Metal Elegance

Quite a few of these beautiful pressed metal ceilings can be found under the awnings of city buildings. Sadly, many of them have been damaged by workmen with ladders, not quite passing trucks, or the unstoppable march of progress. This lovely specimen on Adelaide Street has survived. I have decided to present the photo as I shot it - no crops and in colour(!), but seeing the subject is still monochromatic, I hope my fellow bloggers will pardon the lapse!

Roma Street Dome

Every once in a while, modern architecture breaks into something like this that makes me forgive it for leaving ornate cornices and carvings behind. This is actually a half-dome, tracing only a semicircle. I really enjoyed finding a viewpoint that would isolate just a section to give the illusion of a massive fan vault. It's the lines that are the stars, arching from edge to edge and compartmentalising the two main textures of the ceiling itself and the supporting glass wall. Guest appearance from the late morning sun with its suffused glow.

111 George

The awning over the footpath at 111 George has some thick beams supporting glass panels to let through the light. I noticed that from some angles the glass (stained and dirty as it is) is obscure and you can only see the profile of the structure. I used a 135mm prime to compress the perspective and stopped it well down (f16) to maximise the depth of field. Because I had no tripod, an available post provided the necessary support for this rather long exposure (about 2 sec with Tmax400). I like the repetition and the way that the indirect early morning light gives interesting shade to the metallic finish.

91 Queen Street

I was determined to take a picture on the weekend with the idea of posting it to this blog. It is not often I shoot with black and white in mind. The original of this shot had some interesting colour highlights with the blue of the sky visible through the ceiling. However, the monochrome conversion draws attention to the interesting semi-organic lines and hints of reflection. Hopefully the crop works too.