Murtoa Stick Shed and Silo
Murtoa Silo and Stick Shed, 47 Thomas Rd, Murtoa, Vic 3390
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About Murtoa Stick Shed and Silo
The small town of Murtoa has two attractions: Silo Art and its Stick Shed.
The Stick Shed is an old grain storage shed. It was built during September 1941 - January 1942 from Gippsland Mountain Ash. It covers 16,000m2 and is 265m long by 60m wide. It can hold 400,000 tonnes of grain.
It is now open seven days a week, from 10am to 3pm. It costs $10 per adult enter.
The Murtoa Silo is another Smug (aka Simon Bates) painting. At night, there is a light show overlay on the silo.
How I photographed the Murtoa Stick Shed
What I took - what was in my kit
I took my LowePro Backpack loaded with Canon 5DSR body, Canon 24-70mm, Manfrotto 190 Tripod, and of course a range of lens wipes, spare batteries, sunscreen and bug repellent. I also took a DJI Mavic Air 2 drone.
The silo was photographed with the Canon 5DSR at various focal lengths, and also from the drone. In both cases, while the art is great, it has too many obstacles around it to enable it to be photographed properly. The silo yard has a large fence, which precludes taking photographs too close to the fence, and there is a large squat round building (silo?) in front of the silo art too. The drone was able to take the best photos - at ISO 100, 4.5mm, f2.8 and 1/400sec. The angle here was a trade off though. On the northern side, there was good lighting, but only one of the two silos was visible. Traveling south, more of the second silo became visible, but it was quickly covered by the third squat silo. The aspect of the two silos also means that while one has good lighting from mid-morning until dusk, the second is in shadow for almost all the day. We did not stay to see the night time show, or to see the lighting around dusk.
The stick shed presents a problem. It is too dark inside to photograph hand held (at least for me, and no In Body Image Stablisation (IBIS)). I shot purely on the tripod. I pumped up the ISO from my standard ISO 100 to ISO250 to make the camera a little more light sensitive, without going so far to as to increase noise. I chose f-8.0 as the aperture. This is slightly brighter than the f-10 diffraction limit to the lens on the 5DSR, while still keeping a fair bit of depth of field. I did not go with the Canon 16-35mm lens, but instead remained with the Canon 24mm-70mm. This was primarily because I was unsure of what I would encounter inside, and the 24-70 gives me more options. In hind sight I should have used the 16-35. I both photo stitched and used HDR. The photo stitching was to get the whole picture in - as it would need a lens of around 6-8mm to do it in one shot - but also to get the resolution I wanted for a 2m wide print. (which requires a minimum of 21,600pixels wide or 155MP in 1x3 panorama format). The stitching was a simple manual affair, with about a 30% overlap. Again, in hindsight, I should have used the Benro Polaris.
The HDR was an attempt to cope with the huge dynamic range inside. Basically the shed only has a dozen sky lights in its entire length. These produce extremely bright spots in what is otherwise a very dark interior. I did a three shot HDR, keeping the aperture the same, but varying the exposure by 1.5 f-stop equivalents. Some exposures were up to 5.0 seconds in duration, hence the need for a good tripod. Oh, and in case you think "I'll take a drone in there" - no drones are allowed. I did not find this out from first hand experience, but I did find it out when I tried taking a tripod in.
Techniques
Photo stitching.
As with many wide scenes (panoramas), you have a choice of a specialised panoramic camera like the Linhof, severely cropping a single image, or stitching several images together. I used multiple Canon 5SDR images stitched together.
Drone photography
Drone cameras, at least on those drones that do not cost a fortune, are not that good. Like small format cameras, they suffer from having a small image chip. They do wonders in terms of electronics to try and improve the quality of the image, but they are still not up to a good camera. The key advantage of a drone though is that it can get perspective that is impossible from a land based camera without a crane or hoist of some sorts. You can basically shoot a shot from 50m above your head, or 200m over the right, above a river or something.
Viewpoints
Stick Shed
From the outside, the Stick Shed is similar to the dozens of other large grain storage sheds that are spotted around Western Victoria. It is inside that is interesting. The shed's construction, and the fact that virtually no light gets inside, makes for an interesting spectacle and some great photographs. Jenny took some photos from the side, and both of us took photos from just off the middle of the shed. However, the money shot in this case is a view down the centre of the shed. This shows the vast length of the shed and creates a symetrical structure based around that centre line.
Murtoa Silo
The Murtoa Silo is in a private property on Thomas Rd, just to the north-east of town. However, you basically can't see anything from the road. To the north of the silo, there is a spot where you can pull off the road and drive to the railway line. From around the railway line there are several viewpoints, but none of them can be described as good. Over the railway line, the silo can be viewed from Soldiers Ave, but here the street is lined with trees, and they obstruct the view. I am told that the Silo Art is best viewed from the Water Tower Museum, but this was closed for renovation when we were there.
How I photographed the XXXX
What I took - what was in my kit
I took my LowePro Backpack loaded with Canon 5DMkII body, Canon 24-105mm zoom, Manfrotto 190 Tripod, and of course a range of lens wipes, spare batteries, sunscreen and bug repellant. I tended to shoot 28-55mm
Techniques
As with any waterfall, I want to blur the water but not the surrounding vegitation. That means using a long exposure and a tripod. I could have used NR filters, but in this case I didnt. I simply changed the aperature to suit. I was already shooting at ISO 100.
Other things to look out for
If a photographer has traveled 3.5 hours from Melbourne to the 'Western District', then it would be a shame not to check out: the Pink Lake, Horsham, Arkona Silo Art, the Little Desert National Park, and Murtoa 'Stick Shed'.
Location
Murtoa Silo and Stick Shed, 47 Thomas Rd, Murtoa, Vic 3390
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Techniques used
Kit used
How to get there
You can get to Pink Lake from Melbourne via car (about 344km, or 4 hours using the M8 Western Freeway). There are no trains, and while there might be buses that pass by, I doubt that they will stop.
Best time to visit
Victoria is a fairly temperate climate, without severe winters. Dimboola is in a fairly dry area of the state, so just about any time of the year you will find the area dry and temperate. The alley faces north-eat, so it gets the mid-morning sun directly on it. However, depending on the time of year, it is partly in shadow from the fence / buildings to its north-east.
Accessability
As the alley is unnamed, and quite small, it is easy to miss. However, if you park in Lochiel St and simple walk around, you will soon find it. The roads are all paved, and their are footpaths to the alley.
Where to stay
We stayed at the Horsham Riverside Caravan Park, and we can certainly recommend that. The city of Horsham is also large enough to have a range of accommodation options to suit most travelers. The Visit Horsham Region website shows a number of options. Dimboola also has its own Caravan Park, but I know little of it. We have stayed in the Little Desert just south of Dimboola though, and this was fantastic. A simple web search shows hotel, bed & breakfast options available within Dimboola too.