Hello love.
Oh hello Mrs Gibbs.
What do you want then?
Is Adam in?
Errrrrmmm...
Yeah, he's right here love. Here he is.
Can he come out to play?
Ooh I dunno about that. He's not very happy with you because you stole his lens cloth.
Oh MAAAAAM! Didn't av to mention THAAAT!
Well I promise I've brought his lens cloth back. I'm gonna give it to him today.
Oooh I don't know that is up to you dear.
So can he come out then?
Do you wanna go out with him?
We'll be back for Tea mum.
OK but don't bring him back with you for Tea. No I won't. I don't want any lens cloth stealers.
Alright mummy. Eating at my place and off we go for another landscape
photography adventure mamma grumpy gave me a hard time about that lens cloth but
I seem to remember that I paid fair and square to the tune of $5 plus a beer and
a burger so I'm not quite sure what uncle grumpy told his mom but I can
assure you you'll be seeing that red lens cloth again very soon right so I
found this shot Adam and I have come into Rosewall Creek and usually you come
up here to take pictures of the beautiful waterfall at the top but I
know that there's the beautiful gnarly cedar trees on the way there and that's
what we've come to try and get pictures of today rather than the waterfall
within five minutes we just walked through this little gully and spotted
this little scene I love how this is that a fir yeah I love how this mossy
fir here is that's fallen down is now arcing across and these lovely roots in
the foreground can I pull your eye into the scene and that's another thing that
I love about Vancouver Island is even though it's now the middle of March and
it's the end of winter we've still got green mossy juiciness everywhere so with
this shot I've framed it up that these roots pull your eye into the centre
towards this lovely arch and I like this this see the tree here kind of bending
over as well all in all it's a it's a nice interesting scene with loads of
colour if I could have my wish I would be wishing for some big rays of light
laughing through but that ain't gonna happen today but yeah quite happy with
this as a first shot as always the challenge with forest photography is to
try and find some semblance of order in all of that chaos so I'm always looking
for characters imagine that the forest is a stage who are the main characters
who are the actors that are telling this story and for me the lead role is played
by that arching fir tree and then the supporting actors would be that large
cedar tree off to the left which frames are shot nicely and then the mossy roots
in the foreground which leave your eye into the center of the frame towards
that arching fir tree with one shot in the bag after just five minutes on the
trail I was a happy Fototripper and El Grumpino seemed to be quite happy
just to be out and about in the Sun which was a relief to me because he's so
pale and ancient I was beginning to wonder if he's a vampire. I should really
learn how to use this camera.
crappy kit lens man 24 - 120mm. Piece of sh*t. Where's your new one where's he
new mega lens? Oh it's at home, too heavy
It was either bring the drone will bring the big lens and.. I brought the drone.
five minutes later we found some more interesting characters that were just
beggin to be photographed absolutely glorious. This is beautiful. Got a nice shape to it this one.
yeah I like the way that it splits. like just branch how it curls in like that.
so we're just walking past this gorgeous Titan and Adam noticd something
really unique about this which I failed to notice and I don't think I've ever seen
this before yeah it's pretty cool so there's actually two trees here and one
is a cedar the one on the left and then the one on the right I think it's a fir
so it kind of meld it together so it's really quite unusual and that's why they
kind of twisted like that it's if maybe one was a nurse log if there's a fallen
tree behind here they've both seated on the nurse log and then grown together
and as they get bigger they get tighter and tighter so I mean both at war and in
harmony all at the same time I've never seen that what's a Latin name for this
which just set the Cedars yeah I don't know but yours is uncle Aslam feeis what
is it I'm old don't be so hard on yourself Adam I don't think 87 is really
all that old so here's the second shot of the day and while I like the
composition it just didn't quite work with that patchy light I think in this
kind of light it's much easier to look for subjects that are backlit because it
simplifies the scene but if we ever get any fog I know exactly where I need to
be now
well I've tried and as always with forest photography I failed
what I'm gonna keep keep cracking because we did see some cool stuff on
the way in we've been out about two hours and the light has now moved as the
Sun continues westwards so we might have completely different compositions that
we didn't see before so should we head back down yeah I think I think the
problem with this happen anyways the light is just so patchy and harsh spotty
and I'm still in sand dune mode yeah yeah 'tree'd out' yeah you would tree that
before you left and now more trees that's our lot in life I'm not
complaining I'm happy with it there's worse things in life well we may have
found a shot I see it was Adam that found it we were just take it back
through here and this is the trail back to the carpark and it makes this nicely
framed window by these cedar trees on either side and Adam site from there
said oh that might make a good pano so I've tried that shot I got over there
and shot with the 55 millimeter at full frame and did a panel with a three shot
horizontal panel and I even tried one with a six shot and did two rows but I
don't think that was going to turn out but the first one which is kind of like
the shot that Adam saw I think that might just work what I like about this
shot is obviously I'm crazy about gnarly cedar trees but the light now is just
start to get a little bit softer it's not quite as harsh where you get those
spots and it's just I mean like you can just see there that little soft dot of
light that's the kind of stuff I like and then just on the side of the frame
there I don't know if you can see on this 18 millimeter but the way that the
Sun is hitting that Moss or that what we call old man's beard which i think is
actually it's a lichen isn't it Adam? old man's beard is a lichen that when
you when it gets hit from the side is absolutely gorgeous and of course you've
got the trail in the middle so it's that kind of classic pano where there's a
pathway going into the middle of shot makes you feel like you're part of this
