Rule of Odds Again

The human eye finds images pleasing that have a certain balance or harmony. Apart from a single subject like a portrait, photographs are more visually interesting if they fall into groups of odd numbers….particularly threes.

House guests or just visiting?

Using the Circular Polarising Filter to the max and playing with exposure for a more dramatic picture for the Dredge at the Murray Mouth.

The sun was high and falling sideways across the scene which is where the polariser is at its maximum on a clear blue sky. Normally I’d back the strength of the polariser off to a more natural level which is much more effective.

I really wanted to take a photo of this tack room on Mundowdna Station near Maree in Outback South Australia. It was a collection of horse and camel saddles and the saddlebags the old cameleers used when camels where one of the main modes of transporting anything around Outback country.

The trouble was the lighting. Both dark and well light areas. I tried flash in all sorts of ways and it looked terrible. Bracketing exposures is something I’ve used often and after the unsatisfactory results with the flash I figured I could make it work here. In post I played with each photo separately trying to balance the highlights and shadows.

Eventually there’s one that comes close. Photoshop’s Layers are far superior for fine adjustments and this was the result. In the bracketing process I would have a full stop difference between each shot. I would vary the base exposure as well and also take a reading with an exposure meter that I keep in my bag. The process is one of a number of techniques I cover in my workshops.

The human eye finds images pleasing that have a certain balance or harmony.

Apart from a single subject like a portrait, photographs are more visually interesting if they fall into groups of odd numbers….particularly threes. It’s not exactly a rule but more a guideline and if you are aware of.

There’s also a series of squares and rectangles that add a bit of interest to the composition as well.

Reading about the lives of successful photographers now and in the past, they always seemed to have their camera with them at all times.

Many worked only short distances from their homes most of their lives and yet made outstanding photographs that are still masterpieces today. Joseph Sudek and Saul Leiter are just two of many that spring to mind.
With the seemingly endless makes and models on the market today there is always going to be a camera you can take with you everywhere. Its just matter then of training your eye to see the photograph before you.

Case in point this image. Driving south one morning. The sun breaking through clouds in the east, approaching storm in the west creating interesting light on hills I’d passed hundreds of times but had never taken much notice of before.

The camera is close by, not packed in a bag somewhere. Go to work.

The image is one of the features in my gallery that is located at 76 Mundoo Channel Drive, Hindmarsh Island, South Australia. Open this weekend Saturday and Sunday 11am-3pm.

Smoko in the Shearing Shed

Sometime ago I did some work for a company that employed me to take still photographs. However they also wanted to video content. That didn’t work out too well. When I decided to swap to video,  I kept seeing the good still photographs that I should have been taking, so both suffered.

Since then I’ve been advised to make videos about the workshops that I do. It appears that without video content your message won’t get noticed.

It came down to making a choice. So apologies, no video!

The Horse Trainer

In the current world the need to be constantly feeding Instagram, Facebook and Youtube accounts creates a daily avalanche of photographs and video. That means using a huge bag of techniques offered in a growing number of software products for  making pictures more dazzling, more graphics art  and more unreal pictures just to stand out from the crowd. 

The Morning Conference

There’s also many new trends evolving and when they start, its another way of making content, so again everything looks the same. And of course the camera manufacturers recognise this  too. New model  comes out every six months or so with new gimmicks that helps create more content, more quickly, together with cinema quality video which gets  onto the internet even faster than before. 

But in the end the craft of photography is lost in the internet maelstrom. For this reason I tend to stick with a camera for a long time, knowing it and the lenses I use intimately. I get a lot of enjoyment from making pictures and if other people enjoy them too, that’s even better.

Sharpening the Shears. Woolshed, Commonwealth Hill Station, far west South Australia

I used to run a blog on this website that ran for about five years and I posted a picture and words every three or fours days. I knew that initially I could do this because I already had a good library of images to work with.

In the end though, trying to find something to say at that pace just got too hard and I gave it away.

I publish sporadically on Instagram and even hired a social media consultant for a time in an attempt to make my Instagram page look more appealing so I do have experience of what I am writing about.

