Robert's Ramblings

If there are two things I have learned on this adventure they would be to:

a) Expect the unexpected, and
b) Always have your camera ready.

Tonight while driving home I was gobsmacked by visions in the sky. To the West was one on the most beautiful and deeply rich in colour sunsets I have seen and to the East were the most dramatic thunderclouds being lit from the last low rays of the setting sun and full of lightning. Had I time I would have set up the tripod and lingered here for a while and waited but not wanting to risk being AWOL I grabbed a few images of the sky and continued on home.

As a final note on always being ready, my spare tripod lives permanently in the car; just in case.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 335 - Thor's Playground'. 1/160s f/5.0 ISO400 17mm

Ok, so this is not the most impressive image of a DeLorean DMC-12 but it is the only one I have ever made.

In fact, this is the first DeLorean I have seen in the 'steel' since I first started looking out for them in the 1980's. Only 9000 of these vehicles were ever made and this is the only model the DeLorean Motor Company ever made before going out of business soon after the commencement of production in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland in 1981.

For those of us who can remember, this car was made famous as Emmett Brown's time machine in the movie in the 1985 movie 'Back To The Future'.

So my first real DMC DeLorean captured! Then again, there's always a chance it could have been a replica!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 334 - Back To The Future'. 1/250s f/2.8 ISO400 200mm

This morning I found myself being unexpected entertained.

In the early hours this morning while out making images I heard the most unexpected sound of a busker singing to a celtic mandolin.
The musician in question introduced himself as Chris Dewin (easy to find on Google), agreed to some pics and then settled back into his music.

While I photographed and he played a large group of late night revelers arrived on the scene, barely paying him or his great music any notice. They just walked on by.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 333 - Just Walked On By'. 1/80 f/3.5 ISO1600 145mm

How do you make one of the ugliest creatures in the world look pretty?

Take a few tips from the modelling world.

1. A nice balanced depth of field to focus attention.
2. Make sure the foreground eye is sharp.
3. Keep the hands away from the face.
4. Some soft back lighting to bring out some lovely highlights in the hair.
5. Some negative space to keep bringing your eyes back.
6. A nice pouting smile.
7. And a splash of colour for the fun of it.

Yes, pretty 'fly' for a blowfly! Even one as ugly as this!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 332 - Pretty Fly for a Blow Guy'. 5s f/32 ISO6400 200mm + strobes x2

This evening was one of those evenings...

The sky was looking very dramatic so I grabbed my gear and headed down to the beach to photograph the sunset. At about 45 minutes from sunset it looked like the horizon was going to be clear making for a less than dramatic event while the stunning cloud formations over the hills were looking better and better.

I packed up and headed for higher ground but the rooftop I chose just did not have the vision of the city and the hills that I wanted. That's when I looked back at the sun now setting only to see the most amazing mix of cloud and setting sun. If only I'd stayed at the beach!!

Oh well, I looked straight up and this is what I captured as the last of setting sun's last rays caught the high cloud above me.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 331 - Skystruck'. 1/160 f/14 ISO160 15mm

Since forever in my memory the presence of ladybirds in the garden means Summer.

This Traverse Ladybird' is happily scouring the Morning Glory for its favorite food, aphids! So if you see these guys in your garden it's good news for the plants and bad new for the pests.

I captured this image handheld with an off camera strobe. In a shot like this a combination of daylight and flash I have gone full manual. Even the the auto-focus is off and I preset to minimum distance. In this case the 'live view' feature is indispensable with the preview zoomed in and the shutter ready to be pressed the moment that wobbly hand held camera just happens to fall into position.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 330 - Ladybird Heralds Summer'. 1/160 f/11 ISO320 100mm off camera strobe

Spiders are the bane of may peoples lives.

No matter how tiny, and this critter is less than 5mm across, the word 'spider' sends shivers down spines and sends people running. Ok so they are not the prettiest members of the animal kingdom but they have just as special a place as the birds and the fish and the other beautiful animals we love. Speak with any expert in the area of bugs and spiders and all you will hear is wonder and excitement at how amazing these creatures are.

