Tall Story

Eureka, I Think I've Got It

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

As a proud photographer, a proud Melburnian and a proud Australian, it is my very great pleasure to be able to share a unique subject with you today, in response to the Photo Hunt theme of "High". Our very own Eureka Tower here at Southbank, beside the Yarra River in Melbourne, is the tallest apartment building in the world. How tall? Make that 300 meters tall, comprising 92 storeys, with the amazing Skydeck established as a major tourist attraction.

This first shot (above) was taken with a little Pentax Optio 33LF, back in June 2005. I was walking down Flinders Street, early on a Saturday morning. I started shooting a city-based sequence long before dawn and by the time I got to this spot, the sun was just starting to cast a glow through heavy cloud in the east. To the west, the cloud was fragmented and the sky was a delicate range of colours.

I shot this from the northern pavement of Flinders Street. As you can see, construction of Eureka Tower was still in progress. To the right is the silhouette of the famous dome of Flinders Street Station and to the left is the perimeter wall of Federation Square, built to commemorate the centenary of Federation, which took place in 1901. The perimeter wall, interestingly enough, brings a touch of parallax to the scene. And yes, that's a bird in flight above the brown building to the right of Eureka.

This shot (above) was taken when heavy fog blanketed Melbourne in July 2007 - which is slap-bang in the middle of our winter. I shot two frames that morning, one horizontal and one vertical. The horizontal shot is a striking image, but I felt then (as I still do) that this vertical frame is more compelling.

To the left is the IBM building, to the right is the Langham Hotel, formerly the Sheraton. And disappearing into the thick fog is Eureka, the tallest symbol of the city I live in. There is something that is "just right" about this image, for which I was bent like a wannabe contortionist. This, and all the other photographs in this sequence, were taken with my Pentax K100D.

I shot this image (above) last October, just after five o'clock in the morning, on Sturt Street in south Melbourne. The colours of the sky were just right for this sort of skyline shot. And then I had a stroke of luck. The floodlights on the angular sculpture in the foreground are normally a range of pink and orange. But they suddenly turned yellow, probably in a final sequence before shutdown as dawn approached. I published a vertical frame from this series of shots the day I took them, but this horizontal frame captures more nuances of all-round colour and perspective. Yes, the colours are natural - and no, none of these images have been edited, cropped or digitally enhanced. That ain't my style.

This shot (above) was taken in mid-2007. I was walking towards Southbank and shot this on a whim, without even breaking stride. Why? Because it just seemed a fitting way to capture the solitary splendour of the towering landmark.

This shot was taken (and published on this blog) in September 2006, from the footbridge conecting Southbank to the northern side of the city. I was actually shooting Princes Bridge across the water when I noticed a billiant patch of blue sky above Eureka Tower. I shot this frame exactly where I stood, using the metal arch of the footbridge as a natural prop.

Remember the famous motorcycle sequence in the Nicolas Cage movie "Ghost Rider"? That scene was shot on the same arch in this photograph. I shot this using a versatile 18-125mm Sigma lens. The focal length of this shot was a mid-range 58mm.

This final shot (above) in the sequence was taken about a month ago, the first day I was experimenting with my new 70-300mm Sigma lens. It was lunchtime on a warm Melbourne afternoon and this was one of the first frames I shot using the full focal length of 300mm. The top of the gigantic apartment building seemed so close that I felt I could almost touch it.

And if you're wondering, yes, Eureka Tower will turn off all lights for Earth Hour later today. That's not a tall story.

Cage Is No Faint Nicolas

Melbourne Celebrates With `Ghost Rider'

This bridge features prominently in the hit movie `Ghost Rider'.

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

There is a special reason for Melburnians to be proud that the Nicolas Cage film `Ghost Rider' has taken first place at the US box office. The Sony film - with Cage as a motorcycle stunt driver moonlighting as a collector of evil souls for the devil - took in $44.5 million on its opening weekend. It was slightly more than double the return for Disney's `Bridge to Terabithia', which took in $22.1 million. The impressive stats for `Ghost Rider' were a new record for the President's Day weekend.
So why are the good citizens of Melbourne rejoicing vicariously? Because much of the movie was filmed here, that's why. The high-octane action flick, based on the Ghost Rider Marvel comics, was filmed at several locations in and around Melbourne and more than 500 Victorians worked on the movie. The most expensive film ever shot in Melbourne, it transforms a genteel city into the home of a ``flaming-skulled, chain-wielding merchant of vengeance''.
This shot of the title character zooming over the bridge (left) is one of the more memorable images in the film, so I thought I'd take some shots to give you a feel for the place.
The bridge in the signature stunt sequence is actually the graceful, arched footbridge that connects Southbank to Banana Alley, just across the Yarra River.
Despite the hot weather blanketing Melbourne at the moment, the area that features so prominently in the action sequences was rather foggy this morning, so I went down there with my camera as the city came to life.
I took the first of the two pictures (at the top of this blogpost) to give you an idea of the size of the bridge and just how daunting the task was.
As you can see, it would have been a long way to fall if things went wrong. And just to give you a different view of the bridge, I shot the second frame, the aerial view, from the HWT building next door. Look closely at the frame and you'll see a silver-and-blue train pulling into Flinders Street station - which in turn will give you an idea of perspective and size.
Melburnians will be watching the film sequences very carefully - to pick out familiar, everyday locations. Almost 80 per cent of `Ghost Rider' was filmed at prominent city locations during a six-month shoot in the first half of 2005. Some sequences were filmed at the Docklands film studios on the waterfront.
The supervising location manager, Russell Boyd, said city landmarks like Telstra Dome, Southbank, the Showgrounds, Carlton's Melbourne General Cemetery, the University of Melbourne and Treasury Gardens were some of the locations used in the film. ``They really wanted it to be a fairly nondescript town in Texas, although that's never explicitly mentioned,'' Boyd said.
Writer and director Mark Steven Johnson hit the nail on the head when he said, in a written statement, that Melbourne is a city of many moods and many faces. ``Every neighbourhood's different. Cobblestone streets, like in the Village in New York. And then suddenly there's cable cars and you're in San Francisco. You're in Chicago and there's the river and the bridge.''
The bridge, in fact, featured prominently during an intensive three-day shoot at Southbank, when film bosses made a special request of the skyscrapers on either side of the river. All office towers complied with a special request to leave their lights blazing during shooting. And the shooting itself was a real buzz for the good citizens of this city.
I remember driving into the area just before dawn one morning and seeing helicopters and police cars - before I realised all was well and that it was simply a scene being shot for the movie. Despite the hour (and the weather) there were still onlookers watching, ready to tell of the day they saw a Hollywood action movie being. So, as actors dangled from ropes and the stuntmen performed spectaular feats, the cameras rolled, transforming our city into a celluloid wonderland.
Like they say, there ain't nuthin' bigger than Texas. Except Melbourne, maybe!