Weirdly, the turn out this time was all male, we almost convinced a female photographer to come with us but I think she might have worried about what she was getting into! Oh well, she’s got our group details, next time.
The walk started and finished at St Kilda Pier, for the start of the walk it was simply a convenient place to meetup which everyone can easily well find, and later we came here for coffee (which turned out to be terrible - new owners, sigh) and the penguins which were of course awesome this little colony is one of Melbourne’s worst kept secrets. The tourists are beginning to find out which will probably lead to the sanctuary being closed to the public as the tourists are poorly behaved with bright lights, chasing the penguins around and jostling to get their view.
Our little group started out gathering on the rocks next to the pier to make a tiny planet group photo. Naturally we’re all taking photos of each other. The shot was made using a Theta S which is the same camera I use in the Street View trusted photographer program. Ever wondered where those little blue dots and more recently paths of photospheres on Maps come from? Yep, SVtp members. I digress, we posed and had a bit of a laugh, the moment we finished the shot two more people came and joined us out on the rocks.
After this we moved off over the pedestrian overpass where a few of us broke out the first of our 36 and shot The Esplanade Hotel. Once one of the live music centres for Melbourne the building has been boarded up and abandoned for a while. No-one in the group knew what was going on with the building. Since then I found out it was sold last year and is supposedly going to be renovated. Hopefully it will come back, the sticky carpet at The Espy was a special kind of sticky and everyone deserves to contribute at least once in their life.
People were reluctant to get into shooting, many not wanting to waste their 36. We headed up the normally vibrant Fitzroy Street but it was pretty quiet on this evening. Our path had us travel up Acland Street which is the residential heart of the suburb until we got to Church Square where there is a collection of some of the oldest buildings in the area are now available for community use ranging from a church to a theatre to a child care facility. Quite a number of the group broke the ice and took some shots around the church as the building is quite amazing.
Why are my shots b&w? Well, I wanted to shoot my 36 on film, and while I had plenty of film the battery in my 1960s film camera had decided this was the right moment to die. Instead I took along my modern Olympus EM-1 Mk II but to retain the spirit of the moment I decided you use an in camera art mode Grainy Film.
We spent a bit of time around the church then wandered along Ackland Street until we came to the food precinct which was much more alive. We headed in there with the objective of visiting Europa Cakes but we ended up not going in there at all. Fickle Local Guides ;). Life can be like that, we went right past Europa into a laneway that is usually pretty well known for its street art, but it wasn’t great this week. Nearby I did find these pieces.
From the laneway we visited Veg Out Community Gardens which is basically an awesome inner urban farm where local residents grow anything you can imagine, most of the living around the area is town houses or apartments with little or no garden so this bright open space which was once a bowling green transforms the lives of some people who simply could not afford to buy fresh produce and here can grow their own. The garden is open to the public in the afternoons to walk through and look around.
The gardens are pretty cool and they include an eclectic collection of ephemera including this left over plastic bull from some commercial advertising campaign. It used to be outside a steak restaurant, today it guards the garden against intruders and conveys St Kilda’s somewhat kinky reputation with the rope :).
This brought us to sunset so we wandered over to Luna Park to grab a few sunset images. Since I was shooting b&w I opted for mono silhouette shots which is a technique I often like to play with. Here are captured the ubiquitous Melbourne cyclist and the riders of the Scenic Railway wooden roller coaster as they cruised between the palm trees.
Someone mentioned that they were hungry, so local (he lives there) Local Guide Max took charge and guided us over to Bay City Burrito home of the Bay City Bomber which is billed to be huge. Well by Australian standards it certainly is a big burrito, but by comparison with other places I’ve eaten its satisfyingly large but certainly not huge.
The service was with a smile and the experience great with lots of room for a big group like ours. We were there early enough that it was easy to get seats. Later in the evening the place becomes quite busy and it would have been a different story. The food delivered was Tex Mex style and having eating loads of it was well prepared and very tasty.
Now that it was properly dark we went back over to Luna Park to capture the lights and the people. Sydney and Melbourne both have a Luna Park, as a Melbourner it eats a bit of my soul to admit that Sydney’s Luna Park is soooo much better than ours. The two parks were built by the same person in the 1920’s and raged well on even through the Great Depression. Sydney’s park retained its heritage features like the fun house and other attractions and what modern development has been done blends into the heritage park. Melbourne gutted their park in the name of progress to build a more modern amusement facility and our park beyond the entrance, roller coaster and the grand carousel which are the only original artefacts remaining is simply awful, gaudy and generally unpopular with anyone over the age of 12. This would be ok if 12 year olds had money but they don’t which meant the park is again falling apart. Recently they changed from free entry to having to pay simply to get in. Last time this happened the park nearly went under. Even the heritage roller coaster is a mixture of the two roller coasters that intertwined originally. Melbourne’s Luna is down right creepy while Sydney’s is welcoming. It all comes down to the lighting of course, in daylight they’re actually nearly identical. After Luna Park we made our way back to the pier to visit the Penguins. The dress code at the penguins is always formal with a full tuxedo required for entry. These delightful little birds have made their home among the rocks of the break water that protects St Kilda Marina. Presently it is free entry and the gates are open for as long as the volunteers that engage with the visitors and prevent harm to the birds are available. When the last one is ready to go they shut the gates. This was one of Melbourne’s best kept secrets with all tourists funnelled to the Penguin Parade on Philip Island but the one down side of sharing everything on Maps is that people find out about stuff. In recent times the local Council have erected fences because to be honest tourists are terrible and were climbing all over the rocks to try and photograph and capture the birds. This would make the rocks move crushing young penguins in their nests. In time I imagine this place will have to become regulated and formalised, then of course it will become just like the Penguin Parade. Sad.
Anyway this was the final stop for the night and we disbursed and went on our different directions towards home. This was a great meetup and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and through out the day I’ve seen lots of people’s shots appear on Instagram and g+ in the Photograph Melbourne community. Yes people really do use g+! If you’re sick of other networks stealing your privacy then come to g+ where the system is governed by Google’s very strong privacy policy.
Regards Paul
