Messiah

ok looks like we only have 2 so far for next weekend. If theres no more than that by wednesday it might be worth moving 2 weeks or so to give people notice.

dont worry about not being free this w/e, i'm not either. I'm hoping that the pass remains closed until later tho... i'd hate to have to go and cause a rock fall myself just to be able to use it again

nice pics Zennon, keep up the good work.

If you tweak the settings yourself in the tonemapping it makes a huge difference. I dont think a human could mask and mix the varyinh light levels in really complex shots... but that said... i havent tried.

Photomatix here too, and pretty much the same procedure, but i use a nikon that can only to 1 stop max, so take 5 shots from -2 to +2 and use 3 to 5 depending on the shot. check out www.stuckincustoms.com for the best free tutorial i've found. what went wrong with photomatix?? a few things can go wrong with the whole process... but the photomatix part is the easy bit, its post processing that really makes it look good tho. if you are shooting a moving subject(s) you will end up with ghosts. To fix this, use apeture priority mode and bump up the fstop to f22 or something. That will make the smudge in the later shots less obvious. Then you need to mask in the moving object from the shot you want in ps. so adjust the raw file to the right properties then layer align and mask reveal.

That sounds cool, but i have no idea about places and routes through the mountains. i'm happy to do it but i'd need someone like yourself to plan out the mountains part of where and when. I looked for Mitchell's pass on google maps without much luck. Whichever route we dont do this time, i'm happy to do a week or so after.

not used to the terminology, but i assume that by 1/2 ND's your referring to the filters??? fun thing is, if you do HDR, it automatically turns any gray sky into the coming of the apocalypse, i usually have to do shop pschopping to make it looks less ominous.

I live just up the road from Nagoya, give me a shout if you need a set of eyes on it. i'll take my camera along if need be. As a side note, bought my v35 from D'mitry at Nagoya (his own car not the shops). They're good lads, they take good care of things there.

Fair call... i haven't had to manage a large number people in photo's before... so lets make it 10.... uurmmm first 10 to confirm their good for next w/e starting from now??? any cars welcome... and if anyone just wants to tag along with welcome too.

anyway back on topic... Goldzilla, your right, clouds and storms can make a picture look a special, i just get grumpy when i take shots on a grey day and theres nothing to really make the paint shine. But rain can be great at times... more reflections 08r, if it turns into a full on cruise thats fine, i'll just concentrate on getting pictures of the current mob first and foremost. So yeah quality over quantity. First 10-15 people get priority. Anyone else who wants to tag along is welcome. Ok palmie to the city via McCarrs works for me, i want to make sure some of the trip is on multi lane tho so i can drive up beside you all. Hopefully the car park at Barrenjoey (or however its spelt) is emptyish. So unless anyone has any objections, shall we say next weekend (20th) first 10-15 people in get priority?? If we get less that 5 people or the weather looks crap then we can look at moving it. guess its just a case of figuring out the route and places to stop off.

heh, yeah i didnt notice that... make me wondering if thats just gonna insult the cops more now... Ahm gonna make ya squeal like a cop boy!!!

well... forcast for this weekend looks crap... cloud and storms, a little sun would be nice me thinks... so i'm thinking maybe next w/e assuming its looking clear-ish. Also route wise... what do people think. Palmy to the city. mountains to the city.... south to the city??? any others?

Mine are a bit big to post in or upload... but heres a link to all the interesting ones i;ve done so far... http://www.flickr.com/photos/justplainnift...57623405724992/

A few of you seem interested in being my guinea cops and getting some free pics out of letting my take photo's of their cars, but i havent been able to do much to make this happen yet. To fix this i'm proposing a photoshoot cruise, for anyone who wants their cars photographed, or wants to take photographs of cars. I havent been on a cruise for a long time, so i'm not sure on the exact route but i've got a few ideas and any suggestions would be welcome. My general plan is to start somewhere naturally scenic in the afternoon, say near the water somewhere or up in the mountains. As the light fails start heading towards the city to grab some night shots and take advantage of the artificial lighting, grabbing some in-motion shots as we go. As for when, dont know, majority rules really, but i'd say that a weekend would give us all more chance to go where we want when we want, although i'm not sure what the rozza's are like near the city now. Who's up?

