Night Falling on Docklands

In keeping with my recent fascination with sunsets and twilight, I went to Docklands this evening to capture the sunset.

Initially, I intended to only stay for the sunset itself, but then I realised there was actually no hurry to get home - I need to "reset" my sleeping pattern for night shift for the weekend anyway - so I stayed on until almost 9pm. And it's only now, well past 10pm, that my dinner preparation and other such evening routines will begin - so it should be a nice late one!

So anyway, the following is a selection of pics of night falling on Docklands. From around half an hour before sunset through to near total darkness at the end.

Pre-sunset Docklands

Sunset Over Bolte Bridge

Sunset-lit Docklands Apartments I

Sunset-lit Docklands Apartments II

Sunset-lit City

Sunset Under Bolte Bridge

Sunset-lit Docklands Construction

Post-sunset Bolte Bridge

Blue Hour Begins At Docklands

Stylized Moorings

Shipping Containers

Melbourne Star

Melbourne Star Closeup

Almost Dark at Docklands I

Almost Dark at Docklands II

Last Light At Sunset Horizon (Bolte Bridge)

Sunset in Port Melbourne

It's the second week of mine having Tuesday and Wednesday day shifts, and I'm still finding it very exotic and awesome to have evenings after work off! So tonight after work I decided to go out to Port Melbourne for a little photo walk, and see what the sunset looks like from over there.

Unfortunately, Port Melbourne isn't actually such a great vantage point for sunsets. The sun sets over an industrial area in the western suburbs on the other side of the bay, so it takes away from the nicer, beachy feel of Port Melbourne itself. Also, the light was a bit cloudy and drab for this sunset, so admittedly - the sunset shots themselves have been a bit enhanced (colour saturated), to make them worthwhile to post.

Still, it was a nice little outing, and some of the post-sunset shots especially turned out quite well.

Port Melbourne Waterfront

Port Melbourne Sunset

Port Melbourne Sunset Closeup

Port Melbourne Sunset Over Pier Ruins

Walking Along Port Melbourne Waterfront

Luxury Apartments Overlooking The Beach

View From Beach With City In Distance

Port Melbourne Esplanade Beach View

Waterfront Restaurant

Blue Hour at Yarra's Edge

I went for a little photo walk this evening hoping to capture the sunset, but as it turned out, some high cloud moved in from the west and obscured the sun. It made for a grey, smoggy-looking sunset that wasn't really worth capturing at all.

But then after sunset, the "blue hour" light turned very interesting, and I took my time coming back from the intended sunset vantage point to take it in - mostly along the riverside promenades of Yarra's Edge and South Wharf.

The following shots are not all blue hour shots. The first few are from earlier, during the drab cloud-covered sunset, but then the cooler ones towards the end of the series are during the progressively darker and darker blue hour.

Southbank from South Wharf, just before sunset

Yarra's Edge Marina, just before sunset

Bolte Bridge, just after sunset

Melbourne from Yarra's Edge promenade

Yarra's Edge Marina I

Yarra's Edge Marina II

Webb Bridge I

Webb Bridge II

The Grass is Greener in the Evening

It's funny how people get used to things. When I started my kitchen stewarding job last year, I wrote about being on the "inverted routine", and how it's sort of luxurious to be able to wake up whenever you feel like for work instead of forcing yourself up early in the mornings, etc etc.

Now, after a year of nothing else but evening/night shifts, the opposite actually feels luxurious! It actually feels exotic and privileged to me to be able to come home from work and have a relaxing evening off! And on the flipside, the few hours of free time that I have at the moment before work during the afternoons feel a bit pointless.

No matter how aware I am that this is just hedonic adaptation at work, it's still hard not to feel this way - that all these people working during the day and having evenings off are having an easy and relaxing time of it. And I should know better: I've spent 10 years working as a 9-5 office drone, as well as had past jobs which included very early rises, on "factory hours" such as 7-3.

