Photo Editing Fun

Photography is all about capturing the moment by pressing the shutter at exactly the right time and in perfect lighting conditions. Or is it?

Well to a large extent, yes it is.  However, post processing has been an intergral part of photography from long before the digital age.  I remember the days of a real darkroom and manually dodging and burning areas of a print during developing.

But the digital darkroom has opened so many possibilities besides the usual correcting exposure problems, color casts etc.   And one of the most enjoyable is creating a new image that would be impossible to get straight out of the camera. 

So I browsed through some of my archived images and after a little thought decided to cretate a few humorous animal pics.  Here are the results.  I hope they bring a smile to your face!

Glendore Sand Quarry

I was approached by Glendore Sand Quarry to do a commissioned shoot of their quarries in the Port Elizabeth area.
See www.glendoresand.co.za for more about them.

I readily agreed to the still images requirements but balked a bit at their request for video as well.  I have never done video before on a professional level.  Anyway, why not start now?  so I accepted the commission on the basis that the video part of the shoot would be a matter of trial and error.

And trial it was.... only because it was a massive learning curve to shoot video.  (rolling shutter. 180 degrees shutter, ideal shutter speeds for video, video editing software, PAL or NTSC, frames per second etc.  are some of the technical aspects that I have managed to learn about)

But in the end I am very happy because video adds huge potential to the services I can offer.

But the downside is that I now need to purchase some video equipment in order to create quality videos.  A fluid head for panning, a Steadicam for mobile shots and a follow focus/zoom system will all be very useful....

Also on the menu was low level aerial photos as seen in the first image below:-

Crusher Plant at Glendore Quarry - Low Level Aerial View

Ground view of how the top image was taken.  (5DMkIII mounted on a 17m telescopic mast attached to the back of my vehicle.  Image taken with Cell Phone camera)

Here are two images taken at ground level:-

Front End Loader picking up large stones to be crushed and graded

Front end loader tipping stone into the trailer of a huge delivery truck.

Their company name is Glendore Sand and Stone but after spending time in their quarry I think the word 'Dust' should be considered as well!  I had dust in my ears, hair, vehicle, laptop, camera bag and even in places that I can't mention here.

Anyway, it was a memorable shoot and I hope that the client will be able to make good use of the images.