The Use of Style to Convey a Narrative

I'm usually not conflicted in deciding between a Monochrome vs Colour interpretation in my photos. I prefer natural or visually believable colour to preserve the essence that colour conveys. I choose a Black and White interpretation when colour is intrusive or detracts in conveying shape and texture. This is one instance, when I think either works because they do convey different messages.

The Monochrome Version

Straight Out Of The Camera JPEG from the Panasonic G2 set to Dynamic Black and White Profile

I feel the texture of the fabric and the back of the Dragon Head's puppeteer, the exaggerated stance of the guy holding the cymbals and the frozen-in-time women are emphasised by this treatment

The Colour Version

Processed from raw through Adobe Lightroom 5.3 with highlight recovery and tonal adjustments then the Nostalgia - Agfa RSX film emulation filter applied.

The colours have been grossly saturated in the film simulaiton - it gives me an old-time feel of the organic, mixed colour structure of film. The reds and yellows convey the Chinese New Year sentiment and again, the people in the scene are frozen in time for eternity, taking part in this photo.

I initially thought that this would be one of the forgotten shots but now I've got two to show. 

A Homage to the Kodak P880

The end of this year, 2013, is shaping up to be a thrilling time for new camera models. The camera industry has been seeing a decline in sales over the past few years. To excite and motivate the market, we’re seeing ground breaking new models at the full frame end (Sony A7, A7R), exciting challengers for the middle position in Micro Four Thirds (the OM-D EM-1) and a revitalisation of the bridge, all-in-one camera (the Olympus Stylus 1 and Sony RX 10).  But what about the old digital old timers – the ones that were an earlier part of digital history?

The Kodak P880

The P880 is my third digital camera – after the Nikon Coolpix 775 and the Olympus C-750 Ultrazoom. For those of you who just came in, there was a time (around 2005) when DSLRs were expensive and not consumer items. The age of the all singing, all dancing bridge camera. Olympus had the remarkable C-8080. Konica Minolta had the DiMage A200Z (remember Minolta?). Nikon had the Coolpix 8400. Canon had the G6 and S2. Panasonic had their Lumix FZ-20. Samsung had their Pro815. Fuji had S9000.

The Kodak company was in its death throes – it had managers who were experienced in film and print. It had a digital sensor division and a digital camera division – but, in the field of digital, it couldn’t focus on how to make the migration. The P880 was not well built or robustly designed. It didn’t use premium parts. It was offered for sale at a crazy Recommended Retail Price. So what did it have going for it? A Schneider Kreuznach branded zoom that starts at 24mm equivalent. A slightly larger than sensor for a bridge camera (hence the limit on the 5.8x zoom range). And that Kodak Color Science chip. Yes, the Color Science chip. For some reason, the Kodak JPEG engine is exemplary in handling the way the highlights when they hit the limit. After this, engineers created cheaper, larger sensors. Intelligent dynamic range compression. But this camera was designed before then.

So, for Melbourne Cup Day 2013, I took out the old, cranky, faltering P880 and shot some bright sun, harsh contrast, Melbourne spring scenes. And was pleasantly surprised.

The Reflect Verb

Whoa, it's been quite a hectic period in my photography, thanks to Marg Wong, the fun gang at the Melbourne Photowalk on Google+ and encounters with the Melbourne Street Togs Facebook group.

I'm posting more and most of my photos more frequently to G+ (it's addictive) and my flickr account is languishing. Will have to correct that soon. Before I get waylaid by words (the downfall of several nights now, let me share my latest favourites.

This is my favourite from my walk along Toorak Road, South Yarra. Slightly darkened for the patina, hand held with the 20mm f/1.7 Lumix on my Olympus PEN E-PL1.

Since I got the lens, I've experienced a few answers to questions of image "look" (I refrain from using the often misconceived words image quality)

This second shot is the most bokelicious I've ever made.

More later...

The Fallen Acorns photo

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Watching the ANZAC parade 2009 (Part 1)

This was my second watching the ANZACs as they marched through St. Kilda Road, to the Shrine of Remembrance. It’s a parade which represents a mix of emotions – solemnity, a remembrance of those fallen, an affirmation of those who came back.
We see the drummer boys and girls

children and grandchildren accompanying the marchers

and waving the flag

Of course, the March Marshalls have their hands full coordinating movements. Some have to actively point out where to stand

In the end, you get some incongruous combinations

Watch out for Part 2…

Dry and hot in Melbourne

We’ve just had three days of over 40 degrees Celsius and it hasn’t rained since I don’t know when. The green is receding, replaced by brown and weeds.

From Melbourne 2009

There are brown leaves in spots or all over oak trees – and it’s not autumn for a long while.

