17.06.12, Week 44: Archive 10

This is another shot from my gap year travels. It was taken three weeks after the previous post, by which point we had travelled from Melbourne to Sydney, where we stayed with some of my girlfriend’s family, and begun our journey north to Cairns in a hired campervan. I took the photograph at the BIG4 campsite at Emerald Beach, a place that had been recommended to us by some friends. We had just arrived at the campsite and were getting out of the van to go and check in when we saw this Kangaroo less than ten metres away from where we were standing. Being tourists, both my girlfriend and I did the expected ‘oh my god, it’s a kangaroo’ and I proceeded to take far too many pictures of the poor creature. It was only about half way through the tirade of shutter releases that I realised there was a joey in the kangaroo’s pouch; this discovery served only to only encourage mine and my girlfriend’s fascination.

I’m actually really pleased with the result of my paparazzi style snapping. The variation of textures throughout the frame is excellent: the ruffled nature of the fur, the coarseness of the grass, and even the feather shaped ferns in the background. I like the way that both the mother and her joey and facing the same direction in the image, it draws the viewer’s eyes from the joey, which is the main subject of the image, to the mother’s face. The positioning of their heads is also good because they are both around a third of the way from the edge of the frame which suits the rule of thirds.

My only slight scruple with the image is that the light doesn’t fall on the mother’s face due to the rest of her body impeding its path. However, if she wasn’t stood in that position, many of the aspects of the image that I am pleased with would no longer be apparent. It might also prevent the joey’s head from being the focus of the image, which is what I was trying to achieve. It’s always a trade off when there are two subjects and you are trying to subordinate one to the other; it’s hard to achieve a middle ground between making them both appear to be equally the subject of the image and one becoming ignored because the other takes priority to the viewer.

Soundtrack

I’ve been having a bit of an Incubus marathon whilst writing this post. It’s taken quite a long time because I haven’t been concentrating on it and I’ve been doing other things at the same time, like cleaning my camera strap and re-potting my bonsai tree. I’ve listened to three of their albums: Morning View, Make Yourself, and A Crow Left of the Murder; in that order. They’re one of those bands whose albums are distinct in that you can tell which album the song came from, but similar in that they aren’t so radically different that you could be in the mood for their music and listen to any of it. They’ve been a band that I’ve listened to since before I went to secondary school. They’ve never been a favourite of mine in terms of preferring their music to anything else, but they’re a favourite in that I’ve always listened to them every now and again; something familiar to come back to. I would recommend a listen, they’re very likable, and I’m sure there are many of their songs that you’ll know.

Metadata

• Date taken: 26.07.10
• Aperture: f/5.0
• Speed: 1/160 sec
• ISO: 400
• Focal length: 145mm

10.06.12, Week 43: Archive 9

This week’s shot follows on from the archive shot I posted two weeks ago. It was also taken in Melbourne whilst I was travelling during my gap year and is of an architectural focus, like that of the other post. I was walking through a pedestrianised tunnel underneath a building and as I came around the corner was greeted with this view. The weather wasn’t great, but it wasn’t raining at the time, so I could take the picture without worrying about getting my lens wet. In fact, if it hadn’t have been wet, there would not have been the reflection which makes the picture what it is.

It’s a shame that the building works were taking place at the time, as they interrupt the centre of the picture where the symmetrical plane would be otherwise. If this wasn’t the case, the building and its reflection would meet in the centre of the frame which would be a most pleasing image. The slope that the paving slabs follow exaggerates this issue as it changes the angle of reflection and therefore distorts it. Although they’re on the edge of the frame, I like the reflection that the posts create as they demarcate the border of the image.

Despite the overcast sky, I like the way there are two bands of cloud that merge into one another. The buildings have also remained bright, rather than dulling with the rest of the image, something that often happens with my images. The final aspect of the shot that I am pleased with is the perspective created by the joins in the tiles. I like the way the lines converge upon the building and act to draw the viewer’s eye to the subject of the image. However, this effect would benefit from the tower being slightly to the left of its current position as it is not absolutely central to the lines of the paving slabs.

Soundtrack

I’ve rediscovered Burial’s second album, Untrue, this week. It’s not really the type of music I tend to listen to that often, I’m not a big fan of the whole dubstep scene; I think the only appropriate time for ‘wubwub’ is here (watch from this point until 2:39, the rest of the video is probably not as interesting or relevant to the vast majority of you). The album is quite samey, but creates a mood which I haven’t found in any other music. It consumes you without really being noticed, something which must be very hard to achieve when writing instrumental music.

