Canberra Series - Part 2 - Civic (Dial Up Warning)

[daniel_r]

This is Part 2 of my series on Canberra. Part 1 - Parliament House gives a bit of background behind the exercise.

In part 2 I've attempted to capture various elements of Civic. For those not familiar with the layout of Canberra, Civic is essentially the CBD area in the centre of the Canberra urban area.

All images from a D70, 18-70 kit and a circular polariser.

Click for larger.

#1


#2 - Territory Colours captured!


#3


#4


#5 - couldn't help it


#6


#7


#8 - Sunday brew. Unfortunately I didn't have the 50/1.4 with me.


The whole set is here

As usual - good, bad or indifferent critique and comment appreciated.

[macka]

I really enjoyed #4 for the colours and textures and #6 works well as an abstract. Nice set of photos.

[huynhie]

Great shot Daniel,

this time around I can't help but like number 6 the best.

[Alpha_7]

#1 Not bad, but not sure I like the affect of the CPL it is a bit exagerated

#2 Composition is weak in this one, IMO. A few things just aren't right and make for distractions

#3 This done doesn't interest me much, and I'm not a fan of the flare -sorry

#4 Interesting, but I'm not sure what the story of the shot is. I do like the opposing textures and colours.

#5 I like this one, the colour, the lines and the reflection they all come together well in this shot

#6 My favourite shot, love the repeating pattern this one really works for me and may be more powerful with less sky, I really love this shot

#7 I like the colours, and the bird

#8 I can't believe they served you coffee in that cup, seems dodgey. The shadow is a little distracting and the spoon leads out of the shot. The bokeh aint great I guess the 50 1.4 would of really helped.


Sorry if I sound overly negative Daniel, while I didn't like a few of the shots I think #6 is awesome!

[stubbsy]

Daniel. For me #1 and #6 are the standouts. THe heavy CP effect really brings out the blues in #1 and the abstractness of #6 has strong appeal.

You look your on a roll with these. Keep it up.

[Newidude]

#6 for sure

Any image that requires a second glance and a hard stare to try and figure out what it is has done its job IMHO

[Willy wombat]

Interesting to see some new perspectives of ye olde Canberra. The coffee cup shot suffers from the brown marking on the cups. I like the cranes. Good contrast.

[daniel_r]

Thanks everyone.

#6 - seems to be a favourite with most people. There's just something about the lighting that gives it a certain glow. Most pleased with how this turned out.

Craig, thanks for your responses. I don't see them as negative at all, just how a different eyes see them

#1 - strangely I was deliberately after the overcooked CPL look - I spotted this a few weekends ago looking through polarised sunnies and was drawn in by the simple saturated colours - yellow and green on the top of the cranes, the white frame and the blue sky. Unfortunately the image doesn't capture the immensity of the actual thing in real life - we're talking probaly 20-30 stories high here!

#2 - I'd agree, the composition isn't as strong in this one, but I went with a different aim - to get the saturated yellow against the deep blue (the Territory's colours are yellow and blue in this shade). The ACT LA building is strange though, it's pretty ugly really

#3 - yeah, I was just mucking about with a reflection in a window of an empty cafe and liked the look of the colours - the mauve chair, the sage light panel under the bar, the cedar look of the table and the white napkin and the shadow on the curve of the salt shaker. Couldn't do much about the flare with so many light sources

#4 - this was me giving the D70 hell . This image has 4 bad technical traits about it - moiré (horizonal lines in rear building), noise (red corrugated surface), CA (bit of tree in the gap at mid LHS) and polarisation effects (of the laminated glass in the building behind). But I'm not too concerned, it was colour, shapes, textures and the way the light was falling I was looking for.

#5 - walked past this building for the last 6 years, and have been figuring out how to approach it for a while. Initially I was going to go for something like "Colonial Mutual... reflection of a former self". Ended up going for the matrix look.

#6 - I had another couple of shots with less sky, but they didn't seem to bring out the blue in the extruded window boxes.

#7 - just goofing around while I waited for my Big Breaky and Flat White


#8 - as above really. The minimum focal length of the kit was a bit of a pain, and I looked like an idiot taking a picture of a coffee cup! Giving up on not having the 50/1.4, I went with colour harmony instead - crema/biscotti/table/table behind and lavazza logo/blues in bg.

Probably should clean the marks up a bit in PS, I'm usually more concerned with the contents of the cup rather than the exterior
Looks like just an espresso drip mark to me...


WW - yeah, hopefully some of these are different for locals too!

[ozczecho]

Mate, I enjoyed your 1st series a lot and the 2nd is as good or even better.

#1 I like the simple symmetry between the cranes and the contrast to the blue sky. As was mentioned we dont get the feeling that these are huge cranes though

#2 - I actually like it. I like how the roof line slices the picture. Id be tempted to clone out the wing(is it a wing?) on top of the roof. I love how the awning flies out at you.

#6 just great and probably the best shot.

Thanks for sharing.

[marcotrov]

Daniel you have an eye for detail and composition. #6 is a standout visually stimulating image with terrific contrast between sky and building and vibrant colour.
cheers
marco