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Long story short - I managed to sneak in the side entrance of Sydney Town Hall one day with my new tripod, camera and ultra wide angle lens in hand and was essentially free to roam the very interesting empty hallways on both levels, out to the back stage area and up to the upper deck overlooking the very impressive main concert hall. The architecture inside this old building is really interesting with lots of details and angles, it’s a spectacular setting and I’d hoped it would provide great source material for some appealing images.

The following is a selection of some of my favourite images from my visit - C&C requested

Centennial Hall


Take me to Wonderland


Light Halls


Grand Stairs


there's also a small gallery of a few more images at:

http://www.rc.au.net/town_hall_2011

I like the 2nd the best although would crop a small amount of the floor to bring the bottom edge closer to the walls.

I am not a big fan of the HDR treatment, although the 3rd photo is not too bad in this regard.

great shots!

Kudos for the covert operation...hope you didnt meet security in the end though.

I am not sure I like the HDR in these, but they have heaps of potential. I do wish that your 8mm didnt distort this much though

Brilliant stuff Rodney.

Loving #3 and the HDR suits these quite well. The trick is to try and hide the 'halo' effect/blurry as much as you can.
Sometimes you can do this by combining the tonemapped image with the original....

aim54x wrote: I do wish that your 8mm didnt distort this much though

Wouldn't that defy physics??
Besides, where is the fun if it didn't distort?

Reschsmooth wrote:I like the 2nd the best although would crop a small amount of the floor to bring the bottom edge closer to the walls.

Agreed and agreed - I really like this shot - great lines.

surenj wrote:

aim54x wrote: I do wish that your 8mm didnt distort this much though

Wouldn't that defy physics??
Besides, where is the fun if it didn't distort?

Agreed. That's a part of the attraction of shooting that wide: the distortion and sense of unreality that it can bring to one's images.

Rodney, that's a nice set that you have there. Agree, too about the cropping on #2.

aim54x wrote:Kudos for the covert operation...hope you didnt meet security in the end though.

Bugger the security. Thank bloody goodness you didn't run into Clover!

Reschsmooth wrote:I like the 2nd the best although would crop a small amount of the floor to bring the bottom edge closer to the walls. I am not a big fan of the HDR treatment, although the 3rd photo is not too bad in this regard.

Thanks - #2 appears to be quite popular (it's my own second fave - #4 was my own pick )

aim54x wrote:Kudos for the covert operation...hope you didnt meet security in the end though.
I am not sure I like the HDR in these, but they have heaps of potential. I do wish that your 8mm didnt distort this much though

The security guard did see me coming down those stairs I shot in the last image but didn't seem concerned and when leaving the building he was at the door but we just smiled and said hello and that was it - he was all good.

Note that one of these images is not HDR (the other three are from 3 bracketed shots) and personally I wish it would distort more maybe I need a fisheye... perhaps I can try yours sometime

surenj wrote:Brilliant stuff Rodney. Loving #3 and the HDR suits these quite well. The trick is to try and hide the 'halo' effect/blurry as much as you can.

Thanks Suren - note that for the third I was specifically looking for that sort of glassy look - I did try some less processed versions and felt it didn't look as good.

gstark wrote:Bugger the security. Thank bloody goodness you didn't run into Clover!

The place was mysteriously very empty - I saw almost no-one whilst I was wandering around (for over half an hour) - perhaps a few tradesmen and one office worker. Whilst I was in the main hall there was a party of about half a dozen elderly people with name badges on (perhaps on some sort of tour or something) that came past me.

Love the 2nd one! Great angle

An excellent series of images!...and I like that you sneaked in to get em.