memories

One of my memories of the  early morning walks that I used to do  in the last months of  Ari’s life in 2017 was one where I ‘d walk with him along Jetty Rd. On these occasions Suzanne  would  take   Kayla and Maleko up and over Rosetta Head,  and I would walk with Ari down to the beach, then along Jetty Rd, which runs around the foot of Rosetta Head.

Jetty Rd  runs from Whalers Convention Centre to the little jetty at the northern side of Rosetta Head,  and as it is easy walking, it was suitable for Ari.    The jetty is a favourite of the recreational fishermen and we’d alway meet someone fishing from the jetty early in the morning.

cactus leaves, Jetty Rd,

It was a slow walk to and from the jetty, and Ari and I  would often hang around an  old palm tree and cactus on our  way back. I would take a few photos with the little Olympus XZ-1 that  we had purchased for Suzanne to use on her various  walks.  Continue reading “memories”

Summer has arrived

Summer is here on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coast in South Australia.

The  weather  has now settled into its normal summer pattern of  clear,  bright light; sunshine;   blue skies; and warm to hot temperatures.  Kayla and I  start  our walk  along the coastal rocks  early  in the morning in order to avoid the heat of the early morning sun.

We usually start  just after  sunrise:

Dep’s Beach landscape

On our  afternoon  walks Maleko and I  struggle with  the heat,   as the sun is still quite high  at 6pm,  and  there is little by way of open shade amongst the coastal rocks.   We   welcome the cool breeze that keeps the temperatures down and dread the hot, north-westerly wind.  Continue reading “Summer has arrived”

clouds

The very changeable, early  summer  weather that we have been experiencing at Encounter Bay in South Australia,   has meant that there  has  been some good clouds along the coast.  We have had hot  days, cold days, sunshine, rain, lots of gusty wind from the south-west, calm days and striking  cloud formations:

storm clouds, Petrel Cove

We have been walking along the coast, rather than the Bluff, and we’ve  often we’ve been caught in the wet weather  whilst walking in the morning and the evening,  and I have had to find whatever shelter amongst the rocks that I could until the quickly moving squall  had passed.  Continue reading “clouds”

Aerial: The coast from above

I had the great fortune to  experiment with  some aerial photography yesterday. I was given the opportunity   to  fly along part of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coastline,   courtesy of  Chris Dearden  in his yellow, homebuilt    Sonex aircraft– a Xenos motorglider.

It was the first time  that I’d  had the opportunity  to  experiment with  aerial photography and flying in a recreational aircraft was a blast.

Rosetta Head

We took off from Goolwa airport and  flew along the coast from the Murray Mouth near Goolwa  to Newland Heads in Waitpinga, then back again.  The above image  is a picture of Rosetta Head, Petrel Cove and Dep’s Beach, which is  where  we  do a lot of  our coastal poodlewalks.  Continue reading “Aerial: The coast from above”

upgrading poodlewalks

I have decided to upgrade the poodlewalks blog from the free WordPress blog platform that I have been using for so long to more of a website platform with its own blog and galleries. The galleries will bring the offshoots or spinoffs from poodlewalks that are currently on various standalone Posthaven blogs–abstractions, the trees series, and the Littoral Zone. The blog will continue the traditional poodlewalks format with the website titled known as poodlewalks.

flowers, memorial

My reason is that a lot of my daily photography —outside specific projects like Mallee Routes—centres around poodlewalks. I am walking twice a day –in the morning and afternoon–with each of the walks around an hour’s duration. If the light is right, then the walks are 1.5-2 hours in duration. Often I go back and reshoot for the Fleurieuscape book and portfolio. The new format will bring all the work around poodlewalks together.

Continue reading “upgrading poodlewalks”

Spring time: explorations

During the recent couple of days of warm, sub tropical Spring weather on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coast I was able to go on longer, coastal poodlewalks with Kayla and Maleko as well as scoping in the various cthat I would usually walk past, and photographing in my makeshift open air studio.

One of these longer walks was a return to exploring around the mouth of the Inmam River near Kent Reserve with Kayla to re-connect with the Fleurieuscapes project that I am working on.

Inman River, Victor Harbor

I was interested in scoping a way to photograph the site of the Ramindejeri’s burial ground in the sand dunes near the Inman River’s mouth. The SA Museum states that the Ramindejeri were a local group of the Ngarrindjeri but the public information the Museum has is pretty minimal

Continue reading “Spring time: explorations”

photographer

By Thursday the cold south westerly and easterly winds that had been blowing for the past week had dropped away. By the late afternoon on Thursday it was very still and warm. There was cloud cover and soft light, the tide was very low, and there were no small flies. These were lovely conditions for both a late afternoon walk with Maleko and for me to do a bit of scoping about this place.

seascape

I went back on Friday afternoon at the same time of the day to this particular spot with a film camera and tripod. The weather conditions were very similar but I was dismayed to discover that the tide was much higher, and that it was impossible to gain access to this gap in the rocks.
Continue reading “photographer”

portraiture

Kayla is still on restricted walks. Though the courses of anti-inflammatories has finished, she continues to be walked on her own both morning and afternoon to allow the ligaments around her knees to heal. I walk her in the morning and Maleko in the afternoon. Suzanne does the opposite. We are playing it safe. No rough chasing games.

This allows me time to continue to work on The Littoral Zone project. Some recent examples:– an abstraction; a rockpool granite rocks along the coast; and an open air studio images.

A portrait of Kayla at Petrel Cove:

Kayla

These solo walks will change tomorrow as I am off on a photo trip to the South Australia Mallee for 5 days, and so Suzanne will have to walk both dogs together. She will need to exercise her skills to prevent them from playing their mad chasing games, or chasing kangaroos.

Continue reading “portraiture”

a photowalk with Heather Petty

We–Kayla, Maleko and myself–went for a photowalk with Heather Petty on Saturday afternoon–the last day of September. The photowalk was our poodlewalk, as the emphasis was on taking photos rather than walking the poodles. The sun was out, there was some cloud cover, and though a cold south-westerly wind was blowing across the coast, it was pleasant conditions for photography. We did not see the white belly sea eagle, dolphins or seals.

seaweed+quartz

I carried some seaweed around with me whilst we were walking amongst the rocks towards Dep’s Beach from where we had parked the Subaru Forester at Kings Beach Rd. We moved slowly as I was placing the seaweed amongst different rocks. I was able to take a number of photos.

Continue reading “a photowalk with Heather Petty”

swirling seas

The spring weather has been its usual turbulent normal along the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coast of South Australia. Cold south-westerlies and showers one day, sunshine, shorts and t-shirt the following day, then back to cold, overcast weather the next. My afternoon walks amongst the coastal rocks with Kayla and Maleko are a welcome and enjoyable break from sitting in front of the computer during the day working on the text for the Adelaide Photography 1970-2000 book.

I have been taking advantage of these coastal walks to look out for, and find, some safe location amongst the rock formations so that I can explore different ways of making abstracts of the swirling sea:

sea abstract

These sea abstracts are a break from the usual rock and quartz abstracts that I usually do when photographing the present on these walks. This should become writing the present as well.

Continue reading “swirling seas”