A website, Instagram and Youtube have their places  and there’s some fine work there too. They are a way people can access your photos and the sort of work you do. I am tending to move back to this website as the main place to see my work and the workshops I offer on line.

Herding the mob on Anna Creek Station, the world’s largest cattle station.

I’ve always been into printing and displaying my work. I think photographs should be printed. So much is lost on the internet. People’s devices and computers render colours inaccurately. I have lived and worked in a big country and I tend to print big to emphasis that. Particularly with landscapes I want to give the viewer a sense of actually being in the scene. To that end I have a dedicated gallery for my work on Hindmarsh Island, south of Adelaide.

I do workshops there which are about making a good photo out of almost any subject you want to set your mind to. That’s not relying on saturated colours, current trends, presets or even the latest camera. Just a good solid knowledge of photography, composition, post production and the need to print images.  

The course is three days long and can be taken at any time that’s convenient. You can contact me through the website  or email [email protected]

There have been plenty of experienced and  beginners who have taken the course so you won’t feel out of place whatever your level. 

The madame takes a stroll. Rue St. Germaine, Paris, France

That doesn’t exclude videographers either. If you look at any quality movie, at  the beginning of many scenes is a perfectly composed and lit still image from which the actors are cued to begin  and the story unfolds.

Drones have brought a new perspective to photographing the landscape but there are limitations and sometimes an aircraft is the only way to truly get a spectacular image.

Drones can fly limited distances and height and in remote areas getting them to an area easily accessible  is not an option. The small resolution sensors in the cameras carried by the popular drones isn’t big enough if you are wanting to print high quality work.

Taking pictures from an aircraft allows you to bring good lenses and cameras into play but the setting for aerial work are a lot different from the usual techniques, particularly landscape photography.

The rather impressive mesa here is not far from the remote shores of Lake Eyre. Using shutter priority set to a minimum 1/500th of a second eliminates the vibration of the aircraft, manual focus on infinity.

Most of my workshops are now tailored to suit the the busy lives of most people, whether it be a one, two or three day courses or a one hour Skype session.

However there’s one popular workshop that needs a bit of forward planning.

The last 3 day event held at Arkaroola in the northern Flinders Ranges last April was a great success and I am scheduling another later this year.

The dates are November 3, 4 and 5. Maximum 5 people, minimum 3.

That’s plenty of time to plan for the trip to Arkaroola.

Details of the workshop can be accessed by going to thesentimentalbloke.com website and clicking on the Workshop header at the top right corner of the page.

If you interested in joining this event I can be contacted by email [email protected] or by phoning 0429703693

Information about Arkaroola, accommodation, how to get there and what you will need to bring in the way of camera gear will be provided as well as a list of the functions on your camera you should be familiar with prior to the workshop.

Photographers at all levels of experience can participate.

©Copyright 2015 Peter MacDonald. All Rights Reserved

Glad not to have false teeth. The track(very loose term) to this location was a real car killer.

I’m on the edge of Lake Frome, a very large expanse of salt to the east of Balcanoona in the northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia.

The salt on the lake is dotted with sand dunes said to have been formed in the last ice age more than 10 thousand years ago.

The formations on the edge of the lake are no less intriguing. Shifting sand constantly being reshaped by the wind.

©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-Pro1 with 55-200 zoom f13, 1/340 sec, ISO 400.
©Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Cockatoos  noisily posing  in the afternoon sun

Shops in Paris, particularly in the central part of the city have quite small fronts so to make them noticeable a lot of work goes into making them works of art.

This florist shop caught my eye.

Obviously I was going to take a picture of it, but I decided to wait for the right moment.

I am not sure if the cyclist is admiring the colourful flowers or the beautiful girl passing by.

Typical Paris I suppose.

Cyclists are everywhere .

But not the the waddling lycra-clad, middle aged tubbies who frequent the most popular cafes around town en mass ….well in Adelaide at least.

