HarveyG

Fabulous day. Days like this make you proud of what we have achieved in this country, from the old days to the new. Shot at SAAF Museum AFB Zwartkop, Gauteng, RSA

Contact me for tuition and tours as well as event photography!

Gear I use: Bodies: Nikon D-SLR’s / Lenses: Nikon, Sigma, Tokina, Vivitar
Filters: Hoya UV & Polarizing / Flash: Nikon Speed-lights / Bag: Lowe Pro
Tripods & Heads: Manfrotto / Grips, Triggers, Timers, Batteries: Phottix
Editing Plug-in: Topaz Labs Noise Reduction, HDR, B&W Conversion & more!

I occasionally enter a few images over at DPChallenge.com
Quite a big caring community of photographers there and a a recent challenge to help lift the spirits of one of the members’ 5 year old sons who suffered 33% 2nd and 3rd degree burns over his body. Poor kid. The idea being that the images would be printed off and given to Dallas in a scrapbook. Lots of thoughtful images were submitted.The challenge allowed Expert Editing so a lot of Photo Shop fun was allowed.

Here is my entry of an African Stone Chat titled “Hang in there Dallas!” but with minimal editing.

Hang in there Dallas!

And one from my friend Leo in Arizona titled “AH!… a giant “taco eating dog”!”

AH!... a giant "taco eating dog"! © Leo Koach (Focuspoint)

Naturally the winner was Cristophe (gyaban) with his fantasy masterpiece “The Hero”

Check out all the shots here: “For Dallas” and Dallas’ Hospital Support Website

A big thanks to Arusha of Voetsek and the amazing bands. We donated our time, shutter releases, images and post processing to the organisers and all the bands to help raise awareness of those animals who can’t speak for themselves. Some of my shots of that night:

David Baudains Solo Acoustic | Tim Bland of the Couch Potatoes:

David Baudains © HarveyG Photography

Tim Bland © HarveyG Photography

Other Bands photographed that night: Spoonerman:  Animals in Suits:  Jet Black Camaro:  Ramblin’ Bones:  WONDERboom:  The Vendetta Cartel:   Submachine:

Contact me for tuition and tours as well as event photography!

Gear I use: Bodies: Nikon D-SLR’s / Lenses: Nikon, Sigma, Tokina, Vivitar
Filters: Hoya UV & Polarizing / Flash: Nikon Speed-lights / Bag: Lowe Pro
Tripods & Heads: Manfrotto / Grips, Triggers, Timers, Batteries: Phottix
Editing Plug-in: Topaz Labs Noise Reduction, HDR, B&W Conversion & more!

At a recent farewell to a dear mentor (Goodbye Dr. B. You were truly a leader of men.) in my early days in the Sandton Emergency Services, a lot of my old colleagues whom I’ve not seen in years asked me what I am doing now with myself! I left the service in ’97 after 8 years of some of the most tumultuous times in South Africa’s history and dangerous yet oddly rewarding work of my life. I always had my 35mm cameras at hand but they were not as easily taken into a township in the back of an Mfezi and D&P was pricey on my salary…so I have sadly very little in the way of photo’s of those days, some were destroyed in a flood a few years back.

So to get back to the point, when I said I do “event photography” I drew a bit of a blank stare from them. I admit they didn’t expect this considering I mostly post nature/scape/wildlife/birding shots on my Facebook Page. These are the subjects that draw more pleasure than a picture of bored conference attendees or staff right? However if done properly, professional event photography can also draw emotion and attention, and be a powerful tool or conveyor of ideas, product, promotions, launches, services and more. Here are a few samples of my work:

Contact me for tuition and tours as well as event photography!

Gear I use: Bodies: Nikon D-SLR’s / Lenses: Nikon, Sigma, Tokina, Vivitar
Filters: Hoya UV & Polarizing / Flash: Nikon Speed-lights / Bag: Lowe Pro
Tripods & Heads: Manfrotto / Grips, Triggers, Timers, Batteries: Phottix
Editing Plug-in: Topaz Labs Noise Reduction, HDR, B&W Conversion & more!

A few shots taken at a recent VIP birthday party Enjoy!

There are 1000′s of monitor types, sizes, brands and various ways to get them displaying colour accurately. Cambridge in Colour explain it far better than I can:

Knowing how to calibrate your monitor is critical for any photographer who wants accurate and predictable photographic prints. If your monitor is not correctly reproducing shades and colors, then all the time spent on image editing and post-processing could actually be counter-productive. This tutorial covers basic calibration for the casual photographer, in addition to using calibration and profiling devices for high-precision results. Furthermore, it assumes that tossing your old monitor and buying a new one is not an option.

Ideally an IPS panel (In Plane Switching) is what you should be striving (saving?) for. Locally they are scarce but I can source them for you. ASUS, Dell, Viewsonic are popular brands. If you’re a MAC/MACBook user recent Apple displays are all IPS based (within at least the last 5 years). It’s even valid when purchasing cellular/mobile phones. LCD, IPS, AMOLED etc.

If you can’t for whatever reason justify an IPS panel, tweak the monitor you have on your desk (or the laptop) using this software tool. Don’t skimp on this. It isn’t costing you a cent and your images will be judged on “my” monitor with the same or near identical colour warmth, overall temperature and brightness, contrast as what you saw and edited your image for, on your monitor.

The test images are best viewed in a dim or dark environment and in full-screen mode. In most browsers, F11 switches to full-screen mode, and F11 back to windowed mode.

Age, size, type of screen, CRT, LCD, IPS, LED are all different technologies. Take 15 minutes of your time and calibrate!

It could mean the difference between image on the far left vs the far right!

Cambridge in Colour Monitor Calibration Tutorials | Lagom Online Calibration Tool

Other Calibration Tools: