Belated Update

I actually don't use the blog any more, but since I still have my google account and I post comments on blogger.com blogs, there's every chance people will be linked back to here.

So for future record, for all of you that care, my blog is now

www.lukecottle.com/blog

Teddy Bear WIP

Yet another work in progress. This is a smaller scene, so should be finished quicker - maybe by tomorrow? who knows.

Either way - here it is so far.

Turbine Hall WIP III

Just posting an update to my turbine hall that I'm modelling. More so I can link to the image on the threedy.com forums.

Killed the stars

Well Tim and I headed out to try our hand at some star trails. Wasn't a huge success, but we learned a bit for next time.

Things to note for next time:

• The more distance from the city the better. We were way out at Samford, but the light polution from the sky was still too bright.
  
• Gotta face South to get the circle of stars.
  
• More photos, shorter exposures. I did 6 photos at 10 minutes each with 20 seconds gap in between to let the sensor cool down, though even with the cool down time I still had a fair bit of noise in my shots. Will try 5 minutes on and 20 seconds off next time
• Higher ground is better. We were near a creek and it filled up with fog which meant I was wiping my lens a fair bit to get the condensation off. Bad move, I bumped the lens so many times - as painfully obvious in the final shot.
  
• Don't leave the car sticking out into the road.... despite how much one would think there would be no cars out there at that time of nite.. there is.
  
• Take something entertaining to do cus you'll be standing around for ages.
  
• Don't drink lots of water, makes you want to piss alot
• And finally, find a more interesting foreground. I darkened my foreground in this shot just cus it was really blurry from being bumped so many times, but it wasn't exactly interesting.

So.. the image. Looks like crap - but you live and you learn.

News I

And in camera news.. again.. my filters are slowly arriving :D. I bought myself a Cokin graduated Tobaco filter - good for sunrises which I seem to be doing alot of. Just have to hope I can find the damn filter, wherever the hell I put it. I also ordered myself an ND 0.9 filter (8) aswell - so I can start playing with long exposures in lighter environments.

Both these filters are something I've been wanting to play with for a long time, and I figured now that Im getting out and taking photos more often, now is as good a time as any.

I got the nagging feeling in the back of my brain that I ordered something else - or that I'm expecting another package but don't remember. Well I guess it is 2:30am and I did just get home from work, so not all is in order up top right now.

I've been finding myself lately doing more and more photography when I'm wanting to build my 3D folio. My project of choice is my factory (well its actually a turbine hall) that I've been working on and I'm hoping for that to be my first finished project. Its just hard when there is so little time to work on it. Maybe it'll be done in 2-3 weeks.. maybe.

Anyway, back to photography. Tim dragged me out after work at midnight down to the local carpark to try some photos he's seen. Basically the idea is to trace the outline of a car during a long exposure with sparklers (a good example is here) - and what a great failure it was.

In all its butchered glory.. I still kinda like it (click to see bigger view)

Good thing I didn't burn my car for this shot.

Reservoir Sunset

The colours were beautiful, the mozzies, were not. I'm suprised I haven't been out there more often since its only a 2 minute drive away.

Not sure if I like this shot, its slowly growing on me. Haven't decided if its dA worthy yet.


I know its simple, but i'm a huge fan of colour gradients during sunsets. Looks so pretty hehe. Was thinking maybe this image could be a bit thinner.

Factory WIP II

Time to do an update on some of my 3D work. I've decided I want to hurry up and get this piece finished (though I think it'll still take a while, texturing will be interesting .. ugh).

I'm basing this model on a turbine hall of the old and abandoned Yonkers power station in the Hudson Valley in New York State in the US (So google tells me anyway).

God I got a long way to go on this.. ugh