Boulders on a public road would look pretty damn cool, where is mitchell's pass anyway?? Ok so far i haven't had chance to go exploring with the camera yet for good locations (i might go for a cruise looking for some on the weekend). But hows this for suite people for size... If you have a car and some locations in mind, shoot me a PM and tell me when you're free/when you'd like to do it, odds are i'll have no problems accomodating you (just not valentines day people... i value my life). Otherwise, for those who have no idea where to shoot (like me at the moment) i have a cunning plan. I'm thinking of maybe doing a cruise with the sole purpose of grabbing some shots. Start somewhere scenic and pretty in the afternoon to catch the nice light on the nice background (eg, the beaches or mountains), but then heading towards somewhere a bit more man made as night falls to make the most of city lights and reflections (rocks, Harry's, bondi any nice big car park with lots of different light sources etc etc). No idea when to do this... i'll leave that up to the majority.

Not nessecerily... as this lad shows.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/justplainnifty/4342492884/ Here are two of the HDR'd shots from the weekend. Please note that while not bad, i'm not blown away by these as the over cast weather and plain surroundings didnt really do much to highlight the cars good points... I better conditions i think i could make them look much better. http://www.flickr.com/photos/justplainnifty/4340670350/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/justplainnifty/4339924583/

...edited.... sau hiccup'd

No problems at all mate, give me a shout when ready. On a side note, i took some pics at the driving sports drift day at EC on the weekend. bit miffed with some of them as overcast days tend to make the shots look all emo and sulky while washing the colours out. I'll post them as soon as i've passed them on to the person who asked for them.

email sent.

Fair enough, photo packages for the low low price of $free But to be serious if people are wondering about that aspect, my normal approach is free for any non-comercial use. I'll happily give copies of all photo's to the owners of any cars i snap, although i'll have to figure out how as raw files are kinda big (i get 75 shots per 2gb memory card) and it takes me roughly 5 exposures per shot. When it comes to comercial use (either by me or by the subject of the photo) lets say by agreement between both parties and giving credit to both. The way i see it i'll never use a photo i take of any of you for any commercial purpose, without your permission or without giving credit to you as owners of the cars in question. But if anyone feels obliged to make an exchange, purely voluntary donations wont be rejected.

yeah i'm in for whatever day.

Nice! looks like my works cut out for me. Well i'm doing a bit of research on what people have done already and where the nice locations are around Sydney. With a little luck in no time at all i'll be able to match cars and the kind of shots people want to the locations that can deliver them. In the mean time i'm more than happy to go to any elected location(s) and snap away. And I dont mind having repeat across different days to get someone the exact shot they want, in the long run it'll only help me gain more experience and ideas. So to all of you who have replied. Lets go nuts, shoot me pm's letting me know when and where, or if you dont know just with an idea of what you'd like (if you have something in mind) and we'll get cracking. I'm available most weekends, i live in the shire now but i have family out in the hills so i can travel to pretty much any location with no complaints. I'll try and keep track of any cruises coming up and tag along to them aswell to try and grab any lucky randoms.

well i live in the south of syd so heading down that way isnt out of the question. I'll have a look at the blow hole sometime, even if there isnt a car involved.

Ok this is a slight double post from the photography section, but i posted it here and its really the sydney crew i want to post to. I've been getting into photography for a while and i'm looking for some more opportunities to do some shoot. So far i've mainly done landscape shots however i'm looking to do something a little more interesting. A majority of my stuff is HDR so it really can result in some beautiful shots if done right, but can be a little bland if shot in full sunlight or midday overcast. For an example of my small (but growing) collection, see here http://www.flickr.com.au/photos/justplainnifty Anyway, if your interested in having a few (more) shots of your car, i'd be interested in obliging. I have to admit i dont know the great locations in sydney, so i'm happy to go where requested. Give me a shout if your interested. Simon

I thought Nissan revised a few of the ancillaries with each revision of the GTR. One that springs to mind is the bearing to the oil pump, if i recall correctly, the bearing (or something) is too small on the 32 and is prone to screwing up and causing oil supply issues. That said was a while ago that i read that... so i could be wrong.