From Melbourne 2009

People buy large tanks for rain water, for grey water and for firefighting

From Melbourne 2009

Dreaming in Melbourne

There is a field of Dreamers in Melbourne for the Festival. Chia and I went for a shoot. It turned out sunny on Saturday, lots of interesting angles. Hard to chimp and think though. The bright sun made LCD viewing difficult and I had to figure out whether the white Dreamers would bias exposure towards dull greys or whether the metering system would be completely confused and burn the highlights. In the end, I bracketed but not enough EV 0.7 is a minimal bracket in such situations and to have clear differences, it would be better to go for EV 1 or EV 1.3. But then, do you bracket to get near choices or do you bracket to throw away the extremes? If you bracket to throw away the extremes, then why bracket?

With a field of Dreamers do they dream all the same dream or do they dream contentiously?



Do we dream in the sun or only in the dark?

And the perennial, do you dream in colour



or in black and white

From Dreamers

Empatico

More important than sheer Image Quality of a photo is the photographer's Empatico - with the subject. Explains why there are so many vignettes floating around, or water colour style renditions of ordinary scenes that lift them above the ordinary. I tried a personalised treatment of the grafitti scene below - it was Photoscaped with a dose of Velvia-like colouration.

From Melbourne

This scene was very much in the air when these girls came with their point and shoot flash.

From Melbourne

The Beemer in the alley was mysterious as well.

From Melbourne

Waiting for a fare

Melbourne cabbies now feature drivers from the Indian subcontinent. They are often students making money driving when they aren't studying. Here are some, waiting for a fare.

From Melbourne

Looking Up

There I was, shooting with Janina and John for the first time. I didn't get to meet Brandon, and the weather was fine, then drizzly, then fine again. Janina introduced us to this building interior and I had the 7-14mm Zuiko Digital on the floor, then just holding up.

The lighting in this area was just magical.

Art Deco - Your Assignment

Terry Lane highlighted the Art Deco exhibition currently being held at the National Gallery of Victoria. A lot of Art Deco buildings in Melbourne can be enjoyed, he says, by looking up. Seems a good enough motivation of us Melburnians to go shooting this month. The exhibition is entitled Art Deco 1910 to 1939, running from 28th June to 5th October. You're encouraged to shoot some buildings and join the Deco Detectives, by adding the photos to their mashup interactive map - with the possibility of winning a double pass to the exhibition each week until the 3rd of October.

Or, simply enjoy shooting Art Deco buildings and post them via Flickr, Picasa, Panoramio. How about it?

Things to read from the NGV:

• Clues to help identify Art Deco (pdf)
  
• Melbourne websites for more information (pdf)
• Visit Victoria list of buildings
  
• Visit Victoria info
• Walking Melbourne Art Deco Building Search
• Art Deco Building Preservation by the Art Deco Society

From Melbourne

From Melbourne

 

From Melbourne

From Melbourne

Just a shot

Haven't posted a shot for some time. Well, here's one then. Outside the Myer window, Bourke Street, Melbourne at night. Reminds me of the night terrors that Alan Shore (James Spader) is alleged to have in Boston Legal

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Warm feelings

It's a few days past the anniversary of my Dad's passing away. I was passing the Keilor East Cemetery on the way to a client's office. I had the 7-14mm with me, just in case - Keilor is a place I frequent so it's an adventure going there, with the GPS.

In this shot, there is a contrail from a plane, the sun is actually in frame at the top left. I have another shot, more exaggerated because of the angle of this nearest gravestone. I like this better, even with the flare beauty spot.

I am looking for less exaggerated perspectives at 7mm (14mm EFL) and yet retain the width of view.

The City after dark with the 7-14mm UWA

The Zuiko Digital 7-14mm ultra wide angle is quite a distinctive lens. During the daytime, you need to think about how the 14mm EFL handles circles and converging lines close to you. At night, it's different.

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Travels with my wide angles

It's not the best of times for other things, but I am with a plethora of wide angle lenses on different cameras - the first time I can say that I have such luxury. Today was a sunny, winter's day. Not a day to be gloomy or depressed. So off in the car, driving, to see what we can see. I stopped at Sienna Falls, a hole-in-the-ground rejuvenation of an old clay quarry (used for Boral Brick materials).

The road really is that steep, it's not just the 7-14mm ZD lens showing off.

Then, we went off to Box Hill to have some Vietnamese beef noodles in soup (tendons) and broken rice. I paused briefly at the top and shot down into Carrington Road

del.icio.us Tags: BoxHill,CarringtonRoad,SiennaFalls,Melbourne,7-14mm,Olympus E-510