FARMS, NOT COAL – Breeza, on the Liverpool Plains of NSW, Australia.

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Andrew McInnes Photography

‘nuf said?

The Liverpool Plains is a prime food and fibre producing area that is under imminent threat from several coal mines – at least one of which, the Shenhua Watermark mine, is foreign-owned (Chinese). These companies seek to rape and scar the land, deplete and contaminate aquifers, then pack up and leave once the destruction is no longer financially viable. Never mind that there are farmers, you know, living breathing hard-working people, with families and dreams, enduring incredible stress as they seek to remain being outstanding stewards of the land they sweat for. How and why our political “representatives” allow this is beyond me – I suppose it goes along with their belief in continued economic growth year on year. Well, let’s inform them that exponential growth is unattainable and to seek it is ignorantly irresponsible (but I guess it is politically astute?).

I am not against mining, per se, however I do have issues with “the commons” being over-extracted for the profits of a few whilst the landholder has little recompense for the invasion, and the people of this nation see very little direct financial benefits. As another roadside sign in the area states: “Wrong mine, wrong place.”

A pre-dawn light painting at Breeza, on the Liverpool Plains, NSW. Breeza 2AM-001230 ©Andrew McInnes.

Silos at dusk. Breeza 2AM-001216 ©Andrew McInnes.

I hope you enjoyed these images.

Cheers 🙂

Springsure, Queensland – including a light-painting episode.

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Andrew McInnes Photography

This is overlooking Virgin Rock and the town of Springsure in the Central Highlands Region of Queensland, Australia – as seen from Minerva Hills National Park. As is my want, I hiked in a few hours too early with all the required equipment and froze my bum off, waiting for dusk’s blue hour and the town lights to be on, in order to light-paint this scene…

This is the “before” image, taken on iPhone 5:

Springsure 2AM-000137 © Andrew McInnes

And this is the subsequent light-painting image.

Springsure 2AM 8300-8301 stack © Andrew McInnes

The remaining images here are different views of Mount Zamia escarpment, incorporating Virgin Rock:

Springsure 2AM 8353-8355 Panorama © Andrew McInnes

This is a light-painting of the entrance to Springsure Golf Club.

Springsure 2AM-008319 © Andrew McInnes

For the following shots it was 1 degree C, and silly me, I was out photographing in thongs (i.e. Flip flops, not the underwear variety), light summer fishing pants, t-shirt and an old hoodie! Brrr.
On the left is Virgin Rock – a feature of the Mount Zamia escarpment.

The following two images are essentially very similar compositions, but were taken 50 minutes apart.
different light = different feel.

Springsure 2AM-008332 © Andrew McInnes

Springsure 2AM-008359 © Andrew McInnes

Hope you enjoyed a brief glimpse of this beautiful area of Queensland.

Cheers.

Murphy’s Haystacks – Streaky Bay, South Australia.

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Andrew McInnes Photography

Near Streaky Bay, South Australia, there is a farmer’s field containing numerous pink granitic rock formations – known as inselbergs (or monadnocks for those of you in the U.S.A.) and are located between Streaky Bay and Port Kenny on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

Both of these images are light paintings.

For this first image I wanted to create a look of Aboriginal rock art being illuminated by fires in the recesses between the boulders. This is a stacked image.

Murphy's-Haystacks-2AM-6674-6675and6678-6679

For this second image I wanted to create the look/feel of a giant wave breaking over a boulder on a beach (hence the use of the blue gel on a flash) – the light-painting was a duo effort, one with an orange lights, one with a LED light.

Posting #6 of my road trip from Fremantle to Kununurra, Western Australia.

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Andrew McInnes Photography

Into the Kimberley Region…

If you plan on being near Halls Creek I thoroughly recommend taking the time to explore along Duncan Road…

China Wall – a quartz outcrop.

A light painting of China Wall.

The very refreshing, and aptly named, Palm Springs.

A ‘selfie’ in Palm Springs – lovely safe place for a dip.

Mulla mulla wildflowers along Duncan Road, Halls Creek.

One of the water crossings along Duncan Road, Halls Creek.

Sawtooth Gorge is a beautiful and secluded camping/visiting area- well worth the short bumpy dirt road in.

An iconic avian species – the Wedge-tailed Eagle – perched on a termite mound outside Fitzroy Crossing.

An iconic boab tree at dusk on the Great Northern Highway – a common Kimberley vista.

Posting #4 of my road trip from Fremantle to Kununurra, Western Australia.

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Andrew McInnes Photography

During my recent >9,000 km road trip highway vistas like this one routinely had me in awe of the scenic beauty of this wonderful land.

Highway-2AM-002693-002695_panorama_8-bit

Oh, how I enjoy the tranquillity of a sleepy river and the Australian bush. This is the De Grey River and rail bridge just off the Great Northern Highway near Port Headland, Western Australia. I didn’t camp here but I did enjoy the respite as I stretched my legs during the long drive.

