Friday, May 18, 2007

Mr XXXX

A friendly wave from a local most Brisbanites would be familiar with. This is the Castlemaine XXXX brewery on Milton Road. This image was originally taken as part of a project involving a recognisable silhouette of a Brisbane landmark. Can't be absolutely sure but I bet few would disagree that this qualifies.

Mr XXXX, originally uploaded by Martin~.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

General Post Office

This image was taken during the week using my F80 and a 24 exposure roll of Ilford Delta 100. When I can get the shorter rolls (24), I much prefer them over the longer 36 exposure version. I find the longer rolls generally inconvenient; too long to use on a single project, too short for a good cross section of shots over multiple themes. In any case I'm usually eager to develop a film after one session and whilst I don't really have a problem wasting unexposed frames, it starts to become costly after a while. Also, if ever a film jams whilst loading it onto a developing reel, it's the (36 exposure) long ones!

Experimenting with a different drying technique at the moment. After the final rinse and dunking in a wetting agent, I leave the film on the spiral, holding it so the film plane is vertical (to expedite run-off) whilst using a hair dryer to blow warm air through it. Remaining in the spiral as it does, the tightly coiled format means that the entire film surface is gently dried at once. Just have to give the reel a few gentle taps at the outset to dislodge any drops in the film track. So far I am very pleased with the result, no watermarks, dust or greasy fingerprints on the emulsion whatsoever.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Ship's Prow

This is an exterior photograph of the library space depicted in Spaceship Earth, and in fact, the two "viewing ports" in the top left quarter I think are reconcilable with those visible in the earlier image. The smooth hard chines of of the external fascia and angular join are very reminiscent of the view of a ship's bow as it cuts through the ocean. In this instance the ocean represented by the vastness of... space, the final frontier, these are the voyages...

Oops! (postscript 15th May) After making the comment about the above windows I was rather perplexed and confused that on closer inspection they do not appear to be the same as those depicted in the interior shot. In fact the window on the RHS of this exterior shot is slanting the opposite way to what I thought was its compliment in the interior shot.

Well after revisiting both locations I have finally realised that the exterior shot is from the same "box" section but is a different corner!

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

US Seventh Fleet Band

A military invasion of a peaceful kind, the US Seventh Fleet Band performing live in the Queen Street Mall. The music (at least whilst I was listening) was I think a mixture of jazz and swing and was beautifully accompanied by their very capable vocalist.