Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park

Just back from my latest photography adventure to Australia’s red center. Visiting here was a first for me and a most memorable experience. I grew up in the North West of WA in the Iron Ore Mining towns and the red earth and spinifex was a homely site. It has been almost 15 years since my skin had felt the sting of the spinifex and it was a memory I didn’t need refreshing.

Uluru (Ayres Rock) is impressive for the first time visitor but it’s size and grandeur is well documented in books and from shows you see on TV. What really took my breath away on the trip was The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) this is seriously one rock formation that photographing doesn’t do it justice and seeing it with your own eyes is a must.

When shooting in the National Park there is a long list of rules and guidelines you need to obey and respect. All my images that have Uluru or Kata Tjuta in them need to be approved prior to public display or sale. These two I am safe to display as they don’t breach the rules, but they will still need to be approved none the less.

Both of these shots are digital panoramic’s taken on my Canon 1ds Mark II. I am awaiting for my film to get processed and I also have quite a few more digital shots to work through.

So keep an eye out on the blog and also my main web site gallery as there is more to come. Enjoy.

Dog Tree Road

This shot has never been a best seller, but when I heard the story I had to take a photo… I just had to.

In the country there is an inherent problem of wild dogs that live in the state and private forests that survive at times by attacking local live stock, mostly sheep. The wild dogs are a mixture of dingo and also domestic animals gone wild that were used for pig hunting and left by their owners when they don’t come back. The damage is quite horrific and cost to the farmer adds up quickly. Over night a pack of dogs can easily kill 50 sheep and their lambs.

Well one elderly farmer many many years ago had taken to trapping and skinning the wild dogs and with their carcase he would then hang on a tree. He still does this even now.

Over time this kind of strange tradition had became a town story and the road the tree is on was named “Dog Tree Road”

Only in the country.

New gallery images

I have just added six new shot to my main gallery of some recent work I have done.

One glorious sunrise recently really paid off at Spoon Bay… gee Spoon Bay for me is almost like Hawk Dreaming for Flemming Bo Jensen. I use the term almost…. I think Flemming still out does me.

The shot below is Observatory Hill in Sydney.

All images shot on the GX617 with Velvia 50 slide and drum scanned by me as well on my Imacon.

The rest of the new images can be seen here.

Autumn in the Snowy Mountains

Going through the archives of images from when I once owned a Canon 20D and I found this shot. Taken in the Snowy Mountains as winter quickly approached.

BEST VIEWED LARGE

Spoon Bay Sunrise

Ok yes I am sure you lot are sick and tired of spoon bay shots from me. I will give you a break after this shot I promise. I really like this image as it doesn’t really have that digital look to it and reminds me of something I would get out of my film camera. I also like the foreground rock markings as well.

The sunrise was blood red, but I shot those images with the GX on slide.

Imacon Drum Scanning Service

For those that view my blog and who are un aware, I own my own Imacon Flextight Drum scanner and all the slide film images on my web site are scanned with this scanner. This is the same scanner I listed earlier this year for sale (I must have been delusional at the time thinking of selling it)

Anyway….

I offer my drum scanning service to other photographers and I already scan work for quite a few already. My scanner can scan anything up to 6×17 but not 5×4. I have scanning plates for all formats including Xpan.

Here is some feedback from a customer who I did some scans for recently who had been using another company based in Melbourne who scans with an Imacon.

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“Hi Matt,

I have been going through the scans and I’m really happy with them. They are a lot truer to the original trannies than the (company name removed) scans I had done. Some of the scans (company name removed) did were so far removed in tone and colour from the originals it took me literally hours (days) and multiple tries to get them back to normal. Your scans seem to take a few minutes to have them looking how I want…. “

The slide film sent that was scanned for this customer was Velvia 50, Velvia 100, Provia 100f and Kodak VS

——–

There is nothing worse than getting a bad scan and that’s what prompted me to buy my own scanner to keep the quality at a high level and to save time correcting bad scans.

FREE SCANNING OFFER

If your interested in trying my scanning services then I am happy to scan an image or two free of charge so you can see for yourself the quality and true colour my scanner can get from your images.

My pricing on scanning and details on sending your film can be seen here.

Discounts are offered to on going customers and bulk scanning. Any questions just email me.

Magical Melbourne Photography Courses

Following the enormous success and popularity of my Composition Sydney Courses I am proud to release my Magical Melbourne Courses to the people of Victoria.

Over the day we will shoot and explore many of the iconic sights of Melbourne and capture the colours this amazing city has to offer.

This is a full day course where students are taught the skills and techniques to master capturing dynamic high quality landscape photographs and how to make a photograph work in any environment. The course takes in a sunset shoot where the skills of the day are put to the final test.

All courses include a detailed full colour workbook on the days teachings and DVD containing tutorials on image development.

Transport on the day is provided in a luxury air conditioned bus.

Two courses are running in 2009,  positions are limited to 8 per course and the dates are set on the 9th May 2009 and 12th September 2009.

Further details / bookings on the course can be viewed by clicking here.

Adobe Camera RAW versions

With the release of Photoshop CS4 and Camera RAW 5 past versions of camera RAW take a bit of finding on the Adobe web site for those who need to upgrade their version as Camera RAW 5 only works with CS4 and above.

So here are the links below for all past Camera RAW versions for both PC and Mac including the current version as well.

For legends who own Mac’s:

Click here

For the poor people who still fight with there PC:

Click Here

Cheers

Here comes the sun

Here is another shot from the same day as the image below. A bit more care has been taken in the editing. This image appeals to be more because of the warmth where the sun is rising and the light trail in the water.

Unlike the shot below this image is just a single shot edited. No HDR, no multiple exposure. Let me know what you think.

Canon 1Ds Mark II | 24-70mm f2.8 lens shot at 24mm | F11 @ 1/4 sec | 200 iso | .9 lee filter ND soft grad