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Archaeophotography of a test trench site

Picture of Irmah

Irmah

by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Hugh Thomas photographing from a bush
Hugh Thomas photographing from a spiky holme bush © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
On Friday 9 November 2012, Hugh Thomas photographically documented the test trench site which we will begin to excavate this week. The purpose of the photography is so that there is a photographic record of how the site looked before it was cleared and excavation commenced.

He had as his able assistant in high wind, Rudy Alagich, who did a fine job wrangling fly-away pieces of paper – in particular the A4 sized arrow on paper in a plastic sleeve, which was to be placed in many of the photographs so that the direction of north was known.

Hugh takes photographs from several sides around the site, with Rudy placing the north indicator in some shots, and a metre stick to indicate scale in some shots (sometimes vertical, sometimes horizontal, sometimes both). Following is a selection of the photographs I took of this archaeophotography.

Hugh photographing while Rudy Alagich steadies the vertical metre stick
Hugh Thomas photographing, using his preferred monopod – easily repositioned while providing stability to the camera – while Rudy Alagich positions the vertical metre stick © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
Vertical and horizontal metre sticks and a north marker
Vertical and horizontal metre sticks and a north marker provide scale and orientation © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
The fierce wind blew the north marker out of Rudy Alagich's hand
The fierce wind blew the north marker out of Rudy Alagich’s hand (it really happened just as I shot the photo; we didn’t fake this; it looks silvery because the paper is in a reflective plastic sleeve) © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
We worked hard but we had fun
We worked hard but we had fun © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

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