Gethin Hill .net - Random Ramblings

Last Friday night, the 17th of July was the annual Battle City break battles, held in Brisvegas. The talent on display from the b-boy’s and b-girl’s was out of this world. My mind was blown..
It was a fantastic night of crazy dance moves, in ya face attitudes, and a lot of fun!! These guys and girls are amazing athletes.

I took this display of awesome moves as an opportunity to attempt some low light action photography and see if i could capture any of the impressive dance moves. Unfortunately, my current equipment struggles under these difficult conditions, but i did what i could, eventually needing to work my way through to the front to get some decent shots.

Before next years Battle City, i’ll definately be purchasing a better lens for these types of conditions.. most likely the Canon 50mm f1.8 mkII which is one of the cheaper priced Canon lenses available.
Tip: The key to photography in these kinds of conditions is being able to let as much ambient light into the lens quickly as possible so you can use a faster shutter speed to freeze the action. A couple of ways to do this is by using a low aperture, ie f1.8 or by raising the ISO, ie ISO 800 or so.)

I experimented with various setting until i found some that seemed to be working as well as my equipment allowed. I ended up with ISO 800, daylight white balance, and using shutter priority of about 1/50th of a second to allow me to hopefully freeze the action and get a clear, relatively non-blurry shot while still letting in enough light to show up in these dark conditions. (more…)

Just a quick update for today.. I’ve finally upgraded my internet connection to ADSL2 and i can definitely tell the difference. This will help in the uploading and maintenance and updating of my websites so stay tuned!

Also, i decided to sign up online for the Playstation Network to get the multiplayer thing going with my PS3. My ID is “inked3D” for anyone that wants to add me.

i haven’t had much time to post this week, but i’ll add a new post ASAP.

I went for a walk one early morning during the week, with camera ready, to see what was out and about to photograph. I walked along the bike-track near where i live, one of my favorite local spots to walk and photograph birds.. conveniently close is always nice.
Tip: Always try and find time to explore your local area.. you might be suprised at what you find to photograph, and may not need to venture too far for good photo subjects.

This particular area near me is a mix of grasslands and wetlands, with a creek/inlet/outlet running out to the sea (Moreton Bay).. this makes for an interesting mix of birds from all sorts of different habitats to be seen, and if i’m lucky, photograph. See attached photo below for a pic of the landscape.

(Post-process method - photoshopped out a couple of annoying lamp posts using healing brush, slight saturation adjustment, slight blue gradient to sky, sharpened, resized)

I saw several species of birds while walking… this is usually the case at this location, especially if you have some patience and hang around long enough.
Tip: If theres not a lot of wildlife action around to photograph, sometimes being patient and waiting for the wildlife to come to you can be just as rewarding as walking in search, not to mention a lot less tiring.

Some i managed to photograph are attached in the rest of the post. Keep reading if you want to see them.. (more…)

I’ve got a lot of sorting and post-processing that i’ve been slack with, so i thought i’d better get onto some of it and see what i’ve got that might be ok to add to my slow growing gallery.

I’ve found a couple that i took a month ago, on the 13th of June, on a day trip out to where i grew up for a couple of years during my childhood, Shornecliffe and Sandgate

For these shots, i thought i’d try a couple of new post-processing techniques that i’ve never used before.

The shot of the pier was turned into a High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI) from a single RAW file. I’ve never done this before.. not with any success anyway, however, i didn’t mind how it came out with this Sangate Pier photo.

The second image was turned into a High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI) in my most common way.. via 3 different exposures combined together.  However, what i did differently with this image, that i’ve never tried before, was attempt to simulate a blue gradient filter in the sky, digitally using Photoshop.

I’ll explain my techniques and the software i use in more detail some time soon.

Well today, i decided to attempt, yet again, to get Wordpress going as a blog and content management system..  this time however, i stuck with it, kept reading and persevering, and eventually, about 6 hours later, here it is!

My blog, complete with custom theme!  I know, it’s basic, but i’m still getting my head around this Wordpress customization  stuff…  As time goes on, i’m sure i’ll slowly customize it more and more, until it looks slick and polished.

But for now, it’s fully functional and ready for me to write something in it..

well, i’ll keep you posted!