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.
Pokemon Photoshoot at the Royal Botanic Gardens
I try to attend photoshoots whenever I can and because I'm involved with a few different groups, the subject matter is quite different at times. When a meet is arranged on the Animania Forums it usually results in a quite a strange gathering. Normal meetings for shoots are strange enough, but when you're walking around Circular Quay with Pikachu in tow, things definitely take a turn for the weirder.
This was also my first trial run of the Sanho/Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA. In short, the device worked well although it has a few quirks, but I'll post up a review at a later date with the details.
Harsh lighting this time around and being at the Botanic Gardens, it's a good chance for me to familiarise myself with some of the hot spots to take photos from for later sessions. There are quite a few things I need to improve upon, but I've only noticed them whilst in post production. I didn't bring my flash cord, so off camera flash was not possible, but even then I only have two hands. A pity because there are a number of shots I would have loved to experiment with. I haven't made up my mind as to whether I like the vignetting on my 10-20mm. It's not bad at 20mm, but anything less than that and I'm hesitant to run with it.
Anyway, photos! I think I need to be a little less lazy when I'm shooting for fun as I didn't get all that many frames and hence not that many keepers. I could get better and improve my "hit" rate, but that requires shooting more which is exactly what I should be doing in the first place!
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