Lost Aussie on the loose

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.

Water Falling

Today we headed out from Cornelius to the Blue Ridge Mountains to join a Meetup Group to take photos of the waterfalls at DuPont State Forrest.  The 2.5hr drive did not leave me dissapointed and this shot of Hooker Falls is probalby my favourite of the day....

We then hiked for a little while to get to Triple Falls and then onto High Falls where I only shot images from the bottom of the fall, and not the top.  (High Falls is the third image down.)

All in all it was a great day.  The chillier temps (in the 60's) made it perfect for hiking, especially when going uphill and lugging a bunch of camera gear and a tripod.

I'd quite like to repeat the adventure, with a little local knowledge in hand and perhaps a bit more time to contemplate the "shot" with a little less chaos, as it was very busy along the trail today.

None the less, it was fun, nice to meet new people, stretch my camera wings again and get my freckles dusted with sunshine....

Portraits or Pontiacs?

I joined in my first Charlotte Meetup today.  It was in a quaint town just north of me called Mooresville where I met about 20 other photographers and we had the opportunity to take some pictures of various "live" models .... couples, kids, babies and the like.

It was great to meet some new people and explore this rather funky town.  I have however discovered that a portrait photography business is definitely not in my future - while I like taking pictures of people for fine art work,  the contrived "glamour" and cutesy stuff leaves me cold.  I could happily do it if there was some personal relationship but to be honest, I was more interested in taking pictures of the hot rods and other fab collectibe cars that were parked down the street.

Having said that, I did get some nice pictures of the models that were there and maybe it had more to do with struggling for a shot with 20 other lenses pointed at the model and no real opportunity to connect .... ???

Today though, the cars and ICECREAM won out.... big time!!

 

(By the way if you ordered prints for Nancy's Fundraiser, they have all been mailed and should reach you shortly.  Thank you so much!!!)

Meetup Magic

I've had a lot of fun joining in with photography oriented MeetUp groups over the last six months or so.  As you can imagine, in NYC there are many interesting ones to be found.  Not quite so many on Long Island but there are a few and last week I discovered a new one which I met up with today to spend the afternoon shooting models and generally having some fun.

It's a great way to share time with like minded folk and garner a few snippets of knowlege, not to mention the opportunity to share and use studio space and meet models to work with that you might not otherwise be able to do.

Meetup, by the way, is not just for people interesting in Photography, there are groups for almost anything that you can imagine and they are all over the world..... you might like to take a peek and see what you can find to do or share with others in your area!!

I'm going to be hosting a meetup event later this month as part of one group that I belong to.  A day long Photoshop Workshop and it will be FREE to our group members!! Yay!!

Stretching Out On The Flat

...in other words, a Day at the Races....

Today I joined some 30 other photographers from one of my Long Island Meetup Groups for a trip to Belmont Park Racetrack.  The weather started out a bit "iffy" but despite a chilly start the rain staved off and the cloudy day meant a lot less nasty shadows.....

The track was also quite wet and muddy which leant itself to some interesting pictures.

A winning jockey, one raced and one ready to.....

The Stewards who make it all go round...

And then.... my favourite image of the day.....

Man and beast ... both just as dirty as each other and a race well run......

Oh yeah and the one bet I placed for the day, on a whim,  #3 in the 9th, Treasure Beach came in at 2:1 for a place.  Just a shame I only put $5 bucks on him instead of 100K!!  Otherwise I'd have been sleeping at the Plaza (or Waldorf) tonight!!