Exposure: 8s  Aperture: f/8.0  ISO: 400  Focal Length: 10 mm

A close destination was preferred on this occasion so the city was chosen. Boring, I know, but there were vague destinations in mind. Sadly they did not pan out so we revisited a back alley we went to years ago. This time we proceeded up to the roof and braved the somewhat flexible roofing materials to get over to the street side.

Exposure: 15s  Aperture: f/8.0  ISO: 400  Focal Length: 38 mm

It was an interesting view from up there and although I was not feeling particularly inspired by my return to night photos, I still enjoying clamoring around up there. That was until we returned to ground level to find the alley street entrance CLOSED. By secure roller door. Mild panic of having to spend the night in there started for two reasons. Firstly the building was far lower that the surrounding buildings (making a traversal to them unlikely) and it seemed commercial rather than residential, meaning a knock on the back door went unanswered.

After trying to manually open the shutter and getting nowhere (except covered in grease) we went back up the stairs to try and find a way to an adjacent building. By pure change a security guard just happened to be relieving himself in a toilet that had a window onto the stairs just as we were passing. He very kindly came down to open the shutter for us.

An interesting first outing back.

Exposure: 1.6s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 400  Focal Length: 50 mm

We were mostly scattered around a long narrow alley dividing two buildings. Some were using lights, flashes. Others were creating future Benny Hill style animated gifs (we all hope anyway). Thankfully Sven bought some wardrobe pieces to dress up the scene a bit – as lets face it a fluorescent lit alley is going to need some help looking interesting.

Exposure: 1.3s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 400  Focal Length: 50 mm

This location is also quite close to the mysterious Vortex Sven and Chris has previously discovered. It is odd, I entered the Vortex at 20:43:14 according to my phone and emerged 2 minutes earlier…perhaps I am being paranoid after having recently watched Primer on Sven’s recommendation. Good movie.

Exposure: 10s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 800  Focal Length: 22 mm

We all concluded that this confided space with an industrial backdrop would be a good place to try and setup a more elaborate shot using more sophisticated lighting. Chris and Sven pointed me to the many incredible examples of Greg Crewdson.

Exposure: 676s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 200  Focal Length: 10 mm

It is quite a large area and is adjacent to a section of the factory which is still operational. Interiors were VERY dark on account of the fact it was a new moon. These pics are very rushed and quite average but we shall have a think about the location and return come the next decent moon. Many skylights adorn the buildings so the hope is the interiors will be somewhat illuminated.

Exposure: 60s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 200  Focal Length: 20 mm

Exposure: 30s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 400  Focal Length: 37 mm

Exposure: 25s  Aperture: f/8.0  ISO: 200  Focal Length: 28 mm

Sven and I taunted Chris with stories of the glorious days of cracked earth at Wivenhoe, which he never got to see. Sadly (for Chris), with the dam now nearly full, such things have again been consumed by the water. After surveying the eastern shore of the dam we chose a spot to park the car and walked the km or so to the waters edge. I had a bit of trouble finding decent foreground for shots towards west – I ended up adding people for foreground interest. Bring back the cow skulls!

Exposure: 1/200s  Aperture: f/10.0  ISO: 100  Focal Length: 200 mm

Overall sunset rating: OK, not great. Clouds spoilt it a little and it was just not very strong light. I usually also like to take some east facing shots at sunset but again the light was not very strong for much of the time and below was the best I managed. It turned out the best light came 10-15min after sunset when we all took part in the top shot. It is a touching scene of bro-mance, to quote Chris’s wife Nan

Exposure: 1/200s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 200  Focal Length: 70 mm

After the decent light faded we made our way back to the car and drove around to the dam wall on the south-west corner. We have previously parked our car on the dam wall and walked the narrow shoulder to take photos. However on this occasion we were shocked at the volume of traffic – then we realised it was only 7:30pm! Since this is about the time we are usually only finishing curry we were a bit early for dam wall photos.

Exposure: 1/250s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 100  Focal Length: 70 mm

Various other ideas were floated on the return journey but none panned out so we called it a (relatively) early night. As always, great to be out in the sun.

Exposure: 2s  Aperture: f/4.0  ISO: 800  Focal Length: 23 mm

It was not a great success. While we initially thought the background windows provided interest they instead washed out the action being illuminated by the flashes. Far to much ambient for this sort of thing, as evident by Ms Poppins head ghosting.

In fact the most entertaining part of the evening was during another setup in which I was responsible for throwing an arc of water OVER Ms Poppins. After a handful of dud frames (and a somewhat wet Poppins) how was I to resist unloading a whole bucket of water onto her and finishing the job?

Exposure: 25s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 200  Focal Length: 26 mm

The idea was that of a classic large scale interrogation scene from a movie. Single light shining down on a subject in a greater expansive area. A sinker and fishing line were thrown up into the roof of the hanger with hopes of it passing through the framework and creating a hoist for the torch. And what to you know…nailed it on the 2nd attempt! The torch was taped to a small piece of board so that it would hang more vertically.

Exposure: 25s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 200  Focal Length: 26 mm

Sven and I experimented with various lighting methods for the surrounding structure. Problem being that it is very large and getting interesting lighting proved difficult. It was commented that many of our attempts looked like the cheap stage lighting of a magician. I was trying for the upper structure well lit and the lower structure dimmer to contrast the circle of light and subjects.

In the end two torches taped to the cross supports behind the camera proved the best for me. They were angled up the framework with their hot spots set just outside of frame. I also zoomed in a little from the initial wider composition to make the lighting task less massive. Sven of course tried all manner of coloured lighting with his RGB torch – which if nothing else does make an incredible flood light.

Exposure: 30s  Aperture: f/5.6  ISO: 200  Focal Length: 26 mm

Poses were also varied and all equally silly – we had everything from crucifix stances to two person Mortal Combat ones. In the end I had to go with rigid poses as a head cold was preventing me from holding still any other way.

So it was an interesting experiment and if nothing else proves a decent method of elevated lighting.