Wildlife Images

I've had a few requests to use a couple of my wildlife images of late. Always pleased to do my bit for any wildlife/conservation cause :-)

One of an Orange-bellied Parrot is at the important conservation site Arkive


http://www.arkive.org/orange-bellied-parrot/neophema-chrysogaster/image-G118848.html

The other of a Great Egret has been used in the ewater online magazine.


http://www.ewater.com.au/h2othinking/?q=2011%2F06%2Fsupporting-environmental-decision-making-lowbidgee

A Photo Journalist For Two Days.

For the last couple of years The Sports Campus, a sports website that runs out of India, has used some of my Australian Open Tennis photos to accompany their reports on the Open. It's been a rewarding arrangement with TSC and I've enjoyed the rapport I've built up with them. So much so that TSC asked me if I would like the cover the Melbourne leg on the recent Everton FC tour of Australia for them. It was something I jumped at, the opportunity to gain press accreditation and become part of the media contingent following their stay in Melbourne.



www.thesportscampus.com/201007136188/english-premiership/everton-enters-the-heart-of-melbourne

www.thesportscampus.com/201007156225/english-premiership/melbourne-takes-heart-in-loss-to-everton

It was a fascinating experience to be part of the media pack for two days!

Google Beach Combing

The other day a friend told me about a clip on youtube...a recording of a T.Rex song played at their 1973 Sydney gig! As there was only audio the poster had compiled a slideshow to accompany it. Lo and behold there were images from the Melbourne gig included, photos another friend had taken that night and which I had posted on the net with his permission in the late 1990s. It got me thinking...were there photos I had posted on flickr which have been used elsewhere? I have been asked permission several times for images and I've usually been happy to oblige...after all as a hobby photographer it's a bit of a buzz to see one's photos out there...of course only if it's not for a blatantly commercial use.

I googled under Tidalpix and Tidalist and quickly came up with a few web sites where one or more of my photos had found another home. I don't recall these people actually asking permission to use them but at least they acknowledged me as the photographer and where they had originated...which is ok. Oh well, what can you do? I'd posted them on the largest photo site on the net!

I was especially pleased with the Whit Smith interview image. I met the Hot Club of Cowtown guitarist at a gig here in Melbourne last year and found him to be a very nice guy.

Here are the links I found with my images.

An interview with Whit Smith of The Hot Club of Cowtown
www.meandthee.org/blog/txp/blogspot/200/quick-q-and-a-with-whit-smith-hot-club-of-cowtown

Some images of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas taken in January this year.
dallas.wearenetwork.com/dallas_images/dallascowboys

A couple of images from a 2004 New Zealand holiday.
search.digitalnz.org

Not a site the title may lead you to think :-) It's a 1980s Melbourne site and there's two images: A photo of the Sphinx outside Flinders Street Station and the Station Hotel in Prahran with the train crashing out of it!
www.cleavagedownunder.com

Some images from the sea down at Blairgowrie, here on the Mornington Peninsula. This site seems to be linked to flickr. Have no idea how it works!
fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/beach,blairgowrie

And this one seems to be a Mexican/California bird list with a photo I took of a Pectoral Sandpiper included. Glad to do my bit for the ornithological world!
www.bajacalifornia.gob.mx/spa/vida_silvestre/Aves_en_BC.pdf

Now I wonder how many times my photos have been used and I haven't been acknowledged!

Tilt-Shift Miniature Fakes

I caught up with my son yesterday for a really enjoyable photography afternoon. We went to a spot outside the city where the television towers stand. He said it was a great place to view the city at night. Yeah it is...his comment brought back memories of driving up there with my friends when I was his age. :-)

The view immediately lent itself to trying out a favourite photographic photoshop technique...tilt-shift...the process of taking an scene from a height and transforming it into a model diorama, something akin to the model train sets many of us boys had when we were kids and some luckily still do :-)

The technique is best explained in a wonderful tutorial I found on the internet.

www.recedinghairline.co.uk/tutorials/fakemodel/

I've tried it out with various levels of success. The one below is one of my favourites:



The original photo:



As I said I've had various levels of success...it can take a fair bit of tinkering in photoshop but it's good fun and the results can be rewarding. As for the rule of taking the original shot from above...well it certainly is the most effective way but it is possible to achieve the 'model' effect from looking straight on as if you're looking at that 'train set from the little people' level.

Try it out...it's certainly a fun side of photography :-)

One of the rewarding things about putting up photos onto a site like flickr is that sometimes someone will ask to reproduce one in an article or if I'm really fortunate a printed publication. As long as I'm asked, and it's not for a blatantly commercial reason (like the guy who wanted a photo of mine to help promote his tour guide business but didn't want to give me anything in return) I'm usually happy to oblige.

