Thanks, Anne, for inviting me to share a little about myself with other QCG members.
My natural inclination is to stay under a bush and let my images and activities speak on my behalf, rather that write this self-blog which, metaphorically speaking, feels a bit like being asked to stand on a table at a QCG meeting and open my kimono (don’t over think that …). Anyhow, let’s crack on and see how it goes.
Pet's Name. Jenny and I have had pets for almost all of our 50 married years, generally cats with occasionally a dog in the mix. Apart from the four years we lived in the USA where we had just barn cats, we have usually had Siamese, Tonkinese and Burmese, often two out of these three at a time. Our current boss is a Burmese, ‘Tartufi’ (Italian adjective for truffles as she is little, brown and often hard to find); we are fortunate in that early on, she let us know that we would be acceptable staff members of her management team!
Tartufi
And that is not counting the horses that have also been a constant feature of our life together (do horses count as pets …. they are certainly tamed animals that have also been companions). Currently we have only one, ‘Avril’, a Hanoverian/Thoroughbred mare that Jenny still rides almost daily for dressage training.
Avril, ridden by Jenny Shorter
What gear do you shoot with? I started out as a teenager with a Praktica SLR, then successively a Minolta SLR, several Olympus SLR’s (OM1 & 2), back to a Minolta, then for a while just several simple Canon point & shoots digitals, before going more seriously digital with a cropped sensor Nikon D300.
Currently my main camera is an ageing full frame Nikon D800 that probably still knows more about photography than I do. It’s complemented by the few lenses that I still have left: Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8, Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 and Nikkor 24mm f/3.5 PC-E (tilt shift). I have had other Nikkor lenses that I either sold (Nikkor 105mm macro, Nikkor 70-200 tele) or ‘damaged’ (a fantastic Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8 wide angle that I dropped down a gorge in Karijini National Park last year … note to self: zip up your camera bag before pulling it onto your back!).
This kit is complemented by a compact fixed lens Sony RX 100 Mk 3 camera, several Nikon Speedlights, several PocketWizard remote triggers, several Formatt-HiTech neutral density filters, a Gitzo carbon fibre tripod, some Kenko extension tubes and a Really Right Stuff L-bracket.
Because of my youthful three score + ten + more years, I’m looking to move to a lighter Nikon mirrorless system (maybe the upcoming Z8) when my super fund recovers some of its lost value!
Preferred genre/style of photography. Starting with photographing family holidays when growing up, I gravitated to landscape photography as opportunities arose during and after high school. Those were the days of colour slides, so ‘exhibiting’ them was mainly to family and friends. Magazines gave me pointers on photographic technique, lighting and colour (in the pre-internet age).
While at UQ doing my Master’s degree in the early’70s, my lab was opposite the Department’s darkroom … I was able to convince the darkroom manager to let me use the darkroom on weekends, so that started my lifelong journey into black & white photography. To save money, I bought my film in bulk and rolled my own cassettes. After shooting whatever I could in and around Brisbane, I would develop my film and then print the better shots (using my own chemicals and paper). It was always exciting to see the image come to life on the paper in the developer trays … and it started me on the journey of image manipulation with dodging and burning etc and some fun experimentation with stuff like quasi bas relief (high contrast prints with restricted tonal range – mainly blacks and whites with minimal greys). Weekend trips to the Department were also handy as I was brewing my own beer in 10L vats (labelled as “Experiment in Progress – Don’t Touch”) in a constant temperature room down the hall in order to save money as a newly married post-grad student. So, I was able to bottle off a few dozen bottles (often with my dad coming in to help) while my film strips were drying, away from the prying eyes (and mouths) of other staff and students!
