Bill Hatcher Photography

Photo of the Week: Little Blue stock Car

Unlike many photographers out there who have given up on stock agencies I still send images into my stock agency at National Geographic Images. Yep my return on investment with stock photography is down from what it was a few years ago, but my photo stock is still making money.

Today I am reviewing the file naming for a batch of photos NG Images has selected. Included are some photos from Iceland I shot a year and a half ago.

I saw this scene while on a hike to photograph volcanic vents near Lake Myvatn in Iceland.  I just love the tiny blue car on a lonely strip of road in this unlikely setting. This is what a family vacation might be if you decided to go to Iceland instead of Paris. 

Photo of the Week: Temperate Rain Forest

This was a photo I made last year hiking on a track above the Fox Glacier in Westland National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand. From the coastal plain looking up toward the green hillsides on both sides of the Fox Glacier you wouldn't even guess at the complexity that lies under the forest canopy. 

The forest around the Fox Glacier is a classic example of a temperate rain forest.The Fox Glacier region receives 4.7 Meters (185 inches) of rain a year! Where I was living in Colorado rainfall is measured in inches and 13 inches is an average rainfall in a year.  For comparison in Sydney the average rain fall is 1.19 meters ( 47 inches) a year and in Seattle the average rainfall is 1.09 meters (43 inches) per year. 

Photo(s) of the Week: shooting with a 35 mm focal length lens

I am thinking about getting the new Fuji X100 compact camera that is being released this month. One possible issue with the camera is it has a fixed lens. I wondered if this fixed 22 mm (35 mm equivilent) lens would work for me or if it would be a big limitation.

I found the answer to this qustion by looking at images I am editing for my stock agency. I checked the metadata from those images to see what focal length I used. It turns out I use the classic street photography focal length of 35 mm quite often.  Here is a selection of the photos that I took using my Nikon D300s at the 35 mm focal length. The 35mm focal length does seem to have a timeless street style look. I guess this means I'll have to place my order.

     

All these these images are taken in either mainland Australia or Tasmania.

 

 

Photo of the Week: Sailing

It seems in the Sydney area there are sporting events happening everywhere on the weekend.  These are members of the Lane Cove 12 ft. Sailing Skiff Club getting their boats ready for the water. This is at the sailing club's Longueville boat house. About ten boats sailed off from the dock toward the Sydney Harbour. I photographed this scene with my iPhone and processeded the image with Camerabag.

Photo of the Week: Mojave Desert

This is a photo I took on a USAir flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix. We had just leveled out at 30,000 feet over the Mojave Desert in Nevada. The light was luminous with a deep blue sky contrasting with the desert below a stark graphic of broad valleys and dry barren mountains receeding into a haze.  Since the flight was uncrowded I checked several windows to find the clearest window. Then it was just a matter of composing the frame as we cruised along at 600 mph.

When I fly on commercial flights I usually book a window seat. Sometimes I even check Google Earth to figure out which side of the plane will have the best views. I find most mid-day flights offer a photographer bland flat light, but this was not the case on this  uncrowded evening flight.  Nikon D-300s with a 35mm 1.8 lens. camera settings were 1000 sec f7 iso 200

Photo of the Week

When I started this blog a couple of years ago my intention was simple to post stories from my photography adventures downunder. Originally I planned to post something from an adventure once every couple of weeks or so. I am changing that focus a little by adding the "Photo of the Week". This might be a photo taken during the week or a photo I've pulled while editing images from a recent assignment or filling a stock request. "Photo of the Week" is a chance for me to share something cool that I saw or photographed during the week-look for it on Monday or if you live on the other side of the dateline Sunday. 

I will also continue posting my regular adventure stories.

The photo below is my first in the "Photo of the Week" series. This is a photo I made yesterday in Marramarra National Park. Melanie and I were paddling home after an overnight kayak trip to explore the Marramarra Creek that flows into the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney. To get this shot I climbed a tree to find the right composition for this unique stand of mangrove trees at the entrance to Big Bay. The trees are about to be submerged by the rising ocean tide.

camera Nikon D-300s lens 16-85 3.5-5.6 @ 16 mm   settings: 1/80 sec.  f7 iso 200