Scenes from a Bike - Edition 22 -Docklands from both sides of the water

Welcome to The 22nd edition of the series - Scenes from a bike

This Edition facts:

Location: Docklands in Melbourne, everyone has an opinion on Docklands, most of them negative, most of these people hardly ever go there, sure in winter it's cold and wet, but isn't everywhere, and sure there is a lot of glass, a water, and yachts which is a bit to 'Sydney' for the more substantive Melbourians, but there is also something to like if you are in the right mode and the sun is out

Date & Weather: Saturday the 18nd of February - weather is perfect, it's Sunny, early 20's perfect

Equipment: My Fujifilm X-T5, mated with my do anything 16-80mm Zoom

The Concept & Finances: The concept is simple, I've bought an electric bike, on this bike I explore my hometown, Melbourne Australia and take photos, Priority 1 - Finding new places in Melbourne, Priority 2 - taking better photos, Bonus - Earn back the cost of the bike by creating content and getting paid for it on HIVE. The bike cost $1,100 USD. So far I've earned $129.85 from the previous 21 paid out posts meaning I've paid for just under 12% of the bike and I have $970 to go. This is going to take some time, but this is all bonus money, the joy is in the taking of photos.

Other stuff: You should be able to get a sense of the geography of the docks from the photos but basically think of it like a big E we will spend time on the bottom sticky out bit of the E (which is actually the northern bank rather than having water on both sides and then we will ride around to the middle bit, which does have water on both sides.

Let's see what I found

The building where it all starts
F5, 1/500 24mm

This is just here where I park my bike, and I've shot this building many times, there is just something about the waved balconies, it's so not Melbourne.

The Bolte
F8, 1/500 98mm

This is very Melbourne, named after one of the premiers of Victoria, and featuring two big sticks which always remind me of football posts - it does do a good job of hiding about 8 lanes of freeway. But importantly for us note the small 'tower' building to the left, we will see this again shortly.

The First Skyline
F8, 1/500 24mm

Melbourne proper is over in the background, Marvel stadium (where my team the North Melbourne Kangaroos play) in the middle and in the foreground a super yacht called Texas which is owned by a man named Soloman Lew - So Australian would know of him as he owns a number of retail brands including Just Jeans, Peter Alexander and a few others. He's worth $200 Million.

The Second Skyline
F8, 1/500 24mm

Okay so we have moved over to the middle part of the E - this part is undeveloped - the boats over here and less fancy and more practical. You can of course see the Texas in moored on the other side and the first building we photographed just above it

All the Skylines
F6.4, 1/500 24mm

Also close as you get to a full 'from docklands' skyline shot - Marvel stadium right in the middle and the towers of the CBD porper behind it, and then the newer apartments and hotels down both sides of the water.

The Other Side

To round this out lets look back as where we started and look and where we looking towards. As you can see in the first shot we have the waved white balconies of the first photo again, I should put out I love how the development just stops in docklands, it's all shiny and new, then a fence, then...wasteland.

And here the closer look at the 'tower' and the goal posts of the Bolte bridge. This tower was the equivalent of 'air traffic control' for the harbour, but when they built the Bolte Bridge it blocked a view and it fell into ruin, it is a stunning building though and one of my favourite in Melbourne