Gone To Gowings, a photo from New South Wales, Est

Photographer's Note

This is taken in what used to be the Gowings Building. Gowings was a Sydney institution, a department store which sold clothing and camping gear since 1868. This is part of the store which was located on the corner of Market and George Streets, Sydney. I remember going to this store many times with my grandpa in the 1970s, and later on as an adult buying camping and fishing gear. In what is such a sad sign of difficult economic times, Gowings ceased trading at 5:23pm on 29 January 2006.

The Australian slang, "He's gone to Gowings" usually means that a person has gone somewhere and may not return or that the person or thing is irretrievably lost. For example, "That car's gone to Gowings" means that the car is not working and has no chance of ever working again.

The area in my photo is what used to be the caffeteria. On the left you can see the original elevators which were used by both the Gowings customers and also patrons of the State Theatre next door.

Sadly for Sydneysiders, Gowings now really has gone to Gowings.

But you can still get a nice cuppa here in the café which is owned by a private hotelier now.

My Workshop shows the POV from the opposite end of the café.

Canon 5D MkII
ISO 200
4 seconds
f/11
19mm using 17-40mm lens
Tripod
White Balance: Shade

manrezaei, No_One, snunney, npecanhuk, bayno, SnapRJW, danos, Sonata11, Romano46, cornejo, ktanska, mirosu, jjcordier, tyro, macjake, pajaran, krzychu30, vagabondtravels, ourania, jusninasirun, Cricri trouve(nt) cette note utile

Critiques | Translate

manrezaei (1749) 2013-04-17 2:35

Hello Lisa,

Splendid color. Wonderful interior shot. Excellent focus, clarity and lights you captured. Very well done.

Regards.

Mansour

lousat (138585) 2013-04-17 2:47

Ciao Lisa,un bel regalo fotografico per un barman come me...ehehe...un ambiente magnifico e molto elegante,ottima foto con colori caldi e dettagli straordinari,anche se pende un po' a sinistra,molto bello il lato opposto nel WS.Buonanotte e complimenti,Luciano

No_One (4) 2013-04-17 3:04

Gidday Lisa,
Love the history of the place, and the cool phrase it gave rise to, gone to Gowings is a nice phrase :)
And this is a place that sold camping gear? Wow, that is a far cry from any camping shops that we have here. The lush gold tones and decorative ceiling and floor makes this look more like a Faberge egg emporium that somewhere to buy portable stoves!
Love the lighting that you got here, really creates a nice opulent mood, and cool depth leading down that long corridor. This really has an old world charm and opulence to it that is really missing from the modern world. I like this a lot!
All the best
Noel

snunney (130967) 2013-04-17 4:06

Ciao Lisa,
Not very long for a catchphrase to take effect, just over seven years. I like the very long perspective and the lovely warm tones. Very well exposed and with superb clarity. A sad story that is being repeated all over the modern world.

npecanhuk (79329) 2013-04-17 4:12

Hi! Very beautiful interior picture accompanied by such An. Interesting note! Cheers, Neyvan

Sergiom (117241) 2013-04-17 5:04

Ciao Lisa

Nice story. Childhood historys are the best more so, when grandfathers are involved.This is still a very nice place with a lot of boiseries. The ceiling is like a cathedral.The use of a tripod without flash is perfect.

Have a nice day

Serge

carlo62 (81265) 2013-04-17 5:22

Ciao Lisuccia
che bel localino, sembra che abbiano copiato il bar del mio paesello!
Bravissima come sempre nel gestire la luce e nel comporre le immagini.
Grande profondità ed eccellenti dettagli.
Salutoni
Carlo

bayno (18348) 2013-04-17 6:06

Ciao Lisuzza,
indubbimente preferico questa al WS...ache lui bellissimo....mi piace la tonalità che hai cercato con l'ottimo edit....stupenda la prospettiva...scatto eseguito perfettamente e con una location piena di fascino.....un caro abbraccio...
Valter

SnapRJW (31631) 2013-04-17 6:58

Hi Lisa - Crikey, what a place to pick up camping equipment! A rich and elegant interior decorated to within an inch of its life and hard to imagine some khaki-clad bush-whacker (I hope that's not politically incorrect, here we would use that term to mean an outdoorsy-kind of person ;) ) purchasing rods and tackle. Tea and cake sounds perfect for the location, cucumber sandwiches too.

