In Photography, Portraits, Techniques at 9:31pm on January 12th, 2010
I cut my teeth in the photography world breathing in developer, fixer and god knows what other harmful chemicals while living life in the glaring light of a dull red light of a black and white darkroom. I could spend hours upon hours in my home made darkroom (my mum’s laundry) developing and printing and trying to get that black and white print to look just the way I imagined it.
These days the chemicals are gone and trying to replicate that awesome black and white print in pixels is sometimes a never ending challenge. Since the dawn of the digital darkroom I’ve constantly been on the look out for a way to do what I used to in the darkroom. Not a Photoshop wiz by a long stretch I tend to keep a lookout for the best ways to acheive certain results. I’ve never been overly happy with some of the tutorials and examples of some Photoshop people out there until now. I happened across a tutorial by fellow photo friend Erin on her blog which looked to be the goods as far as my taste in B&W imagery was concerned. I worked through her instructions and ended up with the above image of my daughter Lana.
This little technique is definitely going in the bag of tricks. Thanks Erin!
In Gear, Training at 11:37am on June 25th, 2009
Good friend and photography trainer extraodinaire Shelton Muller has put out a new instructional DVD for those aspiring to be wedding photographers. Titled “How to become a Wedding Photographer” it runs for 80 minutes in a slide show format.
A must see for those wishing to start out in the business.
Good work Shelton! Look forward to seeing more on this…
In Photography, Sport at 3:36pm on June 18th, 2009
Saturday saw me venture back to the home of the Hampton Rovers AFC. I’ve been shooting the action of the senior team for a couple of years now and it has turned fruitful come finals time with me covering various games for the VAFA.
The day was cold and bleak – perfect for suburban football some would say. The Rovers were taking on Old Hailerbury which has the likes of ex-AFL starts Robert Harvey and Brett Voss. Harvs wasn’t in the action for this game but Vossy was and it was great to see the ex-Saint running around the paddock again (bias of being a St Kilda supporter I guess!).
The Rovers put up a great fight and came out victors in the end.
In Gear at 10:03pm on June 16th, 2009
![IMG_0102[1]](http://www.berkmcgowanphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/IMG_01021.JPG "IMG_0102[1]")
I finally got around to downloading a new app for my iPhone called Camera Bag. I first heard about it after reading Chase Jarvis’ blog post “5 Tips For Making Great iPhone Photos” many moons ago but never bothered to check it out until now. It’s not a free app (AUD$3.99) but it does help to spiff up those photos you’ve grabbed using the iPhone. I take my iPhone everywhere and regularly pull it out to grab a quick snap of something that might catch my eye if I don’t have my camera with me.
The top image is using the Helga style which I think is my favourite at the moment.
This quick grab below of my kids messing around together (low light hence the blur) is styled using the Magazine style which is quite a nifty effect too.
![IMG_0106[1]](http://www.berkmcgowanphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/IMG_01061.JPG "IMG_0106[1]")
With 10 different styles it certainly improves on the standard image that comes out of the iPhone. Be interesting to see this app on the updated iPhone 3G S when it’s released. Will definitely be using this app and the iPhone more as a quick grab tool for images I see in my travels.
In Blog at 3:00pm on June 15th, 2009
A while ago I branched out the photography section of my old website into a website of its own – this one!
I had always had the intention of adding it’s own blog so I could keep everyone updated on what I was doing photographically and now I have finally managed to get it online!
Stay tuned for more updates.
ps… I’ve imported all the posts from the old blog that was over at the BigCat website as they were mostly photography related. The can be found below.
In Photography, Portraits at 3:23pm on May 20th, 2009
A photogroup I am involved with, Five Minute Photographer run by friend Shelton Muller, has been organising regular monthly meetups for all of the Melbourne based members.
Last Sunday saw us head to Montsalvat in Eltham, Victoria. Montsalvat, founded by Justus Jörgensen, is Australia’s oldest artists’ colony and is home to practising artists. Set on 12 acres the historic buildings include charming mud brick cottages and the impressive Great Hall and the photographer’s best friend, the Loft.
