Innholdsfortegnelse for June - August 2015 i Photo Review

Meeting and interviewing photographers is one of the great joys of producing Photo Review. Without exception each encounter has been an opportunity to learn something new and to see things through the eyes of a creative photographer. For this issue I had the opportunity to spend an hour or two with the gentlemanly Mr Ian Dodd who, though more than a decade into retirement, is still just as besotted with the pleasures and vexations of photography as when he began taking pictures more than 50 years ago. As you’ll learn when you turn to his Inspiration profile on page 8, the choice of title - Presence - arises from how he responds to the ineffable way in which the world seems to reveal itself to certain photographers. One has to…

‘I got an amazing picture - which needs about an hour’s Photoshop-ing to really bring it out - but, it’s like a Rodin. The feel is just wonderful, the figures and roots and...’ Ian Dodd sighed cheerfully as he reflected on the fruits of a visit to the Wollongong Botanic Garden the previous weekend. Although he’s now into his sixth decade of photography, Ian’s quietly intense enthusiasm for the art is plainly undiminished. When he began taking pictures in the mid-1950s, the initial motivation was less artistic than practical. ‘It was relatively simple. I was studying art at the National Art School and I was using photography as a reference tool. And later, when I went on to work in magazines, I used it for articles.’ Imperceptibly, his picture taking…

Long telephoto lenses are most commonly used for sports and wildlife photography, although they can be used for many other applications. Unfortunately, they tend to be rather large, are often heavy and can be difficult to hold steady when framing shots. Because distant objects cover much more of the lens’s angle of view than they would with a wide-angle lens, subjects appear closer to the camera. This magnification also magnifies any camera shake that occurs during the exposure. Tele lenses usually become longer, larger in diameter and heavier as their focal length increases. Beyond a certain point (which varies with the photographer’s strength and experience), a lens becomes difficult to use hand-held. Thanks to image stabilisation, hand-held shooting can be possible with some long lenses, particularly those in the 200mm…

Why visit? Within reach of Adelaide and mostly accessible by two-wheel drive vehicles, the Flinders Ranges National Park presents an abundance of subjects for photographers, ranging from rugged mountains to spectacular gorges, tree-lined creeks and abundant wildlife. The area has great historical and geological significance and plenty of facilities for tourists, including guided tours, scenic flights and accommodation ranging from bush camping to four-star resorts. This area has a rich cultural heritage, covering both Aboriginal and pastoral history. The Adnyamathanha people (meaning hills or rock people) are the traditional custodians of the land and their connections can be seen in ancient rock paintings and engravings at Arkaroo Rock, Sacred Canyon and Perawurtina Cultural Heritage Site. European settlers came to the area in the 1850s. Remains of settlements and mines can…

By breaking the nexus between analogue cameras and photos (the film era forced photographers to create hard copy images), digital photography created a problem which is yet to be fully addressed: the essentially ephemeral nature of digital image files. This poses the question of whether a digital image file is really even a photo, or is it just the raw material from which a photo can one day be created? While hard drives and ‘The Cloud’ (which is really just a sexy name to describe a computer other than your own, accessible only via an internet connection) have their weaknesses, so to do the other alternatives – CDs and DVDs, and flash memory (memory cards and USB flash drives). There is no 100 percent fail-safe image storage system, but then…

To undertake our Decisive Movement challenge, photographers had to ensure their shutter speed was a 1/60th of a second or slower - and that some aspect of their subject was in motion. As always, our loyal band of Photo Challengers responded in splendid style. We went back and forth between Dennis Rickard’s hurtling jet ski and Amanda Bull’s swirling carnival ride. In the end the nod went the jet ski’s way. Dennis’s composition, with its focused rider and creamy blurred background, really conveys a sense of speed and excitement. It will be our pleasure to send Dennis a snappy Lowepro Pro Roller Lite 250 AW (RRP $345) for him to haul his gear in style. As noted, we thought Amanda Bull’s clever juxtaposition of the a neon star against a…

As a senior sports photographer for Getty Images, Sydney-based Ryan Pierse is well used to dealing with the envy of his friends. ‘They say to me, “You get to go to all these big events and watch from the front row, or virtually on the pitch or the court or whatever.” I do, but it’s very different from being a spectator,’ he says. For one thing, he can’t get emotionally involved in the moment or celebrate what happens. He has to keep his mind on the job and think about his next photo. At the same time, with technology and media competition being what they are these days, he has to download his photos to his laptop, crop and caption them, and send them off so picture editors all over…

