Digital Photo Gallery of Ted Szukalski
Fine art digital photography, photographic news, reviews, articles and resources.

Crowd

I have tried to move of my own free will in densely packed crowd.
Are you stronger in the crowd or are you reduced to a single gear in a big machine?
“Who can Resist the Pull of the Crowd?”

Barefoot

Melbourne Cup day - a horse race that stops the nation. That how it is often referred to. naturally in Sydney Melbourne Cup is also celebrated. No, we do not have a public holiday but you see a lot of girls in their pretty summery dresses with fancy hats around town glowing with glamour.

It would surprise no one that I planned to capture some of this euphoria over a horse race. I set up on a little walk to the Domain, where every year there is a big party organised. I hoped to capture few smiles and the quirky hats. The Melbourne Cup is one big fashion show. It add millions of dollars to the economy. This year alone the punters put over 100 million dollars betting on their favourite horse.

So, I enter the Domain and the very first sight that greets me is asleep homeless man with one shoe. Suddenly I did not feel like photographing the glamorous people any more. I took this one photograph and went back to the office.

Jacaranda bloom and St Andrew’s Cathedral

I had some quick sushi for lunch today next to the Town Hall. As always looking around trying to spot interesting people. What drew my attention however, was not people but a beautifully blooming Jacaranda tree with St Andrew’s Cathedral in the background. I focused closely in order to eliminate all the surrounding buildings and people and just to emphasise how pretty this scene was.

Stretch

Have you ever seen a Kawasaki bicycle? Well, I for one never did, so when I noticed this girl approaching the pedestrian crossing on this odd size and shape bicycle with Kawasaki branding I decided to take a photo of it. However, by the time I raised the camera to my eye my interest in the bicycle has quickly shifted to its owner, a young girl, who out of nowhere decided to have this huge stretch right in front of me. So, here is a photograph, which started as a bicycle curiosity and ended up with a human behaviour.

Rower

I photographed this rower setting up for a morning training session at Gosford waterfront near Gosford Sailing Club. The weather was rather gloomy and thus with low light conditions I decided to present this capture using split toning technique. Split toning uses two colours: one for highlights and one for shadows. This way the photographs get this unusual duo tone effect and yet they preserve some of the original colours. I have also reduced the contrast in this photograph to show how a kayak blends with the surrounding water.

Red Cross Volunteer

This photograph of a very young and overly enthusiastic Red Cross volunteer just shows how unexpected human behaviour can be. Today, I have come across two very extroverted women. They were both what I call “characters”. Dressed to be noticed, and yet when I approached them they declined to be photographed. This young man on another hand gave me no option but to be photographed. And yet, charity volunteers usually tend to be shy of the camera.

There is one more interesting part to this photograph. I just reached for the camera and was pulling it out of my backpack when this young man spotted it and started to pose. I did not raise the camera to my eye just pointed it roughly in his direction and let the Canon magic happen.

I need to at this point mention that I owe one of the most controversial cameras Canon has released in recent years: the much discussed Canon EOS 1D Mark III. Some people experienced serious issues with it and for me it works perfectly every time in any situations. My experience is not unique as shown by Freakscore of 9,4 out of 10. The Test Freaks score has a particular comperative meaning as it represents combined value of 53 expert reviews, 181 user reviews, 37 forum threads from 164 sources in 24 countries. Another words it is not a single point of view of one reviewer as is often the case.

Runner

A simple photograph of a man running through Sydney during lunchtime. He has his shirt off as the non-seasonal weather brought 30+C temperature on the day.