Wheels!

Cool Wheels © Andrée Lawrey – Hipstamatic 201

I'm still catching up with 'normal' life after a delightful few weeks in Italy – more on that when I have finished sorting and processing an embarrassing quantity of photos.  Meanwhile, a Southside Camera Club excursion to Robbo's Motorcycles, a local Harley-Davidson® dealership, provided a totally different subject to help me re-focus on the here and now.

Motorcycles bring out my close-up and abstract, arty side.  Machines as sculpture – all those curvy metal shapes and reflective surfaces.  They are challenging to photograph, especially in the bright,white light of the showroom, but well worth the trouble.  I spent a wonderful morning with these amazing machines – my thanks to Robbo's for giving us the opportunity and making us so welcome.

I love the way the Hipstamatic iPhone app brought out the cool, steely blue of the metal (which must have been reflecting my blue cardigan), while my SLR's sensor responded to the cool, white light with a golden glow I could not bear to 'correct' in post processing.

Warm Wheels © Andrée Lawrey – D700, 105 F/2.8 micro

Spring Blossom

© Andrée Lawrey

It's too easy to overlook the photo opportunity just outside the front door.  Quite literally, in this case – every Spring I mean to photograph the blossoming crab apple trees lining the path by my front door, walking by day after day, thinking "I must come down with the macro lens and see what I can make of this", then letting the days slip by until the opportunity is lost for another year.

Then, at a portraiture class on Sunday afternoon, I found myself shamefully out of practice with spot metering and manual exposure settings.  I drove home determined to refresh my manual photography skills at the first opportunity.  And there were the flowering crab apples...

I was thinking of Chinese flower paintings and watercolours on heavy, absorbent paper.  And Spring, of course.

D700, 105 f/2.8 micro

In the Mist Garden

© Andrée Lawrey

The February 2010 edition of Capital Image – including my latest Different Strokes article (Refresh, Revive, Re-inspire, page 16) – is now available here, on the Canberra Photographic Society's website.

D700, 180 f/2.8

Grounded Weathervane

© Andrée Lawrey

I'm sorting through my photo collection, looking for candidates for my submission to Holiday Snaps – a Members' Postcard Show (11 to 21 February 2010), the next group exhibition at PhotoAccess. I have promised ten 4x6 inch prints and, as always, I'm cutting it fine on the timing and interpreting the brief widely – anything to bring together a nice variety of 'holiday spirit' (i.e. fun) images.

D700, 28-105 f/3.4-4.5

Hall of Mirrors

© Andrée Lawrey
D700, 50 f/1.8

I'm back! (apologies for the hiatus...)

© Andrée Lawrey
Nikon D700, 85 f/1.8

It's been a long break, due partly to circumstances and partly to sheer confusion about why I wanted to keep this blog going when I also had a Flickr page and a "proper" though much neglected website. Silly, really. I did manage to make some new photos last year, against the odds, as well as doing some writing for the Canberra Photographic Society's Capital Image newsletter, and I like the idea of the photoblog because it feels more personal, somehow. Besides, I enjoy writing as well as imaging, so let's see what happens.

Here's to a fresh start and lots more photography in 2010! I'm full of fine photographic resolutions, with "update and refresh the websites!" high on the list.

National Museum Montage

© Andrée Lawrey

Nikon D700, 18-35 f/3.5-4.5
(Click on image for a larger view.)

Retro Caravan

© Andrée Lawrey
Nikon D700, 105 f/2.8

Kewpie Doll

© Andrée Lawrey

Meet Pansy. Isn't she gorgeous? She is one of 12 giant kewpie dolls which featured in the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. She now lives in Bungendore, NSW.

(Thanks, Susan -- your photo reminded me I had an extra reason to go back to Bungendore!)

Nikon D700, 28-105