Port Melbourne

It was another Friday evening and my friends were concerned about the weather to set on a photowalk. Eventhough the entire sky was covered with clouds by 5:30 pm, I trusted the Melbourne radar for a 75% clear sky within an hour. So left alone with my gears to a suburb that was long overdue on my list of places to be photographed.

Got into a tram of route number 109 straight to Port Melbourne - the last stop. My choice among Station pier and Princess pier was the later with exposed pylons. So headed there to shoot the sunset. On my way to the Princess pier took some quick shots of the Station pier and the light house from the Beacon Cove promenade. As predicted the sky was getting clearer with time.

Exposed pylons of the Pricess Pier

Those exposed pylons kept me busy clicking till the sunset. Though the sunset was visible cloud cover along the horizon prevented much of the reddish colourisation. And, strong wind gusts kept the water surface choppy turning the sunset shots less interesting to share here.

Spirit of Tasmania sets off

By 7:30 pm Spirit of Tasmania started yet another of her voyage from the Station pier. View of the red beauty over the pylons was good enough to add few more shutter counts.

Port Melbourne Lighthouse 1 of 2

Next I moved back to the promenade to shoot the lighthouse under the twilight. Once again felt the requirement for ND filters to smoothen the water surface.

Wished to see the light from the lighthouse

Waited for another 15 minutes to see any light from the lighthouse. The only light sources I could see and photograph were lights on the ships anchored at Williamstown.

View of the Princess Pier from the Station Pier

Brisked to the Station pier before winding off, and took few distant shots of the Princess pier. Wind gusts turned even stronger and started to challenge the sturdiness of my tripod. So gave up idea of getting into the eastern side of the Station pier to shoot St. Kilda pier. A class C tram, predominantly used on this route 109, was waiting for me to take home and I made use of it.

St. Kilda at Night

St. Kilda is one of my favourite locations in Melbourne, especially to play with my photographic gears. The beautiful sandy beach, walking trail, palm fringed road, pier with kiosk, boats and yachts, great view of Melbourne's skyline, and little penguins all give lots of opportunities to press the shutter release.

When we had to choose a location at the last minute for a Friday night photo-walk, we chose St. Kilda unanimously. Though just missed the sunset by the time we reached there, we were not disappointed. Here are the sample shots of the night:

St. Kilda Pier and Pavilion

St. Kilda Pavilion

Another perspective of St. Kilda Pavilion

Melbourne skyline at night

St. Kilda Jetty and Melbourne skyline

St. Kilda Pier and Pavilion

Flowering Canola Fields

As I missed to shoot any flowering canola field last spring due to a miscalculation, this time I relied on multiple information sources instead of few, and started my search for suitable locations much earlier. Especially a thread I started on whirlpool.net.au received very useful responses with up-to-date field information. Based on that I marked Truganina, Point Wilson, Little River, Lara, Bacchus Marsh, and Anakie as potential locations to shoot flowering canola fields. 

My first visit to canola fields in late August resulted with not so great shots due to haze. Yet it helped me a lot to plan my second trip in detail during early September. Here are few shots of flowering canola fields taken during my second trip: 

And, here is a bonus shot sans canola on my way back home:

Winter Fireworks at Docklands

One of the attractions of Melbourne during the winter months is the Friday fireworks at Docklands. During the months of July and August, quite a number of spectators and photographers flock to Docklands on Friday evenings to enjoy the 10 minutes fireworks that starts at 7:00 pm (Note: 7:30 pm as of 2015). Each Friday firework generally has a different theme and there are a number of vantage points so that repeating visitors do not get bored. In addition, the waterfront city also keeps its visitors entertained with music, shows, and restaurants.

Here are my captures of winter fireworks of 2014:

I played with:
 - Shutter speeds long enough to capture the launch and explosion of fireworks (3s ~ 5s),
 - Low ISO to minimise noise and sufficient enough to capture the background scene in the darkness (e.g., ISO 200), and
 - Moderate aperture for sufficient exposure and depth of field (around f/8). 

