An evening in Newcastle, Australia - #2
Newcastle, NSW, Australia. A city that has so much! It offers great beaches (one that hosts an International Surfing Competition), beautiful coastal walks and, a wonderful selection of Cafes, Restaurants and, Pubs. About half an hours drive to the west is the Hunter Valley, world known for its wonderful wineries and products of the vine plus the awesome food that can be found in Restaraunts attached to those vineyards. Also to the west is Lake Macquarie, a 20 minute drive from Newcastle. It is a city in its own right that offers the largest coastal saltwater lake that covers about 110 square kilometres (about twice the size of Sydney Harbour). Of course this Lake is home to many a sailboat and fishing boat and also has some areas for a spot of bushwalking.
There is a saying that a city with a horizon full of Tower Cranes and Construction Equipment is a good indicator of economic growth and a key indicator of a strong city. That sounds like Newcastle!
One thing I love to do is wander about the streets of Newcastle just before Sunset, when the shadows meet the sunshine at the end of the day. It's a bit of a challenge to take photos just after the Sun sets. The light disappears quickly and I usually end up with some nice photos with just too much camera shake. I have learned to deal with this by trusting my camera (Canon 90D) and setting the ISO to automatic. It takes out the stress of missing out on capturing that photo whose subject would be gone or changed in a split second.
Now, the title of this post is about an 'evening' in Newcastle. When I went out with mate Luke for this particular safari, it was what the clock would call 'evening' but, daylight saving had just commenced in NSW and so it was still as bright as day at 6pm.
The one thing that I must learn when I do these photo safaris, is that I need to consider what equipment I will need and take the rest out of my bag so I am not lugging around a couple of tonne (exaggerated of course!) camera gear. All of these photos are taken with my Canon 90D and Canon EF-S 18-135 f3.5 lens with the exception of the Harrys Cafe de Wheels photo where I swapped to a Tamron 10-22mm wide angle. I also had a Canon EOS 300V 35mm with Canon EF 50mm f1.4 loaded with a 36 exposure roll of Ilford Delta 3200. More on that film in my next post. I did take a light weight tripod with me for some long exposures I wanted to capture. But, did I empty my camera bag of all of that not needed gear? No. 'I might need that lens or that filter'......... hahaha. I guess I'll do it one day......
Some of these photos I have converted into Black & White with the help of Silver Efex Pro Software. It does a great job and gives me some really nice outcomes.
Now, being a film photographer as well, I don't mind a bit of grain in a photograph. What I don't like is digital noise! As you can imagine, using the Auto ISO as I wandered around after dark, gave me quite a bit of digital noise. Credit where credit is due, I love the relatively new AI 'Denoise' function in Lightroom that only works on the RAW files. I use it right at the start of my editing whilst the file is in RAW because, if I edit using a plug in, the file gets changed and the Denoise won't work. I believe this has changed now after the latest Light Room release and, I can use it on other files but, I have not investigated it further at this time.
These photos were taken on a Thursday night when I thought there would have been more people wandering the streets. It was probably too early to capture those going out for the entertainment.
Hope you're all well.
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| You can see that it was still pretty light at 06:50pm when this photo was taken. I couldn't get a clear shot because there was a car parked right outside. How nice it was when they left. I swapped my lens over for a Tamron 10-22mm wide angle to capture all of the facade. |
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| This Silver Gull was hanging around just floating on the breeze on the Queens Wharf waiting for a spare fish from the Fisherman (below). There was quite a few of them. |
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| Fishing off Queens Wharf in the harbour is very popular in Newcastle. |
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| Enjoying a quiet drink at the Queens Wharf Brewery as the Sun starts to get lower. It's really a perfect spot to sit and watch the boats on the harbour. |
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| The SM Tiger Bulk Carrier being escorted to its berth by Tugboats |
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| Newcastle has been having a face lift over the last 10 years. Many old buildings have been gutted and restored using the original building facade. Wandering around you can find so many eating places now. Here we see Lyrique Lane with a Bettys Burgers on the corner. |
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| In my opinion, the best thing that the facelift of Newcastle introduced was the light rail. I have mentioned this in one of my previous posts. It's a good addition. We tried many times to get a photo of the light rail in action but it just wasn't meant to be that night. Perhaps a dedicated Light Rail Night visit should be on the cards? |
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| People wandering the streets or, in the Pub celebrating a special day. |
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| Light Rail stop on Hunter Street opposite Crown St, Newcastle |
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| Street lighting in Hunter Street gives an eerie mood. |
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| As I mentioned, there are so many places to eat in Newcastle. |
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| I took a few long exposure shots on the night; this is my fav. The woman on the bike was waiting for the walk signal on the Traffic Lights. In the middle of the 15 second exposure (at f16) the light changed and she moved on. It's amazing how the shot captured her ghosted image as she waited and then her headlight as she moved. |
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