This image was a challenge as a hand held shot. Normally for a macro image like this a tripod would be used to allow for maximum natural light. AS I did not have this luxury it was all strobe. One strobe on the camera and another slave strobe in my hand to fill in light and give depth to the image. All settings, camera and strobes, manually configured. Because of the shiny exoskeleton it was impossible to avoid the specular highlights which are technically not desirable and get an acceptable overall image. Still I am happy with the result from a hand held shot.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 329 - Waiting for Dinner'. 1/160 f/16 ISO500 100mm strobes x2

Does anyone actually ever yell out, TAXI!

I think it only happens in the movies. I know for sure that the only time they ever stop when called or hailed is in the movies. In the real world things are so different now. I have my Yellow Cabs app installed on my Android phone. It knows where I am and I can order a taxi online and graphically select my destination in Google Maps. This works especially well when I need to go somewhere I've never posted a letter to!

So I've order my Taxi and now I can sit back and see on the screen where it is and how much long I have to wait. No more yelling out TAXI, for me!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 328 - Taxi'. 1/20 f/2.8 ISO1600 70mm

What comes from Colombia in hemp sacks?

Why coffee beans of course! I'm not sure if the little coffee shop we love to frequent actually imports themselves but it's nice to know where your beans come from!

To enhance the details at the fiber level I actually used hdr processing with details enhancement. The captured tonal range in this image only covered a couple of stops and initially looked very flat. Combining 3 images, all within the dynamic range of the camera is unusual but allowed me to really bring out the details.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 327 - Product of Colombia'. 1/6 f/18 ISO1250 32mm

Adelaide has not always had an international airport. I remember when international travel for those from this city meant a domestic flight to Melbourne or Sydney to commence their international travel.

In 1982 for the first time we could travel directly from Adelaide to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur from not much more than a cobbled set of prefabricated buildings. 2005 was the year we actually decided to create an international airport terminal we could be proud of combining international and domestic facility into the one large purpose built facility. Finally now in 2012 they have built the car park some say was needed back in 2005 or should that have been a better public transport and access solution. I'll leave that debate open.

This image was taken from the international public arrivals space.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 326 - Adelaide International'. 1/125s f/14 ISO160 17mm

An idle moment with a cigarette and a thought.

So often I see a solitary occupant of a doorway, or a back alley. Alone with their thoughts in a blue grey haze. I wonder if in times gone by that cigarette would have been smoked in the company of others? Perhaps our social push for a smoke free environment has created more opportunity for some to be alone with their thoughts.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 325 - Chill'n'. 1/60s f/2.8 ISO1600 200mm

I am definitely drawn to water. Be it the ocean, a river or even a simple clear bottle of unadulterated water.

When I saw this image I loved the stark contrast between the crystal-like clarity of the the glass and the water against the dense wood of the church lecture. The simplicity of the image combined with the significance of water I felt made for a powerful composition.

This water was never blessed by a priest but in my opinion is no-less holy.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 324 - Holy Water'. 1/125s f/2.8 ISO1600 200mm

The Adelaide Town Hall has a very beautiful concert organ and it is a testament to the vision of the Adelaide City Council back in 1987 that it needed to furnish this Adelaide city icon with an instrument worthy of the historic building.

The previous concert organ had served well over 100 years and in the later parts of it's life had lost the sense of its former self having gone through alterations and modifications which were ultimately unsuccessful in preserving its character.

This new concert organ built in the U.K by J.W.Walker & Sons Ltd in 1989 with 4 manuals, 61 speaking stops is by all accounts a worthy replacement.

Tonight I was treated to a performance by the Australian Girls Choir and as photography 'of the artists' was expressly forbidden, I aimed high and captured the magnificent concert organ instead.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 323 - The Town Hall Concert Organ'. 1/125s f/2.8 ISO1600 200mm

There's a reason they keep the paddle boats out in the middle of the Torrens River overnight.

Just imagine how tempting to take one of these for spin in the middle of the night after a big night out in the city but just not ready to go home yet. This is a scene easily imaginable 25 years ago when they were just chained up against the wharf. They're out there for our protection not to prevent them being stolen. After all drunken paddleboat racing in the early hours of the morning is not the safest form of entertainment. Still one can remember ...

One day I'll get back on one these again, just not in the middle of the night.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 322 - Torrens Paddleboats'. 30s f/8 ISO320 17mm hdr

I love shady streets where the leaves from the trees mingles above the road casting a long zebra pattern of shadows into the distance.

