A lo fi visual diary
I spent the last few days taking advantage of the sunny mornings before I left for Alpana Station near Blinman, to go on a 13 day camel trek in the Northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia with Suzanne and some of her Heysen Trail friends.
This fine weather did not last for long. The weather turned story, and I ended up exploring the wild-seas amongst the coastal granite rocks between Petrel Cove and Kings Beach. Continue reading “winter’s wild-seas”
Suzanne, the 2 standard poodles and I, spent several days at American River on Kangaroo Island with Suzanne’s sister, (Barbara Heath) and her husband (Malcolm Enright) who had flown down from Brisbane.
The days on the island were gentle, balmy late autumn ones. A storm hit the island just as I was leaving on the late Sealink ferry on Wednesday evening.
On Saturday I arrived on the island on Saturday on the 10am ferry from Cape Jervis with the poodles to open up the cottage. That early morning arrival gave me time to go exploring American River with the poodles. I started with places that I was familiar with from previous trips. The last trip with friends was 4 years ago in 2014, whilst the last photo trip was in 2013. Continue reading “At American River”
We had a foggy photowalk when Heather Petty stayed with us at Encounter Bay over the weekend. She arrived late Friday afternoon and returned to Adelaide on Sunday afternoon. Encounter Bay provides a relaxing time away from her work and daily routines in Adelaide. It’s time out so, to speak.
We went on a couple of photowalks together with the poodles along the coast over the weekend. She joined us on the Friday afternoon, as we slowly made our way along the granite rocks towards Deps Beach from Kings Beach Rd, where I had parked the Forester.
It was an enjoyable photowalk as there was little wind, the temperature was pleasant and the autumn light was soft:
The Sunday morning walk was notable for its dense, foggy conditions, which are rather unusual on the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula. The fog is quite different to the more normal misty, autumn mornings.
The tide was also very low that morning, and so we were able to venture amongst the rocks that would usually be inaccessible because of the waves sweeping across the rocks. Kayla did her standing guard thing whilst we photographed. Continue reading “A foggy photowalk”
Our two standard silver poodles–Maleko and Kayla–are standing-guard whilst I am absorbed in photographing some abstractions amongst the granite rocks within the littoral zone. Some people were walking along the nearby clifftop path–the Heritage Trail— in the late afternoon.
It is school holidays in South Australia and people are everywhere along the coast. They are walking, photographing, fishing, playing and just hanging about on, and around, the local beaches. Hence the poodles standing-guard. This activity is usually in the late afternoon, as the early mornings around sunrise are quiet, with only the locals out walking. Continue reading “standing-guard”
These clouds and early morning light are what I saw on early on Friday morning when Kayla and I were walking along the Heritage-Trail through a familiar coastal landscape. It was so very still that morning.
These are the kind of conditions that indicate that a dramatic change in the weather is about to happen; usually, they mean that the hot weather is coming to an end, and a big storm will be sweeping into the coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula from the south west.
It was the morning of the 13th April, which is when the cold front with its wild winds and driving rain, hit the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the late afternoon.
I was taking advantage of the lull before the storm to walk to a specific site amongst the granite rocks around the point from Dep’s Beach; a site that I had selected for a large format photo session. Continue reading “along the Heritage-Trail”
It is now autumn in South Australia and I am very slowly adjusting back to the bleak, dry landscape of the Fleurieu Peninsula after my brief but enjoyable sojourn briefly walking Wellington, New Zealand. I flew over at short notice to participate in Photobook/NZ and to link up with, and re-join, PhotoForum.
For better or worse South Australia is where I have made my home, and the coastal landscape of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula is, to all intents and purposes, my photographic backyard.
This is where a body of work —The Littoral Zone—is gradually evolving from walking through and exploring the ever-changing interface or habitat between the land and the sea along this particular coastline. Continue reading “an intertidal zone”
We were stunned at how dry, brown and bleak the South Australian landscape was when we were driving down to Encounter Bay from Adelaide. We had just flown into Adelaide from spending a couple of weeks travelling, walking and photographing in New Zealand.
It was a real shock after experiencing the greenness and lushness of the New Zealand landscape in both the North and the South Islands. After experiencing frequent rain, flowing streams and rivers, and lush green bush, we were taken back by the dryness. Hell, we thought, we live in this dry, bleak landscape.
I had noticed the brown landscape as we flew across Victoria and South Australia on route from Melbourne to Adelaide, but up close and walking in this landscape was a shock.
Yesterday afternoon, when I walked along the coastal path and the rocks on a late afternoon walk with Maleko, I didn’t even bother to take a camera with me. I couldn’t see the point. Continue reading “such a bleak landscape”
It was a relief to return to the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula late yesterday afternoon, after spending around 5 hours walking the CBD of Adelaide in 35-40 degrees heat.
I had taken the Subaru Outback into the West Terrace Jarvis in Adelaide for its regular service. Walking the city and photographing it with the new Sony A7r111 seemed like a good way to fill in time until I could pick up the car. I could then see how Adelaide had changed from when I had lived there.
Adelaide was on the cusp of change as we were living –becoming a post-industrial city. The urban life was more vibrant.
So I walked around the CBD from 8am to 1pm. However, I struggled in the summer heat and gave up the photography after walking around the new medical precinct along the western part of North Terrace.
Eventually I packed walking the city in for some air conditioned comfort. I ended up at the Flinders University City Gallery, and relaxed by looking at the impressive Helen Read Collection of Aboriginal art from the top end of Australia.
Continue reading “walking the CBD in 35-40 degree temperatures”
The early mornings along the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula over the summer-holidays were often quite colourful. It’s was very picturesque and uplifting. An example of an early morning at Petrel Cove during the recent heat wave over the Australia Day weekend:
During the short periods of the summer’s heatwaves we would start to walk the poodles before sunrise in order to avoid the intensity of the heat. Then we would spend the rest of the day inside an air-conditioned house powered by our solar panels. Continue reading “the summer-holidays are over”
Well, the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria sure was crowded with people holidaying when we stayed there on our roadtrip. Karen, my sister at Safety Beach put us up, and as that stay coincided with a hot spell, that meant both limited documentary photography in Melbourne and walking very early in the morning and late in the afternoon.
The foreshore along the eastern coast of Port Phillip Bay from Dromana to Sorrento was jam packed with caravans, tents, boats and people. The Nepean Highway from Rye to Portsea was crammed with cars, due to people travelling down from Melbourne to Sorrento or Portsea for a day’s outing. The Mornington Peninsula is Melbourne’s playground.
We found very few places where we could walk the poodles off lead along the coast. There was a small off-lead, dog friendly beach at Tassells Cove and a small walking track around Martha Point that went down to Pebble Beach. Continue reading “holidaying in Melbourne”