Clouds and light

November is storm season in Queensland and we’ve had a couple of loud and scary ones but thankfully the worst of them missed our place (touch wood). As a twenty something loving in Newcastle I discovered how much I loved a good storm when staying with family near the beach. From their house I watched in awe as the clouds rolled in and the light changed creating an eery atmosphere before the skies opened and the lightning let loose. It was magic.

There were pockets of storm action Sunday afternoon, mainly to the north of us so we got very little rain and only a few rumbles of thunder. We did however see some amazing cloud formations and fantastic light as we strolled around a local sports field. Bundy could not have cared less about any of it, he was too busy following random scent trails. With only my iPhone at hand I tried to capture the amazing nature of the clouds and light using the Lightoom mobile app and my phone’s native camera app. The images are a little dark, more post-processing required or perhaps there are better apps for capturing these types of scenes on a smartphone.

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Something new to play with

For a while I have wanted to get a new lens, to be more specific I wanted the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens loved by Nikon photographers (amateur and professional) and perfect for low light photography. After many months of saving my dream was obtained and I picked up the lens a couple of days ago. We’ve had some spectacular sunsets here of late, but sadly they’ve been pretty ordinary since getting the lens so I’ve been testing it out in the backyard and at a nearby lake. Technically I cannot tell you much, what I can tell you is that I love that I can take photographs in low light without having to ramp up the ISO to a ridiculous number or drag out the tripod. Wish it had image stabilisation, my hands can be a little shaky at times however that could be minimised by drinking less coffee 🙂

These few shots aren’t fantastic and the one of the pelicans could be sharper, it was taken from across a body of water so I had to crop the image dramatically to see them properly. Getting closer is going to be essential with this lens, especially when comparing it to the 28-300mm lens I’ve been using.

When it wasn’t raining

The end of the year has been a mix of muggy, high temperatures, fierce storms and heavy rain. Christmas was no different. The day started off with a peaceful walk and a swim in a nearby creek and ended with me and my Dad sitting on their front balcony in the dark listening to the rain and enjoying the cool breeze. I took many walks during the time at my parents’ house, being in the country is so refreshing for me and seeing all the different wildlife makes me happy even if I couldn’t capture them all with my camera. A trip to the beach was on the cards for boxing day regardless of whether it was raining or not, the thinking was that if we’re going to get wet we may as well go for a swim in the surf.

Bush to beach

Really random photos from my iPhone

Blogging and photography, sadly time for doing either has been minimal of late however I’ve always got my iphone with me so here is a collection of random shots that I’ve taken of late. Of course, doggies feature quite heavily.

Enjoy!

Random photos off my phone

My Mum always said that I take photos of anything and everything…she knows me so well.

 

As the sun rises

“If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.”  ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Learning to play with pastels

This year I’ve been attending regular art classes to improve my technique in using pastels, my illustrations have always been quite detailed in the past, I’m a realist at heart and lean towards being a bit of a perfectionist or so my mother and a million personality profile tests tell me 🙂

It is hard to tell whether I have improved in terms of my illustrations but learning how to loosen up and find a technique that suits me has been a valuable experience. Both the angel illustration and the river rocks image are earlier illustrations, done prior to my art teacher sending me off to classes with a local artist specialising in pastels. I have chosen to focus on landscapes for the moment, they allow me to practice my technique without getting caught up in the detail, plus the colours can be fabulous to play with especially in the clouds.

Cheers and have a lovely weekend!

Illustration of an angel, original image was from a photographic series of angels
Illustration of an angel, original image was from a photographic series of angels
landscape illustration in pastel
I had 30 minutes to get this done, a great exercise in learning to loosen up. The original image was a photograph of somewhere in Scotland.
A peaceful and serene image of the most famous volcano in Italy, Mt Vesuvius.
A peaceful and serene image of the most famous volcano in Italy, Mt Vesuvius.
Trying to capture a storm coming over the hills of my family's farm in New Zealand
Trying to capture a storm coming over the hills of my family’s farm in New Zealand
An earlier pastel drawing of an area that looks similar to the creeks and waterholes that we used to swim in as kids.
An earlier pastel drawing of an area that looks similar to the creeks and waterholes that we used to swim in as kids.