[Photo walk] South Melbourne and Docklands - follow-up

I haven’t focused much on black-and-white photography.

The only times I think in black-and-white (especially when taking photos) are when:

  • I want to capture a texture that lends itself to a monochromatic look,

  • I find myself in a scene in which the colours are a distraction, or

  • I’m at a location where there’s strong light-and-dark contrast.

Three of my recent photos fit the bill, so I converted them to black-and-white to see how they would look.

West Gate Freeway drainage overflow pipes

Black-and-white photo taken from underneath an elevated roadway out of which two wide draining pipes are emerging.

Looking through to Yarra’s Edge buildings

Black-and-white photo of two tall, residential buildings as seen through a gap in the bare concrete underneath of a series of elevated roadways and off-ramps.

West Gate Bridge sign under the West Gate Bridge Freeway

Black-and-white photo of the back of a large overhead road sign affixed to an elevated motorway. The sign is seen through a gap in the bare concrete underneath of a series of elevated roadways and off-ramps.

I think they turned out pretty well :)

Here’s a side-by-side comparison. I actually think I prefer the black-and-white versions of all three! Though maybe the middle one (the buildings through the gap in the concrete) works both ways.

[Photo walk] South Melbourne and Docklands

I get my car serviced at a dealership in South Melbourne that’s a short walk across the Yarra River from where my office is in Docklands.

Naturally, I take a bunch of photos every time I take this walk – usually super early in the morning and then just returning before sunset (in winter).

Here are the most recent photos I took.

Early morning coffee in the shadow of Charles Grimes Bridge

Photo of a woman stepping out from around the corner of a building with floor-to-ceiling windows. The second storey of the building is bathed in warm sunlight from the rising sun, while the lower section is in cool blue shadow. The woman is wearing a long, grey overcoat and is carrying a disposable coffee cup in her hand.

Early morning traffic and tram

Photo of an intersection with a line of cars going through and several cars waiting. In the foreground of the photo is a green-and-yellow tram running on a set of tracks parallel to one of the roads. The photo is slightly washed out because of the bright glare of the early morning sun coming off a reflective office building.

Waving to the tram driver

Photo of a green-and-yellow tram driving through an area with several trees and bushes that is otherwise surrounded by tall office buildings. The tram driver is waving his hand at the photographer.

If it’s on the street, it ends up in the river

Photo of a Bandalong litter trap installed to one side of an urban river. This trap has collected a large amount of litter floating down this river. A sign affixed to this trap reads “It it’s on the street, it ends up in the river. Keep the Yarra River clean. Bin your litter.” In the middleground of the photo a wide footbridge (the Webb Bridge) spans this river (the Yarra River). In the background of the photo, on the other side of the river, are several tall residential buildings.

Sunset seating outside Hooks at the Yarra

Photo of outdoor cafe tables and chairs arranged next to a grid of very tall trees that are set into raised beds in an otherwise paved area. The tables are unoccupied and the whole place is lit with warm sunlight coming from the setting sun.

West Gate Freeway drainage overflow pipes

Photo taken from underneath an elevated roadway out of which two wide draining pipes are emerging.

Jaunty portal, serious hotel #2

Photo taken from ground level of a large concrete archway structure constructed around an elevated roadway. This otherwise-rectangular archway structure has been built with a slight rotation, so it looks like it is twisting anticlockwise. Behind the portal is the tall, thin building of the Novotel Melbourne South Wharf hotel. There is traffic stopped at a red light below the elevated roadway.

Layers of traffic where the West Gate Freeway meets Montague Street

Photo of an intersection above which there are two elevated roadways of different heights. A sight at ground level reads, “West Gate Br / Geelong”. A bright yellow DHL delivery truck is crossing the intersection at ground level while a refrigerated truck drives along the middle roadway.

Looking through to Yarra’s Edge buildings

Photo of two tall, residential buildings as seen through a gap in the bare concrete underneath of a series of elevated roadways and off-ramps.

