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by johndec on Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:18 pm
I'm not sure if the term "McMansion" is widely known or is a Sydney-centric word. For those not aware of it, it relates to rows and rows of huge houses built on tiny blocks in the outer suburbs..
Anyhoo, the irony of "Golden Arches Inc" building a feed trough at the end of a street full of McMansions struck me as somewhat absurd. I tried to PP it with a bit of extra brightness, contrast and saturation to give it the cartoonish look it deserves...

If I'm alone in a forest and my wife is not around to hear what I say, am I still wrong ??
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by Alpha_7 on Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:21 pm
Love it! I'd be tempted to clone out the distraction foreground poles.
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by robster on Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:50 pm
OMG! A row of 4WD's and yes, a bit less distraction and it'd be a stunner...
I mean, it's excellent anyway, especially with the story (for us non locals), and it has a real... surreal quality.
I can imagine this image with some heavy duty photoshoping to turn it into something really special.
Anyway, nice work
Rob
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by johndec on Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:52 pm
OK, as per the above excellent suggestions, I cloned out some of the more annoying foreground objects. Please press refresh on you browser. Sorry, but my PP skills don't extend to inserting 4wds... 
If I'm alone in a forest and my wife is not around to hear what I say, am I still wrong ??
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by huynhie on Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:12 pm
Very nice shot there John, the name describes the photo perfectly. 
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by Glen on Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:27 pm
John, great social parody. Send it to Library of NSW for their records of how stupid Town Planners can be
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by ozczecho on Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:31 pm
Nice cloning out - but I feel you lose some of the "modern visual pollution"...esp the aerials....
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by DJXtreme on Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:35 pm
great shot, captures the theme beautifully. quite like the effect you've achieved in PP as well.
Cheers,
Will
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by Ivanerrol on Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:38 pm
We have these MacSurburbs with their rows of MacMansions in Melbourne as well. So the term is well used here also. These suburbs also suffer from MacRoad syndrome - i.e. the streets are so narrow there is no room for on street parking. Also they are generally fence enclosed with only one or two outlets to the main roads creating Mactraffic jams at Peak hour.
I live in a suburb where much of it was designed by Walter Burley Griffen. Huge blocks with old Red Brick houses. Developers are in, buying up these old houses with their large blocks and erecting 3 - 4 MacMansions on the sites.
Melbourne has its very own Royal MacChildrens Hospital. - The main cafeteria is the Mac Restaurant.
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by johndec on Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:50 pm
ozczecho wrote:Nice cloning out - but I feel you lose some of the "modern visual pollution"...esp the aerials....
Yeah, I know. I really ummed and arghed about them but the image was way to busy in it's original form. If I had the skills and the background info I would have cloned out all the "minor" Maccas signs.
I suppose I could have made a composite image and combined a Maccas sign with a streetscape but that would be fiction. This really exists which is hilarious and tragic at the same time...  FYI, it's the corner of Cowpasture Rd and North Liverpool Rd, Green Valley.
If I'm alone in a forest and my wife is not around to hear what I say, am I still wrong ??
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by ozczecho on Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:05 pm
johndec wrote:.... FYI, it's the corner of Cowpasture Rd and North Liverpool Rd, Green Valley.
WOW....I remember Cowpasture Rd when it was Cowpasture Rd...that is, cow paddocks on each side and a great drive to the wollongong beaches from Bossley Park....ahhh those were the days 
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by Dug on Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:38 pm
I both love and hate this photo! It is beautifully awful, terribly wonderful.
Everything I hate about Sydney, Suburbia and our gross consumption for the sake of consumption.
it reminds me of the opening scene of "the Gods must be crazy"
How do people live like this? I only eat McDonalds because they dust the chips with Heroin and I am addicted.
Way to much photography gear is never enough!
