Landscapes, Pentax K200D, Sigma 10-20mm f4.0-5.6

Horseshoe falls, Niagara

June 1, 2011 jezza323 1 Comment

Horseshoe falls, Niagara, originally uploaded by jezza323.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend the Victoria Day long weekend down at Niagara. The weather for the weekend was great! And the falls and the parkland around them was beautiful. On Sunday I did a wine tour, and had my first ever taste of Ice Wine, followed by quite a few more tastes of Ice Wine soon after.

This shot is the Canadian Falls (Horseshoe Falls) taken from the Canadian side of the river. I took this one early on Monday morning (Victoria Day) before there were too many people around.

The amount of spray coming off the falls makes it very hard to get a good photo of it, but I think the spray in itself is a good subject, as seen here.

This is a single shot, taken with a Pentax K200D and a Sigma 10-20mm f4.0-5.6 with a Kenko 77mm CPL filter fitted. I cropped and adjusted the levels of the image in Lightroom.

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Now A Canadian (Life Update)

May 31, 2011 jezza323 3 Comments

As you might have noticed, my recent shots are all from Toronto, Canada and its surrounds. The reason for this is that I have made the move across the globe, from sunny Brisbane to not as sunny Toronto.

A Big Move

My wife and I decided to make the move in late 2010, and after much organizing, paperwork and hard work we were finally able to move in mid April 2011. Of course we had to get rid of most of our possessions, rationalize what we had and bring as little as possible with us. This meant that I had to get rid of, or leave behind, quite a lot of photography gear. I have updated my list of gear, and hopefully I will be able to acquire some new gear soon!

Replenishing Stocks

In particular I am missing my tripod. I have my eye on 1 at Vistek but I need to save up a little first, hopefully a tripod review is just around the corner. I am also looking to replace my point & shoot camera. At the moment the one which catches my eye is the Canon ELPH 300 HS (IXUS 220 HS). The reasons this one strikes me are it features a proper wide angle lens (24mm equivalent), the lens is quite fast at f2.7 (at the wide end) and being a Canon it will be able to run CHDK software. The camera is quite a new release, so currently CHDK is not available for this model (it is still being ported), but I believe it will be in the near future. Another bonus is the full HD (1080p) video recording the camera offers, and its relatively cheap price. Again, you can look forward to a review of this model as soon as I get my hands on it.

Suggestions?

If anyone has any tips for living in Toronto, places I should visit (and photograph) then please let me know.

Architecture, HDR, Pentax K200D, Sigma 10-20mm f4.0-5.6

Great Library Memorial

May 31, 2011 jezza323 Leave a comment

Great Library Memorial, originally uploaded by jezza323.

This is another shot of Osgoode Hall. This one is a Memorial in the Great Library of the building.

This is a bit of an unusual shot for me, because it is a black and white HDR. Not something I usually would do, but I have been craving some black and white, so here some is!

Again this is 3 shots taken at +/- 2.0 EV, with the Pentax K200D and Sigma 10-20mm f4.0-5.6. I blended the exposures using Photomatix (in colour) then made the final edits and black & white conversion in Lightroom.

Architecture, HDR, Pentax K200D, Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

South African War Memorial, Toronto

May 30, 2011 jezza323 Leave a comment

University Avenue Memorial, originally uploaded by jezza323.

This war memorial can be found at University Avenue and Queen Street West in Toronto. It is a memorial to all those who fought for Canada in the Boer War. The memorial was commissioned in 1910 and was designed by Walter Seymour Allward.

This is a HDR composed of 3 exposures, taken at +/- 2.0 EV using my Pentax K200D and Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens. I blended them using Photomatix, then made some adjustments to the final image in Lightroom.

Architecture, HDR, Pentax K200D, Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

Absent Photographer

May 26, 2011 jezza323 Leave a comment

Absent Photographer, originally uploaded by jezza323.

Here is another quick capture from Saturday evening down at Niagara Falls. There are some really beautiful gardens in the parks by the Falls. This building with its garden and the tripod setup caught my attention for a nice image.

