A New Project

[Ray]

For some time now i have wanted to get a decent photo of the German Howitzer that resides in the Memorial Park, I went down there just after it had been put in the new shelter but found that I could not really get a good shot in bright daylight due to the reflection in the glass windows.  My plan was to wait for one of those days when it is bright but overcast, as this provides a good even light with few shadows and not much reflection, it just never seemed to come together. On the days that were suitable I either forgot, or was engaged in something else.

So, a week or so ago I decided to wait for the first warmish night and go down there after dark and try some time exposures. On Wednesday night at about 10:30pm I went downto have a look. It was not going to be easy, as there were several small problems with such things as the windows being smaller than I remembered, and also the fact that some of our local idiots had used something to scratch the surface of the glass. Never the less, I thought that seeing I was there and everything else was in place I might as well have a go, I took several photos  and on my way out decided to try a real challenge and take a photo of the Memorial Gate with only the ambient light which came from a street light about 50 metres away on the other side of the road.

   


   
On the left the photo was taken with just the natural light, and on the right I shone my 'nearly flat" torch on the ground at my feet just to get rid of the shadow on the right hand pillar.

As a result of these photos I have decided to go out and try to learn show to take good night shots, so I will be starting a "Jamestown By Night" project soon.

More.....

[utegirl70]

I had to ask the M.O.T.H about where this was... he seemed to know! I can't recall it, so will have to have a look when we are up next. 

And.... look forward to seeing your "Jamestown By Night" project! 

[Ray]

I had to ask the M.O.T.H about where this was... he seemed to know! I can't recall it, so will have to have a look when we are up next.  

And.... look forward to seeing your "Jamestown By Night" project!  

Your confusion is not unexpected, as I think that the old gun was either just sitting in the park on a concrete slab, or may even have been removed at that stage for refurbishment.  By that time it had become quite unsafe, as the old wooden wheels had rotted and were in great danger of collapsing and upon close examination many of the parts were literally rusting away.

I don't know who's idea it was originally to do something about it, but there were a number of persons who spent many hours and many dollars out of their own pockets to do the work.  Catford Engineering provided the workshop and a great deal of work on it over several years virtually pulling it to pieces and completely rebuilding it making and replacing those parts that needed it.  I know that Trev Wehrmann spent many hours chasing people up and working on it and also Nicholas Hector did a huge anount of research into it's history.

Something that I noticed was that it does have a breech block and for the life of me I cannot remember it from the days when as kids we used to sit and climb all over it.

The only thing that gets up my nose about the whot thing is that someone decided to christen it a "Cannon" which is an archaic term, I suppose from the German title "Canone". You find this term in all of the literature and signage relating to the gun, it is actually a Howitzer or more technically, a Mountain Howitzer, because of the short barrel.  The word "cannon" is more suited to those old guns seen on warships in the days of pirates.

I will be starting on my Jamestown by Night project as soon as we start to get a few warm nights again, as at the moment the nights are more like those of winter again.

[Ray]

My apologies for not getting back to this subject.  I have had an extremely busy week.

After Utegirl's confusion as to the location of the  Krupp "Cannon" , I went and took several photos, but just never got to put them in this thread.



Here you can see the gun and shelter just inside the Memorial Gate

[utegirl70]

Thanks for the new photo Ray. Yes, now that I'm looking at it from this perspective, I DO recall the cannon now.

Your previous night time photos through me off... and the addition of the glass case. Will have to have a proper looksee when we pop up. 

[Ray]

Righto,... I finally got my nice calm, warm night to start taking a few photos of Jamestown by Night.

It took a while, and I never took photos of all the buildings in the main street, some were totally unlit, and others have had to be taken slightly "skew whiff" as there was a tree or vehicle parked right in the way of a good shot.

I'll put them up one or two at a time and in no particular order.

Taken from the far side of the median strip with a small amount of magnification using only the available light. It's a bit grainy, as is to be expected shooting at night using natural light.


The blue colour in the sky must be moonlight or back scatter, as it had been completely dark for over an hour when this photo was taken.

[Ray]

I'm finding out some of the traps that await the low light photographer. In an effort to get as much detail as possible i have been using the wideangle lens, it looks OK through the view finder, but upon looking at the resulting photos they show a lot of perspective distortion, this can be fixed quite easily, but you end up with a photo that is nearer square format instead of 6:4. This is the reason why the photo of the National bank is the shape that it is.




The photo below was taken from further away, and I was still able to crop a 6 x4 photo out of the corrected image.

[Susie]

Did the lads in the first photo "pose" for you?

[Ray]

I think they were wondering, who was the silly old barsteward trying to take photos at night from 40 metres away without a flash.   I was really surprised how still they must have all been as the exposure was at least two seconds.

I tried two methods in many photos, time exposure without flash, and the "Night portrait" using time exposure and fill in flash. Some worked a lot better than others depending on the amount of ambient light. The Commercial Hotel itself, was not a great success because of the vast contrast between the well lit ground floor, and the almost totally darkened upper floor.

[utegirl70]

Particularly love the NAB bank photo.

That's Orbs in the main street pic! That, or you got a bit of something on your lens. 

[Ray]

The Banks are definitely the most striking buildings in the street. Hopefully my technique will improve a bit as I learn from my mistakes.

I also tried a few other shots, this one below turned out the best of a very mediocre lot.

[utegirl70]

Ooooh, puuuurty!