yOOrek's Rants'n Raves » Australia http://blog.yoorek.com The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven. Sun, 02 Oct 2011 12:40:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Remember Arthur Stace? http://blog.yoorek.com/2009/07/01/remember-arthur-stace/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2009/07/01/remember-arthur-stace/#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:35:51 +0000 yOOrek http://blog.yoorek.com/2009/07/01/remember-arthur-stace/ Doesn’t this remind you of Arthur Stace? The ‘Eternity’ fella from Sydney. I’m quite sure this has been inspired by him.

optimism

optimism Originally uploaded by ziz

Original comments by ziz:

—
Without wax,
yOOrek (posting from Flickr™)

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2009/07/01/remember-arthur-stace/feed/ 0 Southern Sunset http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/12/29/southern-sunset/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/12/29/southern-sunset/#comments Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:18:10 +0000 yOOrek http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/12/29/southern-sunset/ Here is another photo I got from my mate. I just love the tonal gradations in this capture. Ah, all this makes me homesick.

Southern Sunset

Southern Sunset Originally uploaded by yOOrek

Original comments by yOOrek:

Sorrento, Australia, April 2008 

Taken by a mate of mine and post processed by me. Slightly different cropping.

• NIKON D50 • ¹/1000 sec at f/5.6 (? 1 EV) • ISO 200 • Pattern metering • Normal • no flash • 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 200 mm •

2008-04-05-1839-41

Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.

© 2008 A. Mazurkiewicz

—
Without wax,
yOOrek (posting from Flickr™)

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/12/29/southern-sunset/feed/ 0 Sorrento, my lovely Sorrento http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/12/29/sorrento-my-lovely-sorrento/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/12/29/sorrento-my-lovely-sorrento/#comments Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:12:39 +0000 yOOrek http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/12/29/sorrento-my-lovely-sorrento/ A friend of mine sent me few photos as a surprise. He is in Australia, I am in Switzerland and used to be there. The photos are of the places I used to visit. I did some post processing in Lightroom on them and here is the result. Used some gradual filters on the first photo. The result is quite dramatic wouldn’t you say.

Sorrento, my lovely Sorrento

Sorrento, my lovely Sorrento Originally uploaded by yOOrek

Original comments by yOOrek: 

Sorrento, Australia, April 2008 

Used to spend quite a lot of time there. Sadly, not any more. Photo taken by my mate and post-processed by me.

• Canon EOS 40D • ¹/400 sec at f/11 (0 EV) • ISO 400 • Pattern metering • Normal • no flash • EF28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 USM @ 28 mm •

2008-04-05-1619-25

Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.

© 2008 A. Mazurkiewicz

—
Without wax,
yOOrek (posting from Flickr™)

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/12/29/sorrento-my-lovely-sorrento/feed/ 0 What a difference a well done preset makes http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/10/29/what-a-difference-a-well-done-preset-makes/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/10/29/what-a-difference-a-well-done-preset-makes/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:36:11 +0000 yOOrek http://yoorek.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/what-a-difference-a-well-done-preset-makes/ I came across a site, www.presetsheaven.com, that hosts quite a number of Lightroom presets. One of them, PH Naturally BW has been used to post process this photo. I also used Adobe Camera Portrait Beta 2 profile. Rather nice end result, wouldn’t you say?

On a slightly different note, all is coming nicely together for me on the photography front. LR2.1 has been released recently. I do not experience any problems with it whatsoever. LR export plugins are doing their job of uploading the photos to Flickr™ or Zenfolio very nicely. All my uploaded photos have proper title, complex, automatically generated caption, plus a discrete watermark is applied (and I am not talking about the copyright text in the right bottom corner). I have to admit that my photographic work flow has evolved into something I’m very happy and content with.

To make things even better, after the move, when unpacking some boxes I didn’t even realized still existed, I came across an old set of Cokin filters I used in my film camera days. And guess what? The filter adapter is 72mm (perfect for my Sigma 10-20), the stash includes couple of soft edge ND grad filters (recently I was thinking of getting them). A polarizer (although it is not circular polarizer so this is of limited, if any use on digital camera). And I thought they were all lost when we moved from the land of OZ to Switzerland.

Life is full of surprises.

Maya (B&W)

Maya (B&W) Originally uploaded by yOOrek

Original comments by yOOrek:

Winterthur, Switzerland, October 2008

Maya before going to a coctail party in Zürich.

Post processing in Lightroom 2.1. Preset used – PH Naturally BW from www.presetsheaven.com/

• NIKON D50 • 1/400 sec at f/4.5 (0 EV) • ISO 400 • Spot metering • Shutter priority • flash fired • 18-70 mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 70 mm •

2008-10-24-1949-23

Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.

Copyright © 2008 by yOOrek, all rights reserved.

