MyPhotograpy

The appearance of our Bali Story 2000 on the Bali Travel Forum brought so many flattering responses that I was persuaded to put together our web pages where the story could be illustrated with some of the photographs we took.

This brought even more flattering reactions and a number of E-mails asking about the photos, the techniques I used, the films and where they were processed, the equipment and a host of others queries.
Over a period of time I began to copy the previous answer and add the new things the person was asking abut. The following is the result and I record it here, not as a gospel of photographic excellence from a professional but as some advice to help the ordinary snap shooter take the next step.

                                                   ~ o 0 O 0 o ~

Dear Michael,

I hope the information below is not too much for you.
I've tried to give all the detail you might want, but if you only use a bit of it I hope you are still happy with your results.

The camera I use is a Pentax MZ-5 with Sigma lenses: either a 28-200 mm zoom with a 72mm daim object lens, or for some recent shots I've used a 28-80 mm zoom with macro and a 55 mm diam. object lens which I bought Duty Free for the Bali holiday.
The big lens is an old friend now (well 4 years old) but I think I'm beginning to like the new one also.
I also have a close up filter for the big zoom but I don't use it much now since I've got the macro feature in the smaller lens.
The camera and lenses are really quite ordinary, better than a cheap disposable I suppose, but not in the high class - high price bracket.

I use circular polarising filters on both lenses (because they are auto-focus lenses), to put a bit of contrast in the sky when it needs it, and to take the glare off things a bit. They just screw onto the front of the normal lens. These things are not too expensive (well, I suppose that depends on the size of your wallet) but they do magical things to tropical skies, making the bright pale blue a much
darker colour and make clouds really stand out.
They are also good lens protectors, absorbing cleaning damage, salt water spray and grit much better than the coated lenses. If you have to replace anything damaged in some unfortunate accident it's much cheaper to get a new filter tan it is to get a new lens.
As they are adjustable for effect (like the old original advertisements for polarised sun glasses - if you're old enough to remember - one lens held in front of the other and slowly turned 90 degrees, the light coming thro' them going from almost full brightness to almost black as they are turned) you can darken the sky and lighten the clouds just the amount you want. I think that this adjustment makes them much better than the cheaper linear polarising lenses which are not too good on auto-focus lenses.

I also have a Cokin filter attachment for each lens and have just begun to collect some coloured and special effects filters for these. If you think that the colours in some of my photos are unbelievable - you're right. It's the coloured filters at work.

Most importantly I think, I use a heavy tripod and electronic shutter release whenever I can. If I don't have to worry too much about camera shake from the old hands and /or long zooms lens shots I have the courage to use very slow shutter speeds and small diaphragm openings and slow films. (I now have an alternative if you're not into this business of lugging aluminium tubes around and looking a little mad. See the very end of this file.)
This alone improves the image quality so much that it has made it possible to greatly enlarge 35 mm negatives and still have a reasonably sharp image from the front of the scene right into the distance.
We have a quite a collection of these enlargements throughout our kitchen/living/dining area that constantly reminds us of the great times we've had in Bali.

I'm not too fussy about film, Kodak Gold, Agfa or Fuji Superia or anything else really does the job for me on most occasions. However, if you think that a special holiday deserves special film (and some films will give you denser colours and sharper images that are much better for enlargements) then try Kodak Royal Gold or Max 200, or AgfaColour HDC Plus Negative film or AgfaColour Optima II Prestige Negative film, but don't be surprised to find that quality costs.
(See later suggestions at the end of this file.)
The only constant thing is that I use only film with an ASA speed rating of 100, occasionally 200 but never 400 and above. I think that the slower films (100) have finer light-sensitive particles in them and this gives sharper edges in the photo so they will enlarge more before they become fuzzy.
Because I use a tripod I can more easily use this slower film, with longer shutter speeds, but still not get any camera shake. This is really important.
I try to use a small aperture (f22 or f16) and shutter speeds of 125th of a second or less - even down to 4 seconds for dawn and sunset shots. All of this makes the negatives (and the photos) very sharp, even when they are enlarged quite a bit.
I only take 'snap shots' with the camera in my hands - never serious photos, they are all done on the tripod.

