Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2019 i Australian Photography

Here it is, that unusual time where I try to sum up the year in photography – in November! Yes, this may be the December issue of AP, but work on it started a fair time ago. Even a couple of months out from 2020, its safe to say 2019 has been a memorable one in all sorts of ways. On the technology front we’ve now seen every major camera brand (and some not-so major ones too) join the mirror-less camera race. For the first time the technology is mature enough that both the traditional DSLR and mirror-less camera are both viable options regardless of what you shoot – something that’s perfectly encapsulated in the cutting-edge Sony A7RIV that I review on page 68. It’s also worth noting what a…

DJI ANNOUNCES SUB 250G MAVIC MINI DRONE DJI has officially announced its new sub-250g ultra-light drone, the Mavic Mini, which in an interesting move, should fly under weight restrictions proposed as part of a drone registration scheme by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). The Mavic Mini is easily the smallest and lightest drone DJI has made to date, coming in at a featherlight 249g, some 51g lighter than the DJI Spark. Inside, it features a 12-megapixel ½.3-inch sensor, and can record 2.7K video at 30fps and 1080p video at 60 frames per second. The camera module is mounted on a three-axis gimbal that sits centered beneath the main frame of the drone, which maintains the same compact form-factor and foldable design. Flight time is expected to be 30 minutes,…

You have a great subject and the light is good. You nail the focus. Later, in post-processing, you realise that a messy and confusing background is distracting from your image. Landscape photographers consider the background with care because it is often the hero of their shot – but it is also extremely important in wildlife, portrait and action photography. In some situations, like wildlife or street photography, you can’t ask the subject to pose up in good light against a suitable background. However, you can try to plan your shot to maximize the dramatic impact of your subject. Choose your background first and wait for your subject to enter the scene. APS Sometimes the background tells a story about the subject – a painter in his studio, a footballer, that…

SÉRGIO CONCEIÇÃO Barrancos JUDGE’S COMMENTS Now that’s a wheel! Sérgio Conceição tells us this image was taken in the village of Barrancos, Portugal, and is the product of 106 images stacked in Photoshop. You’ve done well to balance the exposure in the church, while not overexposing or underexposing the foreground. Shots like this take a lot of patience, and this has come up a treat. Well done. TECHNICAL DETAILS Canon EOS R, no lens information. 106 images, 25s @ f2, ISO 2000. STEPHEN PETHERS Go Shop EDITOR’S COMMENTS Stephen Pethers says he took this image at the recent Swell Sculptures exhibition on the Queensland Gold Coast. What we like about it is its use of an everyday item in a peculiar and suprising way: we know it’s a set of…

Imagine an image where you can see above and below the water all in the one frame. Although your initial thought might be that it can’t be real and it has to be a composite image, you’d be wrong. I present to you the art of the ‘over under’! Ever since the first day I picked up a camera I mar-velled at the idea of over under images and how this unique technique can connect the familiar terrestrial world with the unfamiliar marine world. This is the style of photography I now specialise in shooting. An ‘over under’ also commonly referred to as a split shot or 50/50, is a type of ocean photo where the viewer can see below the water in the foreground of the image and above…

How big is too big? It’s a question that plenty of people were probably wondering when the 61MP Sony A7R IV was announced earlier this year. And although your initial reaction might be to simply dismiss it as too much for your own uses, there are some real benefits to having such a big sensor, especially so when it comes to cropping. But to treat the newest Sony camera as just a big sensor wonder isn’t telling the whole story. It features a well-designed body, impressive AF, a fast drive speed and most of all impressive image quality that for the first time, gives us a big megapixel camera that is also very usable for everyday shooting. For this review, I took the A7R IV to Tasmania’s Tarkine wilderness, where…

LOVELY LIGHT This image was made by Bruce Robinson on a late summer’s afternoon. He wrote: “A long exposure, balanced with available light. For me the image is about the clean lines and shapes versus the reflection in the windows.” I love this image. It is sharp and level with good lighting – a mix of available and artificial lighting. The wooden panels on the upper level almost glow while the reflections in the windows on the ground floor add contrasting interest. The weaker areas of the image are the dead (unlit) area with the tree on the right of the building and the tops of the benches in the foreground. Without making any drastic changes, those bench tops can be easily cropped, and so can some of the tree…

If you’d asked me several years ago, ‘Do you think a reptile photo could end up being one of your favorite portrait images?, I’d probably have said ‘I doubt it’. But over the past year, I’ve been working on a series about the illegal trade of reptiles out of Australia, and the more I look at these amazing animals, the more I have fallen in love with them. Of course, as an ex-zoologist, I’ll always find something to love about any animal, but as a photographer, the Boyd’s forest dragon (Lophosaurus boydii) has captivated me – it really does look like a dragon! Whenever I think about taking a photo of any animal, my first thoughts always go to their welfare. There are so many things photographers can do which…

There's no feeling quite like the energy of a mass human congregation. Be it a large-scale music concert, cultural festival or political demonstration, regardless if you are a photographer or participant, it can be a sensory overload and one that can yield highly unique imagery. The dynamic, and often volatile nature of mass crowds means that as a photographer, you must be prepared physically and above all mentally if you are to capture the true essence of the event. For me, that means getting in super close to the action, closing my eyes, pressing the shutter and praying for the best. Well, almost. While the accompanying images in this article are directly related to India's Holi festival, the tips and tricks can be applied to almost any large-scale gatherings and…

My love of photography began in my teens in the early 1970s, and was inspired by the amazing Tasmanian wilderness photography of Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis who I had the fortune to meet at the time. In these early years I was encouraged by my brother, who took up photography as a hobby about the same time and a group of enthusiastic school and university friends – we did a lot of gear and idea sharing. Photography is a part of my life. At home I document our family’s journey through life, photographing weddings and funerals, children through childhood, pets, holidays, places and events. At work I became the unofficial department photographer, recording social and departmental events as well as documenting my research. Making images for departmental publications and…

Thanks to Fujifilm, Bruce Robinson has won a brilliant Fujifilm Finepix XP140 camera valued at $299. The first XP Series model capable of recording 4K video, The XP140’s ‘High-Speed Video recording’ function also allows you to record HD video for smooth slow-motion even for fast-moving subjects. Inside, the camera features a 16.4 megapixel ½.3-inch BSI-CMOS sensor and it is waterproof to 25m, freezeproof to -10°C, and shockproof to withstand drops from 1.8m. The widest setting of 28mm on the Fujinon 5x optical zoom lens is perfectly suited to close up action shots, while clear portraits are easy using the 5x optical zoom and 10x Intelligent Digital Zoom. There’s also a large 3-inch high-definition 920K-dot LCD and Bluetooth connectivity. Find out more at fujifilm.com.au HOW TO SUBMIT AN IMAGE • Email…