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OK guys, in line with the custom around these parts, I'm putting up these photos for your perusal. Before I do, I guess I had better explain I usually shoot with a Canon 20D and will shoot most things. Macro, plants, insects, candid portraits anything really. What I won't be showing you is any landscapes as I don't possess the right lense for this so the ones I have suck badly! Also, not knowing where we stand on Photoshopped images in this section, these are all as they came straight from the camera. Normally I would just tweak some levels and maybe unsharp mask but these are all virgin shots.

Right the photos:



Photo 1; An orchid flower with really cool tessallations and great colour.



Photo 2; The regulator on a working watch movemnt. I used a near dead battery in a dolphin torch to get this soft lighting.



Photo 3; Army EOD tech moving an expended 500lb bomb case.



Photo 4; Army members at a flare burn. Hard to photograph as these flares put out close to a million candlepower. Really stuffs with the light readings

Well there you go, hook in, all comments welcome.

Welcome Wheels, really like your watch movement, especially how you picked up the different colours of the metals. The fourth has quite some impact as well, though I can see the dynamic range issues you face. No problem with post processing here at all, only in our challenges do we sometimes have restrictions but these are usually outlined. Looking forward to seeing more of your work

Welcome.

Cool and interesting set of pics, mate.

Lovin' the colours in #1. They look great OOC.

Hi - welcome to the forum
Great series of shots - can't wait to see more.
Had a look at your exif data, and you range from 70 to 200 - no reason why you can't get landscapes
Hugs
Rel

Welcome and with such a beautiful assortment of pics. My only comment, other than they are a great set, would be to crop down from the top on the third pic to make it more of a pano

Great shots wheels, and quite a variety.

Just as a matter of interest, what is a flare burn? Are they testing flares or disposing of out of date flares or what?

cheers and welcome

Thanks for the comments so far guys. Ref photoshopped images, duly noted. I'll feel a bit more comfortable posting my 'improved' images now that I know that. Rel, I'm not real happy with what I get from 70mm as far landscapes go. Not really wide enough for what I'm looking for. I do have a kit lense that I use for landscapes but not real happy with that either, hence the thread under Equipment where I'm getting some good advice re a wide lense.
Greg, a flare burn is used to dispose of these types of flares on the ground. They are parachute flares usually deployed from an aircraft by hooking the cable on the back of them to a fixed cable just inside the back ramp of Hercs or Caribou's and throwing them out of the back or side door. This deploys the parachute and the sudden deceleration (sp?) starts the flare burning. If they fail to function they will hit the ground and still require disposal. There are a couple of ways to do this. One way is to strap a thermite grenade to it and let rip. This will start the flare no issues at all. A less stores intensive way is to drive a stake in next to the flare, strap it to the stake (wire or big zip tie) and using a couple of light guys (or one heavy bloke ) yank on the chute until it starts. If that doesn't work - break out the thermites!! This photo was taken during training so there is basically one flare for each student. I have a longer range shot I took showing all the flares burning at once. I'll post that tonight when I get a chance so you can see them all.
Cheers

As promised, the long flare photo

Is this on Holsworthy range? I thought it might have been charge bags from the first pic. Whats the go with the 500lb bomb? Why is there so much left of the casing?

Nice images. I agree about the watch image, love the colours in the metal.

Oh, an welcome aboard!

Nah Ras these photos were taken at Pucka. The majority of the bomb cse is still there because of a deflagration rather than a detonation. Happens when there is a break in the explosive train. You end up with large chunks of HE and bomb left laying around.