I use an Acer 640 (600 x 1200) scanner running the packaged 'Ulead - Mirascan' software which I'm not too impressed with (the software that is), but this is new technology for me and maybe I'm just not used to it yet. I grew into photography as a boy back in the days just after the old Kodak Box Brownie.
Digital is a whole strange new world for me, but one I suppose I'm
going to have to try, it seems so easy to do things with your images. Maybe next year.

If you decide to spend some money on camera gear your photo shop proprietor should be happy to talk to you about using each piece. I think I've maybe put these things in the wrong order. If I was going to get only one thing it would be the tripod and shutter release. The tripod cost me about Aus$120 and the shutter release was about $50.
If this is too much for you now then the second best would be the polarising filter.

Hope I've answered your query without rambling on too much. If
I've missed anything you're curious about just let me know and I'll try to help. There's an E-mail contact link on the Home Page.

If you're interested in looking at some good web sites that freely help shooters to progress towards photography, try a search for these sites -

Agfa Online Photo Course - www.agfaphoto.com/library/photocourse/
Kodak Australia - www.kodak.com.au (and look for the 'Taking Great
                                   Pictures' link towards the bottom on the right side.)
Links to Photography Tips - www.photosecrets.com/links.tips.html
Photo101atPhotographyReview - photographyreview.com/photo101/
Masters of Photography - www.masters-of-photography.com

Having recently seen, with envious eyes, the results that an aquaintance has obtained with different film, I have tried some that are a bit better and a bit more expensive.
The results on close-ups and enlarged photos (which many of mine are because they remind me of Bali each time I see them hanging on the walls at home) convinced me to investigate further. Rather than accept any old film as I have done before I now offer the following information which I have gleaned, backed up with only a little experience so far.
The main players in the film business seem to each have a common 'happy snappers' quality film, then a better quality amateur users film which you might have to look for or ask for but which is really fairly commonly available and these two grades are followed by a number of professional quality films, each of which is often for different and fairly specific uses (such as portrait work).

Try Kodak ‘Royal Gold’ film for denser colours in your landscapes. ISO 100 has very fine grain giving sharper negatives which results in better enlargements. It also comes in ISO 200 & 400. It’s a ‘top-of-the-range’ amateur’s film, and bit dearer than the very common Kodak Gold but you might appreciate the colours and quality on a special trip. Kodak Professional ProImage 100 is the next step up into a professional film, even dearer than Royal Gold and perhaps requiring more exposure accuracy than many amateurs will care to give it. Don’t waste your money on this film if you’re using a ‘pocket camera’ as it requires a reasonable quality SLR to show its capabilities.

AgfaColour HDC Plus Negative film is similar in quality to Kodak Royal Gold and comes in 100, 200 &400 ISO. AgfaColour Optima II Prestige Negative professional film (ISO 100,200 & 400) is about the best if you want big enlargements of your photos but like Kodak ProImage you need to take a little more care when using it. The prices of these films increase like the Kodak ones.

FujiColour Superia Reala is their top amateur film. Fujicolour Professional NPC is the next step up and is particularly good for portrait shots but like the other pro-grade films needs a bit more care with the camera work to show it’s value. Again, you’ll find price structures like the Kodak examples above.

~ o O o ~

Another piece of advice I can now offer is the use of those very small and cheap tripods with springy wire legs that will fit fairly comfortably into a 'bum bag' if you don't have a camera bag. Would you believe that the smallest and cheapest of these that I have found is called 'Springy Legs' (I am not kidding you) and is about 4 inches (100 mm/10 cm) long. It is quite adequate and retails here for about A$10. A slightly more sophisticated version, a little longer (maybe 5 inches) with a few more features is the Vanguard VS-52 at about A$25.
They can be screwed onto the bottom of most small cameras and the legs spread to rest the camera on a car bonnet or a wall or fencepost or up-turned box, anything that will keep the camera steady. (Do make sure that the car engine is turned off if you're using the bonnet, and that the kids are not about to jump in and have a fight.)
Adjust the bend of the legs to point the thing in the required direction and use the delayed shutter release mode of the camera (you know, the one that lets you press the button and then gives you time to run around the front and get into the picture yourself) to take the shot without any risk of the camera shaking in your hands as you press the button. Without doubt this camera movement causes the ruination of most shots, and the new crop of small pocket cameras with zoom lenses do, of course, greatly emphasise the smallest of shakes.

.