Orange, Clockwork

I Think It's Beyond A Shadow Of Doubt

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

These images were shot in late June this year, as I walked toward a city car park. It was early in the afternoon and there was a strong breeze tossing the thin branches of nearby saplings that had not quite lost all their foliage.

I stopped to admire the shadows dancing across the walls of a nearby building. Then, as I approached the car park, I realised the shadows etched an interesting motif across the bright orange tiles of the support pillars.


Doesn't matter if you’re in a hurry. When you see a sight that forces you to stop and admire it, you simply have to gets the lens cap off your camera and shoot the scene.

Light is capricious. Trust me. A great light effect you see today might not be there tomorrow or the day after.


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Stare Case

Photographers Are Life’s Translators

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Sometimes I get asked why I enjoy taking photographs of "ordinary’" sights. I always smile when that happens - because there is really no such thing as an ordinary sight. It’s all in the mind really.

Beauty does not only exist in mountains or lakes. It literally is everywhere - but it depends on what catches our fancy. There is the ability in all of us to see wonder in everyday objects, not just in dewdrop-bedecked cobwebs that look like jewelled tiaras.

Think of the photographer’s role as being akin to that of a translator. I would not be able to understand Swahili, for instance, unless I had someone translating for me. And, along the same line of thought, a photographer can sometimes show you a sight that you might not stop and admire on your own.

So can you guess what I’ve photographed here? It’s simply a staircase. Just a handrail supported by vertical bars. And just a wall. But when you put them together, the sum total of what you see can sometimes be out of the ordinary.

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I Haven't The Foggiest

Where Are You Pointing Your Camera?

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Sometimes it pays to point your camera in the opposite direction to the main attraction. This was shot about three weeks ago, during a heavy fog. I shot some images of the grey blanket that covered our wintry city.

Then, as I began walking across the pedestrian footbridge between Southbank and Flinders Street Station, I noticed that the sun was starting to break through. I looked down and had to stop immediately, to shoot this reflection of a nearby building, reflected on the surface of the Yarra River below me.

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Keep It Under Your Hat

We Told You To Go To Ireland, Not Fireland

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Street performers are fairly common in the Southbank area of Melbourne and as you would expect, they are a dime a dozen during the warm summer months, when the sun rises early and doesn’t set until about nine o’clock.

Of course, it’s autumn now. And while the temperatures have scaled back slightly, even the nights are noticeably cooler but the evenings are still long and balmy. As you’d imagine, it all adds up to perfect weather for street entertainers.

I shot these images recently, while a couple of very gifted performers kept a holiday crowd in raptures. The two shots are very deliberately composed, because the first looks like a real helmet perched atop a piece of equipment.

It’s only when you get to the second image (below) that you see the dead giveaway that it’s not real - see the huge purple water gun on the left of the frame?

Now you can see, too, that it’s a plastic helmet. And everything is secured, by an extendable strap, to a suitcase-on-wheels. When the act is over, the "fire chief" packs up his gear and wheels the whole lot onto his next venue.


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The Last Straw

I’m Not Talking Through My Hat

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

A few days ago, I was walking across the pedestrian footbridge from Southbank to Flinders Street Station, when I noticed a strange sight. I’m accustomed to seeing black swans on the Yarra, as well as a variety of other birds.

But there was something in the water that I could not identify. It was a long way away. Was it an albino duck?

It was 100 degrees and the sun was beating down mercilessly. But I simply had to solve the mystery.

Then I realised it wasn’t a bird. Was the tide bringing it closer to me or away from me? It was hard to tell. Then, with the object about 100 metres away, the penny dropped.

It was a woman’s broad-brimmed straw hat, a familiar – and popular - piece of headgear on scorching summer days like this. But Melbourne’s breeze is capricious and very strong. Sometimes you really need to hold on to your hat in more ways than one.


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Bench Press

Throw Some Light On The Matter

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

What’s silver and red and dotted around the business district? The answer is very simple - benches.

