stones

The heatwave continue due to the blocking high-pressure system that has set in over the Tasman Sea. This is steering hot continental winds over south-eastern Australia.

The daytime temperature is consistently around 35 degrees C, whilst the night time temperature stays around 21 degrees. There is very little by way of a cooling wind and its mostly bright blue skies. These conditions makes the daily poodlewalks difficult, especially at lunchtime and in the early afternoon. We move slowly, staying in the shade as much as is possible.

stones, Adelaide parklands
stones, Adelaide parklands

This pile of stones has been sitting in the parklands for some time now. I’ve kept on looking at them as we walk past. Yesterday I decided to start photographing them. I did a few snaps in the morning with the Leica with black and white film, then I made some colour snaps with a digital Sony NEX-7 camera on the afternoon walk.

urban abstract

This picture was taken with a Leica film camera on a poodlewalk in the CBD of Adelaide before Raffi arrived from Melbourne, and we had the week’s break down at Victor Harbor. Ari and I are currently unable to wander the city like we used to used. Raffi is just too small.

wall abstract
wall abstract

Consequently, this week has been one of mostly hanging out in Whitmore Square, or in the protected areas in the Adelaide parklands near Veale Gardens where it is safe for Raffi to be off lead.

at Encounter Bay

On our early morning walk along the beach at Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor this morning, I started noticing the colour of the seaweed amongst the rocky foreshore:

seaweed, Encounter Bay
seaweed, Encounter Bay

The sand had gone exposing the reef (Black’s reef that lies between the Bluff and Wright Island) at low tide, and the seaweed was scattered amongst the rocks.

at Dog Beach

We are at Victor Harbor for the Australia Day weekend. Most of the afternoon was spent in the digital suite of Encounter Studio getting the iMac up and running after its hard disc was replaced through Apple’s Seagate call back programme.

rocks, Dog Beach, Victor Harbour
rocks, Dog Beach, Victor Harbour

The late afternoon poodlewalk along the cliff tops to what we call Dog Beach was a quick one. The rock studies that I took basically picked up from where I’d left off before we went to American River on Kangaroo Island.

it is hot

The day dawned warm and bright. I was down at the jetty area by 6.15am, but the light was already intense, even though the sun had just risen above the hills. The wind was warm rather than cool. The day promised to be unpleasantly hot.

So I just sat on the edge of the jetty and made some sea abstracts, with both digital and medium format film cameras:

sea abstract #1, American River
sea abstract #1, American River

I gave up after 20 minutes as the light was becoming too harsh. It was a pity because the rocks, seagrass and the strong tidal current were providing good possibilities for abstractions.

Victor Harbor: bark abstract

The poodlewalk on the last day of our holidays at Victor Harbor was spent mooching around the reserve opposite the studio. The southerly winds had dropped and the days were bright and sunny. It was perfect summer holiday weather for those wanting fun at the beach. Suzanne went for her first summer swim before we left.

I had a sense that a heatwave was coming Adelaide’s way so I spent what time I had photographing leaves and bark in the early morning:

bark, river gum
bark, river gum

I made number of studies of bark abstracts in both colour and black and white in both medium and large format.

plugging away

We returned to Kings Head for yesterdays poodlewalk so that could make more photos. It was overcast and cool, but the south westerly was still blowing too hard. I could only work in sheltered areas–behind a rock formation that protected me from the wind.

rock detail, Kings Head
rock detail, Kings Head

Mine is such a different approach to this DSLR style of landscape photography that relies on extensive post-processing. I am also much more interested in the detail of the landscape rather than the landscape itself.

Xmas

The afternoon poodlewalk on Xmas day was after a long and luxuriant lunch with family friends in Adelaide. We needed some exercise after that lunch, and so Suzanne, Ari and I walked around the parklands. There was hardly anyone around, and so we had the space to ourselves.

leaves+berries
leaves+berries

I took a few pictures of leaves and bark on the ground with an eye to texture and colour. Suzanne and Ari weren’t willing to stop and wait for me to dilly dally with the photography, the time I had was short.

it’s too hot to do much

It’s very hot in Adelaide at the moment. The temperature is around 38 degrees on our evening walks and 28 degrees during the night. There are no cool gully winds at night now. So Ari and I just mooched around the shade in Veale Gardens yesterday evening. The sprinklers only come on in the early morning.

We sat for a while by some of the trees that I wanted to photograph. These were abstractions of the bark currently peeling off the trunks of the eucalypts. The colours of the bark and trunk are soft and subtle:

trunk of   eucalypt
trunk of eucalypt

I took some hand held close-up photos with the Rolleiflex SL66, since this medium format camera system doesn’t need closeup rings. Then we move on to the next tree taking care to remain in the shade. We pretty much just sit in the shade and watch the world go by.

tree abstract

Suzanne, Ari and I visited Michal Kluvanek’s Hindmarsh studio yesterday. He has made a living for 30 years photographing art works and artists as well as doing his own work–landscape and urban. Some of his work was on the walls of the studio, on a table in the studio and in a gallery-type print rack. He is an analogue photographer who has not established a web presence.

tree abstract,  River Torrens
tree abstract, River Torrens

Afterwards, we checked out parts of the Glendi Greek Festival, before going for a walk along the River Torrens down by the Port Rd Park Terrace corner. It was an area that I used to visit regularly to walk and photograph when I had a studio in Bowden. The area has been cleaned up since then.