My aplogies for my absence.  So so busy with moving in more ways than one. No not like the ICM images below.

It was a year of selling our gorgeous property and buying a new home.  If anyone in this world wants to know how stressful this process is, just ask me.  I lost 10kgs in the process and have now gone into numb mode.  Settling into a new lifestyle, new environment.  Can you imagine swapping rainforest, trees galore, palms, mountains and creeks to a small suburban block and now see paling fences! On the upside, the home will be lovely for us ageing folks.  Better than heading into a retirement village that is for sure.
My friends are aghast that I have turned into a gardener.  Living and breathing plants right now.  New soil.  Fertilizers.  Watering.  Planting.  And suddenly we are reaping success already with blooms here and there.  More about that later.

 

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Having fun with zoom blur.  I was scratching my head as to what is the difference with motion blur, zoom blur and intentional camera movement ICM.  I soon discovered that zoom blur was a little more challenging to produce an image that was to be interesting.  Well with what subject matter I had at hand on that day.  3 images are straight out of camera and 3 images are creative/altered reality.  This was a club challenge a few months ago.

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This creative altered reality image took out the Image of the Year at our photography club this year. Quite a surprise and gladly accepted a wonderful printed canvas of this work. Will go very well with my monochrome selection of works on one of my walls.

Often I am ask, how did you achieve this image?  What was the original image?  It is not rocket science really.  Take one Moon Image, then add an edited mangrove walk image and finally some B&W tweaking, dodge and burn.  Here is the final image Nocturnal Mangrove Interlude.

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Not sure if any of you have had to agonise over creating a small portfolio.  This particular one was for a Club challenge.
No matter, the dilemma remains the same.

What topic should you use?
What message are you trying to say?
Does it have a story? (gosh I am so sick of judges rambling on about an image having to have a story!)
And will your portfolio be viewed overall, or each image just viewed and critiqued?
Is there cohesion in the work?  And so it goes on and on…

1.  Romping on the Beach.
2. Autumn in the Air.
3. Tacc Chantrieri.
4. One Papillon.
5. Spring has Spring.
6 Beached Leaf.
7. Seeds of New Life.
8. Burried in the Sand.

Each had to be captured the proceeding month.  Not sure if I was successful what I was trying to portray with my Nature’s Tapestry.  Also it was a tad, tongue in cheek, entering the portfolio with some altered reality and creative editing.  All elements of course are my own work and photography.  You be the judge.  I for one, enjoyed this journey and I guess this is what our passion is all about.

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This lightbox will be an absolute joy to use.  It has 3 different light settings and for my initial intended use was only to capture some flora.  In due course I want to find translucent foliage and create some art from this.
It takes your photography into another dimension.  Of course multiple exposures are required with editing in Photoshop bot bring out the beauty of nature.

Here is a lengthy tutorial/speaker on how to achieve this floral photo composities by Harold Davis.
Of course, I like to take my work a little further. Creating an ‘fotoart’ image. So below you will see that I converted to monochrome then adding several texture layers, which are photographs of some of my artwork and textures that I create.

For eg:  Here I had photographed about 7 different exposures. The first one was a pure black silhouette and gradually working towards the front of the dead flower heads to bring out the colour and textures.

See what you think.

Using 2d LED Lightbox

 

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Then of course you just have to take time out and dabble with paints, inks, gesso, drips, inks, pencils, charcoals.  It is so good for the soul.

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I really do like the effect of charcoal on some of the photographs. Monochrome of course aids in the overall effect.
From simple pretty non-descript images there is always an art piece beckoning. Both of these would look fabulous printed in large on a canvas.

the might of an old treeThe Giant Old Tree
Captured at the Cairns Botanic Garden near the Bamboo Gardens.

refus in charcoalReyfuss Palms in Charcoal
Captured at the Limberlost Nursery in Cairns.

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