I very much enjoy featuring images sent to me by my friends on Madang - Ples Bilong Mi.  Unfortunately, few friends send me samples of their work. I’m pestering a few of them to do so, but shyness seems to interfere. If you are a regular reader of this journal and you have images that you think will be appreciated by our audience, then please feel free to email them to me. Work them over until you are happy with them and send 1600 pixel (longest dimension) JPG images that are between 200 and 300 Kilobytes. Include some text describing the images and I will include that also. I’ve featured Trevor Hattersley’s images before here and here. Heidi Majano has also had a guest appearance.

Don’t be shy. Have a try.

We’ll start with a couple of shots from Trevor Hattersley. He’s been a keen amateur as long as I’ve known him, probably about twenty years. He recently purchased from me a spare (ordered two by mistake from Amazon) Olympus SP-590UZ superzoom camera and has been diligently learning to use it feature-by-feature. Up at Blueblood a couple of weeks ago he was playing with macro shots and came up with two very nice fungi:This one of Bracket Fungi has very accurate colours, perfect focus and nice composition. A shot that anyone should be proud to display.

Here’s another fungi shot by Trevor:Again, we have interesting and accurate colours, good composition, fine focus (click to enlarge) and a generally interesting and aesthetic image. Well done, mate! I was happy to see that Trevor resisted the urge to use flash on these shots. They are very natural looking – just the way that your eyes see them.

Now let’s move to another friend a world away. Ron Barrons hails from Hamilton, Ontario in Canada. He’s a very experienced and knowledgeable photographer with a good pair of hiking boots. Since Hamilton is the Waterfall Capital of the World, it’s not surprising that Ron has a plethora of beautiful images of water tumbling over rocks. The Niagara Escarpment is responsible for this cornucopia of waterfalls, something for which local photographers are eternally grateful.

Here is a beautiful shot of Grindstone Falls:

This one is of the cascade below the falls:Ron has the “silky water” technique down pat. This requires a tripod, a neutral density filter to cut down the amount of light coming in through the lens, and long exposure times. The result is that the water takes on a very fluid and smooth look which intensifies the appearance of flow. You can see some of my Hamilton Waterfalls and our adventures in waterfall country here, here and here.

Ron is not a one-trick-pony. He sent several gorgeous Canadian Autumn shots taken from the heights around the Niagara Escarpment. This one is a beaut:

Here is another, looking up at the escarpment itself:

I could not resist the urge to try making a watercolour of one of Ron’s beautiful shots. This one is of Rattlesnake Ridge:You will need to click to enlarge to see the full watercolour effect. Ron was kind enough to allow me to modify his work and publish it here.

I know that many of my readers must be serious hobby photographers. Please send me images that move you and allow me to showcase your work here.

I’m not fooling around. I mean it.

Cute little short posts aren’t my style, but I must show you this shot taken yesterday by our friend Ron Barrons while we were out waterfall hunting. Ron and Eunie remarked to me (more like a complaint) that they wished that I’d stay on the paths. I didn’t know why they were so concerned until I saw this:I’m standing a half metre from a fifty metre drop striaght down. I was being careful, because I’m not a complete idiot. Also it didn’t seem nearly as scary to me as it did to Ron and Eunie. I did remind myself several times that if my tripod and camera went tumbling over the edge, it would not be wise to grab for it.

At one point I heard Ron remarking rather too loudly that some kid had been snatched up out of the bottom after he jumped to catch a frisbee. I though to myself, “Hey, I’m not that stupid.”

Or am I?

We finally got a day when it was warm enough to go outside without my fingers locking up. We borrowed our son’s car and headed off with our friend Ron, a walking encyclopaedia concerning the Hamilton area, and went off in search of a few of Hamilton’s approximately 100 waterfalls.

The first one that we hit was Webster’s Falls:

Surprisingly, it’s not easy to get into a good position to photograph many of the falls. That is because the surrounding areas have not been decimated for the sake of the convenience of visitors. Most of the ones we visited required only modest hiking to see them, but getting into an ideal position for photography was not so easy. Finally, I was warned by Eunie and Ron to stay on the paths, because I was making them nervous.

I didn’t record the name of this one. I think I’ll call it “Hairy Dog Falls”:

You may wonder why the water looks silky. I used a common technique for slowing the shutter speed to more than two seconds so that the moving water looks blurred while the surrounding detail remains sharp. It involves shooting through a dark grey bit of glass, called a neutral density filter, to cut down the amount of light going through the lens. Since there is less light, the shutter of the camera must be held open for a longer time, therefore the moving water streams and drops blend into a smooth, pleasing veil. Of course, that’s not how waterfalls really look, but it is an interesting effect.

Here is Tew’s Falls, the one that I like best:

Sherman Falls is also very pretty:Grindstone falls is difficult to get close to without getting your feet wet. I didn’t want to soak my new boots, so I settled for this long shot up the little cascade:I think that I’ll pass on the rest of the hundred waterfalls. We’re leaving in a few days and I haven’t seen the Botanical Gardens nor the Royal Ontairo Museum yet.