digital Archives - Page 10 of 34

May 27, 2015

living with constraints

Suzanne leaves Victor Harbor today for 2 weeks or so walk to the Larapinta Trail in the western Macdonnell Ranges, and then go to explore other areas east and west of Alice Springs, such as Kings Canyon. I’ve just dropped Suzanne off at the Seaford railway station so that she can catch the train to Adelaide to stay overnight with her friend Sally, before they both catch the Qantas flight to Alice Springs tomorrow morning.

My task is to look after the 3 dogs at Victor Harbor. Our walks in the morning and evening will be in limited areas in order to keep Kayla and Maleko crazy chase and play games contained and controlled. So my photography is going to very limited, unless I can find a way to do it without having the dogs in tow. I cannot do large format tripod based photography with 3 dogs racing around the place.

The best that I can do is some handheld snaps on the walk. The above picture is an example. I was driving Ari and Kayla to the Victor Harbor beach for a dawn walk when I saw this view as I started to drive along Franklin Parade towards the Victor Harbor township. I stopped the car, took a snap, jumped back in the car, and continued driving to the township. The trouble is, not every morning is like this one.
Continue reading “living with constraints”

May 24, 2015

moments of sunshine

The poodle walks blog is now a part of my new thoughtfactory website and over time it will change from being hosted by WordPress to being hosted by my hosting company. It’s part of the consolidation of my various bodies of online work and a more professional look.

Thought Factory will continue to be slowly built over the coming months, and I’ll provide the new url when this modest blog becomes a part of Thought Factory. I don’t want to let it die.The bog that is the public face of Thoughtfactory is based on is the Encounter Studio blog which will be allowed to die.

In the meantime we–Ari, Kayla and myself— have returned to the walking the beach in the early morning now that the weather has improved.

The rains have gone for the moment, and there are brief moments of sun in the morning before it disappears behind the early morning cloud cover.

Continue reading “moments of sunshine”

May 14, 2015

a fading autumn

Winter is fast closing in. The clear, still, sunny autumn mornings are fast becoming a memory.

We have had a week or so of strong winds, storms, on and off showers throughout the day, lots of cloud cover and the occasional sunny period. So we have increasingly avoided the southern beaches in our morning and evening walks in order to seek shelter from the incessant wind.

The poodles love the bush for it is full of fresh animal smells, but I find it extremely difficult to photograph the chaotic messiness of the bush or woodlands whilst we are walking through it. It is almost impossible to try and impose strict visual order upon this subject matter since the clear visual patterns are not really there.

Continue reading “a fading autumn”

April 24, 2015

contained walks

Suzanne and I have started looking for ways in which one person can walk the three poodles together. It is a question of avoiding the beach where Kayla and Maleko go into their crazy chasing games, and looking for contained areas that are full of smells so they forget about their mad play. This often becomes destructive and is beyond the control of one person.

We have found one–a back country road near Encounter Studio which has very little traffic. Halls Creek Rd is an area where the poodles can walk freely off lead:

Halls Creek Rd is bounded by fences and, as it has a number of kangaroo crossings, the poodles spend their time checking things out. Continue reading “contained walks”

April 10, 2015

Lady Bay

We have had visitors from Melbourne staying at our place in Victor Harbor over Easter. Since they are both friends and photographers one of the days during Easter was devoted to a photography excursion to the western Fleurieu Peninsula coast.

We went to see the exhibition of the Fleurieu Four Seasons Prize for Landscape Photography at the Normanville Beach Gallery and Cafe Foreshore, and then spent time exploring the coastal bays and settlements that form part of the western Fleurieu Peninsula.

The exploration included Lady Bay, Wirrina Cove, Second Valley, Rapid Bay, then finally Delamare before returning to Victor Harbor along the Range Road. It was very bright and sunny in the afternoon, and these kind of conditions are not good for photography. Continue reading “Lady Bay”

April 3, 2015

at Petrel Cove

It was a balmy autumn evening on Wednesday along the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula. A cool southerly change with strong winds and rain was on the way but for the moment everything was still and mild.

At Petrel Cove people were fishing, surfing, walking their dogs, taking photos or sitting on rocks looking at the southern ocean. Continue reading “at Petrel Cove”

March 30, 2015

autumn

Prior going to Melbourne Ari, Kayla and I walked around the Victor Harbor township for our early morning poodle walks. I was interested in finding out what was happening with the early morning light in autumn. The light has been shifting quite quickly.

The photographic possibilities are not that numerous in and around the township, and I’m using the poodlewalks to find out what is there. At this stage it’s more about the light than the subject matter. Continue reading “autumn”

March 14, 2015

Chiton Rocks

Ari and I have been walking around the Hayborough section of Encounter Bay on our early morning walks this week. It has expensive townhouses, bush between the houses and the beach and a white sand beach. This area is missed by most tourists and is frequented more by the locals—generally surfers, runners and dog walkers due to its access being hidden away.

My photography has been minimal but, I have been looking for locations along the road that would be suitable for an arial photograph of the beach, sea and sky and then one looking back to the township of Victor Harbor. The best time for this photography is just after sunrise. This morning we walked along the road and the beach around Chiton Rocks.

The early mornings are clear, crisp and there is no cloud cover. The light is very bright 30 minutes after sunrise. It’s classic autumn weather in South Australia. Continue reading “Chiton Rocks”

March 11, 2015

petrol stations

Ari and I have started walking around the Victor Harbor township on some of our early morning poodle walks. We needed a change from walking the beach at the western end of Encounter Bay each morning at dawn and I wanted to start walking earlier that 6.45am. We can wander around the town in the dark because of the street lights, and then I can take photos after dawn has broken.

There are only a few people about the town at this time of the morning–mostly groups of people walking across the causeway to Granite Island and back again.

The National Broadband Network people, who were very visible laying cable in the township and around Encounter Bay, seem to have disappeared. I don’t see any crews working on the streets whilst making my way back to Encounter Studio. And there I was thinking that the western end of Encounter Bay where we live would be getting FTTP in the next 6 months. That’s a dream.

The NBN Co appears to have slowed down its broadband rollout under the new Multi-Technology Mix (MTM) and I fear that our area of Encounter Bay will be outside the fibre footprint. Continue reading “petrol stations”

March 9, 2015

a poodle walk with Heather Petty

Whilst Suzanne walked Ari and Kayla Heather Petty, Maleko and I went on a photowalk along the foot of the cliffs east of Kings Beach yesterday afternoon. We were photographing for about 3-4 hours in the warm autumn weather:

Heather was using her brand new DSLR —–a Nikon Df—–with a super duper zoom lens—a AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR11— that allowed her do everything she needed along the coastal strip.That big impressive lens looked like Nikon’s workhorse lens. Continue reading “a poodle walk with Heather Petty”