Polo Crosse @ Euberta

Not to be mistaken for plain old polo, polocrosse is perhaps the mongrel version of the regal game. The difference, so it was explained to me by a very knowledgeable lass (that's her in the last three photos), is that at polo you eat caviar and drink Moet while at polocrosse you eat salt 'n' vinegar chips and drink rum...

I'd watched polocrosse from a distance, sitting up in the grandstand at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, but I had never been up close, nor had I been to a fair dinkum country carnival so it was certainly an experience, arriving at the Euberta showground to be met by a scene of chopped up fields ringed by horse floats, trucks and pillars of light blue smoke from the many camp fires rising slowly into an overcast sky with the thundering of hooves and vocal, tongue-in-cheek jeers...

Under leaden skies two players battle for the ball

Players look on as their team vie for possession

The agility of the rider and horse is nothing short of impressive!

Shooting for goal

BYO toy ute and John Deere excavator...

Watching for the throw in

Charging down the field, hooves thundering on the turf

A mammoth hit dislodges the ball from an opponents racket

If you want to know more about polocrosse or are interested in finding your closest club, check out the Polocrosse Association of NSW's homepage.

As always make sure you head over and like my FB page to keep up to date with everything that's going on.

Winter's Here: Head for the Snow!

Well it has been a while since I took the virtual pen from the holster, in fact last time I posted it was waaay back in Autumn! But now that winter is here, why not head for the hills and explore the snow through your lens?

Three Mile Dam, Kiandra

Planning

Planning if critical for a successful, safe trip into the hills. It is not like a quick trip down to the local lookout or beach. It is a harsh, unforgiving environment that deserves respect. But good planning will also provide you with the best results.

For me, there's nothing more enticing than a fresh, untouched blanket of snow. For this reason, I plan on being there toward the tail end of the next snowfall or first thing the next day. Keep an eye out for the forecasts on websites like Weatherzone or the Bureau of Meteorology. For the more adventurous, you can check out the snow forecast models {here}.

The Cold

The cold is more than just taxing on your digits! In extremely cold weather you may find your batteries can loose their charge very, very quickly. In short space your battery that normally gives you 700-800 shots can pull up stumps after only a couple of hundred. The key here is to try and keep your batteries warm, by any means possible (I heard of one wedding photographer keeping her batteries in the straps of her bra!).

A great asset in battling the cold is fingerless mittens. These nifty little things have a mitten type pocket that flips over your fingers, keeping them toasty warm. When you need the dexterity back, simply flip the pocket back and there are your toasty digits ready to rock and roll.

Another common problem when going from cold to warm environments is condensation. Pretty quickly the glass elements on your lens can get a nice layer of fog and while these can make for atmospheric throwbacks to the 80's the condensation can pose a threat to your gear.

While there isn't a great deal you can do to eliminate the fogging up of lenses - other than keeping everything warm - once you're done throw a couple of those gel sachets from shoe boxes in your camera bag. These will absorb the moisture from your gear and help avoid problems down the track.

Exposure

Eucumbene River, Kiandra.

Snow is bright. Very bright. Anyone who skis or boards will now just how bright the snow can be. Unfortunately this can play havoc with your exposure meter, resulting in underexposed scenes. Just keep this in mind when you're shooting and perhaps dial in a bit of exposure compensation.

Something I recently tried was exposure bracketing scenes and then blending the exposures into an HDR. This just seemed to really bring back the scene to how I remembered it.

There's a couple of things to watch though: very quickly you can lose the snow to a muddy grey colour. Don't forget that snow is bright white (unless you come across a patch that has recently had a wombat relieve itself on)! It's supposed to be borderline blown and it just really lacks if you move too far away from that.

Alpine heath and rock,
Thredbo

Black and White?
Don't dismiss black and white. In fact I think black and white lends itself pretty well to snowy scenes as they're already largely monochramatic. Black and white also allows the viewer to focus on the textures and patterns present within the scene; deep blue skies, gnarled tree trunks or lichen covered rocks are some of the elements you'll come across up in the hills.