I often walk past these benches during the day and of course, all I see is the moulded silver strips that comprise their form. But four or five weeks ago, we were walking past them on a long summer evening - and I suddenly noticed another aspect.


As dusk advanced, there was a soft red tone to them, emanating from lights switched on automatically under the benches (see photo above) bathing them in a glow that evoked some space-age invention. Even the most mundane sights can look transformed if you take the time to view them differently.

(Extra, extra, read all about it: I've been interviewed here. Thank you to all those who have followed this link and checked out the interview. There have been so many wonderful comments that I've tried to reply to each one personally - but you're setting a cracking pace. My humble and heartfelt thanks to all of you for the wonderful tributes and thoughts you have shared on the interview.)


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The Fall Collection

Autumn Comes Far Too Early To Melbourne

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Three weeks ago, as Melbourne’s record-breaking hot, dry spell began, I noticed that the huge plane trees on our property were starting to shed their leaves, much earlier than normal.

Then we had that terrible run of consecutive days where the mercury hovered in the 115-degree zone, barely cooling down at night. The plane trees were quickly stripped of their leaves, more than semi-denuded not just in the suburbs but in the city centre as well.


I took these shots late on Friday evening, on a pathway in our garden. I keep an old pair of Nikes outdoors at all times and these are my gardening footwear. But as you can see from this shot, the swirling leaves, borne on the hot northerly winds that have fanned our bushfires, have swamped the Nikes.

This blue watering can is a miniature version of my huge watering can nearby. But despite my best efforts, this heatwave, the worst in my memory, has claimed more plants than I think I can save. (And at this point I should mention that none of these objects were moved for better photographic effect, because I simply shoot things where they are, in the existing light.)


It’s strange to think that we are in a hot zone ringed by bushfires, yet Queensland in the north is struggling with terrible flooding. Maybe some of their rain will find its way down here. Fingers crossed …..

Maybe one day this watering can will be filled with rainwater instead of leaves. Maybe I could find some success as a water diviner. Stick around while I try ...


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A Nation In Deep Mourning

Victoria Reels After The Weekend Of Armageddon

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of you who asked if my family is safe. Yes, we are. I have been deeply touched by the scores of emails and comments asking about our safety. As far as possible I have replied personally to every single query. If I missed anyone, my apologies ... but please pray for those who have been hard hit by the fires.

Just to give you an update, this is the worst natural disaster in modern Australian history. No question about it. The previous watersheds were the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983 and, prior to that, Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Day 1974. These pointers are a summary of what has happened since the blazes broke out on Saturday afternoon ....

• 173 dead, the worst bushfire toll in Australia’s history
• 750 homes destroyed and thousands homeless
• At least four children, possibly more, among the dead
  
• Hundreds of refugees flock to Red Cross centres
• Two towns obliterated, Marysville declared a crime scene
  
• Eyewitnesses use a common description: "Armageddon"
• Alfred Hospital, major trauma centre, runs out of morphine
• Fires still burning out of control, despite cooler weather
• Authorities warn some fires could take weeks to contain
• News Limited donates $1 million to Bushfire Appeal
  

Sometimes you see a familiar face when you don't want to. During Sunday night's television coverage of the Black Saturday bushfires, we caught a brief but unmistakable glimpse of someone who recently befriended us.

We met because of his easy humour and his wide grin - and both those sterling qualities were strongly in evidence during his dramatic moments on the nation's television screens.

In July last year, I had just flown into Langkawi, Malaysia, with my family and we were at a resort pool when a big, burly bloke slipped off his perch in the pool bar. He came back up again none the worse for wear, but announced loudly to his wife: "That's the first time I've ever fallen off a bloody bar stool and not hurt myself''.

He had a huge grin on his face.

I spluttered with laughter.

"Fair dinkum, mate,'' he announced, looking in my direction and extending an introductory handshake. "I could get used to this.'' His name was Steve and he introduced me to his wife nearby.

He had a huge grin on his face.

In the space of the next few minutes, we realised that we shared a common link. He was from Melbourne too - and we exchanged notes about just how cold the Victorian capital was when we flew out.

