Monochrome Brisbane

Bronze texture

Two things had me out and about this week: my continued quest to reduce the grain in my negs and I was inspired to shoot with one of my "alternative" camera bodies - an Olympus OM40. The bronze statues in King George Square have long held my fascination. Each has great textured surfaces that range from highly polished to rough areas reflecting very little light. They are arranged so that they catch different light during the day and their different shapes means that when one is dull, another close by can be shining. The one shown here has almost slab sides and I love the way the finished produce shows the work that the artist put into the mould. The shot was taken with Ilford HP5 early morning using a "standard" Zuiko (50mm) lens stopped down to 5.6 at 1/60. Although this image has had the lightest of sharpening (but no other manipulation) after scanning (Canon MP760 at 1200dpi), I am really happy with its tone and the relative lack of grain compared with my earlier efforts (this one developed in Ilford DDX). There were some shots on the day that almost worked, but I will have to go back to reshoot those before I put them up ...