Photographing the Woomelang Mobile Silos

Woomelang, Vic 3390
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About Woomelang Mobile Silos

Woomelang has taken a different approach to Silo Art. It has not painted one giant silo (or two), but rather a number of small silos. Farmers often have mobile silos that can move around paddocks and let them feed stock within a paddock. These are quite large steel 'drums' on wheels. Woomerlang has created an art trail within the small town.

Viewpoints

Viewpoints

Each mobile silo has several viewpoints from around its rim. However, you can walk around these in a few seconds. The issue is to find the right composition using particular camera-lens combination.

Each silo is, obviously, stationary, and you can walk up to them and touch them. This means a tripod is not really necessary. Compared to the typical silo art, these are also very low. The bottom of the silo / art is less than a metre off the ground, and the top is about 3m above ground. This typically means that an adult head is about the centre of the silo / art and therefore unlikely to create much if any tombstoning. So tilt-shift lenses or other techniques (e.g. drones) are not required to correct the tombstoning.
That leaves the key issue as exposure. Being Western Victoria, it usually sunny, and the sun of course shines more on one part of the silo than the other parts. Getting the exposure right, and in particular not blowing out the sun-lit highlights is a slight problem, but not a large one. I kept the ISO at 160 - which is low enough to not cause any noise, but still slightly 'brighter' than 100. I just used manual exposure, 35mm to fill the frame, while being a comfortable distance from it. I tried for optimum depth of field - without diffraction (f10 for my lens) - but the speed was too slow. So I opened up to F8 to allow me to increase my shutter speed a bit (1/100 - 1/200 range).

1. Rosenberg's Heath Monitor by Andrew J Bourke

This one is right at the start of the trail, besides the entry to the Liberty Service Station. ISO 160 35mm f8 1/100sec.

1a. Snake

This one is not a mobile silo, but is still well done. It a snake on the side of the General Store.

2. Western Whipbird by Chuck Mayfield

This is a great example of the various scenes that are placed around the silo. Here, Dooley Pohlneer has incorporated the Western Whipbird with some native flowers that he found at the Woomelange Cemetery. ISO 160 35mm f8 1/200sec.

3. Pygmy Possum by Symes Family

I love the bright Pygmy Possum on the dark background. This is a striking peice of art. ISO 160 35mm f8.0 1/100sec

4. Spotted Tail Quoll by Kaff-eine

This silo is one of two in the Football Ground / Recreation Reserve. ISO 160 35mm f8.0 1/125

5. Malleefowl by Mike Makatron

The second of two silos in the Football Ground, this one depicts the ground dwelling Malleefowl. The artist indicated that he is depicting "the cycle of life from egg to bones". ISO 160 35mm f8.0 1/200
Ohh, and yes, it is 'malleefowl' and not 'mallee fowl'.

6. Lined Earless Dragon by Goodie

ISO 160 35mm f8.0 1/160sec

7. Mallee Emu Wren by Jimmy Duate

ISO 160 35mm f8.0 1/320sec

8. Major Mitchell Cockatoo by Bryan Itch

This silo is on the side of the road as you drive into Woomelang from the south (C246). ISO 160 35mm f8.0 1/250sec

How I photographed the Mobile Silos

What I took - what was in my kit

I took my LowePro Backpack loaded with Canon 5DSR body, Canon 16-35mm, handheld.
I expected to need to be able to 'go wide' to get these silos in, but in the end, I shot at the higher focal length range of this 16-35mm f2.8 lens. I purposely chose to go handheld, as there is a range of views in the 360⁰ of these silos, and I wanted to be more mobile.

Techniques

Manual exposure

If you are going to stitch photos, then you need them to all have the same exposure, and you need to be using manual expsoure. Being 'old school' I also generally prefer to shoot manual when I have the time. I know that I have various programable settings on the camera, but slowing down to shoot and think about composition and exposure has some benefits. I didn't need to shoot manual, I just shot that way as I prefered it.

Other things to look out for

If a photographer has traveled 4 hours from Melbourne to the 'Western District', then it would be a shame not to check out: Lascelles Silo, Albacutya Silo, Lake Tyrell, Lake Boga Silo, etc.

Location

The trail effectively starts at the junction of the B220 and BC246 roads, which is the General Store and Cafe, and where you can get hard copies of the trail map. Another difference is that these silos are painted all around. While a couple of large silos have paintings either side, most are designed to be viewed from one direction only. The Woomerang Silos typically have four or more aspects to the paintings. The paintings are also by different artists, so they are unalike in terms of both subject matter and style.