Reflector!

Lilly enjoying her first real experience
of snow, Mt Selwyn

Having what is essentially an endless reflector underneath you can yield some pretty ethereal results, especially when you're photographing people.

A funny thing about the brain is that it remembers what it expects to see. And when you're outside your brain expects to see shadows under your chin, nose, eyebrows etc. But with this huge reflector sitting under you, the shadows are largely filled in resulting in said ethereal look. Throw in a bit of fill flash and you can get some quite flattering even light!

So that's all I have for now. All the usual tips, tricks and rules (to be obeyed or broken) for landscapes still apply. Have you made a trip down to the snow? I'd love to see some results if you have!

As always, make sure you head over to my FB page to keep up to date with new blogs, photos and other little tidbits of fact, fiction and fun.

Cheers,
Will

Corporate Images: Why They're Worth the Investment

Traffic is the name of the game when it comes to business presence on the web and social media now has the potential to play a huge role in driving traffic to your site. But there are some critical challenges to overcome if you wish to taste success in this area. 

Capture Their Attention

While social media is largely a free marketing platform, the trade-off is that you have to compete not only with other businesses (even non-competitor businesses) but with the constant stream of content from friends of the individual. 

Graphics will always trump text - that we know - but it is eye-catching, engaging graphics that are the key to success and the key to capturing the attention of a potential client. Prior to the widespread availability of digital cameras, it was good enough to simply have a photo in the ether. But now that pretty much everyone is walking around with not only a camera, but a video camera in the form of their smart phone, your images really have to be at the next level.

Pinterest
Pinterest is quickly becoming one of the most popular social media platforms for businesses. The benefits for small business are numerous and well covered by Web123's terrific blog on the subject.


While the benefits are substantial the challenge presented is just as great. 

 As you can see in the screenshot above, Pinterest is almost exclusively populated by graphical content; images, illustrations and infographics make up the vast majority of what is posted to users' boards. So while it is an excellent forum for displaying your wares, you need some pretty speccy images for it to be worthwhile. You want your images to stand out from the rest and grab the viewers' attention; you want your image to scream "CLICK ON ME!!!"


You Have the Traffic, Now Keep Them! 
Ok, so you have people coming to your site. Whether it is by referral (such as coming from Pinterest or another social media platform) or direct from search engines, you want visitors to be engaged and you want them to hang around; bright, rich graphics are an excellent way to do it.

Take a look at the image above... Which site holds your attention? I don't know about you, but the site on the left is like a brick wall. Visually it stops you in your tracks; a frying pan to the face. On the other hand, the site on the right engages you visually, it draws you in. The images invite you to explore the site further and help to break up the text. 

Avoid Stock!
In this day and age of corporate-consumer relations, a generic stock photo can lack genuineness. Consumers want to see you, your staff, your premises and your products. 

Don't see this as a 'bare-all' but rather the first step in developing a more personal rapport with your potential customer. It is an opportunity to introduce them to you and your business before they venture into your store, engage your services or buy your product. After all over 75% of consumers use the internet to research products and companies as a part of their decision to buy. 


Use a Professional Photographer
It's hardly a surprise that this is included, but I think there is a perception out there that quality photography is something that can be short-cut. 

Professional photographers are professional for a reason. And it is no coincidence that successful companies have invested in quality photos for their website and print media. Whether it be product, portrait or location, a professional photographer, with your vision in mind will be able to create an engaging, attractive image that not only shows someone the product or person, but tells the story behind it. 

The same dish is shown in both photos; the photo on the left was the restaurant owner's photo (for their website) and on the right is my attempt after they called me in. Which gets those juices flowing more?

In the end corporate images are really about three things:

1. Getting noticed
2. Retaining visitors on your site
3. Building a rapport with your potential client

As always I would love your feedback, so feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. You can also keep up by heading over to my Facebook Page or by following me on Twitter.

Cheers,
Will  

Emmins Family

{Thanks heaps, I can't stop looking at the photos... Words cannot explain how much I love them...} - Rani Emmins

Thanks for a fun, if not challenging, day Rani!

