Monthly Archive for April, 2008

Rocks at Broken Hill

Published by imageservices on April 30, 2008 0 Comments

A museum photographer was sent to Broken Hill in 2006 to scan the Albert and Margaret Morris collection of glass plate negatives that are now featured in the travelling exhibition Greening the Silver City: seeds of bush regeneration. The plates are beautiful black and white images of flowers and the surrounding landscape of Broken Hill. His wife Margaret then hand painted the negatives in colour.

The Barrier Field Naturalists’ Club and Broken Hill City Library invited the museum to Broken Hill to scan this beautiful collection. It was during this trip that the photographer was able to take some time to photograph the surrounding landscape. This image was taken in the area known as the Living Desert which is 2400 ha, located north of Broken Hill. This is a 6km predator-proof fenced area which was established in 1991 by the Broken Hill City Council. Greening the Silver City: seeds of bush regeneration will be at Mount Tomah Botanic Garden from 3 May – 19 June 2008.

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Photography by Ryan Hernandez
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

50 more images added to the Commons on Flickr

Published by imageservices on April 29, 2008 0 Comments

With over 35,000 views the Commons project on Flickr is going really well. We have been very impressed with the information about the images and the quality of the tagging. Yesterday we released an additional 50 images which includes some rural scenes, Blue Mountains, Neutral Bay, Lane Cove River and Kosciosko. This image Weeping Rock, Wentworth Falls is one of the images we released yesterday. Weeping Rock is a rock waterfall formation at the top of Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains.

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Palm leaf

Published by imageservices on April 28, 2008 0 Comments

This fan palm was photographed in Coffs Harbour whilst out on location shooting for the Indigenous women’s exhibition Yinalung yenu: women’s journey. It was not intended for the exhibition rather documented at the time due to its interesting shape and graphic qualities. Upon researching which type of fan palm it is, we discovered that there are various palms that have this description and that these leaves are referred to as palmately, which means radiating out from a certain point. According to Wikipedia there are over 2600 species of palms. If you know which palm this is we would love you to comment.
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Photography by Paula Bray
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Looking through the keyhole into life in space

Published by imageservices on April 27, 2008 0 Comments

This view was taken from inside the Space Shuttle replica, looking into the Space Station Habitation Module. The museums Hab Module was based on an early prototype for the living quarters of the International Space Station. Although the module it represents has now been deleted from the ISS design, the Hab Module exemplifies many aspects of living on board the International Space Station. When this image was taken, the module had been partially stripped for repainting. It has now been refurbished with new graphics and labels reflecting the current status of the ISS. How Stuff Works has an interesting article on Living and Working Aboard the ISS.

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Photography by Sotha Bourn
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Highlight from the Commons on Flickr

Published by imageservices on April 26, 2008 0 Comments

This image H.M.S. ‘Undine’, Fort Macquarie, Sydney is from our set on the Commons project on Flickr. We have not been able to fully catalogue this record yet but due to some great investigative work from another member it has been noted that there were three ships named H.M.S. Undine in the Royal Navy. It has also been noted that the white ensign of the Royal Navy is visible and that this photo was taken between 1881 and 1888.

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Anzac Bridge

Published by imageservices on April 25, 2008 0 Comments

This bridge, formerly known as the Glebe Island Bridge, was renamed on Rememberance day in 1998 to Anzac Bridge in memory of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp. To commemorate this there was an Australian flag placed on top of the eastern pylon and a New Zealand flag on the western pylon. At the western end of the bridge is a bronze memorial statue of an Anzac soldier that was placed there on Anzac day in 2000. Sydney Architecture has this image of the statue.

This was initially photographed for the publication Paradise, Purgatory and hellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo.

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Jean-François Lanzarone
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Pyrmont incinerator

Published by imageservices on April 24, 2008 0 Comments

This exterior shot of the Pyrmont incinerator was photographed for the exhibition Beyond architecture: Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin. The Pyrmont incinerator, designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, was built in 1934 in the heavily industrialized site of Pyrmont. It was a very modern looking structure, cubist in nature with highly decorative features that you can see in this photo. While initially no one wanted the structure to be built it ended up becoming a building of international, architectural significance due to the strengthening reputation of the architects. Unfortunately this was not enough to keep it from being demolished in 1992. We were lucky enough to photograph the incinerator for the exhibition leaving us with photographic documentation of it’s existence. City of Sydney has an historical photo of the incinerator in its archive.

File no. 00213328

Photography by Penelope Clay.
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Australian sheep

Published by imageservices on April 23, 2008 0 Comments

A museum photographer took this image whilst shooting on location in Narrromine, New South Wales. You can see from this image the great fleece that is produced by Australian sheep. The Australian rural landscape is perfectly suited to producing wool with approximately 70,000 properties dedicated to this major industry. The majority of sheep in Australia are pure merino which are known for producing fine wool and Australia has become the world’s leading producer of this type of wool. Australian Wool Innovation Limited has facts about Australian wool.

This year the museum exhibited Fashion from fleece: 200 years of Australian wool in fashion. It looked at the journey of the Australian merino from the pastoral boom to the high-tech fabric innovations of today.

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Photography by Andrew Frolows.
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

50 more images added to the Commons on Flickr

Published by imageservices on April 22, 2008 0 Comments

We have released an additional 50 images this week to our set on the Commons project on Flickr. There are now 300 images in our set and we are receiving some fantastic information from other members.

This image, Sydney Harbour from R.Y.S. grounds, Kerry and Co., Sydney, c. 1884-1917, is one of the images we have added this week. It shows Sydney Harbour from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron grounds at Kirribilli. The men and women dressed in hats are relaxing on the waterfront looking at the numerous vessels on the harbour including a large three-masted barque.

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Time ball, Sydney Observatory

Published by imageservices on April 21, 2008 0 Comments

This photograph was taken from a low angle using a fish-eye lens. The low angle view makes the time ball look important in relation to its surroundings and distorts the view, making everything in the frame appear slightly curved. Fish-eye lenses were originally used for meteorology and astronomy and became extremely popular soon after for any form of photography due to the distortion the lens produces. Focal lengths can vary and therefore the distortion can be very dramatic or slight as in this shot. The focal length in circular lenses is usually between 8-10mm and 15-16mm for full frame lenses. For more shots taken with fish-eye lenses have a look at this selection on Google Images where you can see the difference between the circular and the full frame lenses.

Plans for Sydney Observatory began as a simple time-ball tower, to be built near the signal station. Every day at exactly 1.00pm, the time ball on top of the tower drops to signal the correct time to the city and harbour below. The original purpose of the time ball was to provide the time to ships in Sydney Harbour. The ball was first dropped on 5 June 1858 and has been dropped regularly ever since. The Observatory will celebrate its 150th anniversary in June.

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Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski.
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0