Kurilpa Bridge

I shot this film a couple of weeks ago, but I promised myself that I wouldn't processes it until I had completed my tax return ... so I developed it tonight ...

These are early morning images of the new Kurilpa Bridge that spans the Brisbane River from east to west and links Tank Street to Kurilpa Point. It is constructed using a new technique and seems almost too complicated for its own good. From some angles, it looks to me like the coming together of a crazy assortment of hull-less tall ships.

It is nice, however, to wander to work by crossing this bridge and strolling along Southbank before crossing back to the George Street madness ... (om2n, Tamron 24mm, fp4 @ 125)

Dusty day

Brisbane experienced an interesting weather "event" yesterday when an unusually large dust storm blew across town. I have never seen so many people out and about taking photographs during the usual lunch break.

I decided to head across the Victoria Bridge to see just how dusty things had become. Given I had the camera loaded with HP5+, I wondered how the images would look or whether it would just seem like a foggy morning in black and white ... you be the judge.

While I was on the Southbank side of the river I swung under the bridge and came up at the Art Gallery. I liked the pattern that the jacarandas make now that their trunks are becoming more substantial. It is sometimes funny that you see different things when the light is not what you come to expect.

While under the jacarandas I bumped (quite literally) into happy snapper who was carrying an old Pentax SLR. I wonder how his shots on BW400CN turned out. (om2n, zuiko 35mm f2.8, hp5+ @ 400)

Rankins at Dusk

I have been slack the past two weeks and have not shot a fresh roll of film. In fact, my photographic efforts have been limited to recording my son's hockey semi-final (and there were not many frames worth a second look, but that's another story).

Anyway, this shot was taken at dusk. I have been trying to vary my times getting out to familiar subjects to see the difference it makes to the image created.

Rankins is a news agency located in the centre of the Queens Street Mall. At dusk all manner of folk are wandering home or hanging out to meet up with friends. I like the variety of movement captured across the frame. This was taken hand held using a sign as an impromptu tripod.

If you are wondering about the square crop (no, I haven't a hassy) it is because this is the last frame of the most recent roll shot and only half the frame exposed correctly. This is a feature (?) of hand rolling where you are never certain of getting complete frames. (om2n, zuiko 35mm f2.8, hp5 @ 400)

Riverside path

I have been a little busy so have fallen behind with my "one roll per week" ambition, although this was shot last week I have only just managed to develop and scan the results ...

I admit that I am enjoying again getting into the habit of carrying my camera to work every day. It seems to encourage me to take different paths between the train station and my building, even if I do not have the camera out intending to take a shot. I also find that I am constantly looking for different opportunities to create images and appreciating the different light etc each day.

This image was taken at the end of the riverside walkway near the Botanical Gardens. There are many yachts moored on this reach of the river and the boaties tend to leave bicycles chained to the railings as convenient land transport.

I have also been again experimenting with development methods. This roll going through a ID11 soup diluted 1+1 with water. This has given good tonal range for me with medium format film in the past, but I was wondering if it would give too much grain for my liking in 35mm format ... as it happens I am very happy with the result and might continue along this path for a while. (om2n, zuiko 35mm f2.8, hp5+ @ 400)

Drop In

I worked a little later than I intended on Friday night and thought that I would wander past the Treasury Casino to take the last few frames in my film. It was quite dark by the time I got there and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, so I wasn't sure if there would be enough interest to have a postable shot.

My attempts turned out better than I expected, given that I didn't look directly through the viewfinder and was using my fingers as a makeshift tripod ... actually, I had the camera resting on the top of a police sign, which was too tall for me to line up, but I could still see a bit of the image in the glass of the viewfinder and guessed the rest.

The shots from this angled were far more successful than the shots I took from the bridge ... I soon found out that the vibrations caused by the traffic do not make for very good images ... (om2n, zuiko 35mm f2.8, hp5+ @ 400)

Market day - Wednesday

I am trying to get back into the habit of carrying my camera each day and shooting at least one roll per week. This is a shot from my first "new" roll.

Each Wednesday in Reddacliffe Place at Brisbane Square there is a lunchtime (well, all day) market. Sellers gather to offer fresh fruit and veg as well as a large variety of meats and "value added" products. This lady had a beautiful display of items in baskets and took lots of time to explain her produce to anyone who asked.

I do hope that she and the others do well for their efforts ... (om2n, zuiko 35mm f2.8, hp5 @ 400)

Around the lake

Having spent the morning indoors at work, I looked forward greatly to our Sunday afternoon stroll with the dog around the UQ campus.

The afternoon was quite overcast and windy and not altogether pleasant, but we quickly warmed up as we embarked from the running track.

Inevitably, we passed by the lake near the centre of the campus. The wind had dropped considerably by this time and I noticed a majestic stork of some sort hidden among the paperbark trees at the western end of the lake, but unfortunately it took flight as soon as I took the lens cap off the camera.

This beautiful bird did encourage me to present a brief study of this wonderful oasis close to our city centre. (Canon 450D, efs 55-250mm)