Sweet Nothings

Shall We Sashay To The Sachet?

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This shot was taken while I was eating lunch at the High Country Inn in Whitehorse, literally a few minutes after I completed a journey of more than 24 hours since I walked out of my own front door in Melbourne.

These sachets in front of me on the table caught my eye because of the range of colours and the strong, easily definable lines and individual angles and kinks of their respective edges.

I had two cameras in my shoulder bag, but I opted for my Pentax K100D because it had my favourite lens, the versatile 18-125mm Sigma lens on it. I only took one shot and later, when I looked at my images on my laptop that night, I was quite gratified with the clarity of the result.

What you're looking at here is simply a scaled-down, low-resolution version of the original, but on the high-res shot you can actually see the little details on the corner of the sachets. I was very pleased with this result, because it looks as though I've used a macro lens instead.

I guess I was lucky because the light was fairly good. But if you're keen on the details, I shot this at F8 and 1/90 of a second.

I guess this is also the best place to answer a question I got asked on Friday - how many shots do I take before I'm satisfied with an image? The answer to that is very simple. I shoot on instinct, just as I write my novels. So if I'm satisfied with the first shot, I don't hit the shutter a second time.

If I'm shooting a landscape and it's a wide vista and the light is changing, I'll shoot between two and four frames or more if the situation demands. I'll shoot half a dozen if I am trying to capture a scene from several angles.

But I am drawn to these unusual shots of everyday objects and maybe - just maybe - it says something about my approach to photography, because they are generally the result of a single frame.

(The Odd Shots concept came from Katney. Say "G'day" to her.)

Lager Than Life

Thirst Among Equals

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Doesn't this look like some ingenious bloke has put a set of wheels on a crate of beer? Mate, if ever they did that, it would be a major marketing bonanza in this sunburnt country, where blokes are thirsty all the time.

Can you figure out what this photograph really shows? While you're racking your brain, I'll just reveal that I only had time to swing my camera up and fire off a single frame before the sight disappeared. Does that give you a clue?

Okay, here's your answer. It's a Tiger beer ad, on the side of a Singapore bus. I shot this during my 36-hour stopover in Singapore three months ago. I had just photographed something else when I saw the bus, a fraction of a second too late.

But I had the 18-125mm Sigma lens on the camera, which was perfect for what I wanted to do. So I lined up the shot, composed a really tight frame and just had enough time to hit the trigger once. The focal length of this shot was 78 mm and the frame wasn't 100 per cent accurate, but as you never, I never alter my shots in any way, so here it is - exactly as I saw it.

(The Odd Shots concept came from Katney. Say "G'day" to her.)