The f8 Group: Photography and Occasional Commentary: Parramatta Road, Inner West

A few months ago I was on a bus heading towards Strathfield. It stopped at a bus stop right outside the Olympia Milk Bar in Stanmore. I couldn't believe that such an ancient-looking milk bar could still exist is this day and age. Its cracked windows are stapled up, taped together with sticky masking tape and its interior appears to be stuck in the fifties. Other shops surrounding the Olympia in this area of Stanmore appeared to be in a similar shabby state so we spent half a day in late December shooting in and around the area surrounding the milk bar. It has some great old shops, plenty of decrepit shop houses, peeling paint and a unique feel that the world has passed much of it by...

Parramatta road shop, Petersham, HDR by Natalie Hitchens

Here are some of our (mostly HDR, high dynamic range) results. If you are not sure what HDR means, it's three exposures, shot using the camera's Auto Exposure Bracketing function and assembled into one super-wide tonal range picture. HDR images are typically very characterful, detailed and 'gritty'. The three (or more) images are exposed differently (i.e. 'plus' two f-stops, 'minus' two f-stops and one 'normal' exposure) then 'assembled' using special HDR software such as Adobe Photoshop or Photomatix Pro (www.hdrsoft.com).