West Gate Bridge sign under the West Gate Bridge Freeway

Photo of the back of a large overhead road sign affixed to an elevated motorway. The sign is seen through a gap in the bare concrete underneath of a series of elevated roadways and off-ramps.

This year I had only my 27mm TTArtisan prime lens with me (42mm full-frame equivalent) and the photos turned out really well. Though, to be fair, the gorgeous golden-hour light – both ways! – had a lot to do with that.

Last year I took photos with my 18-55mm Fujifilm zoom lens and it was a dreary, overcast day. Those photos look little different :)

[Photo walk] Lygon Street #4

First I was unwell and then I was super busy at work, so it’s been over three months since my last photo walk. It’s good to be back.

Today’s walk was a quick one down Lygon Street in Carlton. It was lovely, sunny Saturday afternoon and it’s nice to be heading towards the end of winter in Melbourne.

All these photos were taken with my (relatively) new TTArtisan 27mm pancake lens (42mm full-frame equivalent).

Performance space at Argyle Square, Carlton

Black-and-white photo taken from behind and to the side of a large, high-ceiling, covered outdoor stage in a large public park.

Brand new ‘Sapphire by the Gardens’ building complex

Photo of two tall buildings framed by bushes and trees in the foreground. The two luxury towers are connected by a large, multi-storey skybridge. https://sapphirebythegardens.com.au/

The brand new ‘Sapphire by the Gardens’ building complex – as seen from Lygon Street

Photo of two tall buildings framed by bushes and trees in the foreground. The two luxury towers are connected by a large, multi-storey sky bridge. https://sapphirebythegardens.com.au/

Beaded friendship bracelets in a car

Photo of two brightly-coloured beaded friendship bracelets (or maybe necklaces?) hanging behind the rearview mirror of a parked car.

Bicycle loops on Lygon Street

Black-and-white photo taken from ground level looking up at several metal bicycle-parking loops installed on a sidewalk. One bicycle has been locked to the loop farthest from the photographer.

Post-lunch service emptiness

Photo of the covered outdoor seating areas of several restaurants along a road. All the tables in the photo are currently unoccupied.

Gluten free pasta and pizza on Lygon Street

Photo of a sandwich board on a sidewalk with text written in blue and pink chalk on a black background. The list on items on the chalkboard reads lamb shanks, tomahawk steaks, Atlantic salmon, arancini balls, barramundi, and gluten free pasta + pizza.

Photographer reflections

Photo of a closed glass door set in a bluestone alcove. The glass is very reflective on this sunny day. In the reflection you can see a commercial street with cars parked on it. The main subject of the reflection is a man wearing white sneakers, black jeans, a bright orange jacket, and a dark driver's cap. The man is holding up a camera at chin height and is taking a photo of his own reflection in the glass door.

It's pronounced ah-sigh-eeh

Photo of the entrance of The Acai Company. Text in a speech bubble below the company logo reads “pronounced ah-sigh-eeh, not ay-chay!!!”.

Pizza oven on Lygon Street

Photo of a large, currently-empty, wood fired pizza over through the window of a pizzeria.

Testing out my new 40mm lens

I bought a new camera lens!

It’s a TTArtisan AF 27mm F2.8 – which means it has autofocus, a 27mm focal length (40mm full-frame equivalent), and its lowest f-stop is 2.8. ‘TTArtisan’ stands for ‘The Thinking Artisan’, by the way.

I bought this lens for three reasons:

  1. Size: I wanted a pancake lens that would make it easier for me to carry my mirrorless camera around everywhere.

  2. Focal length: I wanted a 40mm full-frame equivalent prime lens because 27mm and 40mm are the two focal lengths I am most comfortable shooting at (which are 18mm and 27mm on my mirrorless, APS-C camera, by the way). I even did a whole ‘one focal length at a time’ exercise last year to figure this out.

  3. Availability: The Fujifilm XF27mm F2.8 R WR lens that I actually wanted has been out of stock since the end of last year.

