was still raining the following morning but we’d arranged with the owner to visit the local Oberon Museum and we wanted to check out the Heritage Railway right next to it. Thankfully the rain slowed to a drizzle whilst we were there so we were able to wander the grounds checking out the early farm machinery and other equipment from days gone by.

Better Days

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 1/15 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

The Engine

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 1/60 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

Oliver

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 1/50 sec at f/4, ISO 100

Our evening of light painting at Forresters beach on the NSW Central Coast culminated in the arrival of our beautiful model Elyse all dressed an elaborate wedding gown (from Kel-Leigh Couture).

Steel wool, orbs, EL wire, cold cathodes, coloured LED’s & lasers all armed and ready. A model in a flowing white wedding dress, the ocean surging in and burning molten metal flying everywhere – what could go wrong…. 🙂

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.

This nice rock we’d spied earlier just on the waters edge made for an excellent platform for our model, and to keep her relatively clean and dry – we tried a number of takes with burning steel wool spinning in the background and a kiss of flash from the side to light our model but this is my favourite (and as it happens the first take – that seems to happen to me a lot – we mess with things trying to make it better but end up making it worse :))

Glowing Bride to Be

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 28 sec at f/8, ISO 200

This one a little closer and a more central composition with just one whirling dirvish directly behind and the addition of some EL wire groundwork

Trapped

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 24 mm, 137.00 sec at f/8, ISO 200

and finally something a lot more simple – I lit our bride just using a blue LED torch – quickly on the face focusing the light spread and then a further controlled splash over the body and dress and then some “angel wings” were added at the back using a blue cold cathode tube

Blue Angel

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 24 mm, 38 sec at f/8, ISO 200

I joined a number of others for an evening of light painting at Forresters beach on the NSW Central Coast – orbs, EL wire, cold cathodes, coloured LED’s, lasers all armed and ready. A model in a flowing white wedding dress, the ocean surging in and steel wool alight – what could go wrong :)….

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.

The evening started with a number of rounds of burning steel wool spinning over this large flat area of relatively still water on the rock shelf.

Burn

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 121.00 sec at f/8, ISO 100

and since we had a number of people who hadn’t done light painting before they wanted to see what effects the different light painting tools might produce we almost threw the kitchen sink at this one incorporating all manner of light painting over one long exposure – yes it’s a mess but it was an educational mess 🙂

Spinning steel wool (left) + spun LED orb (middle) + red/blue EL wire (front) + blue cold cathode ribbons (middle) + green LED toch (rocks in the middle) + sparklers? (across the middle)

The Sink

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 362 sec at f/8, ISO 100