Wisteria's Scrap Book [Photography]

[[Desolate Divine]]

I looked at all these and then forgot to comment haha. I love the rainforest boardwalk one. It looks really great and the lighting came out just right!

I like your creative shots too! You should do more of them! The phone one and the lens have some pretty cool lighting going on. :)

Do you do any editing after you take the photos?

Ah hell, sorry Sarah! I only just saw this!

Occasionally but not often. More to see how I can adjust it.

About to make a post soon with this months shots!

[[Desolate Divine]]

April 2017 (Because I am tired and can't think of a creative title)
The last few months I have been slack with my scrapbook, however I got reason to post now, so I have a few shots from the last month (seeing as most of them involved people).

Spoiler:

This was taken from a lookout near church after the service a few Sundays ago. I brought my tripod with me and decided to try my hand at some long exposure photography. I was quite happy with this shot of the stars. Funnily enough, I tried again the next night in much better conditions (further out so less light pollution, less moon etc) and couldn't get anything close to this. Still got a lot to learn.


Whilst this shot isn't particularly special, I threw it in to show something. This is using my newest lens, the 50mm f/1.8. The reason I got it is because of the f/1.8 which basically means it lets more light in and creates a shallow depth of field. Depth of field is the distance of focus in the shot. This show shows just how shallow the depth of field with this lens is. Check out the blur in front of and behind the cards...


I was staying in Ocean Grove that weekend, and tried to get some nice shots of the sunset. Unfortunately, there was a bit too much cloud (there had been a storm that afternoon)



I got these ones a little later. I really like how the second one nearly looks like some sort of painting.


That night I gave long exposure photography another go and this time it paid off. Whilst it is only good for still scenes (such as this (even stars move too much)), I love the way it lights up the shot as opposed to bumping up the ISO or opening the aperture. It is a better type of light.


This is what a minute exposure looks like...

Now for the fun part. For my birthday, I put all the money I got aside, and bought myself a drone. A DJI Phantom 3. Good news: I already got the hang of flying it. Bad news: Laws around here about drones are so strict to the point where there are few places I can fly it. Some rules are:
-Only in daylight and clear conditions.
-Must be in line of sight
-Not within 30m radius of cars, buildings, people etc
-No higher than 400ft (120m)

Like, I get the need for rules. I just wish that it didn't make it so difficult. I got it yesterday and have only flown it for like half an hour because of this.

I flew it at church (since the property is big, and I work there) and got some cool shots from the air.




Yep. There are a lot of trees. I only just realized how many trees are on the property when I saw this photo.

Anyway, I'll call it a night. I plan to take more photos so I should update this a little more! Night!

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Wow the one of the night sky is really nice! That's cool you can take such a good photo with your camera! Ocean Grove looks nice too. I was there earlier that week haha. We were lucky to have perfect weather and then when I got home it was storming. xD

That's awesome that you got a drone! I had no idea there were so many rules about it. The drone's camera looks pretty great!

[[Desolate Divine]]

The XR6 and the Maxima
Last night I got bitten by the photography bug again. I wanted to take photos of cars.

I originally organized with my mate Zach, who drives a Mazda MX5, to meet up and take photos of his car, however due to it being cold and wet outside he decided to wait for another day. So I decided I'd try and get some shots of my car and see both how my newer and better lenses work, and how I have improved (since I haven't done a dedicated shoot of my car since the day after I bought my camera). However that would be lonely, so I called a mate and told him I could use some company and would take some shots of his car first.

I left home at about 6:30, planning on stopping by the carwash on my way there. I had been driving for about half an hour before realizing I stuck the camera battery on charge and forgot to take it. It was back at home. So I ended up spending an extra hour driving to and from Ringwood from Eltham/Montmorency to get it. When I finally got to the car wash, I gave my car a wash for the first time in months, before meeting my mate Jesse at the car park. We decided to shoot Jesse's car first, since he had washed his earlier and it was significantly more dry than my own.






This is a 2012 Ford Falcon XR6. You American's probably don't recognize this. This is made by Ford Australia. The Falcon is their family sedan (@Suicune's Fire drives one a little bit older than this if I remember correctly), and the XR6 is the sports variant of it. This is armed with a 4.0L in-line six cylinder engine, putting out 261hp. It is a very nice car, and one of the few cars owned by my friends that would beat mine in a drag easily. My one beef with these shots is the reflections that are visible of the tripod and sometimes of Jesse and myself.

Next up was my car.

I really wish that I could afford to get the door fixed. I did that about a month after I got my license in the Eastland Carpark, and two and a bit years later it is still there haunting me...



