Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2021 i Australian Photography

If the last year has shown us anything, it’s that expectations we may have had that the pandemic would be just a ‘2020 thing’ were ambitious to say the least. Another year of heartbreak and sadness for so many of us around the world has continued, and it’s only when you look back do you get a sense of perspective on how disrupted the last 12 months have been for all of us. For me, maybe it was the impact of the floods in greater Sydney in March, the three months of lockdown in the later half of the year, or perhaps just having a new baby in the house, but 2021 hasn’t been a particularly memorable year for my own photography, and despite being lucky enough to use some…

SELECTED from more than 50,000 entries from 95 countries, the winners of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition have been announced for 2021. French underwater photographer and biologist Laurent Ballesta was announced as this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his image, Creation, that captures camouflage groupers exiting their milky cloud of eggs and sperm in Fakarava, French Polynesia. Every year, for five years, Laurent and his team returned to this lagoon, diving day and night so as not to miss the annual spawning that only takes place around the full moon in July. After dark, they were joined by hundreds of grey reef sharks, hunting the groupers in packs. Overfishing threatens this vulnerable species, but in Fakarava the fish are protected within a special…

Photographing our oceans is a strong passion of mine, and I have been fortunate enough to see many amazing and unique moments where the light has beautifully interacted with waves, giving them diverse characteristics. My goal with wave photography is to make people feel the energy that I do when confronted by the ocean. This energy can vary hugely and be found through the different shapes and structures of the water. When the conditions are right, the light plays with the surface of the water, while the wave creates unique reflections, shadows, and forms that only a photo can reveal. And all this happens in a split second – a very short moment when the water defies gravity and delivers its raw power. But while many people think taking photos…

PHOTOPILLS iOS, Android: A$14.99 It’s easy enough to find sunrise and sunset times anywhere in the world, although the PhotoPills app goes a lot further in that it allows you to see where and when the moon, the sun and even the milky way will be at any given time, and as far in advance as you wish. The app allows you to virtually check out locations and to find the best compositions for light in advance, giving you the best chance of being in the right place at the right time to get that perfect image. The app can prove invaluable once you get to grips with the basics, and it’s a whole lot easier than fumbling around in the dark guessing where the sun will rise. FIRSTLIGHT iOS,…

Of all the genres of photography, sports must be one of the most challenging to make a career from. For a start, you need behind the scenes access, gear that can help you capture fast moving action in constantly changing lighting conditions, and the ability to upload your images at warp speed to meet an insatiable appetite for fresh content. Combine this with the real risk you could miss the moment or a critical turning point in a match, and it’s obvious that it’s a career quick to weed out all but the cream of the crop. This is something senior Getty sports photographer Rob Cianflone knows all too well, a veteran of more than 30 years shooting just about every sport under the sun. LITTLE DRIBBLERS As you’d expect,…

Thankfully, devices aimed at streamlining this process are beginning to hit the market and the latest iteration to MSI’s Summit series of laptops takes another leap in this direction with a staggering amount of functionality for photographers built into a sleek and portable form factor. ALL ROUNDER As the name suggests, the Summit E16 Flip Evo is a foldable laptop, offering the full laptop computing experience as well as a backward folding hinge and touch screen that essentially transforms the device into a tablet. The E16 is far from the first folding laptop to hit the market however MSI has done much to improve and refine the model. With an incredibly versatile included stylus and utilising their 16:10 “Golden Ratio” approach to screen design, the tablet mode of the E16…

SAMUEL MARKHAM Samuel Markham is a self-taught landscape and wilderness photographer based on the South Coast, NSW. Since picking up a camera in 2011, he has been making his visions a reality. See more at samuelmarkham. photography. IAN HOLLIS Ian Hollis is a passionate 22-year-old photographer from South-West Sydney. He works as a primary school teacher, and says photographing the ocean is the perfect way to spend his free time. See more at ianhollisphotography.com STEVE THOMAS Steve Thomas has been racing, shooting and writing about bikes and adventure travel for most of his life, and has earned his crust from it for 25-plus years. See more of his work at stevethomasimages.com SHREYAS YADAV Shreyas Yadav is an engineer and wildlife and nature photographer from India. He is also a writer…

Delete…that’s not sharp. Delete… that one’s blurred. Hang on, I like that look! Sorting through our images like this is something that all photographers probably do after most of our shoots. And although it’s often easy just to ditch anything you think isn’t quite perfect, sometimes you’ll notice a hidden gem. I’m talking about blurry images, something I think can be unique, creative, and downright beautiful! Over the years I can remember many shoots where I have successfully captured all the sharp images I could ever need, and then have thought ‘what else could I shoot?’. It’s times like these I’ll always try to capture creative blur images. Back in 1981 in the rainforests of Lamington National Park, I distinctly remember having little option but to capture creative blur shots.…