This morning I awoke to a message from Marija at womenstennisblog letting me know that a photo I took of Serena Williams at the 2006 Australian Open has been included in an article on her site. We have this nice little agreement...Marija has ongoing permission to use my tennis images and she just lets me know when she does :-)

Taken with my old Olympus C770 10x compact four years ago here it is today at:

www.womenstennisblog.com/2010/06/26/serena-williams-maria-sharapova-to-meet-in-wimbledon-round-four/



Taking photos at sporting events is a great photographic challenge and if you can nail some decent shots and put them out onto the 'big net world' the rewards can be fun.

As always Marija pleased you could use the shot :-)

Newborn and Silhouettes

A photo from Ron Mueck's recent exhibition at the NGV here in Melbourne. Photo 27 March 2010.



Below is the original image I worked from...a last minute shot of Ron Mueck's 'A Girl' as I was about to leave the exhibition that day. Quite a bit of work tweaking the image was done through Photoshop CS (the old version I have) and IPhoto. Must say the two programs don't always cooperate with each other...

Firstly A Bit of Personal Record Keeping

These are links to photos of mine that have been reproduced in publications, articles on the internet and in one instance in a CD. As a amateur photographer it's always a buzz and an honour to be asked :-)

June 2010 - Got a photo of mine included in the cd booklet for the release by the Lone Star Western Swing Band titled 'Goodbye Liza Jane Hello Western Swing!' released by Gandy Dancer Records I am buzzin' Thanks so much Peter for asking to use it :-) Check out the photo used: www.flickr.com/photos/tidalpix/4437925474/

March 2010 - Marija from the excellent womenstennisblog.com has used a couple of photos of mine on her site recently. Check them out at: www.womenstennisblog.com/2010/03/17/top-10-players-succes... for an image of mine of Caroline Wozniacki and www.womenstennisblog.com/2010/03/14/kuznetsova-upset-ivan... for a photo of Ana Ivanovic.

January 2010 - A photo I took of Ana Ivanovic at the 2010 Australian Open has been included in the Day 4 wrap on India's Sports Campus website. www.thesportscampus.com/201001213586/grand-slams/australi... Another of Samantha Stosur has been included in their Day 6 wrap. www.thesportscampus.com/201001233620/grand-slams/australi... Pleased you could use them Arjun :-)

June 2009 - Some photos I took of bluegrass legend Peter Rowan at the 2009 Port Fairy Folk Festival can be found on his myspace site at: viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAl... I'm very pleased to have them included there :-)

February 2009 - A gallery of my Australian Open photos can be found on India's premier sports website The Sports Campus. Thanks again Arjun my friend! www.thesportscampus.com/index.php?option=com_expose&I...

January 2009 - The excellent Indian sports website The Sports Campus has used a few tennis photos of mine in their coverage of the 2009 Australian Open. Firstly there were two photos of Rafael Nadal. See the articles at: www.thesportscampus.com/20090201343/grand-slams/2009-aust... www.thesportscampus.com/20090130337/grand-slams/2009-aust... Then there's a photo of Dinara Safina www.thesportscampus.com/20090129333/grand-slams/2009-aust... Another is a photo of Elena Dementieva. www.thesportscampus.com/20090128329/grand-slams/2009-aust... And an image of Novak Djokovic www.thesportscampus.com/20090127327/grand-slams/2009-aust... Thanks Arjun for asking for them :-) I'm very pleased you liked them!

November 2008 - Lucky enough to have this photo of a Powerful Owl www.flickr.com/photos/tidalpix/2910894245/in/set-72157600... included in the Summer 2008 edition of the Australian Museum's Explore magazine. Thanks guys! It's a honour :-)

April-May 2008 - Just got word a photo of mine has been included in a book titled 'The British Television Location Guide' by Steve Clark & Shoba Vazirani and published by Splendid Books in the UK. I'm now officially a published photographer! :-) 

March 2007 - Some photos I took of brilliant Irish singer Eleanor McEvoy at the 2007 Port Fairy Folk Festival have been included on her MySpace site. Thank you very much for asking for them. Eleanor played some excellent concerts on that weekend. See the link: www.myspace.com/emcevoymusic March 2010 update - Some of my photos from Eleanor's appearance at the 2010 Port Fairy Folk Festival are now included here too :-)

September 2006 - Some of my photos of The Wailin' Jennys from the 2006 Mordialloc By The Bay Festival featured in an interview with them in the ezine Puremusic. Thanks guys for including them. I'm pretty chuffed. See the link: www.puremusic.com/69jennys6.html There's also been some images that the sites NowPublic and Schmap have asked for. It's all good fun!