Metadata

• Date taken: 02.07.10
• Aperture: f/1.8
• Speed: 1/2500 sec
• ISO: 200
• Focal length: 35mm

27.05.12, Week 41: Archive 8

I’ve managed to go six weeks without posting an archive shot, and considering most of that has been during either the exam period or essay time, I’m quite pleased and surprised. Having said that, there was a large number in short succession prior to that period when I was freshly out of hospital. However, this week got the best of me and I haven’t managed to take a picture that I thought was worth posting, so I’m afraid that I’ve got another old picture for you.

This shot was taken in Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, Australia when my girlfriend and I were there during our gap year. The old brick building is Coop’s Shot Tower, which was built in 1888, and then incorporated into Melbourne Central when it was built in 1991. I spent a long time looking at the tower and the conical glass structure built around it whilst my girlfriend and her friend did some shopping. As those of you who have followed my blog for a while will know, I have a thing for the aesthetics of the Victorian era, particularly in architecture. I really like the shape of the tower and the way it looks so stoic beneath the glass cone.

I love the way the tower is contrasted with the steel frame of the contemporary glass cone. It makes me think of how engineering has developed since the tower was originally built, and how someone living at that time would be completely awestruck by an eighty-four metre high, steel framed, glass cone, something which is fairly commonplace in our lifetime. I also like the way that the tower imposes itself upon the picture, as if it doesn’t really belong there, or if it has been Photoshopped in.

I remember that it took me a fair while to work out how best to frame the image as there were lots of jutting pieces of building that obstructed the view. I also wanted to take the shot so that it showed both the tower and the steel frame, which, whilst made easier by the perspective created by looking upwards, wasn’t unproblematic because I couldn’t distance myself from the tower and keep the whole scene in frame. As was characteristic of how I took photos then, I took a lot of shots before I got the one I wanted. I’m really pleased with this shot, though, and I’ve been meaning to post it as an archive entry for a while but kept forgetting to.

Soundtrack

This week I’ve mostly been listening to similar music as I’ve still been revising and working on an essay. However, I did listen to The Cat Empire several times during the week, and appropriately they’re a band that originated from Melbourne. Their music always cheers me up and fills you with a sense of confidence. I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s incredibly uplifting, a skill that must be a wonderful thing to possess. They’re also an incredibly talented group of musicians and are so much fun to see live particularly due to the way they improvise and feed off each other. Their music is incredibly difficult to describe, so I’m not evening going to try for fear of gendering anyone’s opinion. These are a few of my favourite songs, so have a listen and see what you think: ‘Fishies’, ‘Feeling’s Gone’, and ‘The Car Song’. ‘The Car Song’ is a particular favourite because it will always remind me of the friend who introduced me to this music.

Metadata

• Date taken: 29.06.10
• Aperture: f/1.8
• Speed: 1/2500 sec
• ISO: 500
• Focal length: 35mm

13.11.11, Week 13: Archive 2

This week has been a bit of a nothing week; I don’t really feel that I’ve achieved anything and it’s just evaporated. Needless to say, I haven’t been out with my camera to take any pictures, so I’m giving you another one from the vault.

This shot was taken during the travelling I did in my gap year whilst on a ferry going through Sydney harbour on the way back to East Balmain from Watson’s Bay. We’d had a good day looking around Sydney; apart from walking around, I’d climbed one of the towers of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and we’d been to Doyles Restaurant in Watson’s Bay for some classic Australian fish and chips. I thought taking a photo of the Opera House from the opposite side to Circular Quay would be a nice angle as I hadn’t seen many shots of it from that side. The late afternoon sun highlighting the front of the building added to the ambience of a busy day that was winding down to a relaxing end.

I was lucky enough to have a sail boat come across in front the ferry as we were going past which added some foreground interest to an otherwise unoriginal image. The reflection of its sail in the ripples of the waves adds a subtle increase to the variety of textures within the image. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as capable with a camera as I am now, so having an aperture of f/1.8 meant that the rest of the image wasn’t as sharp as it could have been otherwise, it probably would have been much better shot at somewhere around f/5.

Hopefully next week’s image will be of a successful attempt at doing some ghosting, but I’m not making any promises.

Metadata

• Date taken: 15.07.10
• Aperture: f/1.8
• Speed: 1/6400 sec
• ISO: 200
• Focal length: 35mm