That may also be the case on Sundays in Paris but on every other day thousands of people bike throughout the city on less sporting and more business-like machines.

They mingle with the motor scooters and the smart cars on equal terms and at quite a pace.

There’s not a helmet to be seen. Hair, stylish dresses and trousers flowing in the breeze. They park their bikes just about anywhere, and there is not too much evidence of bike lanes either.

Obviously Europe isn’t without its problems, but pushbikes aren’t one of them.

I found this an amusing scene.

All the Greek Gods or perhaps the architects of the French Revolution looking down from the parapets of the Louvre in Paris on a woman taking a bath in a truck.

Yep. Times have changed.

If I had waited another second I might have got the driver in a slightly better position. Damn!!

A little cafe off the tourist trail. The Montmartre District, Paris. The food suddenly becomes so much better.

The number of bad photographs expands wildly while the number of good ones shrinks to a trickle.

The iPhone and its way of taking a photo and similarly many of the cameras manufactured  today where the screen at the back has replaced the viewfinder, almost guarantees a poor quality shot.

The Louvre in Paris with is renown collection of art from around the world, is perhaps one of the most prevalent places to see this phenomenon.

Hoards of people, armed with iPhones, compact cameras and Nikon and Canon cameras with impossibly large lens stalk the halls taking shots of the paintings on the walls or the sculptures all around.

They seem to have little understanding of the works before them. It is is like tick the box, and move on. Few seem to take the time to study the works.

I took this shot because, despite the madness of the tourist throng, it seems to illustrate what the Louvre is really all about.

Totally oblivious to all around her this artist quietly went about her work sketching a portion of a masterpiece before her.

After taking the shot I sat at a nearby rest area for about 20 minutes resting weary legs and watching what was going on around her.

Many had a quick glance at what she was doing, others took a snap and moved on but no one took a shot with her and the painting she was studying, let alone made an attempt to frame it properly.

I am sure that many people gain much from a visit to the Louvre as I did,  but the art of taking good photographs is rapidly dying.

Matera town by night.

Some really great restaurants featuring fresh local produce ensured an active nightlife in this rural community.

I recall resting the camera on the top of a wall to get this nightscape.

f2.8, shutter 1/10th sec, ISO 2000, FUji X 100s

The Sentimental Bloke has beaten a pretty straight path over the last three years, concentrating on a wonderful part of Australia, the Flinders Ranges and the surrounding deserts.

From the comments and emails I receive, it seems people like the website because they love the Australian Outback.

However the Sentimental Bloke website is about photography, not just beautiful scenes.

Although I will always photograph around the Flinders and the Outback, I have felt a need to work on something a little different for a while.

I have been looking at the work of master photographers whose images have stood the test of time and the design formulas that some of the great master painters used to create their masterpieces.

I wanted to learn more about these people and the techniques they used.

After quite a bit of research I found a photographer/sculptor Adam Marelli from New York who teaches these techniques from an art perspective.

I recently attended one of Adam’s 5 day workshops in an amazing little town in southern Italy called Matera.

With a commission to complete before the workshop and preparation for the event and having been away for 6 weeks, I haven’t produced too many photos of the FLinders Ranges in recent times and material for this website has been getting a bit short.

So, I am going to stray from the beaten track for a while with images that are relevant to what I have learned on my travels.

This won’t be a travelogue but I will post pictures from Italy and Paris over the next five or six weeks that you might like to see.

I hope you enjoy them.

I am no geologist but when I saw this specimen under light I couldn’t resist the idea of a photograph.

This is gypsum crystal…one of the mineral’s many forms. Not all that common but certainly beautiful.

The piece is quite large and I shot this in an almost dark room with just the light on the crystal.

I used a tripod and a macro lens to get the image. Shot at f7.1 1/15th sec ISO 400

Similarly this shot was taken with the same equipment but this time under ultra-violet light.

The mineral is Willemite, something that is found around the Leigh Creek area. Of course it looks nothing like this in normal light.

There is a band of quartz running through the rock as well.

Shot at f16 on a 30 second exposure at ISO 100.