The watcher

By Jo Cripps.
An image taken at the St Kilda beach on a sunny afternoon. People were relaxed and enjoying the sunshine. I strolled along behind the timber decking area and found this young girl laying watching the people on the foreshore. She was so still and yet they were all over the place. I set up the camera and kept my fingers crossed that she would stay still. The other girl sitting in front also sat for the duration – bonus. I love the contrast between the stillness of the first two girls and the crowd on the foreshore. I took this image with a black and white image in my mind.

Special effects photography at night

Almost since the first point-and-shoot digicams were invented, camera manufacturers have come to the aid of novice photographers by providing pre-set exposure modes to help them select appropriate aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings for popular photographic genres. The first of the ‘Scene’ pre-sets were for portrait, landscape and sports photography. But it wasn’t long before night portrait and night landscape pre-sets were added and it’s not uncommon for modern cameras to provide separate pre-sets covering fireworks, candlelight, sunset and dusk and/or dawn.