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blue stone bridge, Coburg, HDR, man made, merri creek, nature, Nikon D300s, outdoors, Pentridge Prison, photography, Photomatix, Photos, Photoshop, postaday, stone bridge, tripod, water falls
On my way to Essendon a couple of weeks I saw a water fall, it was so strange. It is in Coburg and part of the Merri Creek.
This is part of the walking/bike path that goes though the area. You go under the old blue stone bridge to see the water fall. You can see it in the distance.
As you follow the path this is what you come across. It isn’t a natural water fall, definitely man made. When you get close to it you can see the concrete. I don’t know what was here before, but the water fall has been put here for some reason. It is also too uniform, look at that line across the top, too straight. Still it is lovely to look at. Though, having said that it wasn’t good to smell. I think with all the rain we have had it was cleaning something out.
It was very hard to photograph. I didn’t get many images of it. When I first saw it, it was late afternoon and I thought it would be too hard to photograph when it was late in the day. I had decided to go in the morning. I thought the sun would be on it and be more even. I hadn’t anticipated that I would get sharp shadows, and that there would be such high contrast between the two.
I did make a mistake and set my exposure for the shadows, which then burnt out the water where the sun hit it. I would like to go back another time, maybe when it is overcast, or later in the day, maybe both.
I tried to correct for the light and dark, but it was too hard. I should have thought more about it. It can’t be perfect every time, so next time I will be more careful.
Another reason I would like to go back is because the walls of Pentridge Prison are nearby and I would love to take some photos of what is left of it. Another piece of our history that is being turned into housing. Not that a prison is necessarily a great thing, but it is an important part of what Melbourne is. I can’t believe people would want to live there.
So until next time, here are the not so good images. All HDRs, processed with Photomatix and post editing done in Photoshop.
Even if “imperfect”, they are beautiful!
Thank you, imagine if the conditions had been better. Next time.
It’s good to read your technical explanations for these shots, it creates the context and explains the results. I agree the contrast was just too high.
I suppose that is what I want to do with this blog, though I forget from time to time to do that. Yes, contrast way too high. Will know now and next time will make sure I go at a more appropriate time.
I’m fairly sure that what you’ve photographed is essentially the weir that was put in to create Coburg Lake, often there’s very little water going over it but because of the rain there’s more than usual. On Pentridge I like that they’ve retained the walls, but actually I don’t particularly mind the idea of the prison being used for housing. Personally I wouldn’t have a problem living on an old prison site except for the fact that they seem to be being some fairly soulless apartments there.
Yes, that would make sense. The river is very wide there. I thought perhaps the rain had put a lot more water there. It looked great.
I just wish with Pentridge that they had kept some of it, maybe the older part. It is one the most infamous jails in Melbourne, and it would have been nice to be able to go there and see it, whenever you wanted to. Turn it into a museum of some sort, not all of it, but some. I find those places really fascinating. So much nicer to go to them when they are no longer being used. It is also one of the oldest, so it does upset me a little that part of our history is being ripped up for those soulless apartments.
There’s still a fair bit of it there so I’m wondering if they are planning to do something other than housing with at least part of it. If not though I absolutely agree with you about the constant loss of our history to developers – really sad.
We have similar structures here, and they’re usually part of an old mill complex or dam. They ARE tough to photograph well…the time of the year can make as much difference as the time of day because of the different angle of the sun…
Yes, I agree, they are difficult. I think perhaps they work better with overcast days, and there is no sun, so you don’t get the high contrast. I might head back another time when it isn’t so sunny.