Image by Danielle Lancaster (c)

'Once the amateur's naive approach and humble willingness to learn fades away, the creative spirit of good photography dies with it. Every professional should remain always in his heart an amateur.'
Alfred Eisenstaedt

In this issue:

Bluedog News

What's On: Bluedog photography courses, retreats and tours

Exhibitions

Checking out web sites

Photo Tip - Photographing Butterflys

Photo Trivia

Product Review - Tamron 70-300mm and new Nikon Coolpix cameras

Bluedog's Blog

For Sale

Dedication to a Master of the Lens: Ansel Adams

Another striking food image by Pita Norris

Nicky Dowling stunning strawberries.

'A macarbre repetition from the Catacombs
under Paris' by Rolf Winkler.

From Danielle Lancaster photo essay "Healing Cambodia's Wounds - the story of the White Robed Nuns"

'For me it's all about being able to covert the picture in my mind, through the camera,'
Tania de Bruin

Photo Tip: Photographing Butterflys

They are indeed a fascinating and beautiful insect, yet can be difficult to capture.
Here’s a few tips:

Use a fast shutter speed
Butterflies fly. Yes most of their time is spent fluttering around in the air or collecting nectar from fragile flowers.

Capturing this vulnerably listed Richmond Birdwing Butterfly (Ornithoptera richmondia) as it landed on a leaf required a fast shutter speed. Image by Danielle Lancaster

Use continuous shooting
It will help capture the action.

Keep your camera parallel to the butterfly’s body
Always try to get the camera sensor on the same plane as (parallel to) the wings of the butterfly.
The easiest ‘butterfly pose’ to start with are ones with their wings closed where you use a widish aperture (f5.6) for a soft background without the wings blurring at the tips. Most of the time you will be wanting the body and wings sharp.

Front lighting versus back lighting
Front lighting will help highlight the contrasting colours. Backlighting, when done well, can yield a stunning image.

Use a polarizer
Yes, it cuts out light so you may have to look at raising that ISO to maintain a fast enough shutter speed, however the polarizer assists in cutting a lot of unwanted glare especially from background foliage.

Cooler means stiller
Butterflies get more active as the day progresses and the sun heats their wings. On cooler mornings and evenings they are less active and easier to photograph.

A steady hand is needed for hand holding. Image by Danielle Lancaster

Be Patient!

Patience in most of photography is a virtue! Image by Danielle Lancaster

Checking Out Web Sites
Like wildlife photography?
Then check this out: Natural History Museum

Please note you will need to enable pop-ups to view this site.
If you have come across a great web site send it to us - we'd love to try and feature it!

Photo Trivia: Did You Know?

First Full sky “map” from Europe's Planck Telescope

Researchers on the Planck Telescope, the biggest cosmology experiment in nearly a decade, have released their first full sky map of the cosmic microwave background.

The image shows the Milky Way as a bright, horizontal band through the centre with "streamers" of cold dust extending above and below.

It is an astonishing picture and has taken the 600m European observatory over six months to assemble.

The Planck telescope was launched into space last year and was sent into space to survey the cosmos and particularly the “oldest light” in the heavens. This amazing picture displays what is visible beyond our Earth to instruments that are very sensitive to light, especially at very long wavelengths.

Bluedog's Blog: http://blue-dogphotography.blogspot.com

What's been written about recently:

Tales of Whales and Photography

Bluedog goes to Italy

Photographer's rights

Nikon launches fashion stakes and launches “street style” assignment

A top tip for anyone visiting Airlie Beach

Roll up, roll up, the show is coming to town!!!

Appropriate Photography – have we lost our senses?

A winter’s day out in Melbourne

Tips for photography in cold weather

Bluedog does the Rumba

Travel and Photography Tips for Travelling in Cambodia

To Crop or Not?

A State of Flux

Back in Siem Reap

A Stop Over in Kuala Lumpur

To view the Bluedog Blog visit:
http://blue-dogphotography.blogspot.com
Please enable pop-ups to view

You can also subscribe to have it emailed to your in box.

For Sale:

I Nikor lens for Nikon AF-S VR zoom 70-300mm f/4.5 - 5.6 G IF-ED UV filter attached.

The lens was bought February/March 2010, so is still under warranty.

I paid $999.00 for it, and will accept any reasonable offer.