This TTArtisan lens is one-third the price of its Fujifilm counterpart, so it’s not as good. But I didn’t want to wait any longer and I was willing to deal with whatever shortcomings it had.

The plan with my most recent photo walk, then, was to try out the new lens to see how it performs. And you know what? It does pretty well.

Yes, it has issues dealing with strong light sources: bright lights get overly glow-ey and, if you face the sun, your whole photo gets washed out. But these are things you can work around.

And yes, it has vignetting that gets worse the wider-open you shoot it. But (a) I rarely shoot wide open and (b) that vignetting is ridiculously easy to fix in post.

Finally yes, it has some interesting colour and contrast characteristics: its colours a little muted and its contrast is slightly soft. But that is what you would call the character of the lens.

I didn’t have time to do a long photo walk yesterday, so these are the only decent photos I managed to take. I think they came out quite well :)

Half-open train door at Southern Cross Station

Road expansion joint in Collins Street, Docklands

St. Brew Dining area on Friday afternoon (when this cafe is closed)

Roast meats in the window at China Bar on Elizabeth Street

Coop’s Shot Tower inside the Melbourne Central complex at sunset

My initial thoughts about this lens are that I quite like it. It’s less pancake-sized and more scone-sized, but it’s still much smaller than all my other lenses.

The photos I took with it weren’t brilliant right out of the box, but it took only a little tweaking to get them to where I wanted. And frankly that’s to be expected with a lens that costs a little as this one did!

So I’m very happy I bought this and I’m looking forward to talking lots more photos with it.

[Photo walk] Lonsdale Street (40mm only)

This week I concluded my ‘one focal length at a time’ exercise with a repeat of shooting at only 40mm (which is 26mm on my mirrorless, APS-C camera).

I can now confirm that the first pancake prime lens I will get for myself will indeed be a 40mm one. When I’ll actually go out and get this, I don’t know. But at least I know where I’m going to start :)

Here are the photos I took during my last photo walk of 2023.

Three flights down to Village Street, Docklands

Black-and-white photo of a set of stairs leading down to a street that is three storeys below where the photographer is standing. This staircase is built into the side of the building, with the lowest flight of steps inside the rectangular columns of the building. A woman carrying one large bag and several smaller ones is walking on the pavement that runs along this street.

The curves of the Mövenpick Hotel Melbourne building

Photo looking up from the ground of a very tall, blue-glass covered building. The building has rounded edges and two large curves along its length on either side, making it look somewhat like a fancy water bottle.

Mural at one corner of 246 Spencer Street, Melbourne

Photo of a large, four-storey high, spray-paint mural in several shades of blue. The anime-ish style mural shows an image of a woman with long hair, large eyes, and full lips manipulating energy fields. She has formed a swirl of light in her left hand and there are bits of rock and swirls of more solid looking energy rotating around her face.

Mural at the Lonsdale St corner of 246 Spencer Street, Melbourne

Photo of a large, four-storey high, spray-paint mural in several shades of yellow and pink. The hyper-realistic mural shows an older man and woman, both with white hair and wrinkled, slightly droopy faces. The man has is arm around the woman's shoulder. Both figures are looking straight across the street and, in this case, directly at where the photographer is standing.

Not where I expected to see this argument take place!

Photo of a boarded-up window with the top of a mostly torn off music posted still stuck to it. Several different people have scribbled things on the wooden board in red and black marker. These include text in all-capital letters that reads “anarchy rules”. Below this is a Christian cross with the words ‘remorse’ and ‘pain’ written on it, with text close to this that reads “one rule is pain, the other rule is remorse”. Next to that is a crown with a number ‘666’ written below it and text that reads “eighth and last link to walk this earth”. Two pieces of text in black marker have been crossed off. The first, written below the cross, reads, “The fucking cross you fucking Christians were suppose(d) to bear!!”. The second reads, “We are the Anti Christ and we don’t fuck your children. So can anyone explain Christianity to us? So fuck them, just not with my dick!!”. Written below these crossed-off bits of text is the phrase “Jesus loves you” and a heart symbol. This is repeated on the other side as well. Also written there is “Choose love”, with a heart symbol instead of the word ‘love’. The final bit of text along the top, seemingly in response to this back-and-forth, reads “Have a nice day and do it your way”.

