The Grand Gesture

Keith Midson
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The Grand Gesture
The Grand Gesture

The main staircase of the historic Mail Exchange building in Melbourne. This is the fourth time (I think) i've visited here - my favourite staircase to photograph.

Each time i've visited with a different lens. First time was with a Sigma DP1 Merrill compact camera (with 46Mp resolution), but that was 28.5mm full frame equivalent, so not wide enough. The next time was with a Canon 16-35mm lens on my 5DmkIII - this was the best trip and some of the photos from this session are amongst my most popular images - I even have a photo enlarged on my wall in the lounge room. But that trip I was thinking I needed a wider lens ...

So the next trip two years ago I brought a Samyang 14mm with me. This was great *except* that once I corrected for distortion I think the images were narrower than 16mm. But they were great images nonetheless.

So this trip I had a Sigma 12-24mm on my 5DmkIII. This lens has minimal distortion and was how this image was taken. Much wider than 16mm. This is a truly grand staircase - they don't make them like this anymore. And by the time you've walked all the way up, you've had a great gym workout!

The man in the frame was a random person just heading down the stairs - I timed the shot so that he was centred on the window.

I was comparing this shot to the one on my wall - there was something fundamentally different about the images (apart from the field of view) - turns out that in 2016 there were no rails against the walls - these were placed between then and my next session in 2017. I'll post the original in the comments below so you can see what I mean.

As for the history of the building itself - It was completed in 1917 and designed in 'Beaux-Arts' style architecture by John Smith Murdoch, who was Australia's first Commonwealth government architect. He also designed Australia's first national parliament house in Canberra.

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Taken on: March 21, 2019
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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/8.0, 1/20 sec, 12mm, ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens: 12-24mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure Time: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Focal Length: 12mm
ISO: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Auto
Color Space: Uncalibrated
Software: Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 (Windows)
Show full info
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