I was out and about today and happened to park on a side street. When I returned to the car I looked down the road and felt I simply had to capture the experience. There is nothing special about Harrow Road. It could be any shady suburban street. But this afternoon the light was lovely, the road was clear, a woman returns home from an afternoon shopping and I just wanted to share it.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 321 - Harrow Road'. 1/250s f/2.8 ISO160 200mm

In 2002 I experienced my first total solar eclipse. It was only a short 30 seconds of totality but from that moment I was hooked!

Although I could not be in Cairns this year and am envious of my friends who were, I was not going to miss the opportunity to capture my own little piece of the occasion.

At 7:30am today the light was strange, it was like the dimmed light of a sunset or a sunrise but without that characteristic yellow cast. This light was the same colour as normal daylight but palpably subdued. If you had no idea what was going on you'd be forgiven for feeling a little edgy. Perhaps this weird light would have been more pronounced had the partial eclipse been in the middle of the day.

Capturing this image was surprisingly easy. Hand-held, point and shoot. The fast shutter speed meant no issues with camera shake but even with the tiny aperture and fast shutter speed I still needed to reduce the light by more than 500 times with a neutral density filter. Using full manual I aimed to ensure no content in the image was brighter than 1 full stop back from maximum. I wanted to capture as much detail of the Sun's surface as possible including any visble sunspots. Any half reasonable DSLR camera would have been fine.

This image is from the last third of the Moon's transit across the Sun's face, a point where the chunk removed was a close as I could get to matching a quarter piece. Like the bite of a giant Cookie Monster from a Celestial Gingernut Biscuit complete with texture and Sun spots.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 320 - Celestial Cookie Monster'. 1/8000s f/32 ISO50 400mm + 9StopND Filter

How many sunsets are enough sunsets?

One answer might be 'at least another billion years worth'. The following 4 billion years after that will see the earth slowly steamed and the oceans boiled dry. After another 2 billion years of being torched as a red giant our sun will finally burn out into the afterglow of a white dwarf which will last trillions of years as it fades to black. Quite a lot really.

For now I am content to experience and photograph the beautiful orange sunsets which are 'just right'.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 319 - Afterglow'. 1/60s f/22 ISO400 40mm hdr

I've been waiting to cross this bridge for months now and today I finally got the chance.

For may months the Adelaide International Airport has existed in a state of construction as new infrastructure including an undercover parking facility has been underway. Today I got to use the new car-park and cross this bridge, making my way from the car to the international departure gate in complete sheltered comfort. Actually I was in the Hudsons Ccafe looking into the international departure gate but close enough!

Its all still a work in progress as construction workers welded from gantries and scaffolds all around. Trucks and construction vehicles buzzed around underneath. Clearly someone has decided that the work-site is safe enough for the public to start using the new facilities. It's got my approval!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 318 - Work In Progress'. 1/10s f/22 ISO160 17mm

To me this building is just visually wrong!

It can't seem to make up it's mind if its a regular office building or some psychedelically coloured medieval fortress. Perhaps the designer was fired halfway through the work for substance consumption and the work needed to then be completed by some rectangle addict instead!

OK, perhaps I am being harsh but the 'Roma Mitchell Commonwealth Law Courts Building', home to the High Court, Federal Court, Family Court and Federal Magistrates' Court of Australia, is a building that can really only be loved or hated in spite of the innovation applied to its design, there is no middle ground.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 317 - Fortress of Law'. 1/10s f/11 ISO160 17mm hdr

This extraordinary stained glass window on the Eastern wall of the St Bartholomew Anglican Church in Norwood tells a story crossing legend and myth and religion.

Perhaps the story of George and the Dragon is a retelling of the Greek myth of Perseus and Andromeda. Perhaps it is an allegory for man's conquest over the ego. Perhaps St George really did rid the Earth of the last remaining dragon.

All we can know for sure is that scattered throughout the world are works of art such as this that tell of some legend, the details of which are long forgotten, the spirit of which lingers in art such as this.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 316 - Dragon Slayer'. 1/10s f/8.0 ISO160 85mm hdr

Who is the artist?

This question becomes deeper and richer then more you ponder what appears a simple creation of graffiti art. There is no doubt however that these two artists are practicing their craft in the pursuit of expression and the are doing it legally courtesy of the Adelaide City Council and their 'Free Wall' project.

