The Greenhouse

Many of you would have come to love the objectionable, arrogant, cynical twat that has defined Azza over the last few years on the GH. While this perception no doubt bears an element of truth, there is another side to the great man.

One of my great loves is photography, and in recent times I've been doing some seascapes. Given the poor form of the team at the moment, I hope a few of these can offer you some solace in this dark time as a Raiders supporter.

I'll update as I have more images, but here are a few starters (flickr page here as well if you want to see all my images http://www.flickr.com/photos/34755634@N08/)


North Curl Curl Tidal Pool by ozarun55


Warriewood Beach at Sunrise by ozarun55


Dawn at Long Reef, April 2011 by ozarun55


North Narrabeen Tidal Pool by ozarun55


Sunrise at Canyon X by ozarun55, on Flickr

Beautiful Azza, like the first one particularly. Land/seascape stuff is tricky and you really have a handle on it. I've studied photography and am pretty keen and do a bit of live music stuff - care to share some tips? You obviously use longer exposures, how do you figure what to use? do you use a tripod? do you trick stuff up with Photoshop or are they raw images?

**** Azz,**** this is fantastic.

Thanks for the kind words Chicka and Matthew Waddlebum.

In answer to your question Chicka, a tripod is essential to seascape photography.

It's sort of hard to condense what I've picked up over the last couple of years into a concise paragraph but what I have learned a lot from is looking at what other photographers do, scoping out locations in advance and persisting with visiting locations until the conditions are right for a cracker shot. What I will say is that this is really something anyone with a bit of commitment can do - I started off knowing nothing about this sort of work.

You do need to have a good understanding of the use of shutter speed/aperture and ISO when doing any form of photography and seascapes are no different. A camera's ability to capture the full range of colour in a scene is limited, particularly at sunset and sunrise when the colours can be very intense. So there is an element of post processing involved in some of these photos, mainly to 'blend' two different photos together to capture the full range of colour.

My aim though is to never overcook a shot as you see many people do - i don't mind if it looks slightly surreal but there is a balance to be had. As your skills evolve, so does your photography and the way I shoot photos now bears little resemblance to what I was doing even 12 months ago.

Wow those are incredible.

That tidal pool is amazing, it actually looks like something you would see on the Xbox 360/ps3.

I kinda thought you might have used two photos blended to get some of those (particularly #4?). Cool work mate, hats off. I'll have to give it a try like that. I tend not to use a tripod and don't photoshop a lot. This is my Flickr stream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25448842@N06/
and a few highlights

They are beautiful shots.

Sunrise at canyon , is that real? it looks amazing

All these shots are real - don't add anything in that wasn't there. I'm lucky enough to live near some beautiful scenery i guess.

Good stuff dude.

my gf and i just have spent some $800 on shots of Bondi and seascape stuff from a guy who opperates out of http://www.aquabumps.com/
we brought 2 medium sized prints and a glass encased print that i choose for a centre peice, which is this photograph:


those photos of yours azza are as good and maybe even better thant the guy who we happily handed over nearly $1000 too and we werent the only ones hand fist fulls of cash to this guy, his store was absolutely packed, you'd be absolutely mad not to look into selling them mate. Fantastic stuff

Awesome, thanks for putting them on!

Good work Azza, nice and artistic unlike most people who claim to be photographers, if you hadnt said they were photos I wouldve put money on them being airbrush paintings

The Archibald Fountain, Hyde Park by ozarun55, on Flickr

That's sick man!!

greeneyed wrote:Yah, completely sick man.

You an idiot.

i too think that is sick man

lol good stuff

Credit when it's due ... great shots, great work

Great photos Azza

Azza wrote:All these shots are real - don't add anything in that wasn't there. I'm lucky enough to live near some beautiful scenery i guess.

without post-processing there is no way you'd get those shots

I'm starting to smell a rat guys

Never been your biggest fan Azza, but damn they're good. Like, wow.

You've never been my biggest fan Kris Man because I wind you up like there's no tomorrow and think Phil Graham was an overrated sack of potatoes. Don't take me so seriously and all will be well in your world.

Thanks for your kind words.

Bay56 wrote:

Azza wrote:All these shots are real - don't add anything in that wasn't there. I'm lucky enough to live near some beautiful scenery i guess.

without post-processing there is no way you'd get those shots

I'm starting to smell a rat guys

I've taken some amazing photos with an old film camera (35mm?) that came out spectacular like Azza's, but I've only got a standard digital camera these days. I've never taken the time to work out how to operate it manually, I mainly use the automatic settings on it that try to "correct" anything that it thinks can be improved. One day I'll get a DSLR and start getting top-notch pics like Azza.

My wife and I have taken an interest in photography recently, and these shots only serve to inspire us further. We spent a few hours at the local Camera House on Sunday sussing out some bargains with the SLRs.

Thanks azza.

And coincidentally my girlfriend just sent me some photos of the Chilean volcano, unbelievable.

Yes dubby... happy to give advice, but the key message I want to portray in this thread is that anyone, with a bit of commitment and passion, can produce these sorts of photos.

What camera do you use??

HDR photography would work really great for these kind of shots. pretty hard to make look good but easily my favorite kind of photography for sunsets and stuff.

dubby wrote:My wife and I have taken an interest in photography recently, and these shots only serve to inspire us further. We spent a few hours at the local Camera House on Sunday sussing out some bargains with the SLRs.

Thanks azza.

Just bought my missus a Nikon D7000

great camera

Gus- wrote:What camera do you use??

HDR photography would work really great for these kind of shots. pretty hard to make look good but easily my favorite kind of photography for sunsets and stuff.

Use a Pentax SLR, though not the most brilliant doobywacker that was ever invented - that's my point, you can get great shots from even a semi-decent camera.

I'm not a fan of the overcooked HDR stuff, though the fountain one was actually a HDR blend.

Raidersrawesome wrote:

dubby wrote:My wife and I have taken an interest in photography recently, and these shots only serve to inspire us further. We spent a few hours at the local Camera House on Sunday sussing out some bargains with the SLRs.

Thanks azza.

Just bought my missus a Nikon D7000

great camera

That is one of the camera's we were looking at.

dubby wrote:

Raidersrawesome wrote:

dubby wrote:My wife and I have taken an interest in photography recently, and these shots only serve to inspire us further. We spent a few hours at the local Camera House on Sunday sussing out some bargains with the SLRs.

Thanks azza.

Just bought my missus a Nikon D7000

great camera

That is one of the camera's we were looking at.

I did a little research and it kept pointing me back to this camera. Ive found it very easy to use and the quality is perfect. Mind you Im not an expert photographer , not by a long shot

The other was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2k, it reviews really well.

Kiama Downs at Sunrise by ozarun55, on Flickr

That is simply amazing.

Minnamurra Beach, South Coast NSW by ozarun55, on Flickr

I really like this one,would look great above my bar.