Reason for sale is that we have 2 of the same lenses here [both bought within a month of each other], so I want to sell this one and buy something we don't have already.
Contact Babs at brittybabs@hotmail.com or babs@downundernet.com

Camera Market

Sick of dodgy deals on ebay? Selling or buying any camera gear?

Then look at the 50% Discount at Camera Market being offerred.
www.cameramarket.com.au

Camera Market is a newly-established classifieds website for buying and selling camera gear within Australia. Selling on Camera Market directly targets those looking to buy photographic equipment, so you know your ad is getting seen by the right people.

Bluedog's Eco Tip - is it really recyclable?

In this day and age of recycling many of us try to do our bit and separate our rubbish into regular and recyclable. What we may not know is that something as harmless as a plastic bag will be enough to ruin that run of recycling.

So what should not go in the recycling bin...
Drinking glasses, ceramics, window glass, light bulbs, mirror glass, heat proof glass, glass cookware, waxed cardboard, padded envelopes, tissue paper, thermal fax paper, wax-coated paper, plastic bags, styrofoam products, elastic bands, straws, plastic film, plastic packaging, disposable nappies, bubble wrap to name a few.

A few surprises in that list but keeping these nasties out of our recycling bins will help to make our efforts worthwhile.

Dedication to a Master of the Lens
Ansel Adams (1902-1984 )

Ansel Adams was one of Americas most famed photographers, known not only for his photography but also as a passionate advocate of environmental protection.

His best known works centred on Yosemite National Park in the American west. His black and white nature photography captured not only the spirit of this wild landscape but also the hearts and imagination of the world.

His first visit to Yosemite in 1916 with his family was to be a turning point in Adams life. Not only did he find the glory of Yosemite inspiring, his father gave him his first camera there… a Kodak Brownie Box Camera, and he was also to meet his wife, Virginia Best, whose family ran Best Studios in Yosemite. Indeed, it was through Best Studios that Adams first published his photographs in 1921.

Adams, while undoubtedly an accomplished photographer who gave many stunning images to the world for their admiration was also a visionary when it came to ‘how’ a photograph should look. He not only captured what was before him but developed techniques that allowed him to capture what he ‘felt’ of an image. As he stated, "I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality.

Throughout his life and long career Adams strived to not only capture the essence of a scene but to share this knowledge with others. He used his photographs to aid in the fight to make Yosemite a national park, “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.”
By the 1940’s Adams was gaining fame as a nature photographer and his work was featured in some of Americas greatest galleries, from his first solo museum exhibition at the Smithsonian to the esteemed New York Museum of Modern Art. Adams's photograph The Tetons and the Snake River has the distinction of being one of the 115 images recorded on the Voyager Golden Record aboard the Voyager spacecraft. These images were selected to convey information about humans, plants and animals, and geological features of the Earth to a possible alien civilization.

John Szarkowski of the New York Museum of Modern Art said "Ansel Adams attuned himself more precisely than any photographer before him to a visual understanding of the specific quality of the light that fell on a specific place at a specific moment. For Adams the natural landscape is not a fixed and solid sculpture but an insubstantial image, as transient as the light that continually redefines it. This sensibility to the specificity of light was the motive that forced Adams to develop his legendary photographic technique."

Adams died in 1984 of a heart attack, leaving his wife, 2 children, 5 grandchildren and a legacy that as recent sales have shown, will remain unrivalled for a long time to come

Ten years ago Rick Norsigian, a Californian painter stumbled upon a trove of 65 old glass negatives at a garage sale. He bargained the seller from a start price of $70 down to a selling price of $45. After a friend commented that the images looked a lot like those of famed nature photographer Ansel Adams Norsigian spent years trying to get the negatives authenticated. Finally his quest may have paid off.

A team of experts who studied the negatives over the past six months concluded "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the photos were Adams' early work, and are worth a possible $200 million. Members of Adams family and his former manager dispute the authenticity and say that even if they are real "Ansel interpreted the negative very heavily. He believed the negative was like a musical score. No two composers will interpret it the same way. Each print is a work of art." Perhaps this just goes to show that taking the photograph is only part of the image, interpreting it in the darkroom (or computer) is where the vision and soul of the photographer is most readily seen. The proof of Mr Norsigians claims will only be proven through the interest the public shows for the exhibition and promised prints.

Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome

Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham by Alan Ross

Leaf, Glacier Bay National Monument

Tetons and the Snake River