King George Square revisited

Over the past couple of years the BCC has been remodelling King George Square as part of the major busway construction and it recently reopened to the public. I have been trying to capture images from this site for a few weeks and have been wholly unsuccessful. Late last week I changed from using my wider lenses to clamping my trusty old zuiko 135mm f3.5 lens to my om2n.

My aim was to play with trying to get exposures correct, having basically given up on creating new and interesting compositions. The best that I thought was that I could learn something from attempting to correctly expose HP5+ @ 400 in the harsh morning light when shooting highly reflective bronze (ie black) statues.

I had forgotten how sharp this lens could be and I manually metered each frame and developing in Microphen 1+1. The results are better than I imagined with good shadow detail without blowing the highlights completely.

You might recognise at least one of these subjects from my earlier posts, but it is always good to go back and see how your composition and development can create a different feel to the final image ... and I can't wait to see how these turn out when wet printed as postcards.

Frieze

Probably few visitors to the Greek Club in Edmondstone Street South Brisbane would fail to notice this wall frieze in the foyer.  I took this in May 2008, but unfortunately this image turned into a "sleeper". One of those photographs you think has potential but you are just not sure what to do with it. Initially I thought it looked better in colour but obviously I have since changed my mind - hence its posting on MB. Taken with my Leica and a monopod, with flash I think.

I reckon he's trying to balance the family chequebook under her gentle but insistent guidance.

Steam

At the George St end of Queen St is the relatively new Brisbane Square and Radacliff Place. In this wonderful space is an installation piece called Steam, by Donna Marcus. This work is made up of a series of randomly dispersed large metal balls of different sizes with replica aluminium steamer baskets as their feature (more info). One cannot help but be drawn to them when entering the space, and many a photographer and tourist can be seen making images of them on any given day. I used one as a subject in my multiple exposure assignment shot in and Martin has included one in Push as part of his photographs of photographers series. I thought that I would attempt another composition here with a section of a ball and the top of the Mall shown in the background. (OM2n, Tamron 35-80mm f2.8-3.2 SP zoom, HP5 @ 800)

Sitting around

Many moons ago I attempted to capture the bronze statues outside the Bank of Queensland building on Queen St, resulting in my BOQ Bust post. As part of my latest project I have again been regularly passing these subjects (male and female sitting on the wall) and I have toyed again with a composition involving these striking pieces of public art. This time, however, I was determined to get some people of the city involved, and have chosen this shot, looking back over the adjacent cafe, to capture more of Queen St life. I like the way some patrons almost mimic the posture of the statue, and how these figure tend to blend with the background when the 35–80mm zoom is used at the longer end to foreshorten the perspective. (OM2n, Tamron 35–80mm f2.8-3.2 SP zoom, f8, HP5 @ 800)

MacArthur Sculpture

This sculpture is now almost one of Brisbane's hidden treasures. Well, maybe not so hidden, but it is outside the first floor window of MacArthur Chambers on the corner of Queen and Edward Sts. Now this area of the city is dominated by skyscrapers, it is not so easy to view the sculpture from many good vantage points. This building has recently been renovated to include a shopping complex and apartments, but its character facade was largely retained. I like the light in this early morning shot to retain detail in the white figures and a sense of history in the textures and patterns of the building behind. (OM2n, zuiko 135mm f3.5, f8, HP5 @ 800)

Point on Eagle

I have been working quite earnestly of late with doors, lines and CH projects. However, there are times when a shot is just begging to be taken, just for the heck of it. This is one of those shots — pure whimsy. Every time I pass this piece of public artwork it puts a smile on my face, and given that 175 Eagle is beside Customs House, I have been passing often. I hope that this captures some of the joy the original gives me. (OM4, zuiko 135mm f3.5, f4, FP4 @ 125)

Victoria

A left-over shot from the silhouette shoot. I like the combined strength and delicacy portrayed in the sculpture and went for a viewpoint that emphasized the solidarity of the queen's long reign.

The Arbor

Southbank has an interesting and intricate arbor made up of an wonderfully shaped trellis covered with bougainvillaea. Although when in flower the colours are magnificent, I was more interested in the repetative pattern and shaddows (OM2sp, FP4+, Tamron SP 35-80mm, f8). I particularly like the inclusion of the walker in the bottom left of frame to give some scale to the whole structure. Not my usual style of shot, but has some themes that I would like to explore some more.