As much as many serious photographers may scoff at the concept of taking mobile photography seriously, if you know what you’re doing and take your time, then you can make excellent images on any recent-model smartphone. Today, mobile phone technology is incredibly advanced, and even four- or five-year-old devices are capable of producing great pictures. Sure, mobile devices lack those big sensors with their wide dynamic range, and aperture choices that the lenses we attach to them afford; but for sheer ease of use and versatility they cannot be beaten as image-making machines. Once you embrace this, you’ll realise that a smartphone’s resolution is more than enough for high-end use and print reproduction as well. And as for Instagram, social media and many websites? Well, on those platforms you are…

It’s easy to get drawn into purchasing and subscribing to photography apps, and while many are really great at what they do, you will most likely end up falling back on a handful at the very most. Camera 645 Pro is a solid app for capture, with DNG and film simulation options included. Hydra is highly rated for low light imagery – but personally I’ve never taken to it. The Photographers Ephemeris is a great tool for planning, although it can be somewhat bewildering. A nice basic and easy to use app for tracking sunrise and sunset is Sun Seeker. On the processing side there are several excellent paid options, including Darkroom, a subscription app with huge potential as a mobile (and iPad) alternative to Lightroom, especially worth considering if…

Back when I first started editing images in Lightroom, I quickly worked out how to make changes to my images, but I never really understood how to adjust isolatedparts of an image. I might have wanted to just edit a bird in flight for example, or just sharpen the eyes of a tiger. I had no idea how to select just the deer in one of my images or adjust the colour of only the grass. And I was clueless about how to remove a yellow or blue colour cast in an image too – the list went on! Does this sound familiar to you? Are you strugglingment to adjust individual elements within your images? Well, this tutorial is for you. I’m going to show you the exact steps I…

STEP 1 SELECT THE RADIAL FILTER TOOL First, select the Radial Filter tool (Keyboard Shortcut: Shift + M). It’s located at the top of the basic panel (1) Make the initial selection on the area to be edited. You can do this by clicking on the area, and drawing a circle or oval around it (2). Then, check the ‘Show Selected mask overlay’ checkbox at the bottom of the image. By default, the area outside the Radial Filter will be selected. To change this to the area inside, check the Invert checkbox to select the area inside the Radial Filter (3). STEP 2 SELECT THE COLOR RANGE MASK Now, in the Range mask option, select Color from the drop-down (1). Like with the Graduated Filter, use the Color range selection tool…

Back in 2018, the Sony A7 III really marked a turning point for mirrorless. Here was an affordably priced full-frame camera ($3,099) that had solid autofocus, great image quality and a familiar user experience that made for a particularly compelling product then; and remains so for many photographers, even three years later. In fact, I've used one as my personal camera since it launched, and having shot nearly 50,000 frames with it I’m pretty aware of its strengths and weaknesses. So, with the arrival of the A7 IV, the question is: is Sony’s newest camera still competitive in an era when all the major camera brands now offer solid, lower priced, full-frame mirrorless cameras as well? For this review I've had a pre-production model of the A7 IV for the…

It was 1986 when I first accompanied my Serbian partner Max to his hometown of Belgrade. Life in the former Yugoslavia was certainly very different to life in Brisbane. On the surface, everything seemed so dull and dismal: broken footpaths, cigarette butts everywhere, dirty old cars and buses, common areas of apartments so uncared for and unbelievable inflation. However, it was a different story when I began to meet Max’s family and friends. They were such amazingly friendly and welcoming people with wonderful food and music. Once I adjusted to the different customs, I have since looked forward to the many visits over the years and have noticed many changes. Photography has always been my hobby, but since retiring and then joining a camera club about five years ago, I…

BLACK AND WHITE BEAUTY Geoff Kaiser writes that he had been, "keeping an eye on the sunflowers in his backyard waiting for the day when one was on the verge of opening and the lighting was soft to not cause harsh shadows. The image was originally captured in colour, and then converted to monochrome in Lightroom. By good luck, a small spider was in the flower to give an extra bit of interest". You have picked a great flower, and the textures in those hairy leaves are just wonderful. The black-and-white is perfect, the square format suits the content, and you filled the frame well with a radial symmetry. This image has good tone, contrast and loads of detail. That bug just sneaks into the bottom of the frame and…