After my Master’s degree, and having survived the first couple of years of married life, Jenny and I sailed off to the United States at the end of ‘72, on the P&O liner Arcadia, where I would undertake my PhD degree (In ’72 I had managed to snag the one annual P&O scholarship for a free return passage for a student travelling to the US for post-grad study). Prior to this, our biggest overseas trip had been across the Hornibrook Highway to Redcliffe, so this was an exciting adventure for two young people with no money! I’ll never forget the morning we arrived in the US, sailing into San Francisco bay just after dawn, under the Golden Gate Bridge with sunlight streaming through the fog shrouding the upper pylons … I think this firmed up my desire to be better at landscape photography.
These days I still enjoy taking visually appealing landscape images, but increasingly I am trying to take and process digital images that are a bit different from the multitude that are out there on the internet … different perspectives, angles of view, light, simplicity and a strong subject … such as this aerial shot from above Lake Eyre taken last year …
Aerial shot, Lake Eyre by Ray Shorter
…and Neist Point lighthouse on the Isle of Skye …
Neist Point lighthouse, Isle of Skye, photographed by Ray Shorter
These days I continue to enjoy black & white landscape photography, and also architectural images that are a bit different and that, hopefully, have more impact, e.g. “Twisted Torso”, the Cayan Tower in Dubai …
Twisted Torso by Ray Shorter
Best holiday you ever had. A difficult one as there have been so many: annual ski trips to Colorado for the past couple of decades, trips to south west USA and the Yukon, and to quite a few countries in Europe … Two safari trips to Kenya and Tanzania in 2012 and 2014 provided some exceptional opportunities for wildlife photography:
Stunning wildlife: image by Ray Shorter
For the past 15 years, I have also enjoyed, as somewhat of an introvert, 4WD camping holidays in outback Australia, which have provided plenty of landscape photography opportunities. Here are a lot of the sometimes quite remote tracks I have travelled over:
Favourite song. Even though I have as much musical talent as a plank of wood, I do enjoy listening to classical music as I find it relaxing and calming as we (in normal times) move through our busy lives. I particularly enjoy listening to 4MBS Classic FM 103.7 where QCG member Margaret Whyte hosts various programs.
Favourite restaurant. For a casual lunch, Jenny and I enjoy going to The Flying Nun Café in nearby Samford. A favourite Italian restaurant, near where our son lives at Newstead, is Beccofino. Having to been to France on holiday five times over the last 20 years, we enjoy French cuisine and our latest place is La Cache a Vin (Thierry Galichet is our favourite French chef in Brisbane).
Favourite image by another QCG member. I really enjoy the quite different photography of Ross Miles … particularly those taken while he is waving his camera around at fireworks or capturing movement, e.g. at horse trials or bike riders in the city. Ross has the ability to look and find unique scenes even in mundane locations. He has been an inspiration to me.
Favourite image made by myself. Not sure it is my all-time favourite, but one of my most memorable as it was the first that won a major prize ($3000) – worldwide Amateur category winner of the 2013 International Loupe Awards …
What am I doing during the Covid-19 crisis? For a long time, I have considered taking photos and post-processing them either in the darkroom or now on the computer as two parts of a continuous whole, aiming to produce images with visual impact that evoke some emotional response in viewers. Increasingly over the past few years I have been trying to find ways to produce images that are a little different and a bit more creative. As a left-brain logical scientist, it has been an interesting challenge to try to develop some right-brain creativity. As an artist, Jenny has been particularly helpful. So, during these times of social isolation, I’m trying to improve my post-processing Photoshop skills and image creation by watching webinars, doing on-line courses, looking at art by famous painters and well-known photographers and practising on my own images. Here is one from last week: "Windmills of My Mind - I" .... after a long day driving in outback Oz .... through the Great Victoria Desert along the Connie Sue 'Highway' ... with aerial visions of Shark Bay appearing in the third eye ....
Windmills of My Mind - I by Ray Shorter
Ray Shorter’s ‘Cave’
To see a bit more of my work, I invite you to cruise over to my website (which I’ll be updating soon to include my photography projects over the past few years, including two from 2020 where the exhibitions have been postponed): www.shortershots.com.au.