Alpha Photography Blog

Preparing for an upcoming trip I find myself taking a look at my photography equipment and doing a check to make sure all is in working order and that I have everything I need.

I always like to make sure I have a few different memory cards, as I have been caught out with relying on one card and it corrupting, leaving me without a working camera, as there is no built in memory in my camera.

My current cards are a few years old now, so I decided to get myself a new 8GB card.  It’s getting increasingly difficult to find cards of smaller size.  Generally I like about a 2GB or 4GB, but in the better quality (faster speed) options, these don’t seem to be available in the brand I like (Sandisk).

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Event photography is almost as tension filled as wedding photography.  You get one shot at it and it has to be right.  Admittedly, the advent of digital photography has made this much easier.  However, on the day you need to be prepared and have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, otherwise, before you know it, the event is over and you haven’t achieved what you wanted.

Recently, I photographed the TedX Byron Bay event.  If you want to see some truly inspiring 18 minute presentations by some of the best minds in the world, check it out - www.ted.com.

One of the main challenges I had with this event was the lighting.  It was a fabulous event and the lighting was focused on the speakers, so it made my job pretty difficult.

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Byron Bay is a natural wonder.  As the eastern most point in Australia, it boasts a colourful history and existence.  It is standing contradiction where yuppies meet hippies and cocktails mix with marijuana smoke.

On a recent visit, I was reminded of how beautiful this part of Australia is.  The majestic natural beauty is breathtaking, especially on days when the weather was as glorious as the day I was exploring the area.

Added to which, while admiring the view from the lookout, I saw a pod of dolphins swimming along the coast!

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I know it’s been a while since I’ve written.  My apologies for that.

It’s fun breaking rules every now and then.  One of those fundamental rules in photography is to not photograph into the sun.  In portraits, it’s better to make your subject squint than to photograph with the sun behind them

In this case, I tried it out on a morning along Melbourne’s Southbank area - with interesting results…

Here is a nice effect - the sun is hitting a glass building and spraying out like a star:

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Going to theme parks is fun.  For me, this was a recent trip to Movieworld on the Gold Coast, and it meant I got to be a kid for a day - riding rollercoasters and watching grown ups in cartoon animal suits entertain children.

I have to admit to never having been a huge fan of rollercoasters - particularly the ones that spin you upside down.  And, the last time I went to Movieworld (which was about 12 years ago), I chickened out on the Lethal Weapon ride.  This time I was determined to go on that ride!  I did, and I think my brain got moved around in the process…

It’s often difficult to capture a day like this in photos, as there are lots of people around, and everything is so close together, so getting a decent shot isn’t easy.

One thing to do, is to get there as soon as the park opens and hurriedly take some photos before people arrive.  Or make them disappear like wizard magic…

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Travelling is fun.  Travel photography allows you to capture the memories and look back on them fondly later on.

My last visit to Adelaide a few months ago happened to coincide with Adelaide Festival.  On the Saturday night I headed out into town to check out the light extravaganza.  It was projecting colourful light mosaics onto the facades of Adelaide’s historic buildings.  Check this out:

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Landscape photography is something I’m particularly interested in - mainly because I love to travel.

I’ve seen some pretty varied landscapes, and some are easier to photograph than others.  Recently I visited Victor Harbour in South Australia for the first time, and took the opportunity to walk over to Granite Island.  It is a fascinating place, and not just because you can get there on a horse drawn ‘coach’.

The position and weather make this a pretty weather ravaged place.  Add some lichen, and you have the makings of some interesting photographs…

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Going through some recent photos, I can across two shots which looked pretty hopeless when I took them (I was scouting out wedding photography locations with a bride and groom to be, and the weather that day was miserable).

But, I decided to have a play in old faithful Photoshop….

Here is one of the originals:

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One of the things that you need to make most landscape photographs work, is sunlight and at least some blue sky.

On a trip earlier this year to Byron Bay, in northern NSW, Australia, sunlight was a little lacking.

So, I just waited until there was a hint of sunlight and then let Photoshop do the rest!

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Having recently photographed a friend’s wedding, I realised again how much planning and detail goes into a wedding.

Wedding photography focuses primarily on capturing the bride and groom on their big day.  Something else though that is important are the decorations, and what has been organised to “pretty up” the event.

Every time I’m asked to photograph a wedding, I’m also asked to capture the church before the ceremony, and the reception venue before guests are allowed inside.  Someone (usually the bride) has spent hours designing the flower and table arrangements, and they rarely get to enjoy them on the actual day, so the photograph allows them to enjoy the view in retrospect.

Here are a few different images…

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