MPRG

My long journey on Tuesday to the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery was richly rewarded by the fabulous “In Search of Utopia “ exhibition. On display were works by artists from Australia, China, France and UK. One can only marvel at the innovative ideas and the artist’s ability to harness the power of current computer software to produce some stunning works. For me, the “Interactive Typewriter” and the “Xanadu 2009” HD video installation were amongst the highlights.

That said – the old-fashioned shadow puppets installation was still fascinating, possibly because of its large size and sheer simplicity.

The image only shows a small part of the installation
Image © PeteM2020

The talk by Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine was inspirational - taking us through their work from humble beginnings to their current rather sophisticated 45 min interactive stop motion masterpiece. It must take a fair dose of enthusiasm and dedication to produce a video of more than 33,000 frames. That they have remained friends after all that work speaks volumes for their unwavering belief in their art form and their symbiotic collaboration.

Finishing the day at Mornington pier for an open-air lunch and some pencil drawings (under expert tuition) was the culmination of a great day out. Thanks David.

Photomatix

Image © PeteM 2020

As with most new software I find playing with it is the only way of coming to grips with it. My starting point is 5 raw images exposed at -2,-1, 0, +1 and +2 stops – mostly using a tripod, but I am also pleasantly impressed with Photomatix’s ability to align 5 handheld shots (can’t just be my steady hand!).

Image © PeteM 2020

After that its play, play, play with the myriad of sliders and settings until I have an image with some resemblance of reality, yet enhanced. The processed image is then brought into Photoshop for final adjustments – size, curves and sharpening. The latter can be done in Photomatix, but I have not found any user controls for the sharpening process.

My next step using Photomatix - probably make images far removed from anything resembling reality!

(Click on either of the images for a larger version)

Smoke in her Eyes

I decided to experiment with masks, blending modes and other stuff in After Effects. As for artistic merit – well let’s rather agree that this was just another learning exercise.

HDR Panorama

I have done further experiments with Photomatix – it’s quite a learning process to find out how to get the most out of the bracketed raw files. At times the results are quite surreal and make landscapes look like they belong on a different planet. Still much to learn!

Image © PeteM2020

This panorama was made from stitching together a couple of HDR files. I am pleased with the result, bearing in mind how dark it was in the creek today. (f8 1/10sec @800iso, +/- 2 stops) The final psd file was about 120Mb and has been squeezed down to about 50Kb for the blog entry! To see a slightly larger version, just click on the image.

As I have as yet not received my licence key for Photomatix, this image carries the watermarks.

Wangi Wiggle

I spent a few days last week sailing around Wangi Wangi, a small hamlet at the edge of Lake Macquarie, NSW. The weather was changing frequently and on this particular morning I found the cloudscapes rather exciting. So whilst the skipper was doing some minor repairs, I took the opportunity to set up the camera and make this short stop-motion animation. In hindsight, I should have taken the images at a higher frequency – next time!

HDR

Image © PeteM2020

This, my first HDR image, was made using 5 images bracketed -2, -1, 0 , +1, +2  stops and then processed in Photomatix Pro

Pile of Bricks

Image © PeteM2020

The humble brick has lost its glory as the prime building material in current constructions. Render and glass reign supreme in today’s slick architecture – but I still have a soft spot for bricks. When I found this artistically arranged pile of bricks, I felt obliged to record it. I have gathered a few of my images on a web page – just click here to view it!