poodleadmin, Author at Poodle Walks

August 13, 2011

making time for photography

I’m down at Victor Harbor for several days. Family from Tasmania are staying and it is difficult to find the time to do photography. I did manage to do a 5×4 photograph of this image late yesterday afternoon with the over-engineered Linhof Technika IV and this rock study with the Sony point and shoot digitial earlier in the afternoon when I was walking with the dogs:

rockstudygVH — rock study, Victor Harbor

It’s a question of being selfish to make time for photography. Otherwise it doesn’t get done. The dogs were walked early in the afternoon so that I had the 4-5 pm time to myself. Then I picked up Suzanne from the bus and we went home and cooked dinner for the family.

Pages: 1 2

August 11, 2011

Wirranendi Park: wetlands

After much indecision I’ve decided to do a little project in the Wirranendi section of the Adelaide parklands. What tipped the scales in favour was the wetlands as this could become the focus of the project rather than the public sculpture.

reedsWirrenandi — reeds, Wirranendi park

The urban forest just wasn’t enough on its own, even though some of the work is fascinating. But it requires the use of a large format camera to get the subtle detail.

August 9, 2011

low light photography

I haven’t done night photography up to now. Judging from Flickr nocturnal photography is very popular and I admire the work of those who photograph at night.

Objects and scenes look very different at night and in the early morning before dawn. What often looks drab and grey during the day in winter frequently comes alive at night. They are much more atmospheric.And more interesting.

August 7, 2011

urban documentary

I keep plugging away at the large format series or study of Adelaide. I’m slowly ticking off the locations and finding new ones:

I am not sure what the content is, how the series will be constructed, or how it will unfold. It will be something about documentary, empty streets and history with an eye to a DIY photo book. I want book making to be a central part of my practice.

Pages: 1 2

August 4, 2011

topographics

It has been raining all day in Adelaide and I haven’t been outside to do photography. Apart from visiting skin specialists and walking the dogs late this afternoon I have been inside the Sturt St office blogging on the US debt crisis and going through my Andamooka archives for light relief.

I am beginning to think that the photos in the archive are good enough could become a modest project in themselves. A project in Australian topographics. An aesthetic of the banal or the mundane for the philosophically minded.

Pages: 1 2

August 2, 2011

Eyre Peninsula

This image is from the archives that I have just scanned into the Mac Pro desktop computer.It was taken around 2002 on a trip to Venus Bay, which is on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Agtet must have been 3-4 months old as he still had his puppy coat.

I can remember the shutter on the newly acquired Rolleiflex SL66 jamming up on the very first shot–I was photographing plants on the shadow side of the sand dunes— and then having to rely on the ever reliable Rolleiflex TLR.

Pages: 1 2

August 2, 2011

The Coorong: being humbled

I have spent the last day or so scanning some old medium format negatives that I’d taken with my old Linhof medium format camera–Technika 70. The results have been disappointing.

The 6×9 camera back wasn’t working properly, the colours are all over the place, some of the images are underexposed and out of focus, and Silver Efex Pro will not work on them for some reason.

It’s all rather humbling. The mostly landscape pictures of the Coorong and the River Murray’s wetlands looked quite okay on the contact sheets, but unlike the work at Andamooka that was done with a Rolleiflex TLR, they have failed to live up to their promise.

Pages: 1 2

July 31, 2011

fuzzy imagery

Normally my photography is within the crisp focus big depth of field tradition and I usually avoid the out of focus smudgy lens look. This image happened because a wave crashed over the top of me whilst I was photography a rock, drenching me in the process.

I pulled the camera away but it still got wet the camera in the process.The tide was high and the seas were big that day.

Though I dried the camera body and the lens,the latter was still rather smudgy when I was taking some shots of flowing water. That kind of picture is the result. It’s a poetic approach to photography that emphasises subjectivity.

July 29, 2011

Andamooka

The picture below is from the archives. It was taken on a trip that Suzanne and I did to Andamooka circa 2001. Agtet was just a pup then and Ari had yet to join the family. We stayed in the shanty mining town for a few days at a friends place. It was a very dusty and hot place from memory.

I used to wander around the area with a Rolleiflex 3.5F TLR in the early morning and in the late afternoon light. Then I’d explore the shanty town with the old Leica during the day. These were the days way before I owned a digital camera, or even knew about them.

The negatives (the 6×6 and 35m) plus the contact sheets have sat in a brief case beside the desk all this time. Now that I have acquired an Epson V700 scanner I can finally do something with them.

Pages: 1 2

July 27, 2011

from a car park roof

I continued my search for suitable high locations to use the 5×7 Cambo in the Adelaide CBD today. This was mostly spent checking out the highest floor of the car parks in my neighbourhood for their perspective on the city.

I also wanted to see whether I could get a lens through the grilled barriers around the car parks that have been erected to prevent people from jumping off the roof.

Most of the perspectives that I came across were far too scenic—the snaps looked like picture post cards. I have no interest in pretty or pleasant representations of this provincial city as I am not doing a portrait of Adelaide; a tourist image; or a celebration of Adelaide as a liveable place.

Pages: 1 2