City Shape

It’s been a long time since I last visited the Docklands area. So on a recent fine day I hopped off the train at Southern Cross station and walked about the precinct for a few hours – eventually ending up, via Southbank, at Flinders Street Station. Never ceases to amaze me how much more of my surroundings I observe when I am out and about actively collecting a new batch of images. I came home with a couple of hundred photographs and I have put a few of them together in this photo essay.

Bird Art

I was looking for  “texture images” when I almost put my foot in this sticky mess – the poor bird apparently had less luck! But maybe in this single image I have fulfilled all of David’s criteria for texture, colour and contrast?

Image © PeteM2020

Click on the image for a larger version.

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“Street photography” has been popular since cameras became portable, however, successfully using a bulky camera and slow film required substantial skills. Now that digital cameras are everywhere, it’s a lot easier and everybody is in on the act. But obtaining great pictures still requires a keen eye and artistic flair!

So with the past masters in mind, I hopped on the 109 Tram from Box Hill to Port Melbourne and back to see what images I could snap on a journey lasting just over 2 hours. A keen observer will note that I predominantly used the “shooting from the waist” perspective – a hallmark of the shooting style obtained with the early reflex cameras. The advent of the penta-prism used in current SLR’s changed all that.

I put this B&W photo essay together in Premiere using some of the images from the journey. Enjoy!

Lost Art Form

Hand-coloured Black & White photographs were popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, although the process dates back to the earliest days of photography. The purpose was to add realism to the prints. 

I was told that the actual process of applying colour to a black and white print is not that difficult, but that is not my experience! The artistry, as always, comes in the skill and choices made by the colourist. The artist may colour the whole print or just a portion of it, using oil paints and/or colour pencils and the final results can be subtle or dramatic.

The colourists all but disappeared with the advent of colour photography and later the introduction of Photoshop sadly brought the traditional art form and profession to a virtual end.

Here is my colourist reminiscence:

Southern Cross Station - April 2011

Image © PeteM2020

Hosier Lane revisited

Having missed out on the class excursion to Hosier Lane, I decided to make my own solo journey there. On this occasion, the lane was bustling with artists and tourists - it was quite an opportunity to gather a collection of colourful images for a photo-essay.

I found it quite a challenge to edit the essay in Premiere Pro. Too much “Ken Burns Effects *” can be distracting, in the same way as a succession of still images has connotations of a boring old-fashioned slide show. In this case, I opted for moderation, resisted quick cuts and fancy transitions. But where are all those sound effects when you need them? – High-heeled shoes on cobblestones proved a challenge. Ended up, in the end, making a loop in Soundbooth from some old footage I found. Making this simple short essay took more time than anticipated!

It could be an interesting challenge to give everybody the same collection of images and see how different the editing would be! Anyhow, this is my take on Hosier Lane.

* "Ken Burns Effect"

City Buildings

I have put together another web page of images – maybe some of them can be used for the drawing assignment we start after the Easter holiday?

To see the images, just click on the picture above, or click here!