a time to keep silence

A time to keep silence.... this is pretty much the perfect way to describe how I like to be when I'm taking photos. It is a time for just me, to escape the hustle and bustle, the sometimes relentless expectations, my workload, unfortunately my home stress due to having a child with ASD, and just life distractions in general.

I love to stand, almost like a flamingo ;-) and just watch the world go by. When I am shooting landscapes, I look for clouds - I just adore looking at them and hearing their names. I can almost tell by looking at them what type of sunset will ensue. And lately, I am looking for tiny humans. I call them tiny humans because I like to incorporate as much sky as I can into the shot, so in essence they become tiny but to me they are the soul of the photo because they portray something I am feeling at the time.

18mm, 1/160,  ISO 800,  f/8, ND8.

passing by

Passing by - I'm not sure if it is the Italian in me but I do love to people watch. The beach is the perfect place to do this as everyone is focussed on what they are doing, be it walking for fitness, going for a swim, spending time with family, fishing - it is a place to unwind, relax, leave the worst of the day behind you.

I step on to Grange beach in particular and just feel everything melt away, it is amazing the power this beach has over me. It is the perfect place to spend the last hours of the day with others who are quite obviously enjoying exactly the same thing.

These 3 walkers caught my eye as they were almost crossing paths, doing exactly the same thing, very close together but still so separately. I hand-held this shot using my ND8 filter to reduce the light as I was shooting directly into the lowering sun. The filter produces great silhouettes which I am a huge fan of :)

18mm, 1/1250,  ISO 800,  f/11, ND8.

conveying mood

I am probably not alone in thinking that b&w helps to convey mood, particularly those of sadness and isolation. I am partial to b&w portraits, there is something special about them with no distracting colours of clothing etc. My focus tends to go straight to the eyes to see what emotion the person is feeling which is very powerful to me.

I do have some portraits that I will share in this project but today I'm going to share a landscape that I converted to b&w. There is a solitary figure on the beach in silhouette and while I do not know what she was actually thinking, when I was taking the photo, she portrayed to me a deep sense of sadness by being all alone on this wide stretch of beach. Now the sadness was implied by me, she may well have been thinking it was a magnificent sunset and had simply stopped to enjoy the beautiful view but in b&w, it really highlighted her isolation and how small we are in comparison to the earth and it's true size and magnificence. 

This shot was taken at Henley Beach. In terms of geographical interest, Grange beach which I featured in my introductory posts, is the next beach over going north. Henley and Grange both have beautiful jetties and it is great exercise is to walk between them. And of course in between, is a beautiful and serene stretch of beach. If you are ever in South Australia  visit them. They are not tourist attractions, so you will find quietness (particularly during the week), good food in the foreshore restaurants and wonderful views all year around. Exceptions are in times of heat waves as everyone is there cooling off :)).

18-55mm, 1/60, ISO 800, f/8, ND8.

shadow play

Shadow play is one of my favourite things to look at on Flickr. There are some amazing street photographers that use shadows to create the most incredible shadowscapes that rely on precise timing. Once such photographer is Flickr - christian1712. His work is so clever and the titles he uses show just how much thought has gone into his composition.

It has inspired me to get into the city and do some street photography but while I am getting motivated to do that trek, I thought I would give shadow play a go outside of my home. This is R walking down the street on bin night, it was around 8pm. I used the light from the street lights above him and my 50mm on f/1.8, ISO1600. It is quite grainy which I think adds to the mood I was trying to create. I converted it to black and white in Lightroom.

50mm, 1/20, ISO 1600, f/1.8.

darkness

True darkness is generally hard to find in the city. Our street lights go on as the sun goes down, even our jetties have lights on them. 

A lot of people shoot long exposure beachscapes when the sun goes down, which is what I tend to do also. Sometimes (rarely as I'm not a morning person - lol), I like to go out in the morning before sunrise. This is when you can get some really interesting shots with the tide being different to night time and the moon might still be up casting a glow on the water. I do have a few moon shots at sunrise but I haven't processed them yet, all in the archives still :)). Pre-sunrise mornings also generally mean an absence of people on the jetty, particularly in winter. Although plenty are still walking along the ocean front at first light.  

20mm, ISO 200, f/9, 2.5 seconds. 

it's getting dark...

With so much beauty, light and colour in Australian sunsets - it is pretty strange even to me that I want to capture these same locations in darkness with minimal or no colour. 

A few months ago in March, I was out shooting at Grange beach with a friend visiting from Queensland. Normally I leave the beach after last light but that night I stayed because I had company. I took a photograph at Grange jetty which had a 1 minute exposure and I loved it. The effect on the water was silky and the reflection of the jetty lights on the water looked amazing. 

This was the beginning of my fascination and love of long exposure and interest in photography as it's getting dark. 

18mm, 60 seconds, ISO 100, f/22, ND8. 

welcome to rbat photography

Hi, I'm Bec :) You can also visit me & my work at Flickr - rbat75. 

In this blog, I will be sharing my photography, particularly my new project which will feature predominantly dark/black & white images.

I shoot with a Canon 450D and a range of different lenses, mostly Canon but there is a Tamron zoom lens in the mix also. 

While I enjoy shooting a range of things, my signature and passion is landscape photography. When you live in a place as beautiful as Adelaide in South Australia, it is hard not to be a little obsessed with beachscapes in particular.

Hopefully as my project progresses, I will expand to include portraiture, cityscapes and street photography. It will be a challenge to leave coloured scapes behind but an exciting journey for me to take.