Photo Challenge 2 - Portrait

The second month of a photo challenge I am doing with a friend had a theme of 'portrait'. This was not my choice, which is probably revealed by my lack of 'variety' in what I think are my best shots (all 2 of them). In true 'don't leave the house fashion' they are all of our cat.

I personally like the top one the best. What do you think? (click the pics to enlarge).

The next theme is 'movement' which I already have some good ideas for. Looking forward to trying a few new things out and about.

Photo Challenge - Tranquil

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine suggested that we undertake a photo challenge, to get us out and about and searching for good shots instead of simply waiting for good moments to come to us. Essentially, we gave ourselves three weeks, picked a theme, and then agreed to meet and and compare our best shots that conformed to the theme.

Being a big fan of landscape photography (it is my comfort zone), I sneakily suggested "tranquil" as the first theme, and luckily it stuck. One of the benefits of such a theme for me is that every morning, I ride to work around Lake Burleigh Griffith (a large shallow, algae infested lake in the heart of Canberra). A cup of the water may kill you, but on cold winter mornings (down to -6 lately), it provided some great shooting options.

The best of my shots (in my opinion) is below. Amazingly, it was only taken on a cheap point and snap camera because it is all I had on me at the time. It was an amazing morning though, and the camera managed to truly capture the great colours of the sun rising. As they say, the best camera in the world, is the one you have with you when a good photographic moment arises. It really all does come down to composition!

I have included a few of my other entries into the "competition" below for you. My favorite would probably be the middle one of the sun breaking through the trees, particularly because of the dramatic shadows cast by the trees. The theme for the next challenge has been set as "Portrait". Portraiture is not my strong point, so it should prove interesting. Any tips? 

Vietnam and Cambodia - take 2

After coming home from a holiday in Vietnam and Cambodia earlier in the year, I very quickly went through all my shots and chose what I thought (at the time) were about 100 of the best. Since then, I haven't really looked back over the remainder of the pics, but tonight I thought I would give it a go.

Surprisingly, I found lots of shots in there that I must have overlooked the first time round, and ones that on reflection, should have made it into my "best of" folder. What follows are some of the new shots I have decided are "worthy" of being put online. To check out the full set of my shots from the trip, check out my Flickr.

News.com.au Gallery!

Head to the photo gallery and check out photo number 10!

http://www.news.com.au/travel/your-best-photos-of-australia/story-e6frfq7r-1226336365370

Easter in New Zealand

This Easter, I spent 6 days in New Zealand with Simone's family. New Zealand always offers me some great chances to get out and about with my camera, and although we were extremely busy, I still managed to come away with a few shots I was happy with.

In particular, I spent a lot of time photographing Simone's families German Shephard. As she was constantly on the move, I was forced to use some pretty high shutter speeds to get the results I wanted!