The Blitz

"The Blitz" is an example of the work of Chris Trotter, a local sculptor notably responsible for the metal kangaroos lazing on the George St footpath (near the corner of Adelaide St). This work was "parked" outside the entrance to old Government House (QUT Gardens Point) where it formed part of a display. Taken with my Nikon F65 using Ilford HP5 (pushed 2 stops to ISO1600, just because I could). Didn't quite get the in-camera, "rule of thirds" composition I was aiming for, though I thought it still sufficiently interesting to be worth a share. The LED time stamp was mistakenly activated during this and a number of other exposures. Rather than digitally remove it, I thought it could serve as a reminder of of times past when such mediocre detail on a print was considered highly useful, even desirable! ("Oh yes Joan, this was taken on our.. ? September! Skegness holiday, terrible weather, just poured.. )

Sword of Themis

While I was walking to work one day without my camera I passed the statue of Themis outside the Brisbane Law Courts. I thought that the shadow would be an interesting subject, but on closer inspection when I returned the next day revealed that shadows from nearby trees were far more distracting than I first noticed. I was, however, drawn to the sword. In this shot I have attempted to simplify the composition of the statue (OM4, 135mm Zuiko at f5.6, tmx400) to convey a feeling of strength.

BOQ bronze bust

This is one of two bronze figures outside the BOQ office on Queen Street. I am quite taken by the incongruity of the nudes being placed on the main street of the city and how they are “detached” from the passing crowds. This image was taken on the same morning as “Level 2”, and I haven’t posted it earlier because I am still not sure whether it is the pick of the set that I took on that day. In the early morning these subjects are in deep shadow and I find it quite difficult to expose it correctly (OM4, Tamron 135mm f2.8, f4, 1/125, HP5, handheld) to extract the detail while not allowing the highlights to really blow out. I don’t think that I have captured these figures satisfactorily yet, so I will return and alter the composition to try to do them justice.

Abstract in Grey

One of the newer buildings in the CBD is the Brisbane Magistrates Court. The structure is impressive, and so is the large artwork outside the front entrance on George Street. I particularly like the repetition of the pattern and the highly reflective grey surface generates interesting tones in the soft light of early morning (OM4, Tamron SP35-80 f2.8 towards the long end, f8, 1/125, HP5). Where different surfaces meet there is a slightly bevelled edge that provides a nice highlight, even though the whole sculpture is constructed of one material in one colour. The sculpture is located within a garden, so I decided to leave the tuft of grass in the bottom right of the frame. I am still not sure if the composition would be stronger without its inclusion — tell me what you think …

King George

It is surprising how many objects there are around Brisbane city that can serve as challenging photographic subjects. This large statue of King George on a horse stands outside City Hall. Not only does a dark bronze figure present a difficult subject in shadows of the early morning, but the King’s gaze from this angle gives an interesting viewpoint where I can almost image myself as a small child watching him pass by in a parade. This shot was taken with a zoom lens that often doesn’t get taken out of the bag (OM4, Tamron 35-80mm SP, f4, 1/125, handheld towards its longer end), but when it does it tends to surprise me with its degree of sharpness and contrast. After printing this in the darkroom (the wet one) last night and being able to dodge the bronze and burn in the clock tower, it has highlighted for me that there is much more detail in the deep shadows of the negative than my scanner (Canon MP760) is able to give up. I can see me making a few more attempts to capture different aspects of this subject, maybe next time I will experiment with a fill flash. I would love any comments or suggestions about how I might again approach this piece.

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 ...

Australian Air Force Memorial
I have not been happy with the way my negatives have turned out of late and suspect that I have been over-developing in the tank. On my walk to work is what I though would be a good test shot: the bronze eagle memorial in Queen's Gardens. I took this early in the morning (OM4, 50mm f1.8 lens, no filter, f11, 1/250th, Ilford HP5)—the sun was providing a strong backlight and it had just stopped drizzling. I did some light sharpening and brightening to bring out the detail in the underside of the wings. Maybe I have my problem sorted …