The value of Meditation has come a long away in the western world over last 20 years Even though Its been around for 2000 years or so in eastern culture it  was treated with some scepticism by the modern world and science. That has rapidly changed in recent years with scientific study of the brain. There’s now conclusive evidence meditation has real benefits ranging from coping with the pressures of modern life to controlling anxiety, fear, poor sleep, pain relief and many more problems.

I have been practising meditation for many years and slowly I’ve recognised that photography is a form of meditation.

One of the key principles of meditation is to learn to live in the present. As that skill grows through meditation is can be applied to photography.

By living in the present you are focused on the things around you…one of the key elements to taking good images.

Living in the present means having no expectation of an outcome. I have had this happen on many occasions. That doesn’t mean aimlessly wandering around in the hope some miracle shot will appear before you.

It’s OK to have a plan, a purpose in whatever type of photography you work in.

I shoot a lot of landscapes, portraits and articles for magazines, widely diverse pursuits yet being in the present means looking at the possibilities around you – light and shadows, colour, subject, environment, storyline etc, but not having an expectation of the outcome.

I have been remiss in not exploring meditation for photographers in my  workshops. That’s going to change. Not everyone will connect with this but it will be offered nevertheless.

Photographing close to home

Had a camera for a few years or just bought one. It was  the best I could afford at the time. Unfortunately I’m not making pictures that I am really happy with. I am not sure if it is the camera or me.

©Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography 2014. All Rights Reserved

Photographers talk generally about the Golden Hour – that hour around  dawn or dusk when photography is at its best.

In this case it could be filtered down to just a few minutes after the sun has risen.

East Mt. Painter Gorge, in the Flinders Ranges, taken in those few precious minutes at a time when this was part of plans for a uranium mine.

The picture was part of a panorama which shows the whole majestic area. Unfortunately panoramas lose a lot of their impact on internet posts like this.

Fuji X-Pro 1 35 mm prime lens f11, ISO 400, 1/200th sec.
Copyright © Peter MacDonald photography 2013

This picture has a certain power, not just because of the dramatic location  but because of the contrast between the church and the background.

The church of San Pietro Caveoso perches right on the lip of a  ravine in the old part of Matera, a city and a province in southern Italy.

The first rays of the morning sun light the church but not the canyon, creating the dramatic effect.

It’s a good reason to be up and about a little before dawn or again as dusk falls, because it is then you are most likely to find good examples of contrast within scenes.

Fuji X-Pro 1, 35mm prime lens f9, ISO 400 1/150th sec and cropped.
Copyright © Peter MacDonald Photography 2013

Power of a different kind, this time it is the design of an Italian architect Nicola Salvi and sculptor  Pietro Bracci.

The work is part of the world famous Fontana di Trevi in Rome.

I would like a dollar fore every picture that has been taken of the fountain over the Italian summer  – mostly of the whole fountain which is 26 metres high and about 50 metres wide.

However the real power surrounds the central figure, the Roman god Oceanus, riding a shell chariot. Picking the right angle and aspect to capture that power was the job at hand.

Sometimes it is not the big picture that makes the best photograph but a smaller section which may heighten power and drama. This applies to almost any scene you might stand in front of, particularly when it is a well-photographed subject or landmark.

A night time shot of the church from a different angle can be seen here

The Sturt Desert Pea is often seen in large groups. Photographing a single flower shows just how  unusual the bloom is.           © Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography 2013

Flowers  and animals are like children, best photographed from their level rather than an adult’s view. But sadly this idea is all too often forgotten.

Getting down and dirty with the flowers though is not without its discomforts and miseries.

The Sturt Desert Pea is a beautiful but lowly bloom and in this case ants brought the misery but the result was worth the pain.

© Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography 2013

 Burrs, prickles and three cornered jacks are a common discomfort in the Flinders Ranges and Outback and there’s bound to be plenty around when you are flat out on the ground getting a photo of a Rosy Dock.

From above there would be no way to have the sunlight backlighting the beautiful ruby coloured leaves.

The exquisite Sturt Desert Rose, a hibiscus as it turns out is a little more elevated but it is still  worth getting a low aspect. Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography 2013

It would be unusual if there wasn’t some kind of breeze blowing when shooting flowers. For that reason it is almost essential to have a fast shutter speed – around 250th of a second or more would be ideal.

This will probably have to be achieved by a low f-stop – maybe around f2.8 if your lens is fast enough and an increase in ISO to at least 400.

That will also mean that much of the background will be out of focus. A nice effect that highlights the flower.

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© Copyright Peter MacDonald photography 2013

Again there’s a challenge trying to eyeball a sleepy lizard, common around the area but generally seen from above. This chap seemed less inclined to display his deep blue tongue  and hiss loudly  when I met him on his terms.

© Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography 2013

Similarly this Masked Lapwing looks so much more interesting down at ground level.

