Monday 9 April 2012

Newcastle Baths - Canoe Pool

On Easter Sunday, a few friends and I gathered for a photography shoot at, Newcastle Baths/Canoe Pool. Some of you may be saying, "canoe pool? What's, Roy, on about?" Well the, Canoe Pool, is in fact the name of the oval shaped pool next to, Newcastle Baths. In it's current state, the canoe pool just looks like a pool filled with sand and water, but underneath the sand lies a concrete map of the world. The photos in the link show part of the map and the small wooden canoes that the children would use to navigate around the continents and islands. What a fascinating bit of history buried just meters under the sand. Anyway, I digress, back to the photography.

Prior to Sunday morning I was frequently checking my weather apps for Sunday's sunrise. The forecast mid week was predicting a fine and sunny morning. But as the date drew closer, the forecast took a turn for the worst - sunny with some cloud, then cloudy with some sun and then, late on Saturday night, just cloudy. Since I had not been out for a while, I clung to the hope that something magical would happen and went to bed.

Sunday morning, 4.30am, the alarm jolted me from my sleep.  I quickly opened the blinds to check the sky. A thick grey blanket of cloud spanned the sky. I thought to myself, "well I'm up now, I may as well go"...FOOL.

As I pulled into to the Baths car park, things we're looking grim on the horizon. The sunrise was supposed to occur at 6.09am. Well that time came and went with not even a shimmer of sunlight breaking the cloud, much to the dismay of my group of friends. Sunrise fail!

Since we were all there and set-up, we decided to wander around and take a few photos anyway. I'd been thinking about capturing the Canoe pool for some time, but just never got around to it. This was my chance.

The rusted iron fence posts of the canoe pool was my subject of choice. Beyond just simply adding character to the photo, i think they give a great insight into the history of the place. I snapped away hoping to capture something decent.


After breakfast and a nap and I began editing the images. I chose the below image and tried two different styles of editing. As much as I have tried, I can't decide which one I like best.

Vintage (cream-tone) black and white
Canoe Pool, Newcastle Baths
Or the colour version
Canoe Pool, Newcastle Baths

Help me decide please by leaving a comment below.

So the Easter Sunday sunrise didn't really turn out, but at least the early wake up was not entirely wasted.

Cheers
Roy



2 comments:

  1. I like the coloured one, the warm rust tones are a beautiful contrast to the cool water in the background. I can;t work out how to follow your blog - help?

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  2. Thanks Anna. to follow, click on the blogger button in the top left corner. then click "ADD" under "Reading List" section and add my URL.

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