New Canon 5Ds at the Townsville Show

I took possession last week of the new Canon 5Ds from my wonderful local suppliers Garricks Camera House at the Domain in Townsville. This "Nifty Fifty" is one hell of a camera with a new 50 Meg sensor under the hood plus some sweet additional features. I wouldn't normally plan to use it in a low light situation but it did amazingly well in the twilight conditions at the show.

I plan to use this camera for my architecture and commercial work to enable me to deliver the best possible files generated from a DSLR with an eye to fine detail and big enlargements. For some time I've been looking at moving into medium format but as DSLR's continue to forge ahead that day seems to be getting further away. To be honest my style of shooting sits well with the flexibility of shooting with a smaller camera and thankfully Canon's tilt shift lenses are freaking amazing.

What Colour is Blue?

Something of a little research project here. What colour is blue? Or more specifically how does film/digital render the colour blue of a sunny sky? Well back in the day Velvia 50 slide film was the ultimate film of choice for rendering deep in your face blue skys. The blue you would expect at Bondi Beach on a summers day or an impossible blue against the red desert sands of the outback. Since my home turf is the skin cancer capital of Oz I get plenty of sunny days to shoot and as such blue will often be the dominant colour. There ends up being a bit of a sameness in the colour spectrum even with the aid of a massive catalogue of lightroom film simulations that I call on from time to time when outputting my digital files.

So here is a bit of an experiment in distorting that out of camera blue. A way to add a little more personality into my sunny day images. I'm going for something of a modernist look here that could work with my architectural images. Stay tuned for more of this look...

James Cook University

Its been some time between blog posts on this site as I've been in Japan for the past month. Got tons of new material from that recent trip to upload (travel and architecture images of Japan). Since returning I've been hard at it with various new assignments. Can't wait to have a chance to sit down and go through all my Japan stuff. For now though here are a few images of some of the new architecture that is popping up around the Townsville campus. At least another two iconic buildings are under construction now - exciting times ahead...

Recent Architecture Images

Just testing out some processing, lenses and random stuff around town. Truth is I'm avoiding going outside to mow the lawns on this relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Being listening to the 2014 APPA judging in Sydney while playing with these images. So many inspiring photographers now working in Australia - I scored a couple silvers in the documentary section - woohoo :-)