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”

in Queenstown, Tasmania

My old MacBook died whilst I was in Queenstown, Tasmania working on the rephotography project around the 1912 Mt Lyell mine disaster. It’s either a corrupted file or the hard disc has died. I was unable to post.

I was also without a digital camera, and I was just shooting film–it was a discipline. The downside was that I wasn’t able to upload some of the pictures I was taking that day or the next.

Iron Blow road

The weather on this trip was quite different to the previous one in March. It rained everyday I was there with one exception. It was overcast and misty. Photos were taken between the passing rain squalls.

Inman River: failure

We are down at Victor Harbor for the long October weekend, and I decided that I needed a break from my rock studies. I needed another little project that I could work on with a large format camera now that I’m aware of what is required. I need something that would allow me to become comfortable using an 8×10 monorail using black and white film, but which didn’t require too much walking with the heavy equipment.

So I’ve been hunting around for a suitable subject. I started exploring the bushland along the Inman River today because it is protected from the coastal winds. But very little in the way of possibilities came of it. It was mostly an exercise in frustration:

waterlilies, Inman River

I went there early this morning on my own and then returned late this afternoon with Suzanne and the poodles. The light was hard to handle and you only have a limited amount of time to take photos. So the scene has to be preselected and the exact time of the day:

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.

Yanerbie

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.

banksia

As its been raining off and on in Adelaide this past week my photography has consisted of taking a few quick snaps of the banksia in a pot in the townhouses’ corner balcony that overlooks Sturt St. My photographic time has been spent in front of the computer working on archival photos that I’ve scanned.

banksia

The walks during the week have been done between the showers as much as possible. Today is the first sign that the rain depression may be lifting. We have both sun and rain alternating today.

in Queenstown

I’ve spent the last couple of days doing a scoping study of the work that I want to do with the Linhof 5×4 over the next few days, as well as photographing bits and pieces with the Rolleiflex SL66. I’m annoyed.

The backup body of the latter has now gone and I’m down to the Rolleiflex TLR. The 5×4 Linhof becomes my main camera and the Rolleiflex TLR becomes the ancillary camera. I’m out of my comfort zone.

I have found three sites to work at with the Linhof. One is an area around the old Iron Blow Mine. The second is the burnt landscape around the Queenstown airport; burnt because it has had fire through it recently. The third is the ruins of the Tasmanian Smelters site at Zeehan.

slag heap, Zeehan

I know very little about the history of the Zeehan site. I know that in late 1882, silver-lead ore was discovered near the present day site of Zeehan and that this led to the largest mining boom on Tasmania’s west coast with Zeehan being dubbed the ‘Silver City of the West’.

autumn

Autumn arrived in Adelaide today.

Yesterday was a horror day. The temperature was around 35 degrees with a strong north wind blowing dust everywhere. It was the last day of the ten day or so spell of hot weather. During the night the rain started to fall lightly, and today we have had a steady, soaking rain all day.

white rose

There have only been odd moments when there was a break in the rain. I took advantage of one break around lunchtime to do some shopping at the Central Market, then we used another around 6 pm to do a poodle walk in Veale Gardens.

floating red rose

It’s been around six days since I’ve been on a poodle walk. I’ve been in Melbourne attending a family funeral and taking photos in the Point Nepean National Park, of bathing huts along Port Philip Bay, and freeway overpasses in the CBD.

Last night was the first walk. We went shortly after I returned home.

red rose

The rose was floating in a sculpture pond in Veale Gardens. The ponds have only had running water in them this year –they have been dry during the long years of the drought in Adelaide.

lily

This picture has been posted from the snaps that I’ve taken recently whilst on my daily walks with the two standard poodles–Ari and Agtet.  Sometimes we stop for me to take a photo, which is what happened in this case, and then we move on.

Yellow Lily

The idea behind this lo-fi photo blog is that of a visual diary: this is what I am seeing when I’m walking. I stop and explore what has caught my eye. I work at it photographically, then move on.

The walking that is done with the dogs is different to my usual walks as it is much more exploratory. It is the poodle’s walk–that is how they see it— and I am part of the pack. Whilst the poodles check out the areas of their route for smells and food I check them out for photos.