Scout Images

I have been very quiet on the photographic front lately, so I thought I would share some of the images I have snapped in my day to day wanderings. Nothing special.

Mamak is a Malaysian restaurant in Sydney that I really love (for more information please visit their website), fast paced food that is simple yet delicious. Here are some pictures taken using my Fuji F100fd.

More recently, I had some fisheye fun in the Queen Victoria Building. My Nikon D60 + Tokina AT-X 10-17mm. These were taken more for myself than for anything else, and experiment with zooming whilst shooting, often used with other lenses.

Just thought I would share some of the dodgy photos I took on New Years Eve and some that I took today whilst at Mamak with my baby Fuji F100fd.

I have to admit that I have often underestimated my needs, and NYE 2009 was just another occaision. I was thinking travel light, travel discreetly, so as a result I kept my gear to the smallest, most unassuming kit that I could. This resulted in:

• Nikon D60 – light and unassuming
• Nikkor AF-D 50mm f/1.8 – small and light, BUT manual focus on a D60
• Nikkor AI 135mm f/2.8 – small and light, BUT manual focus and no metering on a D60
• Tokina AT-X 10-17mm fisheye – small and light, BUT manual focus on a D60
• Nikon SB-400
• Nikon ML-L3
• Phottix Duo Cable
• Joby Gorillapod (Thanks Mr Ken)

With this kit, I assumed that any fireworks images would not be a big problem, unless I wanted a longer exposure to get trails (which you would when your friends are doing so). But this was not my largest problem, whilst setting up for the midnight fireworks down at Darling Harbour, a group of young ladies asked us to take a few pictures of them (using their compacts). After the fireworks we took a few more photos for theses ladies, afterwhich we asked if they wanted us to take some photos for them using our cameras (they will be getting their photos soon). This is when I found myself caught short, really short. The AF-less lenses that I had with me were fine up until that point, but for portraiture they proved to be a nightmare, esepecially since my saving grace (the SB-400 on the Phottix Duo Cable) required a hand to hold off camera. In the end I had to borrow my mates 18-200 and eventually comandeer his D90 (Sorry Mr Jod).

Here are some of my dodgy, hand held fireworks images (I used the Joby for some of the Ferris Wheel shots).

As I have mentioned earlier, I was at Mamak today and took a few images of what I ate. I have to admit that they make a damn good Roti, and I am addicted to their Sambal. These were taken with my now found again Fuji F100fd.

You may have noticed that I have been very busy and have not been posting much over the last fortnight (until last night that is) so I thought I would apologise once more and share with you images of my recent travels.

Firstly, I headed off to Kanangra Boyd National Park (beyond the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves) with members of my old lab group from USYD. This was not a photographic expedition, but rather a scientific field trip to collect lizards to continue the work on the evolution of viviparity (live birth) – yes this was the broad subject for my honours year. As it was not a photographic trip, I restricted myself to bringing only my Fuji S5 Pro (the D300 was still with Nikon Australia), Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8 and Phottix Geo One.

Soon afterwards (literally a two day break) I headed off to Kiama with some friends for an overnight getaway. However, the weather was not quite smiling down upon me so I did not get a lot of good photos. With me on this trip I brought along my Nikon D60, Nikon F80 (shooting Velvia 50), SB-400, Phottix Duo Cord, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 as well as the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye.

Then after a single day at home, I headed down to Hobart for a four day trip. This trip was meant to be pretty photo intensive, so between myself and my younger sister we had the entire kitchen sink bringing the, Fuji S5 Pro + Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, Sigma 180mm Macro, Nikon D60, Nikon F80 (shooting Velvia 50 and Superia 200), Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8VR, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, as well as the Phottix Duo Cord, Phottix Geo One and my trusty Nikon SB-400. This four day trip can be roughly split between four events:

Mt Wellington – standing behind Hobart, this landmark provides some great views of the city and surrounds

Cascade Brewery – Australia’s oldest continuously operating brewery, a great tour and some great drinks, I really enjoyed their Mercury Cider and the Cascade Lager (only available in TAS).

