Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i Australian Photography

Even in an era of mega-megapixels, vast dynamic range, and lenses so sharp they can make your eyes bleed, black and white has a place in photography that transcends any kind of technology, trend, or era. It’s a genre that speaks to both the past and present of photography, while continuing to captivate a new generation of photographers. The perfect black and white image is something you could spend a lifetime chasing. So, this issue, our annual black and white photography special, is something with a rare weight to it – not the least that it celebrates the best work of photographers in Australia and New Zealand through The Mono Awards, but also that it provides a platform for an artform that is so important to photography. Creatively speaking, black…

I find Aperture Priority Mode the most creative and easiest to understand setting when it comes to learning and teaching people about photography. But when I need to be more technically accurate for a specific shoot, other modes come into play. Today I want to talk about one of them, Shutter Priority (Tv), which means I control the shutter speed and let the camera select an appropriate aperture for me. Shutter Priority is a key mode for sports, action, and bird photography, but in my experience most professional photographers of these genres will stick to Aperture Priority, with a few adding Manual Mode with limited Auto ISO to the mix. That’s not to say Shutter Priority doesn’t have its place though, so let’s look at two examples of different…

PRESENTED BY SUPPORTING SPONSORS Now in its fourth year, the Mono Awards 2022 featured a prize pool of more than $12,000 thanks to sponsors SanDisk, Momento and Momento Pro, in our hunt for the best black and white imagery in the region. Thousands of images from photographers in Australia and New Zealand were entered in the competition, with photographers Karen Waller, Tebani Slade, and Steve Nicholls, taking out the People, Places and Animals categories, respectively. The competition was judged by a panel of twelve professional photographers, selected for their expertise in the black and white format. This year we’ve devoted more space to showcasing the finalists, and over the next few pages you can see the top 40 images across the three categories in the competition, as well as judges’…

SUPPORTING SPONSORS WINNER STEVE NICHOLLS Steve Nicholls describes bird photography as a way to capture and share fleeting moments in the natural world with his two children. He says his current focus is producing compelling photographs where any interesting animal behaviour recorded is secondary to capturing an aesthetically pleasing image. “Focusing firstly on lighting, composition and the natural environment is a meditative process which forces me to stop being reactionary and to photograph with intent,” he says. instagram.com/stevejack2 PELICAN ON THE DEFENSIVE. As the afternoon came to a close at Woodman Point in Western Australia, this pelican stood alone on a large rock overlooking a small rocky pool. I positioned myself low to make sure the pelican rose completely above the horizon line, and stopped down my lens to bring focus…

I’ve always loved black and white photography. It completely transforms a photograph and allows it to take on a totally new feel. And although some of my favourite images over the past 15 years are black and white, I rarely ever shoot anything with black and white at the front of my mind. When processing my photos, I’ll often work on the image as a colour file before wondering how it might look in black and white. That just seems to be the way it has worked for me - somewhat organically. Similarly, some of my favourite photographs have happened organically. No pre-planning or pre-visualising. Instead, just a scene I stumbled across, and maybe didn’t think much of at the time of shooting, or even until months or years later…

POLLY FENTON Untitled EDITOR’S COMMENT Polly Fenton says this portrait of a girl from the Bari tribe was taken in a market in Turmi, Omo Valley, Ethiopia. “I wanted to capture her strong, feminine face and natural elegance, wearing a traditional outfit of goatskin decorated with cowrie shells and beads,” she says. This is a great, warm portrait helped by some flattering light and a lovely subject that really entices the viewer into exploring the frame. Smart move to choose an aperture that means we see all the fine details nice and sharp as well. TECHNICAL DETAILS Fujifilm X-T2. 18-135mm lens @42.5mm. 1/60s @f10, ISO 1600. JACOB DEDMAN Untitled EDITOR’S COMMENT There’s something lovely and timeless about Jacob Dedman’s Your Best Shot winning portrait for this month. He tells us…

SUPPORTING SPONSORS WINNER KAREN WALLER Karen Waller is an Adelaide-based professional photographer with a background in visual art and painting. Her professional and personal work covers a variety of genres including portrait, commercial, landscape, and fine art. She says that finding the story and capturing the humanity of her portrait subject is key in her image-making. As a member of the now defunct AIPP, she achieved the level of Master Photographer, and won the title of AIPP SA Portrait Photographer of the Year four times. Over the years, Waller has also won a number of photographic awards. karenwaller.com.au MARTY. My portrait of Marty was captured on his front veranda at his home in Adelaide. It is a place where he often spends time watching the world pass by and connecting with…

In this photo editing masterclass, we look at how to capture and edit for more striking and dynamic black and white results. Black and white photography is often perceived as being a very pure form of photographic visual communication, in that we expect it to communicate a photojournalistic 'truth'. This perception came about through it being used by newspapers to tell factual stories in the early days of mass visual communication, before colour was available. However, the only 'truth' is that black and white doesn't exist unless you are unfortunate enough to be colourblind! That said, black and white photography (often also referred to as 'monochrome photography') has in recent years become the realm of the photographic artist, be it via street photography, portraiture, or landscapes, but just about all…

