Things

To separate an item from its context and examine it in detail is the work of the artist's eye. Your typical happy-snapper won't do it. They can't see the point. But an artist will see the point immediately and applaud it.

Sometimes it is sufficient to simply take the normal view of an object to capture it. Other times it is necessary to take an unusual view, or distort the view in some way to make a point.

THUMBNAIL (click to view 1200px image)	PARAMETERS	COMMENTS
	Kodak DX3600 11mm (62mm) f/4.5 1/60 sec ISO Auto Auto Mode Flash	"Meditation Balls" (Portland, 2002) Not too shabby for out-dated point-n-shoot hardware! I love semi-reflective surfaces, like water. Here you can see the reflection of the light sources but also into the iridescent sheen of the mosaic ball coating. Just beautiful! Goes well with the wood grain background also. Too bad about the blown highlights on the wood from the flash. I should have used a more acute angle. Ah well, it was a long time ago...
	Canon A610 7mm (35mm) f/4 1/400 sec ISO Auto P Mode Macro	"Five Cent Piece" (Portland, 2006) One of my first experiments with the macro mode. I was stunned with the detail that resulted. Of course, now I expect it, but at the time it was a revelation. Not only can you see every scratch on this little coin, (at the time Australia's smallest), but the concrete it is sitting on looks like neat gravel, nothing like the smooth grey you see with the naked eye.
	Canon A610 7mm (35mm) f/4 1/250 sec ISO Auto P Mode	"Rubbish Bin" (Portland, 2006) Anything can be a subject if you just photograph it in the right way. So why not a rubbish bin?
	Canon A610 10mm (46mm) f/4 1/1250 sec ISO Auto P Mode	"Mosaic Seat" (Portland, 2006) Local artist Annette Taylor's first effort at a public mosaic sculpture. This one sits in the esplanade on Portland's Foreshore.
	Canon A610 29mm (140mm) f/4.1 1/640 sec ISO Auto P Mode	"Culvert" (Portland, 2006) The dark exit from this culvert makes a natural focus for this picture of the mundane, and the mid-tone variety of grass, leaves, stone and tarmac make an interesting surround.
	Canon A610 7mm (35mm) f/2.8 0.3 sec ISO Auto A Mode Macro	"Gammon Dice" (Portland, 2006) Sometimes a shot turns out far better than you could have imagined. This was one such. I took it on spec, just as a study of a backgammon board, but the magnification given by the macro mode brings extra detail and depth that the naked eye doesn't see. The camera was braced against the edge of the board for this long exposure which is very sharp. The narrow depth of field allows the context into the image while keeping the focus firmly on the subject.
	Canon A610 7mm (35mm) f/4 1/640 sec ISO Auto P Mode Macro	"Salt & Pepper Grinder" (Portland, 2006) This study of a pepper grinder works particularly well because of the harmony between the glass of the grinder and that of the table top. The metal and the black of the pepper corns make a fine counterpoint. The original was much larger but the extra surrounds only detracted from the subject so I cropped them out.
	Canon A610 7mm (35mm) f/2.8 1/1250 sec ISO Auto A Mode Macro	"Garden Tap" (Portland, 2006) I wanted a macro shot of the mundane in the garden and went walking the streets to find it. All of a sudden there it was: the garden tap! I used a wide aperture to reduce the DOF and focused on the tap handle. Ecco lo! The quintessential garden tap!
	Canon A610 7mm (35mm) f/4 1/640 sec ISO Auto P Mode Macro	"Snake Poo" (Portland, 2006) Walking along Bill's Walk just out of Portland I noticed this piece of snake excrement (I assume it was a snake), and took this macro shot on spec. The dark turd contrasts well with the yellow clay and the detail in the subject is amazing. Zoom right in to examine the texture of this shit, you can probably determine what it was eating if you are good enough.
	Canon A610 7mm (35mm) f/4 1/640 sec ISO Auto P Mode	"Gas Pipes in Waiting" (Portland, 2006) A lot of people take this sort of shot to show the inhuman regularity in the industrial world, often in black and white. These pipes were stockpiled in a transport yard, waiting to be trucked out to build a natural gas main up to Hamilton. Let other people do monochrome, I like the contrast between the light rusting on the steel and the bright red endcaps.
	Canon A610 29mm (140mm) f/4.1 1/1250 sec ISO Auto Auto Mode	"Chimney Stacks" (Melbourne, 2006) The shot is in the mind of the photographer. Immediately I saw these stacks I knew it was a picture. My friend declined to take it, but here it is. Fault it if you can!