EzyMart is not going to run out of candy anytime soon

Photo looking through the open doorway of a glass-fronted convenience store. Arranged on one entire wall along the side of the store are hundreds of candy packets and bars.

And just how is that working out for y'all, hmmm?

A simple, text-only advertisement painted along the windowless side of an eight storey building. The large, all-white lettering reads, “Create your life’s work”. Below this is the WeWork logo and the text “established 2010”.

This was the first time I’d walked down Lonsdale Street in the CBD to take photos. By restricting myself to shoot at only 40mm I was immediately frustrated by not being able to take good architecture photos, and I take a lot of those types of photos. I guess what I’m saying is that the second prime lens I’ll get will likely be the 27mm pancake prime :) Hopefully I’ll be able to get both in 2024. I guess we’ll see!

[Photo walk] Lygon Street #3 (40mm only)

Here’s part three of my recent Lygon Street walk.

Conclusions about this stage of the exercise are at the end.

Statue of Zelda D’Aprano (2023) at Victorian Trades Hall

Photo of a large bronze statue of Melbourne feminist activist Zelda D’Aprano, founder of the Women’s Action Committee in Melbourne. The statue is holding a large sign in her right hand that reads, “No more male & female rates. One rate only.” while in her left hand she holds a broken length of chain.

Front façade of Victorian Trades Hall

Photo of the light brown façade of historical Victorian Trades Hall that was first built in 1859 and then upgraded between 1874 and 1925.

Sprinkler booster that looks like a robot with large eyes

Photo of a red sprinkler booster that’s part of a fire fighting system installed in front of a building. The sprinkler booster is a large metal pipe sticking out of the ground with a red two-headed terminator at its top. The two fire hose attachments of the terminator look like large eyes. A sign affixed to this apparatus reads “Sprinkler booster. Working pressure 900 kPa. System tested to 1400 kPa.”

Carlton Audio Visual, the fanatic’s choice

Photo of a large blue sign attached to a wall above the entrance of a shop. The sign reads ‘Carlton Audio Visual’. A light blue sign above this shows the street number of this store (164) and reads ‘Fanatics choice’. Smaller signs painted to the left and right of the main store sign read “Hi-Fi sound. Home theatre. Projection room.”

Closed for the weekend

Photo of a several stacks of outdoor chairs next to several outdoor tables, all of which are lying in the outdoor seating area of a restaurant that is currently closed.

Local area map at the corner of Grattan and Lygon Streets

Photo of a tall, wide sign on a sidewalk. The top of the sign reads ‘Grattan Street’. Below this are sections with arrows pointing up, right, and left. Listed under each arrow at the points of interest that a visitor can get to if they walk in that direction. Below all that is a map of the local area, with a large circle drawn around the sign's location on the map. The circle has a label that reads “5 minute walk’.

Cakes at Brunetti’s in Carlton

Photo of two shiny, rounded, pale yellow coloured cakes for sale in a refrigerated display window.

Cake in the Brunetti’s display window

Photo of a shiny, rounded, pale yellow coloured cakes for sale in a refrigerated display window.

I find that I’m so comfortable with shooting at 40mm that there’s no point in sticking to just this focal length for another week. So I’m now going to move straight to 55mm.

Why am I going with 55mm instead of the more standard, ‘nifty fifty’ 50mm focal length? Well, technically, I’m going with neither :) I’ll be shooting at 54mm.

The sensor on my Fujifilm S-X10 mirrorless APS-C camera has a 1.53 crop factor. Meaning if I wanted to shoot at a 50mm full-frame equivalent, I’d need to shoot with a 33mm lens (because 33 × 1.53 = 50mm).

Fujifilm does make 33mm prime lenses, but I already own a 35mm prime lens (the cheap and cheerful Fujifilm XC 35mm F2) so I might as well use that for this part of the exercise. And since 35 × 1.53 =54mm that’s the focal length I’ll actually be shooting at.