This wall located under the Morphett Street Bridge has great visibility to passing traffic on North Terrace. It's constantly changing so make sure you visit the art, or possibly the artist, often.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 315 - The Artist'. 1/15s f/2.8 ISO1600 70mm

I've often driven past here and watched people enter and leave this building. Wondered what life calamities may be unfolding for them and how intimidating is must be to walk through those dark ominous doors.

The red glow from the window above only serves to make this place all the more menacing as a single red eye looks down on all who come and go from this place.

No matter if you love, hate or are indifferent to this building, the Adelaide Magistrates Court is an impressive part of Adelaide's architectural heritage.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 314 - The Court'. 1/6s f/16 ISO160 17mm hdr vignette

Had this photo been taken in the past it would have been just a big wash of muted colour.

Now the cracked patchwork of laminated glass fragments is catching and reflecting the surrounding light creating both the intricate details and the beautiful peripheral bokeh.

Honest it was not me who transformed this once transparent medium into the art it now creates.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 313 - Smashed'. 1/10s f/2.8 ISO1600 200mm

Hindley Street has a reputation.

Many times I have walked down the length of Hindley Street late at night and never knowingly witnessed anything supporting it's licentious reputation but it's there and you can feel it.
Harried glances to outright 'what are you looking at' stares mingle with oblivious party revelers. Even in the early hours of a Wednesday morning there is plenty going one here.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 312 - Hindley Street'. 1/30s f/2.8 ISO1600 200mm

My image for this year's 'Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk', 'Tunnel Vision' from day 287 got into the honorable mention list. Good company indeed.


...

The only way to really get good at latte art is to work at a cafe.

I have tried to practice my own latte art at home but by about the 5th coffee I get all twitchy and decide no more coffee for today!
I love latte art and welcome any suggestions of good cafes and baristers around Adelaide for a future photo project.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 311 - Latte Sunrise'. 1/30s f/8 ISO800 40mm

I've never attempted to capture the ultimate strobe before. Now I know why.

Adelaide bore witness to the most spectacular light show tonight with lightning in all quarters of the night sky. Still, capturing the raw intensity in an image is easier said than done!
I stood for nearly two hours in the rain on the beach holding an umbrella over my camera and staging 120 second exposures. For each shot I had to wait another 120 seconds for noise reduction before starting again.
One particular strike was so close and so bright it completely blew out the image to white.

Finally, a strike at just the right intensity and just the right shape and being soaked to the core did not seem so bad after all!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 310 - The Ultimate Strobist'. 120s f/8 ISO160 15mm crop

It's early Sunday evening, the weekend's adventures mostly over and time to kick back.

Actually the weekend is far from over but that didn't stop us drowning a couple of hibiscus flowers in some fizzy Italian prosecco.

Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 309 - Hibiscus Fizz'. 1/125s f/32 ISO200 100mm + strobes

I'm not sure if this is the most photographed feature on the South Australian coastline for fine art images but it is sure up there.

The beach of the remains of the old Port Willunga Jetty is also a popular Summer wedding location as this images bares testament to. Thousands of rose petals litter the sand in celebration of a new marriage.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 308 - Wedding Debris'. 1/20s f/22 ISO160 170mm hdr

I do not know how many attempts I have made at getting this type of image to work.

Capturing movement in an image is part of the creative process and a balance often is sort between blurring moving elements in the image and keeping other parts sharp for references. This is important as the eye will naturally seek out the sharp detail first and then expand to include moving/blurred parts of the subject before finally taking in the entire image.

Capturing a fast subject and keeping that sense of moment presents some creative choices. If I want my subject tack sharp I need a fast shutter speed limiting with only the depth of field to play with. Too much depth and the picture lacks drama so very tight will draw attention to the subject but both images will lack a feel of movement. On the other hand a slow shutter speed will result in blurred subject which might work but if the background is sharp the image will feel all wrong with the eye not knowing where to look.

In this image I chose to use a panning technique which relies on my ability to track my moving target as accurately as possible. To get a great sense of speed the panning blur needs to occur over a reasonable part of the image. Too short a pan and the speed will not be conveyed, too long and it's impossible to track the image and keep it sharp. Finally I personally like using a large depth of field to give an edgy crispness to the background blur further enhancing the feel of speed.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 307 - Movin It'. 1/25s f/22 ISO100 70mm