The vines growing across my balcony have all died out for the winter, except for this one branch. I couldn’t believe my eyes at first. That has to be fake, it looks like someone hung an artificial garland onto the dead vine. But, no, it’s real, surviving and thriving and somehow looking absolutely flawless.
Here’s last weekend’s shoot with Perth Amateur Photographers Group at the Ruth Faulkner park. I don’t spend much time in Belmont, so I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful park and fancy new library. I’m always happy to see a waterfall.
I think this is my first shoot on an overcast day. I know some photographers prefer it, but I found it difficult to work with. I’ve since bought a speedlite, let’s see if that improves my next shoot.
This is also my first time working with male models, and my first time using my 50mm lens. It’s much easier to get that shallower depth of field with the right lens, turns out.
My absolute favourite photos from that day were the photos of the bird. Before we began the photowalk, one of the photographers was telling her young daughter to not become too distracted reviewing the photos in her camera, instead she should keep her eyes up, ready for the next photo opportunity. “You never know what you might miss. While you’re looking at your screen a big…hawk could come along and you would miss it”.
Not five minutes later, I heard an unusual call coming from the pine trees. I took out my 250mm lens and zoomed in. No freaking way, she had summoned a hawk. Or at least, we think it’s a hawk, possibly a falcon. Damn it, Jim, I’m a photographer, not an ornithologist.
Models:
Chey @chey_wynn
Sanj @sanj_ranasinghe
Kris @purvo28
Elle @xiellene
This was my first attempt at animal photography, it was very challenging, especially at a crowded zoo during school holidays. But hey, a free ticket is a free ticket. At the time, I felt the need to connect with my spirit animal, the rhinoceros; thick-skinned, and fearlessly charging through life.
This was my first time visiting the zoo during school holidays. The experience I was accustomed to was a quiet, meditative one. Not so during school holidays, I felt sorry for the animals. Both parents and children were loud and obnoxious, screaming, and banging on the glass. Dreadful.
The staff, at least, were all lovely.
Thankfully, people would get bored with each animal quickly and move onto to inflict themselves on the next. Meanwhile, I sat with the rhino and tiger for hours waiting for them, observing them, getting to know them.
The rhinos wanted to spend most of their time with their backs to the humans (don’t blame them), and marking their territory. The tiger was extremely challenging to shoot. Although he was an old fella and a long-time feature of the zoo, he was so elusive, I had never actually laid eyes on him. I almost believed the tiger enclosure was empty. But after waiting a while he emerged and began pacing. The windows were all covered with decals of trees to give him some privacy. So I was shooting through that and trying to get past the crowd that would spontaneously appear every time he did.
This was the first photoshoot I ever did, back in November 2022, with my friend Stephanie modelling her Regency costume for me. I can see how far I’ve come since then, and while I can do better now, these photos turned out well despite my limitations at the time.
Here are my top shots from the Perth Amateur Photographers Group (PAPG) shoot at Rolloways rollerskating centre last month. It was extremely challenging, low lighting, fast movements, plus an unexpected children’s party being held at the same time!
I took a lot of bad photos, and these good ones have a lot of flaws, but they demonstrate how far I’ve improved in the three years I’ve been a part of this club. I have a stronger intuition for the manual settings and my lenses. I know about shooting and editing in RAW. Let’s see where I’m at in another three years.
Thanks to the models:
Lauren Miles
Misty Eligon
Kiara Roberts
Chenta Zaballos
An impromptu photoshoot I did alone for Halloween, I just used a red light, a torch, and my phone.
Travian Designs 