Red Hill late afternoon
One of the pleasures of living in this ‘Garden City’ is that, even though I live in an ‘inner suburb’, I can walk a hundred meters to the end of my street and be deep…
Jokar Photography
John Boyd Macdonald
Jokar Photography
John Boyd Macdonald
Pixel Bender oil paint effect for Photoshop
There’s a number of ‘artistic’ effects filters that come as part of the Photoshop software (under the menu option ‘Filter’ in subfolders ‘Artistic’, ‘Brush strokes’ ‘Sketch’, ‘Stylise’ etc). By and large I try to avoid…
Tasmania HDR
I still keep making High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. I can’t help it. This popular technique involves making a series (usually three or five) images with identical composition, usually on a tripod to ensure an…
Still and moving pictures
Here’s a ramble about the convergence of ‘still’ photography and video: We often seem to define our selves (and if artists, define our artistic practice) by the limits of what we do. Perhaps this helps…
Juxtaposition
This is a short (3 minute) video that I prepared for my Studio Practice work at the ANU School of Art. In part it was done to develop my skills with Adobe After Effects, Premiere…
Sekala exhibition
My exhibition (Sekala: ritual and ceremony in Bali) continues at PhotoAccess here in Canberra (PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery in Manuka, at the corner of Manuka Circle and NSW Crescent) until next Sunday 11 March. The…
Sekala: ritual and ceremony in Bali (Exhibition)
My first solo exhibition (‘Sekala: ritual and ceremony in Bali‘) opens at the PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery in Manuka ACT (corner of Manuka Circle and NSW Crescent – next to the Manuka Pool) at 6pm…
Repetition of form 2: Tampaksiring temple
Another post about the repetition of forms (shapes, objects, even colours), and how pleasing it is to the eye when you see such repetition in an image. (The previous post on this subject can be…
Floriade NightFest 2011
The Floriade Festival has been running annually now since 1988, and is now something of a Canberra institution, with visitors coming from all over Australia (and beyond) to view the massed plantings of spring blooms.…
Backstage dancers and photo ethics
I’m really happy with this photo of six young Balinese dancers waiting backstage before their Baris and Legong dance performances, with their teacher/chaperone beside them. I think what I like is the combination of the…
Snow camping on the Ramsheads
Two weeks ago I had a few days camping in the snow up on the Ramshead Range (between the top of the Crackenback chair at Thredbo and Mt Kosciuszko). Setting out from the top of…
Karen and John have breakfast
80 minutes of our Saturday relaxed morning breakfast ritual compressed down into 2 minutes of frenzied action, with some gentle (Creative Commons-licensed) guitar from Kevin MacLeod. After the “11 days, 33 meals” project, you’re probably…
Convoy of No Congruence
A couple of weeks ago a series of protest convoys came to Canberra from all over Australia to air their grievances with the current government, and to demand that a ‘double dissolution’ election be held immediately. (This…
Repetition of form
There are a number of things I like about this image – some of which really only have meaning to me. I’ve found out that you’ve got to be careful about why you particularly like…
11 days, 33 meals
I really like the ‘photographic discipline’ of doing project work – whether it’s commissioned work or self-assigned. A project obliges you to focus (pun intended) on achieving some pre-defined outcome – rather just firing off…
Cremation and serendipity
Sometimes an image works out because you planned it that way. Perhaps you set out to go somewhere particular to take a specific image that you had pre-visualised, and you knew in advance pretty much just…