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by robster on Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:42 pm
ozczecho wrote:WOW....I remember Cowpasture Rd when it was Cowpasture Rd...that is, cow paddocks on each side and a great drive to the wollongong beaches from Bossley Park....ahhh those were the days 
And that's why you're a 'senior member' LOL
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by Dargan on Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:22 pm
Another term from my Sydney youth was 'grass castles'. I like the image and social comment. Well done.
In the end we know Nothing, but in the meantime Learn like crazy. Your Camera Does Matter Nikon D70 D200 D300 PPOK
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by Dug on Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:50 pm
Little boxes made of ticky tacky.....And a Maccas. Does it get better than this?
Margo
Way to much photography gear is never enough!
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by gstark on Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:08 pm
John,
Great image, and a wonderful social commentary.
Sad, though, really.
Make sure that, when you clone in the Toyotas (their mortgages preclude Rangies or Beamers .... sorry Stuart!  ), you are able to see the twin DVD players in the back seats for the 2.1 kids' entertainment.
Ivanerrol wrote:I live in a suburb where much of it was designed by Walter Burley Griffen.
Which surburb, please?
Lindy lives in Castlecrag, designed and inhabited by the Griffens, and with a very large number of WBG houses. She's on the organising committee for the Haven Amphitheatre, which is the WBG designed and specified open theatre in the scrub.
What a wonderful architect the man was ...
g. Gary Stark Nikon, Canon, Bronica .... stuff The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it - US Pres. Bartlet
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by Glen on Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:33 pm
Dargan wrote:Another term from my Sydney youth was 'grass castles'. I like the image and social comment. Well done.
I thought that was a term used in the Griffith area? What did it used to mean in Sydney?
Gary, you are right Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion had great insight into making livable suburbs. They were ahead of their time.
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by Onyx on Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:13 pm
I miss Maccas and I aspire to own a MacMansion.
(yes yes, I have problems - I get told that alot)
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by Glen on Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:41 pm
Onyx, stop working with the people you are working with, they are screwing with your brain. 
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by Ivanerrol on Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:01 pm
GStark
Eaglemont in the Heidelberg area. Adjacent Ivanhoe / East Ivanhoe.
Called the Mt. Eagle Estate - designed by Walter Burley Griffen.
This area contained the famous Heidelberg Artists School. Indeed the school stood on the top of 'sic' Mount Eagle in a street named The Eyrie until the very late 90's. This school was part of a very large parcel of land which was subdivided and to this day the buildings erected on this parcel of land are somewhat contraversial. Many of the housblocks in Eaglemont were up to an acre in size.
Many of the famous Melbourne Landscapes by Artists such as McCubbin and Streeton were actually painted from this area.
This an affluent area and is renowned for its Elm trees, gardens and early 20's architecture. It is also a little known suburb and the majority of residents would probably like to keep it that way. It is around 8 Ks from the CBD
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by smac on Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:03 pm
gstark wrote:Make sure that, when you clone in the Toyotas (their mortgages preclude Rangies or Beamers .... sorry Stuart!  )
When you see the Beamer parked in the driveway of that McDonald's what you are actually looking at is me parked in the driveway of my house. That's my neighbours across the road that you're making fun of!.
Stuart (McDonald)
'Tis better to have loved and lust than never to have lust at all.
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by gstark on Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:25 pm
Stuart,
smac wrote:gstark wrote:Make sure that, when you clone in the Toyotas (their mortgages preclude Rangies or Beamers .... sorry Stuart!  )
When you see the Beamer parked in the driveway of that McDonald's what you are actually looking at is me parked in the driveway of my house. That's my neighbours across the road that you're making fun of!. Stuart (McDonald)
When I saw your car the other day, I forgot to ask: was it an X3, or did you supersize it?

g. Gary Stark Nikon, Canon, Bronica .... stuff The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it - US Pres. Bartlet
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by Dug on Tue Jul 11, 2006 11:01 pm
Maybe if I lived opposite maccas the kids would visit more often? 
Way to much photography gear is never enough!
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