Looking Back a Hundred Years

Here is an interesting scene—a British railway platform, c. 1920s, as recreated in meticulous detail in the National Railway Museum, York. Here one steps back a century—no digital screens, no neon lights, nothing post-dating the era of steam and newspapers. This is the world of P G Wodehouse and Agatha Christie, when movies were silent and radio a novelty. This is the genius of the museum scenario, a kind of immersion in which you can look into another time. The light levels in the museum are quite soft, so I was holding the camera against a vertical surface for stability, and did quite well—the light gathering ability of the old technology was only a fraction of today’s point-and-shoot ability. Supporting the camera during long exposures became second nature. I took this shot on my UK trip of November, 2011, the last time I visited the NRW, and it certainly appeals to my fascination with vanish point symmetry. Minor adjustments to contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Hidden in the Woods

Here’s an example of a reflex shot that turned out just right. It’s a case of seeing the composition and grabbing the shot, just frame and shoot. I snapped this one through the train window on the way to Cardiff on November 21^st, 2012. The sunlight striking the vertical building, framed by the green woods behind and the dark, shadowed foreground vegetation works perfectly, and I did not even need to square up the image with fine rotation. It’s pure composition—I have no idea what this building is (a church, by the looks of it) or even where it is, it just works as a pure visual motif. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Holding it Just Right

Here’s an exercise in placing the camera right against a plate glass window with darkness outside and light behind you. Under these conditions, losing reflections is always the big thing, and here I’m happy to say I excluded them completely. I let the chip handle the dark conditions, and held the camera rock steady against the glass. This is the A380 that is about to bring me back to Australia on April 21^st, 2014—unfortunately the very last time I was on a plane. (It was a fast three-day trip away from teaching, to take in a pop culture convention in London.) I love to watch the activity “air-side” as the technicians and handlers service the big planes, a ballet of vehicles and supplies to turn the plane around for its next flight. This is almost exactly as the chip recorded the image—there was nothing to do baring introduce a dash of extra contrast and a ghost of sharpening. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Vertiginous View 2

Instead of looking down the tower, here’s the view upward. This is the Westpac Tower, Adelaide, South Australia, seen from it’s own footing, photographed on April 7^th, 2022. I needed data recovery work and the company’s office was way up on the 31^st floor, so obviously I grabbed a suit of pictures in the process. I ran a shot from the top a couple of years ago (“City Panorama,” April 13^th 2023), and have always meant to come back for at least ine more. The tower was long Adelaide’s tallest building, back from when it was the State Bank Building. That honour is now held by Frome Central Tower One, aka “The Adelaidean,” which is soon to be overtopped by the new Keystone Tower. I love vanishing point symmetry, and any trip to town these days involves looking up at the ever-increasing height of the Adelaide skyline. Minor adjustments to contrast, colour and sharpness in Irfanview; Leagoo M9. Image by Mike.

 

Horizontal Composition

Seeing what’s there and taking advantage of it is an element of photography that comes quite automatically. Suiting composition to the things one encounters is part of the art, and I found from the outset that using an automatic camera liberated me from the mechanics of photography itself and allowed me to concentrate on composition as never before. This is the river frontage at Goolwa, South Australia, looking west to the Hindmarsh Island bridge, captured on October 21^st, 2019. The weather was obviously very fare, that cloudless sky really contrasting with the spectacular, broody Southern Ocean skies one often finds down there on the coast. The framing was simple and the lines of the bridge, the water horizon and the structures in the foreground made a series of more or less parallel horizontal lines that demanded a wide composition. Emphasising the width of the material is as simple as cropping top and bottom, and I’ve included the second version. It’s your choice which you prefer! Minor adjustments to contrast, colour and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

A Stark Land

Apologies for the month-long absence, I’ve been particularly busy with writing and getting away on a brief visit. Here are a couple of Australian images in quick succession to compensate. This one was taken up by Palmer , way north of Adelaide on November 23^rd, 2020, at the first pull-in. The land was so dry, the sheep seemed to be scratching an existence from almost nothing. The air was hot and oppressive, and the distance was blue with haze. This angle is looking northward, if memory serves, toward agricultural buildings. There were grain silos not far away. I was struck by how very stark South Australia is by that time of year. This year, we’re into uncomfortably hot days a month earlier. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Low Sun = Keyboard Shadows