- Will

A Walk Around Town: HDR

Nic and Lilly are away. It's the first time, I think, that I have been left to my own devices for a whole weekend!

Sounds good, but you know what - it's actually pretty lonely.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I was doing a bit of research on HDR software. Our kitchen window faces north and through it I could see the colours of the late afternoon sun kick in... How could I resist that light? Well, I couldn't so I went for a walk around town:

If you're after information on Junee, or are thinking of making tracks here, check out Tourism Junee's site for details of attractions, events, accommodation and how to get here.

First Wedding: Five Lessons Learnt

So on Saturday I had the privilege of second shooting for well known Wagga wedding photographer Belinda Fraser. This was the first wedding I'd taken a camera along to that was neither friend nor family; this was the real deal and to put it simply I was filling my dacks!

But I survived! There were no big meltdowns or gear failing on me, it didn't rain, the earth didn't open up and swallow me whole and all in all it was a fantastic experience; one that I enjoyed immensely.

But what is the point of second shooting for a more experienced photog if you don't learn anything? Well, there is no point. So here are five things that I took away from the day...

1. Breath and Remain Calm...

I don't know about you, but I've always been prone to shutting down and going all tunnel vision when I'm really under the pump. Maybe that was helpful 10,000 years ago wandering across the savannah, but trust me, when you're shooting a group of people it really isn't helpful!

Keep a level head and slow down. Even if you only take a couple of seconds, look through your shots and force yourself to just take it a bit easy.

2. Keep It Simple. Stupid.

When I decided to accept Belinda's extremely generous offer to second shoot with her, I immediately jumped on the net and poured through hundreds, if not thousands of wedding photographs from all over the world. Why? Well I don't really know. I didn't use a single 'idea' and through observing Belinda, everything seemed to develop organically, or was a child of Belinda's prior experiences (I recognised some of the poses from our own wedding!). 

At the end of the day the bride and groom want a good record of their day and some nice, stylish, fun and flattering photos that they can hang on their wall and put into an album or book to look back on throughout the years and to one day show their grandkids. To this end I quickly realised that I had to trust my instincts, work from the basics and that the rest will come (especially true with a fun and outgoing bridal party!).

3. The Hands (and Bouquet) Matter! 

Going through my photos from the day I was pretty happy with most of them. But one thing that I did notice (and which did not occur to me at the time) was that in a lot of shots that I wasn't overly happy with, a big part of the disappointment with the image stemmed from the way the bride/bridesmaids had their hands and bouquet. 

Now this is not a criticism of them! After all it (a bouquet) is not something that you carry around with you every day! And hands' primary purpose are as tools, not to look good in a photo. This was something that I failed to recognise and treat at the time. 

4. Never Drop Your Guard

I don't mean you should walk around, fists up ready to unleash a left jab or right hook on an unsuspecting flowergirl, but to always be prepared for that candid or moment of unguarded expression.

I know from my own wedding (photographed by Belinda), some of our favourite images are candids, capturing the true characters of our family and friends; the people dearest to us (except Lilly, she was but a tiny entity!). You don't want to miss these fleeting moments of subject gold as you fiddle around trying to turn on, check settings etc.

5. Have Fun!

I know this is an oft offered piece of advice, but I can't reiterate it strongly enough. The bride and groom are after a fun day, you (I'm sure) would prefer a fun day and everyone wants to see images from when fun was had.

Sure, there's some serious stuff up front (and we can't undervalue the seriousness of the commitment) but afterward it's essentially a party to celebrate a couple's love and the coming together of two families (and a whole lot of hangers-on ie friends!). 

Looking back through the images in chronological order, there is a marked change and continued improvement in the quality of the image (not necessarily the technical quality) that coincides with when I started to relax and enjoy myself. Do this from the get-go and you're sure to come away with improved shots.

So there you go, five things from the first wedding ever shot in my capacity as a pro-photographer. But don't let the advice above be limited to weddings; truth is you could probably apply them all (well maybe not the bouquet advice) right across your photography experience.

