2008 Colblue in Review

2008 was a strange year for me with my photography. As the year started I was taking a lot of motorsports images but, all the while I was growing bored with them, as a result I soon gave them away after Easter. I wanted to spend more time taking landscapes so I planned a east coast holiday and spent a week taking photos. I managed to get some really good shots in that one week period, which is lucky because I didn’t get out to take another landscape for the rest of the year (till last week, anyway).

I spent a lot of my time working at my full time job and playing golf. Because I wasn’t getting out taking photos I started thinking I wouldn’t get back out there. I still took some shots in that time; all of them work related, product photos mainly. Then something extraordinary happened, I started getting my photos in company calendars. When that happened I got a rejuvenating shot in the arm and wanted to get out and take more landscapes. Unfortunately I still couldn’t find the time for them (it was driving me crazy).

In the last three months of the year I did some paying jobs that at least got me using my camera again. I even bought some extra goodies for it! But as I mentioned, I didn’t get out to shoot anymore landscapes till the last few days in the year, they will be shown in the coming weeks! I was so glad to finally get back out there. It was a very calming experience to just shoot for me! I didn’t get as many shots as I had hoped but it was still enjoyable.

So on to my favourite shots of the year 2008. Many of these shots were taken in that one week holiday I took earlier in the year, seven of them to be exact. I’ll try and put them into a chronological order.

This was one of the first shots I took for the year of the January full moon. I had never taken a shot of the moon with so much detail before.




These shots were taken in the months leading up to Easter.





















In April I finally got away for a week down the east coast of Tasmania. It was a good trip which saw me almost get my car stuck on a beach, I found every dirt road ever made, get sea sick, take a wrong turn, and take some of my best ever photos. It was eventful!!




































This is one of the rare shots I’ve taken in my home town of Launceston.






One last shot from my last photo shot of the year. This was an unplanned shot that I managed to capture.




Well, that was my year. I don't know what is in store for me in 2009 but, I hope it will involve taking photos and seeing more of this wonderful state, Tasmania.

Old Trout

Recently we had a client come in to work look to get his painting reproduced on the printing press. This gave me an idea!

Working in the printing industry I've learned a few things that most of the public ignore. The most prevalent lesson is that we have trouble reproduce oil and water colour paintings in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black). The colour gamut is very small in CMYK printing. We have to try and reproduce the colours of a painting while compensating for the colour of the canvas behind it compared to the paper stock it's being printed on. It's a difficult time consuming and, at times, painful experience.

The general way to get the painting into a electronic images has been for a local photographer to shoot if with a film camera and give us a transparency. From that we have to scan it in on a high-end scanner. The problem with this is the transparency is rarely colour correct to the painting, and the scanner sees some colours differently to the human eye. this means that the colours are completely out of whack by the time we show the client a proof.

Knowing all the problems involved with a painting of this sort gave me the idea to try and shoot the painting myself with my digital camera and cut out the extra handling. I used a couple different light set-ups combining natural light with diffused flash.

This shot below is what I think is the closest to the original. It was taken in the shad with a direct diffused flash (thanks to my sb-900 and Gary Fong Lightsphere). I got the white balance correct by using a WhiBal white balance card.





As I said, this is the one "I think" is the closest to the original, the client chose a different image which I think is too blue. But the customer is always right (unless they are wrong ;) ). Either way it has made my job at work much, much easier!