Gorgeous shot of this warm and inviting café. The strong lines of perspective carry the busy decor very well and give an important feeling of structure to the shot. Smashing. Warm regards rosemary

danos (110407) 2013-04-17 7:19

Ciao Lisa,
nice the view of the interior of the Gowings building.
I like the created depth with the quality of the image under these low lighting conditions to are superb.The cafe side coplete the whole scenery.

Regards,Danos

ikeharel (112397) 2013-04-17 8:37

Hi Lisa,
Yet another place you are banned from shopping?... Looks lavishly beautiful, and masterpiece photo indoor's collected.
My best ciong.'s, fantastic.
Ike

Sonata11 (34119) 2013-04-17 8:46

Dear Lisa,
Wow!!! what a elegant interior with so many details. Fantastic perspective with great light, colors, sharpness clarity management. Perfectly well done. I love this execution. Tfs.
Regards,
Barbara

dkmurphys (79209) 2013-04-17 9:38

Ciao Lisa,
Impressive place. I love your POV that shows perfectly the amazing decorative work. Well done!

Daniel

Romano46 (18472) 2013-04-17 10:34

Ciao Lisa
commentare le tue foto è un vero piacere perchè in esse c'è l'espressione di una artista che ci mette l'anima, cosa non molto frequente nel sito.
Quale che sia il soggetto le tue capacità emergono in maniera molto netta ed ogni tuo scatto è molto curato in tutti i dettagli.
Anche in questo che dire? Bello il soggetto, perfetta la ripresa, belli i colori e ottima la nitidezza.
Mi costringi ad essere ripetitivo, ma è meglio che sia così, segno che ne continui a proporre una più bella dell'altra.
Complimenti.
Un grazie per la tua preferenza, anzi è stata l'occasione che accorgermi che, convinto di averti già messo tra le mie, in realtà non l'avevo fatto.
Per cui ho posto immediatamente rimedio all'involontario errore.
Un carissimo saluto
Romano

serp2000 (47063) 2013-04-17 10:44

Hi, Lisa, my neighbor today,
Superb luxury shot! Attractive golden tones, excellent exposure. Good composition, tfs!
Serghei

cornejo (61504) 2013-04-17 11:22

Hello dear Lisa, very good picture of this beautiful and interesting composition of this beautiful interior, very well captured in this excellent image with good pov with good sharpness, depth, light and color. Very good and interesting job perfectly done, congratulations my friend. Thanks for sharing this beautiful work.

Good morning and happy rest of week.
Best regards from southern Spain.
Angel.

Bluejeans (64251) 2013-04-17 11:50

Ola Lisa ,
Lindo o interior deste café com estes detalhes de arquitetura antigos de 1868 , gostei das cores em tonalidades de rosa , muito interessante os vestidos dentro das montras , parabéns!!
Um abraço Gonçalo

ktanska (44464) 2013-04-17 12:04

Hi Lisa,
You god very rich golden tones on this and they fit perfectly with old time glory. Such places are not done anymore, are actually for maybe for 100 years or so.
Thanks for yet another piece of Aussie language too.
Kari

Royaldevon (85606) 2013-04-17 14:41

Ciao Cara Lisa,

It is so sad when establishments, so much part of people's lives, cease to trade. It rocks your security.
I remember when Woolworths ceased to trade in the U.K. There had always been a Woolworths, it was where everyone went to get good value good cheaply! Many other have gone in the last couple of years! So sad!

Your photograph shows what looks like a very sumptuous place. The colours give it immediate warmth and furnishings, a sense of grandeur.
A very well judged pov uses converging lines as a strong lead but there is plenty of time to enjoy the details.

My warm regards,
Bev :-)

mirosu (16313) 2013-04-17 22:20

Hi Lisa,
you are posting superb interior photo. During my last trip to Sydney I visited similar place with beautiful Christmas decoration. May be I will post one photo from that place later.
I like the light and the excellent view through the nice shopping mall. Excellent deep DOF.
Greetings
Miro

jjcordier (79299) 2013-04-17 22:42

Lisa
Deux très bonnes photos de l'intérieur de ce bâtiment au remarquable style architectural. belle gestion de la lumière, jolie composition et superbes couleurs.
Amicalement
JJ

gus72 (3719) 2013-04-17 23:09

Ciao Lisa !!
very nice internal photo with very rich colours and full of
decorations on the walls, the ceiling and the floor tiles.
Would not mind going to this coffee shop to suck up a bit of the old days.
There is a similar coffee in BsAs which has been trading for aprox. 100 years, it is much bigger than this one and often you see a queue of tourist waiting to get in.
its name is TORTONI
Un abrazo
Gus

tyro (30513) 2013-04-18 0:26

Ciao cara Lisa,

This is a wonderful indoor shot which does, I have to say, have a delightful "olde worlde" look to it, probably partly on account of the warm tungsten lighting in the place. I did see your note to Noel and was interested to read about your opinions on white balance correction/adjustment.