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them...

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to check out (and 'like'!) my Facebook page and have a browse through my galleries found through the menus above.

And one last thing: thank you to Sarah and Luke and the best of luck in your journey together.

- Will 

For Those Doing it Tough

A collage of images of the Murrumbidgee River 6 March 2012

As many of you would know, our region of NSW was recently on the rough end of some very wet weather that led to both flash flooding and riverine flooding and the inundation of many homes, businesses and community buildings.

As a way of giving to those whose lives have been turned upside down by this flooding I'm offering up three shoots - one corporate and two portrait - for free. I know that this will not replace those memories, photos and heirlooms lost by the torrid surge, but it will at least help to create new ones.

So if you know of a family who've done it tough with this disaster, or a business that wants to announce to the world that they're back on their feet, send me an email through the contact page on my website (www.willbartonphotography.com.au/Other/Contact) before 16 April 2012 with your nominee's details and whether you're nominating them for a corporate or portrait package. Every nomination I receive will then go into a draw.

A bit of fine print: unfortunately due to time and travel constraints, I can only consider nominees who live within an 80km radius of Junee despite this disaster having a much farther reach.

Please share this among your friends and networks!

- Will

An Afternoon in the Park

Always have your camera ready; you never know when energetic subjects - aka kids - and wonderful light come together!

Tye (the birthday boy) and my darling Lilly
enjoying the late afternoon glow of the Autumn sun

The occasion? Tye-man's first birthday and what better way to spend a glorious early Autumn evening than with friends and a bunch of crazy kids!

How to Shoot a Sunrise and Sunset

Sunsets and sunrises are, without a doubt, some of the most photographed natural events across the world which really isn't all that surprising given that every morning/night, somewhere in the world there is a stunning, vibrantly lit sky, bathing the landscape in wonderful colours as the sun first rises over and then sinks below the horizon.

But they are also one of the most challenging scenes to capture well; the contrast is enormous, the shutter speeds can be quite slow and surprisingly often the sunset or sunrise on its own just doesn't cut the mustard.

It all starts with the sky...

An HDR sunset. Although there are clouds low in the
atmosphere, they are not widespread and there are higher
clouds present to reflect the light of the sunset.

The most important thing is to plan it. The colours sweep across the sky so quickly, that often, by the time you realise it's a great sunset, it is gone in the time it takes you to get your camera ready and find a good location. And ever worse, who wants to get up before dawn, only to be met with a boring dull sky?

So how do we know when a good sunrise or sunset is on its way? Well the key is to look to the sky and take note of the clouds, what they look like and where they are in the sky they are.

The clouds we're looking for are high up in the atmosphere (if you're into geek-speak we're looking for cirrus and alto level clouds!). These are characteristically thin, whispy clouds with little vertical development or depth. Because they're thin and high up in the atmosphere they tend not to kill a sunrise or sunset like clouds lower in the atmosphere do and the colours also tend to last longer and spread over more of the sky.

We also want to have a relatively clear horizon to allow all that wonderful light to percolate through the atmosphere and light up our clouds.

Find a good location...

An interesting foreground - in this case the silhouettes of
dawn anglers - can provide interest to a scene and really
set off, in this case, a sunrise.

As stunning as the colours may be, often they aren't enough to hold their own in a photograph. To overcome this, we still want to find interesting, complementary foregrounds.

The classic foreground is one that works well silhouetted against the sky. To work well as a silhouette, shape is the key. Think about things like a lonely dead tree on the landscape, an old bit of machinery or perhaps an interesting, identifiable cityscape.

But don't only go for the silhouette. Think outside the square and search out other foregrounds that will provide interest and depth to the image such as a water body - either reflecting the sunset or seeing through onto the bottom.

Be prepared!

The wonderful thing about a sunrise/sunset is that it is dynamic. The colours, tones and shapes change every minute of the sun's journey across the sky and you don't want to miss a second of it.

