Fiber Optics

Invented in the 1950's, optical fibers true potential was not immediately realized but has become the cornerstone of modern communication. Optical audio cabling has also become popular, as data transmitted via light does not suffer from the attenuation and electromagnetic interference or traditional wires. Despite it's potentially advanced uses, it is still widely known and used for UFO lamps, christmas trees and glow-in-the-dark frisbees.

Orion Nebula (M42)

Welcome to the International Year of Astronomy 2009! To celebrate the new year the staff of the SkyLive remote telescope project allowed me to take control of the Celestron 14" telescope at Grove Creek Observatory and expose the first image taken from the observatory for the Australian New Year - what an honor!

This year, make a point of viewing at least one astronomical object. Everyone has a favorite night-sky object, whether it's the sun, moon, Venus, the International Space Station, or even the Full Solar Eclipse for 2009 (best viewed near the equator).

The image you are seeing here is a small portion of the Orion Nebula, the most famous and colourful nebula we have ever observed. Instead of using RGB to make this image, I used the Hydrogen filter for the red channel, Sulpher for green, and Oxygen for Blue. This is a close approximation of the "Hubble Pallette". I also used a Luminosity filter as a luminosity layer. Some noise reduction and slight level adjustments made in photoshop but the colours come directly from the filters used.

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the International Year of Astronomy 2009!

Patches Beach (Panorama)

Avid readers will know that besides my attraction to lightning and astronomy, I have an unhealthy obsession with odd, or rare clouds. Storm fronts like this one are common here on the north coast, but the puffy mammatus clouds are not. I have some other shots of the mammatus regions of this image but this particular photo is a merged panoroma from 11 portrait oriented originals, weighing in at over 27 megapixels and 265 megabytes! If anyone wants a super-sized version for their desktop just shoot me an email.

I've also added a new gallery just for WEATHER!

NGC2070 - Tarantula Nebula

I've been doing some pretty nerdy stuff lately. Out of interest, and to subdue my immediate urge to spend lots of money on my own telescope I have leased telescope time from the SkyLive project which has 6 telescopes, 4 in Italy and 2 in NSW, Australia. This allows me to remotely control the Celestron 14" scope at Grove Creek Observatory and take multiple exposures on their CCD camera. It's not great resolution but the scopes focal length is pretty amazing. Since the CCD is monochrome, you need to take several long exposures with a number of different filters. This is all really new to me but I thought it would be a good way to practice the science of astrophotography before spending any good money on inevitably inferior setup.

So this image is simply made up of 3 stacked images, each with an RGB filter respectively. Each exposure is roughly 60 seconds to catch the nice glow of the nebula's gas, however you can see that the central cluster of stars is really bright.

Also dear readers, I have decided to reorganize my photos based on this new subject matter and now have a dedicated ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY gallery and another just for WEATHER (Clouds, Lightning etc).

Soulman O'Gaia

Soulman O'Gaia, is a roots musician who plays acoustic shows around the Northern Rivers and beyond. He is currently working on a new album for 2009 and I have been helping with the CD artwork, so more on that when it comes out! He was gracious enough to let me take this on the spot portrait. An amazing person and wonderful musician - watch this space.

Rainbow Lorikeets - Trichoglossus haematodus

One of the more colourful Byron locals, the Rainbow Lorikeet is a vibrant Australian parrot with some localized subspecies in very low numbers. The main species however is far from being in any danger, and is considered a pest to be eradicated in Western Australia where it was introduced in the 1960's and in New Zealand. In my backyard feeding in the flowering bangalow palms though, they are most welcome.

Wonga Wetlands Sunset

A cliched sunset over a land I used to go walkabout, Wonga Wetlands just out of Albury. This photo was one I had meant to post years ago but didn't and I just happened upon it while going through my old raw JPEGs for something else. Better late than never!

Bill Henson Portrait

I've decided to revisit and post process my portrait of Bill Henson, taken in 2005 at Wangaratta Art Gallery, particularly in light of the recent media frenzy regarding his work, and the issues surrounding his photography. Reproduced below is my original text I blogged in 2005.

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Bill Henson has been taking (making) photos since he was nineteen years old giving him thirty years of experience perfecting in the field. As one of Australia's foremost contemporary photographers he succeeds in both having a large body of diverse work as well as maintaining a thematic and stylistic focus on which he further builds and explores.

Recently Bill Henson exhibited in the National Gallery of Victoria works spanning his thirty year career as curated by the Art Gallery of NSW.

I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance during a Q&A session a small regional gallery in North East Victoria where he earnestly and thoroughly entertained questions from the group of about forty patrons.

Predictably it started "Why?" "How?" "Who?" are these children you photograph? Without hesitation he replied regarding the nature of familiarity vs intimacy, the families who allow him to photograph their children sans clothing and the positive relationships he has with the subject during and years after the sessions.

Thankfully, the questions turned to technique and philosophy. He stated his views on the execution of his work, the nature of photography and our perception of the still image, and even on the recent Digital vs Film debate.

He spoke of opposing forces, so evident in his own work, and the contradictory nature of photography, his thought processes and workflow and, with some probing by myself, the ''wankers'' of the art world that distract our attention from truly proficient visual artists.

He was well spoken, versed and coherent, polite, firm, obliging and charismatic in his own way. I would be lying if I said he had not made an impression, as my thoughts recollect. I asked first before taking his portrait, and as a photographer himself, was a trusting and understanding subject.

* Painting behind Bill Henson ''Soft Tones'' by David Aspden, 1976 Acrylic on Canvas.

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