It’s easier still to refer to this as 55mm, and so that’s what I’ll continue to say going forward.

I might try shooting at 50mm in the future (now that I’ve sped up this exercise by shooting at 40mm for one week instead of two) but for now let’s go with 55mm and see how I do there.

[Photo walk] Lygon Street #2 (40mm only)

Here’s part two of my recent Lygon Street photo walk.

Bench at Argyle Square

Photo of a park bench under a large tree in an urban park.

Front façade of Building 56 at RMIT on Queensberry Street

Photo showing the regular red brick and grey concrete façade of a university building.

Front façade of Building 56 at RMIT on a sunny day

Photo looking through green shrubs and trees at the regular red brick and grey concrete façade of a university building.

Abandoned shopping cart at RMIT Building 56

Photo of an abandoned shopping card at the bottom of the basement stairwell of a red brick university building.

Reflections of the city

Photo of a large glass skylight that shows the reflection of several tall buildings.

Victorian Trades Hall framed by buildings in the Melbourne CBD

Photo of a historic brown building that is partly hidden by several tall trees growing in front of it. There are three flags flying on this building, the Australian Aboriginal flag, the Torres Strait Islander flag, and the red flag (signifying left-wing politics).

Delivery driver in hi-vis on Victoria Street

Photo of a delivery driver on an electric cargo bicycle waiting to turn right at an intersection. The driver is wearing white sneakers, high visibility fluro-yellow pants and jacket (with hood), and a grey bicycle helmet. The cargo section of the e-bike is holding a large, insulated, soft shell, fluro-yellow coloured food delivery box.

[Photo walk] Lygon Street #1 (40mm only)

I know some of this has to do with the location, the time of day, and how much energy I had at the time, but I found it much easier to take photos at only 40mm (which is 26mm on my mirrorless APS-C camera) than at only 35mm (which I’d been doing for the last two weeks).

In case this is the first time you’re reading about this, I’m in the middle of conducting a creative exercise: for a fortnight at a time, when I go on my photo walks, I’m taking photos at only the 27mm, 35mm, 40mm, 55mm, and 85mm focal lengths.

Aside for the creative challenge of shooting at just one focal length at a time — which I am really enjoying and also learning a lot from — by the end of this exercise I should have a decent idea about which prime lens I’m going to buy next.

I managed to take a bunch of decent photos at 40mm on my last photo walk, and so I’ve split this into three posts. Here’s part 1.

Regular menu and the day’s specials at an outdoor café

Photo of a café menu in the form of a brown leather binder that’s lying on top a single sheet of paper. Both of these are lying on a wooden table in the outdoor seating space of a café.

Readings bookshop

Photo of a large sign on a shop awning that reads ‘Readings’. A smaller sign affixed below the awning reads “Readings. Melbourne’s own since 1969. Books. Music. Film.”

Entrance to Readings bookshop

Photo of the entrance of a bookshop. A woman with her hands on her hips is looking at the books arranged in the display window. A man inside the shop is looking at books displayed on a bookshelf. Entering the frame from the right, and slightly blurry because of the movement, is a small child being pushed in a pram.

Cocktails, pasta, vibes on Faraday Street

Photo of a sandwich board sign next to the outdoor seating of a café. The sign reads (across four lines), “Open all day. Cocktails. Pasta. Vibes.” The café is located inside a wide, red brick building with doors and windows that have been painted green.

Seating outside Vintage Cellars on Lygon Street

Photo taken just above the surface of a wooden table that’s part of the outdoor seating of a liquor store named Vintage Cellars.

Pasta display

Photo of five different types of pasta arranged on a wooden chopping board in the display window of an Italian restaurant.

Gelato at Gelatissimo

Photo showing the inside of a gelateria, with various flavours of gelato on display.

Outdoor heater

Close-up photo of a large, outdoor space heater that is used to warm customers sitting in the outdoor seating area.