Abandoned: Woodman Point Munitions Facility

Woodman Point Munitions Facility was a munition dump about 20km south of Perth, which (presumably) opened during World War Two and was decommissioned in the 1980’s.  After being closed down, it was designated Australia’s smallest National Park because of Rottnest Pines growing in the area. [source]
I've never been to a National Park surrounded by a barbwire fence before, but there are few buildings left that look like they could be blown over by a stiff breeze; maybe the fence is there is save dimwits from themselves.

It’s quite a large facility, so large in fact that it necessitated its own railway. Besides from the few buildings left, the area is full of munition bunkers; some of which are nearly invisible in the thick scrub. 

End of the line.

This helmet was padlocked to a pole, left as a memorial possibly. There was a laminated piece of paper attached to it also that simply said "Truly".

Looks like the stiff breeze already got to this building.

Devil's Wine

Let's just ignore the fact that I haven't posted anything in three months and concentrate on the fact that this is the second 3D post in a row! Hooray!
What's even more exciting is that I'll be putting together a 3D portfolio soon to maybe submit to 3D houses in Perth. That's interesting to note because getting a job in 3D was the original idea behind this blog, way back when I was still in highschool. Getting a job even at a supermarket was hard at that point, so I turned this into a development blog instead.

This image was a great learning render, as I taught myself the fundamentals of the Vray camera DoF and volumetric lighting; both things you need to use to create realistic renders. It will be interesting to see what the new year brings!

Simons

It's been way too long since I posted some 3D.
It's been an ocean of photography with some R/C posts sprinkled on top, which I guess is what I'm really into these days. I doubt 3D will ever be something I stop participating in though, as it's still on the frontier as a job. One day, at least. 

The render is based off this photograph, and is probably the most time-intensive image I've created to date. Clocking in at just under 12 hours, it truly beats everything else by miles. As well as testing my lighting techniques, I got a kick up the bum as far as car modelling goes. The Ford there is really the first car I've ever modelled, and I feel I did all right.  

Exposure Shot of Perth's Eastern Suburbs and the CBD

Oh yeah! Did I mention that I bought a new camera? I probably should, it's fairly important to this blog, I guess.
I've just jumped from my oh-so-humble Canon EOS 1100D, to an EOS 7D. While this is more or less an upgrade for video purposes (refer to my YouTube for more of that) there are a lot of changes that help me immensely with photography. Improvements include a better processor (which helps with ISO), increased shutter speed, increased shots it can take per second, a hell of a lot more AF Points, integrated sensor cleaning, a digital leveller (which is great for exposures) and the jump from 12.0 MP to 18.0 MP will not hurt anybody.

Sadly, it uses a different port for the shutter release than my old camera, so I had to wait ages as I new one was shipped to me. As soon as I received it though, and there was a clear night (Winter has just finished here in Australia) I travelled to a nearby lookout that I had been planning to go to for a while. This is the result:

This shot is looking from the edge of the Perth hills, over the eastern suburbs. Those skyscrapers in the distance form the Perth CBD. It's a 60 second exposure, with an aperture of f/9.0 and ISO200.
Stay tuned as Australia rolls into the Spring and Summer months, which I lovingly refer to as 'exposure months', where I'll showcase more images like these.

Quadcopter Crash (On Film!)

It's been a while since I posted about anything R/C related, so how about a video of me totalling a quadcopter? Yes? Okay!
Eventually I'll be going the Hobby King route and putting some serious money into a quadcopter so I can film in 1080p with my action-cam, but first I decided it would be wise to buy a smaller pre-made set-up to get me started. Just as well I did too, because believe it or not, this is the second time I've crashed and smashed this quad.

First time, I drove all the way to the other side of Perth to beg some hobby store owners to sell me a leg off an existing quad. For some reason they did, which was great for me, but not so great for them as now they have a quadcopter that only has three legs. I doubt they would do it again, and I'm not too keen to drive all the way out there to try. Luckily though, at the same time I bought the leg, I bought a camera especially made for the quad. My current action-cam is way too heavy for it unfortunately, but the current camera only cost $30 and I'm actually really impressed with the results it outputs. It's not HD or anything, but it's good enough.

   
Skip to 2:10 if you just want to see the crash, the rest of the video is mostly me preforming barrel-rolls and crashing it in other various ways (but not enough to break it). The actual crash its self was a doozy though, it must of been a good 50 or 60 meters in the air when I lost control.

First time it crashed I tried to glue the frame back together with Araldite. This actually kept it together enough to fly, but as soon as it landed, the (light) impact snapped it off again.
This time around, I'm giving silicone sealant a go. If it's good enough for roofing and concrete, hopefully it will be good enough for a $90 quadcopter reping a plastic frame. I guess we'll see how we go.

Melbourne on Film

Not too long ago, I posted about being in Melbourne which included general good times with photography. Also in that post, I mentioned that I also shot a roll of film.
The other day I finally got around to getting it developed in a chemist that's quite close to me. It's great that I now know of a local photo-place, as before I was getting my shots developed in the city while I was at TAFE.

For these photos, I was using my Trip 35. Refer to an article I wrote on my other blog if you want to learn more about that amazing camera, otherwise, enjoy.

2013 Catch-Up: Abandoned Photography

The last 2013 Catch-Up post... I promise. It's not all that terrible though, it's only July. If anything, I'm 5 months ahead of schedule! YEAAAAH-WOOOOO well done, me! *pats self on back*

Way back in February when I posted the second 2013 Catch-Up post (photography) I said (among other things) that there would be a post dedicated to abandoned photography. Unfortunately it isn't anywhere new;  what you're about to see is the same farm house from last June, but instead this time I had my DSLR.

I shot these all the way back in November, so my metering could of been a bit better. But hey, what ya going to do? It was months ago and does not reflect my current skills. Either way, it's way better than a Pentax point and shoot.

Surprisingly, no one is yet to claim that fridge.

I still no idea as to what this means. Like I said in the original post; if you have any idea, please feel free to drop a line. 

For more photos of a different abandoned farm house, take a look at these: Abandoned Farm