	Canon A610 7mm (35mm) f/4 1/640 sec ISO Auto Auto Mode	"Bridge Railing" (Portland, 2006) It's all a matter of perspective. By holding the camera low (and using the flip out screen), the bridge railing comes alive. The contrast of light and shadow and regular strokes diminishing into the distance makes a pleasing study.
	Canon A610 22mm (104mm) f/4 1/200 sec ISO Auto A Mode	"Mesh Fence" (Portland, 2006) Another study in Depth of Field, this time using the classic gal iron mesh fence. The OoF fore and back grounds, give a dreamy feel to the image and make it a far more attractive sight that would be the case had I got the whole lot in focus. Of course SLR users are well aware of this, using it every day, but compacts give you much less control over DoF. Only in special circumstances can you get this effect with little cameras. Only when you are up very close does it come into play.
	Canon A610 11mm (52mm) f/4 1/160 sec ISO Auto P Mode	"Fresh Tarmac" (Portland, 2006) And once again I am playing with narrow DoF. Here I am up close to some freshly laid tarmac on a remade road. Tarmac: a mixture of Bitumen (Tar) and Road Metal (MacAdam).
	Canon A610 7mm (35mm) f/2.8 1/25 sec ISO Auto P Mode Macro	"Salt Pig" (Portland, 2006) The Portland Camera Club had a theme for the month of "Granules". I overfilled the salt pig and used the Macro mode to show the salt granules. I didn't submit this shot, but in retrospect, perhaps I should have.
	Canon 400D Tamron 70-300 124mm (198mm) f/8 1/750 sec ISO 400 A Mode	"Wire Strand Fence" (Portland, 2008) Yet another study in DoF, but with an APS format SLR you don't need to get close to find it!
	Canon 400D Tamron 70-300 104mm (166mm) f/8 1/1000 sec ISO 400 A Mode	"Blue Power" (Portland, 2008) The clean lines and colours of this power pole top against a perfect blue sky turn this symbol of electric world into a thing of beauty. I have taken this shot with various cameras and it always looks good. The strong contrast and good light meant that the second rate autofocus on the 400D was able to focus properly. No doubt that when it focused it was a great camera.
	Canon 400D Canon 18-55 IS 27mm (43mm) f/8 1/500 sec ISO 400 A Mode	"Sea Harmony" (Portland, 2008) Local artist Annette Taylor, with the assistance of Tony Ashby and various individuals produced this wonderful piece of mosaic sculpture which was fittingly accorded a prominent place on the foreshore. Every view of this 3 dimensional art work is different so that no 1 photo can properly capture it all.
	Canon 400D Canon 18-55 IS 55mm (88mm) f/8 1/350 sec ISO 200 A Mode +0.5eV	"VB on High" (Portland, 2008) A great Australian Icon, up there in the sky against some of Australia's pioneering buildings. That's history! That sea green is a fantastic contrast to the grey sky. The camera under-exposed a little as they often do against a grey sky. Shooting against a grey sky can be tricky, worked fine here though.
	Canon 400D Canon 18-55 IS 44mm (70mm) f/9.5 1/250 sec ISO 400 A Mode -0.5eV	"Step Railing" (Portland, 2008) Another study in contrasting colours and textures. Iron and leaf, red and emerald. Works for me.
	Nikon D60 Nikon 18-55 VR 26mm (39mm) f/5.6 1/30 sec ISO 100 A Mode	"Wagon Wheel" (Portland, 2008) One of the shots that convinced me to buy the D60. The colour, the focus, the detail, all impressed me. It looks better than the real thing! I took shots of the whole wagon but this one of just the wheel had far more power.
	Nikon D60 Nikon 18-55 VR 40mm (60mm) f/11 1/60 sec ISO 100 A Mode	"Bollard" (Portland, 2008) I love the way that a simple thing can tell a story so much bigger than itself. It's just a lump of steel embedded in a wharf, but: What is the wharf? What is tied up to it? How did the rope fray? Why the small rope? What boats have tied to it in the past? etc, etc. Apart from the personality of the thing I love the composition of this image. The steel against the water, the contrasting colours. Water is nearly always a great background.
	Nikon D60 Nikon 18-55 VR 40mm (60mm) f/8 1/60 sec ISO 100 A Mode	"Rusty Pulley" (Portland, 2008) As with the bollard, so with pulley: Why is it so rusty? Is it still fully functional? What has it been doing? etc. Rusty steel looks so great through a camera because the red stands out. In this case it stands out against the darkness of the shadow. I tried bringing out the shadow detail but the image quickly lost its magic. High-contrast bright-sun shots can work for you or against you depending on what you are trying to get. Best to work with the situation and not against it.