Antarctic Adventure

It’s been a month since my return from Antarctica and Argentina. I’ve just finished writing my blog entries, which was a much more difficult process than I had anticipated. There was a few distinct rough patches on my journey, and writing them down succinctly, without losing the original feeling or being overly dramatic, was a challenge. Not to mention having to listen to my in-between-vomits voice recordings!

Photo editing is always much more fun. The first round was a little disheartening as I see all the dud images mixed in the with the good, but after the initial cull and one views only the selections, the trip seems much more successful.

Jason flew up from Melbourne to help me edit in Sydney. He had gone through my photos several times and performed a first round cull too. We spent the day camped out at my local library, comparing our selections - it was quite amazing how different they were!

Jason and I edit very differently. I tend to pick my photos based on the emotional connection I have with them. For example, a portrait would have much more significance to me if I had a good conversation with my subject during the shoot. Similarly, I would like a landscape shot a lot more if I was having fun at the time. My selections end up being a series of images that I can talk animatedly about, but probably wouldn’t be as strong without the voiceover.

On the other hand, Jason selections are more objective, taking into consideration the position of photo editors and the readers they are purchasing for. He aims for his photo narratives to form a descriptive statement about a place, whether it be political, cultural, architectural etc.

Editing with Jason also highlighted some technical aspects that I should improve on too. Bar out in naked Australian sunlight, I usually shoot at 400ISO, my argument being that I need the speed for portraiture as expressions come and go so quickly. Viewing my images at 100% however, it’s evident that 400ISO is very very noisy. Jason suggested that I start to play with the ISOs, especially with landscapes. Sometimes a little movement in the frame is okay too, provided other elements are sharp.

I should be experimenting with focal length and aperture too. Currently, I’m addicted to my fixed 35mm f/1.4. It has a short focusing distance, allowing me to be quite close to my subject, while the large aperture sucks in light - a big help in low light conditions. It also has a natural vignette darkening the corners which, along with the narrow depth-of-field, helps make a stardard portrait look like quite a bit more. But while it is a beautiful lens, it does have a very distinct look, which runs the risk of a monotonous series. I have to be careful not to be blinded by the superficial elements of an image, and risk overlooking the composition or content.

One thing that exasperated Jason incessantly was my tendency to crop. Jason is old skool in that he does everything in-camera - every element has it’s place and it’s too late to make changes once you’re in postproduction. Me? I grew up with photoshop and lightroom, cropping is almost second nature. It’ll be difficult, but I’m going to try and spend more time with each shot, to work the frame and the elements, rather than snapping two shots and losing interest.