In the case of a sunrise, scope the area in the days before you plan to head out. If you wait until the morning of your planned shoot it will most likely be the case that you are still frantically searching for a good vantage point as the first rays of the day crest the horizon. 

For a sunset, get there with plenty of time to spare. The last thing you want to worry about is scurrying around in the dark trying to find a good vantage point. This can not only put a dent in your shoot, but can also pose a danger to your safety if you're in unfamiliar country.

Getting there with plenty of time will also allow you to scope out your area for the best vantage point and foreground interest. Take the time to walk around with your camera, frame potential shots and get to know your scene.

Control the exposure...

As I briefly alluded to in the opening, the dynamic contrast present in a typical sunrise/sunset scene is quite enormous, so large that you may think your only choice is either a well exposed sunset and a black foreground or a well exposed foreground and a blown out sky.

But there are a couple of things you can to avoid this...

You don't always have to shoot directly into the sun!
This image is looking almost 90 degrees from the sun,
however it still captures the soft pastel hues of the sunset
while still having a good exposure on the foreground and
through the landscape.

First up is to avoid shooting directly into the sunset. You would be surprised at how quickly the light levels drop off as you move around the horizon away from the sun. Try and find a balance between brightness and colour/interest in the sky.

If you're ready to take the plunge into more serious digital editing, you can try taking a series of exposures of the same scene and later create a high dynamic range (HDR) image. This process takes information from a number of different exposures and blends the well exposed areas into a single image. Be warned though, if not done well results can be sickeningly tacky and simply look wrong!

Another option is to invest in some special filters called graduated neutral density filters. Essentially these  are like sunglasses for your camera except that they are clear at the bottom and gradually get darker across the filter to the top. This has the effect of darkening the sky whilst maintaining the light levels of the foreground and in doing so, evening out the exposure. The filters are generally available in range from 1 stop through to 3 stop.

It is generally good practice, regardless of the method you choose, to expose with a bias towards the highlights. When we look at a sunset with our naked eye, we expect to see dark areas of shadow; we don't expect to see a blown out sky with weak colours. The same is true for a photograph!

Have the right gear...

Good gear doesn't necessarily equate to a good image; this is especially true if the person using it doesn't know how to utilise it to their advantage. But it is often difficult to get a good image without good gear.

At the very least you're going to want a sturdy tripod, a wide lens (anything from 16mm-40mm @35mm format equivalent) and a cable release. To go that bit extra invest in some graduated neutral density filters (as above), a remote shutter release and some good HDR software if you want to go down that path.

Go forth and shoot the sun!

I hope you have enjoyed my return to the more informative "how-to" type blogs and that you have gleaned some gems from it.

If you have, please share your results with me either here on my Facebook Page you can also follow me on Twitter

In this case the pre-dawn light has resulted in fairly even
tones across the scene whilst still creating some beautiful,
soft pastel colours in the sky and across the rocks. A long
exposure has caught the tumultuous motion of the ocean too

#7 - 52 Weeks Lit Up

A bit of a change this week. All my strobe gear had to be packed away to make room for the visiting in-laws so I tried to keep things to a single speedlight.

Years ago, when I first discovered off-camera lighting, I'd seen a style that is great for lighting up glass items in a product type shot.

Now back then, with the limit of a tethered flash, I couldn't really push the speedlight to where I wanted to. But that's all history now.

So the premise of the shot is to create a strongly back-lit environment. By utilising backlighting with glass objects you can just about eliminate those ugly reflections that plague front-lit images. The back lighting also does a great job of highliting the curvature of the glass structure as the light is reflected at different angles across the curved surface.

This week also saw Valentine's Day come and go and in keeping with this annual excuse for florists and jewelers to make a killing I used my wife's rose bouquet (you didn't actually think I'd be silly enough to not indulge my Valentine) as the main subject matter.

The half full beer was used for setting up and to balance the overwhelmingly soppy theme...

Unfortunately for my background I had to resort to a bit of calico (I ironed it at least!) so the first thing I had to do was completely blow it out to white.

To do this I simply moved the background so that it was 1m or so behind the bottle with the bottle on a table. The speedlight was on a stand under the table point up toward the background and out of view.