Travelling is full of surprises…

The ubiquitous road train: some transport livestock, some transport supplies, and for others, like this one, it is iron ore.

Thanks for swinging by and I hope you enjoyed these photo’s of my travels.

Posting #3 of my road trip from Fremantle to Kununurra, Western Australia.

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Andrew McInnes Photography

This post contains images from my express visit to Coral Bay and Exmouth, Western Australia.

Ah, the tropics 🙂

These next three images are from Coral Bay – a stunning and simple place.

The front of the image is shallow water over a sand substrate; this then abruptly drops off into a deepish lagoon which is protected by Ningaloo Reef (Australia’s “other” reef) in the background. © 2014 Andrew McInnes.

Unfortunately I only spent about 8 hours in Exmouth which is nowhere near sufficient. Nevertheless, here are some scenes of this fascinating area.

A light-painting of the retired (non-functioning) Vlamingh Head Lighthouse – Exmouth. The evening air was thick with moisture from the Indian Ocean as it pounded Ningaloo Reef so I thought I’d make an image to suggest how the light from the lighthouse may have appeared to mariners of yore. During the 30 second exposure I mimicked a beam of light from the lighthouse by aiming my spotlight on the structure for a few seconds, allowing the moisture in the air to appear as a beam.
This image includes the Southern Cross (and pointers), along with a portion of the Milky Way.

Vlamingh-Head-Lighthouse---Exmouth-2AM-002554

Vlamingh-Head-Lighthouse---Exmouth-2AM_no-base-image_lighten_startrails_b

Star trails caress the retired (non-functioning) Vlamingh Head Lighthouse – Exmouth, on a blustery and balmy autumn night. This is a stacked image consisting of 61 images (each image f4 for 30 seconds at ISO 800). © 2014 Andrew McInnes.

More posts from this road trip to follow this.

Experimenting with steel-wool in photography – plus a Jeep Wrangler.

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Andrew McInnes Photography

Last weekend I went with a mate to San Luis Pass, Galveston, Texas to experiment with molten steel as an element/feature in photo’s, and ended up combining formed steel in the image too 🙂

We had a blast experimenting with this – thanks to Jeremy Caton for his self-sacrificing work “spinning the fire” (his hands are all torn up from the rotating cable – there will be gloves next time). NOTE: The use of this steel-wool technique requires locations that will not be conducive to ignition and subsequent fire!

As this was the first time either of us had tried this technique I have included the initial “practice” images – practice for Jeremy with the steel-wool, and practice for me as I figured the required metering for this molten steel. The final image is the result of the shoot.

Steel-wool experiments 2AM-116079
Canon 7D with Canon 24-105mm f/4L lens. f22 for 5 seconds at ISO 100.
Copyright © Andrew McInnes/2AM Photography. All rights reserved.

Steel-wool experiments 2AM-116083
Canon 7D with Canon 24-105mm f/4L lens. f11 for 13 seconds at ISO 100.
Copyright © Andrew McInnes/2AM Photography. All rights reserved.

Steel-wool experiments 2AM-116091
Canon 7D with Canon 24-105mm f/4L lens. f8 for 30 seconds at ISO 400.
Copyright © Andrew McInnes/2AM Photography. All rights reserved.

Jeep-Wrangler-and-Steel-wool-2AM-116085-1106087_stacked

Jeep-Wrangler-and-Steel-wool-2AM-116085-1106087
Three image stack.
Canon 7D with Canon 24-105mm f/4L lens. ISO 400.
Copyright © Andrew McInnes/2AM Photography. All rights reserved.

Same scene, different interpretation – Garner State Park, TX.

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Andrew McInnes Photography

I recently traveled to the beautiful Garner State Park, Texas to photograph night shots which were to include light-painting.

This blog contains two images; though they were the exact same composition, and both taken after twilight, these are two very different images.

The first image is your “standard” light-painting and was taken after humanly visible light had vanished:

Garner State Park 2AM-115918
A single capture with light-painting.
Canon 7D with Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 lens. f5.6 for 40 seconds at ISO 1600.
Copyright © Andrew McInnes/2AM Photography. All rights reserved.

The second image also includes light-painting, and the process of capturing this image was started about 10 minutes after the photo above. However, this second image is a “stacked” image – I took 61 photographs, the first of which was the light-painting on the trees and “Old Baldy” then a further 60 images were taken without any light-painting (the last image is a “blank” which helps reduce the digital noise). Total exposure time equates to a little over 40 minutes. Each image had the exact settings of the first photo posted (above) and I compiled them using software that is dedicated to stacking images.