A few minutes later, I excused myself, saying I had to go to the airport, just a few minutes' drive away.

"Airport?'' he asked, "didn't you just get here?''

I nodded. But I explained I was going to collect my mother-in-law, who was flying in from Singapore to spend a few days with us.

He was incredulous. "Mother-in-law? Mate, you're a better bloody man than I am.''

He had a huge grin on his face.

Every time our paths crossed in the resort, Steve would greet us warmly and tell us what a great time they were having in the tropical heat, so far away from the winter frost of Melbourne. When we bumped into each other in the town centre, he would tell us where the best bargains were to be had.

He had a huge grin on his face.

Late on Sunday night, we were about to switch off the television when we saw a familiar face and heard a distinctive voice. It was Steve. He and his family had lost everything they owned. A cellar had saved their lives as the firestorm passed over them.

They had lost everything. But he told the TV interviewer that they were still alive, so they would probably crack open a good bottle of wine to celebrate.

He must have been distraught. He must have been in shock. He and his wife and their kids were probably struggling with their emotions, with the heat, with the fatigue and with the realisation that they had survived Victoria's most deadly bushfires.

But he still had a grin on his face. This time, however, it was only a wry grin.


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Bushfires On Our Doorstep

Did You Tell Me To Go To Blazes?

12.35 pm, Friday 30th January. Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

On Friday morning, things started to go wrong very early in the morning. It was the third successive day with temperatures peaking around 45 Celsius, or 113 Fahrenheit - Melbourne's hottest spell in a century.

At 7.30 am I rang my boss to say my car was overheating and the warning chimes on my instrument panel were sounding like a Brahms concerto. Being the good man that he is, he advised me to take the day off and sort the car out before anything else.

About three hours later, I got a call to say that the problem - an errant fan - had been fixed. As I left the house to pick up the car, I noticed a pall of thick smoke. I knew instantly it was a bushfire. I took the shot that you can see at the top of this post and then left to pick up the car. It was 12.35 am.

As I collected the car, I noticed that the smoke was suddenly much thicker and had taken on a menacing orange tinge. It was also very close. The service manager, the person who had fixed the fan problem, told me his colleagues were monitoring the CFA (Country Fire Authority) website - just in case.

I'm not fond of hot weather, but I went home and grabbed just two things. One was my camera. The other was my media ID - just in case. What follows is a series of shots taken in quick succession.

12.50 pm, Friday 30th January.

I'm looking down the valley and judging by the smoke it seems the CFA firefighters, assisted by heli-tankers, have the situation under control. The orange tinge has vanished. The smoke is thinning out. There is more grey smoke than black.

12.54 pm, Friday 30th January.

Dramatically, the situation changes. Only four minutes later, the smoke is thicker. I can see a brief tongue of flame. The bush, I know, is tinder-dry. The fire is in Churchill National Park and now I can see it is on the move up a valley. Quickly.

I know the area well. There is so much fuel there for a bushfire, after the long, hot, dry summer we've had. Every twig, every fallen branch, every square metre of parched underbrush will act as voracious accelerant.

12.58 pm, Friday 30th January.

The wind is blowing embers ahead of the fire front. There are several black blasts of smoke, thick and gusting. I know each is caused by the fire accelerating rapidly up the valley, consuming everything in its path and travelling swiftly up to the crowns of the tall gums and eucalypts.

12.59 pm, Friday 30th January.

Only a minute later, there is another tongue of flame. It's almost like watching a Hollywood disaster movie. It's only nine minutes since I shot the first frame - and already the bushfire has raced a couple of hundred metres up the valley.

I reach for my cell phone to call my wife. But now the flames are gathering strength. Halfway through dialling her number with my left hand, I stop. I raise my camera in my right hand and shoot as the fire moves rapidly toward the roof in the shot.

1.01 pm, Friday 30th January.

