Wave

You lay your head on your pillow and close your eyes. While your thoughts take over your mind you drift into a deep, or unsettled, sleep. 

You wake up. 

Not only is it no longer Monday, but it's not the same year either. It's Tuesday, first of January, 2013. 

8am, to be precise. 

And just like that a fresh start is handed to you. 

It's like 2012 was drawn into the sand with 2013 below it. Then a wave washed up and it swept 2012 away, blending it back into the smooth sand. 2013 has not been touched; it is safe from the water... for now.

What are you planning on doing with this fresh start that has been placed into your clenched fists? It's true, you weren't given $200 at Go and you weren't promised a bright and happy year. But that has nothing to do with it.

What are YOU going to do now that you've been granted another year? 

Wave goodbye to 2012. It has been blended into the sand with every other year before it. 

2013 is looking you straight in the face. 

My latest...

My next-door-neighbor phoned me on Saturday and asked whether I knew my photo was in the paper. Sure enough, the photo I entered for the Canberra Times summer competition went to not only the online version of C.T but also to the paper!!

I took the following photos with Jum's iPod touch and the quality isn't superb. But click to enlarge, I think it's readable! =D

(Caption) SUMMER HAZE: Rachael Axelby's photo Walking through Clouds shows a boy and a woman walking on the sand.

And I love this paragraph! I'm in the paper, guys! My face may not be there, but something even better is (there's something better? Well yes, of course.) My photography. 

My photography is being looked at by every news-reading-Canberran! 

Merry Christmas.

experiment #6

Water reflections are simply magical. They captivate me, I can't stop staring at them and I dream of one day being able to perfect an imitation of a perfect image.
This might be that day.

Original, found on Pinterest, master unkown, equipment unknown.

There are heaps of images like this one, with different concepts and objects but they all cover the same thing:

a flipped water reflection. My image was not imitated to this one directly, but the idea stays the same.

(Photo put in brackets. Also found on Pinterest.)

I like my take off better than the original top photo. 

My subjects are walking through clouds.

I think this will be an image I will always love, no matter how much my hobby improves or decreases. 

To me it has an infinite depth of meaning and magic.

experiment #5

Bokeh. 

Christmas lights. 

I've always wanted to try bokeh and while I still don't know how to say the word, I think I have succeeded. 

I tried it out without comparing to an image, that came after the editing. Obviously it's just bokeh, it's not going to look the same as any other photograph but the point is...

...experiment #5 was a success.

On a scale of 1 to bokeh this - this is bokeh. 

(top image is stolen from the internet, like all my other experiments, simply for practice. 

bottom image is mine... my own. My Precioussss) 

experiment #4

Bubble popping.

This is the one image that truly holds me captive... a perfectly round bubble, mid-burst.  

Not only is that the best idea ever, but the skill in capturing that shot is legendary.

So far I haven't been able to find the site for this image (this is from G-images) but I really need to know what aperture they use and even how many times the tried before getting the perfect shot. 

This shot was accidental, I was holding the button down just to get a good photo when hey presto! they decided to pop one. If the photo had of worked I wouldn't have been as unhappy about the angle, although this does sort of work. Not for a replica, mind you. For my next try I need to use a faster aperture and maybe an hour or two before that time of day^. That was around 4pm, and the sun kept moving. Also, I need to do my next shoot with less water-fights going on around me =P 

Experiment #4 - out of 10, I'd give it a 6. What number do you give it?

experiment #3

I live and breathe The Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

This still (below) is taken (found on G-images) from a scene in The Fellowship of the Ring and ever since I have had my chain I've wanted to re-shoot it.

I've been the the snow three times in the past two months and every time I forgot to take my chain. Part of me dreaded losing it, I admit. 

Well, we're currently in the middle of Spring and this morning we woke up to 8cm of snow all around us. I got out of bed an hour early just to do this photo shoot. 

Comparing this to the original concept, the theme from the film, it is entirely different save the fact that it's a ring on a chain in the snow, but as a stand alone photo I am so happy with it.

Notes for next time - imitate original closer. Get less chain and more ring. Get more background instead of foreground. Be more patient and less cold. 

experiment #2

I love experimenting. Not always, of course. Sometimes after an experiment I'm ready to create World War III. Failure is something I don't like to accept.
"By failure you learn. By success... not so much." ('meet the robinsons' ;)
It's so true, yet so hard to take on board.

This experiment (take #2. To see take #1 scroll down two posts) was a chore and a half. I'm still in love with the concept, but my take is so, well, lame.

Original^. Using a glass slab, splashed/sprinkled with water, a shaded torch, and a tripod. And actually, I noted after much inspection, a helluva lot of Photoshop. (There's no such thing as a white M&M in a mixed pack, did you know that? For this image they've changed the brown M&M to white. Tricksy...)

So this one of my hundreds of trials. I did this on my kitchen table at night time, so the lighting is dark. And because I had to use glad-wrap it didn't work in daylight because glad-wrap isn't clear. Shhh, don't tell anyone.
I wanted my take-off to be happy and bright like the original but it just wasn't happening, brother. 

So, all in all, Experiment #2 was a failure. Stay tuned. Summer's on its way.