Author: admin

  • Bengali New Year – Wyndam Vale

    Bengali New Year – Wyndam Vale

    A last minute fill in for a photographer,who was off sick, left me only time to charge a battery and get there

    The event was incredible fun and thanks to everyone for giving me photos. It makes it much easier. That doesn’t mean I won’t sneak the good shots while you are not looking:)

    Our Gallery

    Two hours on a Sunday

  • ANZAC Dawn Service  | Werribee | 2024

    ANZAC Dawn Service | Werribee | 2024

    Thousands of people braved the cold morning to attend the Werribee 2024 ANZAC dawn service.

  • ANZAC DAY MARCH WERRIBEE

    ANZAC DAY MARCH WERRIBEE

    It was a fantastic weather for the Pre-ANZAC day march with hundreds of people in attendance.

  • 2024//2025 camera gear

    2024//2025 camera gear

    It’s been an exciting start of the year for me, diving into all sorts of fun events and gigs that keep me on my toes. I absolutely cherish my prime lenses—they’re like old friends— more about that later. As my projects ( (accidentally) grew in diversity, I realized the need for something with a lot more range. A super zoom lens was calling my name!

    Leica, my go-to brand, doesn’t exactly play in the super zoom playground, and to be honest, their price tag would probably have me hosting a yard sale for my spare kidney even if they did. So, I ventured into Nikon territory. I’m now the owner of a Nikon D7200, sporting a nifty 18-140mm zoom lens. It may be a bit of a classic, but it’s got a 24Mpx sensor that’s just right for my needs—great quality without overwhelming my hard drives. What a fantastic little (big) addition to the gear shelf

    Leica Apo-Macro-Elmarit-Tl 60mm F/2.8

    For my highly detailed photography of gorgeous things I needed something exceptional. It also shoots magnificent portraits of people

    This lens is built to deliver exceptional performance. Designed for detailed close-up photography, it offers consistent, premium image quality at all focus distances. The apochromatic design of the lens effectively removes color distortions and chromatic aberrations, ensuring pure colors in your images. In addition, the inclusion of four aspherical elements minimizes spherical aberrations, enhancing the overall image clarity and precision.

    Leica Summicron-T 23mm f/2 ASPH Lens

    I have had this lens for a few years now and it never ceases to amaze me. Gorgeous colors and accuracy to the edges. A Leica TL reference lens for incredible unobtrusive photography.

    The Leica CL

    Out of production but absolutely not for sale. Leica just released the SL3 which may replace it. Eventually!

    Manfrotto Tripod

    A new ( old) Manfrotto tripod is probably my most sensible buy since the last time I did a gear roundup in 2022. This makes my camera equipment rock steady for long exposure photos that often use in product shoots. It’s not exactly lightweight.

    The OM1 with the 50mm Olympus Zuiko Lens

    The fantastic Olympus OM1. won’t be in my hands much longer—my daughter has developed a passion for film photography, embracing her inner hipster. I won’t be going back to film on a regular basis.

  • Dog Photo | It’s My Stuff

    Dog Photo | It’s My Stuff

    It's my stuff [ Explored ]
    5,071 views in 24 hours. ( Explore)
  • Uranium Glaze.

    Uranium Glaze.

    Ceramic glaze is a shiny coating applied to ceramics before firing. Uranium glaze is a type of ceramic glaze that contains uranium creating various colours and can emit a special glow under UV light. The radioactivity in uranium glazes is generally considered safe.

    They were popular in the early to mid-20th century but are less common now. Antique ceramics with uranium glazes are sought after by collectors for their historical value and unique appearance.

    Uranium  Orange [Explored]
    Uranium Glaze Vase
    Uranium Glaze vase
  • The photoshoot that never happened

    Improvements to AI are almost daily. Using just a little more scripting and a custom merged model this set was much easier to produce.

    This person does not exist. if you look closely you can see that these are not photographs.

  • Winter in Mornington

    Our towns change. Mornington is now an expensive and controlled environment but only slightly below the surface, the older Mornington exists.

  • Photography and Generative Artificial intelligence

    My love has always been art but with kids and stuff I worked as a Linux system architect for over twenty years. The open-source world has given us so many things that we take for granted and I could not miss this extraordinary work done in generative images. In the short time I have been working with it AI has moved extremely quickly.

    The story of an AI apple

    Generated on Stable Diffusion using Epic_Realism model :
50 Steps.
Guidance: 4.8.

 two green apples, realistic,blemishes,soft volumetric lighting, sunlight, Leica Summicron, 50mm, DOF, specular distortion, CCD sensor, dimly lit, draped around\

    Two Stable Diffusion AI apples were upscaled to a larger image and imported into Photoshop beta. Using the new AI generative fill I have replaced the background and edited it as I would a normal photo.

    But how did I get here…

    It started here.

    Multiple iterations with progressively more instructions until I was generating apples with some blemishes in light that were somewhat natural. I didn’t worry about the background as this would be replaced later in Photoshop

    Between each of the generations, small changes were made to the Stable Diffusion prompt to suggest a more natural apple

    Basic apple generated on Stable Diffusion using Epic_Realism model :
single green apple, realistic,blemishes, volumetric lighting, sunlight, Summicron, 50mm,

    This was the original apple to get the process started.

    Single apple generated on Stable Diffusion using Epic_Realism model :
single green apple, realistic,blemishes, volumetric lighting, sunlight, Summicron, 50mm, DOF

    I changed the prompt to include blemishes on the skin and ran some more steps. It kept doing this strange lighting where half the apple was lighter than the other. It did look more natural though

    Single apple generated on Stable Diffusion using Epic_Realism model :
two green apples, realistic,blemishes,soft volumetric lighting, sunlight, Leica Summicron, 50mm, DOF, specular distortion, CCD sensor, dimly lit, draped around
Steps 50

    This went too far and made me a nicely lit set of apples with bruises, but the apple at the back was deformed and had sprouted leaves. I decided that two apples might be simpler

    Generated on Stable Diffusion using Epic_Realism model :
 two green apples, realistic,blemishes,soft volumetric lighting, sunlight, Leica Summicron, 50mm, DOF, specular distortion, CCD sensor, dimly lit, draped around

    I picked this one as t the shape and skin texture looked the most natural I have also introduced:

    Lens type
    Depth of field
    Lens model
    Lens error
    Lighting type
    Lighting intensity

    Generated on Stable Diffusion using Epic_Realism model :
50 Steps.
Guidance: 4.8.

 two green apples, realistic,blemishes,soft volumetric lighting, sunlight, Leica Summicron, 50mm, DOF, specular distortion, CCD sensor, dimly lit

    It would have been faster to just take the photograph but there is an interesting side effect.

    I can apply the same prompts to other things entirely

    Using the photo above as input, changing the name of the “thing”

  • Rustic Still Life | Vintage lens

    This was shot using a 40 year old Zuiko Lens on a modern Leica CL digital camera. It was a fantastic lens in its time. Lens technology has moved on!