Exams done. Time to get shooting!

Hello all! Clinton here.

I finished my uni exams yesterday so now I have time to really try out my Fujifilm X100! Though I was studying, I did get a few pics once in a while. I think for my photos, I will start adding the camera settings for each shot.

F2.0, 1/14s, Iso: 200
The bag I carry my X100 in.

F2.0, 1/60s, Iso:1000

F2.8, 1/60s, Iso: 640
One of the best cakes I have ever seen in my life.
Shame it had to be eaten. Would have preserved it forever!

F2.8, 1/70s, Iso: 400
Tried some macarons from a new place in China Town. They were pretty good.
They sold orange juice as well for some reason...

F2.8, 1/34s, Iso: 3200
Bit of a self-portrait in the lift.
You can see I added a wrist strap and a red soft shutter release.
I like the wrist strap because it secures my camera to prevent it from falling and
doesn't get in the way as much like a normal strap does.

Soft Mat(te)

Heya guys.

A few days ago, I got a call from Harvey Norman that my prints had arrived. I received 15 free matte photos as part of their promotion. They turned out alright although a bit of sharpness was lost for the colour prints. They might turn out better with gloss prints. The black and white photos were amazing to look at! I will use matte paper for black and white shots in the future.

Anyways, as I was coming back from Harvey Norman, I managed to take a few shots.

I got an app on my phone that works out the depth of field for my camera which is pretty nifty. I had to, embarrassingly, look up what hyperfocal distance was. It's been a while since I heard that term.

A day at the footy.

Hello peeps.

Another day on the streets, another set of pictures. Took these while walking to judo.

 Tried shooting from the hip but I seem to have kept the camera facing down...

Except for this one!

Today I went to the footy match between Port Adelaide and Hawthorn (Hawks won, wew!).

Before that, a trip to China town.

Had to leg-zoom and crop to end up with this shot.

Got Laksa from here.

This was my first time watching a real life AFL match. My dad did not get a ticket for the reserved seating so I stood for two quarters. I could not show any emotion really as I was in enemy territory.












It was a pretty chilly night but there was no wind and it didn't rain. My dad said that the last couple of times he watched his team live, it was cold and raining and the team lost. I must be a good luck charm!

Random street photos taken so far.

Hello viewers!

Here are some of my attempts at street photography.

My recent pictures have been taken with a Fujifilm X100 and I found that the image quality was quite good; on par or better than some DSLRs. The large sensor (for a compact), quality lens, and noise performance that was all in a relatively compact metal body convinced me to trade my DSLR for it. Since it is so portable, I often carry my camera around when I'm walking around the city.

As I have said, I havn't been comfortable taking pictures of people and I still feel this way. I have been trying to come out of my shell with this camera as it is so discrete and not as intimidating as an DSLR (There is hardly any shutter sound!).

I often look at things and thought, "That could have been a nice shot," and
walk on. This time I turned back and got this shot.

Some interesting murals under the overpass.

Shot from the hip. Following people across the road.

A clock tower that chimes at odd times.

 















Trying to shoot from the hip was bit of a challenge as you can't really see what you're taking or focusing on. I se my camera to a high ISO and an aperture around f/9 to f/11 to hopefully get a decent image.

Just finished 3 hours of Judo training. As
I was walking home, the illuminations on the
buildings caught my eye.

At the casino, on my way to uni.

You can probably tell by now that I take a lot of pictures of buildings.

People waiting at a tram stop. 

One of the drawbacks of the X100 is its fixed lens meaning that you have to zoom using your legs.

I passed this building a couple of times on the way to uni.
I wish I could have framed this picture a bit better.
I'll try next time.

Old looking chemist place.

Flinders Uni city campus front.

Sun setting near Adelaide Uni.

I don't know when my next post will be as I have exams soon. I'm not sure I will have time to take new pics but we'll see.

Shots from my home.

Hi guys.

Here are a few shots that I took from the comfort of my home. I usually don't have time to do a full/half days shooting so I take a few snaps when I can.

Old Pentax ME. I have shot a bit with this. I love the look
of film so I may use it again.

Construction outside my place on a rainy day.

Succulent plant that I never need to take care of.

I be-leaf you're drying something...
My jokes.
Sometimes you need to add a subject to your photos to make it
more interesting.

Something inspired by Calvin & Hobbes
from my friend Megan.

Looking beyond my desk.

Sunset on some buildings.

Some slammin' salmon!

Traffic after sunset.

End of a day.

Looking through the peephole.

Sneaking onto my sneakers.

People being dropped off. I learned that you can switch to black and white if light accentuates the subject.
Leave it in colour if colours bring focus to your subject.

Scattered clouds. Cropped to bring more focus to the sky.

Pentax-M f/1.7 50mm lens on Pentax ME body. Quite compact.

Well I should get to bed. My sleeping patterns have shifted a lot recently. I'll need to rectify that soon for exams. I will post my current street shots later today maybe. Until then, toodles!

How far I've come, Part 3: Away from home

Welcome back!

This blog is mainly about the pictures I have taken when I'm away from home. I find that I take a lot more pictures when I'm interstate or overseas. Probably because I wanted to do the touristy thing and document every single thing.

I think I have Sydney covered... (P.s.: Check out the full version!)

My trips to Japan and China have been the most prolific where I have actually filled up memory cards full of raw files, ready to be processed. I think my best shots have been taken in Japan back in 2008. What do you guys think?

"Stay a while and listen..."

I tend to have a mentality that anything out of the ordinary is a great subject for photography. I probably shoot less at home now due to the normality of my environment. I suppose that any ordinary person would take out a camera because something out of the ordinary is happening and that they would want to document it.

There are also more people as my subjects compared to what I usually shoot at home as there are a lot of interesting characters you don't see. Another reason maybe is that I found that the Japanese people are kind and gentle so I don't feel threatened in taking their picture. Although when my friends and I went to an anime convention, we were told off for filming and we realised that we had come on a day when their hentai was being displayed...

Baseball at night. This image hits home runs in my books.

What I thought was a great scene turned into arguably my best technical photo.

Some people need to butt out!

I find that things are "stair"-ing at me.

While I was there, I picked up a very nice lens which took the image quality I could get to another level. Eventually I learned that it is better investing in a good piece of glass rather than spend it all on the best and latest body (A good friend told me that once, bless her soul). The lens will likely outlive the camera. Just look at the Leica system where you can still put ancient lenses on the latest bodies!

I can't remember the tune they were playing but it struck chords with my heart.

As usual, I had my quirky photoshopping.

My sea pictures seem to have weathered well.

"Big and Red", was what he said.

Disney Castle was made for the little people with big hearts.

Eventually I got out of the editing business and focused on the heart of photography which is to capture the best picture at the right moment so that there is little editing needed. Easier said than done for an amateur like me but it is something to strive for. Looking at these photos makes me want to go back to the raw files and tone down the heavy editing to produce something natural. I do that for another blog.

There are plenty more images than these but you would have to scroll down forever to look at them all. The great thing about digital photography is that you can preview the shot you have taken and recompose if needed. This is limited however but those moments that only happen once. Also, a shot may look great on a small LCD screen but on a full sized monitor, things can be a little different as I have found on countless occasions.

I think that will do for my brief history of photography. I will probably bring things up in my other blogs if I have forgotten anything.

For now. Adios.