Billila House

Mick Fagan
Posts: 412
Joined: 24 Sep 2015, 21:20
Location: Melbourne

Billila House

Postby Mick Fagan » 14 Oct 2018, 18:24

This was taken in January 2007 to show the only lasting damage to the only known cyclone that hit the area in 1918. If you look carefully, you'll see that one chimney is bent, this happened in the 1918 cyclone, when repairs were done the owners didn't repair the leaning chimney.

This is taken on the side door, which, as I understand it, was the door that all and sundry used; with the front door only used for horse and carriage. The mansion was apparently self sufficient, with extensive gardens where their food was grown. The whole estate is still in one piece and I believe will never be subdivided, the council bought the mansion for a nominal sum after the daughter died, which I believe was $1.00. I pushbike ride past this sometimes, great to walk in and sit in the shade and marvel at how some lived.

The back door, which is to the left of this picture, lets one go straight to the kitchen, or a suite of buildings, laundry, ironing room, staff quarters, etc,.
Front door is to the right of the picture and is mostly where all pictures are taken of this building.

This is an account of the brief but devastating cyclone that happened 100 years ago, including a picture of the house.

http://www.brightonhistorical.org.au/in ... on-cyclone

Calumet CC400 Monorail, 215mm f/6.3 Caltar, Ilford FP4+, Orange filter, f/22 at 1/10.

Mick.

070012_Billila_House_Caltar_215_Ilford_FP4+_Orange_Filter_F22_1-25_003_Web.jpg

mark.darragh
Posts: 61
Joined: 30 May 2013, 14:06
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Re: Billila House

Postby mark.darragh » 14 Oct 2018, 21:04

Thanks for posting this Mick.

Cyclone in Melbourne? With some of the extreme weather we have had in recent years, the only thing I'm surprised about is that we haven't had another one.

Walter Glover
Posts: 1270
Joined: 31 Jul 2012, 22:31
Location: Leichhardt, NSW

Re: Billila House

Postby Walter Glover » 15 Oct 2018, 03:52

Once again, sumptuously delicious rendering if the high values in the masonry. A feast of visual delights.
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant

Mick Fagan
Posts: 412
Joined: 24 Sep 2015, 21:20
Location: Melbourne

Re: Billila House

Postby Mick Fagan » 15 Oct 2018, 08:10

Mark, another cyclone or cyclones, may only be a matter of time, temperature and dare I say it, agitation. :mrgreen:

Walter, Ilford FP4+ is a wonderful film for this kind of photography, it's name actually inspires one to further explore photography. FP stands for Fine grain Panchromatic. This film I have used very extensively with one developer, D76 1:1 one shot.

In general I had been using Panatomic X for most stuff and as far as Ilford was concerned, I started with FP3 and wasn't too enamoured with it. I gave FP4 a go when it was released, I thought it was alright, but not super great. In the very late eighties I was working in an industrial photolab as a darkroom junkie, our lab was basically Kodak. The Ilford rep convinced the boss to try out some of the new, but not yet released FP4+. Step wedge tests were very good when developed in our replenished D76 bath; which was all we had for B&W film developing. The fact that Panatomic X became discontinued around the same time FP4+ became available, meant I gravitated to FP4+ as my stash Of Panatomic X dissappeared; haven't looked back.

I might add the start of my FP4+ usage coincided with the time I acquired my Jobo processor, now that was a match made in heaven. 4x5" sheets developed more evenly than many nitrogen burst agitated dip N dunk sheet film, even the Kodak rep agreed these newish Jobo machines could develop sheet fim very evenly. What I think he really liked about the emergence of jobo processors, was that they were mainly used with one shot developing; meaning a steady supply of film developer was needed to be purchased.

Mick.

Walter Glover
Posts: 1270
Joined: 31 Jul 2012, 22:31
Location: Leichhardt, NSW

Re: Billila House

Postby Walter Glover » 16 Oct 2018, 22:21

Too right, Mick,

I have used Ilford 'FP' films so long that when I started they came in yellow boxes. A surfing mate at the time was the manager of Ilford at Willoughby (Sydney) and he'd rabbit on and on about how shifting to minimalist white packaging was going to build market share.

I think he was right at the time (mid- to late-sixties). Most of the guys I worked for were Ilford users because nobody wanted to endure the monopolistic dictatorship of Old Yella.

The great loss, of course, was Agfa — particularly old fibre-based Agfa's chloro-bromide papers: Portriga Rapid and Record Rapid.

I am an avid user of FP4+. On a trip to the UK in the year 2000 I shot all Delta 100 4x5 and I found that pretty pleasing too. Jobo-processed in a very clean new liquid concentrate, the name of which escapes me right now.
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant

Mick Fagan
Posts: 412
Joined: 24 Sep 2015, 21:20
Location: Melbourne

Re: Billila House

Postby Mick Fagan » 17 Oct 2018, 08:45

DD-X, maybe?

Mick.

Walter Glover
Posts: 1270
Joined: 31 Jul 2012, 22:31
Location: Leichhardt, NSW

Re: Billila House

Postby Walter Glover » 18 Oct 2018, 06:31

That's the one: Ilfotec DD-X.

That was back in my Jobo ATL 2000 days.
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant


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