You can see how the backlighting really highlights the shape of the bottle and adds depth to the image not to mention the rich colour of the delightful amber nectar!

With the lighting sorted I moved the bottle back to my end of the table (it's important to keep well hydrated on a lazy Sunday) and brought in the flowers...

With the flower buds I moved in for some more abstract types...

And the pick of the bunch, converted to monochrome with a straw tint...

The pick... ISO100, 1/200s, f/11 @ 200mm. Speedlight at 1/8 power

One thing I'd like to see next time is more of a gradient across the background. There's a hint of it in the last image, but I'd like to see it more pronounced and I think the best way to achieve this would be to snoot the speedlight. One fore next time...

Please feel free to leave feedback or to discuss, criticise, question anything I've covered in this or any other blog, subscribe to this blog to make sure you don't miss anything and be sure to visit and 'like' my facebook page and follow me on twitter.

Thanks for reading!!!

Will

#6 - 52 Weeks Lit Up

On the back of No. 5, I wanted to continue the theme, but move it outside.

This was as simple as the week before with a single speedlite  into an umbrella on a monopod. The hardest thing for this setup was trying to keep Lilly still and occupied!

"I see the light!" ISO 100, 1/200s, f/8 speedlight on 1/2 power
into an umbrella directly above her on a monopod

Given a bit more time I would have like to make more use of the grape vines as a background, but this was taken between vacuuming and mopping of the floors, dinner and ultimately bed!

Please feel free to leave feedback or to discuss, criticise, question anything I've covered in this or any other blog, subscribe to this blog to make sure you don't miss anything and be sure to visit and 'like' my facebook page and follow me on twitter.

Thanks for reading!!!

Will

#5 - 52 Weeks Lit Up

So no doubt you would have worked out that there was no post for last week. Unfortunately the realities of fatherhood, owning a house (and having to work on said house) and full time work simply didn't give me enough time to shoot and write up #5.

However, all that means is you get two this week!

First up is an attempt to replicate the effect of soft, overhead lighting that is pretty popular in the glamour/portrait world. Unfortunately I don't yet have a stand and boom which would of course make this far easier, so instead I had to play around with what I have...

My hypothesis was pretty simple: two strobes, as high up on their stands as they can go pointing directly up into umbrella reflectors either side of the subject (me, just for something different!). This produced ok results, but for mine the lighting was a bit flat and lacked any real punch or drama.

The problem was that I had both lights slightly infront of me meaning there was plenty of overlap and spill stripping any shape from the image.

The remedy? Bring the lights more in-line with me to add more shape to the light and minimise the overlap. It didn't take much, the lights were only moved about 30cm toward me (away from the camera) and this created a better result.

Better, but still flat

Still, it wasn't where I wanted it to be and at this stage I was starting to realise that I would have a hard time of achieving what I had in my mind without a boom. Realising this, my priorities changed to now at least creating a shot with more character whilst sticking as closely as possible to the original idea.

It was pretty simple from here on, just keep moving those lights further and further back to bring more shape and direction into the shot until I eventually found a good compromise.

It was at this point that Nic happened to walk past (you'd think she would have learnt by now!) so I roped her in for a couple of shots, one of which is my pick of the bunch...

The pick of the bunch (romantic I know!) ISO 100, 1/200s, f/18 @75mm

The final details are pretty simple:

Both strobes were pointing directly up on half power and about 0.5m from us.

At the end of it all I did have some images that I was happy with, but they still didn't satisfy what I originally wanted. It'll be a while before I upgrade any of my lighting gear so I'm still going to be searching for a technique to replicate a softbox on a boom and just now one thought is to change the umbrellas to reflectors, really ramp up the output and bounce the light off the ceiling... Maybe next time?

Please feel free to leave feedback or to discuss, criticise, question anything I've covered in this or any other blog, subscribe to this blog to make sure you don't miss anything and be sure to visit and 'like' my facebook page and follow me on twitter.

Thanks for reading!!!

Will