Checked out some amazing graffiti in St. Peters on Saturday afternoon. Found it whilst looking for new and interesting places to photograph. Thanks to Rachael Muller for the wonderful guide, Click here for more information on Rachael’s guide.
Just about every wall, fence or garage door has been covered in graffiti. I was lucky enough to find an artist at work. Here are a sample of them. Please enjoy.
Graffiti Artworks
The graffiti artwork were just amazing. I highly recommend that you go and check them out.
This is my first visit to Cockatoo Island. I caught a ferry from Circular Quay which took about 10 minutes. It was packed full of visitors. It was an extremely hot and humid day. The only respite was in the tunnels, dug into the sandstone cliffs, which were about 10C cooler.
You need more than a couple of days to fully appreciate this place. You can also camp overnight on Cockatoo Island. I am seriously considering doing this next visit so that I can do some night photography here.
After more than 3 hours of non-stop trudging all over the island and sweating copious amounts of bodily fluids. I was hot and dehydrated so I decided it was time to take a break and replenish. I ended up drinking a large bottle of PowerAde, a small bottle of water and 2 x cans of “real” Coke. Did I mention that I was thirsty? Note to self, come back in Autumn when the humidity is low.
HDR (High Dynamic Range)
All of the above HDR shots were taken using a tripod, tone-mapped using Photomatix Pro with some tweaking in LR 2.6. Some of the internal shots were blended and burnt using CS4 and then tweaked in LR 2.6.
The external HDR shots consisted of 3 exposures (+1, 0, -1) and the internal HDR shots consisted of 5 separate exposures (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2).
All the shots above were taken with my Nikon D700 and 14-24mm f/2.8.
With the internal HDR shots I wanted to convey a sense of decay and abandonment. A dark and moody ambiance. I think I managed to achieve that with last two photographs.
History
Cockatoo Island is the largest island in Sydney Harbour. Cockatoo Island is a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol. It is also the site of one of Australia's biggest shipyards during the twentieth century. The first of its two dry docks was built by convicts and was completed in 1857.
The island's maritime industrial activity ceased in 1992.
Today Cockatoo Island retains many remnants of its past. Its prison buildings have been nominated for World Heritage listing, along with other convict sites around Australia. Large workshops, slipways, wharves, residences and other buildings retain the texture of the island's industrial past.
Decided to check out the blast furnace after reading about it in a photography knoll. Looked rather interesting. Left about 3:30 pm in the afternoon for a leisurely 2 hour drive to Lithgow. Get there just in time for a dusk/night shoot.
Drove around Lithgow for a Cafe for a quick dinner and some coffee but just about everything was shut. Hmm, I saw a sign for Maccas on the way into Lithgow but we couldn’t find it. I stopped and asked a local cab driver for directions. He said that it was about 10 mins down the road on the way out of town.
The cappuccino was horrendous, it was bitter and tasted really odd. I heard the guys on the next table whinging that it was the worst coffee ever. At least the quarter pounder was okay but the fries were yucky!
The Blast Furnace
Blast Furnace Park is a monument to Lithgow's industrial history. It was here that the first iron and steel were cast in Australia. William Sandford established the blast furnace in 1886 and it continued production until 1928 when the entire industry was move to Port Kembla.
All the above are HDR shots. Each shot consist of 3 separate exposures (-1, 0, +1). Tripod used, tone-mapped using Photomatix Pro and tweaked in LR 2.6.
All these shots were taken at around 20:00 hrs. I was eaten alive by mossies but it was worth it.
Here are a couple of non-HDR shots. The sun suddenly appeared from behind the clouds. I really liked how the reflected sunlight gave both the building and wall a warm golden glow.
