Facebook "Professional" Photographers

One thing I have notice recently on Facebook, is the recent boom in "Professional" photographers.  I use the quotation marks due to the fact that honestly, from what I have seen in their galleries is hardily of "Professional Quality."

In saying this however, I do not personally believe that my own images are of professional quality.  My judgement of what is a professional image and what is an amateur image is informed by discussions had with fellow "photography amateurs/enthusiasts" and the occasion professional photographer that can actually prove their status by the images they have taken.

I think this boom in self-named professional photographers is due to the current day affordability of photography gear.  At the current time here in Australia, one can by a perfectly decent DSLR for ~$500 AUD.  This is much more affordable, even compared to just 2 years ago.  There seems to be a tendency in people that once they have purchased a DSLR, they have the authority to call themselves a professional photographer.

This is quite scary.  Especially when these amateur professionals decide they want to do Wedding Photography from the get-go, without first realising that Wedding Photography is one of the hardest jobs in the photography industry due to the general pressure that the job entails and also the complex and delicately balanced exposure settings required to get a quality image without the wedding dress details being blown out, or the background being under exposed.

One thing I find distressing about these individuals is that they are receiving money from clients (whom expect professional quality images) possibly know little or next-to-nothing about all the capabilities of their camera/s and other pieces of photography equipment.  I also highly doubt that half of these individuals are trading legally, with most not having a business registration.  This means they are potentially dodging tax payments (illegally excepting cash in hand) and even more terrifying, they most likely have no personal insurance to cover them in the case of client upset over quality of goods.

I'm sure I'll probably add to this post sometime in the future, I'll just do some more pondering on the subject.

Hobart Trip 2013

This year's school trip to Hobart, Tasmania consisted of visits to the Conservatorium of Music (belonging to University of Tasmania) and The Theatre Royal (Australia's longest continual running theatre).

We visited the Conservatorium of Music because we are to design a concept for the site next to the Theatre Royal which is to house new performance and teaching spaces to replace the outdate/inappropriate found at the Conservatorium of Music.

Conservatorium of Music Theatre (Originally ABC Hobart Television Studio)

[Image straight from camera, no effects applied]

[Canon 600D, EF-s 18-55mm Kit Lens, AF crosspoint]

Conservatorium of Music Theatre (Originally ABC Hobart Television Studio)

[Image exposure adjusted, lens correction applied, cropped]

[Canon 600D, EF-s 18-55mm Kit Lens, AF crosspoint]

Cnr of Collin and Campbell Streets, Hobart

Site of the ACIPA Project

[Stitched with PhotoMerge in Photoshop]

[Canon 600D, EF-s 18-55mm Kit Lens, AF crosspoint]

Cnr of Collin and Campbell Streets, Hobart

Site of the ACIPA Project

[Stitched with PhotoMerge in Photoshop]

[Canon 600D, EF-s 18-55mm Kit Lens, AF crosspoint]

Theatre Royal, Campbell Street, Hobart

[Exposure and Colour adjustments]

[Canon 600D, EF-s 18-55mm Kit Lens, AF crosspoint]

Theatre Royal, Campbell Street, Hobart

Interior Shot from First Circle

[Stitched with PhotoMerge in Photoshop]

[Canon 600D, EF-s 18-55mm Kit Lens, AF crosspoint]

Of late...

Quite recently, I had this google account hacked by some low-life residing in Malaysia.  I thought that they had deleted this blog, along with my other two private blogs, but discovered only today that they hadn't.  I'm just glad it still exists so I didn't have to rebuild from scratch.

Next week (Monday 19th of August) I am travelling south to Hobart again with the University of Tasmania, visiting the Theatre Royal and possibly the Tasmania Museum if I have some spare time.  I hope that I'll be able to capture some good imagery, both video and images when I'm down there.

Visual Arts A - University of Tasmania

Here are some digitally manipulated images of Assemblage art.

(Image posterised, duplicated and inverted with middle portion erased.  Found edges multiplied over top)

(Detail image overlaid with multiply over overall piece, noise added and converted to B&W using Red Filter, sepia like wash over top; multiplied.)

(Image polarised, found edges overlay with multiply, converted to sepia tone, bottom image blurred, noise added and tone adjustment)

Unintentional Assemblage, resulted from class selecting desired materials

(Image posterised, found edges overlaid with multiply)

Art Projects

I'm currently doing two art subjects at university; Drawing Ideas and Visual Arts.  In both class, I have the opportunity to do an assignment in each, which I hope to use photography.

Firstly, in Drawing Ideas, we have to do 10-20 pieces of work relating to our personal identity.  I'm hoping to capture some images of places from key frames in my memory, then overlaying elements from my memory over the images in a drawn format.

In Visual Arts, we have to do some imitation art inspired by an artist we were issued.  I got given Sarah Lucas, who creates sculptures which feature sexual double entendres and everyday objects positioned in such a way that they become suggestive.  I hope to use the existing architectural fabric of my surrounding world to create similar type images.

I will post my final images onto this blog.

Sydney 2013

Early this year in January I went on a family holiday to Sydney, NSW.  I will eventually post some images on here but I have a lack of time and lack of physical data storage causing issues at the moment.  I hope to acquire to new portable hard drives, one of which will be an exact clone of the other using RoboCopy, which comes standard with any windows machine Vista and newer.

In total, I have over 800 images that I captured over the 10 days I was there to rename into my storage format and some images may require minor post work.

Launceston Energy Bank Tornadoes vs Hobart Lady Chargers (16/03/2013)

On the 16th of March 2013, the Launceston Energy Bank Tornadoes played their season opener against the Hobart Lady Chargers at Action Packed Stadium, situated in Elphin, Launceston.  At Half Time, the Tornadoes had scored 38 points to the Chargers 35 points.

However, much to the disappointment of the local audience, the Tornadoes were unable to win their first game of the season, losing the game with 66 points to the Chargers 83 points.

The top scorer for the Launceston Tornadoes was Olivia Howard scoring 20 points, with 3 fouls under her belt.  Her performance was top notch when compared with the previous season, due to recovering from a knee injuring that plagued her career previously.

Hobart's Kylie McCauley was the Chargers' top scorer, scoring 22 points with 4 fouls.

Although Hobart won by a decent margin, the game was close until the start of the final quarter.  This was appreciated by the local crowd; looking forward to the Torns' next local show down.

Grace Lennox (in black) tries to guard a driving number 10 for the Torns. (Her name is currently unknown to me due to her name missing from the handout).

(Image cropped and colour corrected)

Coach Peta Sinclair (left) provides guidance to Lauren Faulkner (right).

(Image de-noised and colour corrected)

Grace Lennox (5) looks for an opening from the top of the key.

(Image colour corrected)

Grace Lennox (5) finds her opening and drives in, giving Olivia Howard (11) the slip.

(Image colour corrected)

[All images captured with Canon 600D with EF-S 55-250mm f4.5-5.6 II]

[Images at full size appear grainy due to having to use the "H" ISO level (12800) caused by the limited aperture size of the kit lens]

The New Year 2013

Well, it is now (as of three hours ago) 2013.  I plan to do more photography this year, as I received my first DSLR for christmas; the Canon 600D.  I have taken quite a few photos in the past couple of days so I shall filter through them and possibly post some here.

Also, as I always plan to do, on any photos that have had work in post, I will quote below the image the changes made, as I personally believe the image straight out of the camera should be good enough.  People say all the time, "I need to go to post and do some cropping and straightening."  My question is, why not just spend more time composing your images?  It would save some time.  Unless, there are limitations such as focal length issues (not being able to zoom close enough).

Anyway, hope this year is filled with joy and happiness.