Rodney Campbell's Blog

After visiting the famous Adelaide Central Market we headed back into the city. On the way past Victoria Square we were walking down King William Road when we were passing by the Australia Post office.

Now normally you wouldn’t give an Australia Post shop a seconds thought but even from the outside the old architecture looked intriguing enough for me to venture inside for a quick look. So one of my daughters and I headed inside whilst the rest of the family continued blissfully down the street.

The interior is awesome and I could have spent ages in here making compositions – time was very short however so after a few takes with the 24-70 (my current favourite walkaround lens) I quickly switched to the new Samyang 14mm to try and fit it all in.

Squatting on the floor amongst all the Australia Post shop paraphernalia 🙂 I lined myself directly in the middle of the floor under this fabulous light fixture and pointed up for this shot. This is actually a three bracket HDR (0, -2 and +2EV) which I’ve processed with a natural tone mapping profile. I was originally intending on converting the result to monochrome (as I usually do for these types of architectural shots) but I liked the original green and yellow colouring they had so I’ve kept it.

The Samyang 14mm has hellacious distortion but the Lightroom lens correction profile I’ve got loaded for this lens does a remarkably good job of correcting a lot of the wavy moustache distortion (you should see this uncorrected! – sigh…).

Posted Up

NIKON D600 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 1/30 sec at f/4, ISO 100

On our second day in Adelaide we went for wander down North Terrace in the heart of the city. Much of the space between North Terrace and the River Torrens is occupied by cultural institutions and other public buildings including the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Museum, State Library, Parliament House, Government House, War Memorial and the University.

So many interesting places to look into – however being pressed for time and with young children with limited attention spans we decided to start at the Art Gallery as it also had an exhibition titled “Fashion Icons” (I am in a household of four women after all :)).

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

My youngest loved this display – thats my iPhone wielding child there 🙂

Crystalline Refractions

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 66 mm, 1/80 sec at f/4, ISO 1100

Love these circular leather chairs in the centre of the art gallery.

G4

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm, 1/50 sec at f/4, ISO 2800

and the ceiling is ripe for photographic abuse as well 🙂

H

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/40 sec at f/4, ISO 100

Unfortunately I don’t know who the artist was or what their piece was actually titled but it looked very interesting to the lens…

Zebraoidal

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/4, ISO 3200

Plus my daughters enjoyed the hands on experience for the younger ones – making their own haute couture…

F is for Fashion

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/3.5, ISO 1000

Whilst briefly staying in the city of Adelaide one of my Arcanum apprentices in my Mastery Cohort who lives nearby was kind enough to join me on a very overcast and a little rainy evening for a walk, chat and photography session in the heart of Adelaide.

We wandered around the parklands bordering the River Torrens next to the city CBD and around Adelaide Oval and up to Montefiore Hill to overlook the city. We finally made it back to War Memorial Drive and the new footbridge which joins the CBD to the new Adelaide Oval having just walked and chatted and taken absolutely no photos as yet 🙂

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

I’d earlier spied a spot on the northern end of the footbridge where I thought a pano of the city CBD with the river in the foreground might work around sunset. I setup and we chatted as I took some uninspired frames whilst the skies just got gradually greyer and the drizzle continued. Finally just before 9PM and about half an hour after “sunset” we started getting the blue hour colours in the sky I was hoping for. It also allowed me to use some longer exposures to smooth the water and get the look I was aiming for. Twelve (12) frames later at 40mm on the trusty 24-70 and I had the source material to make the best stab at this given the conditions.

This one is for you Kym – hope you enjoy mate. Thanks for taking the time to play tour guide.

Sweeping into Adelaide

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm, 15 sec at f/16, ISO 100 x 12 Frames

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia.

Early Adelaide was shaped by religious freedom and a commitment to political progressivism and civil liberties, which led to the moniker City of Churches. We didn’t actually visit any churches on the few days we were there however 🙂

Named in honour of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen consort to King William IV, the city was founded in 1836 as the planned capital for a freely-settled British province in Australia. Colonel William Light, one of Adelaide’s founding fathers, designed the city and chose its location close to the River Torrens, in the area originally inhabited by the Kaurna people. Light’s design set out Adelaide in a grid layout, interspaced by wide boulevards and large public squares, and entirely surrounded by parklands.

Visiting the city for a few days as part of a family holiday, we are having a brief stopover on the way to Kangaroo Island.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Staying in the heart of the city on North Terrace we were very close to the Rundle Mall which afforded my girls lots of opportunity for shopping and inspecting the various artworks scattered throughout the mall.

Pleased to Meet You

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/800 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

Oink!

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/500 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

Silvered Balls

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/800 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

Walking into Adelaide Railway Station at ground level I was inspired to take some shots of the architecture within.

Adelaide Railway Station

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/25 sec at f/5.6, ISO 160

Later in the afternoon my two youngest and I ventured out to explore the nearby parklands around the River Torrens. When it started to rain I got my girls to shelter under one of the bridges which cross the river and of course pose for me 🙂

Shelter From the Rain

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/4, ISO 250

It was a grey old day in Sydney this morning. However it was before sunrise, I was in the city and I had all my gear (I know right…) so I headed to Dawes Point to see what could be made.

It was bleak, with a light drizzle served up with a drab colourless twilight and the sun was nowhere to be seen even after the scheduled sunrise time.

Up on Sydney’s Harbour bridge I did the best I could with the grey conditions at hand – I didn’t even bother to get any filters out…

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

About 15 minutes before sunrise and looking back towards the city from the southern pylon when this enormous cruise liner came into the harbour and docked at the OPT in Circular Quay.

Docking

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 2.5 sec at f/11, ISO 100

After “sunrise” I moved back down the pedestrian walkway towards the city to frame up this nice pool of green over Dawes Point with the Opera House when a crack appeared in the sky briefly allowing this just a few minutes after sunrise.

Into the Light

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm, 1/2 sec at f/9, ISO 100