A very fine composition with perfect exposure, warm colours and excellent detail an sharpness. And well done you for carting a tripod with you to this place too. And what an awful shame that this huge emporium has now ceased trading.

Excellent!

Kind Regards,

John.

P.S. I guess "Gone to Gowings" is a bit like the British phrase "Gone for a Burton"? I found this article and the last paragraph of the first section is quite interesting!

Silvio1953 (220553) 2013-04-18 9:13

Ciao Lisa, mi inviti per un caffè qui?
Favolosa prospettiva su un locale fantastico, magnifica esposizione, bravissima, un abbraccio Silvio

macjake (98262) 2013-04-18 17:31

Hi Lisa
its funny, at my very first glance of this photo I thought this was a Las Vegas Hotel!
I got really excited there for a sec!
But i think i remember you saying you don't really have any desire to visit Vegas - not to mention its a mear million miles away too!
I'm itching to go back to Vegas!! Need more abstract architectural shots in my gallery :)

anyways...
cool story here, but not so cool on one hand I suppose. I'm sure Tosca would love to sit and chat in this location and have a coffee.
Seems like its Art Deco style all over the place!
very cool indeed
cheers
Craig

pajaran (114867) 2013-04-18 22:44

Dobar dan.
Vrlo interesantan i dobar tekst sa datim podacima ...
Lep pogled na unutrasnjost kafica...
Dobar snimak, kontrast, perspektiva, lepe boje.
Dobar rad i kompozicija, lepo pokazana unutrasnjost.
Lepa unutrasnjost kafica.
Lepe fotografije u radionici.
Dobar tekst o upotrebljenoj tehnici i elementima snimka.
Sve najbolje za vikend.
Srecno.
Paja.

Good afternoon.
Very interesting and good text with the given data ...
Nice view of the interior of the cafe ...
Good picture, contrast, perspective, beautiful colors.
Good work and composition, nice interior shown.
Beautiful interior of the cafe.
Beautiful photography in the workshop.
Good article on the used technique and elements of the image.
All the best for the weekend.
Good luck.
Paja.

krzychu30 (15512) 2013-04-19 0:59

Hello Lisa,
your shot(actually both,also the one in WS)give us excellent foretaste how splendid place it must have been.Sad it had to shut down,but at least you can still feel the atmosphere of past days in the café.
Beautiful and very stylish interior excellently captured by you.Just love the light and color schem of the image.

Wish You a nice weekend
Krzysztof

vagabondtravels (6511) 2013-04-19 6:00

Hi Lisa

Great work with the light. Very sharp with a strong composition drawing the eye into the light at the end of the tunnel. Interesting architecture for sure. Well done.
Ben

ourania (51103) 2013-04-19 9:32

Ciao cara Lisa,
un interiore affascinante con tantissimi elementi decorativi attraenti e un' atmosfera accattivante. Profondita' e prospettive sono stupende e le tonalita' hanno un calore favoloso ed un fascino davvero speciale. Spero che il cafe' mantenga questo carattere unico anche adesso che e' distaccato dal magazzino che tanto amavano gli abitanti di Sydney. La tua gestione di luce e' abilissima. Complimenti e grazie!
Tanti saluti e buona giornata,
Ourania

jusninasirun (17529) 2013-04-19 17:46

Hello Lisa.
Interesting to see a building that was so famous and becoming part of the slang. Nice indoor ambiance with beautiful tone and details. Nice perspective with pleasing depth in the frame.
Thanks and kind regards.
Jusni

ChrisJ (171194) 2013-04-20 11:52

Hello Lisa,

Looks almost baroque and the golden colour tones are wonderful. Good sharpness and perspective with the passageway at left adding good lead in lines. Well managed interior lighting with superb contrasted lighting and density. Tfs!

Cricri (176) 2013-04-20 21:50

Hi Dear Lisa
Un intérieur a l'architecture et aux décorations vraiment magnifiques, bonne profondeur, la lumière intérieur et les teintes chaudes, belle complémentaire en WS
Agréable dimanche
cricri

fabbs99 (17179) 2013-05-05 22:17

Hello Lisa Namaste!!

Its a wonderful orange tinge shot displaying the inside decorations of the hall.Great shot and an interesting note to go with it.TFS,

Cheers
Farhat