Category: flora

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the little things

I’m down at Victor Harbor nursing a sick poodle who is suffering from a bad bout of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. Today was the first day I was able to go out on a poodlewalk taking photos since Monday. As Agtet was barely able to walk, I’ve had no luck with large format photography.I was only able to make do walking a short distance with a medium format camera to this spot this afternoon.

grass, rocks, moss

If its the little, humble things that are there in my local commonplaces that are important, then I have to start seeing what is actually there, and then making it into a photo. I have to forget about Suzanne exploring Italy and the romance of old historic places in Europe (eg., Lucca) and concentrate on what is before my eyes.

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a public holiday

I spent the afternoon returning to my commonplaces along the foreshore west of Petrel Cove, near Victor Harbor. Only this time I started working it as a photographer, rather than just taking snaps whilst working through it on a poodlewalk.

creeper rocks, sea

I was looking for possibilities that would work for large format—were accessible for using a heavy duty tripod etc. It was a public holiday and there were too many people and dogs around to use big camera gear and keep an eye on the poodles.

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seeing what things look like as a photograph

When I’m in Victor Harbor I drive past this scene whenever I go to the shops in the car. I keep on looking at it and thinking, ‘ now, that sure looks interesting’. It looks to be a suitable photographic subject. Would it work as a photograph? I kept on looking as I drove to and from the Woolworth’s shopping centre.

Today I decided to incorporate it into a poodle walk, and I took a couple of snaps to see what it would look like as a photograph. If it looks okay as a photograph then what is the best way to shoot it.

Inman River, Victor harbor

This looks okay to me. In fact it’s looks good enough for me to consider reshooting the succulent with a large format camera (5×4) tomorrow afternoon, weather permitting of course.

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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.

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Hindmarsh River

When we are down at Victor Harbor on the the weekend I often walk around the mouth of the Hindmarsh River with the dogs. This coastal walk and beach are a popular with strollers, bathers and other dog walkers. The scene looks best in the soft afternoon light, and it is reasonably protected from the winds coming in from the sea.

mouth of the Hindmarsh River

It’s hard to do the landscape photos with a large format camera due to the time constraints (household duties and obligations), blogging and the weather. I managed to take a photo of the silky oak yesterday with the 5×7 Cambo, even though the weather was dull, overcast, and a few spots of rain were falling.

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industrialscapes

I’ve become tired of just taking photos, building a decent archive of images and then posting them on Flickr and my photoblog to share with others. It’s become something of a cul-de -sac. I’ve run out of enthusiasm and becoming jaded.

I have to do something more substantive with the photos—to construct them into a project and publish them in some way. The next step is to begin to work on a project for publication–a DIY book—from the Port Adelaide archive. So I’ve returned to the Port Adelaide arcchive, and starting looking over the work I was doing last year.

Port River expressway

So I am picking up where I’ve left off last spring:–returning to the digital studies I made of the Port River Expressway that were done for a reshoot with a large format camera. The above image is one that I had planned to do. This is another.

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Wirranendi Park: the bush

I’ve always found the bush hard to photograph as it is so messy and it is difficult to find any form. So I’ve returned to Wirranendi Park in Adelaide’s western parklands on the poodlewalks to learn how I can begin to make it work.

eucalept trunk

That kind of workflow requires a reskilling. I realise that I’ve been deskilled as a photographer by using a prosumer digital camera and I need to reskill myself so that I can tackle the bush. That requires me returning to the same place again and again—the bush around the wetlands.

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in a vacuum

I’m back in Adelaide. I wandered through the parklands with the poodles late yesterday afternoon wondering where my photography would go next. I played around with some low light light with the (film) Leica –poetic moments and all that—having a look without taking anything but I wasn’t really enthused.

tree trunk

I was at a loss. Where do I go from here? I felt hesitant. All the large format gear had been left down at Victor Harbor. How was I going to use the 8×10 in the city? You cannot wander the streets looking for the moment with that kind of gear.

I thought that I would start by picking up on the waste project that had been pushed into the background.

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South Bruny National Park

The last two days of the Tasmanian trip were taken up with Suzanne’s desire to do some walks in the South Bruny National Park. This is just off the coast of southern Tasmania and is separated from the Tasmanian mainland by the D’Entrecasteaux Channel.

giant kelp

Suzanne had agreed to go to the Gordon Dam in the SouthWest National Park if I went to Bruny Island. I knew very little about the island, other than it was once a centre for extensive whale hunting in the19th century, so I was happy to tag along.

We stayed in cabins in the Adventure Bay Caravan park. The Fluted Cape walk was on the agenda in the morning, and the Labillardiere Peninsula Circuit in the afternoon. We managed the former not the latter.

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Blue Tier + myrtle beech rain forest

The Blue Tiers is in the north east of Tasmania and we passed through it on our way to St.Helens.

The early settlers mined tin in much of the George River catchment area between about 1880 and 1930. The clearfelling of native forests by Forestry Tasmania continues supported by the forestry union, the CFMEU and the Tasmanian government, which provides every incentive to destroy the old growth forest.

Within it is a remnant of an ancient Myrtle Beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii) temperate rain forest:

root of Myrtle beech

This was in an area of regenerated rain forest full of ferns and mosses.

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