I’d been wanting to take some portraits of a friend of mine, Ed, for some time now and thought this would be a great location as well as provide a subject for the rest of the group attending to photograph. Ed did a stellar job considering he’s not a model and has never done this sort of thing before.
It was also great to catch up with the 5MP guys as well. It’s never a dull moment when we’re all together.
Hope to have some more updates soon.
In Portraits, Sport at 12:45pm on March 18th, 2009
A project that had been kicking around in my head for quite a while had been to shoot a basketball player in their natural environment. As I play basketball (sometimes not very well!) each week with a bunch of talented guys I had a good pool to choose from.
I asked my friend in the team John if he would be willing to pose for me. Once I explained the idea he was really willing to help out.
I now needed to get use of the stadium as they are a busy centre that always has something on. A phone call, email and another phone call later and the deal was done mind you a nice early 7.30am start!
I give John top cred – he came into this with as much enthusiasm as I did which was good, gave the whole shoot a great vibe from the word go. He had about 10 changes of clothes which was great as I had only had one in mind but ended up using a few.
Set up for images was a mixture of varying Nikon SB units. The beauty of the speedlights is that it gives you the ability to change up the scene quickly without having to move a ton of gear around. The above shot was an SB800 fired through a shoot through umbrella camera left with an SB600 camera right firing at the back of John’s head through another shoot through. I also had an SB28 bare on a stand down the back pointing at the backboard to light it up. All units fired by Pocket Wizards.
Was great to shoot John. Here’s hoping I can come up with another shoot to use him in. Maybe even an outdoor setting this time!
In Clients, Maternity, Photography at 11:07am on February 18th, 2009
I had the pleasure a couple of weeks ago of being asked to photograph mum to be Kate and her partner Neil along with their daughter Lottie. I had done some work previously for Neil’s business, Mortgage Choice, which involved headshots and the like for some print advertising (more on that soon).
I’ve done a couple of maternity shoots prior to this one (the main one being my own partner Kylie) and jumped at the opportunity as they are a lot of fun and something that doesn’t happen everyday.
Kate, Neil and Lottie were all a pleasure to work with and I was humbled to hear they felt relaxed and comfortable with myself and how professional I came across – always a nice thing to hear.
Thanks again guys and hopefully all goes well on the big day!
In Blog, Family at 8:07pm on December 18th, 2008
Just under a week ago (12.12.2008) I was blessed with another addition to my growing family (although this is the last of them trust me!). Lana Eve McGowan decided it was time to brave this big bad world and came out in a quiet dignified manner… let’s hope it stays that way. I hope to have some more shots up soon.
Now i’ve been somewhat slack in my postings as of late… hopefully that will change over the coming month(s).
More ramblings soon…
In Family, Photography, Portraits at 4:07pm on September 29th, 2008
One of my endeavours for quite some time now has been to get a deeper understanding of off camera flash through wonderful sites such as Strobist.com as well as through workshops held by Shelton Muller.
I had the fortune during the week to get my hands on a copy of David Hobby’s (from Strobist.com) much acclaimed Strobist DVD series. Pouring through it just got me all excited to get out and try some off camera flashing! Well Sunday being such a nice day I decided to rope in my daughter to pose for some outdoor type shots.
Well, I was given all of about 2 minutes “face time” with my model. In messing around setting up the shot she had grown bored and I only managed to get a couple of keepers out of it all before Abby decided there was much more interesting things to do in the back yard. Prima donnas… I dunno…
For the photo geeks here’s the setup: Shot in my backyard during the afternoon with Abby standing in the shade. Camera left has a Nikon SB800 mounted on a stand with a shoot through umbrella plus a black backing on it sort of turning it into a softbox. It’s a bit more cumbersome than a standard shoot through but decided to try it out. Camera set to manual and metered for the sky – should have dropped the ambient by a couple of stops at this point but was trying to get everything else set up as well so missed that. SB800 is set to 1/4 power and fired by PocketWizard II’s.
I really like this type of lighting and the results show in this image when viewed in full at hi-res. It’s just a nice even light that gives the image a different feel. If I can plant the kids down long enough I’ll try some more otherwise i’ll try and rope in some willing models!
(ps there was a delay posting this due to computer issues… more on that soon!)
More ramblings soon…
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