Innholdsfortegnelse for September - November 2024 i Photo Review

Late last century as a young and aspiring landscape photographer, I was fortunate enough to make it into one of Ansel Adams’ workshops. The giant of American photography had recently passed his 80th birthday and though his hands were gnarled with arthritis and discoloured from decades in the darkroom, his passion for image making was undiminished. Prominent photographers were happy to give their time to help him conduct his workshops and lead groups of aspiring photographers on field trips to iconic locations like Point Lobos and the coastline near Carmel, California. It was on one such excursion that I was introduced to a stunningly simple photographic exercise which is part of my repertoire to this day. Our instructor had the group set up their large format view cameras and tripods…

Why visit Located in Acton at the foot of Black Mountain, the Australian National Botanic Gardens carries the largest living collection of native Australian flora in the country. It was established in September 1949 and officially opened to the public in October 1970. The site occupies 90 hectares, of which approximately 40 hectares are organised in thematic sections that include the following environments: ● A Rainforest Gully, featuring plants occurring in the rainforests of Eastern Australia; ● A Rock Garden showcasing plants that occur in rocky habitats from the desert to alpine areas; ● A display of plants endemic to the sandstone formations of the Sydney basin; ● Mallee plants and the shrubs and grasses associated with them; ● The Eucalypt Lawn, which features about one fifth of Australian eucalypt…

Back in the early 21st Century, the megapixel count of a camera’s sensor was the most important parameter for evaluating a camera. Each marginal increase in resolution was promoted in marketing materials and we were led to believe that Camera A was superior to Camera B purely because it had more effective megapixels. Today we’ve reached a point where 20 to 26 megapixels is considered the norm for most mid-level cameras. Moving up from 20 to 40 megapixels (the typical resolution of ‘flagship’ professional and semi-professional cameras) represents a doubling in resolution potential, which is quantifiable. However, unless you plan to make very large (larger than A2) prints of your shots, 20 megapixels should be good enough – particularly as an increasing number of cameras with in-built image stabilisation (IBIS)…

‘The key to longevity in photography, or any creative field, is to allow it to evolve with you as you grow and to change as you change,’ says Tom Goldner, the Melbourne born-and-raised photographer who now lives in Wurundjeri Country, among the bush-cloaked uplands of the Dandenong ranges. Tom divides his time between academic responsibilities in the School of Communications & Creative Arts at Deakin University, while also being Creative Director for Photo Collective (the photography advocacy organisation responsible for the Australian Photography Awards) – and pursuing a creative practice within a photographic genre known as "expanded documentary." Expanded documentary is grounded in storytelling, Tom explained. ‘For me photography remains a process of discovery. With the brumbies [project] it was about going out on country and seeing what unfolds. There…

You’d think living in Esperance, on the southern coast of Western Australia, would be enough remoteness for anyone, but for multi-award-winning OM SYSTEM photographer Scott Portelli, it’s just the start of the story. Since moving there two years ago, he has spent all but four months in other wilderness areas of Australia and the world, ranging from Lake Eyre, the waters off Whyalla in South Australia and whale projects in the Southern Ocean, to the Norwegian Arctic, Iceland, Patagonia and extensive travels in Antarctica. Portelli’s expertise extends through land-based, underwater and aerial/drone photography, and from wildlife and landscape documentary photography (and video) to more abstract, creative approaches. One recent project that could be said to naturally involve both was photographing the annual giant cuttlefish ‘aggregation’ near Whyalla, where tens of…

When you retired five years ago after 29 years as a medical photographer, switching to art photography and old-fashioned alternative printing processes must have been a big change. My initial photographic studies were in fine art, so I’ve always enjoyed creative photography outside of work. Initially for myself as relaxation during holidays, and I was in a group that did large-format photography. Then I got into using infrared [commonly used in medical photography because it can image beneath the skin] in a creative way. My two favourite types of photography are infrared and photomacrography [extreme closeup], and I’ve always liked alternative printing processes since I did a fine art photography degree at RMIT in the mid 1980s. How did you get from completing a fine art degree to working in…

Not so long ago, photographers were advised to ‘expose to the right’ (ETTR) to ensure they captured an ‘optimal’ range of image tones. Back then the focus was upon recording shadow details with as little inherent image noise as possible. The theory was basically sound; increasing the number of photons captured delivers a statistical advantage because you have more image data to work with. If you can do this without clipping the highlights, you’re the winner! Unfortunately, it’s really easy to err slightly on the over-exposure scale and blow them out to pure white. Unlike traditional B&W film, which has long shoulder and toe curves that extend its potential recording capabilities into highlights and shadows (see the diagram on page 45), digital recording is linear with abrupt transitions between dark…

Kitty’s Gorge By Craig Hansom Sony a6400; 70-350mm lens; f/4.5-6.3 While on a recent hike, it was raining steadily when the sun shone through a gap in the clouds like a spotlight, lighting up two Eucalyptus trees. I quickly got my camera out and captured this photo. I think the rain gives the photo a painterly quality and represents a typical Australian bush scene. The photo really speaks to me, but is it really any good? Don’s response Well, to answer your question Craig, this photo speaks to me too. Its charm crept up on me as I began to see how the subtle streaks of the rain ever so slightly softened the fine detail of what you rightly describe as a typical Australian bush scene. But the picture wouldn't…