For some reason, unsuspecting birds have been appearing in front of my camera lens with unusual frequency lately. This heron was the product of the weekend’s sortie to Daisy Hill. While Fitness Fanatics rode the trails in 30C heat, I planned to sit next to a billabong with my ND400 filter. It turned out that that was a non-starter due to the total absence of any wind — there is no point in long exposures if nothing moves. However, this heron turned up and calmly spent 30 minutes fishing. Enough time for me to switch to my telephoto lens, mount it on the tripod, and get some excellent portrait shots.

And these shots were taken today, with my pocket camera. You know how I said I’d never have to take another cormorant shot ever again? Turns out I was wrong. This one was too cute to ignore.

Do click on the thumbnails for a proper view!

Spring has finally started in earnest, with temperatures in the high 20s, bright sunshine and azure skies. Water quality also looks like it has improved noticeably; Moreton Bay now shimmers in a brilliant blue rather than the post-flood muddy brown that persisted for months. So I thought taking pictures of mangroves at high tide, using my new ND400 filter, would be just the thing. This time I remembered the sunblock as well as the hat. Learning from experience etc.

Established mangroves shelter the boardwalk from the sun, and the high tide and light breeze mean attractively-rippled water just waiting to be smoothed out by long exposures. Excellent reflections could be had where pools were sheltered from the breeze. Enjoy!

On my travels through the Brisbane suburbs of Bulimba and New Farm I encountered an unexpected bonus today: A cormorant, on a rock close to the footpath on an ebbing tide, happily fishing and ignoring people pointing cameras at it. I sat down on the edge with my feet dangling near but not in the water (this is why it is important to always know whether the tide is ebbing or rising!) and took shot after shot, oblivious of the burning sunshine. (Not oblivious to the aftereffects right now but Artists must suffer, or possibly remember to take sunblock. At least I did remember a hat this time.)

While I was watching the cormorant had a bit of luck, and caught a fish! Quite a big one, compared to the diameter of its neck. And I caught the whole sequence on camera. I shall never need to take another cormorant picture ever again.

Yesterday I decided to treat my new ND400 filter to an outing to the big Botanical Gardens at Mt Coot-tha. Three lakes and several waterfalls beckoned. It was a bright, sunny, cold, and very windy day — so windy that for the first time ever one of the chairs on our balcony was actually blown over. Wind equals lots of movement for things like leaves, flowers and water. Wind also equals danger of tripod falling over when left unsupervised right next to a waterfall. But, to minimise that danger, I had my Key Grip with me, who uncomplainingly trailed behind me, carrying all my gear. It’s not easy being an Artist.

This is my favourite picture: A lake surrounded by a shallow waterfall and trees. I managed to get in a 2min exposure, resulting in nicely blurred leaves and the soft sheen to the water that I currently like so much.

Here are more waterfalls and lakes.

And finally, I caught a bee in flight, just hovering over a flower to choose the choicest ones. Not taken with a long exposure, obviously.

The idea of trying out a long exposure of the sea appealed to me, so I drove the car, and all the gear, to Manly. It was a beautiful morning, sunny and warm, with no wind at all. Of course, the water reflected the sunlight, meaning very long exposures of the sort I managed yesterday in the shade were out of the question. However, a couple of pictures came out quite nicely, at 30s. 90s would have been better but it was far too bright for that.

If you look very carefully, a catamaran motored in just across my shot. Its path is just visible as a slightly darker blue.

Since the ND400 filter falls squarely into the “new toy” category I can’t leave it alone. So today I went across the river in search of more water to photograph. (I had a go at trees, flowers and leaves as well but on a day with almost no breeze that didn’t work so well.)

First of all, two “instructive” photographs. This picture shows a reasonably ‘normal’ daylight exposure, no filter used. The waterfall is clearly made up of independent droplets.