Still, I've taken steps to try to get off night shift, at least for a couple of days per week. It's hard to organise an ongoing fixed roster which is anything like "normal" daytime business hours in hospitality, but at least this coming week I've got a couple of day shifts. And if they work out, they might become a permanent thing for a couple of months. There'll still be evening/night shifts on the weekend, but only daytime during the week.

This will be the ultimate test I suppose: having some of each in the same weekly routine. I'd like to think that being on day shift will be a huge relief, and feel very easy and relaxed to be on - mainly due to these exotic, rare and precious things called "free evenings"! But I'm pretty sure that it'll soon feel "normal", and like nothing special. And that I'll see the disadvantages of it as well as the advantages very quickly.

Rainy Early Morning in Melbourne

Last night I had my last night shift for four days, so I decided to stay up this morning. I got home from work at 3:30am, and slept until mid-afternoon the previous day anyway, so it's not actually too much of a stretch to just stay up today, and then go to bed at a reasonable time tonight for a good sleep on a more normal schedule. It's just like "fixing" jetlag really.

So I decided to kill a few hours of the early morning by going out for a little photo walk, at 5:30am. It was a damp and drizzly morning, which I thought could work quite well. Melbourne first light cityscapes with glistening wet roads and such.

Some shots turned out quite well, but I'm finding that they're turning out a bit darker post-processing (into JPEGs) than they seem like they should be when I look at them in RAW format. Not sure why that is. Next time I go out for night photography, I'll maybe try to take what I think are slightly overexposed shots, and see what happens then.

Anyway, here are a few of the best shots of the walk.

Reflection Of Crown In Sandridge Bridge Puddles

City From Sandridge Bridge

Light Polluted Clouds

First Light At Southbank Landing

First Light Over Ponyfish Island

First Light Over Ponyfish Island II

Graveyard Shift

Well, after nearly a year in a job where 24-hour rosters are the norm, I've finally ended up on graveyard shift for the next three nights. That's Midnight to 6am! The last time I worked graveyard shift was some 15 years ago, and it was in a similar kitchen stewarding job to what I do now.

After nearly a year of working almost nothing but dinner shifts (around 6pm to around 2-3am), I'm actually finding this prospect refreshing. Unlike the dinner shift, graveyard shift actually overlaps a bit with "normal" sociable times, such as dinner time and evenings-after-work for most people. So it's quite possible to - for example - meet up with someone for dinner and then go to work. On the dinner night shifts on the other hand - you're only really overlapping with people who on the "normal" routine at silly times like early mornings, from ~3am until they wake up and go to work. So even if you're living with someone, you can't really see each other properly on working days!

Given my solo lifestyle, and that I'm not exactly the most sociable person in the world, it actually doesn't matter too much which shift I work. Of course, it's nice to be more available at "normal" sociable times than not - just for the opportunity value of having casual availability in your life routine to catch up with friends and family and such.

Furthermore, and oddly enough - despite seeming more "extreme" than the dinner shift - I actually think the graveyard shift would be better even with a family home life! ie The free time of your day is the late afternoon and evening, when kids and partners and such come home from school and work, so you can spend time with them. Unlike on the dinner shift where you're generally well and truly on the way to work by the time they're coming home. And the only "overlap" you have with them is a rather useless time - the wee hours of the morning when you come home and the household is asleep, and just wakes up and runs out the door in the morning while you're trying to sleep.

Well, one thing I haven't fully experienced yet - since I'm only starting my first shift tonight - is what working graveyard shift will do to my sleep patterns. I've had a lot of late finishes and sleeping in until past midday on the dinner shift, and that has been pretty easy to beat and get back on day schedules for days off. Maybe graveyard will be more difficult, since it is even further from the norm, but I guess the next three days will tell.

One thing seems to be certain though - at least from what everybody who has worked this shift has been telling me - it is very very easy. They all say that there is "nothing to do", that it's boring. And of course, as I wrote nearly two years ago, that's just fine with me.