Kyle Simpson (left the building)'s photostream

As you might have guessed by the name of the shot, this is my last post on Flickr. It has been great fun and I have made a stack of awesome friends and have gained more than I have given. It is though, time to move on and I am slowly moving my workflow over to the way cool ksi.smugmug.com and the evil empire that is facebook. If you want to follow my work look for Kyle Simpson Photography on facebook or dial into the smugmug site.

This was a bit of a cheeky shot a few weeks ago when I was walking along O/G with my boy on a sunny morning. A local surf brand was doing a photo shoot and had the van set up on the beach waiting for the ken and barbie's to get ready. Not wanting to miss a great image, I grabbed this one with the 70-200 at full stretch at the same time as copping a glare from a Melbourne photographer who last saw sand from the balcony of the Portsea Hotel.

Aside of the obvious vignetting I cooked the temperature and softened the image trying to give the image a bit of a weathered look. Other than that nothing much else was done, it was just there begging to be photographed.

BTW - this image is not for sale because somebody else set up the scene for their commercial purposes and I don't believe in milking somebody elses hard work.

See you about.

Kyle

The old saying is the devil is in the detail. I have been trying to spend as much time behind the lens as I can of late, shooting sunrise, day and sunset whenever I have down time no matter what the conditions. It is a challenge trying to make a shot knowing that all the elements are working against you such as light, color, rain and wind. This morning, a few days ago at Point Lonsdale was no exception.

Dark, cloudy and easternly was the sum total of the conditions which would normally equal back to bed but I decided to press on regardless. The only element in my favour was an exceptionally low tide coupled with a benign swell so I decided to take advantage of the only elements working in my favour. Whilst there are perma-prints in the ground where a million other photographers have stood photographing this aspect of the lighthouse, I really wanted to focus on the detail in the rockpool to make a stand out shot. Enter Mr NDX..

This was a single four minute exposure with an NDX filter shot just after sunrise. An bit of local contrast was added to the rocks and I really agonised over bumping up the levels to make the image bright and shiny but decided against it leaving the image as it was with no color enhancement. This is about as close to out of the can as I can bring myself to do.. I think the detail in the foreground is what makes this image jump out not the colors or the levels. The devil is in the detail.

366 Steps. That is the sign that greets you when you arrive at the carpark at Moonlight Head, not far from Laver's Hill. It is 366 steps down the hill which is not too much of a problem, it is the 366 on the way back up that is the killer, especially if you decided that it was a good idea to take every piece of camera equipment you own in a backpack and a heavy weight tripod....

This was shot a few weeks ago before easter and is really a must stop at place on the Great Ocean Road. The location is pretty accessible although you have to time it with the tides as you can get cut off from the steps (all 366 of them) when the tide is in. On this day, the tidal movement was minimal so I had all day to work with and decided to wait until late afternoon and a bit of cloud cover. The wind was absolutely howling from the west blowing sand up everywhere, changing lenses was out of the question so I had to run with what was on the camera.

When looking at how to compose the image, the rockpools made the most logical lead in line to the anchor but the wind was causing a shocking chop across the water so I used an NDX filter to slow it down and smooth out the rock pools. The wind was a real problem with the long exposure and I ended up shooting the same image around fifteen times (at 40 second exposures) to get one that was sharp. In post production, a lot of cyan was drawn out of the shot to compensate for the NDX and I did a bit of color enhancement and local contrast adjustments.

Planning is everything. Knowing your location, the best time of day and the best time of year is critical. The bridge to Swan Island golf course is a sweet little up and over creating a nice arc and there are always small boats moored close to the shore. From a composition point of view it is a no-brainer, there are all the elements there and it is easily captured in a single frame from a readily accessible point which brings me back to planning.

The entry to the island is one of the most difficult places to master because there is wind, weather and the slipway feeding into Port Phillip Bay working against you and if any one of the elements is out then the shot is blown. You have to plan for this shot. This was taken a week ago in autumn, a period in Victorian weather when the wind is lighter and on a day when slack water coincided with sunrise. Everything was perfectly planned except that someone forgot to lift the low bank of cloud blotting out the perfect sunrise…

This shot was taken at sunrise with not much colour happening but absolutely still wind and water. There has been a fair bit of work up on the shot including a purple colour tone put through the shot and vignetting to keep the eye focused in on the boats. I was in two minds about removing the power lines but decided to do so as it detracted from the shot. I also had to time the shot with no cars going over the bridge to avoid red trail lines.

There is a place down south of my way that those who know about it know where I took this photo. If you don't know where this is then perhaps just leave it be, I would hate to see a viewing platform full of six hundred point and shooters sharing the moment with me. As it is I had the location for the entire evening before and the next morning to myself at this place. The only evidence of movement there after I left in the evening and returned the next morning was a single set of footprints and two sets of paw prints.

This is a single frame shot against sunrise with the sky colors assisted by the DSE controlled burns going on in the area. There has been little enhancment and a lot of red taken out of the shot. I found that even though I shot at a neutral color temperature there was still a stack of red color cast that had to be taken out.

PS: To the abalone poachers that rolled up as I was walking out - F#$k you dirtbags.....