Cash-strapped photographers have known for many years that mirror lenses represent the cheapest way to obtain really long telephoto lenses. But some photographers look down on lenses of this type because of some perceived (and a few real) flaws. On the positive side, mirror lenses have some significant advantages: 1. They are significantly cheaper than conventional telephoto lenses with the same focal lengths. 2. The small physical size and relatively low weight of mirror lenses enables them to be hand-held with an appropriately fast shutter speed (which can be slower with cameras that have sensor-shift stabilisation). 3. Mirror lenses have no mechanical or electronic links with the camera body so you can fit almost any mirror lens to almost any camera body with an appropriate adaptor. 4. The optical design…

Award-winning Australian cinematographer, John Brawley’s CV includes everything from TV series such as Offspring, Puberty Blues and Underbelly to feature films like 100 Bloody Acres from directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes. With a strong background in post-production and visual effects, John has quickly established himself in the highly collaborative world of film and television as a cinematographer of vision and creativity. While he is first and foremost a cinematographer, John’s also been a stills photographer for many years and has been an Olympus user since picking up an E-1 DSLR in 2004 as he was making the transition from analogue to digital. Asked how he’d ended up settling on, and subsequently sticking with, Olympus, he said, ‘the Olympus E-1 was the first digital camera that I’d tried that actually felt…

Catching a wave By Graeme Edwards Canon EOS 400D; EF-S 18-55mm @ 18mm; 0.5s; f/18; ISO 400 Adjustments in Lightroom for clarity, cropping, contrast, vignette, and toning. It was Merimbula NSW on a very cold morning, waiting for the sunrise when a couple of surfers arrived. The wind was blowing but I waded to a rocky outcrop with my tripod. Even with waves around my knees I managed some good shots and kept my camera dry. Don’s response You don’t need to be a surfer to appreciate just how challenging the conditions are for the subject of Graeme Edwards’ Catching a Wave. In fact I should imagine many non-surfers would wonder what on earth this chap is thinking given that glowering sky and those menacing rocks being pounded by great…

Food, glorious food Ah, the pleasures of the groaning board. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, and an endless parade of cooking programs on TV, we’ve never been more thoroughly immersed in pictures of food. It may be a bigger challenge than a 14-course medieval banquet, but we want you to create an image that captures the small pleasures of food enjoyed at home. It can be any part of the process – from preparation to post-consumption – so long as it is not in a restaurant or other commercial venue. With three opportunities a day, you shouldn’t have any difficulty finding numerous opportunities for creative expression. Please review the rules and email your entries to photochallenge@photoreview.com.au. Deadline for entries is 28 August, 2015 and the winning pictures will be published…

Great action shots are rarely a result of good luck. Knowing where and when to position yourself and having the right equipment set up correctly will shift the odds significantly in your favour. So, too, will being able to anticipate the peak of the action and having fast enough reflexes and on-the-spot timing. A good understanding of the subject – the sport or activity you want to photograph – can make the difference between getting and missing the shot. If you can recognise when something is about to happen and be properly prepared, you improve the odds. This means thinking ahead about the equipment and settings you will use. Contrary to some people’s impressions, great action photographers almost never actually chase their subjects. Better results are obtained by setting up…

Regardless of which artificial light source you use, it will be subject to the Inverse-Square Law, a basic principle that describes the predictable way a point light source radiates and changes in intensity with distance. Put simply, light falls off with the square of the distance. This has nothing to do with the distance from the camera; the only distance involved is between the light and the subject. This is how it works: if the distance between the light source and the illuminated object doubles, the light output is spread over four times the area, which means the subject only receives one quarter of the original light. Photographic f-stops are based upon this principle so if the distance of a light source is changed in the following increments: 1, 1.4,…

Straight outta Ballarat bit.ly/pr64ne1 In between its acclaimed Ballarat International Foto Biennales, Jeff Moorfoot and the BIFB team keep busy by, among other things, producing a fine online magazine they call Beta. As you’d expect, they’re pretty dab hands at picking up on hot new photographic talent and the virtual magazine format shows it off to excellent advantage. Tweet right bit.ly/pr64ne2 Twitter has become an important tool in the modern journalist’s box of tricks, but it can be a bit tricky getting the best possible quality for your tweeted images. In this short tutorial, Tutsplus writer Marie Gardiner spells out the optimal resolution and compression settings for the best looking pictures. The ACP bit.ly/pr64ne3 Most Australian photographers will know of the Australian Centre for Photography, but we wonder how many…