poodleadmin, Author at Poodle Walks

December 20, 2018June 3, 2019

close-ups

After the wildness of the stormy days, which stripped the local beaches of their sand we experienced several days of humid weather and gentle misty rain. Then the cold front rolled in from the south west and the temperature dropped dramatically.

I spent my time on the morning and evening poodlewalks exploring the nooks and crannies amongst the rocks, looking to do some handheld macro photography of seaweed. I quickly discovered that the piles of seaweed that had been thrown onto the rocks by the storm were mostly seagrass and not suitable.

The poodles in the afternoon would spend their time look for golf balls among the granite rocks, whilst I looked for subject matter for macro photography. We moved slowly across the rocks on our way beyond Kings Head finding what shelter we could when there was a bit of rain. Continue reading “close-ups”

December 16, 2018December 16, 2018

stormy days

South Australia was been battered by a violent storm from the south west during the last three days– from Thursday to Saturday. We experienced gale force winds, solid rain, high tides and surging seas along the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula.

Our usual morning and evening poodlewalks were curtailed due to the water cutting off access to parts of the littoral zone. So I could not photograph the water flows. It was also too dangerous to venture around the rocks to Petrel Cove to do some macro due to the huge waves. Continue reading “stormy days”

December 11, 2018December 11, 2018

at Kings-Head and beyond

The pictures in this blog post are from an afternoon poodlewalk in 2017 initially to Kings-Head in Waitpinga, and then on to a rocky outcrop just west of Kings Head. The rocky outcrop is on the Coastal Cliffs walking trail to Newland Head and, as a result, we often meet walkers coming from Waitpinga Beach.

The rocky outcrop is near the foot of the Waitpinga Cliffs, and it is not possible to continue walking much further around the bottom of the cliffs. The Coastal Cliff walking trail from Waitpinga Beach to Kings Beach is along the top of the Waitpinga cliffs. Continue reading “at Kings-Head and beyond”

November 21, 2018July 28, 2020

2 still life images

One early morning poodlewalk along the coastal rocks west of Petrel Cove last week with Kayla was very enjoyable and relaxing. The light was soft, there was little wind, and the light cloud cover meant that there was soft early morning light for an hour or so after sunrise. We were fortunate as the early mornings of late have been sunny, bright with blue sky.

These conditions allowed me to spend a a bit of time doing some photography amongst the seaweed, quartz and granite:

We have been having this part of the coast to ourselves in the last week or so. The only person I saw was Allan, who we see regularly. He does a daily walk from his home in Encounter Bay along the Heritage Trail to Kings Beach Rd, then walks back. Our paths often cross. Continue reading “2 still life images”

November 14, 2018June 3, 2019

sand patterns

As mentioned on the Encounter Studio blog when I am on the recent morning or afternoon poodlewalks I have started looking for suitable subjects that would work as an image when the colour file made with a digital camera is then converted to black and white.

The subjects have usually been granite rocks but of late, I am turning to sand patterns. This is a recent example:

The above image looked very ordinary in colour when I viewed it on the computer screen, in the sense that it was not deserving of a second more considered look. It look more interesting when I converted it to black and white as an experiment. Continue reading “sand patterns”

October 31, 2018December 11, 2018

water flows

When I have been doing the evening poodlewalks with Maleko I’ve sometimes included sitting quietly on a rock to watch the sea water flowing amongst the coastal granite. Maleko either sits with me, or he looks for any golf balls buried amongst the rocks in the littoral zone.

Occasionally, I try and make a still photograph of a particular moment of the rapid movement of the waves surging amongst the rocks:

The reason that I don’t bother to photograph the water, is that it is usually difficult to make the composition, and to get the lighting right. The sea water moves so very quickly through and over the granite rocks–too quickly for me to compose the picture whilst ensuring that my feet don’t become wet from a rogue wave. Continue reading “water flows”

October 19, 2018October 31, 2018

at Petrel-Cove

Many of the coastal morning poodlewalks with Kayla incorporate the return walk along the coastal rocks to the car park via Petrel-Cove. Incorporating Petrel Cove is more frequent in the early spring, due to my allergy to the rye grass growing along the side of the coastal path. It irritates my eyes and causes sneezing fits.

Occasionally there is a photographer on the beach or a surfer but more often than not, the only other person in Petrel Cove at that time of the morning is the odd fishing man:

Often it seem as if the fishing men standing on the edge of the sea with their lines are meditating in nature, and are not overly concerned if they don’t catch any fish. I can understand that as I often just sit on the rocks and watch the action of the waves. Continue reading “at Petrel-Cove”

October 8, 2018October 10, 2018

sea-mist

The sea-mist doesn’t happen that often along the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It happens maybe about once or twice a year, and it can be quite localised.

The sea mist briefly appeared early one morning late last week on the coast:

When I saw it I hoped the it was thick enough for me to photograph some of the granite rocks amongst the seamiest, as had happened on a previous occasion. Continue reading “sea-mist”

October 1, 2018October 2, 2018

recovered archives

I have been going through my old archives from a PC that died many years ago. The images had been backed up on Lacie hard disc which also crashed, and they were eventually recovered by a tech specialist. The 13,000 images are all jumbled up, there are many repetitions, others are jpegs, whilst large numbers are corrupted and so useless.

This is one rescued image from along the coast west of Petrel Cove, and it was made around 2008 when Suzanne and I were coming down to Encounter Bay for the weekends. We were living in Adelaide’s CBD then, and we were both working full time.

My reason for returning to these archives is to see the images that I have made around the River Murray since 2008. I wanted to see the relevance of these archival images for the proposed Our Waters project with Lars Heldmann. Continue reading “recovered archives”

September 21, 2018September 22, 2018

seaweed, quartz + granite

Prior to my solo Balranald photo trip for the Mallee Routes project the morning poodlewalks with Kayla had started to shift from exclusively walking amongst the seaweed and granite rocks the foreshore below the Heritage Trail to walking along the back country roads.

One reason for the change in emphasis is that sun is too bright early in the morning for photography, so the coastal walks with now take place with Maleko in the later afternoon. This is when the coastal rocks are in open shadow and the contrast is softer:

However, it is hit and miss with finding the seaweed, bird wings, dead birds or fish for the open air studio. For a while it has only been the odd bit of ephemeral seaweed lying amongst the granite rocks that I can use to construct a still life. Continue reading “seaweed, quartz + granite”