Flaps Down!

The last time I ran a frame from the approach to Singapore in November 2007 (my second UK trip) was October of ‘24, and there are still some great frames to consider. This is quite late in the approach to Changi Airport—the the flaps are fully deployed and the ground is not far away. It’s interesting how the eye cannot decide which focal point to go to—the sunset colours at top left, or the dirt and oil on the normally obscured portions of the flaps.. Looking at this picture, I can feel the motion of the plane like it was yesterday, am awaiting the sensation of main gear contact, then reverse thrust... Ah, those were the days! Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Dizzying Geometry

A simple snap, but the thematic material makes the pic. Vanishing point symmetry, of course, but that view up a tall building is always spectacular, invoking as it does thoughts of gravity and physics. The trees are a wonderful biological counterpart to the artificiality of the structure—the natural versus the man-made. Two very similar shots—I thought I’d present both in the same post. I took these frames on October 12^th last year, when in the Adelaide CBD, passing through en route from visiting friends up north. Minor adjustments to contrast, colour and sharpness in Irfanview; Poco M5 phone pic. Image by Mike.

Depth Perspective

Here is an interesting telephoto depth compression. This is the Adelaide city centre seen at max zoom from the gardens of the Carrick Hill mansion in Springfield, above town, taken on January 25^th, 2023. It was a pleasant, warm afternoon, just right for a picnic in the grounds, and the gardens were wonderfully photogenic. Views out over the city and sea certainly underline why the well-to-do would choose to build up there. This shot was simple enough, it was the lineup of the foreground foliage and the nine kilometres-distant city towers that cried out to be captured. The image was squared-up using the fine rotation tool. Minor adjustment to contrast, colour and sharpness. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

River Frontage

Here’s a deceptively simple image that’s part luck, part skill. A reflex shot—the scene presented itself and I grabbed it—from the window of a train on Tuesday, November 16^th, 2010, on my journey south from Sunderland to London, to head back to Australia. This is maybe 90 minutes after I got the pics of Durham Cathedral through the haze, and several hours before I framed up the neon lighting at Heathrow Airport (see older posts). The train ran through considerable fog, through towns, past great steam-belching power stations, and by the time I was around the latitudes of Birmingham, the weather cleared to sun and blue sky. This is the River Nene, where it flows through Peterborough, and I managed to catch it through a clean patch of window, with the sun angle right for the scene and not to make every speck of dirt on the glass flare. Some adjustments were done—it was squared-up using custom rotation, and the contrast and colour were tweaked just a little. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

City Streets

 

In contrast to the last few images, which have celebrated the natural world, mostly forests, here is the complete opposite—no blade of green to be seen. This is the view from Grenfell Street, Adelaide, South Australia, toward what was built as the REM-Myer Centre, back in the 80s, along the pedestrian-only James Place. I remember when I grabbed this shot, in June, 2020. I had been to the city for shopping and was heading back to my bus stop when I saw the vertical symmetry, the light catching it just so, and had to stop, grab out my phone and record what I saw. Phones are great for those moments when an interesting composition presents itself. The contrast, colour and sharpness were minimally enhanced. Leagoo M9. Image by Mike. Mm

Futurism Today

Here’s another view of Adelaide’s Sky City building, taken from the Festival Theatre footbridge end, on May 15^th, 2022. I’m always fascinated by the organic architecture, and the reflective coating of the windows that create an almost metallic look to the building as a whole. This is the sort of computer-designed structure that breaks the plain geometry format of years—centuries—gone by and ushers in the look we might associate with the future, that which seems to defy conventional logic in construction. Minor enhancements: contrast, colour and sharpness only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike

Organic Architecture

Since the coming of computers in the design process, many buildings have shed the blocky, regular geometry of ages past and taken on flowing curves, often of bizarre form—”twisted” buildings, for instance, or organic shapes, like London's celebrated tower known as “the Pickle.” Such shapes used to be drawn by science fiction artists fifty years ago, as they defied the accepted principles of the art. We have certainly lived into a new era in this respect! This is “Sky City, Adelaide,” the casino which for many years occupied the upper floors of the old Adelaide Railway Station. This part is the ultra-modern northern extension, overlooking what remains of the old Festival Plaza (now a building site), the Festival Theatre and the River Torrens. I walked through from the station on the afternoon of May 15th, 2022, and captured a nice collection of images showcasing the fascinating, futuristic architecture of the place, and will probably come back to this shoot in future. The picture was scaled and colour was slightly tweaked, as the day was quite soft. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Ghostly Exposures

 

I love doing long exposure night photography, and have captured city scenes in Adelaide, London, Sunderland and Whitby. The trick is supporting the camera solidly, usually just resting it on some surface, then opening the lens and seeing what you capture. If things are barely moving, the effect can be amazing, while the blur and streak effect of objects bright enough to register in motion is always artistic. I took this shot at the tram stop in Victoria Square, Adelaide, on July 3^rd, 2012, looking across to the state administration buildings and the Flinders University City campus. People are blurred, vehicles almost transaprent, while in the clear, cold evening the solidarity of the buildings and fixed lights registered beautifully. No processing was used at all. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Stark Stone and Light