It's a minute past one o'cock. Only 11 minutes have elapsed since my first shot. The breeze carries a hint of menace. I put my camera down. I dial my wife's number and tell her I am dropping everything. I tell her there has been a quick change of plans. We face no immediate danger, but the rapid advance of the fire will soon threaten our youngest child's school.

Do I turn around and take the short cut to the school? I opt for the longer route, knowing there will be less traffic. It is a wise decision. The shorter route has several vehicles parked on either side. The media have taken up vantage spots, members of the public are watching the situation carefully before making up their own minds whether to evacuate or not, and there is a command post there as well.

For years, we've been warned that bushfires don't just take place in the bush. The CFA has continually stressed that even those of us who live in the burbs need to be bushfire-savvy and to have a contingency plan. What happened on this day was the perfect validation of their campaign. This time, though, we were lucky. It was just a wake-up call.

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True Blue

The Stirring Sight Of The Southern Cross

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

These shots were taken about six or seven months ago, during a celebration in Federation Square. I was actually concentrating on several other things that were happening all around me when I saw a woman walk past in this striking waistcoat.

I quickly shot two frames, unposed, while she went about her chores. As soon as she took a breather, I told her that I had photographed her patriotic garb and then showed her each frame on the LCD screen of my camera, much to her delight.

That evening, I was about to upload the shots onto my blog and then I thought I’d put them aside for Australia Day. It’s now two o’clock in the morning on Tuesday 27th January, but it’s still Australia Day (Monday 26th January) in most of the world – and will be for several hours.

The design of the national flag was chosen from more than 32,000 entries submitted by members of the public and based on almost identical sketches sent in by five people, including a teenage schoolboy named Ivor Evans.

It first flew above the Exhibition Building in Melbourne in 1901, the year of Federation. If you want to know why the flag was flown here in my home city and not in the capital, Canberra, there is a very simple answer. The Australian Capital Territory was only founded in 1911, so Canberra did not even exist in the year of Federation.

On the flag, the Commonwealth star is the large white star, while the Southern Cross, so important in Aboriginal tales and the history of this young colony, is represented by five smaller white stars.

And here’s an interesting piece of trivia. Because the Southern Cross is not visible in northern skies, there are no Greek or Roman myths or legends associated with it.


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Service With A Smile

Welcome To The High Court

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Sometimes you see just the shot you want – and you have to put everything else aside for a minute or two. I had just arrived at Richmond station, where I always change to get a direct train to Flinders Street. The announcement informed commuters that the next train to Flinders would be arriving on platform seven in a minute.

So the rush of passengers went lemming-like down the walkway and turned right for platform seven. I turned left instead, heading alone towards platform one. Why? Because I had spotted these flags, advertising the 2009 Australian Open tennis tournament, fluttering above nearby Punt Road.

There’s something else you need to take into account here. It was one of those scorching Melbourne days, with the mercury edging past the three-figure mark.

Me, I hate the heat, but there I was heading away from an air-conditioned train, just to take these photographs.

The wind was whipping in from the north, a cruelly hot wind that brought the embrace of the desert. And no matter where I stood, the wind blew the flags away from me, on a severe angle. Just my luck, I thought. I shot a few frames anyway.

If you look carefully at the bottom of the first image, you'll see clear proof that the flags were flying away from me - the last seven white letters of the words "Melbourne Park" are back-to-front.

Just as I was about to walk away, thinking I would have to come back the next day, the direction must have changed fractionally, or the intensity must have lessened marginally. For a split second, the flags were almost where I wanted them.

By the way, the Australian Open, the first grand slam of the calendar year, can often be a test of spectators’ sartorial skills. It is played in two different sessions each day and it’s not uncommon for fans to start a session wearing shorts and a T-shirt, but to be digging into their bags for a warm jumper before the last point is won and lost.

Just don’t let your spirits flag.


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Way To Go

Some Folk Just Need A Little Direction

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Early last month I was making the most of a brief lunchtime walk through City Square here in Melbourne, when I fixed my radar on a person walking several metres in front of me. She was in her late fifties - oh, all right, maybe she was in her early sixties but not a day older. She was striding purposefully through the summer crowds. And she caught my attention because of what she was wearing.