A good rule of thumb for flowers, animals, children, even landscapes is to find an aspect that is not the normal eye level at which we see things every day.

This is not a camera review, but the image speaks for itself.

A new additional to my cameras, the Fuji X-Pro 1 with a 50mm equivalent prime lens.

Shot at f1.6 at 1/40th sec at ISO 1250. Hand held.

Very much a low light situation with no noise in the image. Straight from the camera but slightly cropped.

It’s a birthday/Christmas present I bought for myself…and maybe next year’s as well.

Something of a historical photo….the first successful landscape I took.

The date June 12, 2004 and somehow in amongst a numbing number of poorly exposed/out of focus/poorly composed/ and a host of other mistakes….my first success.

It’s a place called Greenly Beach, west of Port Lincoln on South Australia’s west coast. The afternoon was heavy with the spray of the surf.

It was shot with my first camera, an entry level Canon 300D camera. Fortunately I had been given some good advice about buying the best lens I could possible afford which was a Canon 28-300mm L series zoom with image stabiliser.

It’s one of Canon’s top of the range lens and I still use it today, even if the camera is long gone.

The beginning of a wonderful journey. So lucky.

I have a student new to photography whose pictures don’t have much life. The subjects are interesting but the pictures aren’t conveying that. The answer won’t lie in Photoshop or Lightroom but in what happens in the field.

How many times have you seen a fantastic panorama that’s just going to be the perfect picture, but after the shot is processed or printed, its flat and lifeless.

When taking a photo, the first thing to look for is the light, secondly colour and then the subject. Getting the light to fall from the right direction will make all the difference, if colour is the main feature then it has to be brought out.

The shot above is no world beater but its got interest. It a creek that’s flowing out of the Flinders Ranges and it’s about halfway to Lake Torrens.

In previous floods the waters have cut a bank about 4 to 5 metres high. The late afternoon sun really brings out the colours in the bank.

The big advantage here is that the sunlight is going across the picture from right to left, providing contrast and therefore a sense of depth.The water is a line leading the eye through the picture and another essential is a strong foreground.

Similar treatment for this section of the creek a few hundred metres further downstream and taken 30 minutes earlier.

I visited both these spots twice just before sunset. The first time I didn’t get all the elements to gel. This was on the second day.

Both were shot at f22 for maximum depth of field and a graduated neutral density filter was used to reduce the contrast from the sky so that the details of the bank and the creek were maximised.

Levels were the only adjustment made in Photoshop.

Shooting between sunrise and 10 or from 3pm to a little after sunset are the times when most of the elements will be in favour of the photographer.

Apart from a great pub, there’s not a lot else in William Creek on the Oodnadatta Track to photograph…but there are plenty of aircraft.

So, when there’s a sunset and two large contrails from jets on the the run from Sydney to Perth, you use any prop you can get.

The sun was well and truly below the horizon when this was taken at f14, shutter speed 1/100th sec ISO 200 with off camera flash in manual mode and a Lumiquest Softbox Three… a handy little gizmo which fits over the flash unit for softening and controlling light.

Wildlife isn’t something that I am either equipped for or patient enough to specialise in, but this magnificent creature did all the right things for me.

I took these images a couple of days after a workshop at Arkaroola last week.

I had been working the Arkaroola waterhole with two very keen and experienced photographers when one spotted the bird, which is quite outstanding for this part of the world….maybe a bit smaller than a wedge-tailed eagle.

It’s a White-necked Heron or Pacific Heron and I’m guessing it’s a little out of it’s normal habitat which is usually well established wetlands….not semi-arid country and fast drying waterholes.

Nevertheless it wasn’t keen to move from the pools in the Arkaroola Creek which is probably why I was able to see it some time after the first sighting.

It also gave me enough time to set my focus to A1 Servo for moving objects and check the exposure.

All were taken at f5.6, ISO 200 and focal length 300 mm. The shutter speed ranges from 1/1600th sec to 1/3200 sec.

It’s a good habit to develop when shooting landscapes, to also look at the portrait perspective too.

Back in late January I photographed this scene link to picture along a stretch of the Arkaroola Creek not far from Bolla Bollana waterhole in the Flinders Ranges.

The portrait version, I think it is a better image.

A full moon rising behind the ruins of the Sliding Rock mine on the Warraweena Conservation Park, northern Flinders Ranges.

The night before a full moon, as in this case means the moon has risen at about that same time the sun is setting so there is still plenty of available light.

It can pay to know where the moon is going to rise and have a composition worked out beforehand which was not the case here……just a fortunate opportunity.

f22 @ 1/10th sec, ISO 1600. Canon 5D Mk II with a 28-300mm lens

f5.6 1/4000 sec ISO 400, focal length 300 mm , Auto Focus – Canon AI Servo mode.

Nikon and the other camera makers will have another name for A1 Servo.

The mode locks on to a subject and keep it in focus while the shutter button is held down half way, even when the subjects, like these Little Corellas are coming towards the camera.