Parliament House, North Terrace, Adelaide, photographed after dark. The symmetry of the columns is a pleasing perspective, and looking up into the floodlights is unusual. The building, completed in 1911, if memory serves, was thoroughly cleaned of soot and vehicle carbon many years ago—Parliament House was a dark grey, almost black, when I was a young child, but the stonework was deep-cleaned and taken back to its beautiful native tones. The same program cleaned the General Post Office, the Town Hall and the cathedral off Victoria Square, removing a reminder of the days of rampant air pollution. I took this shot on the evening of Sunday 5^th December, 2010, on my way home from the Celtica Festival at Hart's Mill Waterfront, Port Adelaide. Very little enhancement, this is pretty much what the raw pic looked like. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The New and the Old

 

Here is a classic juxtaposition such as could be found in any city, the soaring architecture of the 21^st century and the solid, classical style of previous epochs, cheek by jowl. This is King William Street, Adelaide, South Australia, photographed on June 11^th, 2020, from the simple vantage of a bus stop on my way home. The new residential tower rises to 25 storeys, way above the already-imposing Bank of South Australia next door, though still dwarfed by the State Bank building behind. The bright winter's day demanded no photographic cleverness, just point and shoot, and the vanishing point symmetry of the buildings does the rest. Smartphone shot—Leagoo M9. Image by Mike.

River Cruising in London

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The Greenwich Reach lends itself to panoramic imagery wonderfully. This shot was cropped from a standard frame, taken in November, 2007, from the shores of the Thames between the Royal College of Music and the Cutty Sark's drydock. The sleek, futuristic Thames Clippers are a usual sight, the tour boats plying up and down this famous, historic river through the heart of one of the world's greatest cities. Technically, composition was the object here: I framed the city and waited for the boat to cruise into just the right place before releasing the shutter. The picture was enhanced in the usual way, sharpened and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Lights on the River

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This is the River Wear in Sunderland, in the stretch just beyond the Wearmouth Bridge, looking across to the St Peters Campus of the University of Sunderland. At top left is the church of St Peter and St Cuthbert, on the site of a church where the Venerable Bede was based in the 7th century. It was about 10 at night, and very cold in mid-November, 2007, and I shot several frames on my walk from a dinner at the Bonded Warehouse (now a trendy venue on the south side) back to my boarding house by the Roker seafront. The streetlighting was quite strong enough for me to be hopeful that a supported camera would get the goods, and it did. A handrail provided a firm footing for this shot. At least three frames were good enough to be shortlisted for the blog, and this one has the most interesting subject matter. Enhancements include sharpness, colour and a tiny bit of contrast, otherwise this is a verbatim example of night photography -- what the camera can see that the eye on the night might not, at least not consciously. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The Jungle in the City

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It's all a trick of framing, of course, but the eye interprets only what the camera presents to it. This tropical greenery feels exotic, and the buildings glimpsed through the fronds suggest some island of civilisation rising among a predominance of natural forest... Yet there is nothing natural about it. This is the planted garden outside the walls of Government House, Adelaide, shot from the bus stops on King William Rd, opposite the Festival Theatre, the very heart of Adelaide's 172-year old culture. The city's decorative design, certainly since the intensive 'greening' programs that beautified the once-stark streets, lends itself to such visual devices that can fool the eye in a most pleasing way. The shot was nothing complex at a technical level, and it was sharpened a fraction for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. February, 2009. Image by Mike.

Celebrity Snapshot... Almost

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London, December 2006 -- any old afternoon. I had left the British Museum in search of an ATM, which I found at a Sainsburys a few streets away, to conjure cash for a bite to eat, and was about to cross when a clamour of sirens cleared the streets. Pedestrians clustered at the corners waiting as Police bikes halted traffic, and I heard someone say the man in the top job was going through. The FinePix S5600 was always around my neck, so I scoped in on the intersection for a reflex shot and snapped the Prime Ministerial Daimler as it raced by. Full automatic, of course! Photo by Mike.

A World of Glass

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Glass... The transparent solid composed of silicon and oxygen... Silicone dioxide, in fact. It's a shot like this that reminds you how much we depend on it. There's glass in the camera lens -- the advent of digital recording and video imaging changed nothing about the fact that optics require lenses, and they are made of glass. There's glass in the architecture, huge amounts of it. And it was shot through glass: note the reflections, including the photographer's hand at far left. This frame was captured through the upper windows of a double-decker London bus on a chilly afternoon in early December, 2006, somewhere between Victoria Station and Westminster, on the way to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Fuji FinePix S5600, on auto. Image by Mike.

Reflex Shooting, Sort Of...

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London is such a varied town, there's still plenty to see and commit to pixels away from the classic sights. But sometimes you need to be quick on the trigger... This is part of the new residential complex of the East End around the old canals, the "Docklands" district, and the frame was captured through the window of the DLR, the Docklands Light Railway, an elevated railway connecting the Tower with Maritime Greenwich and points further east. There are multiple bridges and elevated stations, the railway threads amongst and through buildings and is a marvel of engineering. To capture a frame with no blur, no window reflections, and with the camera on an even keel, while juggling a pack and cheek by jowl with other passengers, was not easy! But steadying the camera against the glass, pointed directly outward, then looking ahead to time the arrival of the clear space of the next bridge and tripping the release as the vista opens out, is a good way of minimising the problems. FinePix S5600, full auto. Photo by Mike, November 2007.