Project 52 by Mal Schulstad

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 26th December 2012, 08:36 AM

Back in the river that I normally dive at I'm constantly astounded at what I find in there. There always seem to be such a diverse range of sealife in there that I'm never short of anything to photograph.

This particular photo is of a blennioidei, or more commonly a blenny. They are very small fish - I think this oe is a about a centimetre long - that spend a lot of their lives poking their heads out of little hiding places - at least when I try to take photos of them. I like this particular shot because it just looks like this particular blenny is looking out into the heavens - or the deep blue at least.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 26th December 2012, 08:47 AM

Just up the road from where we live is a natural park which has two unique features - a water slide and a lagoon that people can swim in.

The water slide is naturally formed from water traveling down it in a series of mini cascades. The slide can be entered from a lower level and a higher level, both of which see the person going down the slide landing in a very small pool of water - no larger than 2 meters in diameter. To miss the pool means impacting with some very hard and dry rocks. The lower level slide isn't a problem as you tend to just drop into it. However from the upper level you can pick up a tremendous amount of speed which launches you into the air to land in the pool - just. The expressions of people as they launch into the air can be rather amusing

The lagoon is interesting because directly above it is a ledge which if you're brave enough, you can jump from. For those of that realise that we're not really immortal, the jump looks like insanity. However for the kids that still do it, they seem to have a blast.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 26th December 2012, 11:16 PM

It's funny how you can forget how to do things if you haven't done them for a while. Macro photography, particularly bug hunting is something that I used to enjoy doing a lot of. I love discovering the world within the world that a lot of people don't realise exists.

Prior to the photos below it had been a while since I'd shot any macro photos. When I first stuck the Tamron lens back on the camera again I forgot the flash, forgot to adjust my DoF, and the shutter speed as well. Still, it's like riding a bike and everything comes back to you rather quickly.

I know there are a lot of bug photos around but what I like about these photos is the reflection that I managed to capture in these shots - its not something you see too often - even if the subject is not one of my favourite insects.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 26th December 2012, 11:48 PM

Just a few photos from a dance recital that Jazz did a few weeks ago. A couple of before, during, and after shots just to show how much fun she was having.

**JPS** · 26th December 2012, 11:52 PM

Hi Mal,
it certainly looks like they were all having fun.
A nice set of pictures for the family album.

Cheers
John

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 29th December 2012, 12:54 AM

Originally Posted by JPS

Hi Mal,
it certainly looks like they were all having fun.
A nice set of pictures for the family album.

Cheers
John

Thanks John

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 29th December 2012, 10:08 AM

After 12 months of playing around with the whole photography thing I finally decided to play around in Photoshop and mess around with layers. These photos are my first attempts at them which was a bit of good fun. I think learning how to use photoshop properly will be among my goals for 2013.

This first photo is one of Alex's birthday cake. I wanted to just clean up the background a bit.

The result was a little unnatural but for what I was attempting to achieve, I was happy with the result.

The next photo was one of Alex just before he went to his graduation dinner. I thought it was a nice shot of him but I didn't want his classmates in the background.

A little bit of layering and stretching and I came up with this.

There's a third photo as well but it's probably a bit risqué for this forum. Given that I was just playing around without really learning how to do this properly, I'm reasonably happy with the result. Hopefully I'll be able to improve on this next year when I've watched a few tutorials on how to do the whole photo editing thing properly.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 29th December 2012, 10:29 AM

So it took me a while to realise that perhaps with my underwater set up that not only could I take photos of sea life, but people underwater as well. I got the idea from a Facebook site called "Underwater Art", that and having a pool to try out a few photos as well.

These shots were just some general ones of Alex and the child of one of our friends in the pool.

I think I've come to the realisation that underwater portrait photography might be a style of portrait photography that could be a unique proposition for people if you could master it. That includes understanding the best poses that work underwater.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 29th December 2012, 10:38 AM

Sometimes, you meet someone that will just dazzle the camera lens. This toddler is the son a friend of Kerry's that came over for a Christmas party. He was so cute that I had to take a few photos of him.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 29th December 2012, 10:52 AM

These are the most recent underwater photos I've taken. As I've progressed with shooting underwater photos and become more familiar with the XZ-1 I've started playing around with more settings to change how the photos appear underwater.

It's been a great journey so far, learning how to shoot underwater. It really gives you an appreciation for the characteristics of light, particularly how it behaves in a different medium where you have little to no control over it.

My journey I this style of photography will certainly continue next year, particularly with Kerry having given me a wide angle and macro lens to play with as well. I also need to give Kerry a huge thanks for being my diving buddy. For those of you unfamiliar with diving, for safety reasons you usually dive in pairs to keep an eye on each other and help out if something goes wrong. In the case of a being buddied up with someone who takes photos underwater, there's usually a lot of waiting around while the photographer sets up to take a photo. I wouldn't have progressed anywhere near as much as I would have if I didn't have Kerry as my buddy who consistently and patiently waits for me to take these photos.

