Canberra Minimeet

[MHD]

Ok first answer the question, all things being well can you make it to a minimeet some time on the weekend of 4/5 of feb

Ok, possible locations:

*Mt Ainslee/ Black mountain sunrise.sunset meet

*Some where lakeside

*Do the Parliament house tour (as long as Parliament is not sitting, photography is not allowed on sitting days...)

*War memorial
please note: meets and activities discussed on this forum are a gathering of individuals AT THEIR OWN RISK by attending you recognize this. We are just a bunch of people taking photos together, these are not formal or guided events

[daniel_r]

4/5th Looks good, also leaves the 11/12th open if some Canberra people are interested in heading up to the Cataract Dam (Sydney) picnic meet.

I'm neutral on Saturday/Sunday for now (but voted Sat).

[Willigan]

Not fussed on the location, but would prefer Saturday (& yes, the cricket on Sunday had some influence on this)

[baboo]

I'm free, and would prefer Saturday too.

As for location, not too fussed.

I suppose I'll make do with whatever location we meet up at.

[MHD]

Please note my edit to the original at post

[ozonejunkie]

I am somewhere a few km above land between Brisbane & Sydney on the morning of the 4th, my preference would've been Saturday 11th morning (earlier the better). I don't mind what happens though.

Tristan

[cordy]

Sat for me... would prefer the War Memorial, specially if its a hot one!

Chris

[MHD]

Looks like Saturday it is...

Now as to where...

We could do Sunset on Mt Ainslee and the early evening at the war memorial (or vice versa... Actually night shots from the mount would be nice..)

[baboo]

Are we still on for this Saturday?

If so, where and when?

[MHD]

I'm not to sure at this stage...

Something (nasty) just came up for me...

I'll know more in the next day or two

[daniel_r]

We could do Sunset on Mt Ainslee and the early evening at the war memorial (or vice versa... Actually night shots from the mount would be nice..)

This doesn't sound too bad at all. Also could have a walk down at dusk. Some of the memorials have excellent lighting, particularly the glass Nurses memorial.

Sunset is currently 8.11pm, civil dusk 8.41pm for Canberra.

[ru32day]

Mt Ainslie and War Memorial on Saturday sounds good, but we'll fit in with whatever.

[MHD]

Yeah... this weekend is now out for me... sorry

But go ahead and have a meet!

(as next weekend is also bad for me now...)

[cordy]

Meh I'm out too, got a yard cleanup happening.. miniskip is being delivered tomorrow

Least I get to randomly heave stuff into the bin and if breaks I dont have to care

[daniel_r]

Ok, I guess I'll step up and suggest a meeting time if people are still interested in meeting tonight.

Sunset 8.09pm, civil dusk 8.39pm

7.45pm - Meet at Mt. Ainslie Lookout
~ 8.30pm - Australian War Memorial
9.00pm - Walk along Anzac Parade
9.30 - Coffee in Civic if you want.

I'll be there (even if no one else is )

Ozonejunkie... if you need to get there, PM me and I can pick you up.

[ru32day]

see you there

[baboo]

I'll try to make it.

If not, have fun.

[christiand]

Sorry guys,

can't make it today.

Regards,
Christian

p.s. I'll be looking out for the photos.

[MHD]

Indeed... Have fun... I am home breifly between errands but will not be able to make it...

[ozonejunkie]

Thanks for the offer Daniel, but I don't return to Canberra until next weekend. :s

Hope that you all had a good time.

Tristan

[ru32day]

Here are some of my shots from the meet - happy to receive critique, as I know they could improve, but if you could also provide advice on technique to achieve any suggested improvement (assume I'm not knowledgeable and you'll be pretty close to the mark) I'd really appreciate it.

[daniel_r]

That looks an awful lot like my D70 there (complete with original and crappy Nikon strap!)

#3 strikes a nice balance - good colour in the clouds and something that lead into the picture in the foreground.

Unfortunately the hazy smoke and gusty conditions didn't make for the best photo outing.

I think I'll be looking a some kind of square filter system with some graduated Neutral Density filters (maybe Lee). Would have really helped out I think.

[ru32day]

You've caught me out - that is indeed your D70.

Afraid I had to crop you out as you (understandably) moved during the reasonably long exposure and looked a little ill as a result!

I was a bit disappointed about how soft some of the images at longer shutter speeds looked when I got them home - it seemed like they were capturing where the light travelled over time (from stationary lights I mean, not cars where this would be expected). This made them look quite soft, even though most of the image was reasonably sharp.

Guess I'll just NEE-eee-e-d an F2.8 lens.

[Aussie Dave]

You've caught me out - that is indeed your D70.

Afraid I had to crop you out as you (understandably) moved during the reasonably long exposure and looked a little ill as a result!

I was a bit disappointed about how soft some of the images at longer shutter speeds looked when I got them home - it seemed like they were capturing where the light travelled over time (from stationary lights I mean, not cars where this would be expected). This made them look quite soft, even though most of the image was reasonably sharp.

Guess I'll just NEE-eee-e-d an F2.8 lens.

What aperture and shutter settings were you using ? I'm assuming you used the 18-70 kit lens ?

A 2.8 lens won't necassarily give you better images. Used wide open, it is likely to be somewhat "soft" as well....

[ru32day]

Hi Aussie Dave.

This is one of the pics I was quite disappointed with. It's with the 70-300 lens at 70mm, F16, 30 secs (shooting in aperture priority). This is the shot with no PP.



It looks very soft, despite being shot from a tripod, but I think this is because of the long exposure capturing light trails (and them perhaps reflecting off the haze, which isn't apparent because of the time). Reflecting on it, I should have tried at F8 or larger - not much point lusting after a 2.8 lens if you're shooting at F16 I'd had that aperture from earlier when I was trying to get better colour in the shots by extending the exposure time (trying to overcome the haze).

Happy for you to tell me this approach was entirely wrong.

Daniel_r helped me out by showing how to meter from the camera's suggestions in aperture priority, shift to manual and then adjust exposure myself, but I couldn't see the shots well enough in the camera to judge anything but colour (which was the main issue at the time).

That's why I'm so disappointed with this shot, as I like the colour and the composition, but the overall shot is pretty awful!

[daniel_r]

I think a lot of the softness was due to the strong breeze on the night - I wasn't having the best of times with the 80-400, even on the tripod.

Combined with the haze, I think any lens would have had a hard time trying to deliver sharp results.

I guess better luck for the next meet (conditions and attendance!).