Bruny Island – untouched wilderness, some animal encounters and a hell of a ride in a 1400Bhp, 14m boat.

Salamanca Markets – a must see, a mix of craft and food and a great way to spend a day

I have only posted digital images taken with the D60 (as my younger sister was using the S5 Pro) with film images from the Superia 200 and the Velvia 50 to come if I have time.

Lastly, I thought I would share a few images from today’s bittersweet adventure where I welcomed back my trusty D300 but my good friend lost her D80.

I have to apologise for the long time between posts. I have just become very time poor recently and have only just managed to find the time to process some photos from last weekend’s trip up to the Blue Mountains for a Sublime Point dawn shoot. Other than that, there has been a fair bit of other stuff happening…with more cameras going out to service.

Today I dropped off my treasured FM2n to get the aperture indexing ring replaced, having discovered that it was modified by its previous owner (to use non AI lenses) and ordered a new focus screen for my S5 Pro. This means two of my five cameras are currently away for service (the D300 is back at Nikon but I will be checking on it tomorrow, and now the FM2n is away as well) and a third still away on extended loan (I should be getting the F80D back soon though). This leaves me with the S5 Pro and the D60 until the others come back.

Now that I have expressed the sad state of affairs in terms of camera bodies, I should show you some of the work that the two remaining cameras have been doing recently…..

First up lets have a look at the trip up to the Blue Mountains. Dawn at Sublime Point is great to watch, even when the conditions are not great for photography. I was pretty disappointed to find that the S5 Pro had picked up a few dust bunnies on the sensor and in the viewfinder (I actually damaged the focus screen trying to get the viewfinder clean) so you will actually be able to see some dust bunnies on some of my shots.

As a bonus I have decided to post a few images from the Long Table Laneway Dinner (14th Oct 2009) taken with my D60. A lot of these images were taken at high ISO with slow shutter speeds but I figured that having a few images was better than having none. However there is a bit of FishEye fun in this album.

I just thought I would share some pictures that I have taken recently. This first set was taken during a Breakfast meeting at Badde Manors (Glebe) with my trusty little Fujifilm FinePix F100fd. I have to admit that the food was as good as it looked.

Here are some pictures from today, I went for a walk around Darling Harbour, visiting the Brazilian Festival before heading over for a roam of the Rocks.  Once again I found myself with the wrong set up (it seems to be a happening a lot more often these days when I decide to go for a roam) having brought the Sigma 180mm macro instead of the Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, however I did manage to get some decent shots with the Sigma used as a telephoto (one of the key reasons why I picked the Sigma 180mm over the Tamron 180mm – the slightly faster AF speed).

I was out for dinner a few days ago and had an experience to be savoured and remembered. We visited Chinta Ria at Darling Harbour (Sydney, Australia) and were pleasantly suprised that unlike most of the other asian restaurants that I have visited of late, the quality of food and service has improved. The and environment and food at Chinta Ria have always been good, but it was the shining example of GOOD service (brilliant service) from the attentive, friendly and helpful waitstaff that made this evening one to be savoured.

Being a Friday evening, it is not unlikely to have to wait for a table, but our wait was minimal, distracted by the plethoria of food, smells and the buzzing activity of the venue. We asked our waiter for a wine recommendation, I was a little suprised that one of the most expensive wines was recommended, but it was a good choice, smooth,easy on the palate and with a distinct taste as described. The two events that really clinched this good write up was:

-my dining partner dropped her chopstick, after picking it up and turning to find a waiter to ask for a new pair we found a waiter offering a replacement pair of chopsticks

-I left my security swipe at the table, and upon my return I was instructed to head back out to have a look whilst the head waiter asked his staff, they were so efficient that I had my swipe back before I made it back to the table where we were seated.