Horseshoe Falls, Hazelbrook, Blue Mountains, NSW

This shot was taken yesterday while running my Blue Mountains Day Course… great weather but the rain got a bit heavy towards the end of the day. None the less perfect weather for shooting waterfalls.

This shot had quite a bit of work done on it in terms of trying to balance the dark tones and shadow detail in the image. Quite tricky to edit when some techniques adding contrast resulting in the greens really popping so you have to go back and kill the colour back a bit.

All the tonal work has been done using different types of luminosity masks, blurring them / sharpening them in selective areas that kind of thing. I didnt use the shadow / highlight tool in this shot (which I am a big fan of). Think the image could still do with some more work especially in the colour, but next time I might think about bracketing a shot or two for some more shadow detail in certain areas.

Single image capture | 5D MkII | 17-40mm lens @ 17mm | Polariser | F11 for 8 sec 50 iso

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Oakland Falls, Hazelbrook, Blue Mountains, NSW

Another shot from my trip to the Blue Mountains last week.

This one is of Oakland Falls which is just down further from Horseshoe Falls. There is another falls down from this called Burgess Falls but I was totally soaked from the days shooting and couldnt be bothered going any further and at Oakland is where I got hit by another two leaches.

This shot is a single image exposure, double processed for shadow detail and then a combination of targeted vibrance and saturation masks, a mid tone masks to drop the overall shine on the image and then luminosity masks to target various shadow areas. Might sound like a lot of work but it only ended up being about 6 layers.

Shot on the 5D MkII | 17-40mm lens @ 25mm | Polariser | F13 for 2 sec 100 iso

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Horseshoe Falls, Hazelbrook, Blue Mountains, NSW

Shot up to the Blue Mountains yesterday for a spot of waterfall shooting given the weather was perfectly overcast with drizzle. (would have liked a little bit less drizzle).

This one is taken at Horseshoe Falls in Hazelbrook. I have been playing around with a soft mist / glow effect in Photoshop which seams to work well. I think the shot would have benefited from an over exposed shot blended into some of the shadows. Maybe next time.

Got chewed on by a few leaches as well. Bastards…

1 sec | F13 | 100 iso | Polariser | 5D MkII 17-40mm lens @ 19mm

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Jamison Lookout, Blue Mountains, NSW

A shot from the Jamison Lookout in the Blue Mountains before my Blue Mountains courses officially started. This is just down from the Wentworth Falls Lookout. We got great sunrise cloud in the morning and there was a crazy 4 – 5 stops light difference between the foreground and the sky so it was hard to balance, especially on film.

Fuji GX617 | Velvia 50 slide

Govetts Leap Lookout, Blue Mountains

I have been quite busy working on a new project so I thought I would throw up an image I have been sitting on for a while.

I took this shot on sunrise at the start of one of my Blue Mountains Day Courses earlier this year and it is a 15 image stitch shot with the 70-200 f2.8 lens on the 5D Mk II. Cropped to a 4:1 ratio.

New images in the main gallery

The images below are just a few that have be added to my main gallery. More to come over the coming week. I’m loving the GX617 with the 90mm.

The morning light baths our beautiful city and harbour bridge in tones of pink and gold. This was the sunrise that greeted me on the morning of my Sydney City group course in September. The early bird catches the worm !

Fuji GX617 | Velvia 50

This shot is taken on Soldiers Beach on the Central Coast, NSW. When driving to the beach I could already tell that it was going to be an colourful sunset. On sunsets like this the one thing that stresses me is trying to find the location to take the best shot.

Fuji GX617 | Velvia 50

At the end of my recent Blue Mountains day course we all huddled at the end of the viewing platform surrounded by bus loads of tourists. As we waited we were asked frequently “Is there something special you are waiting for” by tourists who hung over the ledge and shot the scene with their tiny point and shoot cameras.

Fuji GX617 | Velvia 50