Australia needed rain. Parts of the country had been burning for months and we were in the grip of the worst bushfire season in recorded history. On the 31st December 2019, my family and I went to war with the Currowan Pyro-Cumulonimbus firestorm when we tried to protect our precious family home from the devastating Black Summer Australian bushfires. That day was terrifying, and it’s something I will never forget. The fire hit us with brutal force and left our property a smouldering mess. Everything was either burnt or melted. The blackened earth exposed scorched dead animals and trees that vented smoke for months afterwards. We lost a small cottage but managed to save the main homestead. My family and I all safely survived, but the internal scars live on.…

SEASONS THIS MONTHS WINNER ROD NAZER Autumn in Birmingham, UK EDITOR’S COMMENT Rod Nazer captured this quite lovely image in Birmingham and tells us he was attracted by the reflection and colourful Autumn leaves, still wet from the recent rain. “I feel that the red telephone box adds a point of interest and a quintessentially English feel to the image,” he says. This is a beautifully sharp image that has lots of elements for a viewer to explore – those leaves, the puddle and reflections and the pedestrian walking towards us. It could feel busy, but by using the leaves to anchor the foreground you’ve created a nicely balanced image. SAMSUNG GALAXY S9+, 1/50S @F2.4, ISO 160. HIGHLY COMMENDED KATIE TURNBULL Bushfire EDITOR’S COMMENT Katie Turnbull took this powerful, emotive,…

• Always make sure your device is powered, and if you’re heading out for any length of time, carry a charger, a cable, and a small power bank if possible.• You can shoot good quality and high-res panoramic images directly from the native app. Try not to make them too long, and lock in an overall focus and exposure before shooting.• Unless you really have to, avoid moving subjects as smartphones do struggle to freeze action.• If you have an iPhone, the recent iOS update allows you to take a long exposure shot from a Live Photo, which works by composting the video into a still image. To use it, turn on Live Photo, hold very still or use a tripod, and shoot. You’ll then have the option to combine…

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STEP 1 SELECT THE FILTER First, start by selecting the Graduated Filter tool (Keyboard Shortcut: M), located at the top of the Basic panel. Make the initial selection on the area to be selected by clicking and dragging over the area you’d like to edit (1) until you have it covered (2). Next, check the Show selected mask overlay checkbox at the bottom of the image which will show your selection in a red colour. Once you’re happy, uncheck that checkbox. STEP 2 THE RANGE MASK At the top of the Develop module, select the Range mask option (1), and then Color from the drop-down (2). Pick the Color range selection eyedropper tool (3) and move it across to the image. Click the colour in the image you want to target. You…

SCORE 8.4 HANDLING Sony has taken great strides in improving the design of its cameras, and here it shows. FEATURES Little to complain about here. The A7 IV is a thoroughly modern mirrorless experience, although the rear LCD could be a little higher res. AUTOFOCUS Excellent. Sony’s AF continues to set the benchmark for autofocus performance, and you don't lose much compared to the A1. IMAGE QUALITY Images display tons of detail. Noise is well controlled at higher ISOs. VALUE FOR MONEY A tricky one. It’s considerably more expensive than the A7 III, and as such not quite the bargain that camera was, but its features are excellent. FINAL WORD Three years has been a long wait for Sony shooters, but it’s been worth the wait. Once you get over…

Joining APS is great for people who are passionate about photography. I have been engrossed throughout the pandemic with projects inspired by APS, like entering approved international competitions. I now have only one more Acceptance to start my application for APS Honours. Special APS Interest groups on Facebook support particular passions: video making, creative expression, and street photography to name a few – or you can start your own, if you are a member of APS. Then there are APS competitions with a particular theme, like ‘Moments from the Australian 20’s’ (including 2020 and 2021), for APS members only, with votes from APS members to determine the winners. I find inspiration and motivation in projects. I plan on doing the photobook project competition next year. Other undertakings are regularly offered…

WIN! Thanks to our great sponsors WD and SanDisk, Geoff Kaiser has won a WD 8TB My Cloud Home Hard Drive valued at $479 and a SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD Black valued at $254. This WD My Cloud Home Hard Drive makes it easy to create your own cloud based storage space using your existing WiFi network. It’s easy to setup by simply connecting the My Cloud Home straight into your WiFi router, then you’re ready to copy your files across, setup automatic backups of your Mac or PC, and access it all remotely via the free app. The Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD is an ideal storage solution that you can take with you on the go, whether you’re transferring files at school, or storing photos you take on…