—
Without wax,
yOOrek (posting from Flickr™)

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/10/29/what-a-difference-a-well-done-preset-makes/feed/ 4 50 years of Aussie Rock http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/06/26/50-years-of-aussie-rock/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/06/26/50-years-of-aussie-rock/#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:29:20 +0000 yOOrek http://yoorek.wordpress.com/?p=298 Aussie rock turns 50 on 5th of July 2008.  To celebrate it the great people at The Age assembled a panel of experts — ranging from EG critics and music journalists to musicians, broadcasters, record shop owners and band managers — who undertook the painstaking task of narrowing down an entire history of music to a micro list. Follow the link to see the complete article. It is an interesting read. Here it is

  • Living in the ’70s — Skyhooks
  • Bee Gees Greatest Hits Vol. 1 — the Bee Gees
  • Back in Black — AC/DC
  • The Sunnyboys — the Sunnyboys
  • Since I Left You — the Avalanches
  • Magic Box — the Loved Ones
  • Doughboy Hollow — Died Pretty
  • Hourly, Daily — You Am I
  • Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By — the Drones
  • 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 — Midnight Oil
  • 16 Lovers Lane — the Go-Betweens
  • Radios Appear — Radio Birdman
  • Welcome to Wherever You Are — INXS
  • Post — Paul Kelly
  • Hi Fi Way — You Am I
  • Woodface — Crowded House
  • Stoneage Romeos — Hoodoo Gurus
  • Get Born — Jet
  • Five Times the Sun — the Dingoes
  • Smoke Dreams — Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band
  • Gurrumul — Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
  • Tu-Plang — Regurgitator
  • Distemper — the New Christs
  • The Calling — The Hilltop Hoods
  • Last Ghost Train Home — Perry Keyes
  • The Band’s Alright but the Singer is Gulliver Smith — Gulliver Smith
  • Lovetown — Stephen Cummings
  • Rose Tattoo — Rose Tattoo
  • Prayers On Fire — The Birthday Party
  • The Reels — the Reels

—
Without wax,
yOOrek

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/06/26/50-years-of-aussie-rock/feed/ 0 Body corporate and the art of taking photos in 21st century http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/18/body-corporate-and-the-art-of-taking-photos-in-21st-century/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/18/body-corporate-and-the-art-of-taking-photos-in-21st-century/#comments Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:35:17 +0000 yOOrek http://yoorek.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/body-corporate-and-the-art-of-taking-photos-in-21st-century/ With all the news about photographers being accosted by overzealous security guards I remembered this photo taken by ‘mugley’ and the ‘problems’ he had. Just read the photographer’s comments.

body corporate

body corporate Originally uploaded by mugley

Original comments by mugley:

Got the second-lamest anti-photography excuse ever from a concierge in this building:

“You can’t take photos of the building because we have a body corporate.”

Told her I could shoot whatever I liked as long as I wasn’t trespassing, and we both went on our merry ways. I suppose I should give her credit for not using The Lamest Excuse (ie anything including the word “terrorism”), but sheesh – what is wrong with businesses in Southbank?

With the hotels and retail areas so heavily dependent on tourism dollars, why are they so keen on attitudes that seem perfect for alienating camera-toting tourists?

—
Without wax,
yOOrek (posting from Flickr™)

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/18/body-corporate-and-the-art-of-taking-photos-in-21st-century/feed/ 0 Australian larrikinism still alive and kicking http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/16/australian-larrikinism-still-alive-and-kicking/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/16/australian-larrikinism-still-alive-and-kicking/#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:53:03 +0000 yOOrek http://yoorek.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/australian-larrikinism-still-alive-and-kicking/ Some say that larrikinism arose as a reaction to corrupt, arbitrary authority during Australia’s days as a penal colony, or as a reaction to norms of propriety imposed by officials from Britain on the young country. If this photo is not a perfect example of this attitude then what is?

Got a smoke?

Got a smoke? Originally uploaded by SegiY

—
Without wax,
yOOrek (posting from Flickr™)

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/16/australian-larrikinism-still-alive-and-kicking/feed/ 0 David Attenborough of photography http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/11/david-attenborough-of-photography/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/11/david-attenborough-of-photography/#comments Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:39:57 +0000 yOOrek http://yoorek.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/david-attenborough-of-photography/ With a caption and comments like this I think Mugley could be safely compared to David Attenborough. Don’t you think?

in the sights

in the sights Originally uploaded by mugley

Original comments by mugley:

The delivery van, while not the top predator of the urban savannah, is still a formidable threat to a pair of careless hominids.

—
Without wax,
yOOrek (posting from Flickr™)

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/11/david-attenborough-of-photography/feed/ 1 She’s back… http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/11/shes-back/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/11/shes-back/#comments Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:18:43 +0000 yOOrek http://yoorek.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/shes-back/ My daughter is reunited with her horse after spending couple of months in Australia. She landed at 7:45 in the morning after spending more than 20 hours on a plane and the first thing she wanted to do – see her horse. There is no stronger bond than the one between a girl and her horse. :-)

Reunion

Reunion Originally uploaded by yOOrek

Original comments by yOOrek:  

After two and a half months of separation, the horse and its owner are reunited.

2008-04-10-1832-27 

—
Without wax,
yOOrek (posting from Flickr™)

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/11/shes-back/feed/ 4 … or three or four http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/02/or-three-or-four/ http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/02/or-three-or-four/#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:36:14 +0000 yOOrek http://yoorek.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/or-three-or-four/ No comments required.

... or three or four

… or three or four Originally uploaded by mugley

Original comments by mugley:

Today’s storms opened up a temporal vortex in the centre of Melbourne today, causing old sexist advertising from the 1970s to appear in Swanston St.

]]> http://blog.yoorek.com/2008/04/02/or-three-or-four/feed/ 0