Down here in Geelong we have an awesome location called The Powerhouse; an old abandoned powerhouse that has been transformed into an urban gallery featuring work by grafitti artists from around the world . I love going there and just wandering around, so decided that today would be a great day to go an test out my new Olympus OMD EM-1 (and yes, I loved the PEN EP5 so much that before the week was out I decided I needed the OM1 for weddings!).
The Powerhouse, Geelong. Sad-face guy looks like he has a stomach-ache in this one!
Now all around The Powerhouse in various nooks and crannies you find these gorgeous little, what I call 'sad-face guys'. I just adore them and they make me do a little dance everytime I see one. They've been popping up around our city as well and I try to photograph them when I see them as I really love them. I thought they'd be a great test run for the EM-1, to get used to the handling of a whole new system.
Every inch of The Powerhouse is covered in colourful graffiti art
I was completely blown away with how the Olympus works. I coupled it with the PRO 12-40mm f2.8, and colours are so vibrant and the images are so gorgeously sharp. I love that you can see your exposures, no more chimping! You know exactly what you're going to get and can easily change the exposure on the fly. I shot in RAW and converted in Lightroom. Normally my conversions can take a while with refining exposures but nearly every one was pretty much spot on. I felt like I was somehow cheating by not having to do all that extra work! I can't wait to start shooting weddings with these babies, I think my workflow will be reduced significantly. They're so much lighter and quieter too. I'm in love!
I love that the sad-faced guys are just everywhere
So enough with the camera talk!
The Powerhouse is such an amazing place, everywhere you turn there's amazing art by super talented artists. The work that these guys and girls can produce on such varied textures and positions is just astonishing. You can even hire out the place for weddings and functions, which would be unbelievably cool! What an amazing venue for a wedding!!
Lots of faces hidden away
As I've said I just love these sad-faced guys. My kids roll their eyes every time I see a new one when we're out somewhere because i get so excited by them. There were new ones today at the Powerhouse which made me very happy!
I love this guy!
I've always wondered about the person who does these. Are they male or female? Just who are they? Well, I was in for a surprise today, because as I was finishing up I saw a guy drawing on an old VW. When I looked closely I saw that he was drawing a sad-faced guy! I spoke to him and turns out that he's the artist. He said he's painted about 60 of them so far. That's just one of the wonderful things about this place; the artists are there, working, you can talk to them and learn about their work and nothing is hands off or too precious to touch. I highly recommend you go there! (And have a wedding there! And book me to photograph it! You know you want to!)
Sad-face guy artist at work. I hope he knows how much joy he brings!
