Muki.Dorifuto.com Photography, Motorcycles, Anime and a Dog…

Kingdom Hearts 2 / Organisation XIII Photoshoot at Cockatoo Island

This would be the second time I've shot at Cockatoo Island, but once again in the rain. Meeting up with people from the Animania Forum, we missed the first ferry, which was probably fortunate since we had waited the rain out a bit before proceeding.

I missed quite a few things the first time around on the island and so whilst I knew of a few spots to take photos, there were also new and interesting things to try. On the upper side the the island, an entire area that was previously closed off had opened up. I didn't get many usable shots in this area, but there's always next time.

I'm not particularly liking the use of my Sigma 10-20mm on a full frame camera. The vignetting is nice (albeit strange) for a few shots, but shortly after becomes rather overused. A 35mm 1.4 is still a whiles away yet, so in the meantime, I just have to make do with what I have.

My composition needs improvement, that which can only be fixed through more (creative) shooting, but in time all will fall into place. One of my goals this time around was to make better use of my flash and whilst I made a partial improvement, I'd really like to jump to more off camera work, ala Strobist style.

Lessons learned? Know the limitations of your hardware; reframe to avoid subjects at the edges of wide angle lenses, don't rely on your 70-200mm or you'll become creatively stale. Charge your flash batteries after a wedding the previous day! -2EV or so in ambient for flash photography will fool your post processing software; think about what is being "metered" as the "correct" exposure in post. Jeans are once again such a good friend.