scene and you you're moving through this landscape
well that's at least the goal anyway I'm actually quite happy with how this pano
turned out I shot three horizontal frames at 55 millimeter and stitch them
together in Photoshop and with the light being a little bit lower in the sky it
gave me a much more pleasing look but the problem with showing you a super
wide panorama inside of a YouTube video is that you don't really get to
appreciate the scale so just try to imagine this as an 8 foot wide acrylic
print on the wall of your dining room or better still stop imagining and just get
in touch with me and buy one he just got back from China so it's absolutely not
good still jet like I am didn't sleep I've been sleeping for the past week so
that's my excuse what's yours? Too much sh******
so earlier on I asked Adam because I've never been to China, I've been to Asia a
whole bunch of times but never been to China I said what what's it like you
know what's the public transport situation like and he told me this
delightful story oh so the transportation is amazing but
it took a bit of getting used to the washroom situation so most public
washrooms that I went into I didn't realise but you have to bring your own
toilet paper but most of the toilets in public area basically just a hole in the
ground which is fine if you're used to it but if you're not used to it and
and if you don't bring toilet paper with you than your hooped. yeah but the hotels
have a regular toilets and bidets and not what was the thing that you found
I'm on the train and of course I go into the bathroom and staring right at me is
this big turd it wasn't very pleasant so there's no there's no flush then No
so how does the turd get well I think the attendants go around and they just
wash this stuff down every now and so if you go in immediately after someone you
get to see what what they had for lunch yesterday pretty much that's terrible
why it's not it's actually a pretty good idea actually because then you don't
spend so much time in the bathroom you know unless somebody else go after you
there were some people like to spend hours in there sitting on the loo you
know reading a newspaper or, so you can't sit there comfortably you know
get to squat yeah I can't even do a squat I'm so fat and top-heavy if I
try and squat I just fall over and then I'd land in my own poo heheh.
that's why I don't sh*t in the woods. I do! yeah you just did! I did!
yeah the other thing is ever since I got back is of course in China a lot of
people like to clear their throats I won't give you but I want to give you a
demonstration where you get the idea they seem to have a lot of phlegm over
there yeah because of the air quality, and of course I ever since I came back I've
been sneezing and coughing so yeah
Have you got a tissue or something? all I've got is this!
Oh thanks mate. Oh bloody hell Gavin yeah this isn't my
lens cloth is it? You washed it right? oh yeah I washed it yeah! My mom warned me
about you well she told me to give you back and I
have delivered on my promise yeah be you din't wash it! Look at it, it's got a little skid mark on it! hahahahaahah
The Grumpenator finally gets his lens cloth back. Adams finally found a shot that he likes
there's a little bit of light that's in these trees ears alright it is a bit of
abstract and he's showing off now because he's got this app on his phone
that controls his nikon d80 50 and you can change every set impossible by the
cool Hannah jealous actually I think that is one for the Sony but I just
can't be bothered so what is it that you like about this shot oh I love the
contrast and the pure graphic nature of the shadows into playing
a lot of interplay and I love that B group B group is nice to have as well
what else it have you got like I've got this tree in the finish side it's just
this is the bright area and the trunks of the trees very simple graphic very
simple abstract almost yes abstract that's the word of all that it's
abstract that's very isolated so how would you meter for a shot like that
just take a shot see how it looks and then do another one pretty much no
actually I shoot for the highlight oh really
no when I used to shoot film I was been more obsessive because the exposure had
to be pretty much spot-on otherwise you're gonna blow out your highlights or
underexposed and then this morning's a throw away well with digital I mean it
does it doesn't cost you anything to take another shot so if your highlights
are blown out then just take another one and expose it slightly so digital has
made photographers more sloppy lazy there's quite a few photos don't even
know how to use a camera when you saying just a couple of hours ago that one day
you should learn that I use this new camera that you've got this apps great
is it a reason why you prefer to trigger from this than you camera well because
then I don't have to touch my camera so just for the long lens I was getting
vibration Griffin yeah but this app and the little thing that the little Dingle
dongle thing that you attach the camera is so small that you just leave
the time what can it range if you got like could you walk 200 feet away dude
sure I just got this yesterday so I haven't I haven't given it a full go
going over it's called some bleep that was insane it's called unleashed unleash
and it's by a company called fool ography the apps free but it's you're
paying for the little dongle thing with a like a dongle I do like it on there
unleash the dongle is this for all camera systems oh they can't another
make them from family oh so I could use it on the Sony yeah oh they're not cheap
it's about $200 well is it the dongle dongle beep
Epperly dongle yeah well dongles Sanji Adam was kind enough to let me borrow
his camera and lens once again because I don't have a long lens cuz I'm a
starving artist that was the best shot of the day
well it might not have been the best shot of the day but for a quick hand
held shot it's actually got some juicing Tain's I love backlight moss and that is
the old man's beard I was talking about which is a lichen all in all I'd had a
brilliant day out with His Royal miserable nurse
what it was definitely time to call it quits and head back to the V heikal
which I'll be honest is a little bit of a sore point for me right now if you're
wondering why I'm driving a Chevy Impaler Nicholas page that's the awful
my car is still in the shop it's been three weeks
I reckon they must have repaired it and then dropped a spanner on it or
something and now it needs repairing a second time who knows personally I think
there's an improvement over that BMW