Lost Aussie on the loose

Black and White Mandala Love

If you browse back and look at the post from Thailand and check out my Palace Stairs, you will see the BW starting image for this series of Mandalas....

I love concocting these things.  It's a rather calming and certainly serendipitous kind of creativity that you just can't beat .... and the results aren't half bad either ...

So reminiscent of being a kid and twisting those funny tubes so that the crystals would align just so... and create that funky visual magic....

And lest you should think that I am doing narry but gazing at the Lake these days, I am in the throes of a massive digital re-organisation project.  Web-sites, blogs and stuff..... very headachy!  But hopefully soon to be productive and good....

Sunshine and Rain Along the Blue Ridge Parkway

It's been raining on and off now for 14 days here in the Carolinas.  Lots of flooding and soggy ground and so the sunshine moments need to be grabbed while you can.

Today's Carolina adventure was off up into the mountains again, this time to Saluda to check out  Coon Dog Day.

For the uninitiated, Coon dogs are hunting dogs.  Several breeds and the cheeky pup above is an English Red.

There were LOTS of dogs to be found in the doggie exhibition area but fearing the loss of yet another pair of shoes to Carolina Clay mud, I opted for the main street jaunt, filled with food vendors, music and sundry other goodness.

From Saluda we ventured off along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  An awesome visual feast for anyone interested in mountain and landscape imagery.

Sadly not long after we hopped on the parkway the weather started to close in.  We stopped for a bite to eat at Mt. Mitchell hoping to wait the storm out, but to no avail and found ourselves climbing higher into the clouds and getting colder and wetter by the minute.
Eventually after leaving the restaurant were greeted by this.......

....  at which point we cut the sightseeing short and headed for home. 

The Beemer did a grand job of navigating down the mountainous hair pin bends, but I daresay it might have been quicker in a raft!  Probably could have sailed right down the river to the dock in the back garden!!

A Wet and Wild July 4th

After a little research, DH and I decided to venture off to the US National Whitewater Center to celebrate 4th of July and take in the local color and watch/photograph the fireworks.

All augured well to start, clear sunny skies and the usual thunderstorms of late, thankfully absent.

The Center showcases a man-made course of Class 1 and 2 white water rapids and I garnered quite a few fun images of the rafters and solo canoeists.

There were live bands, good food and locally brewed beer and the wait for nightfall was by no means tedious.

However with dusk along came the clouds and the sharp crackle of lightening and thunder.  Shortly thereafter, the heavens opened and down came the rain.... Cameras and tripods were hurriedly drawn to shelter and we scooched under the eaves attempting to stay dry - without success I might add.

Out came the trusty iPhone  to record the moment....

Eventually the rain stopped and we dashed back out, cameras and tripods at the ready, only to be thwarted yet again as the rain came back.

Eventually the fireworks started, amidst the pouring rain and us left enjoying the show through a veil of water.

And one barely snaggable shot, which looked like this .... UGH!!

So I might not have got the fireworks shots that I wanted and lost a favourite pair of shoes (as they were totally sodden and trashed getting back throught the mud to the car) .... but it was a pretty fine day regardless.... and I hope your July 4th was full of sparkle and delight!

A "Fruitful" Day

It became apparent over the weekend when looking for toppings for toast and finding little in the (post move) pantry that something had to be done! 
So I enjoyed a computer free day today and spent a little time cooking up some Summer goodness in the kitchen, namely some Marmalade and Chutney.

After what is now become an almost daily routine, swimming 40 laps at the local aquatic centre, I headed to the grocery store in search of jars, fruit and sundry other items to simmer and preserve.

I ended up choosing to make Marmalade (a rather "British" garnish for toast) and while I was in the mood decided to make some Chutney as well.  Peaches are plentiful hereabouts and were an obvious choice to include on the menu.

I'd flicked around on the 'net to find some suitable recipes and as is fairly typical, picked a few as guides and then just had at it.

My marmalade ended up being done with oranges, lemons and ginger and is tangy, bittersweet with a little bit of kick (from the ginger), lots of peel and lots of texture and a few dried cranberries thrown in at the end as a bit of a surprise ....yummy!

The chutney was more or less off the top of my head with peaches being the main ingredient, some mangoes for good measure, red and green chillies, onion, raisins and a good dose of warm Moroccan spices.  Then about 10 mintutes out from being done I added some freshly cut off the cobb corn kernels to add a little extra sweetness and crunch!

I ended up with six jars of Marmalade and seven jars of Chutney .... so I guess we will be in good shape for toast and cracker "fixins" for a little while now....

Some Meetup Belly Wiggles

Today I joined in with one of my new Charlotte Meetup Photography Groups to take pix of Belly Dancers.  It was my first time working with this crowd and hopefully not the last as it took a little while to get hold of the vibe of the group and figure out how they work.

