This building, standing as it does on the western side of Circular Quay right near the waters of Sydney Harbour, was the headquarters of the then-Maritime Services Board from the time of its construction in 1948. Indeed, though you won't be able to see it from this angle, the bas relief sculptures underneath the clock represent a propeller, a ship's wheel and an anchor. The location made sense back in the days when Sydney was still a working port (as it mostly isn't now) though in 1989 the MSB moved to allegedly larger premises and the building was turned over to be the home of a new Museum of Contemporary Art. It is currently being upgraded with a new wing at the same time as the park outside it is being torn apart and rebuilt.

The MSB was dissolved in 1995 and replaced by three government corporations in line with the ideological vogue of the time. The only real difference seems to have been that the chief executives of these corporations were paid much more than they were as departmental heads. There have of course been subsequent restructures, as western managements have continued to develop the highly productive art not of creating better services and products (which produced the west's wealth in the first place) but rather rearranging management reporting lines.

But I digress. What does this have to do with the title? I'm posting this shot at least two days late because the amount of time that I have to devote to photography continues to shrink for the time being. Accordingly rather than taking many of the shots that I want to do, and plan to do, I'm necessarily seeking out "targets of opportunity". The MCA building was one, with the morning sun brightly shining on it to give it a wonderfully warm feel.

Needless to say, as soon as I brought the camera up to my eye...it went behind a skiver of cloud which sucked most (but admittedly not all) of the colour out of it. Waiting longer only caused it to go behind an even darker cloud. So this shot had to make do.

Still, the sun didn't really move, the clouds did. (Without debating relativity, anyway.) So I suppose that one could really say that the clouds can be sods.

Last Year