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.

Cafe culture goes way upmarket

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Low-light photography offers a whole suite of challenges in either optical or digital, and your solutions to these tests might be different on different days (or shoots). It all depends what results you want: the pro might want a tack-sharp image without grain, because s/he is more than likely shooting for a brochure. The amateur will want a good, clear shot, and can afford to live with a little grain, since the image isn't going to be published, much less at large size. Either way, your choices (your solutions to the challenges) will define this project: stop the action, or "correctly expose" the background, produce fantastic depth-of-field with blurred figures, or accept a little grain in the shot...? It's all about film speed, aperture, and shutter speed. Here's a few ground rules to help you make the decision: high shutter speeds will stop the action (no blurry figures), but you'll need either (or both) bigger apertures or faster film speed to get those fast shutter speeds. Big apertures cost you depth of field, and fast film speeds give you grainy images. Long shutter speeds give you blurry figures (anything that might be moving), plus the probability that you'll get "camera shake" during the exposure, which means the whole shot is blurry. Somewhere among all those "downsides" is a happy medium, and depending on what you need or want out of the finished shot, you'll make your decision. Photo by Mel, 2009. (The National Wine Centre, Adelaide, South Australia.)

Futurism Yesterday

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What is futuristic in one decade is familiar in the next and downright passe as time goes by, but no less a part of the landscape. This is the Festival Plaza, behind Parliament House, Adelaide, South Australia, looking toward the smaller of the two auditoria of the Festival Theatre Complex, built in the mid-1970s. The architectural style was definitely futuristic at the time, Adelaide competing on a smaller scale with the Sydney Opera House which at that time had become an Australian landmark and icon. The Plaza with its modern art public sculptures dates from a little later in time I think, but is definitely the primary colours and abstract angles of generations gone by. Has it aged well? That's a question for art critics, but it certainly makes for an almost-surreal photograph: the unchanging nature of the primal sky above yesterday's ambition to project today into tomorrow. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic; February, 2009. Image by Mike.