One of the things I love about my car is the rims. They are stock, but they are good stock. Most modern cars come with these ugly as hell, over the top rims. These are nice and simple but look elegant/tough (not sure how it does both, but it does). And when they're clean (which is rare) they look magnificent.



This last shot has got to me a little. See, I made it my cover photo on Facebook. That is me in the shot, using the Canon app to set off the camera. And I love the blue glare that cuts across the shot. The reason it has gotten to me is more people being a**holes.

Rant ahead

Spoiler:

My 'mates' (I quote that because I am getting to the point where I am just sick of these people and will happily drop contact with
them (not because of this specifically but because of what they're like as people)) like to make fun of me for liking my car as much as I do, by basically flat out insulting and hanging s**t on it. If it were once in a while, I wouldn't mind. But it feels like the moment I put any photo of my car on Facebook, it is just a matter of time before someone puts some mean comment up, and all the others who like to hang s**t on it like it. I get that it's silly to let it get to me, but it just feels like they're ganging up on me and making me look like an idiot.

But hey, here is one way I can make myself feel better. By looking at the facts.
My Car: 2001 Nissan Maxima. 3.0L engine. 227hp.
Daniel: Drives a 1996 Holden Commodore Wagon. 3.8L engine. 205hp. The engine is 26% bigger yet puts out just under 10% less power... And my car is the piece of s**t according to him.
Adam: Drives a 2003 Volkswagen Golf. 1.6L engine. 101 hp. Yet he believes it is quicker because it is a manual... That's not how a gearbox works buddy...
Matt: Drives an AU Falcon. 4.0L engine. 192 hp. Even worse than the commodore.
Jesse: To be fair, I know he was actually kidding around, but he is the only one in any position to make fun of my car.

You know what I have noticed about my mates who are actually cool about my car and the ones who do nothing but hang s**t on it? The ones who are cool about it are the ones that are mechanics and actually know what they're talking about...
#rantover

Other than that, I love these shots. I'd like to try them again with a better tripod but for now, I am happy.

[[Desolate Divine]]

Hey guys! So I haven't been taking too many photos for the sake of taking photos recently outside of Youth Group. Because of the kids being under 18, I cannot post copies of the photos here. However I am allowed to put them on the youth group page, and there is nothing to say I can't post a link to that here.

So yeah, if you wanna see the photos I take at Youth Group, and what we get up to, check this out! All the albums with the format Term 2 Week 4 from the last year or so, as well as SYG are my photos, so check them out!
@Pokemon Trainer Sarah @Neo Emolga @Suicune's Fire @Rival Max

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Ooh nice. The photos look really professional :) There was one of an uno game which I really liked. xD It's pretty weird that they're okay with having a public facebook album. xD

[[Desolate Divine]]

Ooh nice. The photos look really professional :) There was one of an uno game which I really liked. xD It's pretty weird that they're okay with having a public facebook album. xD

Haha the youth kids and their parents like it. Some of the parents don't manage to get too many nice photos of their kids, so they like it when a really nice one shows up on the page. I am only watermarking them because facebook reduces the quality on upload, then reduces it again on download. So the life cycle of it is:
I upload it (quality drops)
Someone downloads it (quality drops)
Someone reuploads it (quality drops)

My reasoning with the watermark is that I have written in the description if you want a copy without the watermark, contact me and I'll send a high res copy. My way of making sure my work stays looking nice haha.

[Rival Max]

You live a pretty active life. Whats next up for you guys ?

[[Desolate Divine]]

You live a pretty active life. Whats next up for you guys ?

Haha I do a lot of stuff, I'll admit. Last night we did a leaders hunt. Basically we go to a shopping centre, and half the leaders dress up and hide and the youth have to find us. I was hiding so I gave my friend Jasmine the camera and she took these photos.

Up next, well this is our last week for Term 2. We have two weeks of Holidays, then Term 3, which I just made this banner for this week.



XFactor @7 is a standard night. Small Groups is basically we split up into our groups (Junior Boys, Junior Girls, Senior Boys and Senior Girls) and do different stuff, like bowling or a movie night or something. GLOW is just glow in the dark themed games.

[[Desolate Divine]]

Hey guys, so tonight (assuming I don’t go straight to sleep after work, as I am running on about 3 hours sleep), I’ll update this for the last few months, assuming I can find another way to host files as photobucket is now stupid.

For now, check out this. A video I put together for youth group. I do plan on adjusting some things such as the font (I don’t know what I was smoking when I picked that font) and making the blur at the end smoother. But the footage itself came out really well!
@Pokemon Trainer Sarah @Rival Max @Suicune’s Fire