Garner-State-Park-2AM-115920-115980_stackedImage2
61 image stack for a total exposure time of ~40 minutes.
Each frame/picture had the following settings:
Canon 7D with Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 lens. f5.6 for 40 seconds at ISO 1600.
Copyright © Andrew McInnes/2AM Photography. All rights reserved.

I could have (and should have) taken a single, 40 minute long-exposure image as this would also have a slightly different interpretation of the scene. That longer exposure would have had more digital noise but smoother star-trails.

So from the same scene and the same composition we can get multiple interpretations/photographs by using different photographic techniques.

Hope you enjoyed these images 🙂

I have previously posted blogs showing this location (Garner State Park, Texas) in Fall color:

https://2amphotography.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/a-wet-and-colorful-weekend-near-utopia-tx/

https://2amphotography.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/fall-rotation-thanksgiving-2011-garner-state-park-tx/

A very brief trip to the Texas panhandle – Palo Duro Canyon, Cadillac Ranch, and Wind Turbines.

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Andrew McInnes Photography

The Texas panhandle is a fascinating region and I spend too little time there unfortunately. Recently I fit in a very quick trip to recharge. Here are a few images from that trip.

Prints of my images are available if you click on the Licensing/Purchasing images tab on this blog or click this link: https://2amphotography.wordpress.com/licensingpurchasing-images/

All images Copyright Andrew McInnes/2AM Photography.

Hoodoo at Capital Peak - Palo Duro Canyon 2AM-114814_7D_blog

Capital Peak - Palo Duro Canyon 2AM-114896_7D_blog

Capital Peak - Palo Duro Canyon 2AM-114897_7D_blog

Golden-fronted Woodpecker 2AM-30656_30D_blog

Golden-fronted Woodpecker 2AM-30656
Canon 30D with Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L lens and Tamron 1.4x teleconverter. f5.6 for 1/320 second at ISO 1000.
© Andrew McInnes/2AM Photography. All rights reserved.

The Lighthouse - Palo Duro Canyon 2AM-114886_7D_blog

Hoodoo at Capital Peak - Palo Duro Canyon 2AM-114844_7D_blog

That is the end of this little adventure. Thanks for visiting!

Light-painting: before-and-after shots in West Texas.

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Andrew McInnes Photography

I have a fondness for photographing so-called “light-paintings” and sometimes they are the only keeper shots I return with if the available light doesn’t have the magic quality. Here are two different scenes illustrating why sometimes a light-painting can bring an otherwise flat scene to life. (NOTE: for these particular images the moon was in its first quarter and therefore contributed to the overall scene – I prefer no moon for these shots but sometimes my free time doesn’t align with those preferences).

DISCLAIMER: In no way do I present myself as an expert on this technique – or anything photographic. Rather, I present these images and technique to illustrate how I capture light-painting images. Hope you enjoy 🙂

This first pair of images of boulders (1a and 1b) were taken roadside – I desperately wanted to shoot this from the private ranch on which they are located but was denied permission. Nonetheless, I found the subject/scene sufficiently interesting and returned and found this composition, without trespassing 🙂

The second pair of images (2a and 2b) were taken later the same evening as the pair above.

Image #1a:

A ‘blank’ shot (no light-painting) to determine the exposure I wanted for the sky and to check the composition. VERY ordinary!

Image #1b:

Resultant light-painting image.

For the fence posts ‘painting’ I used a MAG-LITE ® with a home-made snoot to reduce light spill on the surrounds – approximately 3 seconds of light-painting. The boulders were ‘painted’ for approximately 27 seconds using a Brinkmann Q-Beam ® 3 million candlepower spotlight (rechargeable and inexpensive at approximately $40). This image was taken at 7:50 PM. Color temperature for 1a and 1b was 4000.

Image #2a:

A ‘blank’ shot (no light-painting) to determine the exposure I wanted for the sky and to check the composition. As such no light was added to the scene. Again, VERY ordinary!

Davis Mountains State Park 2AM-114643_7D_2a

Image #2b:

Resultant light-painting image.

Davis Mountains State Park 2AM-114647_7D_2b

After the ‘blank’ shot I made a slight adjustment to the composition to reduce foreground and increase sky/stars. For the external ‘painting’ I used a MAG-LITE ® with a home-made snoot to reduce light spill on the surrounds – approximately 25 seconds of light-painting. The interior was ‘painted’ for approximately 2 seconds using quick pulses from a Brinkmann Q-Beam ®. This light was used because of its inherent warm color, to simulate the glow from a fire. This large light is what I typically use when the subject is not immediately proximate. This image was taken at 9:20 PM. Color temperature for images 2a and 2b was 3200.

Any comments or thoughts are appreciated. My appreciation to Ken Zoller for his locations “guiding” by cell-phone 😉

I am soon to post a photo-blog that highlights some of my light-paintings – please stay posted 🙂

Andrew McInnes Photography

Imagery © Andrew McInnes

Category Archives: Light-painting