Name

7.1 - Micro-scape: Living in an Overgrown World

Technique

Canon EOS 1300D; Adobe Lightroom CC

Process

This photo was composed with a miniature house and a large clump of creeping Thyme. The house is a scale 'N' model house from a small train set I had as a child. I really wanted to focus on the focus of the shot, and making the model house look like it belonged in the scene. 

Reasoning

The first Micro-scape photo was taken in our backyard in Toowoomba. As a child I had a large model train set, and from that, many miniature houses & people. For this series, I wanted to show what the human world would look like from the viewpoint of a miniature human, and how their daily lives would be affected. 

Reflection

I really like the lighting of the shot, after some post editing, I really enjoy the way the light reflects off the roof, and catches the Thyme. As a child, playing with model train sets, I always envisioned myself as a miniature person, in a human scaled world. I feel these photos help create that scenario for me, and allowed me to really envision what it would be like to be 1cm tall in a human sized environment. 

7.2 - City-scape: Urban Light(n)ing 

After many many attempts, We were finally able to keep the camera still (Without a tripod) and able to time the image capture so the plane was travelling directly from one tower to the other (Red dots crossing the skyline). By also shooting in .RAW, I was able to pull up some of the shadows to bring more detail into the foreground, and create a stronger contrast between the buildings and the skyline. 

Every time I stand on my friends deck, I get this view. For years I have wanted to capture the brisbane skyline at night. Thousands of empty offices lit by a million fluorescent bulbs. However, like many photos, every previous photo I have taken here did not do the view justice. Finally however, I was able to do a very long exposure shot one clear evening. Capturing the whole essence of a thriving CBD cityscape. 

I definitely think the plane coming into land is the strongest part of this photo. Although it is not completely obvious, when you realise what it is, It takes on a far greater meaning. The only movement in an otherwise dormant but thriving city centre. 

This photo was taken late one night when leaving QUT, Kelvin Grove. I had been experimenting alot with light painting, and long exposure times. 

This photo was shot with the following settings: 

I love how car lights can be used to really create depth and an understanding of movement in images, without ever showing an actual car. The way they flow through the image really creates a soft visualisation of the cars track. 

I love how all the incoming traffic only creates a white light. Developing a very uniform scene of incoming traffic. However all the outgoing traffic has multiple colours, heights and depths. Almost as if, the outgoing cars have more personality than the incoming ones. 

Again, shooting with my miniature house, I wanted to create a micro-scape for the house. To make it look more 'At Home' in a human scaled world. To do this, I used some old model making grass and pebbles to create a path and grass. Once the scene was set, I then used a very short depth of field to capture the house in scale. 

I wanted to continue showing what the human world would look like from the viewpoint of a miniature human, and how their daily lives would be affected. By creating a miniature garden, I allowed the model house to look more at home, in the otherwise very unnatural scene. 

The miniature models have always intrigued me, and being able to see how they fit into a human world was a very exciting experiment in photography for me. I wish i could get my hands on some more miniature houses and create a whole series of them placed in different real world, human sized scenarios.  

Again this photo was taken on the way home from Uni, late one night. We really wanted to experiment with lighting composition and how the ingoing vs outgoing car lights would affect the shots. 

After a number of successful car-light painting photos, I wanted to experiment with the composition of these shots, and adding people or objects into them. After finding a model, and instructing him to stand VERY still for 20seconds, we were able to create a sort of framing around his face with the different depths and colours of lights from the traffic. 

What I found very interesting is how the light leaks through the image over a 20second shot. Interestingly enough, Isaac (The Subject) was standing in the middle of the road, however both the incoming (White) and outgoing (Red) lights are in front of him.