And now exactly the same shot, with the filter and a 60s exposure. The water becomes a silky sheet of white:

Interestingly, increasing the exposure further doesn’t help much beyond this point. Here is the same waterfall taken from the front, at 180s exposure:

Since I was in the Botanical Gardens, I had a go at photographing both lakes.

Due to the lack of wind the reflections are smoothed but still very clear — quite an achievement for a 3-min exposure.

Here, the fountain is totally washed out, and the water like a smooth, opaque surface.

Trees remain rock-solid, only the leaves are slightly blurred. The water looks painted rather than photographed.

Finally, Story Bridge. Because I could.

Hmmmm…. I wonder how Moreton Bay would look using this technique?

A couple of weeks ago I watched a short tutorial on taking long-exposure photographs in broad daylight, using a 10-stop Neutral Density (ND) filter. The long exposures smooth out slightly-moving textures (such as water), resulting in a dreamy-quality photograph that I found very attractive. I filed it under “must try out at some point”, largely because two weeks ago I didn’t own either an ND filter, or a cable release. Both are absolutely required to try this out, as is a tripod, obviously.

This morning I found that the Obsessive Mountain Biker had stopped riding trails for long enough to order the two missing pieces of equipment for me! My little surprise package contained an ND400 filter and a cable release.

ND400 is a 9-stop (rather than 10-stop) filter, and even that was hard to come by. Still, only 1 photon in 400 reaches the camera so that should surely be fine, right?

I attached the filter and the cable release and tried to take a picture. The first two learning points presented themselves immediately:

1. 1 photon in 400 reaching the sensor means you cannot frame a shot with the filter attached. For all practical purposes that’s like trying to frame a shot with the lens hood still on.
2. For the same reason, autofocus is right out as there is not enough light to use it.

So, I take the filter off again, frame the shot, put the filter on again, take off the eye piece, attach the eye piece cover. This is a sequence I will shortly become very good at.

Cable release, 1s. That’s about as short as I can manage using bulb exposure. This shot serves as comparison. The water shows clear ripples. (Click the thumbnail to see a full-size version.)

 
Optimistically, I tried the 2-min exposure recommended in the tutorial. Result: A completely white “picture”. It would seem that the difference between a 9-stop and a 10-stop ND filter does actually matter. So, I try again, using a 60s exposure. Success:

Note how the water has taken on a smooth, silky texture.

Since I was still getting far too much light I switched from using my colossal light bucket (er, I mean, 50mm prime lens) to a 18-55mm kit lens. It is far inferior to the prime lens, among other things because it captures less light, which, in this case, is exactly what I wanted. Here is the same shot taken with the kit lens, also at 60s.

This is looking good. Time to have some fun. This is Eagle St Pier, taken with a 90s exposure:

And finally, a ferry docked at Thornton St during this 60s exposure. You can see its ghosted image.

All photographs in this post were post-processed with the exposure turned down in Aperture. This is to get decent exposure for the buildings in the backgrounds without losing the silky water texture.

The Brisbane Festival started today, with the annual Riverfire fireworks. People lined the river banks hours beforehand. Since we are fortunate to live right next to the river, with angled views onto Story Bridge, we just went for a walk to South Bank to see the anticipation build up. They did bag searches and everything — even opened bottles of water were not allowed. It was a lovely afternoon with a great atmosphere.

We watched a bit of the aerial displays — helicopters and, I’m told by the military geek, FA-18s. These were loud! They flew directly over our block of apartments; the noise was deafening. The ibises didn’t like it either.

In the evening, the centrepiece that everyone had been waiting for: The Riverfire. Fireworks all along the Brisbane River, from Docklands to South Bank. The display was fantastic, and easily the equal to Sydney’s renowned New Year’s Eve fireworks. I loved every second, and took dozens of shots. Enjoy the images!

Bonus pictures on Google+ here.

The Brisbane Festival will continue until 24/09, and I’m especially interested in the City of Lights laser display. Watch for a post on that one.