Category: landscape

Posted on

returning to digital

I’m so annoyed with the pro-lab processing of my 5×4 film negatives that I had taken in Tasmania–some of them have very matted skies that I cannot correct using Adobe Lightroom. All that bloody expense in getting the gear to Tasmania and then the film and processing. It hurts, big time.

Those with no sky–ie., detail—were okay, and they delivered the detail I wanted.

So I have switched to digital for the moment, while I lick my wounds. Though I’ve gone back to exploring large format possibilities in the Port Adelaide project, I am very hesitant to shoot urbanscapes with skies in large format after being burned by the results of the Tasmanian work.

stobie Pole, Port Adelaide

I’ve kinda lost my confidence with large format, as it is proving much more difficult to pull off than I’d imagined. It’s less a simple step up from medium format than a big leap, and I’ve lost my footing in making the leap.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

rising sea levels

I went back to photograph this scene this afternoon with a medium format camera, only to find that it was nothing like it was yesterday afternoon. All the sand, that had provided a balance to the rock in the picture, had gone. We are talking a half a metre of sand that had been washed away by the tide and several levels of rock had been exposed. I was stunned.

moss+rocks

This only confirms to me this kind of global weirding scenario. As I walked along the cliff tops to the beach I could see the sea was swirling around locations on the foreshore that I often photographed in–they were inaccessible.They were surrounded by water and waves crashing over the top of them.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

the little things

I’m down at Victor Harbor nursing a sick poodle who is suffering from a bad bout of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. Today was the first day I was able to go out on a poodlewalk taking photos since Monday. As Agtet was barely able to walk, I’ve had no luck with large format photography.I was only able to make do walking a short distance with a medium format camera to this spot this afternoon.

grass, rocks, moss

If its the little, humble things that are there in my local commonplaces that are important, then I have to start seeing what is actually there, and then making it into a photo. I have to forget about Suzanne exploring Italy and the romance of old historic places in Europe (eg., Lucca) and concentrate on what is before my eyes.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

a public holiday

I spent the afternoon returning to my commonplaces along the foreshore west of Petrel Cove, near Victor Harbor. Only this time I started working it as a photographer, rather than just taking snaps whilst working through it on a poodlewalk.

creeper rocks, sea

I was looking for possibilities that would work for large format—were accessible for using a heavy duty tripod etc. It was a public holiday and there were too many people and dogs around to use big camera gear and keep an eye on the poodles.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

the little places

I find that I often return to the little local places to take my photos, rather than seek to go to the exotic or distant places, such as Shanghai in China; or Zhouzhuang, Jiangsu Province, China; or anywhere in China This is especially the case when I am based in Victor Harbor, as it feels like nowhere, or the edge of the world.

near Petrel Cove

This would be an example. I’ve gone past this rock many times on poodlewalks but I’ve never really looked at it seriously as a photos. I’ve noted it but maybe taken the odd snap, but I’ve never thought—gee that’s a suitable subject for an 8×10. But is it possible using a heavy duty tripod? I’d have to check.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

a mummy daddy visual language

Photography in the common visual language of the snap shop would be more than an aesthetics of the fragment.This aesthetic has dominated the poetic since the romantics; including the fragment as transmogrified by modernism, high and low, and more recently retooled in the neoclassical form of the citation—ironic and/or decorative—throughout which is called “postmodernism.

Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor

People ofter refer to the common visual language of the snap shop as the mummy daddy language. What is attractive about the visual language of the snapshot is that it is an anti-hierarchical means of organizing knowledge and of recognizing intersections and engagements between seemingly disparate ideas and things.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

seeing what things look like as a photograph

When I’m in Victor Harbor I drive past this scene whenever I go to the shops in the car. I keep on looking at it and thinking, ‘ now, that sure looks interesting’. It looks to be a suitable photographic subject. Would it work as a photograph? I kept on looking as I drove to and from the Woolworth’s shopping centre.

Today I decided to incorporate it into a poodle walk, and I took a couple of snaps to see what it would look like as a photograph. If it looks okay as a photograph then what is the best way to shoot it.

Inman River, Victor harbor

This looks okay to me. In fact it’s looks good enough for me to consider reshooting the succulent with a large format camera (5×4) tomorrow afternoon, weather permitting of course.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

Hindmarsh River

When we are down at Victor Harbor on the the weekend I often walk around the mouth of the Hindmarsh River with the dogs. This coastal walk and beach are a popular with strollers, bathers and other dog walkers. The scene looks best in the soft afternoon light, and it is reasonably protected from the winds coming in from the sea.

mouth of the Hindmarsh River

It’s hard to do the landscape photos with a large format camera due to the time constraints (household duties and obligations), blogging and the weather. I managed to take a photo of the silky oak yesterday with the 5×7 Cambo, even though the weather was dull, overcast, and a few spots of rain were falling.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

Wirranendi Park: the bush

I’ve always found the bush hard to photograph as it is so messy and it is difficult to find any form. So I’ve returned to Wirranendi Park in Adelaide’s western parklands on the poodlewalks to learn how I can begin to make it work.

eucalept trunk

That kind of workflow requires a reskilling. I realise that I’ve been deskilled as a photographer by using a prosumer digital camera and I need to reskill myself so that I can tackle the bush. That requires me returning to the same place again and again—the bush around the wetlands.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

before the rain

I managed to take some 5×7 photographs this morning at Petrel Cove, Victor Harbor, before the rain came in. Just as I was finishing with the two types of landscapes mentioned in the earlier post it started to rain.

before the rain

It hasn’t stopped raining since. It looks to be settled in for the day. I hope not as the conditions are very still and I’d planned an afternoon shoot of this landscape.

Pages: 1 2