Old Amcor Factory 1_B&W Freeform Panoramas

These photographs were made in an abandoned factory... a wonderful place to explore...
I have been experimenting with a multiple image 'Photomerge' process and in normal circumstances I would crop the final image into rectangular panoramas... however I am really enjoying the rather 'free-form' results of the un-cropped versions and feel they make perfect sense in what is a complex and often visually chaotic environment ... the organic shapes (and sometimes even cross-shaped forms) make an interesting counterpoint to the harsher industrial forms...

Autumn Leaves

Autumn is such a lovely time of year ... still days, intense colours and autumn leaves ...

Brunswick Streets 03

Walking the streets of Brunswick ...I think this pic says it all ...

Brunswick Streets 02_ Signage

Another addition to the collection of old signage ...

New Moon

And now for something really different... a view of the full moon out the back door...

Brunswick Streets 01

Driving through the streets of Brunswick recently... always full of interesting visual surprises and graffitied old buildings awaiting the dreaded developers ...

Tasmania_B&W 4

I thinks these are the last of the Tasmania trip B&W variations ... time to move onto a new project ...

Tasmania_B&W 3 (Variations)

The process of approaching something 'photoworthy' and selecting a viewpoint, distance, framing, lens choice, etc, etc, has always amused me... especially when travelling, where images are often made in a great hurry, due to time pressures brought about by any number of factors... I often find I make images in very short time frames ...

I am putting these images up as an example of exploring the same site from different viewpoints and on two different occasions ... evening light (on arrival) and early morning light (on leaving) ... in this case in Stanley ... It also reminds me of discussions I have had with friends, discussing the possibility of exhibiting work made on the same site, knowing that the work would be a very different interpretation of that site ...

Tasmania_B&W 2

A few more B&W variations from the Tasmania trip ...

Tasmania_B&W 1

Can't resist putting up some of the Tasmania trip in black & white versions ... 

The odd thing is that when I made images in the analogue / film days, if the camera was loaded with B&W film, I only thought in B&W terms ... i.e.. tonal and structural relationships ... 

If I wanted to make images in colour it was a completely different thinking process due to the more 'psychological' relationships you can explore in colour and the fact that colour relationships can work in significantly different ways to tonal ones ... the strange thing was I remember being able to 'switch modes' quite easily, even if the main focus of the day was working in large format B&W materials, I could pick up a 35 mm SLR loaded with transparency material, and immediately switch to 'colour mode' ...

In the digital world, I find it harder to separate these functions and find I mostly think in terms of colour relationships .. especially given the colour preview on the camera... non film people (ie. the younger ones) ... often struggle with the idea that in film days, there was no preview ... you just had to get it right! 
I also find that the B&W side only comes out later in the editing  process ... maybe Leica have got it right making a dedicated B&W digital camera ? ...
Does anyone else feel this way?...

Tasmania_Extras 3

A little more play with image series ...Reflection in windows and Bollards ... courtesy of the wonderful town of Stanley (Tasmania) ... and finally a triptych taken from the porthole of the Princess of Tasmania as we were leaving Devonport and heading for home ...

Tasmania Trip_Extras 2

I keep finding more images from the Tasmanian trip ... these ones a little more abstract in nature, but can't resist putting them up... The great thing about digital cameras is that it allows you to work in a 'digital sketchbook' process,... especially when you consider the rapid pace you have to make images when you are travelling... somehow you are supposed to have the time to ponder and create... but it never seems to happen that way... you are always 'on the run' ...