**Geoff F** · 29th December 2012, 07:49 PM

Good stuff there. You are certainly getting the knack of more complicated editing now.

Living in the UK, I never cease to amaze at how clear the sea is in some parts of the world. It's mostly like thick soup here.

**Nicola** · 29th December 2012, 10:35 PM

very good work Mal!
your learning about underwater photography is very fast! those octopuses are superb!
my compliments

**johnbharle** · 29th December 2012, 11:04 PM

Those were really well done, Mal. I haven't played around much in Photoshop. Bought a couple of books, but got sidetracked into learning Lightroom. Your idea for making PS a goal for next year is a good one. I might just copy you :-)

**johnbharle** · 29th December 2012, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by Goldcoastgolfer

Sometimes, you meet someone that will just dazzle the camera lens. This toddler is the son a friend of Kerry's that came over for a Christmas party. He was so cute that I had to take a few photos of him.

I'm guessing you're using some sort of bounced light flash here? They are wonderfully lighted. I haven't experimented with flash and don't own any flash equipment. These photos suggest to me that maybe I'm missing something.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 30th December 2012, 03:09 AM

Originally Posted by Geoff F

Good stuff there. You are certainly getting the knack of more complicated editing now.

Living in the UK, I never cease to amaze at how clear the sea is in some parts of the world. It's mostly like thick soup here.

Thanks Geoff. Believe it or not what I've been diving in of late has also been very soupy - it's just a matter of getting as close as you can to work around it.

Originally Posted by Nicola

very good work Mal!
your learning about underwater photography is very fast! those octopuses are superb!
my compliments

Thanks Nicola. Still a ways to go but I'm getting there. The new underwater lenses that Kerry got me will give me a new dimension of photography to learn.... starting with changing lenses underwater!

Originally Posted by johnbharle

Those were really well done, Mal. I haven't played around much in Photoshop. Bought a couple of books, but got sidetracked into learning Lightroom. Your idea for making PS a goal for next year is a good one. I might just copy you :-)

Thanks John. I still do the bulk of my processing in Lightroom. I still find it faster and easier, especially when you're dealing with a lot of photos and have an idea of presets you want to use. But there are certainly things in Photoshop that come in really handy.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 30th December 2012, 03:15 AM

Originally Posted by johnbharle

I'm guessing you're using some sort of bounced light flash here? They are wonderfully lighted. I haven't experimented with flash and don't own any flash equipment. These photos suggest to me that maybe I'm missing something.

I can honestly say that getting a good flash was one of the best investments that I've made for portrait photography. I'd ideally like another three more (I can remote control them as strobes) but I could only ever justify that if I was a paid portrait photographer.

Still, it's quite amazing with what you can accomplish with a single flash - either on or off the camera. These photos were just a simple bounce off the roof - nothing more than that. I have a couple of others (they're boudoir style so I won't post them on here) that have the flash bouncing off other directions to give more contrast which works really well as black and whites.

If you're remotely interested in portraits, I'd definitely recommend getting at least one - it opens up a whole world of opportunities.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 30th December 2012, 03:41 AM

So I decided to put these photos up to demonstrate how interesting light can be when taking photos underwater - particularly when it comes to portraiture. To keep these photos below the R rating level I've had to do crops and darkening which unfortunately take away from the full photo. However I hope you can see from what I've posted here the different types of portraiture photos you can take from being underwater.

I've really only put a toe in the water so far to date (pun intended). I plan to spend the next few months while the water remains warm here experimenting more in the underwater portraiture front and will continue to post what I learn here - perhaps as a Project 52 for next year!

For those of you interested in seeing the originals you can find them at my Underwater Black and White Nudes gallery.

**Goldcoastgolfer** · 31st December 2012, 07:53 AM

Well, that's the end of the Project 52 journey for me. My apologies for not sharing with you all the journey as it actually happened - it's been a fairly challenging year. However, at least I managed to continue taking photos throughout the year.

For 2013 I plan to just focus on a couple of areas and post project threads related to the topics I have in mind. I'm going to continue on my journey of photographing people, although I probably won't be posting too many portraits here now unless I need some help with something specific.

My recent fascination for creatures under the sea I think has been fairly obvious through this thread so plan on creating a thread to share my learnings as I continue to refine my skills in this area. My other area of focus for 2013 will be in the underwater portraiture area - an area of photography that I think is something that is a little different and can be used to produce some really different memories.

So in closing this thread, thanks for all of you that have supported and guided me on this journey. I've learnt a phenomenal amount since joining Cambridge, and participating in Project 52. Below are the last of my photos for 2013 (actually, not strictly speaking true as I'm taking photos at someone's renewal of vows tonight).

Happy New Year everyone! See you all in the New Year.