When plans were announced for building the new Dunedin Hospital on the Cadbury Factory site, I knew it would be really important to get at least one good image of the Cadbury factory as a keepsake before it was demolished. The idea was good, but taking an interesting image proved a little harder.

I thought it might be nice to start by photographing the silos with a longer lens, and by doing so, include the spire of First Church in the frame.

I would always be looking for opportunities to grab a different perspective of the factory, and on this occasion I was driving through town late afternoon, close to sunset, so the shadows were getting long and the light was warm and summery. I used the apartment building as the foreground, and as luck would have it a seagull flew through the image at the moment of capture.

The last image I took finally gave me the ‘something special’ I was looking for in a keepsake. I was on my way to Sue Todd Antiques, a regular client, to photograph lovely items for her website. The weather looked a little stormy with a mix of dark clouds and blue sky. The sun was still fairly low in the sky and the angle of it was shining brightly on the Cadbury factory windows. By shooting into the sun, the resulting light created a very monochromatic look to the image. The vantage point I took the image from also allowed me to include the Cadbury Fry building in the composition.

As a comparison, below a similar image, after the silos and factory had been demolished. By chance the view here now shows the old Dunedin Hospital.

The Cadbury factory provided employment for so many Dunedin men and women, and has been an important part of our cities history. I do feel a slight loss now when I gaze toward where the silos used to be in the current work site, but the promise of a state of the art hospital is something I can also appreciate and look forward to having in Dunedin.