Category: Australia

Photoshoot at Moot Hall

By cpadmin

I did a photoshoot at Moot Hall in Maldon recently. The Trustees and the manager of the Moot Hall in Maldon monument wanted to update their website and publicity material, therefore they needed some new photographs. Three of the images from the day are shown below.

The ground floor of the building opens into the Committee room. Sales and local events are held here. Off the committee room is a beautiful red brick spiral staircase. This staircase has been blocked at the first floor level at some time in past centuries. It is still very photogenic!

On the first floor we find the Court Room. The court room tried people and even had them transported to Australia for stealing a handkerchief! There are more stairs to climb to reach the court room is the council chamber. For the photoshoot the Mayor and her mace bearer came. For the photoshoot both people put on their formal robes and processed in with the mace.

More of the images captured from the photoshoot at the Moot Hall can be seen on our website

Have a look at the Moot Hall Website here

  • Maldon Moot Hall
    The committee room
  • Moot Hall photoshoot
    The stairs lit with candles
  • Moot Hall Photoshoot
    The mayor and mace bearer

Koala competition success

By cpadmin

Koala competition success. Mike achieved two successes in a world-wide photography competition recently. The theme for the competition was “Australia”. There were 441 entries in total. The successful images are below. The one of the Koala bear playing “peep ho” came 17th (meaning it was in the top 4%) and the one of the Cooking Cave at Uluru came 32nd (meaning it was in the top 7%). So in the end, well chuffed!

Koala Competition success
Koala competition success. Koala playing peep ho at Werribee Zoo
The cooking cave Uluru

Compass photography will be returning to publishing image of the week again from this week onwards and updating the website shortly.

See more of our images at WWW.Compassphotography.co.uk

Click here to go to the website of Werribee zoo

Steely grey Sydney nights

By cpadmin

Steely grey Sydney nights

The quayside of the overseas passenger terminal on a December night is the location of “Steely grey Sydney nights”. This is an unusual angle from which to see Sydney harbour bridge. It does not actually go over the top of the passenger terminal it’s quite a way behind. The harbour bridge monstrously dominates the image with two flags at the top of the coat hanger! The title, “Steely grey Sydney nights”, originates from the almost industrial colours in the darkness. The bridge’s far tower, the scattering of people and other dots of colour break away from the steely grey colours. There are leading lines of lights, balustrades and tracks on the floor.

I was surprised to be able to walk about this area. A cruise liner in port might have made a difference. Or is it that passengers use the telescopic walkway and avoid the quayside? Sydney Opera House is across the water 90 degrees on the right of the image.

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm

Settings F4.5, 1/30, ISO 6400

Steely grey Sydney nights
Coat hanger bridge dominates Sydney Passenger Terminal

Night lights – Sydney Australia

By cpadmin

Sydney at night from the Opera House

Night lights – Sydney Australia. Captured under the lea of Sydney Opera House, this image has been cropped to portrait from landscape. The crop to portrait is important for two reasons. Firstly, it cut out a dark uninteresting area of harbour water. Secondly, the effect of the lamps and tall buildings is heightened and they are emphasised by the portrait format.

Night lights – Sydney Australia
Sydney at night from the Opera House

The view looks back toward the city from the promontory where the opera house is. It shows the tall offices and hotels, their lights and the smoky red coloured light pollution hanging over the city. A quick rain shower had cleared the quayside of people. Everyone had dived under the Opera House overhang to shelter. I nipped out with the tripod, camera and remote set up to capture the shot. Until I returned to the UK I didn’t realise what a nice shot this was.

Reflections and leading lines

The glowing orbs of the sentinel pavement lights form a line leading the eye back towards the city. The rain on the pavement additionally allows a glistening reflection of the lights to form another leading line. This complements the “dash-dash” line formed by the paving slabs.

This was a December night and one of my first attempts at night time photography. In the UK it would have been cold then. However, even with the rain a jumper was all you needed down under at that time of the year.

I have a version of this image as a 20” x 30” canvas and it looks great!

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm

Settings: F3.5 1/15 ISO 1600