Disclaimer:
* No settings guarantee great shots as the number of explosions within the exposure time and light they produce vary all the time.
* Fireworks might be cancelled if bad weather is predicted.

Docklands at Night

Docklands is one of the attractive locations of Melbourne, for both visitors and photographers. New Quay Promenade, Victoria Harbour Promenade, and Central Pier, all offer vantage points with different views, and recent face-lift has certainly improved the asthitics of the location. Here are few of my night captures of Docklands taken during early winter of 2014.

Night views from the South bank, Melbourne

One fine Friday evening, my colleagues and myself decided to spend few hours along the South Bank to shoot the sunset and night views. We reached the bank near St. Kilda raod well ahead of the sunset and scouted for locations upto Queensbridge Street.

Dry summer did not produced dramatic sunset colours we wished and without wasting time we positioned ourselves at our premarked locations for the night shots. The night shots taken over the next one hour were rewarding enough. Next, we waited for the number people on the foot bridges to come down for better and closer views of the bridges. Unfortunately we got dissappointed as the lights on the bridges across the river were switched off by the time we got on, most probably to save energy. Here are my favourite clicks from the evening/night photoshoot.

Lamp-posts add glamour to the South Bank

Southbank footbridge, Flinders street railway station, and skyscrapers add beauty

Ponyfish Island is fully packed with diners

Sandridge bridge and some more skyscrapers

Bird's-eye View

Being an ardent birder as well as a photographer, I always think how lucky birds are. They can get views of many different perspectives of places and things at no cost, and can travel without the hassles of getting visas.

Aerial views that I had during my flights only increased my jealousy, some flights that strictly enforce no electronic devices on-board policy to blind my camera make my enviousness with birds even worse, and those air hostesses get cursed. The list of enemies are not just limited to the flight crew. For example windows with uncleaned outer surface (I carry a polishing cloth to clean inside), acrylic plastic windows with scratches and/or craze, direct harsh sunlight, glares, internal reflections, fog, mist, and clouds, all stand in my way.  Yet I do not give up easily. I always try to chose a right seat on a plane considering a number of factors such as flight timings, places of interests along the flight path, sun's relative positions during the flight, and take-off and landing directions. And, I endeavour to use my camera on-board the planes whenever I get a chance.

Here are some of my captures of interesting moments and aerial views of places that could only be seen by birds and not by human in their day to day life.

Start of rain @ Chiang Mai, Thailand

Sunset over a city @ Bangkok, Thailand

Selective lighting by the sun @ Auckland, New Zealand

Mountain range as dam of clouds @ Greece

Cotton like clouds @ Iraq

Snow-capped mountains @ Turkey

Places with no signs of life @ Oman

The tallest building in the world - Burj al Khalifa @ Dubai

I am yet to travel by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner which has got the largest window size for any commercial scale long range passenger plane, and am looking for a sponsor to get on-board ;). While I am sure that a larger window would certainly be of great help to compose shots with ease, Dreamliner's electronic tinting of windows (Electrochromic windows) keeps me busy guessing on multiple aspects: whether these tinting would introduce some colour shades on photos taken, whether phase detection based auto focus would work, whether it would limit the opportunities to take photos due to centralized tinting control, i.e., no opportunity for secretly opening the window and shooting once the passenger on the next seat started snoring, etc, etc.    

Smile of Nature

I believe every part of the world is beautiful and it may require a little effort and right eyes to identify and admire them. When I first visited the University of Melbourne's Parkville campus, the Old Quadrangle Building, the Old Arts Building, always green Southern Lawn, and the Students' square were the first few things to impress me. As days passed and my exploration expanded in and around the campus, more and more buildings, gardens, and lawns got places on my list of "places/things to be photographed" and eventually got clicked. Among them, the gardens of Trinity College premises, more specifically the roses, made me to alter my route to the university whenever I go by bicycle or on foot. 

These roses are the reason that I take a little longer route to my work whenever I have few extra minutes to start my work. Glimpses of these colourful and fresh smiles of nature give me extra energy to start those days.

Location: Trinity College, The University of Melbourne.

Gears: Canon EOS 450D + Canon 55-250 mm KIT lens.