So I went into overdrive, zig-zagging between shoppers, tourists, lunchtime office workers and children on school excursions. I wanted a picture of the back of the woman's bright red T-shirt. Not just because it was emblazoned with the world Melbourne, but because the black strap of her bag went diagonally through the letters spelling out the name of this city.

I found myself within range and took two or three quick shots. Then, as she stopped for a traffic light, I took another that was a better frame. At the intersection, I finally caught up with her and fessed up, with a big grin, that I'd just photographed her without her knowledge. She was very sporting and when I showed her the images, she gave me her approval.


As you can see clearly in this shot (above) the corporate logo is Me!bourne with an exclamation mark instead of the L. I asked if she and others in the distinctive uniform were part of a new city initiative designed to help tourists and Christmas shoppers unused to the layout of the city. She said with a smile that it isn't a new role and that she and several others have been in the service for a few seasons, as part of the Melbourne Ambassadors programme.

It's all part of the wonderful Australian hospitality. If you're lost, they'll give you the finger. No, no, not THAT finger. They'll point you in the right direction.


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Star Light, Star Bright

First Star I See Tonight

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

We were walking down Bourke Street in the city centre recently, showing the Christmas illuminations to overseas visitors. The seasonal decorations may not be on the grand scale of Hong Kong or Singapore, but they are always a big attraction, especially now that the summer evenings are so long.

I was on the other side of the street when I noticed this single star in a store window. We were on our way back to the car, but I knew I had to sprint across to take the shot.

I guess the thing that really caught my attention was not just the elongated shape of the star, but a couple of other factors as well. For one thing, it was the soft colours and shades in the window. And of course the clincher was that there was nothing else in the window, just the single star.

It was the perfect example of solitary beauty.

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Silver Lining

Up There With The Best

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Last week, just a couple of nights before Christmas, we walked into the GPO and were confronted with an unusual sight. There was a two-man team inflating silver balloons of different shapes and sizes. Each multi-balloon shape was distinct from the other, much in the manner of glistening silver snowflakes.

I asked if there was a specific corporate connection to the designs, but the two men just shook their heads and said they will inflating them (with helium, I suspect) to form huge Christmas decorations against the soaring GPO ceiling.

The ceiling of the historic building would probably be the height of a modern five-storey building or higher.

It was dark outside and I took two shots before I noticed this one in the left-hand corner of the GPO, where it had drifted away from the others. In the late-evening setting, it looked for all the world like one of a set of gigantic, regal chandeliers.


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Sunny Side Up

Simple Light And Shade Can Bring A Great View

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

At this time of year, I guess it would be completely appropriate to post a photograph of one of the religious symbols of central Melbourne - a slightly different view of St Paul's Cathedral. Both these shots were taken a few days ago, under a lunchtime sun.

More than simply sharing this post with you, I'd like to show you what a vast difference can be achieved by instinctive composition.

I was walking back to work when I idly looked up as I waited for the lights to change outside Flinders Street Station. My attention was arrested by the sight of the solitary white cloud in a huge expanse of brilliant blue sky.

I had my Sigma 18-125 mm lens on the camera, which was perfect for this shot, even though I was also carrying my 70-300 mm lens. I took this shot at the full extent of the 125 mm lens and chose to ignore the main spire. Instead, I used the exposed brickwork on the main spire as a simple, angular silhouette against the bright sky, and I chose to make the secondary spire the central point of attention.

Sometimes, asymmetrical composition can be more arresting than a standard, symmetrical aspect. Here, I was just lucky to have strong colours, arresting shapes and a great colour contrast. And maybe it's my early background in newspaper and magazine design that magnetises my attention to a close-in frame at an unusual angle.

By the way, in case you were wondering what the more formal view of the scene looked like, here it is below. It's the same scene, in the same light, taken from the same angle - and according to the electronic data on the images, the two shots are a mere nine seconds apart.

Yes, it's still a handy shot, but it is not endowed with that look-at-me immediacy of the first.


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