I have my doubts that the models do too much work as Belly Dancers (for real) and possibly prefer just to wear the costumes and have fun with it.  Regardless, they were a nice crowd and there is always something new to be learned from a different environment and seeing how other photog's do their stuff.

My fave pix were the ones that were not necessarily technically correct in any way, shape or form but we were just having fun messing with the strobe lights and dragging the shutter for up to a second or more, so you get one crisp image from the flash event and light added into the capture for as long as the shutter stays open and at the same time you deliberately move the camera to capture more movement.

Some really interesting and very creative images were shot by doing this and these are probably the ones that will end up finding their way into some piece of "altered reality" in the not too distant future....as I really like the ghosting and ethereal effects that turned up, especially after a bit of tweaking in Camera RAW.

Reflecting On Things

I spent a fair amount of time today helping a friend figure out how to make effective reflections in Photoshop and it rather got me thinking about some new ways to interpret some of the model shots I garnered in Perth last month.

The reflection part is not too hard, copy paste, flip vertical, add some motion blur and add a displacement map to give the reflection an authentic "wobble", but the darned thing looked a bit boring so, I added a huge flourish of red across the canvas, modified it with the warp tool and added a bit more motion blur for good luck and lo you have a streaming ribbon which has been gently masked away.

Much better, or well, at least a little more interesting than the SOOC image on the right!

I never really tire of tweaking and fiddling in Photoshop.  The results are not always particularly replicable and to that end I suppose I should make better notes or create actions to mimic what I do... but for me the spontaneity is half the fun!

Here's wishing you all Happy Summer Solstice and a good Weekend!

"Converse"ly - Altered Sneaker Speaking

Recently I came across an image on Deviant Art of a Converse sneaker mired on the beach... it sparked off a light bulb moment as I had happened to snap pix of my #2 Son's Converse sneakers when we were setting up the lighting for the model shoot a few weeks ago in Perth.
I had fun with the inspiration image and came up with my own take ....

Given my current penchant for using my own photos and eschewing the use of stock imagery to create my digital work, here are the pix I used to concoct "The Pelican Collector"

I used the 3D modelling tools in CS6 Extended to transform one of the sneakers into the shape and persepective that I wanted.  I also took pix of some extra sneaker laces to create the fall out ones from eyelets at the top of the shoe, as apparently #2 son tucks his in!  They were judiciously altered using the warp and liquefy tool.
I made brushes from the waves to add authentic cloning to the boot to seat it in the water and a judicious amount of dodging and burning of all the layer to add depth and dimension.

Kind of fun..... I hope you like it....

Rodeo - Country Style

As we are want to do, DH and I headed out today for some weekend adventure, cameras in hand. 
Initially we had planned to go Bluegrass (music) hunting but since I really wanted to get some pics of a Rodeo and the two events were in rather different directions, we settled for a bit of a visit to Black Mountain for lunch before making our way to the Rodeo at Pinto Acres.

We arrived rather early at the Rodeo site and the large looming field and empty bleachers set me wondering as to whether we had made a good choice or not. However within 45 minutes the place was packed!  Trucks and trailers arriving in droves.  Horses, cattle, cowboys and cowgirls forming a merry throng.

Around 6:45 the opening ceremonies got underway and from there on in for a goodly number of hours we were treated to horsey and cow capers....

I've only been to two other Rodeos before, long long time ago in Houston and much bigger events than this.  The good thing about this event was that there were no particular rules or restrictions about where you could wander, no-one minded if you were poking your uber large zoom lens through the fence and by all accounts most folk found it interesting that some-one would bother to come by and take pictures of what they were doing....

We got to watch "Chute Dogging", where you wrestle steers from standing down to the ground, Calf Roping, where Um, yes, they rope the cattle, setting the steer out from a cute, one rider knobbles the head and another rider ropes the feet.... and Barrel Racing, where the rider must circle the barrels in a clover leaf pattern at a hell bent pace, with a mad dash to the finish...
The fast tight turns around the barrels are phenomenal and in the bottom shot I was THAT close to the turn that I garnered a mouthful of dirt to boot!!!

All in all a very fun and very "Carolina" day out....

And More Photo - Shooting in Perth

Today, as a belated Mother's Day present, #2 son organised and paid for a couple of hours shooting a model at a photo studio in Perth.

#1 Son's girlfriend, Stephanie did the make-up and styling for our event.

So all together we seem to be making this a family kind of affair which is quite nice.....

Thanks to Aleecia for working with us today!!

 

Perth Music And Fashion

Tonight I spent some time with #2 son at a local fashion shoot where he was working as one of Colosoul's event photographers.

There was art on display, music of the live and DJ variety as well as a showcase of some of Perth's up and coming young designers.

Plenty of eye candy all round and the wood-fired pizza that they were serving, hand made to order, was uber delicious!

So thanks for the invite honey bee.... I had a great time!
And ^5's to Colosoul for putting on a great event at a fantastic location at Perth City Farm.