This is another HDR combined from 3 exposures taken at +/- 2.0 EV using Photomatix, and some minor tweaks in Lightroom. I took this using my Pentax K200D and Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens.

I am having some trouble with this lens at the moment, it is back focusing quite a lot, you can only notice it when using wider apertures and longer focal lengths, but I will need to do a bit of testing to see if it is just this lens, or my body. One or both may need some repair.

HDR, Landscapes, Pentax K200D, Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

Sir Isaac Brock Memorial

May 24, 2011 jezza323 Leave a comment

Sir Isaac Brock Memorial, originally uploaded by jezza323.

This is a memorial at Niagara for Sir Isaac Brock, killed fighting in the war of 1812 between the British (Canada) and America.

We visited here over the Victoria Day long weekend for lunch at the adjacent restaurant whilst on a Niagara region wine tour. The wines were great! Definitely try some icewine if you haven’t already.

The scenery and buildings in the area were also amazing to see. We will definitely be returning to the area soon to visit all those areas we missed this time around.

This shot is a HDR composed of 3 exposures taken at +/- 2.0 EV with the Pentax K200D and Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens. The HDR was composed using Photomatix and minor adjustments made using Lightroom 3. I took this just after finishing lunch, after a small rainstorm passed through, leaving lovely wet paths which add to the effect.

Architecture, Pentax K200D, Sigma 10-20mm f4.0-5.6

Royal Ontario Museum

May 18, 2011 jezza323 Leave a comment

Royal Ontario Museum, originally uploaded by jezza323.

This is another of the main tourist attractions in Toronto. The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) is quite large! We were expected a 2hr or so tour of the museum, however it turned into an all day trek through the place, we walked through for over 6 hours!

The museum is huge, and has a great collection of pieces and displays. I highly recommend a visit to anyone in the area.

This is a single exposure, with quite a bit of Lightroom tweaking to bring out the detail.

Architecture, HDR, Pentax K200D, Sigma 10-20mm f4.0-5.6

Casa Loma

May 16, 2011 jezza323 Leave a comment

Casa Loma, originally uploaded by jezza323.

I am now an official Toronto resident, have moade the move here with my wife. We are settling in, and have found the time to visit a number of the tourist attractions. This is the first I will post.

Casa Loma is a gothic style home, build in the early 1900′s by a wealthy Toronto businessman. It is now a tourist attraction and museum.

I grabbed this shot as we were leaving. It is quite hard to get a good angle on the building due to the trees everywhere, but I managed to find this spot at the edge of the carpark.

This image is 3 shots, taken at +/- 2.0 EV and blended using Lightroom and the LREnfuse plugin.

HDR, Landscapes, Pentax K200D, Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

Early Morning Fog

September 10, 2010 jezza323 Leave a comment

Early Morning Fog, originally uploaded by jezza323.

This is another foggy morning shot, not as much colour in this, but at least a bit of an object of interest to draw the eye.

This one was also taken with the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens on a tripod. It is 3 shots taken at +/- 2.0 EV and blended using the LR/Enfuse plugin, which is a great plugin, highly recommend you try it out. You can try it for free, but only create 500px blends, and you can get yourself a key to unlock the plugin by donating to the project.

Landscapes, Pentax K200D, Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

Foggy Morning

September 7, 2010 jezza323 2 Comments

Foggy Morning, originally uploaded by jezza323.

A while back I went for an early morning fog chase. I have been meaning to do this for some time, but generally I find myself too asleep to get to it! On this particular morning though I was keen and ready to roll bright and early. It was a great fun morning driving around taking pics all over the place. Definitely worth doing if you can find the motivation.

This shot was the first stop once the light was good enough to actually see what was around. I quickly got out the tripod, set it up and took this shot with the Tamron 17-50mm lens mounted. After this I kept the camera mounted to the tripod, and tripod legs extended, and just popped it in/out of the car at each stop.

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