I am fortunate to live on the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand, which is a photographer’s paradise. To the east we have thickly-forested hills leading up to the majestic Southern Alps, to the west is the wild and rugged coastline of the Tasman Sea. In between, our scenery ranges from glaciers, gorges, rivers and lakes to blowholes, limestone caves and groves of Nikau palms. Plenty to point a camera at! A short drive from home is the Grey River, which flows westward for 120 kilometres before entering the Tasman Sea across the notorious Greymouth bar. Flanking the mouth of the river are two breakwaters, locally referred to as the tipheads; Blaketown to the south and Cobden (also known as Shipwreck Point) to the north. From vantage points…

WATCH YOUR WHITE BALANCE Alida Bonotto made this image at Wilson’s Prom, the southern most point of the Australian mainland and 250 kilometres away from the lights of Tasmania. “I thought I had escaped from the dreaded orange glow caused by light pollution, but I’m not sure if the glow here is light pollution or the natural glow of the Milky Way or a combination of both. Mt Oberon is 558m high and I like how it is dwarfed by the massiveness of the Milky Way”. That glow you can see in this image Alida, is probably the Milky Way, but the reason it is glowing orange could be because you have the White Balance on your camera set to a daylight setting. If you are shooting in JPEG mode…

PORTRAIT OF 'SILENT STRENGTH' WINS $50,000 NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE WAYNE Quilliam’s portrait Silent Strength 2021, depicting Aurukun man Eric Yunkaporta in ceremonial head-wear, has won the 2022 National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP). Quilliam is a leading Indigenous photographic artist, curator and cultural advisor and describes the portrait as like capturing Mother Earth. “In its purest essence, the evolution of culture connects us to Mother Earth. My role as a storyteller continues to evolve and this capture is akin to a trickle of water merging into a small stream then into the ocean. This image of Eric Yunkaporta from Aurukun is Culture”. In making their decision, the judging panel - made up of award-winning press photographer Nick Moir together with Sandra Bruce, the National Portrait Gallery’s Director of Collection and…

UPCOMING COMPETITION THEMES APRIL ISSUE INDOORS 31 January 2023 NOVEMBER ISSUE TEXTURE 31 August 2022 JUNE ISSUE MANIPULATION 31 March 2023 DECEMBER ISSUE FOG 30 September 2022 YOUR ENTRY 1. Email your entry to yourbestshot@australianphotography.com with the name of the competition theme in the email subject line, for example: Weather, Abstract, Landscape, etc.2. The image file must be the same as your name, for example Jane Smith.jpg. If you enter multiple images, each new image file name should be appended with a unique number, eg Jane Smith2.jpg3. A maximum of three images can be entered per person.4. Images must be in JPEG format.5. Email file size must not exceed 7MB.6. Please include the following information about your entry in the body of your email: Name, image title and up to…

SUPPORTING SPONSERS WINNER TEBANI SLADE Tebani Slade was a runner-up in last year’s Mono Awards Places category, and describes her passion as street, travel, and documentary photography. She is widely exhibited both nationally and internationally, most recently in May 2022 at the Milan Image Art Fair. In 2022, she was on Team Australia for the World Photographic Cup. tebani.com.au MATERA 2. This image was taken in the town of Matera in southern Italy. It is claimed to be the third oldest continually inhabited settlement in the world. It has been home to someone for at least 9,000 years. There are many layers to this ancient town and I wanted to show that. So, I made an in-camera multiple exposure of four images to create this photo. WHAT THE JUDGES SAID This…

Stabiliser gimbals have increasingly become a must-have in the modern toolkit for professional videographers, and the RS 3 Pro, Chinese-company DJI’s latest stabilisation system, is a powerful tool in the right hands – although it requires a bit of finessing to get the most out of it. When you do, you’ll find it makes panning, tilting, racking focus, and following subjects a breeze, even with a heavy camera and lens. This is helped by its large 4.5kg payload, handy smartphone app and brighter 1.8" OLED touchscreen compared to the one on its predecessor. BUILD DJI sent me its Pro Combo for review, which includes a few additions over the regular Pro package. For the $1,599 RRP you get 21 items in the box, including six USB and HDMI cables to…

Late last year I saw an advertisement for an expression of interest to participate in a group exhibition with a diverse selection of creatives in the Central West of NSW. The exhibition sought artists of all mediums to respond to one or more tracks, title or words on an album created by musicians during COVID. Titled “While the World Waits”, the project was the idea of Arts OutWest, as a way to kick start an array of diverse artist practices throughout the Central West of NSW and to showcase the talent which exists in the region. It was my first time putting together a CV and an expression of interest in being involved. I was nervous and unsure whether I was ready, but I was successful in being selected to…