Photo Printed onto Wall Sticker

Today I'm posting about a Wall Sticker I had made this week.

I had a tall panorama photo of the Empire State Building from New York City that I took a couple of years ago that I really liked. I turned the photo from Color to Black & White to give it a more gritty look.

I had a wall in the house I thought would be perfect for just such a photo. 

I sent the image off to Pickawall who specialise in wall murals

In a week I got the Wall sticker and put it up in about 20 mintes. I think it looks awesome. 

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

VFL Football

Todays post is from a VFL game I went to a couple of weeks ago. 

The game was between Sandringham and Geelong at Trevor Barker Oval at Sandringham on the 20th of July 2014. Geelong 27.12 (174) smashed Sandringham 6.9 (45) by a lazy 129 points

Enjoy and I'll see you next week.

I'm back & Kyoto

I'm back...a week late but better late than ever!  It's amazing how quickly the four weeks flew past...

Today I'm posting some photos I took from when I was in Kyoto, Japan. Kyoto is one of my favorite plces to visit it's an amazing city with blends of the incredibly old and the very new.

Kyoto is the home of Astro Boy

Kyoto is the home of Astro Boy, Kimba the white lion and more japanse cartoon chararters

Enjoy and I'll see you next week! 

Mid Year break & My Links

This is my last blog as I head on my mid-year break. Hopefully by the time I'm back on the 21st of July my new studio will be up and running, which is very exciting!

To leave you with before I head off I have posted the links to all the web sites where my photos can be seen.

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

Snow Monkeys

This week I'm posting a few photos I took in Japan a couple of years ago.

 These photos are from my trip up to the Jigokudani Snow Monkey park outside of Nagano. I recently started working on them using Lightroom 5 and minor tweeks in Photoshop CS6 using OnOne and Nik plug in tools.

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

VFL Football

Today I'm posting some photos I took from a VFL game on the 24th of May 2014. The round 8 game was between Collingwood and Geelong at Victoria Park Football oval.

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

VFL Football

Today I'm post a couple of photos I took over the weekend at a VFL game between Sandringham and Weeribee at Trevor Barker Oval in Sandringham.

All my sports photography is shot using my old Canon 50 camera and Canon 100-400mm Lens. I only shoot in jpeg to allow the burst mode to capture as many shots as possible and not having to stop and think when I used to shoot in RAW. 

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

Vancouver - Stanley Park

Today I'm posting some panoramas I took a few years back when I went to Vancouver in Canada. I stayed near the magnificent Stanley Park.

 In the two weeks I was in Vancouver I walked and rode around the lake at least every second day. It's an amazing area with so much to see and do and just when you think you've seen it all...you find another area you have not seen before! It's a truly amazing area.

Here's a few of the many panoramas I took while out bike riding.

Boats docked at Burrard Inlet

Totem Poles

View back at Vancouver

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

Washington DC Part 2

Today I'm posting a few more photos I took when I was in Washington DC.

On April 8th last year I posted my first lot of photos of my trip to Washington DC. It's a impressive place full of interesting places  to see, visit and photograph.

I found the stormy weather that we had, while we were there, added to the mood of the photos. 

The capital building was one the most photographic building that I saw in the US and well worth a visit. 

US Capital Building

US Capital Building

One of the many monuments

Natural History Museum

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

VFL Football

On the 19th of April this year I went to the VFL game between Collingwood and Coburg at Victoria Park in Collingwood. I photographed the 2nd half of the game as I got these later than I hoped.

Here are a few of the photos I took of the game.

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

Australian Ice Hockey League

The Australian Ice Hockey league kicked off again last week for season 2014.

Ice Hockey is a great sport to not only go and watch but photograph.

So, today I'm posting a few photos from an AHIL game I photographed during the 2013 season.

These are photos from the Melbourne Ice and Sydney Ice Dogs game at the Medibank IceHouse in Docklands, Melbourne.

Enjoy and I'll see you next!

Osprey

Today I'm posting a Photo I took at Christmas on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. There's a family of Osprey's that live along the stretch of beach I swim at. This is one of the shots I got of the Osprey as it headed out over the ocean searching for its food.

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

Waratah Bay

Today's blog is a Panorama I took at Waratha Bay in the east of Victoria. 

I enjoy taking landscape photography especially when the clouds are thick and abundant thye can really make a photo.

I took this pano while we were walking along the wind swept beach.

The Beach at Waratah Bay

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

Baby Elephant

This week I'm blogging a photo I took a couple of years ago and completley forgot about.  

In 2010 I went to the Melbourne Zoo and spent the day photographing the vast array of animals and reptiles. I was at the elephant enclosure just in time to see the new baby elephant come out for an hour.

I snapped a heap of photos of the baby elephant, which I completely forgot about until I was looking for another photo and found them.

This is one of my favourite shots.

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

Japan Panorama for my 100th post

It's my 100th post on 'The Smoking Camera' Blog today!

Time has flown since I started the blog 3 years ago. Since the first blog Ive had nearly 3500 visitors from dozens of countries across the globe, with the most hits coming from the USA.

It's been a fun journey to get to this stage now hopefully I can get to 200 posts....

For my 100th blog, I'm posting a panorama of my favourite place...Tokyo.

 This was shot from our hotel room at the Park Hotel on the 38th floor. It was difficult to do as anyone who has photographed through thick glass will tell you.

I think I photographed this panorama about 20 times (there's nothing worse than getting home and finding out it did work) and then stitched it in Adobe Photoshop.

I now do all my basic photo editing in Adobe Lightroom, once I ran it through that I then brought it back to Photoshop for a couple of final touches and presto!

The panorama features the iconic Tokyo Tower (red tower) and behind it in the distance is Mt Fuji.

Enjoy and I'll see you next week!

iPhone Photography

Today is my 99th post on 'The Smoking Camera' blog! It's hard to believe that next week will be the 100th! Hopefully I'll get to 200 but that's a long way in the distance.

This week I'm posting a few more of my iphone photos. I've started experimenting with some of the various app filters that you can now download.

The first is a sunset at Black Rock Beach. I often drive along Beach Road in Melbourne and marvel at the stunning sunsets and amazing colors in the sky, yet I have never taken my camera down there to capture his.

Recently I finally stopped my car and wandered over and snapped a few shots on my iphone. I was very happy with the final results, which I've posted below.

The second is of our pet cat. The cat was a stray that was rescued and rehoused with us. There's nothing she enjoys more than hiding and waiting for a victim to walk past before she pounces. I managed to get this shot with the iphone. I added some vinaigrette to the edges to create a more dark effect.

Sunset at Black Rock Beach

Devil cat...

Enjoy and I'll see you next week for my 100th post!