 

There are times of day known to photographers—for example “blue hour” or “golden hour”—and the late afternoon as the sun drops low creates such a time, when the shadow of every tree crosses the road and you get a strobic effect as you travel. That’s one side of the coin, another is that you get the zebra-skin mat effect, when rows of trees cast shadows that turn horizontal surfaces onto keyboards. I got this frame on August 12^th, 2017, on a trip which had already taken in Ingalalla Falls further south, This is Peel Rd, on the Fleurieu Peninsula, an unsurfaced connecting road between main roads whose vegetation has an almost primordial feeling—gigantic Kangaroo Tails feel very prehistoric. The gums are wild and gnarly, and the light as the day approaches evening does all sorts of interesting things with that natural canvas on which to play. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

A Wide Open Landscape

A simple landscape shot, but the panorama is spectacular. I got this frame in a shoot along Range Road West, up toward Mt. Terrible, in the Adelaide Hills, on the 11^th of October 2020, and the view was quite remarkable. This frame looks west over the McLaren Vale Wine Region toward the Gulf St Vincent, and the shadow in the foreground is from a stand of trees to the right (some cropping was done at the foot of the frame to exclude part of the shadow). High telephoto was used, and the brightness of the day really registers the details. From the perspective of almost five years on, I'm struck by how green the countryside is, that late in the year, though elevation preserves the growing season when the plains are already dry. It’s big country up there, and big skies, well away from the thrust of development (at least so far). Minor adjustments to contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Perfection in Miniature

I’ve featured art treasures on occasion, and here’s one that truly took away my breath. This is carved wood, and just a small detail from a tremendous altarpiece, carved nearly five hundred years ago in Lombardy. I photographed it on November 1^st, 2010, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, during my third trip. Besides the jaw-dropping skill of the artist, what makes it interesting as a photograph? The piece is of course behind glass, and artificially illuminated, and gave all kinds of difficulty in maintaining focus, keeping the camera still (low ISO in those days) and finding an angle to exclude the reflection of lights in the glass. That small blue blob at the top is the only reflection. I took many frames but the inherent difficulty meant few came out really well. Minor adjustments to contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Afternoon Storm

Here is an engaging chequerboard of fields and floodings under a brooding sky. Staying with the aviation theme from last time, this shot was one of the series detailing my departure from Kuala Lumpur on November 8^th, 2012, on my way to the UK (a day late, the A380 had a breakdown that put me briefly in a hotel.) The day was changing fast and we took off into a stormfront, but planes that big seem unconcerned about mere weather! I was on the starboard side, so this is looking probably more or less northward. The tropical weather and the saturated landscape have a broody, rich quality that evokes thoughts of history and intrigue. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Spacescape? Not Quite!

Interesting, isn’t it? The deep blue at top left is evocative of space, at least the upper atmosphere, while the cloudscapes to lower right represent the turning planet. The eye tries to see a space perspective—but of course it’s not. I simply tipped the camera relative to the horizon, looking for potential background images for miniature photography. Match the lighting angle on a model aircraft or spacecraft, then use digital techniques to cut the craft from its background and composite it over this real sky photograph, and the result should be quiet convincing! I grabbed this frame on April 22^nd, 2014, on my way to London for a convention at the Park Royal, and was back in Australia a few days later—a wonderful memory! (Sadly, my last overseas trip, and the last time I flew.) This is exactly as the frame came from the camera, no adjustments were made at all; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike. Mm

 

Momentary Sun

The sun finding a way through the overcast elevates moody, murky images into clear, colourful pieces with an upbeat feel. I snagged this frame in the gardens of the York Museum in the November of 2011, on my fourth UK trip for the purposes of presenting at a conference at the University of Sunderland. York has been a favourite place since childhood and I often tried to swing by when I was in the northeast. After thick weather for much of the trip, the appearance of sunshine during my afternoon in York was a welcome change, and I was lucky enough to be among the gardens and ruins of the medieval St Mary’s Abbey. The place offered interesting compositions, and the light made it all the more worthwhile. Squared up with custom rotation; minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.