A slightly different take of this series of the education departments complex looking through to the subject I remember going inside this complex on a job just after they first moved in. It would be an experience to go have a look twenty years on, and education perhaps…
Another photograph in a series about ‘Silver City’ a group of buildings built in the late 1980’s that house the Western Australian department of education.
I like IR photography it allows me to take photographs in the middle of the day rather than fighting with shadows and the intense light of Western Australia. I had an Olympus EM-5 converted its light has lots of lenses there is even a tilt and shift which I feel is somewhat redundant with the software tools available today, but its there if you really need one. I’m playing around with converting RAW files in different ways. This building is a tiny part of the State of Western Australia’s Education department. Nick named the ‘Silver City’. Its quite contemporary, built in the late 80’s and austere. It is interesting that the ground water reticulation overspray has softened its austerity almost like photographic toning – more later, TBC…
Sorry I have not posted much over the last few weeks but hopefully because of the absence I will be more productive in the future.
Between many years of crawling around on the ground for macro photographs, proofing in printing factories, potteries, building studios, houses, furniture etc etc my right knee finally and very painfully collapsed and was totally replaced last week. I now have almost full movement in my R knee and leg which I haven’t had for a long while at least without considerable pain. Apparently all will be even better in six weeks. I’m the eternal optimist, having made a lively hood out of the applied arts one has to be!!!!
Obviously a camera could not accompany me and to be honest I was in no fit condition to treat the experience as an assignment eighty percent of the time. They ain’t to generous with morphine these days (a puritan ethic is creeping in?) and by heck I really needed the stuff at times. The whole exercise was an extremely painful series of events both leading up to and following. The staples came out on thursday which for this hobbler was some relief from incessant itching. Rather than killing pain the medication they currently use works on the pain centres in the brain which sort kills the awareness of pain but also dulls the awareness of everything else as well. Reading is out of the question, one sort of falls to sleep every few sentences.
Before I went into hospital I sent an EM5 off to be converted into full spectrum infrared. Meaning that one has to use IR filters on the lenses to make infrared images. The advantage is that filters from 500nm right up to 900nm can be used on the camera as well as UV filters which for any one interested in flora, insects and even birds holds some exciting possibilities. I have always liked IR for architecture and garden work but shooting and developing IR on film is a pain in the bum.
If one can find the right cut filter the camera can function as it did prior to conversion they are not readily available and often not cheap I have a few alerts set up on eBay if any turn up just to try on out!
But I digress the full spectrum EM-5 arrived a few days ago and while my movement is a bit limited at the moment I have managed a few shots from the verandah. I have only trialed two lenses thus far, the little Lumix G pancake zoom and the 75-300. First impressions were a little mixed a few of the first images were a bit noisey but the ISO’s were perhaps on the high side and I haven’t seen much sun when I needed it! IR can be shot without seeing almost any black shadows in full sun ideal for W.A. under normal circumstances, but heck we still need more rain so I’m not complaining.
After looking at yesterdays IR conversion into monochrome. I really thought it needed a touch of colour, so by switching the intensity of the red and blue channels it produced a blue sky creeping through the trees and also coloured the the shadows. As it was late afternoon the high lights are also slightly yellowed by the setting sun, this against flashes of the blue sky creates the complementary colour effect gives the image a greater depth
In Forrest Chase in the centre of Perth there is now a permanent water maze that on hot day is filled with children. The day that this photograph was made was just a little on the cool side to be frolicking in wet clothes but these children did not mind getting soaked. Of course it is quite possible to navigate this maze without getting wet at all but if there is water kids will find it!
Hilde-Daneilsen, ‘Upside down again’. Contre jour.
This wonderful construction is a great spiral box which gives the appearance of being sliced into thin sections and then twisted 180 degrees. It is screwed together with stainless bolts and sits facing the Indian ocean and the sun hence the flare moon. It was a conscious decision to photograph into the sun ‘contre jour’ or against the light as a creative technique. In this case it produced a double moon. sometimes it is possible to have the ‘moons’ shattered into dozens of circles or semicircles. There is a fine Australian photographer called Trent Parke who has used the contra jour technique to very great effect in his street photography, He is represented by Magnum.
This structure looks more lovely looking at it from the inside out as it does looking at it sat on the beach.
