Shamrock Ghost Tour
I’ve wanted to gain access to the 4th floor (top level) in the Shamrock in Bendigo for years and an opportunity arrived. A ghost tour with Paranormal Adventures Australia. Booked in March 24 for a Friday night session June 14. Since I last asked abut accessing the top level a few years back I believe some work has been done to make access safer for things like ghost tours. This post is not about the paranormal but is about photographing the top level for the first time. Nothing spiritual captured on photos but there was one message via an app, Spirit Talker, that said ‘no camera’ towards the end of the tour. I’m not one that fully believes in the paranormal but also not one that rules it out. Each to their own.
Unique Views
A few views out the windows on level 4, two from the tower room (opposite the old post office clock tower) and one looking north towards the new law courts and BRIT. There are small views from other windows but they are just a small part of the room that I was capturing.
Exploring the top floor
Exploring the top floor whilst on a ghost tour did offer some challenges. Mostly with limited light. I decided on taking only my 17mm 1.8 lens but still needed to shoot at ISO 4000 and even then at times use my phone light to help light up the scene when there was no one else near from the tour group. I did set the camera to shoot in black and white (RAW files so still have full colour data) during the evening. When editing I played around with muted colours when not leaving as black and white for a lot. I left a couple at near 100% colour saturation as the camera captured.
I’d love to shoot on this level again but in the afternoon and through to sunset to capture the light coming in the windows in the tower room. Enjoy the gallery below showing the current state of the 4th floor with some added ghost tour themed rooms. All hand held up to 2 seconds using the Olympus OM-D EM-1 MKIII.
