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After 1.5 months in surgery, my D70 has returned to life, so I grabbed my new tripod and ball head (thanks Birdie!) and headed down the road for some night shots.

After a bit of twiddling, I got the tripod set up.



Oops, well, almost set up!

It was a great night for birds on the bridge, so I walked under the bridge and popped off a few shots.



Here's one from right underneath. It's almost organic to me:



This was about the time the security guard came up to me. I thought he was going to complement me on my fancy new tripod, but alas he told me that he couldn't let me take photos of the construction of the bridge. Naturally I told him that I was taking photos of the birds and proceeded to show him a memory card full of squiggly lines. Clearly deciding that the limits of my terrorist ability was a memory card of squiggly lines, he sauntered off. I briefly considered trying to capture his saunter as a squiggle but decided against it.

The patterns of the birds are quite interesting. Here you can see the flapping motion. Note how the ones with the most flapping are a stronger white, probably because they are flying slowly and flapping a lot (perhaps climbing?) while the dimmer ones appear to flap less (perhaps a fast descending glide.)



Here's my favourite: it captures the feel of being there. Don't worry about the lens flare or the massively blown highlights: as nnnnsic would say, "it's meant to be like that"!

Whacky doo - these shots are fantastic but I must admit that #1 fascinates me. You can almost hear the birds going ”Thad, Thad”

Yes #1 is great for me too. I wonder why you can no longer take photos of the bridge. When was that law introduced? Or are we all terrorists by default now? Why do I keep thinking we're heading down the path to the world Orwell described in his 1984

Love them, great to get different shots. 1 gets me too

Wow that first shot is awesome. Did you do that moving the camera on the ballhead whilst the shutter was open?

Hi Thaddeus,

I was waiting for the security thing to happen.
It is finally happening !!!
So now we are a suspect or acting suspiciously if we take pictures of the SHB ?
We are also trying to be stopped !!! What a load of Crap !!! (excuse my English)
As if preventing the photography of potential targets will do anything.
If an evil person were really smart, he or she would take photos (with different gear; non obvious ) of potential targets and NOBODY would know. (they'd do it in a concealed way)
Jee, we are becoming a VICTIM to law.
Unfortunately we need laws that are are apperently dumb, stupid, because we don't realise that we are so much better off because "we are so much better protected" when we are prohibited of taking photos.
Oh, I get the shits with this approach of laws, just like the new terrorist laws.
Laws do NOT prevent things (terrorist shit) from happening.
Laws are wishfull thinking.
Ohhh, lets put a law (rule) into place and it will just help with the problem.
Crap, death penalty in some countries doesn't keep people from breachin the law.
Sorry for my rant.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself about this issue.

Cheers,
CD

Christian

Scares the daylights out of me this stuff. Laws stay on the staute books forever. Who knows what some future government might decide to use some of these new terrorism laws for eg the sedition provisions.

Edit: Russell apologies for wandering off topic.

Bugger! I go out taking interesting photos of the birds and you guys like the one of me setting up the tripod!

Actually, #1 was the easiest shot to take. Just set the ball head to allow some movement and do a 10 second exposure while moving the camera and zoom. I think for that shot, I simply held the zoom ring still and rotated the camera!

As for the security thing, it's completely nuts. Earlier in the year I flew into Karratha and was confronted by some airport person telling me I couldn't take photos of particular commercial aircraft. Naturally, I raised my camera and started clicking away. The results are at http://rotorheads.com.au/kimberley05/day5/ (long page, about 3/4 of the way down)

I have also landed the chopper at airports where the guards will let me out but not back in because I don't have the right security clearance. When I explain that I'll just jump the helicopter over the fence and land in the carpark, they usually agree to let me back in. One poor guard had some inspectors from the DOTARS (department of transport and something...) auditing him, so we _almost_ had to send one guy in who had the right security clearance to jump four helicopters over the fence one by one because the rest of us weren't allowed in! Luckily sanity prevailed!

Last night, I didn't want to take photos of the bridge structure, so I didn't need to have the argument. Luckily, Leek has been giving me some tips in NLP, so I applied those and happily kept snapping away.

stubbsy & christian, no worries about wandering off-topic, I think civil liberties are extremely important!

Russel,

Great stuff. I especially like the second one of these.

As to the so-called security guard .... is this society going mad? Christ albloodymighty; when will it end.

Excellent photos, great story, love the shots in the link too.

The whole world has gone to hell in a handbasket, no doubt about it.

Thaddeus I like your innovative capture of the birds in nocturnal flight
in one of the images the bird trails almost look like natures freeform version of grafitti, it's very cool
as for the secrty thing enjoyed reading your witty story.

Wendell has hit it here, definitely freeform graffiti of the wildest type, let's see a dolphin do that eh? Well done and captivating images, Max

great images thaddeus.

Innovative and always with a good story. Glad that your D70 pulled through the surgery and is being put back to work.

Great shots Russell... Surprised you didn't keep them for the Movement comp... but I'm sure that your actual entry will be much better...

Let's not forget that the average security guard is paid little more than the minimum wage and the profession therefore seems to attract people of a certain calibre... He was probably doing just what his slightly higher paid boss told him to do... Guarding the Harbour Bridge has to be one of the most boring jobs available - you probably added a bit of excitement to his evening

Nice shots! I've tried to capture the same phenomenon, but without as much success.

I was at the same spot the other night taking photos with 3 others and the regular procession of _security guards_ barely stopped to glance at us. We weren't _aiming_ at the top of the _bridge_ though, just the base of the pylon, we were _targetting_ each other for some portrait _shots_. I didn't have my tripod, so my shots _bombed_. Go figure.

There, that's probably enough keywords. *waves to asio* :p

- Rog - photographer, pacifist and, according to Gary's word censor, not a boringist.

rog wrote:- Rog - photographer, pacifist and, according to Gary's word censor, not a boringist.

Excellent shots and I do like the first one the best sort of leaping out at you while dragging you in at the same time. Well captured.

I think the security guard was more worried that you would steal the bridge on his watch, how the hell would he explain that one to the boss.
"one minute it was there, saw this shifty bloke with a camera and the next thing you know the bridge was gone. Reckon the bloke with the camera stole it."
Doug

Great shots! What an idea, to photograph the birds! Do you know how long I have spent cloning those things out of my harbour bridge photos!? I thought they were bats. There are lots around there. It didn't occur to me to leave them in, and say "It's supposed to be like that". Really, I've just got to get my act together!