A thread for Silo/Water Tank Art, and small town public art.

[DaveC Oz]

Over the last 15 moths I have visited several siloes in North Western Victoria that have been painted by some hugely talented artists. What started as an idea that many doubted, to paint siloes in tiny regional towns, and fairly remote districts in order to attract visitors off the main roads has really taken off. At last count there are at least 63 silo art sites, and numerous water tank art, murals, and sculptures. They attract a steady stream of visitors, nowhere near Disneyland numbers, but enough to inject some extra income into towns that often only have a hundred people or so. There are now also projects and Silo/Tank art spread across other parts of Australia, and even a few in the USA.
So I'll start the ball rolling with some of my shot's and invite others to post their shots of similar nature here as well.

These first few are from this past weekend, and were seen while travelling home from Mildura (with some slight detours)

• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
• 47.0 mm
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
• 50.0 mm
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
• 34.0 mm
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
• 28.0 mm
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
• 28.0 mm
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[Phil Vetra]

Very Cool!

 

[Richard A]

This is a photo of some silo art in Kimba, South Australia, which is roughly half way across the country. This is one of the main attractions in town so you would think they would put a bit of effort into a better viewing area. I took this a few years ago on the way back from the Oyster Fest in Ceduna with my Sony RX100MIII.

View media item 25401

 

[DaveC Oz]

Looks great. I really like the way the artists have managed to capture images that reflect the areas

 

[alexpler]

Awesome project and beautiful set. Wish I could practise some shots there myself.

 

[Brownie]

I've been enjoying your silo art since you started posting them Dave! Glad you decided to start a thread. I'm not sure I've ever seen one near me, but will keep an eye out!

 

[Richard A]

There is some silo art in Waikeree, on the Murray River but it’s not as good as this. I was up there late last year, towards the end of the floods & just took a couple of pics with my phone. I’ll see if I can find them & put them up.

 

[DaveC Oz]

The two smaller "portable" silo's, each with 3 images, were in the small town of Werrimull, population approximately 112. The larger concrete silo, and the nearby corrugated iron Mallee Fowl sculptures were in the equally small town of Patchewollock.
the following silo's were taken in late December 2022, May 2023, and September 2023
Rosebery Silo's

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 23.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/500 sec
• ISO 400

Brim Silo's - The first silo's to be painted. The local farmer depicted on the right passed away last year.

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 26.0 mm
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Sheep Hills Silo's

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 18.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/500 sec
• ISO 200

Rupanyup Silo's

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 33.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/500 sec
• ISO 400

Sheep Hills at night backlit by moonlight on clouds

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• 13 sec
• ISO 12800

Coonalpyn, South Australia

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 18.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/160 sec
• ISO 100

 

[DaveC Oz]

Avoca Silo, and out-building

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 39.0 mm
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• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 22.0 mm
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• 1/500 sec
• ISO 400

Nullawil Silo's

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
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• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 31.0 mm
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Sea Lake Silo's, and a shop wall

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• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 23.0 mm
• ƒ/4
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• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 24.0 mm
• ƒ/4
• 1/640 sec
• ISO 100

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 34.0 mm
• ƒ/4.5
• 1/2000 sec
• ISO 800

St. Arnaud Silo's and buildings

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 20.0 mm
• ƒ/10
• 1/500 sec
• ISO 1600

• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 108.0 mm
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• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 51.0 mm
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[Brownie]

Love these David!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Wonderful. Especially the night shots

 

[DaveC Oz]

So after work on Thursday, I came home, went to bed for a few hours sleep. Then got up, left home at 10pm, and drove over to two of the silo art sites. As can be seen in the first shot, when I arrived, there was way too much interference from moonlight. So I grabbed some more sleep, before trying again at about 4 a.m. at Roseberry, and 5'ish at Brim. Only 900km+ round trip.

• Samyang AF 24mm F1.8
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• Samyang AF 24mm F1.8
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• Samyang AF 24mm F1.8
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[Richard A]

Wow! The effort was worth it. I'd love to take some shots like that with the Milky Way in the background but unfortunately, around here, it never seems to come up behind anything interesting. Might have to consider a composite shot. Are you happy with that lens for shots like this?

 

[DaveC Oz]

Wow! The effort was worth it. I'd love to take some shots like that with the Milky Way in the background but unfortunately, around here, it never seems to come up behind anything interesting. Might have to consider a composite shot. Are you happy with that lens for shots like this?

Thanks Richard. I'd recommend using an app such as photopills for planning shot's. Being in south-east Melbourne I have a minimum of 90 minutes travel to get darker skies, but you may be surprised at what can make an interesting foreground to Milky Way shots. If you get the time, take a look at Richard Tatti's channel Nightscape images. He's based in Bendigo, but has done some great shot's in South Australia, and Tasmania as well. I find the biggest challenge with these shots is getting clear skies when I have time to get out, and when the moon isn't going to interfere.
The lens is good for low light shot's, although I sometimes find myself wanting a bit wider field of view. I'm tempted by the Viltrox 16mm1.8.

 

[Richard A]

Thanks. I did get photopills recently but I haven’t used it much yet. And I have been subscribed to Richard Tatti’s channel for a while. I know he mostly uses a tracker and most of his images are composites because of that (not that there’s anything wrong with that). He did a video recently about single shots which was interesting.

 

[DaveC Oz]

Wasn't really happy with the result of the Brim silo edit, so I had another go. The stars aren't emphasised as much this time, but the result is more natural. Each of the milky way shots is a 25 shot stack.

• Samyang AF 24mm F1.8
• 24.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 150 sec
• ISO 800

 

[Richard A]

What software do you use for stacking & editing your Milky Way shots?

 

[DaveC Oz]

What software do you use for stacking & editing your Milky Way shots?

I transfer the raw files to my computer, then use ON1 to open, and synchronise the temperature of the photo groups before exporting them as tiff files. I then use Sequator to stack the photos into a single tiff which then gets edited in ON1.